Baked Rigatoni with Roasted Vegetables

I love this dish. It is one of my favorite ways to sneak vegetables to my family. Roasting them makes them sweet, and adding them to pasta with sauce is a great disguise. Any combination of vegetables works great. Besides the ones listed below, I've also used carrots, celery, broccoli, mushrooms, a few unidentified green things from the bottom of the veggie drawer....

ready-to-roast vegetables

Baked Rigatoni with Roasted Vegetables
(4 servings)**

1 small zucchini
1 small summer squash (a.k.a. yellow zucchini)
1 medium onion
1 green or red pepper
4 Roma tomatoes (or small regular tomatoes)
4-5 Tablespoons olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp dried Italian herb mix
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 pound (8-oz) rigatoni pasta
1 1/2 cups marinara sauce (use your favorite store-bought)
1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Prepare veggies (except garlic) by cutting into 1-inch cubes. Place on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle salt, pepper and Italian herbs and toss to coat all veggies. Roast vegetables until tender (about 15 minutes). Remove from oven, add minced garlic clove and lightly toss veggies. Set aside.

Reduce oven heat to 375 degrees.

Boil pasta in a large pot of salted water for about 8 minutes, until almost done. Don't fully cook pasta because it will finish softening when the dish is baked in the oven later. Drain pasta and return to large pot. Add roasted vegetables, marinara sauce, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup of the mozzarella cheese. Gently mix until everything is combined. Taste to see if it needs a bit more salt or pepper for your taste.

Pour mixture into a baking dish (this fits in an 8x11 size). Top with the rest of the cheeses. Bake for 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted and pasta is warmed through.

**note: This dish is easily doubled. Double the veggies, use 1 lb of pasta, 3 cups sauce and double the cheeses. Should fit into a 9x13 pan. Baking time will increase by 10 minutes or so.

Mindy's Caramel Popcorn

Once upon a time, my sister lived in Oklahoma. I went to visit her once and she made me the yummiest caramel popcorn ever. Here's her recipe:


Mindy's Caramel Popcorn

4 bags plain microwave popcorn *
1 can sweetened condensed milk (small can)
2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup butter (or margarine)
1 cup light corn syrup
pinch of salt
wax paper

Pop all of the bags of popcorn and remove kernels (very important!). Separate into two large bowls. Set aside.

Spread out 3 or 4 large sheets of wax paper on your table or counter - this will be where the popcorn cools.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a large, heavy saucepan. Start it on medium heat, until the butter melts. Raise heat slowly and bring to a boil. Continue to stir so that it doesn't burn. Boil for 5-7 minutes, stirring constantly, until it reaches the soft-ball** stage. Pour hot caramel over popcorn in small batches. Stir to coat, and then add more caramel if you'd like. Spread onto wax paper and let cool. Store in large ziplock bags.

*I am never able to find plain microwave popcorn. I buy the "light" popcorn and it works fine. I also only use 3 bags of popcorn, since that's what usually comes in one box. It also makes the caramel-to-popcorn ratio higher.

**The soft-ball stage has nothing to do with sports. To do the soft-ball test, keep a small bowl of cold water next to the stove. Drop about one teaspoon of caramel into the water and use your fingers to make the caramel into a little ball. If it forms into a soft ball, then it's ready. If not, then boil another 2 minutes and test again. You will probably do several of these tests before you hit the soft-ball stage. Just be sure to use clean water for each test.

Uncooked Flour Tortillas

A couple of weeks ago both my sister, and my sister-in-law told me about these great tortillas. What's strange is they both told me about them on the same exact day. Now that I've tried the tortillas myself, I add my own glowing review!


These can be found in the freezer section of Costco. Inside the package are two sealed packages of 22 tortillas each, so we pulled one out to thaw in the fridge, and left the other in the freezer for later.

I cooked the tortillas on my electric griddle so we could do a couple at a time. They only cook for a few minutes on each side, and we kept them all warm in the oven until we were ready to eat. They have terrific flavor, and we love how thin they are. The tortillas were great with our chicken soft tacos, and made a quick and yummy quesadilla for my son.

Another great new (to me) product! Thanks for the tip ladies.

Week 30 !!!

I'm on a roll! This blog is great for me - it makes me create a menu and (mostly) stick to it each week. I'm now going on 30 weeks of menus! It's not that I didn't create menus before I did this blog, but my menus were on paper, taped to my fridge. And I didn't have friends and family aware of what I was eating and asking me questions about it. I'm curious how many of you readers create a weekly menu too. I think I'll create a poll for you all so I can find out!

Now for my menu this week. I apologize that I don't have recipes to post yet for the stew, fajitas and baked penne. These are dishes that I create by throwing stuff together. As I make them this week, I'll write down what I do and then post it. The stew "recipe" is actually one that my mother-in-law makes, and she also just throws it all together. She once told me, in general terms, how she makes her version and then I tried it myself. It's fairly simple, and delicious.



You may have noticed that we are having Lime Chicken Soft Tacos again next Sunday. We had them yesterday for dinner and we LOVED them. (That was my first time trying that particular recipe.) Next week we will try tossing everything in the crock pot while we're at church so then all we have to do is cook up some tortillas and we'll be ready to eat.

Week 30 Menu

Monday - Stew
Tuesday - Homemade Pizza
Wednesday - Chicken Fajitas
Thursday - Baked Rigatoni with Roasted Veggies
Friday - Sesame Ginger Noodles and Egg Rolls
Saturday - eat out
Sunday - Lime Chicken Soft Tacos

Caramel Filled Chocolate Cookies

There is nothing more fabulous than the sight of a carton of eggs ready to be baked into something yummy!


These Caramel Filled Chocolate Cookies are one of my new favorite cookies. It can be found here, on the allrecipes.com website. I'll also post it here with my photos. This is a great recipe for kids to help with. My son helped "hide" the candies inside and then roll the dough into balls and dip into sugar.



Caramel Filled Chocolate Cookies
allrecipes.com

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 Tbsp white sugar
48 chocolate-covered caramel candies (I used Junior Caramels, 1 large box)

1. Beat butter until creamy. Gradually beat in white sugar and brown sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, and cocoa. Gradually add to butter mixture, beating well. Stir in 1/2 cup walnuts. Cover and chill at least 2 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
3. Combine remaining 1/2 cup nuts with the 1 Tablespoon sugar. Divide the dough into 4 parts. Work with one part at a time, leaving the remainder in the fridge until needed. Divide each part into 12 pieces. Quickly press each piece of dough around a chocolate covered caramel. Roll into a ball. Dip the tops into the sugar mixture. Place sugar side up, 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets, or a baking sheet with a silpat. (Do not press cookies down - they will flatten as they bake.)
   
4. Bake for 8 minutes in the oven. Let cool 3-4 minutes on the baking sheets before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

**note: These cookies are best the same day. For a perfect cookie on the second day, microwave for 5-10 seconds to re-melt the caramel. Delicious!

Product Review: Grahams 'n Apple Dip

Ever since school began several weeks ago, I have become keenly aware of the lack of after-school-snacks in my home. While I'd love to be able to toss an apple or a nectarine to my son, he seems to have a severe aversion to fruit. So for snacks, we have gone through cheese sticks, 'Nilla Wafers, Goldfish Crackers, baggies of Cheerios, and plain ol' slices of bread.


In the store the other day, this box of Grahams 'n Apple Dip caught my eye. I must admit it did not look appealing to me, but I spotted an easy after-school-snack that at least tasted like fruit! We tried it out yesterday afternoon and they were a hit!

The grahams come as little sticks that you snap apart and dip into what looks a little like applesauce. The sauce turns out to be much sweeter than applesauce (of course) and reminds me of apple pie filling, without the pieces of actual fruit.

I think, for the future, this will be what I call a "special purchase" snack (meaning: "on sale"). It is really good, although not the healthiest option as far as snacks go. It also does something important: satisfies my hunger for apple pie, without me having to make an actual apple pie.