Showing posts with label celery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label celery. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Spaghetti Squash Primavera


Last month my husband and I were watching an episode of Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and we found this recipe. Imagine a bunch of sauteed vegetables covered in a delicious marinara sauce, and then topped with melted mozzarella cheese. It doesn't have any meat in it, but trust me, you won't miss it!

This makes enough food to fill both halves of the spaghetti squash (which is enough for me to eat for about 4 meals, so it's probably 3-4 servings depending on how hungry you are):
  • SPAGHETTI SQUASH
  • RED BELL PEPPER, diced
  • 1/2 RED ONION, diced
  • 3 cloves of GARLIC, minced
  • 2 stalks of CELERY, sliced
  • CARROTS, sliced
  • ZUCCHINI, diced
  • 1 small head of BROCCOLI
  • 1 Tbs OLIVE OIL
  • 2 cups MARINARA SAUCE (I used the sauce that I make for spaghetti & meatballs, but a store bought jar would also work!)
  • SALT, to taste
  • PEPPER, to taste
  • 1 ball of fresh MOZZARELLA CHEESE (shredded mozzarella would also work)

Start off by cutting the spaghetti squash in half long-wise. Be careful because the skin of the squash is really tough. Put the squash halves into a pot of boiling water and cook for 10 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.


While the squash is cooking, dice up the bell pepper, red onion, garlic, celery, carrots, zucchini, and broccoli. 



Next, start sauteing the vegetables in a large skillet. Heat the olive oil in the skillet and then add the bell pepper. Once that starts to heat up, add the onion and  garlic. When that is also warmed up add the celery and carrots. Adding the vegetables a little bit at a time will keep the pan hot and the cooking consistent. 


Once all of the vegetables are turning translucent and getting tender, add the broccoli and zucchini. You want to add them last because they cook faster than the other veggies and you don't want them to get mushy. 


By now the spaghetti squash should be done cooking. Scoop out the seeds and discard them. Then take a fork and scrape the stringy, spaghetti-like squash out. Set aside in a small bowl


Once all of the vegetables are tender but not mushy, stir in about 1 to 1 & 1/2 cups of your marinara sauce


Once the sauce has gotten hot, add the spaghetti squash.


At this point you might want to add a little more sauce, but make sure that you still have about 1/2 cup left to put on top. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. (You may want to add more depending on how much salt is already in your marinara sauce.)


Once you are happy with your vegetable and sauce mixture, scoop it into the 2 halves of the spaghetti squash shell. 


Vualá!


Next, place the filled halves of the squash on a cookie sheet and and lay 2 slices of the fresh mozzarella on each squash half. 


Put the cookie sheet with the squash in the oven and bake for 10 minutes to get the mozzarella nice and melted.


When the squash comes out of the oven, top the halves with the remaining marinara sauce and serve!


Look out gooey and wonderful the cheese was after baking in the oven!


We will definitely be making this again soon!





Spaghetti Squash Primavera

Ingredients:
  • SPAGHETTI SQUASH
  • RED BELL PEPPER, diced
  • 1/2 RED ONION, diced
  • 3 cloves of GARLIC, minced
  • 2 stalks of CELERY, sliced
  • CARROTS, sliced
  • ZUCCHINI, diced
  • 1 small head of BROCCOLI
  • 1 Tbs OLIVE OIL
  • 2 cups MARINARA SAUCE (I used the sauce that I make for spaghetti & meatballs, but a store bought jar would also work!)
  • SALT, to taste
  • PEPPER, to taste
  • 1 ball of fresh MOZZARELLA CHEESE (shredded mozzarella would also work)
      Directions:
      1. Start off by cutting the spaghetti squash in half long-wise. Be careful because the skin of the squash is really tough. Put the squash halves into a pot of boiling water and cook for 10 minutes.
      2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
      3. While the squash is cooking, dice up the bell pepper, red onion, garlic, celery, carrots, zucchini, and broccoli. 
      4. Next, start sauteing the vegetables in a large skillet. Heat the olive oil in the skillet and then add the bell pepper. Once that starts to heat up, add the onion and  garlic. When that is also warmed up add the celery and carrots. Adding the vegetables a little bit at a time will keep the pan hot and the cooking consistent. 
      5. Once all of the vegetables are turning translucent and getting tender, add the broccoli and zucchini. You want to add them last because they cook faster than the other veggies and you don't want them to get mushy. 
      6. By now the spaghetti squash should be done cooking. Scoop out the seeds and discard them. Then take a fork and scrape the stringy, spaghetti-like squash out. Set aside in a small bowl
      7. Once all of the vegetables are tender but not mushy, stir in about 1 to 1 & 1/2 cups of your marinara sauce. 
      8. When the sauce has gotten hot, add the spaghetti squash.
      9. At this point you might want to add a little more sauce, but make sure that you still have about 1/2 cup left to put on top. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. (You may want to add more depending on how much salt is already in your marinara sauce.)
      10. Once you are happy with your vegetable and sauce mixture, scoop it into the 2 halves of the spaghetti squash shell. 
      11. Next, place the filled halves of the squash on a cookie sheet and and lay 2 slices of the fresh mozzarella on each squash half. 
      12. Put the cookie sheet with the squash in the oven and bake for 10 minutes to get the mozzarella nice and melted.
      13. When the squash comes out of the oven, top the halves with the remaining marinara sauce and serve!




            http://media.wix.com/ugd/60b189_879cce613030aede7fa7a8e1e75cd9bb.pdf?dn=spaghetti_squash_pitstop.pdf

            Tuesday, December 3, 2013

            Thanksgiving 2013

            I had such a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! My husband and I recently moved away from where our families live, but we were lucky enough to have our siblings and one of my closest friends come visit us for the holiday!

            We ended up having a total of 8 people over for Thanksgiving dinner this year so I took full advantage having so many people to cook for and made all kinds of things!

            I started off Thanksgiving week by making some kolaches, which are traditional Czechoslovakian pastries. They are made of a sweet dough and generally have a fruity filling. I made my brother and my favorite flavor, cherry!


            Look how gooey and yummy they were! I will post the recipe for these soon!


            Then, my brother helped me make my favorite spinach artichoke dip to snack on during Thanksgiving day!


            We even made the bread! I used the crusty bread recipe, but rather than shaping it into a ball I shaped it into a loaf. 


            My husband made his favorite Thanksgiving food, dressing!


            My husband and I decided that rather than making turkey for Thanksgiving, we wanted to make a ham. Some of our guests on the other hand, decided that they could not have Thanksgiving without a turkey. So one of them volunteered to make a turkey....and then another one volunteered to make a turkey... and then there was a little bit of a miscommunication and we ended up with 2 turkeys!!!

            Here is a picture of turkey #1, your classic turkey:


            And here is turkey #2, the 'burkey':


            And here is the ham that we made:


            And here are the sides! We had mashed potatoes, sauteed Brussels sprouts, sweet potato casserole, potato salad, dressing, green bean casserole, and rolls! Whew! That was a lot of food! And it was all so good!


            Here is a picture of the guys trying to figure out how to carve their birds!


            And here is my plate! Look at all of that delicious food!


            We weren't done yet! Now time for the desserts! My friend and I started off by making Oreo balls! They are super easy to make and so good! They are the perfect dessert for a chocoholic!


            And then we made a mini carrot cake using my mother-in-law's recipe! It was so delicious!


            Look at that yummy cake!


            Welp, that's all! I will be posting some of the recipes for things that we made over the next few weeks. If you have any questions or recipe requests just let me know! Happy Thanksgiving!

            Thursday, September 19, 2013

            Arby's Chicken Salad Copycat


            I've always like Arby's Chicken Salad Wrap, but it's so expensive! Or maybe I'm just cheap...probably a little bit of both. Anyway here is a copycat recipe that I think is just as good!

            To make 3-4 chicken salad sandwiches you will need:
            • 1 & 1/4 cups of cubed CHICKEN BREASTS, I think I actually just chopped up a chicken breast
            • 1/2 cup diced RED APPLES
            • 1/2 Tbs LEMON JUICE
            • 1/2 cup sliced RED GRAPES
            • 1/2 cup chopped PECANS
            • 1/4 cup chopped CELERY
            • 1/4 to 1/3 cup MAYO, start with 1/4 cup and add more to taste
            • SALT & PEPPER to taste
            In a medium bowl, toss the diced apple in the lemon juice to prevent the apple from turning brown. Then, add everything else in and mix! The great part of this recipe is that if you don't like one of the ingredients, or if you really like grapes or pecans or something you can add more and make it your own! 


            It is recommended to allow the chicken salad to sit for about an hour before serving to let all of the flavor marry together. And that's it! Easy as pie! Actually, probably easier than pie...

            You can get some lettuce and use it on a sandwich or a wrap, or you can just eat it out of a bowl! Yum!


            The website where I found this recipe is: http://www.copykat.com/2011/07/26/arbys-grilled-chicken-and-pecan-salad/

            Monday, September 16, 2013

            Chicken & Noodles


            Last weekend my husband and I caught an episode of The Pioneer Woman on Food Network and she made a chicken and noodle soup that we both though look wonderful! So naturally, it made it on our list of meals to make for this week! And it did in fact taste wonderful! We did make a few changes though.
            The ingredients you will need are:
            • ROTISSERIE CHICKEN (we prepared an extra chicken breast to make sure there was plenty of chicken, but I don’t think it was needed.)
            • CARROTS, diced
            • CELERY STALKS, diced
            • ONION, diced
            • 1/2 tsp SALT
            • 1/4 tsp BLACK PEPPER
            • 1/2 tsp THYME
            • 16 oz. FROZEN HOME-STYLE EGG NOODLES (we used Reame’s)
            • 3 Tbs FLOUR
            Start by cleaning the meat off of the rotisserie chicken and putting it aside in abowl. Put the skin and bones aside in another bowl. Do not throw away the bones! 
            Once you have taken all of the meat off of the bones, put the bones and skin into a large pot that has been filled just over halfway with water and bring the contents to a boil. Allow this to simmer for about 30 minutes. This will create the base of the soup. After 30 minutes, remove the bones and skin and discard them. Take out 1/2 cup of the stock and set aside.


            Put the chicken, carrots, celery, onion, salt, pepper, and thyme into the stock. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for about 10 minutes.
            Next, add the frozen noodles (about half the bag) and simmer for another 15 minutes or until they are cooked through. While the noodles are cooking, whisk together the flour and 1/2 cup of stock that was set aside and then add them into the pot to thicken the soup.


            Once the noodles are cooked through, the soup is done! You may want to add more spices, but this combination worked for us!


            After each having a bowl, my husband and I let the soup cool, and divided it up into 8 sandwich baggies (we put about 1 to 1 & 1/2 cups in each baggie). We then put the baggies of soup into the freezer! Just ignore the leftover margarita ;)


            We realized that we have been eating a lot of canned soup lately and in turn, we have been consuming a lot of sodium. So this is our attempt to try to substitute a healthier option when we are too lazy to cook, or need a snack in the middle of the day.







            Chicken & Noodles

            Ingredients:
            • ROTISSERIE CHICKEN (we prepared an extra chicken breast to make sure there was plenty of chicken, but I don’t think it was needed.)
            • CARROTS, diced
            • CELERY STALKS, diced
            • ONION, diced
            • 1/2 tsp SALT
            • 1/4 tsp BLACK PEPPER
            • 1/2 tsp THYME
            • 16 oz. FROZEN HOME-STYLE EGG NOODLES (we used Reame’s)
            • 3 Tbs FLOUR

                Directions:
                1. Start by cleaning the meat off of the rotisserie chicken and putting it aside in a bowl. Put the skin and bones aside in another bowl. Do not throw away the bones! 
                2. Once you have taken all of the meat off of the bones, put the bones and skin into a large pot that has been filled just over halfway with water and bring the contents to a boil. Allow this to simmer for about 30 minutes. This will create the base of the soup. After 30 minutes, remove the bones and skin and discard them. Take out 1/2 cup of the stock and set aside.
                3. Put the chicken, carrots, celery, onion, salt, pepper, and thyme into the stock. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for about 10 minutes.
                4. Add the frozen noodles (about half the bag) and simmer for another 15 minutes or until they are cooked through. 
                5. While the noodles are cooking, whisk together the flour and 1/2 cup of stock that was set aside and then add them into the pot to thicken the soup.
                6. Once the noodles are cooked through, the soup is done! You may want to add more spices, but this combination worked for us!






                Here is a link to the Pioneer Woman’s chicken and noodles recipe that we based our soup on: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/chicken-and-noodles-recipe/index.html