Vegetable-Packed Tomato Sauce

Once every month or so I like to make spaghetti for me and Kevin.  It is a nice meal that will feed both of us rather than me making two separate dinners, and I can sneak in a bunch of veggies without Kevin knowing the difference!  Another nice thing about spaghetti night in a veggie-meat divided house is that I can make us noodles we both prefer.  I would rather have zucchini noodles, while Kevin likes more traditional pasta.

Since my parents visited the last weekend, my mom gave me a HUGE zucchini from her garden.  What the heck was I going to do with that much zucchini?!  Spaghetti and marinara of course!  When my parents visited, we also went to the cute little Farmer's Market in downtown Puyallup.  One vendor was selling homemade pasta, so I bought Kevin two "nests" of semolina fettuccine and chipotle adobo fettuccine.

Pasta?  CHECK!

Marinara sauce...

Vegetable-Packed Tomato Sauce
Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 4-6 servings

Ingredients:
    Vegetables to saute:
        1 small yellow onion, diced (1/2 large onion)
        1 lb fresh tomatoes, diced
        1 carrot, peeled and diced
        1 celery stalk, diced
        1/4 cup mushrooms, sliced
        1/4 cup zucchini, diced
        2 to 4 cloves garlic, pressed
    Sauce base and spices:
        1-15 oz. can tomato sauce
        1-15 oz. can diced tomatoes
        1 cup vegetable stock
        1 tsp parsley
        1 tsp oregano
        1 tsp basil
        1 tsp smoked paprika (optional)

Instructions:
1.)  Prepare all of the vegetables to saute.  In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, saute all of the veggies until the onions are translucent and the tomatoes start to breakup, about 10 minutes.

2.)  Add to the saucepan all of the sauce base and spice ingredients.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat.

3.)  Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, until fragrant and well incorporated.

4.)  With an immersion blender, or in batches with a blender, blend the sauce to the desired consistency.

5.)  Serve hot over your favorite type of noodle (or not noodle).  Store leftovers in a closed container in the fridge for up to a week.  Or freeze in freezer-safe containers for next spaghetti night!

Amy's Notes:
When blending the sauce, you might want to keep it a little chunky, depending on your preferences and how well you cut up your veggies.  Since my husband is a bit anti-veggie, I like to blend it to a nice smooth consistency.

Along with the zucchini noodles, I wanted a bit of substance with some cooked red lentils.  Once cooked, they became a bit like meatballs, which was perfect.

Health and Happiness,

Amy

Chickpea Marinara Sauce

Last night was the first night in a while that we had no plans other than to stay in for a home cooked meal.  I have mentioned many times before that my husband is still a meat and potatoes guy, so that means for a homecooked meal, I need to make two... yay?  He requested one of his all-time favorite meals: mashed potatoes with chicken strips and broccoli.  I though potatoes sounded pretty good too, but I opted to have a baked yam instead.  To top my yam off, I decided to make this yummy marinara sauce that is partially homemade.

To cook the sweet potato, heat the oven to 450 degrees F.  Wash your potato of choice (russet, golden, or sweet potatoes will work perfectly too), and peirce some holes with a fork throughout.  Wrap each potato in foil (no oil needed!) and place in the oven.  Set the timer for 30 minutes and flip.  Check on the potato after 30 more minutes if it is done.  Mine usually take 1 hour, but time will depend on your oven and the size of your potato.

Chickpea Marinara Sauce
Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 2-4

Ingredients:
        1/4 onion, finely chopped
        2 cloves garlic, pressed
        1/2 cup mushrooms, finely chopped
        1- 16 oz can marinara pasta sauce of your choice
        1- 16 oz can diced tomatoes, no salt added if you can find it
        1+1/2 cup cooked chickpeas, or 1- 16 oz can chickpeas drained and rinsed
        1 Tbsp no salt seasoning

Instructions:

1. In a large skillet over medium heat, water saute the onion and garlic.  Once the onion and garlic become fragrant and slightly translucent, add the chopped mushrooms and saute for 5 minutes.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.  Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 15 minutes, until the sauce has thickened.
3. Serve over a baked potato or whole wheat pasta.  You can top with fresh parsley, green onion, nutritional yeast, black olives, or any other toppings you desire.

Amy's Notes:

This sauce turned out nicely thick to top a baked potato perfectly.  You could also top any type of whole wheat pasta or whole grain.  I bet this would be great on top of barley.  The nice thing about this sauce is that it ends up with that homemade feel, without having to make a tomato sauce from scratch.  Since it has one can of (no salt) diced tomatoes to one can of marinara sauce, it is going to have a lot less sodium than just a jar of pasta sauce.

Arugula Parsley Pesto

Hope everyone is having a great week! Kevin and I have been busy settling into our new apartment, and I am just starting to get the hang of my new kitchen. I have a lot more counter space, which is really nice, so I can keep most of my appliances out and ready to use. At our old place the only appliances I regularly kept out were my blender and KitchenAid mixer. Now I'm able to have out my toaster oven and food processor, the latter I have been using quite regularly. The recipe I'm bringing you today uses a food processor and makes a variation of one of my favorite sauces: pesto!

Arugula Parsley Pesto

Ingredients:

• 1 cup arugula
• 1 cup fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2-3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed mixed in 2 Tbsp water
• 2 dates
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a small bowl mix together the ground flaxseeds with 2 tablespoons of water and allow to thicken while you prepare the other ingredients.
2. Place all ingredients in a food process and process until smooth but fairy chunky.
3. Taste and add salt or pepper to taste. Add more water to achieve your desired consistency.
4. Serve over hot pasta, rice, or even as a dipping sauce.

Amy's Notes:
I had my pesto over some steamed kale with rice and butter beans. Later I sprinkled it with nutritional yeast. Yum! YUM!

Graduation and Chef AJ's Disappearing Lasagna

What a whirlwind week it has been for me!  I made it through my final finals relatively unscathed, spent some time celebrating with friends and family, and finally, I graduated!  I officially graduated from Washington State University with a BS in Environmental Science and Regional Planning on May 5th, 2012.  And does it feel great to be done!  My parents came into town on Saturday to pack me up, to take me out to an awesome lunch at my favorite restaurant called Sangria, and to go to the Spring Commencement.  Here are a few pictures of our day:

Packing up and getting ready for graduation!

Out to lunch at Sangria.  Dad and I toast to finally being done! 

Me and my Envi Sci friend Danielle.  We will forever say "we DID  Environmental Science together." 

My parents and I after the commencement ceremony.

Now that I'm done I will finally have time for more blogging, and most importantly, more time for my health!  Since being back home I've gotten exercise everyday, have been drinking a bunch more water, drinking less alcohol, and eating and feeling much better.  During these last few weeks of school, I admittedly enjoyed myself a bit too much in the food and drinking category, and it feels so much better getting back into a healthy routine again!

I finally have found some time (and more people than myself to cook for) to try out a few of her recipes.  I made her famous Disappearing Lasagna and her wonderful Hale to the Kale Salad and it was DELICIOUS!  Here is my experience at trying the lasagna:

Chef AJ's Disappearing Lasagna

Ingredients:

Faux Parmesan pp.142

Kale or Spinach Dip Filling pp.83

Saucy Glazed Mushrooms pp.152 (sorry I forgot to take a picture of this part)

Finishing the Lasagna pp.100

Directions:  For the sake of spending less time typing out directions, and because I thought the videos were super helpful, I'm going to direct you to The Chef and The Dietitian videos for each part of the recipe.

Faux Parmesan

Kale or Spinach Dip Filling

Saucy Glazed Mushrooms

Finishing the Lasagna 

Note, in the video she says to bake at 350 F for one hour but the book, the directions that I followed, were for 375 for one hour.

Amy's Notes:  This recipe is a long process and makes a lot!  I spent most of the afternoon yesterday getting everything ready, but each thing can be done on your own time the day before you put together the lasagna.  I'm guessing it would serve up to eight people with one serving a piece.  It served the three of us without going through even half of the dish.  I made it for my dad to have for lunch the rest of the week and the weekend because my mom and I are leaving tomorrow morning for a mother daughter trip to DISNEYLAND!!!  What a proper way to end my college career right?  I'm so excited to go for the weather and all of the nostalgic moments.  

Easy Vegetable Pizza

*Pictures will be posted on this post later this evening, sorry for the delay
Well the weekend is over and we are back to another Monday.  My blog schedule will be changing a bit due to some of the events of the weekend, namely, getting a flat tire on my way home from Spokane on Saturday night.  


The weekend started off nicely with a drive up to Spokane with Kevin.  When we got to my parent's house, I helped my mom make this great pizza recipe from Dr. Fuhrman's book, Eat to Live.  The recipe is called Easy Vegetable Pizza (recipe copied below if you are not a Dr. Fuhrman member).  My mom has been ranting about this recipe to me for a while, so I loved getting to try it.  It tasted great, and was nice to have a small amount of cheese, which I haven't had in over a month or so.  The broccoli topping the pizza had a nice crunch to it, while the mushrooms added good texture and the onions good flavor.  I will definitely be making this again on my own sometime soon.  I think it would be a great weekend dinner when I'm tempted by Kevin ordering Pizza for watching football.  This option is much more nutritious and will leave me feeling full, and not food-guilty.


Easy Vegetable Pizza

Ingredients: Serves 4

4 large whole grain pitas

2 c pasta sauce, no salt added or low sodium

1/2 c chopped shiitake mushrooms

1/2 c chopped red onion

10 oz frozen broccoli florets, thawed and finely chopped

1/2 c shredded mozzarella-type cheese

Directions:  Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.  Place pitas on two baking sheets and warm for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and spoon on the pasta sauce.  Sprinkle evenly with the mushrooms, onion, and broccoli.  Add a light sprinkle of cheese.  Bake for 30 minutes.

Amy's notes: We used halved pita pockets, which was a nice choice because side-by-side with another pita pocket, it makes a whole pizza shape, but after baking there is no need for cutting and was nice and easy to eat.  For our mushrooms we used basic white button mushrooms.  Instead of frozen broccoli we used fresh broccoli, which ended up being 2-3 c when chopped.  We used regular (not nondairy) mozzarella cheese, but mixed it in a large bowl with the rest of the veggies before piling them on top of the pitas with tomato sauce.  We also added red pepper flakes on top just before eating the pizzas to add a bit of heat to the pizza.  Yum!

For the rest of Friday night, Kevin and I made a trip downtown to go to Real Steal in the IMAX theater.  It was a pretty good movie, a little cheesy at times, but had great music and action scenes.  The IMAX screen was huge, and I got a free body massage from all of the vibrating bass of the room!  Haha!  Big thanks to my mom and dad for donating your free movie pass to us!  We haven't seen a movie in theaters since I don't know when!

On Saturday morning we got up nice and early to go up to Green Bluff orchards to pick apples again.  This time the golden delicious (my favorite) were ready for the pickin'!  We found a smaller orchard this time to pick from and found that the prices were quite a bit better, at $1 per pound for every type of apple.  We got a very large box of beautiful golden delicious apples, a small amount of red delicious (for some reason they were not as fresh and sweet as we had been hoping), and some empire apples that were surprisingly yummy.  We also found another farm with some good produce.  I got a small pumpkin, which I will attempt to bake and make a few dishes out of this week.  My parents also got two aromatic sweet onions and a few fresh picked pepperoncinis (banana peppers).  They sent me home with a few of the pepperoncinis, which I will be including in a salad or something this week. 

For lunch on Saturday I ended up making my parents Thai Peanut Lettuce Wraps (recipe coming this week on World Wednesday).  The peanut dipping sauce turned out a little salty because they had regular soy sauce, when I had used low sodium when I had made it for myself before.  They liked it all the same.  Also, for the insides of the lettuce wraps, when I had made it before it was cold and more like a salad, but for theirs, I made it sauted with onions and mushrooms in their iron skillet.  Can't wait to share this recipe (the first recipe I've created from scratch) with you on Wednesday.

During the afternoon Kevin and I played Backgammon, which I may or may not have kicked his butt at!  I got him the backgammon game as a fun surprise for us to play.  It is a pretty nice travel set that I found on ebay for super cheap.  We both love the show Lost, and backgammon is symbolistic in it throughout the series, so we loved learning the game.

Later that evening, Kevin and I decided to drive back to Pullman so we wouldn't have to get up as early to get back for watching football.  About halfway through the drive we realized that the car was not driving right, and was swerving when it went into potholes and ruts, so we stopped at a po-dunk gas station to check the car for problems.  To our dismay, the front driver's side tire was running pretty low on air... uh-oh.  Because it obviously had a leak, we sat around debating to call Triple A to change our tire, or to do it ourselves, or to have my dad come help us.  We decided to just call Triple A, but were helped out from some people driving through who happened to be a gal who's husband was a mechanic with their friend who was a tow truck driver.  Thank god it wasn't a lawyer or docter in the car haha!  They looked a the tire for us, helped us use the hair pump and gage to get our tire to a good level, and said we'd be fine till we got to Colfax at least.  We got the rest of the way home safely, and I've decided to just keep filling the tire up when it gets low until my dad comes down in a couple weeks for dad's weekend and will be changing my car to winter tires.

Sunday was gloriously uneventful for the most part.  I got some knitting and chores done, then Kevin and his roommates and I went to play intramural flag football.  Our team, for yet another week, mercy-ruled the other team (got so far ahead before the clock ran out that they called the game).  

Now it is Monday, and because I am trying to keep my driving to a minimum, I was unable to get groceries on Sunday like I usually do, to today I won't be able to make a crockpot dish.  Instead I will be making Baked Sweet Potatoes with Apples and Cranberries from Dr. Fuhrman.  I will be posting this recipe tomorrow along with my exercise discussion.  Wednesday will feature Thai Peanut Lettuce Wraps, and Thursday... who knows!  Hope you all have a great Monday!

Have you ever felt stranded and unable to (god forbid!) get groceries (example: car problems, weather)?  What is your go-to recipe when this happens?