Penne with basil, tomatoes, and feta

I love finding new pasta recipes because they are usually quite easy and quick to prepare. This pasta dish is perfect for the end of summer, especially if you have a bounty of fresh tomatoes and basil you need to use up. The combination of tomato and basil is one of my favorite flavor pairings. There is so much you can do with them and it never seems to fail. This holds true for this dish as well. The ingredients are simple, yet flavorful and satisfying. Serve it as a main dish or as a side and enjoy!

Penne with Basil, Tomatoes, and Feta

12 ounces dried penne pasta (don't be afraid, try whole wheat)
1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, diced
1 cup fresh basil, chopped
3/4 cup cumbled feta cheese (about 4 ounces)
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Bring 2 quarts of water to boil. Add the penne and cook until al dente. Drain. Meanwhile, go to work on all the chopping. Mix the tomatoes, basil, 1/2 cup feta, garlic, and olive oil in a large bowl. Add the hot cooked pasta and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle with the the remaining 1/4 cup feta.

I'm back

Wow, has it really been more than a year since I have posted on this poor blog? Let me share with you what I have been up to the past year. I've been working on my best creation yet (I can't take all the credit, but I did help)!

This is my beautiful baby girl. I found out I was pregnant with her shortly after the last post I did on here. She was born in April and she is an absolute joy and I love being her mother.

The past year I have also proposed, carried out, and defended my thesis project. I am officially done with my master's degree! It wasn't necessarily difficult work, but it took a lot of work. It provided me with great experience where I really learned the importance of persistence.

In addition, I went to school, worked, tried to take care of myself and my husband, etc. I probably could have continued this blog had I really wanted to, but it was at the bottom of my priority list. Actually, it was thrown out the window completely. But now that my schedule is more flexible, this blog has made it back on my priority list. I'm so excited to share the things I've been working on.

4th of July Craft and Dessert

A while back, I bought a cheap glass vase from Wal-Mart and have been using it for all sorts of things. At Christmastime I put ball ornaments in it. For Easter I put plastic Easter eggs in it. I also used it as a vase for some beautiful tulips on Mother's Day (or in my case, Wife's Day). I wanted to use it for the 4th of July but didn't know what to put in it. Finally, I came up with this idea.

A Picture Frame!

All I did was take some 4th of July themed paper and cut it to fit in the vase. I used a flexible measuring tape to measure the height and circumference of the vase. This works best for vases where the circumference is the same throughout the entire vase. I used a picture of us from 4th of July last year. I was really pleased with how it turned out.

Here is a 4th of July tradition from my family. We always make this flag cake. I didn't make it last year because I knew we would never eat all of it. But this year we had my sister's family staying with us to help finish it off. Here are my cute nieces who helped me make it. We dished it up while waiting for the fireworks to go off.

1 box cake mix, baked according to directions on the box
Strawberries, halved
Blueberries
Raspberries
1 package of whipped topping

1. After cake has cooled off, top it with a layer of the berries so that the cake is completely covered.
2. Top the berries with the whipped topping.
3. Use blueberries and strawberries to make the cake look like a flag.

Enjoy!

Berry Delicious Desserts

I would never describe myself as a lover of desserts or chocolate. I hardly ever make desserts. I could count the number of times I have made a dessert on both hands in the past year. And most of those times were due to party planning. But that does not mean I don't like desserts. They are especially appealing to me when fruit is somehow incorporated. So here are some beautifully delicious fruit inspired desserts.

Berry Trifle

My client gave me the idea to do a trifle bar for the bridal shower I threw over the weekend. It was fun and I think everyone really enjoyed it... because many of them went back for seconds! It was easy to pull together, which is always a plus when serving food for a party. Here is how you can do it!

Cake

• 1 box of cake mix of your choice (I used Betty Crocker's Golden Vanilla)
  
• wet ingredients in the amounts the box suggests
  

Instead of taking the time to make a cake from scratch, I used a cake mix. Several hours before your event, bake cake in a cookie sheet so it isn't as thick as a regular cake. Make sure you reduce the cooking time. Use a toothpick to determine when it is done (when it comes out clean). Mine was done in about 15 minutes. Let the cake sit out uncovered for several hours. This will help keep it from sticking together when you cut it into little pieces. About 20-30 minutes before serving, cut the cake into 1 inch square pieces and serve them on a platter.

Custard

• 2 small boxes of pudding of your choice (I used White Chocolate)

Once again, I could have made the custard from scratch. But I had cleaning and other things to get done. You can make the pudding ahead of time as well and let it chill in the refrigerator.

Toppings

• Fruit- I used strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and bananas.
• Sauces- caramel, strawberry, chocolate
• Ready whip

My client also let me borrow an assortment of fun glasses. Everyone had fun picking their own cute glass and what ingredients they wanted to include.

Berry Chocolate Panini

Since I had left over berries from the trifles, I made these treats just for fun. I would highly recommend them. Even my husband, who doesn't get excited about dessert, thought they were scrumptious.

• 8 slices of day-old-bread (or 2 day, in my case)- I used a baguette
• A couple of strawberries, sliced thin
• 8 or so raspberries
• chocolate chips or chocolate sauce
• strawberry or raspberry jam (optional)
• 1 Tbs. olive oil

1. Put olive oil in a small prep bowl. Using a pastry brush, or an unused paint brush, brush a small amount of olive oil on one side of 4 bread slices. Place on heated panini grill, oil side down.
2. Place a few chocolate chips on top of bread. This allows the heat to start melting the chocolate while you slice the strawberries and prepare the rest.
3. If using jam, spread a small amount on one side of the other 4 slices.
4. Place strawberry slices and raspberries on top of the chocolate chips.
5. Place the remaining slices on top of the berries. Brush olive oil on top. Smash with grill top and heat until chocolate is completely melted. Serve and enjoy!
   

I would recommend using a baguette for these because of the small size. These are rich, and in my opinion, good things come in small packages. Plus, they look cute when they are small. I made 4 for the two of us, but we thought 1 each was just enough. If you don't have a panini grill, you can heat them in a pan on the stove. They just won't have the attractive grill marks. Once again, these were fabulous.

Bridal Shower Invitations

One of my oldest and best friends is getting married in a few weeks and I have the privilege of throwing her a bridal shower. It is this week and I've been having a lot of fun planning it. I'm just crossing my fingers the weather will cooperate because I'm planning to do it outside. Hopefully I will have good pictures to post from it in the future. This post is just to show the invitations I made for it. I thought they turned out cute for being so cheap and so easy to throw together. This picture is pretty terrible though, so it doesn't look too exciting. I thought this style would be cute for a baby announcement as well.

Something Healthy: Katherine’s Green Drink

Because I am pursuing a master’s degree in Health Promotion, I am often asked for advice on how to eat healthy. So I thought I could devote a theme to my blog on ways to do just that. For the most part, I try to ‘healthify’ any meal I make, but some are better than others. In the future, look forward to more “Something Healthy” posts.

My advice to go along with this post is to strive to eat a serving of vegetables for breakfast. I don’t know about you, but I never crave a salad when I first wake up. Most people eat veggies for breakfast by adding them to omelets and frittatas. Not a terrible idea, but I wouldn’t recommend eating eggs every day. Other methods do exist. I’m sure you have all seen those green drinks and smoothies at grocery stores. The most common brands are Odwalla and Naked Juice. These drinks sound and look healthy (the green color), but I have a better alternative for you, I promise.

My parents came to visit me recently for my husband’s graduation. While they were here they bought me one of those huge bags of fresh spinach from Costco. I love spinach, but let’s be honest, those bags are huge. I worried I would not be able to finish it before it went bad and freezing wasn’t really an option because I do not love frozen spinach and my husband especially does not care for it. So I started experimenting with it! And this is what I came up with.

Katherine’s Green Drink

2 cups fresh spinach

8 medium strawberries (fresh or frozen), halved

1 medium banana, sliced

½-1 cup of cold water

1. Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth

2. Enjoy!

This drink/smoothie is surprisingly delicious. The banana contributes most of the calories and sugar, but it does its job well! It adds sweetness without adding extra sugar, and it also adds creaminess you would otherwise get from yogurt, milk, or cream. If you don’t want the sugar, use less of the banana or skip it altogether.

Let me now introduce you to a good friend of mine. Meet Sparkpeople’s Recipe Calculator. This allows you to input ingredients from recipes and spits out the nutritional information.

Let me point out some selling points from the nutritional information from my green drink. If you ate the amount the recipe makes (about 20 oz) you will only consume 151 calories, 6.4 grams of fiber, and 15 grams of sugars (from the banana). Let’s now compare to Naked Juice “Green Machine.” An 8 oz serving gives you 140 calories, 0 grams of fiber, and 28 grams of sugar. However, the typical bottle size is about 16 oz. If you drink the entire bottle you will get 280 calories, 0 grams of fiber, and 56 grams of sugar. In addition, the “Green Machine” only contains 100 mg of spinach whereas my version has 85 grams of spinach. I would definitely recommend my version with a slice of whole wheat toast for a quick and satisfying breakfast.

*Note: Smoothies are often the key component to many silly diets out there. I’m not advertising this smoothie as a weight loss plan. Consuming ample amounts of fruits and veggies (especially leafy greens like spinach) is strongly associated with lower rates of cardiovascular disease, cancers, and other chronic diseases. My goal here is to enable you to eat more fruits and veggies and to enjoy doing it!

Cinco de Mayo, it's holiday time!

I'm back! I know it has been a while. Like always, my excuse is that I was busy with school. But now that it is Spring/Summer term, I am only taking thesis credits and have zero coursework! Yea!

I realized it was Cinco de Mayo while I was at work yesterday. So while I walked home, I came up with this festive meal...

Dora's Mexican rice, Refried Beans, and Chile Lime Quesadillas

I was really happy with the way this meal turned out. And it surprisingly took little time. The rice recipe is from a family friend who comes from family of excellent Mexican cooking. It is authentic, easy, and delicious. The beans and quesadillas are satisfying creations from simple ingredients that were already in my pantry. Here are the recipes.

Dora's Mexican Rice

Ingredients
2 cups rice
1-8 oz. can of Mexican Style tomato sauce
4 cups water
5 tsp chicken flavor bouillon
drizzle of olive oil
Pinch of salt

1. Drizzle olive oil in a 2 qt pot. Heat oil and add rice. Cover rice in oil and heat until golden. Do not let the rice burn. This gives the rice a nice authentic texture.
   
2. Add water, tomato sauce, and bouillon. Stir until well mixed.
3. Let simmer until rice is done. Stir occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Refried Beans

I would like to make real refried beans one day, but I was short on time last night. So here is what I came up with.

1 can refried beans
1 Tbs lime juice
Sprinkle of goat or feta cheese
cilantro

1. Mix and heat through.
2. Garnish with cheese and cilantro
   

The lime juice definitely spruced up the boring can of beans.

Chile Lime Quesadillas

Ingredients
1-16 oz. can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1-4 oz. can chiles
1 Tbs lime juice
1/4 cup salsa
1/2 cup pepperjack cheese
cilantro
4 tortillas of your choice

1. Drizzle olive oil in pan and turn heat to medium.
2. Add beans, chiles, lime juice, and salsa.
   
3. Mix and heat through.
4. Add half of the mixture to one tortilla and the other half to another. Top with cheese and cilantro. Top each quesadilla with a second tortilla.
   
5. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes or until cheese is melted.
   

I would recommend enjoying this meal with horchata, preferably served in a margherita glass. Enjoy!