Recipes Discovered

Pasta Salad Recipe

I like taking pasta salads on picnics. I don’t have to worry about mayonnaise spoiling like with macaroni and potato salad, plus pasta salad just gets better the longer it sets. This is a really simple pasta salad that can be changed up a 100 different ways. I’ve made it with a lot of different ingredients, and it’s always a big hit.
The base of the pasta salad is, of course, pasta. I like the spiral pasta, especially the multi colored kind, but any pasta works. I don’t cook the pasta completely because I like a little bite to it. After I cook, drain, and cool the pasta, I toss it with Italian dressing. My favorite is Kraft Light Done Right Zesty Italian. It has a lot of flavor and a lot fewer calories. >> Read more

Portobello Lasagna Rollups Recipe

Fresh Tomato Sauce Recipe

Lasagna generally takes a really long time to bake, which makes it more of a special dish. I thought making lasagna rollups would cut down on the baking time, but honestly, the rollups take just as long to bake as regular lasagna (about an hour). The rollups are a little fancier than traditional layered lasagna though, and this particular dish is definitely an upscale version of lasagna.
I generally use this recipe for tomato sauce, which is pretty similar to the recipe included with the lasagna, but I thought I would try to make the sauce with fresh tomatoes since there are so many in the garden. I started by peeling and chopping 10 large tomatoes, about 8 cups. In a large pot, I heated some oil and then added onions. I cooked them about 5 minutes until they were soft, and then added garlic. Once the garlic had cooked for a minute, I added the tomatoes, tomato pasta, oregano, basil, salt, and a bay leaf. I also added about a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to balance out the acidity of the tomatoes. When I make tomato sauce with canned tomatoes, I cook it for 30 minutes. With the fresh tomatoes, it took about 2 hours for the sauce to cook down and thicken up. >> Read more

Zucchini Kielbasa Soup Recipe

My family enjoyed vegetable soup, but traditional vegetable soup is usually a winter dish that takes all day to cook, as you can read here. My uncle came up with this light, fresh soup that takes advantage of garden vegetables and the unique flavor of kielbasa. Kielbasa is polish sausage that is traditionally made from mixing pork with small amounts of beef or veal, seasoned with fresh herbs, and then smoked. Together, the kielbasa and vegetables make a wonderful, easy soup.
This is a low maintenance soup that requires very little attention. I started with a large soup pot and added chopped onions, celery, carrots, zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes, and kielbasa. Once everything was in the pot, I added two cans (14.5 ounces each) of low sodium chicken broth, plus about two cups of water. I turned the heat to low and let everything cook for one hour, stirring it occasionally. The soup is really that simple.
The soup is really great. It’s light, fresh and has all the flavors of summer. The kielbasa gives it a spicy taste, but not hot. My Uncle sometimes adds fried bacon to the soup, which makes it a little smokey, but I really enjoy the flavor of the kielbasa on it’s own. Either way, it’s a delicious soup that is simple and light – perfect for summer.

Wacky Cake Recipe

Peanut Butter Icing Recipe

My best friend gave me this Wacky Cake with Peanut Butter Icing recipe. It’s a really old recipe that her grandmother used to make. Her grandmother told her that the recipe originated during the depression because people didn’t have a lot of extra money, so they used vinegar to replace the eggs in the recipe, vegetable oil is used instead of butter, and water replaced the milk.
This is possibly the easiest cake to mix together. All the ingredients get mixed together in one bowl with an electric mixer for 3 minutes. I added a dash of salt, just to enhance the chocolate flavor. The batter is then poured into an ungreased 13×9 cake pan and baked in a 350 degree oven. The recipe suggested baking the cake for 40 minutes, but I checked the cake after 30 minutes, and it was definitely done. >> Read more

Roasted Vegetable Spread Recipe

I was working on my blog the other day and watching Good Eats when I saw Alton Brown make this Roasted Vegetable Spread. It seemed so simple, yet it looked and sounded so incredibly delicious, I went directly to the kitchen and made a batch.

I cut down on the recipe quite a bit, since I just wanted some for lunch. I used about 1/4 of a red pepper, 1/4 of an onion, 1 clove of garlic, and 1 cup of halved and sliced zucchini. I tossed all the veggies with oil, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and then roasted them in a 400 degree oven. I’m not sure how Alton roasted his vegetables for 45 minutes. Mine were definitely done after 15 minutes, which was fine with me because that meant I could eat sooner, but just make sure to keep an eye on them. >> Read more