Spicy Sausage Pasta

I am one of those people who normally picks out the meals for the week and gets the groceries so I that have everything on hand when the time comes. This is definitely a necessary step in this house as some nights Logan is going to die from starvation if he is not fed within 20 minutes. Tonight was one of those nights. When I asked what he wanted, he of course wanted one of those meals that take a couple hours to complete – but the boy would soon start crying if he wasn’t fed. So like most weeks I had to change around what I thought I was going to cook. So tonight we had…

Spicy Sausage Pasta

Original Recipe From: Emily Bites
 
Ingredients:
1 t extra virgin olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
13 oz Smoked Turkey or Chicken Sausage
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 ¼ cups low sodium fat free chicken broth
10 oz can Ro-Tel tomatoes & green chiles, original
½ cup fat free half and half
 salt & black pepper
10 oz uncooked wheat pasta (I used farfalle/bowties)
4 oz reduced fat Pepper jack cheese, shredded (I used Cabot 50%)
2 medium scallions, diced

Directions:
1.    In a large skillet or sauté pan (oven-safe if you have it – I don’t!), add the olive oil and bring over medium heat. Add the onions and sausage to the pan and cook for 5-6 minutes until sausage is browned and onions are tender. Add the garlic and stir. Continue to cook for another 30 seconds until fragrant.
2.    Add the broth, Ro-Tel, half and half, salt and pepper and mix together. Add the uncooked pasta and stir together until the liquid covers the pasta. Cover the skillet and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and keep covered. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the pasta is cooked.
3.    Set your oven to broil and make sure one of your oven racks is in the top 1/3 of the oven. Remove the pan from the heat and mix in half of the shredded cheese. If your skillet is oven-safe, you may continue to use it in the following steps. If it isn’t use a 9x13.
4.    Sprinkle the remaining shredded cheese over the top of the pasta and follow it with the sliced scallions. Place the dish in the top 1/3 of the oven and broil for a few minutes until the cheese is melted and beginning to brown (keep checking because broiling can happen really fast!). 

This was a super easy meal to put together, with tons of flavor and was delish! It definitely tastes like something you could get at a restaurant. It definitely has some spiciness to it and I also used spicy chicken sausage so we were going for kick. In the future I would use 2 sausages instead of 4 just because we aren’t big sausage fans. I did use more garlic (duh) and more scallions, okay and I hate to admit more cheese. Logan devoured probably ½ of the dish on his own and would be fine if I headed back into the kitchen to make more.

Would I Make it Again: Yup Yup
Noming Score: 4.25/5

Spicy Mushroom Miso Ramen

Photo and Recipe from Mushroom Info

Yay we are finally current with our recipes ya’ll!! Wahoo. Tonight we had soup/ramen since it was 85 degrees out and Logan would have to sit outside and eat it by the pool. Makes sense, right? Oh well, here it is…

Spicy Mushroom Miso Ramen

• 8 small dried shiitake mushrooms
• 8 square inches dried kombu (optional)
• 4 ½ cups water
• 4 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
• 6 – 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, stems removed and sliced
• 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon – 1 tablespoon crushed red chili flakes (to suit your tastes)
• 1 ½ tablespoons shiro miso (white miso paste)
• 1 ½ tablespoons aka miso (red miso paste)
• 10 ounces dried ramen noodles (aka, chukka soba), freshly cooked
• Fresh cilantro leaves, to garnish

1. Make the mushroom stock: Place the dried shiitake mushrooms and kombu a pot with the water.  Bring the water almost to a boil and then turn down the heat to maintain a simmer.  Cook for 5 minutes.

2. Remove the pot from the heat and let the stock stand for 3 minutes. 

3. Make the soup: Heat 3 teaspoons of the toasted sesame oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat.  Add the sliced cremini mushrooms and cook for about 20 seconds.  Drizzle in the remaining 1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil, then add the finely chopped garlic and crushed red chili flakes, and stir-fry for another 20 seconds.

4. Pour the mushroom stock through a fine-mesh strainer held directly over the pan.  (Discard the solids left in the strainer.)  Adjust the heat to maintain a steady simmer, and separate the cooked noodles into 3 or 4 bowls.

5. Place the shiro miso and aka miso in a small bowl and ladle some of the hot stock from the pan into the bowl. Whisk the miso pastes and broth together until smooth, then add to the simmering stock in the pan.

6. Turn off the heat, then ladle the broth over the noodles in each bowl.  Garnish with fresh cilantro leaves and serve immediately.

I’ve been lucky lately everything I have been making has been goooooood. This was no different. I think most would have to add some salt since we salt the heck out of everything in this country but it was definitely edible without. Some changes I’d make would be to add 2-3 times the amount of cremini mushrooms and to use regular sesame oil (not toasted), you can definitely taste the toasted sesame-ness in the recipe which I don’t like at all. We went without the dried kombu because it took Whole Foods twenty minutes to figure out where they had hidden their damn miso and figured kombu was a lost cause at that point.

 I would also like to note that this soup is NOT spicy. I threw in more than a tablespoon of flakes and it got us nowhere. Now that being said if you don’t eat it all (and man o man does it make a LOT) I am sure the following day the spice will be there as it’s had time to soak into the broth. So you have been fair warned. This is also a super quick meal which of course makes any person happy. It’s also super cheap if you have miso already and if not it’s probably around 5-7 dollars for a jar of miso. Beside soup miso can be good in BBQ sauces, surprise surprise!

Speaking of BBQ, I feel like I should make something rather American tomorrow since I’ve been giving Logan all this Asian style food. He’s going to start thinking he knows something about Asia if I keep this up :)

Would I Make it Again: Yes
Noming Score: 3.0/5

Crunchy Cashew Thai Salad with KEEN-wah

Photo and Recipe from Ambitious Kitchen

Yep it’s been a salad week! Which is funny since it wasn’t even hot out and was probably one of the last few chances I had to cook up a storm with the oven, without suffering. So naturally all I made were salads.

Crunchy Cashew Thai  Quinoa Salad with Ginger Peanut Dressing

Ingredients

• ¾ cup uncooked quinoa
• 1-2 cups shredded red cabbage, depending on how much crunch you like
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• ½ red onion, diced
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• ½ cup chopped cilantro
• ¼ cup diced green onions
• ½ cup cashew halves or peanuts (honey-roasted is good)
• Optional: 1 cup edamame or chickpeas
• Fresh lime, for a bit of tang
• For the dressing:
• ¼ cup all natural peanut butter
• 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
• 3 tablespoon soy sauce, gluten-free if desired
• 1 tablespoon honey (use agave if vegan)
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• Water to thin, if necessary

Instructions

1. To cook quinoa: Rinse quinoa with cold water in mesh strainer. In a medium saucepan, bring 1 ½ cups of water to a boil. Add in quinoa and bring mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low and let simmer for 15 minutes or until quinoa has absorbed all of the water. Remove from heat and fluff quinoa with fork; place in large bowl and set aside to cool for about 10 minutes. You should have a little over 2 cups of quinoa.
2. To make dressing: Add peanut butter and honey or agave to a medium microwave safe bowl; heat in microwave for 20 seconds. Add in ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, and both sesame and olive oil and stir until mixture is smooth and creamy. If you want a thinner dressing, simply stir in a teaspoon or two of water or olive oil.
3. Add as much or as little dressing as you’d like to the quinoa. I always start out with a little bit of dressing and usually add more to suit my taste preferences. Alternatively you can save the dressing for later and add when you are ready to eat; however the flavors of the dressing usually soak into the salad so I love adding it to the quinoa first.
4. Next fold in red pepper, onion, cabbage, carrots, and cilantro into the quinoa. Garnish with cashews and green onions. Serve chilled or at room temperature with lime wedges if desired.

Well well well my friends this was AWESOME!!! Oh baby we both loved it! Logan of course had to put extra dressing on his because drenched salad is his kind of thing. I thought mine could use a little extra too but putting some water in the dressing I think would have done the trick so that there was a bit more of it. Some other revisions I’d make – less cilantro and more cashews. We also did use edamame (which are simply just soy beans) and natural honey roasted peanut butter which I think both were/are totally necessary :)

Now I feel the need to talk to you about quinoa. Yes, it’s one of those words that you look at and go what the blink does that say? It’s also associated with the veggie community a lot. Well as a former carnivore Logan will tell you that it’s not just for the veg heads it’s for everyone. I personally love it because it’s so versatile and incredibly healthier than noodles or rice. Texture wise when cooked it’s kind of between a noodle and rice, but has a slight nuttiness to it. It is actually a seed of all things. I have cooked and baked with it. Used it in casseroles that were not crazy flavored like the buffalo chicken quinoa I made one night, and it was awesome in both. It really is an all around great ingredient. If you are curious it’s pronounced “KEEN-wah” but if you are in this house we like to call it “ke-NO-uh” which is completely wrong.

What I hope you take from this post is … to go buy some damn quinoa already!

Would I Make it Again: Try and Stop Me!
Noming Score: 4.5/5