Easy Pasta Salad

This pasta salad is easy and yummy. You can use canned or fresh veggies, whatever you happen to have. Here's how I made it.

1 lb. rotini garden twirls
1 whole green (or red, or yellow) bell pepper (you can use more if you like)
1/2 chopped vidalia or yellow onion
1 - 2 cans diced tomatoes, or fresh
1 bottle of the Vidalia Onion Vinaigrette sold at Sam's Club (don't remember the brand)
Grated parmesan cheese to taste
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Cook the pasta, drain and rinse with cold water. Add to large bowl with lid. Chop and dice bell pepper(s), tomatoes and onions, add to pasta. Pour in vidalia onion dressing and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Jamie and I loved this as a side dish. It also went over well at a church potluck dinner. If you want to stretch this to be a one-dish lunch, you can hard boil and dice some eggs to add to it or diced chicken breast or ham chunks. We had it both ways. This will be a regular dish during the hot summer months at my house!

Spaghetti with Artichoke Hearts & Tomatoes

It's official: Ree Drummond (a/k/a "The Pioneer Woman"), is my new "go to gal" when I want something tasty to cook. Her websites are chock full of yummy goodness, she has a quirky sense of humor, and regularly does Ethel Merman impersonations. What's not to love? She recently published a cookbook (available on Amazon.com, if you're interested) called "The Pioneer Woman Cooks" - and, I gotta tell ya - it's number one on my list of wants. I've never actually DROOLED over a cookbook before, but hers sure got me salivating!

Anyway, I've been drooling over her recipe for Artichoke Hearts and Tomato Spaghetti since she posted it. I'm going to make it tonight. It looks fairly easy, I have everything the recipe calls for (well, with some substitutions), and it's pasta. Add a glass (or two or a dozen) of white wine, and this approaches taste bud heaven for me. I'll check in later and tell you how it tastes.

Spaghetti with Artichoke Hearts and Tomatoes

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 medium onion, finely diced
1 14.5 ounce can artichoke hearts (quartered or whole), drained
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes with juice
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup chicken broth, more as needed
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
salt & pepper to taste
1 pound thin spaghetti
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped chives or other herbs

Cook spaghetti till al dente. Drain and set aside.Melt olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Add artichoke hearts and tomatoes. Stir and cook for 8 to 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Stir in cream and chicken broth. Add salt and pepper to taste (do not undersalt!) Cook over low heat until heated through, then turn off heat.Place drained pasta in a large bowl. Sprinkle with 1 cup Parmesan. Pour sauce over the top. Add chopped chives. Toss lightly to combine and coat; add a tiny bit of reserved pasta water if sauce seems too thick.

Delicious!

100th Post! Woot!

If the counter on the home page is correct, this is the 100th post of R.O.U.S.-es! I came up with my own quick-n-easy recipe, using mainly left overs, and thought I would share in case any of you are as time-crunched as I am and need something fairly quick and nutritious to feed the fam. Usually when I make pasta of any sort, I wind up making way to much noodles for the amount of sauce I have made. Over the years, I've discovered this is actually a good thing, as it can be a way to stretch one cooking session into several meals, without eating the same stuff over and over and getting tired of it. I learned to store leftover sauce and the noodles separately so I can use them for other items. The noodles in question are the tri-flavored spirals (plain, spinach and tomato) we seem to prefer around here for our pasta. Seems like the sauce "sticks" to the crevices in these noodles better than it would to plain-old spaghetti. However, any noodle will do. The below recipe uses leftovers and/or common staples I keep in my pantry.

Alfredo a la Leftovers

• Leftover spiral pasta (or whatever kind of pasta you prefer)
• Can or jar of favored alfredo sauce of whatever type you prefer
• leftover chicken or can of chicken breast or chicken from the freezer
• can of mushrooms or fresh if you have them on hand
• seasoning to taste (I like to add more Italian seasoning and salt and pepper to taste)

There are two ways you can make this a) Dump some pasta in a microwave safe bowl with the other ingredients, mix well, then microwave until it's hot; or b) For a better blended taste, mix ingredients in an oven safe casserole dish, sprinkle parmesan cheese and more Italian seasoning over the top and bake at 350 degrees until it's warm and the edges are lightly browned.

Serve this dish with a dinner salad, and you have a pretty well balanced and tasty quick meal!