Pasta Salad

This pasta salad is one of my favorite foods ever-thanks to my friend Heather for getting me addicted to it :)

It is really easy to make and healthy for you too!  If you have some of the ingredients available in your own garden, then it is pretty inexpensive to make as well.  This pasta salad is very versatile- you can change the ingredients that you add to suit your palate or depending on what you have on hand.

Here's what you need:

• 12-16 oz. of pasta cooked.  I used some whole wheat noodles this time, but I often use tri-colored rotini.  Lots of different pasta would be great with it though- bow- tie, penne, any type of rotini, or shaped pasta.
• Italian Salad Dressing- this time I used zesty italian, but I have some sun-dried tomato vinegarette that I think I'll try next time.
• Tomatoes:  either cherry, grape, or chopped whole tomatoes
• Sweet Bell Pepper (like green) chopped up
• Optional:
• black beans- rinsed and drained.  I added about 1/2 a can this time and it was really good
• fresh basil diced up
• Chopped up yellow or red onion
• sliced black olives
• chopped up cucumber
• cheese- parmesan or Feta- I sprinkled on some Feta cheese this time and it is delicious!
• I think I might actually be able to get my husband to eat this if I tried sprinkling on cooked, chopped up bacon.

After you cook the pasta, drain and rinse it if you would like with cold water to help bring down the temperature of it.  Add all the other ingredients you are using to the pasta and toss to coat with the dressing of your choice. 

Delicious Vegetarian Chili

When my dad came over this last week with these wonderful home-ground green and purple peppers from his garden, I knew I was going to have to make some Vegetarian Chili with some of them.

I love just about any type of chili, but it tastes especially good to me when I know that it is full of healthy and nutritious ingredients.  I have been making different Vegetarian Chili recipes for several years now, but this one is definitely my favorite so far.

I love chili because it is fairly easy to make and you can eat the leftovers for several days.  Usually it tastes better after the first day too.  This chili is chock-full of fiber so it is very satisfying and it keeps you full for a long time after eating it.  If you don't add any cheese or other extras at the end, it is also very low fat.

I actually got the idea for this chili from one of my favorite cook-books.  I have changed it some, however (four cans of beans in a batch of chili is just too much for me).
Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons vegetable or Olive oil
2 Onions Chopped
1 bell pepper chopped (I actually used 4 peppers in my batch since I had so many, but you can use 1 green or 1 red bell pepper if you like)
1/4 Cup Chili Powder
1 Tablespoon Cumin
6 Cloves Garlic, minced
3 (14.5 oz.) cans of diced tomatoes- I also threw in 3 diced up tomatoes from my garden.
1 Cup of Water
2 Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce, minced - (these are located by the salsa and enchilada sauce at my local Walmart)
2 cans of beans, rinsed.  I use 1 can of chili beans and 1 can of Kidney beans but you can use whatever kind you like.
Optional:  Chopped Cilantro, Shredded cheese, sour cream, diced avocado
Directions:

1. Heat the oil up in a medium to large sized pot and add the onion and bell pepper.  Saute until the vegetables are tender.  Add the Chili Powder and Cumin and stir to coat.  Cook for about a minute-stirring if needed.  Add the Garlic and cook for only about 30 seconds, then add the water, tomatoes with their juice, and chipotle peppers.  Cover and cook, stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes.
2. Add the beans and cook, stirring occasionally for another 30 minutes.  Top with the optional ingredients if you like and enjoy.

Here is the Chili that I made:

*If you do buy the Chipotle Peppers and Adobo sauce- Since I only use these to make this chili, I divide the remaining ones up into groups of 2 or 3 and put them in ziploc baggies and freeze them until I need them.  They seem fine and they only take about 20 minutes to thaw out.

Linked to: Texas Star Chili Cook-Off

Fresh Salsa

We love a fresh bowl of salsa here at our house.  I also love it because it gets my husband to eat a lot of vegetables including tomatoes, which I have a hard time accomplishing otherwise.  Salsa is a great way to use up those end-of season tomatoes and it's full of healthy ingredients too.  This is our favorite salsa recipe-it is just bursting with fresh flavor.  I originally found this recipe somewhere on Allrecipes.com but I have tweaked it a little bit to suit our tastes.
Ingrediants:

• 2 Jalapeno Peppers
• 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion Chopped
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (feel free to eliminate this if you like)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• (1) 10 oz. can tomatoes with green chile peppers (I use a can of medium ro-tel)
• 4-5 medium size fresh tomatoes, 3-4 large size, or (1) 28 oz. can of canned tomatoes or (2) 14 oz. cans.
• 1/4 cup of Chopped Fresh Cilantro
• About a Tablespoon of fresh lime juice (you can omit this is you don't have any lime)

Directions:  Roast the Jalapeno Peppers in the oven at about 300 degrees until they begin to shrivel:  my Jalapenos here shriveled more after removing them from the oven.

 Cut each of the Jalapenos into three pieces.  Add the Can of tomatoes and green chile peppers, Sugar, salt, cumin, onion, garlic, lime juice, and jalapenos to the bowl of a food processor or blender.  I then pulse these ingredients about 6 times until they are evenly chopped up:  

 Now add the tomatoes, and Cilantro (If you are using fresh tomatoes cut them into at least 8 wedges per tomato before adding). Pulse again until the mixture is the consistency that you would like (we like ours pretty fine). 

This recipe makes one large, quart-size canning jar full (I don't can mine though):

 Enjoy!

Homemade Taco Seasoning

I realize that with sales and coupons it is really easy to get free packets of taco seasoning.  In fact, I had a packet of taco seasoning in my own cabinet that I got for free a couple months ago.  But then I got to looking at the label:

I don't know if you can see the ingredient list that well, but listed is: Monosodium Glutamate, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Silicon Dioxide, and Ethoxyquin.  Yuck!  I know that I don't want to feed this kind of thing to my family, if I can help it.  I have actually been making my own taco seasoning for about a year now.  After you try homemade taco seasoning, you will know that the flavor can not compare with that of store bought, not to mention that you can control how much sodium goes into it and avoid all the unnatural ingredients listed above.  Homemade taco seasoning may be a little more expensive than store bought, but that is because real quality ingredients are going into it, instead of junk!  If you do a lot of cooking at your house, chances are that you probably have all the ingredients on hand already, and it is so easy to throw together.  I usually use this recipe from allrecipes.com.

This is what you will need:  

• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

All that you have to do is combine all the ingredients together in an airtight container.  I usually use about 2 Tablespoons to season 1 lb. of ground meat, but you can adjust this depending on how spicy your family likes their food.  After I have browned the meat, I sprinkle the taco seasoning over it and stir it to coat evenly.  I then add a couple tablespoons of water to the mixture to dissolve the seasonings and thoroughly coat everything.  Then, I just continue stirring the mixture over the heat until any excess water evaporates out.  Usually I triple or quadruple the recipe above because it does not make that much.  I store mine in a canning jar that has a screw on lid:

Linked to:  Real Food Deals