Vegetari-WHAT?

After reading blogs like this and this, and vowing to use up the ingredients in my kitchen before going to the grocery store. I was inspired to run out and buy the pasta attachment for my kitchen aid. Thankfully (I’m not sure for whom), I convinced myself that it would be ineffective to not grocery shop this week but buy kitchen goodies. Instead I decided to try to recreate both of these vegetarian pastas because I knew I had canned pumpkin and artichokes in my pantry. Don’t worry, I am not mixing the 2. It just gave me options. Plus, I figured the Muffinman and I could use a little vegetarian-ness in our diet (yup, there I go again making up words.)


The outcome was surprisingly good! Feel free to mix around the vegetables (I think spinach and kalamata olives with feta cheese would rock!). Also, you can easily top this wish shrimp or chicken to make it a little more filling. What I am more excited about is that I finally got a new charger for my camera, so I can use it instead of my iphone to document my recipes! Unfortunately, this is not a very pretty dish to photograph!! Enjoy!

Vegetarian Pasta

4 servings, 6 pts

Ingredients

6 oz dry penne pasta (I used whole wheat)
1 red bell pepper, chopped
½ can artichoke hearts, roughly chopped (about 5 artichoke hearts)
1 handful flat leaf parsley
3 oz grated gruyere cheese (you can use parmesan, I just had gruyere on hand)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

1 tsp dried minced onion

3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
2 tsp flour
1 can diced tomatoes
2 tbs heavy cream

Directions
1. In a large food processor, add the bell peppers, artichokes, and parsley. Pulse until well minced and combined
2. Add in ½ of the cheese, ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper, and minced onion. Pulse until combined

3. Remove mixture from the processor and place in bowl.

4. Salt a pot of water and bring to a boil.
5. Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until al dente. Drain
6. While the pasta cooks, in a large sauce pan, sauté the garlic with a little cooking spray
7. Sprinkle the flour over the garlic and combine with a spatula
8. Add in the canned tomatoes and their sauce and stir to combine

9. Once the sauce has thickened, add in most of the remaining cheese and cream

10. Add the vegetable mixture to the sauce and stir to combine
11. Serve the sauce mixture over the cooked pasta

Crawfish!!!

Alright, so throw your stones, gripe all you want. I know its been almost a month since I posted. I've wanted to, I just couldn't get to it!! I haven't forgot though, I've been taking pictures in hopes of posting soon. Lots to come, including a tested-ly (oh yeah, its a word) delicious coffee cake that you can adjust to your liking!

Over Easter we had a crawfish boil, and it was delicious. Of course, we always have more than we can eat, so we spend that last half of the meal peeling the leftovers (and drinking beer!).

With the leftovers, the muffinman requested Crawfish Etouffee. While I wasn't in the mood to cook tonight, I did a quick google search and found this recipe. Its easy and quick, and I think it turned out delicious!! I alternated Nunu's (from some fellow cajun friends) and some blackened fish seasoning until I got the flavor to where I wanted. In addition, I didn't follow their instructions for cooking rice.... I just made up a few servings according to the package directions.

You can substitute shrimp if you'd like, but this was an excellent way to use my first batch of leftover crawfish! More to come on what else becomes the crawfish's fate...

My goal this week is to cook dinner from whatever is in the house. My freezer is overflowing (mostly with veggies and homemade sorbet), and I have a good amount of pasta in the pantry....I just think its time to use up some of this stuff! If I had the time (or motivation) I'd clean out my pantry and inventory the contents for ya, but we all know thats not happening. Hope you have an awesome week!