Home Cooking – Page 2 – Loving Food, Fashion, & Life

Baked Ziti

Posted on April 6, 2014 by LFFL

Made with olive oil, minced garlic cloves, onion, ground turkey, Italian pork sausage, tomato sauce, canned whole tomatoes, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, salt & pepper, ziti pasta, mozzarella cheese, whole-milk ricotta, Parmesan cheese, fresh parsley, and eggs.

Yeah, yeah, I know—another pasta dish. What can I say?

Meat & tomato mixture.

Pasta & cheese mixture.

Ready for the oven.

Done.

Recipe for—Baked Ziti

So, if you have nothing else to do today, slop together another pasta dish for the umpteenth time.

Take-Away Life Lesson: You can never have too much pasta in your life. Live, love, and enjoy life with pasta.

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I'm Loving These Italian Home Fries

Posted on April 4, 2014 by LFFL

Made with butter, smashed garlic cloves, onion, red bell pepper, yellow pepper, new potatoes, Italian sausage, paprika, salt & pepper, fresh rosemary, fresh parsley, and olive oil.

There’s my love for the potato again! I loved this dish so much that I had to buy the ingredients to make this potato dish a second time because it didn’t last long at all. Like I say—fresh is always better than frozen.

Recipe for—Italian Home Fries

So, if you have nothing else to do today, cook your own fresh potatoes just the way you like ’em.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Double up on the ingredients list to make yourself a huge moundful from the start.

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Spaghetti With Pancetta & Chickpeas

Posted on March 30, 2014 by LFFL

Made with spaghetti, turkey bacon, extra-virgin olive oil, garlic cloves, chickpeas, fresh parsley, pepper, and Parmesan cheese.

Yes, it’s yet another pasta dish. What can I say? I adore pasta and a lovely dish this was. But instead of putting pancetta in it like the recipe called for, I put turkey bacon into mine.

Sometimes when a recipe calls for either pancetta and prosciutto, I’ll substitute. The first time in my life that I ever shopped for pancetta and prosciutto at my health food store specifically for recipes I wanted to make, I didn’t realize these items cost close to $5278.99 per pound!!!

So once I realized I could easily use bacon instead of pancetta and ham instead of prosciutto—I went this route with substitutions in recipes. NOT every time, mind you—but for the most part. Once every triple blue moon, I will splurge on these fancy meats when I’m feeling a bit gutsy and adventurous.

Recipe for—Spaghetti with Pancetta & Chickpeas

So, if you have nothing else to do today, I dare you to take out a bank loan for half a pound of pancetta and a quarter pound of prosciutto.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Bacon can be a great substitute for pancetta and ham can be a great substitute for prosciutto if you’d rather not take out a home equity loan for these items.

Lemon-Garlic Cream Fettuccine

Posted on March 12, 2014 by LFFL

Made with lemon peel, fresh parsley, minced garlic cloves, fettuccine, butter, onion, heavy whipping cream, salt & pepper, cream cheese, lemon juice, plum tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese.

I had my reservations about making another “Taste of Home” recipe, but this little pasta dish actually turned out rather good. Previous dishes I’ve chosen to make from “Taste of Home” weren’t much to write home about, but I decided to give it another try.

This was full of creaminess that covered each and every noodle. You can really taste the lemon and garlic in this dish. Adding Parmesan cheese on top is just the way to finish it off. I made plenty of this stuff so I’m set for lunch/dinner for the next few days.

Recipe for—Lemon-Garlic Cream Fettuccine

So, if you have nothing else to do today, make yourself a fabulous noodle dish full of creamy goodness—and don’t forget to load it with lemon and garlic. The flavors are marvelous.

Take-Away Life Lesson: A big pot of noodles is all you need to comfort your stomach.

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Pasta With Bacon & Leeks

Posted on March 8, 2014 by LFFL

Made with rigatoni pasta, turkey bacon, leeks, salt & pepper, heavy cream, Parmesan cheese, and fresh parsley.

This was a quick and easy pasta dish to make today and it tasted marvelous. But what I want to know is—why are leeks SO crazy dirty?! Have they had a hard life or what? I’ve never seen such filth between leaves like that. Yuck.

I don’t have much experience with leeks but, ohhhh, how I love the flavor leeks can add to dishes. That slight onion flavor is just right.

Crispy up the bacon.

Leeks ready for chopping.

Chopped leeks sauteeing.

Topped with cheese & parsley ready to eat.

Recipe for—Pasta With Bacon & Leeks

So, if you have nothing else to do today, make a quick and easy pasta dish for lunch or dinner incorporating leeks.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Always get out the dirt that’s hiding inside the crevices from deep between the leaves of leeks before doing anything else with them.

A Vegetable Frittata To Love

Posted on March 7, 2014 by LFFL

Made with zucchini, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, red onion, olive oil, salt & pepper, minced garlic cloves, eggs, half-and-half, Parmesan cheese, butter, scallions, and Gruyère cheese.

This was a lovely and fancy breakfast and there were plenty of leftovers for the next few days. Zapping a serving inside the microwave each day was all it took for me to have some scrumptiousness in my mouth in no time at all.

Chopped vegetables ready for baking.

Then pan sautee the vegetables.

Add eggs.

I love looking at all the pretty colors in food dishes. It makes for an appetizing meal.

It was great to not have to think about what I was going to have for breakfast each day. A wedge of this loveliness piping hot from the microwave and I’m ready to roll.

Recipe for—Roasted Vegetable Frittata

So, if you have nothing else to do today, make yourself a frittata and load it up with all kinds of goodies.

Take-Away Life Lesson: You really can pretty much throw just about anything into a frittata and make it your own. And there you have breakfast for a few days.

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No-Bake Cookies

Posted on March 3, 2014 by LFFL

Made with butterscotch chips, crunchy peanut butter, peanuts, and crispy rice cereal (Special K cereal or Rice Krispies).

So, I was craving the taste of something sweet and I started thinking of these no-bake cookies. I’ve made and posted about this particular cookie before—but, oh, how I had to make them another go round.

These took all of five minutes to make. The time-consuming part was sitting around the house waiting for them to harden enough so I could pick them up.

Naturally, I’m impatient when I’m hungry and had to have one straight away. So I had no choice but to use a fork to eat the last one I was scraping from the pan. That bad boy never even made it to the cookie sheet.

Have a little more class than I did, folks, and just wait for the hardening process to take effect.

Melt butterscotch chips & peanut butter.

Stir to creamy goodness.

Add peanuts.

Stir in crispy rice cereal.

Recipe for—Special K No-Bake Cookies

1 pkg (11 oz) butterscotch chips
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
2/3 cup peanuts
3 cups Special K cereal

Melt butterscotch chips and peanut butter in a saucepan over low heat.
Stir until melted.
Mix in peanuts and cereal and stir until coated with mixture.
Spoon out into individual cookies onto a cookie sheet covered with wax or parchment paper.
Let sit an hour or longer until hardened.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, spend five minutes making any variety of assorted no-bake cookies. The best part is you don’t have to bake them.

Take-Away Life Lesson: It’s always better to wait for the cookie hardening process to take effect so you’re not holding a saucepan to your face while you scrape the last bits of cookie gump into your mouth. It’s not a good look.

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