thai pasta salad

This pasta is sooo good. My friend Hillery served this as part of the "Mommy Food" at the awesome Halloween party that she hosted and was kind enough to pass the recipe on to me too! She added chicken and spinach to it when she served it and had even made a special batch just for me that did not have chicken in it (due to my allergy). How thoughtful is that???

Thai Pasta Salad

2 cups uncooked pasta
1/4 c. cider vinegar
2 TB. sugar
3 TB. creamy peanut butter
2 TB. soy sauce
1 TB. fresh ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small cucumber, seeded and chopped
2 medium carrots, coarsely shredded (1 cup)
4 green onions, sliced
1 c. fresh cilantro, chopped

Cook, drain, and rinse pasta. Meanwhile, in small bowl, combine vinegar, sugar peanut butter, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic. Beat with whisk until well blended. In a large bowl, combine cooked pasta, cucumber, carrots, and green onions. Mix gently. Pour dressing over pasta mixture and toss gently to coat.

** I added about 3 cooked chicken breasts, doubled the pasta (actually, I think I just used the whole box) and added 2 cups of fresh baby spinach and doubled the amount of dressing.

My hubby preferred it warm and it reheated great the next day. You may need to add just a bit of water if the pasta seems a little dry.

Loved it and can't wait to make it again!

Greek Style Garlic Shrimp with Orzo

I recently made a new recipe from Rachel Ray's 365: No Repeats Cookbook. I thought it was really good. The hubby disliked the skins from the grape tomatoes that I used...it's a texture thing with him:)

Greek Style Garlic Shrimp with Orzo

Ingredients:
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
2/3 pound orzo
2 teaspoons lemon zest
lemon juice from 1/2 lemon
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small red onion, chopped
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped
6 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
freshly ground pepper

Season the shrimp with the lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt to taste. Cook the orzo according to package directions in salted water. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large non-stick skillet. Add the onions, garlic, crushed red pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook for an additional minute. Then add the tomatoes, olives, oregano, and parsley. Cook just until shrimp turn pink. Add the wine and remove from heat. Drain the cooked orzo and drizzle with just a touch of olive oil to keep it from sticking together. Toss in a large serving dish with the shrimp mixture and top with the feta cheese crumbles.

I pretty much left the recipe as is this time. I did use grape tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes and begrudgingly left the olives out because Steve doesn't like them. I may try a canned , drained diced tomato next time to see if the hubby will give it a better review. I will be making this again. Don't skip the feta...it MAKES the dish!

A quick funny. I try to take pics of the food to go with the recipe just for fun (although I am slow to add them to the blog!). The other night I was snapping away and Xavier said "Why are you taking pictures of that? Nobody wants to see pictures of our dinner"! OK maybe he is just a tad like his father...that sounds like something straight out of Daddy's mouth! Thanks for your support babe!

Love is in the... fish??

I don't know what is up with all the weird food I am coming across these days but when I opened up the tuna to thaw on Sat. night this is what I found in one of the pieces. How appropriate!

We put the boys to bed and then cooked dinner together on Valentine's evening . We made salad, tuna steaks and a new pasta dish from Giada. It was very tasty and really fast.

Wagon Wheels with Artichoke Pesto

1 pound rotelle (wagon wheel pasta)

1 (8-ounce) package of frozen artichoke hearts, thawed

1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, lightly packed

1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

1 garlic clove

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain the pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water.Meanwhile, in a food processor combine the artichokes, parsley, walnuts, lemon zest and juice, garlic, salt, and pepper. Chop the ingredients fine, stopping the machine a few times to scrape down the sides. With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil. Transfer the artichoke pesto to a large serving bowl and stir in the cheese. Add the warm pasta and toss to combine. If needed, add the reserved pasta water 1/4 cup at a time to moisten the pasta and create a sauce like consistency. Serve.

I could not find frozen artichoke hearts so I used canned ones; drained. Watch the walnuts closely when toasting them in the oven. I burned the first batch. I also used 1/2 to 2/3 c olive oil. It made a ton of pasta and it turned a weird color when refrigerated but still tastes very yummy. X called it Spiderman pasta (of course) because he thought the wheels look like webs. Both boys ate the pasta as leftovers NO problem.

Here are the boys opening up their V-Day "surprises" from us on Sat. morning. They were so excited to see a bag on the table at their seats in the morning.