Pinning and Planning – April 7

The first week back into routine after Spring Break seemed to go well. The candy is mostly all gone, except for the nest of chocolate bunnies camping out in my pantry.

Hubby travels again this week , so there’s more simple, easy cook-ahead meals on the menu this week. Plus, I have the Iron Girl Half Marathon this Sunday, therefore I’ll be eating a bit more protein this week in preparation for the race.

S – Garden Minestrone Soup

M – Black Bean Quinoa Mango Medley

T – Pork Chile Verde with Cilantro Rice ( Still refining this tasty recipe! Use juice of 3 limes and no zest!)

W – Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry with Brown Rice

Th – Chicken-Mushroom {and Spinach} Quesadillas

F – Leftovers

S- Pasta

Are planning meals packed with protein too this week? What’s on your dinner menu?

Roasted Veggies

I’ve shared my roasted veggies before, but I’ve never shared them like this.

I began making these veggies about fifteen years ago when I was a vegetarian and I still enjoy these veggies as a main dish, served on a bed couscous or sandwiched between crunchy Cuban bread with a shmear of goat cheese.

Although there are so many variations to how you can do this dish, I stick with the simple squash varieties that my family likes. For additional greens, toss in some asparagus tips or add some sliced fennel for a more complex, rich fall flavor.

No matter what you toss in, these roasted veggies are a wonderful side dish for Thanksgiving and the leftovers make the best veggie omelets.

Roasted Veggies
Ingredients
Juice of one lemon
¼ cup olive oil
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp ground black pepper
¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
4 garlic cloves minced
½ red onion, chopped
1 pint white or Baby Bella mushrooms
1 eggplant
2 zucchini
2 yellow squash

Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk the lemon juice, olive, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.
Cut the eggplant lengthwise twice to quarter the eggplant. Then, slice the eggplant into 2-inch chunks. Toss into bowl with lemon juice marinade.

Slice the zucchini and yellow squash into 1-inch slices and toss in bowl.

Add chopped onions and mushrooms to bowl. (Depending on the size of the mushrooms, cut into halves or leave whole.) Toss all veggies until well covered in lemon juice marinade.

Prepare a baking sheet with cooking spray. Arrange veggies evenly on baking sheet. Bake for about 20-30 minutes. For more charred veggies, bake longer or broil veggies for one minute.

Thanks for joining our weekly Friday Food Fight! Can’t wait to see what everyone is flinging this week! Remember to visit our Thanksgiving food blog hop too!

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Denise Mestanza-Taylor+

Sesame Noodles for Chinese New Year

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

It’s Chinese New Year! The year of the Dragon!

We started our Chinese New Year festivities with a potluck play date at the park with our friends. Everyone brought a Chinese entrée to share and everything so delicious. We had dumplings, doughnuts, a variety of noodles, fried rice, orange chicken and of course fortune cookies.

Emmalynn insisted on wearing her Mulan costume for the occasion.

The kids decorated dragon masks and made lanterns, which Allana loved almost as much as the dumplings.

For the potluck portion of the program, I brought Sesame Noodles to share. This dish is so simple and tasty served either warm or cold as a side dish or a main entrée.

The Rachel Ray recipe I use calls for angel hair pasta but I prefer spaghetti for this dish, so I sent hubby to the store to buy the ingredients for me. He returned with spaghetti rigata. Um…ok! At least it wasn’t linguini! Actually, hubby’s mistake worked perfectly because spaghetti rigata noodles are square and resemble lo mein noodles. (This is where Iron Chef Allan would chime in to tell me that was his intention all along.)

Sesame Noodles

(Adapted from Classic Rachel Ray 30-Minute Meals)

Ingredients

1 pound capellini (angle hair) or spaghetti rigatta

¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce

2 Tbsp tahini

2 Tbsp toasted sesame seed oil

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 inch gingerroot, peeled and grated or ½ tsp ground ginger

3 scallions, chopped

1 large carrot, grated

Toasted sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Crushed red pepper flakes for garnish (optional)

Directions

Bring a large stock pot of salted water to a rolling boil and then add pasta. Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine soy sauce, tahini, sesame oil, cayenne, garlic and ginger. Whisk until smooth.

Drain pasta and immediately chill in a large bowl of ice water to blanch pasta and prevent further cooking.

Drain and dump chilled pasta into bowl with sauce and combine until noodles are evenly coated. Add veggies and toss to combine.

Serve in soup bowls garnished with some extra sliced greens of scallions, sesame seeds and a little crushed red pepper.

Thanks for joining our weekly Friday Food Fight. Link up and see what everyone else is flinging this week.

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Tag Archives: vegan

Pinning and Planning – April 7

Roasted Veggies

Sesame Noodles for Chinese New Year

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