Southwest Pasta Salad

Lately I'm the queen of looking at a recipe, saying, "This would be awesome in that" then making it happen. There's this dressing in the Our Best Bites cookbook that I make probably once every 3 weeks.  This dressing is like the nectar of the Gods.  You could put it on a shoe and it would be good.  I was browsing their site today and ran across a corn salad that uses the blessed dressing, and I thought it would be so great to switch it up a little and add some pasta.  I was right.

Recipe adapted from Our Best Bites

Ingredients

(for the dressing)
4-5 cloves garlic, roughly minced
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup lime juice (from 2-3 juicy limes)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup roughly chopped cilantro
1/2 cup vegetable oil (plus possibly 1/4 cup more)

(for the salad)
1/2 pound small, bite-sized pasta - cooked al dente
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 medium red onion, diced small
1 cucumber, seeded and diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and very finely diced
2 cups frozen (thawed) or fresh corn
5 oz cotija cheese, diced or crumbled

Cook pasta according to package directions, only to al dente.  While the pasta is cooking, Make the dressing.  To make the dressing, combine all ingredients except the oil into the bowl of your food processor.  Pulse a few times until the garlic is finely chopped.  Add cilantro.  Pulse again.  With the food processor on, slowly pour the oil into the food processor until the dressing is completely emulsified.  When the pasta is cooked, drain and pour into a large mixing bowl.  Add dressing while pasta is still hot.  Stir. After the salad has cooled, add the remaining salad ingredients and stir again.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.  When ready to serve, if the salad is too dry, add oil, 1 tbsp at a time, until it reaches the desired consistency.  (You may not need any additional oil; however, since you're putting the dressing into the hot pasta, the pasta will absorb some of the liquid). 

The salad can be made a day ahead.  Simply store the pasta mixed with the dressing in an airtight container, then add the rest of the ingredients about 30 minutes before serving.

Spinach Tortellini Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

A few weeks ago I made a salad with tons of fresh veggies in it.  I've been making these fresh salads a couple times a week since then and I have to say, in the middle of these dreary winter months it has been a nice shift.  These have become my new "comfort food" lately. 

Tonight is panini night at the Bowden House.  I wanted to do something light and fresh to go along with our sandwiches.  I started picking things out of the cupboard and putting them together and this delightful concoction was born.  I wanted to do a pasta salad, but just pasta is a little heavy for what I was going for.  I started adding spinach to lighten it up, topped it off with some shredded parmesan and BAM!  Between me and my 12-year-old we're lucky any is going to make it to the dinner table.  When she took a bite she said, "I like how it smells, I like how it tastes, and I like that when you put it in your mouth your tastebuds just POP!"

Spinach Tortellini Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
Recipe by me

Ingredients
1 package (9-10 oz) cheese tortellini
3 tbsp finely chopped onion (you want it to be small enough that you don't get a huge chunk but large enough that it's recognizable as onion)
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup terragon vinegar (if you can't find terragon vinegar, use red wine vinegar...but if you can, the terragon vinegar is so worth the effort)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large garlic clove, finely minced
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp honey
3 cups baby spinach
1/3 cup shredded parmesan (the good kind)

Cook pasta according to the package directions.  While the pasta is cooking, make the dressing.  Add onions, garlic, vinegar, oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and honey to a large bowl.  Whisk until well combined.  Add some fresh ground black pepper if you're feeling a little spicy.  When the pasta is cooked, drain it and add it to the bowl while still hot and toss to coat in the dressing (this way all that goodness gets soaked up in the pasta as it cools down).  At this point, put the pasta in the fridge either for 10-15 minutes, or until a few minutes before serving (if you're making it in advance) to cool down.  A few minutes before serving (if serving immediately, wait long enough that the heat of the pasta won't wilt the spinach), add the spinach and toss it to coat in the dressing.  Top with parmesan cheese and toss again.

Sweet-n-Spicy Chicken Lettuce Wraps

"Why don't we eat like this every night?" my husband asked me tonight.  I asked what he meant.  He said that tonight was the perfect homemade meal.  It was satisfying, fresh, flavorful, and healthy.  I admittedly took mild offense, because I'm a really good cook and we eat homemade foods most nights.  Also, admittedly, I've been in a cooking rut lately and have been cooking lots of the same things over and over, so I got over mild offense pretty quickly.  He wasn't kidding though.  This meal was really outstanding.  It came from a Food Network show I've never seen before, and just happened to stop on as I was folding laundry.  When I was finished folding, I immediately packed up my toddler and went to the store to purchase ingredients to make this.

This would be an incredible dish on a warm summer night, but it was so refreshing in the middle of winter, on the Monday just after a snow storm.  It was like a little vacation on a plate.

Recipe adapted from Melissa D'Arabian of "Ten Dollar Dinners"

Ingredients

For the Filling
1 1/2 lbs chicken breast, chopped (I did about 1/4-1/2 inch pieces)
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
8 oz white mushrooms, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced, pressed or grated with a microplane
One 6-ounce can of water chestnuts, chopped
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar

Sweet-n-Spicy Sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons sriracha (depending on how hot you like it - this amount is still edible but has a nice kick)
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sesame oil

For serving
1 head iceberg lettuce, rinsed, core removed, and peeled into layers
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 cup bean sprouts

To make the filling: Heat the oil in a saute pan over medium heat.  Add the chicken and cook until no longer pink.  Add the mushrooms, garlic, green onions, and chestnuts, and cook until the mushrooms are tender.  (When they were almost done I noticed lots of liquid, so I used a spoon to remove some of the liquid).  In a small bowl, combine the 1/4 cup soy sauce, 2 tbsp vinegar, and brown sugar and whisk to combine.  Pour into the hot pan and cook, stirring constantly, about one minute.  Turn off heat and make the sauce.

To make the sauce:  In a medium bowl, combine all of the sauce ingredients and whisk until well-combined. 

Serve the lettuce wraps by placing a lettuce leaf on a plate.  Spoon about 1/2 cup of the chicken filling onto the lettuce.  Top with bean sprouts, cilantro, and carrots.  Drizzle some of the sauce (to taste) into the wrap.  Roll and enjoy.  These are so messy, but SO worth it.  We served them with Asian Rice Salad, and my husband and kids even added the rice into their wraps.

Ratatouille Movie Night

Every Wednesday at Chez Bowden it’s Pizza Movie Night.  Sometimes we have pizza, sometimes we have rotisserie chicken and potato salad, sometimes we have Subway, but it’s “Pizza Movie Night”.  Well, this week I asked my kids what they wanted to do on Wednesday and they requested…nay…demanded ratatouille movie night – to both watch and eat ratatouille.  I won’t even start on how awesome my kids are because they’ll eat ANYTHING, I’ll just finish my story.

When I met Casey, he would just throw stuff in a pot and call it dinner.  He was the master of doctoring up a boxed mix.  He used to make this version of ratatouille that was just a bunch of sliced up squash and tomatoes and stuff, sautéed in a little bit of salad dressing, then baked off in the oven with cheese.  The other day when the kids requested ratatouille I decided to do a little research because other than Casey’s ratatouille, I had never had it.  Turns out he wasn’t that far off.  According to Mark Bittman, you take a bunch of vegetables (usually involving some sort of squash and/or eggplant, sometimes with potatoes and mushrooms, usually including onions and tomatoes) and some herbs and seasonings, layer them in a dish, and bake them until they’re nice and soft.  I took that method and added a little sauce and voila!  Awesome.  The kids couldn’t get enough.

Ingredients

Various vegetables, sliced into similarly thick slices.

(I used:

2 smallish-medium summer squash

2 smallish-medium zucchini

1 small red onion

4 medium tomatoes)

Sauce:

¼ cup Balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp dried minced garlic

1 tsp dried basil

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp dried parsley

¼ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

¼ cup shredded parmesan cheese

Wash and dry your vegetables.  Slice into approx ¼ inch slices (slice tomatoes a bit thicker because they don’t hold up to the roasting time otherwise).  Using a 9X9 inch baking dish that has been lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray (or 4-6 individual sized baking dishes), layer the veggies, lightly seasoning every other layer with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. 

In a medium bowl, combine ingredients for your sauce and whisk until well mixed.  Spoon the sauce over the top of the veggies – don’t worry about it only being on the top layer because there is a pretty significant amount of sauce for the vegetables and it will run down to the lower layers.  Set your baking dish(es) on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for an hour to an hour and a half(closer to an hour if you’re doing individual sized dishes or if your vegetables are pretty soft – longer if you have more vegetables or if you are cooking potatoes). During the last 15 minutes of cooking, remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle with each of your cheeses.  Return pan to the oven and continue baking until the cheese is golden and bubbly.