Linguine with Broccoli Rabe and Walnut Pesto

The piggies are back!  We’ve been gone a while but rest assured, we are here for all of your eating needs.  We wanted to kick off our return with one (of many) of our favorite things to eat: pasta.  I had been eying this recipe for a while and finally got around to testing it out.  It’s the easiest recipe ever (boil water and press a button) and takes almost no time at all, so if you’re a fan of broccoli rabe, there’s really no excuse for you not make this except for your extreme laziness. 

 

We’re on a pappardelle kick, so we used that instead of linguine – I love a good wide noodle that will just soak up the pesto sauce.  We also added in

Cashew Crusted Salmon with Creamy Butternut Squash Polenta

Crunchy.  Salty.  Sweet.  Creamy.  I love meals that really tickle my tastebuds and give me a little bit of everything in one bite, that’s what I tried to recreate in this meal.  The other day I was craving salmon, specifically something nut-crusted to give it that nice crunchy texture.  I’ve crusted fish with pecans and pistachios before, but this time I decided to break open a bag of cashews I had lying around.

   

As an accompaniment to the salmon, I knew I wanted to make some kind of creamy polenta.  Ever since I made the polenta squares a few weeks ago, my tummy has been ready and waiting for creamy style polenta.  I found this Rachel Ray recipe for creamy polenta with butternut squash.  SOLD.  I love butternut squash.  Before I even tasted this divine squash, I knew I would like it – I mean, come on, it has the word “butter” in it, that was already enough for me. 

Lentil-Barley Burgers

I’m a big fan of veggie burgers.  They make me feel like I’m eating healthy (or at least cancelling out my unhealthiness).   I went on this crazy health kick last year in which I went on a bit of a healthy food shopping spree and stocked up on bags of barley, lentils, bulgur wheat and the like.  The health kick didn’t last long.  After I purchased these items, they got tucked away in a cabinet never again to be seen until today. 

At last, almost a year later, I broke out the lentils and barley for some Lentil-Barley Burgers.   Instead of the fruit salsa in the recipe, I made a black bean mango salsa that went along well with the burgers.   One thing I failed to do before making these was to read the directions prior to cooking. 

Pozole: Mexican Chicken-Hominy Soup

At this time of year (although now it's March and shouldn't be this cold), it’s so chilly outside that all I want to eat is a good bowl of soup.  I saw this recipe for Mexican Chicken-Hominy Soup in Cooking Light Magazine, their version of pozole – it looked delicious and super easy to make (and is healthy!), so I thought I’d try it out. 

I went to the grocery store and picked up an already cooked rotisserie chicken and then walked around the store looking for hominy.  Argh.  They didn’t have hominy, one of the main ingredients!  I settled for sweet corn as a substitute and went back home, feeling a bit defeated. 

Vday Part 2: Sushi Rolls

Sushi rolls seem like they’d be very difficult to make, but they aren’t – come on, even I can do it.  For Valentine’s Day dinner, I made two different kinds of sushi rolls for my husband and me: a California-esque roll with imitation crab, cucumber, egg and a smoked salmon avocado roll.  When I was in high school (a long time ago), I would often make sushi rolls for lunch with my mom during summer breaks.  Basically, my mom would prepare all of the ingredients and the only thing I actually did was roll them (and I did a great job eating them too).  This is the first time I went through all of the steps on my own.  

I referenced the below recipes when making my sushi rolls, but I really just winged it based on what I remember from making them with my mom.  I cooked my rice normally as I do in a rice cooker, and once it was finished I tossed in the sugar, vinegar, and salt.  It really all depends on your own personal taste, but I like my rice a bit more on the sour side, so I added more vinegar into the mixture.  For the sliced cucumbers, I also tossed them in sugar and vinegar to give them that slight pickled flavor.  When scrambling the egg, I spread it out in the pan so it was almost as thin as a crepe then sliced it up into strips.

Penne a la Vodka

Lately, I’ve been craving pasta, so I thought I’d try to make one of my husband's favorites that has now become one of my favorites – Penne a la Vodka.  He loved ordering this from Fresh Basil when he was working late nights at his old job.  I used Giada’s recipe, but added diced jalapenos for an extra kick.  I originally wanted to add spicy Italian sausage as well, but my local supermarket didn’t have any so I settled for turkey sausage to get some protein in the dish. 

This may sound dumb, and though I realize it’s called Penne a la Vodka…did anyone know the sauce really contains vodka???  I definitely did not.  I don’t have any vodka on hand, so I had to pick some up from the liquor store.  I bought one of those small 8oz. vodka bottles – made me feel like an alcoholic as I grabbed my brown paper bagged bottle of vodka and stuffed it into my purse.

Time to get cooking!  The base of the vodka sauce is a simple marinara sauce – Giada’s recipe mentions you can use store bought sauce which is what I would normally do; however this time, I figured if I’m going to try to make homemade vodka sauce, I might as well make it from start to finish.  Otherwise, I’m most definitely all about shortcuts that save me time.  Less time cooking equals more time eating! 

This dish is fairly easy to make and doesn’t take too long.  One thing that tripped me up was the simmering of the vodka in the tomato sauce – 20 minutes was not enough to reduce the sauce.  I sampled after 20 and 30 minutes, yet it still had a strong taste of vodka.  I ended up simmering for almost 40 minutes to burn off the excess vodka.  After that, the rest of the recipe was straightforward.  We ended up with delicious homemade Penne a la Vodka!

Sauteing the veggies for the sauce