Taco Pasta Bake

I have allowed Jordan to be in charge of grocery shopping for the past couple of weeks, which has been nice that I haven’t had to go shopping, but tends to lead to having weird food around the house as he does not seem to understand the following a list or buying more just what he needs for one meal. But, god love him!

 
My garden is still growing a plethora of tomatoes so I made a tomato sauce the other day just by simmering olive oil, onions, tomatoes, garlic, carrots, pepper, oregano, basil and Italian spices. I was trying to think of what to do with the sauce (other than just make pasta), so obviously I went to my ‘go to’ … Pinterest.

There I saw this picture I had pinned a while ago of “15 minute Tacosagna” from Graceland blog, and I was inspired.

From that image/ recipe I created a “Taco Pasta Casserole Bake” as I have so called it

Taco Pasta Bake

• 1 box whole grain pasta (I used Penne Pasta)

1 can refried beans

4 cups tomato sauce

1 tablespoon taco seasoning (I used low sodium)

1 jar salsa

2 cup corn

3 jalapenos – diced

1 green pepper – diced

1 red pepper - diced

1 cup spinach, frozen

2 cups kidney beans, drained

1 package light cream cheese (8oz)

1 cup Mexican cheese or pepper jack

2 baking pans

1. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain. 

2. Preheat oven to 350*

3. Spread the refried beans along the bottom of the baking dishes

 4. Mix everything else besides the cheese together (tomato sauce, salsa, corn, peppers, jalapenos, spinach, kidney beans, and taco seasoning) either directly into the baking pans or in a seperate bowl.  - I personally just mixed it all in the baking pan but it was a bit full!

5. Split sauce between the two baking pans.

6.  Cut in the cream cheese in small amounts throughout the sauce 

7. Add in pasta and mix!

8. Cover with cheese. (We had some pepper jack cubes on hand so I just cut them in half and sprinkled them on top.)

9. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until bubbley and delicious! 

Jordan insisted on eating it with a tortilla because I called it a "Taco" pasta... but really the pasta should be adequate carbs!

Supper Club and Polenta Pizza

Some of my friends and I have form a "Sanity Supper Club" in which we meet once a week/ every other week at someones house and cook meals and have an awesome girls night.

I hosted this weeks dinner: and I made Polenta Pizza and had a salad bar!

This was admittedly the first time I cooked with polenta, so for the sake of not totally screwing it up I used Trader Joe's organic pre-made polenta in a tube.

In my head the plan was to roll out the polenta like dough, but it isn't as roll-able as I thought it would be. Since I wasn't sure how it would turn out I made some individual polenta pizza by cutting the loaf of polenta into circles

Individual polenta circles for individual pizzas

I also tried mashing some up, mostly using the heal of my hand, to press them together, which worked pretty well to create a larger 'crust' 

For the large Polenta Pizza I used: 

Sauteed red onion

portobello onion

spinach

fresh roasted red peppers 

Marinara sauce, (Trader Joes) jazzed up with some yellow onion and pizza seasoning

Mozzarella Cheese 

Goat Cheese

For the individual polenta pizzas I made a huge array using various toppings such as:

the ones listed above

fresh tomato

basil leaves

mozzarella

pesto sauce

The Pizza was served with the salad bar including:

romaine

baby spinach

red peppers

green peppers

mushrooms

tomatoes

carrots

peas

corn

salsa

hummus

raisins

dried cranberries

walnuts

cage free hard boiled eggs

goat cheese

And of course we celebrated with some wine (for the antioxidants of course)

Eating Healthy for the Busy Person

"If you need something done, give it to a busy person!"

Ah… how true it is. It does seem the more we have to do, the more we get done.

Of course, it's also easy to let certain things go when you are really busy, such as going to the gym and eating healthy.

So here's the key:

Plan

Prep

Do!

My professor always complains that people say they are either organized, or they are not. She states, "Organized people are organized because they take the time out of their day to get organized," which, in the end, saves time!

So:

- plan what kind of meals you want to make for the week.

- make a shopping list

- go to the grocery store

- at some point soon after going to the grocery store- take the time to prep any of the healthy food that requires effort that might later deter you from eating it.

If you set out to chop/ peel/ prep a bunch of stuff at once it takes much less time than going through the process each time you want to eat something. Plus, think of the time and energy you'll save on washing the knives, vegetable peeler, and cutting board.

I personally go through this process not only because I am busy, but because Jordan is lazy, and I know he will not bother to use vegetables if they are not ready to be used.

Last week at the grocery store I bought a 5 pound bag of carrots for $1.99! but of course, whole carrots require a bit more effort than baby carrots, so I took the time after I went shopping to peel and cut them up.

Along with a bag of green peppers, I cut up a few into strips to be used for whatever my heart desired at the moment. They can always be chopped smaller later on if desired.

It also seems we are more likely to go through fruit in our house if it is cut up and mixed together (in this case, apples, bananas, plums and nectarines are all pretty easy to eat anyway, but I do enjoy the variety. It works even better if there is something that required cutting up such as a melon.

Then finally- once I am all done prepping I stick it all in the fridge in tupperware for easy access and quick meal making throughout the week :)

Wrong Side of the Bed

Today I woke up in an unnecessarily bitter mood.

Jordan had slept over and had trouble sleeping, and then woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and as the saying goes "misery loves company" so he took me along for a grumpy morning.

Once he was gone, I was faced with a mountain of dishes in the sink, and dishes I had previously washed piled up in the drying rack. Some of these were mine of course, but being in a grumpy mood, I washed them all while bantering madly to myself of how I always get stuck doing everything around the house, when I am the one that has the most to do! Geez I just took the trash and recycling out last night too, and cleaned the bathroom which looks like crap again because Sookie likes to throw litter!

I then took the feminist approach and assumed the boys were leaving all of the house work for me to do because I am the only girl and clearly they must think I am only good for domestic purposes.

After settling down from my pity-party, I comforted myself with a nice breakfast of left over
home-made cottage potatoes (aka homefries :P ) and my last egg, over-easy, with some ketchup and a cup or 3 of Pumpkin Spice coffee. I think its the cold, but I have been craving really "breakfasty" breakfasts lately.




After breakfast I headed out to Framingham to get some school work done and go to class. I brought an apple and nutrigrain bar as some brain food.


Despite my snacking I was definitely in need of some more substantial lunch when I got home. I mixed up some more left over Spaghetti + mixture of frozen veggies + Vegan Chili, and some extra spaghetti sauce, and then added some 50% reduced fat Cabot Cheddar Cheese (currently on sale at Shaws.)

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In the mix: Broccoli, Asparagus, Green Peppers, and carrots... I wish I had a few other colors in there, but the chili livened up the mix.
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Vegan Chili
(Its always frozen come photo-op time!)

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Nomnomnom. It was very good.

I may have snacked on a mini bag of popcorn with chocolate chips and raisins while watching "Charlie Bartlett" and cleaning the apartment (SEE!! AGAIN!)

Tonight I am heading to Gloucester so it I wait that long to eat I'll just go get to steal J.'s food, a rare and exciting treat :)


And just to confirm, I am no longer bitter, and am in a much better mood, and now off to take my Sports Nutrition Quiz!