Tuna and Arugula Pasta Salad

Here is a lovely dish that is super easy and extra yummy. It has arugula in it so already this dish is awesome! This recipe makes enough for dinner and left-overs for lunch the next day, which is always nice. This salad goes well with a nice dinner bread.

Found in May Cooking Lig.ht 2010

Tuna and Arugula Pasta Salad

1 large red bell pepper
8 -10 oz pasta (penne or fussille)
2 or more cups coarsely chopped arugula
1/4 cup thinly sliced shallots
2 TBS red wine vinegar
1 TBS capers, drained
1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
1 (7.8 oz can tune) packed in OIL (I used regular sized cans) drained and flaked.
1/4 tsp salt
Pepper to taste

1. Pre-heat broiler
2. Cut bell pepper in half lengthwise. Discard seeds and membrane. Place pepper halves, skin side up, on a foil lined baking sheet. Flatten with hand and broil 15 minutes. Cover the peppers with the foil and let cool for about 10 minutes. Peel and chop.
3. Bring water to a boil in a large sauce pan. Add pasta and cook according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water.
4. Combine bell pepper, pasta, arugula, capers and tuna.
5. Combine olive oil, shallots and vinegar. Whisk until combined. Pour over pasta and stir to coat.
6. Sprinkle with pepper and 1/4 tsp salt.

YUMMY!

Arugula, Orange and Feta Salad

This is one of my all time favorite salads! As you know I LOVE arugula, just can not get enough of this delicious peppery green. But don't worry, the sweet of the honey in the dressing and oranges take down the bite of the arugula. This salad is a hit every time!

6 cups arugula (one bag from Trader Jo.es)
3 navel oranges, peeled, sectioned
3 - 4 oz crumbled feta cheese
2 TBS olive oil
1 TBS lemon juice
1 tsp honey
1 garlic clove, peeled and sliced

1. Combine first 3 ingredients in a large bowl
2. Combine olive oil, lemon juice and honey. Stir with a whisk until blended.
3. Add sliced garlic, salt and pepper to taste.
4. Strain out garlic prior to serving over salad.

Pour dressing on salad immediately before serving. If added too early, the greens will wilt a little from the lemon juice.

YUMMY!

A BIG ficken Sandwich

I made a wonderfully tasty and LARGE ficken sandwich for dinner last night. It took a little bit of creative eating, but we managed to fill our bellies with this delicious sandwich.

Mushroom Rosemary Rissoto

Here is a creamy, delicious risotto that will make your taste buds do a warm happy dance! Risotto offers a lesson in patience because the water is added 1/4 cup at a time while it is stirred....constantly. There is no walking away during the preparation of risotto, so devote your full attention to this dish. You can not rush risotto either, it takes it's time, slowly softening to the added broth. I enjoy the calm stirring and focused attention while preparing this dish as it makes me slow down and savor the moment.

Mushroom Rosemary Risotto
1 cup "no" chicken broth (found at Whole Foods)
2 3/4 cup veggie broth
1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crumbled (or 1 TBS fresh chopped)
1/4 tsp dried thyme
2 TBS olive oil
2 cups sliced white mushrooms
2 TBS chopped shallots
1 cup Arborio rice
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (I skipped this and it was still yummy)
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a 2 quart saucepan, heat both the broths, rosemary, and thyme until simmering. Keep on low heat so the liquid stays warm throughout the cooking process.

2. While broth is heating, heat the oil in a 3 quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and shallots, cook, stirring until mushrooms are softened. Add the rice, cook, stirring until rice is coated with oil.

3. Add the broth to the rice 1/4 cup at a time, stirring constantly, until the rice absorbs the liquid. (make the next addition of liquid when you can draw a clear path on the bottom of the pot as you scrape through the rice with a wooden spoon.) This will happen rather quickly at first and then take longer as you near the end of the cooking time.

4. Add parsley when you add the last portion of broth.

Homemade Granola

Years ago when we lived in Florida my sister in law passed along a fabulous recipe for granola. Just like us, she often found the store bought varieties to be too sweet. I had a bowl of her granola and fell in love with it's toasted flavor. This is a hearty granola, full of nuts and seeds as well as good for you oats. A BIG batch can be made in less than 30 minutes and saved in an air tight container for a couple of weeks. I usually half the recipe because it makes so much, but if you are big granola eater go ahead and make the full amount. This granola is good with yogurt or as a dry snack too. You can use which ever nuts and seeds you like, so do not feel as if you must stick to the ones that I chose. Have fun and happy granola making!

5 - 6 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup vegetable oil (or a little less if you want, but don't skimp too much)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup pecans
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

Heat honey and oil for 15 - 30 seconds in the microwave to warm.
Add vanilla to the honey mix and stir.
Pour over oats in a large bowl and stir until combined.
Add nuts and seeds.
Spread mixture onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 15 - 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.

Let cool then store in an air tight container.

Pumpkin Ice Cream Torte

This was my first attempt at making a fancy dessert for the holidays. I usually make some sort of cheese cake, which are always my favorite, but this year I decided to go a different route and everyone appreciated the deviation. This dessert is not difficult to make but demands patients and time. It can and needs to be made ahead, which is nice for the busy holiday season.

I made some minor adjustments to the original recipe found in Cook.ing Li.ght because the pumpkin ice cream was too pumpkiny for my taste. I am posting the directions as I made it.

Pumpkin Ice Cream Torte

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup ginger snap cookie crumbs
2 TBS brown sugar
2 TBS finely chopped pecans
4 TBS butter, melted
3/4 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
9 cups vanilla ice cream
1 1/2 cup reduced fat Coolwhip
jarred caramel topping

1. Preheat oven 350
2. Combine first 5 ingredients (mixture will be crumbly). Firmly press crumb mixture into bottom of a 9 - inch springform pan lightly coated with oil or cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
3. Combine pumpkin and the next 4 ingredients (through cloves) in a bowl. Soften 7 cups ice cream, add to pumpkin mixture, stirring to blend. Spoon half mixture into prepared pan. Cover with plastic wrap, freeze 1 hour until firm (this took alot longer because I softened the ice cream too much). Refreeze remaining pumpkin icecream.
4. Soften remaining 3 cups vanilla ice cream. Spread over pumpkin ice cream layer in pan. Cover then freeze 1 hour until firm.
5. Soften remaining pumpkin ice cream ADDING 1 1/2 cups Coolwhip. Spread over vanilla ice cream, cover and freeze 8 hours until firm.

Let sit out 10 minutes or so before serving. Heat jarred caramel topping and drizzle over the top of each slice before serving. YUMMY!!!!!

Pesto Penne

This is super easy AND super yummy. I had most of the ingredients in my pantry already, so it may also be fairly cheap to make or a dish to throw together in a pinch. The flavors are awesome and if you don't have the exact ingredients, easy to modify. We had this for dinner served warm and as lunch leftovers the next day served cold. Delicious either way.

Pesto Penne
1 medium red bell pepper
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, sliced or chopped
1/3 cup jared pesto (Melissa brand is great)
1/3 cup oil-packed sun dried tomatoes, chopped (Melissa brand is great!)
1 (6oz) jar marinated quartered artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
12 oz penne pasta
1/2 cup cubed smoked mozzarella or smoked provolone
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1. Pre-heat broiler.
2. Cut bell pepper in half lengthwise, discard seeds and membranes. Place pepper haves, skin sides up, on a foil-lined baking sheet. Flatten with hand. Broil 5 - 8 minutes until blackened. Place in brown paper bag or zip-lock, seal. Let stand 5 minutes, then peel the skin off. Chop pepper, place in a medium bowl.
3. Add olives, pesto, sun-dried tomatoes and artichokes to the pepper in bowl. Stir to combine.
4. Cook pasta and drain.
5. Add the pesto mix to drained pasta and add cheese and nuts.

YUMMY!!!!!