Veggie Loaded Mac & Cheese

It's squash season! A couple of years ago I was intimidated by these yummy things. It seemed so daunting to cook them much less figure out what to cook them with. Intimidated no more my squashy friend! I love finding ways to cook healthier versions of our favorite dishes. It's also great when its budget friendly! This week I've been playing with my friend, butternut squash, and we have come up with some fabulous yummy dishes!

 

Have any of yall seen the Bethenny show, hosted by Bethenny Frankle from the Real House Wives of New York? If you haven’t, she started out as a healthy food chef and has now made part of this a segment on her show. Last week she made a "healthy" mac & cheese. WINNER, one of the hubby's favorite dishes! Check it out here. This, of course, made me start thinking about what can I do to jazz it up just a smidge more and make it into a meal. Here is my version of a healthy mac & cheese…

 

Ingredients:

5 chicken tenders

1/2 cup bell pepper (whatever you have works)
1/2 cup broccoli florets
12 ounces whole wheat mini pasta
1 cup skim milk
1 1/4 cup freshly shredded Parmesan
1 1/2 cup reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup butternut squash puree (don't feel like making it? It's in the freezer isle) (see notes)
1 teaspoon salt plus some for seasoning chicken
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon pepper plus some for seasoning chicken
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp chili powder
2 tablespoons whole wheat bread crumbs
Reduced fat Monterey jack cheese, shredded

Directions:

1.       Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. On a baking pan lined with foil, lay out chicken tenders and salt and pepper on the top. Cook in the oven for about 10 minutes or until cooked.

2.        Boil pasta shells in salted water until slightly firm, according to package directions. Once cooked, drain and blanch broccoli florets in the water. Once they turn a bright green they will be cooked. Remove pan from heat, drain and splash broccoli with cool water. Return both pasta and broccoli to the pan  

3.       In another saucepan, combine the skim milk, Parmesan, cheddar, and butternut squash puree over medium heat until melted and combined. Turn off the heat. Add salt, mustard, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and chili powder.

4.       Using two forks, shred chicken to desired size.

5.        Add cheese sauce, chicken and bell peppers to the pasta and broccoli. Mix together well.

6.       Spray a shallow baking pan with cooking spray and put the pasta-cheese mixture in it. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and Monterey jack cheese. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

 

Notes: For a quick and easy butternut squash puree, see my recipe here.

Cleaning Out Summer

The summer decor is down and the fall is going up. Not only do I love cooking for the seasons but I LOVE decorating. Now that my husband and I are fairly settled into our home of one year and all the big immediate decorating is done, not to say there aren't small touches needed here and there, but I finally feel like I can take up seasonal decorating project. I love going through magazines like Pottery Barn and Southern Living to see their decorating styles for the seasons. In fact, I have a large stack of magazine pages on my desk full of projects I'd like to do for the fall season and around the house in general. I realized that there was no way to physically, and for my husbands sake, financially going to be able to get them all done so I decided to make a fall project list, one each week till the end of fall and the rest will get filed away to potentially be done next season. The changing of the seasons also triggers a pantry, fridge and freezer clean out. My recipes this week are simple and great for a week night meal. One of them is a perfect example of how I also like to hide vegetables from my husband and trick him into eating them but shhh... don't tell him!

Red Pepper & Herb Chicken Strips

I like doing several variations of chicken strip and using ingredients that sound good to me at that time. This time we used:

-2 strips of chicken per person (you can cut chicken breasts if you don't have strips) I used 4.
-1/2 cup flour
-1 egg, beaten
-3/4 cup panko
-1 tbsp red pepper flakes
-1/2 tsp thyme
-1/2 tsp cumin
-1/2 tsp oregano
-salt and pepper
-2 tbsp olive oil
Serve with a side sauce

1. Wash and pat dry chicken strips.
2. Put 1/2 cup flour in a bowl, beaten egg is a separate bowl and in another bowl mix together panko and the next 6 ingredients. Set up your assembly line in this order.
3. In a skillet heat 2 tbsp olive oil on medium heat.
4. Now that everything is in order, one at a time coat your chicken in flour, then the egg, and lastly the panko mixture. With the panko mixture use your fork to generously cover the chicken and press firmly, flip and do the same thing on the other side. Place your chicken one at a time in the skillet and cook each side until it's a deep golden brown.



Summer Squash & Cheese Orzo

A fresh take on mac-and-cheese 

Serving Size: 2

 

1 cup orzo

3/4 cup summer squash, diced

1/4 cup Cheddar cheese, grated

1 tbsp Parmesan cheese, grated

1/2 tbsp butter

1/4 cup milk

1/2 tbsp parsley flakes

salt and pepper

 

1. Cook orzo according to package and add squash at the same to the same pot.

2. Once cooked, drain water, remove from heat and mix in  the cheese and the next 6 ingredients. Cover for 5 minutes.

3. Enjoy!  



Dinner Challenge #1

It's finally Monday! Never thought I would say that but it's been baby shower mania in my house for the past week and I have one more shower to go. I will be the first to tell you that I LOVE hosting parties! My husband, Kevin, and I bought the house we did because, #1 we fell in love with it and, #2 it's a great party house! The downside to my love of throwing a party is that I love decorating and making food to go with the theme and it all MUST to be perfect! I usually drive myself crazy the day before and especially the day of the party (and I'm pretty sure I drive Kevin crazy too) but this is why I will always have some form of alcohol at my events; to celebrate of coarse!

I'll post pictures of the most recent shower later this week but for now I'll stick to the subject of this post, the first dinner challenge. With a laundry list of projects to do around the house, I have started to  look for ways to cut corners on some things, for example doing my own dry cleaning and ironing istead of sending it off. A big part of this change is eating at home more often. To give you a little bit more history on this challenge, I grew up never eating out and always at home where as my husband grew up eating out the majority of the time. While he is trying to bring his lunch to work more often, a goal of atleast twice a week (baby steps), I am trying to eat at home completely except for work lunches and our date night out! Yes, we feel it's important to either do a dinner out with friends or a date night once a week and it gives us something to look forward to at the end of a long week.

This week's new dinner was Mexican Beef & Pasta! Sounds a little strange but I knew that for my food particular husband having a marriage between his two favorite types of food would be a win, and it was!

Mexican Beef & Pasta

Serving size: 4

2 cups Spiral Pasta (I used whole wheat) or any shape pasta will work
1/2 lbs ground beef
1 small onion or half a large onion (I used red onion)
2 cans (14 oz) no-salt- added diced tomatoes (undrained)
1 can black beans (drained)
1 ear fresh corn or 1 cup frozen corn (thawed)
1 cup salsa (chunky prefered)
1 can chopped green chilis or jalepenos
fajita seasoning or taco seasoning
                                                                                    sour cream (optional)
                                                                                    tortilla chips (optional)

1. Cook pasta according to package and drain. While pasta is cooking, brown ground beef and onions until meat is fully cooked and drain excess liquid.
2. Stir in the next 5 ingredients.
3. Sprinkle top of food with desired amount of seasoning to taste, stir together and bring to a boil.
4. Let simmer, uncovered, for 8-10 minutes.
5. Serve with sour cream and tortilla chips if desired.

Recipe adapted from Taste of Home

A Taste of Italy

This is one of my favorite dinners! Not only is it really yummy but the picky eater I live with loves it too! The sauce part of the recipe is something that I've played with for a while and happy to share. We like to make our own pasta sauce since we don't eat pasta enough to buy a big jar of it. Creating your own sauce is fun! It allows you to play with flavors and spices and discover new tastes. In particular it allows me to use some of the basil I grow and pop open a lovely bottle of wine to cook and drink! So, open up that spice cabinet a create something marvelous!

Spinach Manicotti in Creamy Tomato Sauce