CEiMB – Aromatic Noodles with Lime Peanut Sauce

Whew! I barely made this one.

My internal calendar broke this week. I knew without a doubt that the recipe this week was the onion rings, and I had made peace with skipping them since it’s kinda hot and we don’t have air conditioning (so turning on the oven isn’t so appealing). Then Peggy posted about these noodles last night and I thought “Peggy’s confused about what the recipe is this week.” Never occurred to me that I could be confused (which is ironic since I’m confused most of the time).

A quick check of the Craving Ellie in My Belly website confirmed that there’s nothing wrong with Peggy’s memory. Mine however, not so good.

Since everyone raves so much about this recipe, I wanted to make it, but I was out of peanut butter, snap peas, snow peas, fresh ginger, limes, peanuts… And I was DETERMINED to make the actual recipe this week, not some hybrid aberration that is food on a plate but that’s where the similarity to the recipe ends. So, even though I am beyond busy at work this week, at lunchtime I left the office, left campus and headed to Whole Foods. I’m sure people who saw me there thought I had won one of those contests where you get to run through the store and grab everything you can in five minutes. I resisted the urge to run all of the red lights and stopped by the house (wouldn’t you know practically everything I bought had to be refrigerated), waking the cat from her nap with the same take-no-prisoners ninja attack technique that had startled so many at Whole Foods. Rush back to work and settle in my office as if I had been there all along.

When I got home from work, I decided that I would nix the steaming of the vegetables and would instead boil them briefly in the pasta water. Otherwise, I made the recipe EXACTLY as Ellie wrote it. I know, I was shocked too. Well, I did double the sauce and use fusilli instead of spaghetti and use a full pound of pasta (the bag ripped and it all fell in the pot) and add lime zest but it was EXACTLY the same as the recipe.

Things were going well until I turned on the food processor and somehow, soy sauce and peanut butter sprayed out of it ON TO THE CAMERA. Primal scream, drop everything, clean clean clean. Cooking is so relaxing.

M. walked in the door just as I had plated the serving for the photo and was thrilled that we weren’t eating leftover lentil chili again. Really, I could have given him cereal and I think he would have been happy. But he loved this, and even had seconds. In fact he ate so much, he turned down chocolates after dinner. That’s how good it was. It made a ton of leftovers, and I’m glad, because you can dress this one up with grilled portobello mushrooms, chicken, fish, shrimp, or tofu.

Thanks go out to Beth at Supplicious for choosing this wonderful recipe for us. And of course to Peggy, for being my reminder of what week it is.

Barefoot Bloggers – Pasta with Sun Dried Tomatoes

Brace yourselves, taste buds. We have liftoff.

This is one of the best Ina Garten recipes that I’ve tried. I know I’ve said that before, but they’re all so good. Not this one.

It’s great. Absolutely delicious, fresh and bursting with flavor. Laziness made me serve it as a hot pasta dish. I cut out the salt, used less olive oil, and added the basil, garlic and parmesan cheese to the food processor to become part of the sauce. Adding the basil to the sauce made the sauce a funny color, but it was easy and the flavor was fabulous. I put the chopped olives, tomatoes and mozzarella in the bottom of a medium bowl and put the hot pasta and sauce on top, mixing the ingredients together. The pasta melted the fresh mozzarella slightly. Oh baby, was it good. It’s in the rotation, perfect for quick summer meals.

I have Cat at Delta Whiskey to thank for this amazing pick. If you’d like the recipe, be sure to check out Cat’s blog. Or you can get it on the Food Network site here.

CEiMB – Spaghetti with Turkey Meatballs in Spicy Tomato Sauce (or, how to make a healthy lunch)

This week’s Craving Ellie in Your Belly is brought to us by Oddball Oven Mitt (what a great name for a blog!)

This one came at the perfect time for me. I’ve been so busy at work and at home that my meal prep is almost at zero. I look in the fridge every morning on my way out the door, see tons of food, none of it suitable for lunch (ginormous celery root, anyone?) and leave empty handed. Once lunchtime arrives, I rush out to the Student Union and grab something that’s not very healthy. I opted for orange chicken the other day, and all afternoon I felt ill. Too much MSG and simple carbs made me crash around 3. After an intervention by my trainer, I spent a couple hours that evening making the meatballs for this dish, and prepping the haul from my CSA box to allow easy portability (and readiness for snacks!) The next morning, I made the sauce and packaged up several lunches for the week, along with some basil to snip on with my scissors and some (not freshly grated) parmesan cheese. Big sigh of relief.

Enough about my lunchtime angst and back to the dish. I was excited to make this one because we love spaghetti with turkey meatballs. I purchased all the necessary supplies at Trader Joe’s (love that place). I didn’t notice that the fire roasted tomatoes were with green chiles, a la Ro-Tel tomatoes, but we like it spicy so I wasn’t worried about using them and the chipotle chile. I keep canned chipotle chiles in a ziploc bag in the freezer, and break off an appropriate piece whenever I have a recipe that calls for some. Ditto tomato paste. I made the meatballs while watching TV and doing other veggie prep, and even though I broiled them like Ellie says to do in the cookbook, they burned got very brown. They were hard and dried out and I was a little bummed. I let them cool, packed them up and went to bed.

Before work the next morning, I threw together the spicy tomato sauce. I am learning not to doubt Ellie, because she’s always right and it annoys me when she proves my mental taste buds are defective. Because I was doing three things at one time (of course finishing none of them), I managed to burn make the onions very brown. So I added the garlic and cooked it a few moments, then added the rest of the ingredients over the next, oh, 20 minutes. Then I checked the recipe and realized if I was going to stretch out the cooking time like that, I should at least let the golf balls turkey meatballs simmer in the sauce. I simmered the turkey meatballs for a few minutes, and let them languish in the sauce while I started three other things, and even finished two of the things I started before. Sweet!

So, you all know that I *heart* Ellie, but I think the portion sizes are wrong on this recipe. Either that or my measuring cup is defective. Or I bought the bottomless box of spaghetti by accident, the one that they make for households with teenagers and their football player friends. I have so much leftover spaghetti, I could make a spaghetti dinner. What’s that? I just made a spaghetti dinner? Oh.

I almost danced into work that morning, with my Ellie meal in hand. When it was time for lunch, I nuked it for two minutes, added the parmesan cheese, and sat down to enjoy. The sauce had transformed the burned nicely browned turkey meatballs, and the flavor was fantastic. Spicy but with a hint of sweetness from the tomatoes. This is one I’ll look forward to every day.

If you’d like to join us in cooking through Ellie Krieger’s recipes, visit Craving Ellie in My Belly and check out how you sign up. It would be great to have you cooking along with us. Don’t you want to open your fridge and know you have a healthy, tasty Ellie meal to take to work?

CEiMB – Spaghetti with Turkey Meatballs in Spicy Tomato Sauce (or, how to make a healthy lunch)

This week’s Craving Ellie in Your Belly is brought to us by Oddball Oven Mitt (what a great name for a blog!)

This one came at the perfect time for me. I’ve been so busy at work and at home that my meal prep is almost at zero. I look in the fridge every morning on my way out the door, see tons of food, none of it suitable for lunch (ginormous celery root, anyone?) and leave empty handed. Once lunchtime arrives, I rush out to the Student Union and grab something that’s not very healthy. I opted for orange chicken the other day, and all afternoon I felt ill. Too much MSG and simple carbs made me crash around 3. After an intervention by my trainer, I spent a couple hours that evening making the meatballs for this dish, and prepping the haul from my CSA box to allow easy portability (and readiness for snacks!) The next morning, I made the sauce and packaged up several lunches for the week, along with some basil to snip on with my scissors and some (not freshly grated) parmesan cheese. Big sigh of relief.

Enough about my lunchtime angst and back to the dish. I was excited to make this one because we love spaghetti with turkey meatballs. I purchased all the necessary supplies at Trader Joe’s (love that place). I didn’t notice that the fire roasted tomatoes were with green chiles, a la Ro-Tel tomatoes, but we like it spicy so I wasn’t worried about using them and the chipotle chile. I keep canned chipotle chiles in a ziploc bag in the freezer, and break off an appropriate piece whenever I have a recipe that calls for some. Ditto tomato paste. I made the meatballs while watching TV and doing other veggie prep, and even though I broiled them like Ellie says to do in the cookbook, they burned got very brown. They were hard and dried out and I was a little bummed. I let them cool, packed them up and went to bed.

Before work the next morning, I threw together the spicy tomato sauce. I am learning not to doubt Ellie, because she’s always right and it annoys me when she proves my mental taste buds are defective. Because I was doing three things at one time (of course finishing none of them), I managed to burn make the onions very brown. So I added the garlic and cooked it a few moments, then added the rest of the ingredients over the next, oh, 20 minutes. Then I checked the recipe and realized if I was going to stretch out the cooking time like that, I should at least let the golf balls turkey meatballs simmer in the sauce. I simmered the turkey meatballs for a few minutes, and let them languish in the sauce while I started three other things, and even finished two of the things I started before. Sweet!

So, you all know that I *heart* Ellie, but I think the portion sizes are wrong on this recipe. Either that or my measuring cup is defective. Or I bought the bottomless box of spaghetti by accident, the one that they make for households with teenagers and their football player friends. I have so much leftover spaghetti, I could make a spaghetti dinner. What’s that? I just made a spaghetti dinner? Oh.

I almost danced into work that morning, with my Ellie meal in hand. When it was time for lunch, I nuked it for two minutes, added the parmesan cheese, and sat down to enjoy. The sauce had transformed the burned nicely browned turkey meatballs, and the flavor was fantastic. Spicy but with a hint of sweetness from the tomatoes. This is one I’ll look forward to every day.

If you’d like to join us in cooking through Ellie Krieger’s recipes, visit Craving Ellie in My Belly and check out how you sign up. It would be great to have you cooking along with us. Don’t you want to open your fridge and know you have a healthy, tasty Ellie meal to take to work?

Barefoot Bloggers – Real Spaghetti and Meatballs, Sort of

I’m so excited. This is only my second time cooking along with the Barefoot Bloggers, so you would think I’d throw myself into it and follow every nuance of the recipe.

Not so much.

The meatballs call for veal, pork and beef. I don’t touch the first two, and I’m not huge on beef either. The sauce requires wine (another no go) and parsley (I’m the only person on earth who hates parsley). I didn’t have spaghetti. But I was determined to press on, so I made turkey meatballs instead. I cooked the sauce for a long time to build the flavor, then pureed it in the food processor to make it look classier. It turned out a little chunkier than I would have liked, but the flavor was spot on with the addition of my secret weapon, balsamic vinegar. I served the meatballs and sauce over a bed of fettucine, with a sprinkle of parmesan.

How was it? Fantastic! I slurped up much more of the large serving than I had planned, but it was so good! I think the meatballs and sauce would freeze well (in separate containers) for an easy weeknight dinner. If you’d like the real recipe, you’ll find it here. Check out what the other Barefoot Bloggers did here.

Barefoot Bloggers – Real Spaghetti and Meatballs, Sort of

I’m so excited. This is only my second time cooking along with the Barefoot Bloggers, so you would think I’d throw myself into it and follow every nuance of the recipe.

Not so much.

The meatballs call for veal, pork and beef. I don’t touch the first two, and I’m not huge on beef either. The sauce requires wine (another no go) and parsley (I’m the only person on earth who hates parsley). I didn’t have spaghetti. But I was determined to press on, so I made turkey meatballs instead. I cooked the sauce for a long time to build the flavor, then pureed it in the food processor to make it look classier. It turned out a little chunkier than I would have liked, but the flavor was spot on with the addition of my secret weapon, balsamic vinegar. I served the meatballs and sauce over a bed of fettucine, with a sprinkle of parmesan.

How was it? Fantastic! I slurped up much more of the large serving than I had planned, but it was so good! I think the meatballs and sauce would freeze well (in separate containers) for an easy weeknight dinner. If you’d like the real recipe, you’ll find it here. Check out what the other Barefoot Bloggers did here.