$5, 6 ingredients and less than 15 minutes.. Dinner!

Tonight I wanted something quick for dinner with stuff that I had on hand.. so I opened up the cabinets and it hit me...

Quick fix hearty pasta

1 box rigatoni
2 Tbs Olive oil
3 cloves garlic, Minced
1 can pitted black olives, drained
1 can diced Italian style tomatoes
Basil


Cook pasta according to box directions, drain and add back to saucepan with oil
add Garlic, olives and tomatoes to pan and turn the heat on medium stirring frequently for 2 minutes.
Turn off the heat and add the basil.
Cover and let stand 3 minutes and serve with Parmesan cheese.

Splenda is good in your coffee, but not too good when you’re baking..

I learned a valuable lesson last night... Splenda is good in your coffee, but not too good when you’re baking..

I wanted lemon squares last night (Okay, really I wanted a big bowl of chocolate peanut butter ice cream, but I’ve got another 8 days to go to give in to that craving) so I’m trying to be good here and I made my lemon squares with Splenda.. Well.. The cookie part came out just fine, but the lemon part came out very dry and odd tasting. I like splenda in my coffee, but it’s not the right thing to be baking with... Now, in all honesty I did use Regular splenda (even though in hindsight, I do have a bag of splenda for baking in the cabinet ) The cookie part is excellent, but the top lemon layer leaves much to be desired, I’m glad I only made a very small batch though.

I’ve listed the recipe below, this is slightly different from the Lemon Bar recipe that I previously posted, the cookie layer is seriously lemony as well as the lemon topping.. YUM!! Gonna try this again tonight with Real Sugar and do a side by side comparison for y’all :)

Lemony lemon bars

Crust:
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/4 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Butter
grated zest of 1 lemon
3 Tbs Lemon juice

Topping:

4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup flour
6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350°f.
2. For crust, in a medium bowl stir together flour and brown sugar.
3. Cut the butter into the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.
4. Press flour mixture into the bottom of a 9 x 13 x 2 inch baking pan.
5. Bake 15 minutes.
6. Meanwhile prepare topping. Beat eggs slightly.
7. In a separate bowl, stir together sugar and flour. Add to eggs. Beat well.
8. Add lemon juice, peel, baking powder, and salt. Beat until smooth.
9. Pour over baked crust. Return to oven and bake 25-30 minutes longer, or until just set.
10. Sprinkle with powdered sugar while hot. Let cool and cut into bars.

Pasta e Fagiole

Mmm, a warm bowl of Pasta e fagiole is fast and hearty and Oh so delicious! Serve with some warm, crusty bread and a salad and you're all set :)

Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 diced onion
1/3 cup diced Prosciutto or you can use Italian sausage, removed from it’s casing and crumbled
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 15-ounce cans Great Northern or Cannellini beans with their liquid
4 cups chicken broth
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 cups canned plum tomatoes, well drained and chopped
1 pound Ditalini or other small macaroni, cooked
1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese (Optional)

Directions:
1. Combine oil, onion, prosciutto(Or Sausage, that’s what I use most often), and garlic in a large saucepan over medium heat. Sauté for about 5 minutes or until onions are translucent and begin to turn golden. Be careful not to burn the garlic.
2. Stir in beans and their liquid, add broth and salt & pepper and bring to a boil. Add tomatoes and return to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes
3. Stir in cooked pasta and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Serve hot, sprinkled with Pecorino Romano cheese, if desired.


Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!

It was good.. but something was wrong...

Last night for dinner I made Cumin lime marinated chicken thighs and smashed potatoes.. it was excellent, but something was wrong. I had taken the skin off the chicken thighs and de-boned them, now generally there is nothing wrong with that, except for the fact that I roasted the chicken leaving it looking, well.. naked. I should have tossed them on the George Foreman grill and then they would have looked good and tasted good...

See what I mean...



Now, it doesn't look bad, per say.. it just looks kinda, well.. naked.. it would have looked so much nicer with some grill marks on it.

It was so simple to throw it all together, juice 1 lime and pour it into a Ziplock bag with 1 tsp. cumin, 1 tbs. oil and a bit of salt and pepper. Add the chicken (whatever parts you want) to the bag and let it marinate for at least 2 hours. Then either do as I did and roast at 425° for 25 minutes or toss them on a grill.

The recipe for the potatoes can be found here They're amazingly easy, seasoned perfectly and crispy on the bottom.. Mmmmm!!!

2 ingredients + Fruit.. are you kidding me this is so easy!

This is another one of those less than 5 ingredients, I can't believe how easy this is kinda recipes.

I have a Killer sweet tooth today, but chores got the best of me today since yesterday we went to the movies in the afternoon and then the rest of the day seemed to run away from me. I patiently waited for The Kid to get up this morning {or afternoon as the case may be here, lol} because I needed his help to carry the laundry to the laundrymat and before I knew it, it was 3:30 and I was just walking through the door with 2 bags of laundry that needed to be put away. Dinner got prepped (cumin lime marinated chicken and smashed potatoes.. tomorrow's post) By the time dinner was ready and we'd eaten it was already 7:30 and I was in no mood to start baking up cookies or even turning on the oven again as it was already broiling in here... so I opened up the kitchen cabinets hoping for a can of fruit cocktail or something.. but there in the shadows in the back of the cabinet, there it was... half a jar of Marshmallow Fluff and I knew there was cream cheese in the fridge, I just got it the other day... *Woo HOO!!!* So..... there was strawberries in the fridge , graham crackers in the cabinet and I had 2 bananas... dessert!! Sounds odd? Read on............

you take half a jar of Fluff and zap it in the microwave for 10 seconds, stir and pour into a bowl, add half a block of cream cheese and stir until it's smooth and combined. Set aside and prepare your fruit, slice the bananas, strawberries and break the graham crackers into pieces (or really, use whatever you'd like, this is what I had on hand tonight though) and with fondue forks or just regular forks you just dunk and eat.. Ahh.. Absolute yumminess :)