Mizithra Pasta

I don't know how many of you have been to The Old Spaghetti Factory, but this is seriously my FAVORITE dish there. I was so excited to see it on FFR. This was the easiest dish to make. Here are a few things to remember: 1) start the butter before the pasta and it takes time, 2) mizithra (myzithra) is hard to find, and 3) a cube of butter is really a stick (at least in the USA). I found my cheese in Smith's Deli section. Serve this up with garlic bread and a salad. YUM YUM!

Ingredients:
1 pkg. spaghetti (1 lb)
2 cubes REAL butter
1/2 to 3/4 lb. Mizithra Cheese, grated
Italian Seasoning (optional, I added that on my own)

Directions:
Cook pasta in a large pot of salted, boiling water until al dente. Drain. While pasta is cooking, start slowly melting butter over medium heat until golden brown. The butter will foam up and rise, but just keep stirring until it turns brown. Remove pan from heat and allow the sediment to settle at the bottom of the pan for a few minutes.

Do not stir up the sediments in the pan, you want the clear butter separated from the stuff at the bottom. Pour the browned butter into a separate bowl, again, keeping the butter separated from the sediment. Toss the pasta with the butter when it is ready. Sprinkle with Mizithra cheese to taste. Serve immediately. You can sprinkle Italian seasoning on it here too!

Here's the original recipe: Mizithra Pasta

Quesadillas

These were excellent! It was definitely more than your average cheese quesadilla. Eli and I both loved them. These came from Family Favorite Recipes. YUMMY stuff! My picture doesn't look as good as the one on FFR, but you can click here to see it and the original recipe. Her recipe includes zucchini, but I didn't put that in mine because we didn't have any available!

Ingredients:

1 c. frozen corn

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

2 Tbsp. diced jalapeno (or more if you like it hot...I used the canned pickled kind found in the mexican aisle)

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1-2 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. cumin

2 c. Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

flour tortillas (if you want to be really healthy, use whole-wheat tortillas)

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except for the cheese (and tortillas of course). Place mixture in a large skillet and fry until hot. In the meantime, heat a medium-sized skillet over medium heat. Place a tortilla in the pan. On half of the tortilla add a few large scoops of the corn/bean mixture and a little cheese. Fold tortilla over, then flip sides. When cheese is melted, cut in half and serve!

Menu: Oct 20- Oct 27

I have been bad lately and a lot of that is due to the fact that we are trying to transition Becca into eating what we eat for dinner (we were supposed to do this a while ago). She's still not very good at eating everything and doesn't like spicy things, so I've had to alter what we eat. It's really hard to come up with meals that Becca can eat and that we want to eat. So, I'm trying to at least make a few meals a week that she can eat and then we'll get better and better at it.

Monday: Tacos/Taco salads...I had a taco and Brian had a salad.
Tuesday: We went out to eat to celebrate a business success.
Wednesday: Spaghetti w/ mixed veggies and garlic bread
Thursday: Egg salad sandwiches
Friday: Creamy Italian Chicken (it's a new crockpot recipe). I'll post the recipe and tell you how it tasted. I'm going to serve it with mashed potatoes and a veggie.
Saturday: Chicken and dumplings...we use a very easy recipe that I'll post.
Sunday: Baked Ziti
Monday: Chicken Chalupas? (I'm not sure about that one yet)

Menu: October 19 - October 25

I don't know if I said this before, but I've decided to keep cooking dinner on the nights I work. I'll just make something simple on the nights I work. I'm excited to cook this week. I found a new blog with some awesome recipes. I left her a comment to see if I could link her blog to my page, but I will go ahead and leave the address here so you ladies can check it out (Favorite Family Recipes). Highly Recommended.

Sunday: Sweet Pork Roast
Monday: Quesadillas (FFR)
Tuesday: Mizithra Pasta (FFR)
Wednesday: Tomato & Pesto Pizza (FFR)
Thursday: Veggie Melts (Chef Britta)
Friday: Bean, Avocado, & Cheese Sandwich (sounds weird, I know)
Saturday:Vegetarian Chili (Chef Britta)

Menu: October 16 - October 22

I got a little bit stuck planning my menu this week. A couple quick searches on allrecipes.com helped finish it right up, though! :)

Thursday: Grilled Chicken Pitas
Friday: Late dinner out to celebrate the end of Paul's softball season
Saturday: Curry
Sunday: Pot Roast, rolls, mashed potatoes, and steamed carrots
Monday: Amanda's pasta dish without chicken
Tuesday: Golden Pork Chops (allrecipes.com)
Wednesday: Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken (allrecipes.com)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've always liked pumpkin cookies, but I had never actually made them before. These turned out yummy! They are very cake like as many pumpkin cookies are.

Ingredients:
1 cup pumpkin
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. milk
1 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
Dissolve baking soda in milk; set aside. In large bowl add pumpkin, sugar, oil, and egg; stir. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda mixture. Mix well. Stir in chocolate chips and vanilla. Spoon onto cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees 10-12 minutes.

Rolo Cookies

How can you go wrong with a chocolate cookie that has a rolo in the middle? The chocolate cookie has a great flavor and the rolo melts to make them caramel filled.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
48 rolos (one package)
2 tbs. sugar

Directions:
Combine flour, cocoa, and soda and set aside. Beat sugars and butter until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla. Add dry mixture and blend well. Shape cookies into small balls. Press rolo into center of ball and cover with dough (I just sort of form a dough ball around a rolo). Roll cookie in sugar. Bake on un-greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes, until tops of cookies are slightly cracked. Cool on racks.

*As you can see this recipe makes about 48 cookies. So if you don't want tons of cookies you could do half of the recipe. But, the girl who gave me this recipe said that the dough balls freeze well and then you can make them whenever you want fresh cookies. I haven't tried that yet.