Lemon Tuna and Pasta

Sorry, no picture. I was too busy eating. But here is another quick and tasty meal I wanted to share. I more or less made it up myself (inspired by a few recipes I saw online).

Ingredients:

1 package of linguine
2 lemons
1 cup of heavy cream
1-2 cups of frozen peas
2 cans of white tuna (tastes better)
1 small red onion
2-3 cloves garlic
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Start boiling your pasta.
2. Next chop the onion and mince garlic and sautee in some oil.
3. Add cream to the onions/garlic mix.
4. Zest your lemons, and juice them and add both the zest and juice from both lemons to the cream mix. Also add some salt and pepper.
5. Just before your pasta is done, add your drained tuna and frozen peas to the cream/garlic/onion/lemon mix. Then add your drained pasta. Mix everything well, and let it simmer for a little bit until the peas are soft enough, but still a bit crunchy (2-4 minutes).

Preparation time: 20 minutes?

Enjoy your meal.

Balsamic Tomato Soup with Baguette and Zucchini

Here is another delicious and easy meal for you that my family loves. Most of you got to try the soup at Kari and Darcie's little Farewell party at my house.

The bread I just bought (French Baguette). You definitely want a bread that's a bit crunchy for this soup. The zucchini I simply sliced and sauteed in some olive oil with salt and pepper and some finely chopped onions (1 small chopped onion and 4 zucchinis). Only sautee it long enough that it gets tender but still has a bit of bite (about 5-10 minutes).

The Soup:

Ingredients:

2 cans of whole tomatoes (28oz)
1 big onion
4-5 garlic cloves
5-6 oz of heavy cream or evaporated milk
1 cup of beef broth
3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp of soy sauce
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tbsp of sugar

Directions:
1. Get out a 9x13 glass dish, and preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Drain tomatoes and put in glass dish, chop onion into big chunks, and sprinkle over tomatoes, peel garlic and also throw on top of tomatoes.
3. Mix together 1/2 cup of beef broth as well as vinegar, soy sauce, oil and sugar. Mix well and pour over tomato mix. Bake the whole thing for about  45-50 minutes.
4. Blend your baked tomatoes and add the cream and broth after you blended the whole thing. Enjoy the soup now with your crunchy bread and zucchinis.


I'd say the actual prep time for the soup as well as zucchinis is maybe 30 minutes at best...

Another Challenge!

I think we've got a pretty good selection of mouth-watering recipes so I think it's time for a new challenge....Pick a recipe and try it yourself! Just so people are aware, post which you'll be making so we all try different things. It was hard for me to choose but I'm going to make Moroccan Chicken since I have all but one ingredient and buying it will help me out getting all the ingredients for making that Green Chicken Curry.

I know you haven't been cooking lately Darcie, you lucky girl, so maybe you can suggest one to your MIL :)

Moroccan Chicken with Apricots and Almonds

I adapted the recipe from this site: http://moroccanfood.about.com/od/beeflambandgoatrecipes/r/tagine_apricots.htm.

Basically I stuck to all the ingredients (except for using chicken breasts instead of beef or lamb), but tried to imitate the tagine by using my crock-pot. So, basically, I sliced 1 onion, put it in the crock-pot, then threw in my chicken (I did cut it into big chunks and I used 4 breasts. 5 would be fine, too!), then some finely chopped onion, garlic, the oils, 21/2 cups of water, cilantro, all the spices except for the honey, cinnamon, almonds and apricots. I set my crock-pot to high, covered the whole thing, and 2.5 hours later I added the cinnamon, apricots, almonds and honey. I think the only thing I would have done differently is maybe use a little less water (maybe just 2 cups) or let it cook without the lid, so it boils down more. Oh, and I added some cardamon to the whole thing (maybe 1 teaspoon). Anyway, basically, I just threw everything in the crock-pot at once, and added the apricots and nuts half way into it. The result? A super-delicious, richly flavorful and easy meal. Henry wanted to bathe in it. And I ate way too much as well. Sophia liked it, too.

I added couscous as a side dish. Aldi happened to sell it this week, so I had a pre-flavored, ready-in-5-minutes side to go with this. We used garlic and olive oil flavored couscous. I'm sure you can find something like that anywhere, and I highly recommend it as a side. Rice would work, too but it's just not quite as authentic (or flavorful in this case). You can also just buy normal couscous and boil it in whatever broth you like (I'd recommend veggie broth).

White Bean and Chicken Soup

I got this recipes at one of my first Enrichments in the Westland Ward and make it all the time. The boys love it- especially Ian if I put green tabasco in his.

1 Tbl olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped
16 oz frozen white corn
2- 15 oz cans Great Northern beans
7 oz diced green chilies
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
3 c chicken broth
2 Tbl lime juice

Saute onion and garlic in oil
Add remaining ingredients
Boil then simmer 20-30 min
Serve with toppings: grated cheese, plain yogurt, salsa, chopped green onion, sour cream, tortilla chips, hot sauce, etc