Roasted Veggie Subs

Caramelize Sliced Onions while doing the following other tasks

Roast in oven with a little olive oil:
halved Red Peppers
thin slices of Butternut Squash
grape tomatoes

Saute sliced Mushrooms

Lightly toast whole wheat sub buns (any hearty bread would be good).

Add Goat cheese (or any of your choice)
place back in toaster oven to melt cheese

Assemble YUM YUM YUM

Impromptu Creamy Pasta (w/out the cream)

Boil pasta (I use wheat fettuccini)

• Quickly put some frozen Chicken sausage into a pan w/ a little water. When they started to thaw I used scissors to cut them into pieces. Let cook covered so the juices and flavor stayed in the pan with the meat.

*don’t feel like you have to use the meat, this dish would be great without meat and you could add broiled portabellas!

Drained pasta

Pulled out left over veggie broth from fridge. (Any broth you have would be fine)
Heated broth as I added reduced fat cream cheese
It wasn’t thick enough so I tossed in my leftover baked sweat potatoes and mashed them to make a smooth thick sauce.
Added Pesto & meat with the juices.
Topped with a little parmesan asiago blend.

YUM YUM YUM

Pasta & Sauce - QUICK, easy, yummy

I keep frozen pasta on hand for those rushed nights. Stuffed with whatever you like: cheese, ricotta, mushrooms, chicken, spinach, sausage....

So tonight I tossed some in boiling water, moved to drain.
add balsamic vinegar to hot empty panto reduce
Tossed equal parts of the following in the pan to heat:
tomato sauce, pumpkin puree, pesto
added pasta back in

YUM
(actually tasted very similar to Trader Joes Vodka Sauce oddly enough...)

Stuffed Red Peppers

This made 6 stuffed peppers (12 halves)

put 1 cup of Quinoa or Couscous in the rice maker with 2 cups of low sodium vegetable broth (love ya Trader Joes ; ) –sub if needed, any broth or water would be fine to cook the grain….

Sauté minced garlic
Add diced onions until they start to brown on the edges
Add diced mushrooms
Cook down

Combine mixture w/ grain
Add spinach
Add feta cheese
Add Greek seasoning
(optional) add diced cooked chicken &/or chick peas

Cut red peppers in half, remove seeds.
Fill with mixture
Top w/ a little feta

Bake at 400

Steak Salad

mmmmm


Marinade steak Overnight. Here's Joes steak marinade recipe.

Marinade Portobello mushrooms in Balsamic Vinegar & Olive Oil for 15 min

Grill the mushrooms and steak (or just have 1 or the other)

Make Salad:
Spinach
Grape Tomatoes
Caramelized Onions
Blue Cheese (Mya doesn't like blue cheese, so she had goat cheese)
Pecans
Grilled Steak
Grilled Portobello mushrooms

Dressing: any balsamic would be great. We used Briannas American dressing tonight which was great. This kind would also be good.

Salad: Perfect Summer Dinner!

Grill marinated Chicken breasts (I used Trader Joes Tuscan Italian dressing, or any Balsamic Vinaigrette)
Slice & cool

Red leaf lettuce &/or Spinach
Green Onions
Fresh Blueberries
Goat Cheese
Pecans

dressing: Trader Joes Tuscan Italian or any Balsamic Vinaigrette

Greek Style Pasta salad w/ a Twist

Boil/Cool Wheat or full fiber pasta

Dice:
Cucumbers
Yellow or Red Peppers
Green Onions
Grilled/Cooled Chicken Sausage (I used Spinach Feta ones)

Mix all together and add
Feta Cheese
Grape Tomatoes
Dressing (I normally use ceasar, but I was out, so today I used Olive oil with infused Italian herbs, then I added some lemon juice and greek salt free seasoning)

Serve over Spinach

Asian Pizza - CPK eat your heart out!

- Crust (I use pita bread)

- Thai peanut sauce
buy pre-made or whisk: pb, pepper flakes, sesame ginger dressing (I use Paul Newmans)

- Shredded carrots
- Diced green onions
- Diced Mushrooms
- Diced chicken (marinade in Sesame Ginger dressing OR buy Trader Joes cooked Asian Chicken in the freezer section)
- Shredded Mozzarella

Bake

top with diced Avocado

Yummy Dressed up Wedge Salad

Lettuce Wedge
Thin slices of red or green onions
Diced Avocado
Blue Cheese Dressing

Optional extras:
- Caramelized mushrooms & onions
- Finely diced left over steak or bacon bits

Myas party

Mya had a great Bday party. We are happy to have so many wonderful friends in her, and our, lives.