Lemon-herb pasta

So you want something easy, but you're out of spaghetti sauce. Or maybe you want dinner to seem fancy without putting a lot of work into it. Try this. Super yummy, and so easy.

1 lb. pasta of your choice (we like linguine)
2 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. dried basil
2 tsp. dried parsley
2 tsp. garlic powder
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Cook your pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse so it doesn't stick together. Return to pot (or put in a big bowl) and add olive oil, lemon juice, and spices. (You can adjust spices and lemon juice to taste -- this is just a rough estimate to get you in the right direction.) Toss well to mix everything, and serve hot. Great with garlic bread. You can also add in some crushed red pepper if you like it. If you have premixed Italian Seasoning on hand, you can use that instead of the individual spices and just add it to taste.

This works great as a main dish, or if you use little noodles like penne or something, it's a really nice side. Easy peasy, and a nice change of pace from regular spaghetti. :)

Yummy dill potatoes and onions

I don't measure. Consider all of these "suggestions," especially considering that I don't know how many potatoes you need to feed your family, or the size of the onions you like to buy.

1 large onion, peeled and cut into wedges
enough potatoes to feed everybody, cut into chunks (about an inch or so)... peel them if you want to, but I generally don't
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp. (more or less) dill weed
1 tsp. (more or less) garlic powder
cooking oil

Put some oil in your pan and heat it up. Toss in the onion, and cook and stir it over medium heat just until it starts to get fragrant -- about 2 or 3 minutes. Toss in your potatoes, and add salt and pepper to taste (I like a little salt and lots of pepper) and the garlic powder. (You can use fresh minced too, and it would probably be even better.) Cook and stir for a while. Don't let the onions sit too long without getting scraped up off the bottom, or they'll get burned. They're going to end up kind of caramelized, but you don't want them crispy. A few minutes before the potatoes are done cooking, sprinkle in your dill. Use as much as you like -- I like a lot! I find if you add it earlier in the cooking it still tastes ok, but the dill loses some of its oomph and you have to add more, so I save it until last. And that's it! Yummy with just about everything. You can also add cut up carrots and/or celery for more yummy goodness.

Taco meat burrito thingys (an alternative to regular tacos)

2 cups taco meat (I keep it in the freezer in 2-cup packages)
2 carrots
1 onion (or half a large one)
2 large whole-wheat soft tortillas
cheese

Grab some taco meat that's been in the freezer for a while and you don't know what to do with it. Or just make some with ground beef and taco seasoning. If you're making it fresh, drain it well after it's brown. Use a food processor to finely chop the onion and carrots together, and then put them in the skillet with your taco meat (you don't have to defrost your meat first if it's frozen -- just stick it in there). Cook over medium heat until the onions are getting tender and a little browned. Spoon the mixture onto the tortilla shells, half in each one. Put it right in the middle, in kind of a strip down the middle. Put your cheese on top of the meat, however much and whatever kind you like. I used white American because it was what we had, but I think cheddar or a spicy cheese would be better. Fold the sides of the tortilla over everything, so it's like a flat burrito. Stick it on your George Foreman grill and grill it until it's brown and the cheese is melted, just a minute or two. If you don't have a George Foreman grill -- um, you need to get one. But you could probably brown it in the skillet if you wanted, if you've drained out the oil.

I don't like tacos because I hate lettuce and the stuff that's usually in tacos, so this is a good alternative. You don't *need* the carrots, I suppose, but they do enhance the flavor a bit, and it's added nutrition. I add chopped carrots to whatever I can add them to, because it's good for you and you don't notice the flavor that much. You could probably also do the same thing with chopped celery, maybe even some chopped baby spinach leaves. Whatever. This is great because it's a quick lunch packed with protein and flavor, and you can customize it for your tastes. Although I don't think I'd put lettuce in it. It would get wilty on the grill.

Easy chicken and rice dinner

Seriously, it's easy. I'm a big fan of easy. I'm also a big fan of dry vegetable soup mix, apparently, since I'm using it in everything lately.

Boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders (any kind of boneless chicken will do, but you can't use big pieces like whole breasts. If you have large pieces, cut them to be smaller so they'll cook faster.)
1 cup white rice
3 cups water
1 package dry vegetable soup mix

Brown the chicken slightly in a little bit of oil. Nothing too major. If you over-brown, that's ok. Or if you forget to brown it, that's ok too. Whatever. Either way, use a really big skillet so you'll have room for everything (I used my 12-inch cast iron and it was just big enough). Then pour in your water and the veggie soup mix, and stir it to dissolve the powder and get everything evened out. Dump in your rice, and try to spread it evenly around the skillet. Make sure there's no rice hanging out on top of the chicken where it won't be in the water. Bring the water to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until the rice is done and the chicken is cooked through.

This recipe serves 4, or maybe 5 depending on how much chicken you have and what sides you serve with it. I didn't serve any sides and it served the 4 of us with a few leftovers. As with my other chicken recipe, this would be great if you cut the chicken into small bite-size pieces, but I didn't and it was still good. I'm sure you could also bake this, but I have no idea how long you'd need to bake it, so if you go that route you're on your own.

Pumpkin pancakes

This is from Allrecipes.com. Link to the recipe is http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Pancakes/Detail.aspx.


Ingredients

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 3 tablespoons brown sugar
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon ground allspice
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 cups milk
* 1 cup pumpkin puree
* 1 egg
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 2 tablespoons vinegar

Directions

1. In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar. Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt, stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

*QB's notes: I used soy milk like I do in everything else, and it was fine, so you can make these dairy-free. I didn't have any allspice, so I used about 1/8 tsp. of cloves and 1/4 tsp. ish of nutmeg -- it turned out all right, but I should have used a bit more. Or else gone out and bought allspice. You really should have allspice. Anyway, these were delicious either alone or with maple syrup.

Vegan-friendly falafel (and not-vegan tzatziki sauce)

These recipes are from Allrecipes.com. The falafel is vegan, but the tzatziki sauce is not. But if you wanted to make it vegan, you could just substitute soy yogurt for the dairy yogurt, easy peasy. I'm not sure how everybody else eats this stuff, but we just dip the balls in the sauce and eat them that way. Super yummy.

Falafel:
INGREDIENTS

* 1 pound dry garbanzo beans
* 1 onion, quartered
* 1 potato, peeled and quartered
* 4 cloves garlic, minced
* 1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
* 1 teaspoon ground coriander
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 2 cups canola oil

DIRECTIONS

1. Rinse the garbanzo beans under cold water and discard any bad ones. Place in a large pot, and cover with water. Let soak 24 hours, and rinse again.
2. Place the garbanzo beans, onion, and potato in the bowl of a food processor. Cover, and process until finely chopped. Leaving about 1 cup of the garbanzo bean mixture in the food processor bowl, pour the rest into a mixing bowl. Add the garlic, cilantro, coriander, cumin, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to the garbanzo bean mixture in the food processor bowl; process on low to blend thoroughly. Return the reserved garbanzo bean mixture to the food processor bowl, and add the lemon juice, and olive oil; process on low into a coarse meal. Cover, and refrigerate 2 hours.
3. Stir the baking soda into the garbanzo bean mixture until evenly blended. Using damp hands, form the mixture into 1 1/2 inch diameter balls.
4. Pour the canola oil into a wok 1 to 2 inches deep, and heat over medium-high heat. Cook the falafel balls, turning so all sides are evenly browned, about 5 minutes. Remove falafel from oil, and drain on paper towels. Repeat to cook remaining falafel balls.

FOOTNOTES

Cook's Tip: If you don't have time to soak the dry garbanzo beans for this recipe, substitute three 15 ounce cans of garbanzo beans, and start with Step 2.

Tzatziki sauce
INGREDIENTS

* 8 ounces plain yogurt
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
* 3 cloves pressed garlic

DIRECTIONS

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, dill and garlic. Blend thoroughly and serve.

** QB's Notes:

The sauce is better if you chill it in the fridge for an hour or so before eating. You can mix up the falafel ingredients the day before if you want to, but be warned, it will change colors. I'm not sure why. It doesn't affect the taste, but it looks different. Darker. Also, I used about twice the amount of dill in the sauce, and I ramped up the spices in the falafel. We like FLAVOR in this house. It's good the way the recipe says to do it, but if you like spicy food, feel free to play with the amounts. You can't screw it up.

Seasoned chicken and veggie bake

Lame title, but I don't know what else to call it, and I just made it up tonight. So yummy. I apologize for the large size of this dish, but you can adjust it as needed, or make the whole thing and freeze half for later. Also, I don't measure. Think of these amounts as rough estimates.

4 to 6 chicken leg quarters, skin removed (any cut of chicken will do)
1 package dry veggie soup mix
2.5-3 cups of water
2 small onions, chopped
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 cubes chicken bouillon
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 carrots, washed and sliced
2 stems of celery, washed and sliced

Brown the chicken, and transfer it into baking pans. (I needed a 9x13 and an 8x8 pan to hold everything.) In the same skillet where you browned the chicken, toss in your chopped onion and brown (add oil if necessary to keep it from sticking) and your flour. When onion is browned, add water, bouillon cube, soup mix, and pepper. Simmer until everything is dissolved and the mixture thickens slightly. Slice carrots and celery and scatter the slices amongst the chicken pieces. Pour your liquid over everything (if you use 2 pans, try to be judicious -- you don't want one pan swimming and the other one with like a drop). Cover with foil and bake at 350 for about 1 hour, or until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve with hot cooked brown rice. I added a little butter and Italian seasoning to my rice, but you can do yours however you want.

My husband also suggested cutting the chicken up into small chunks and mixing the chicken and veggies in with the rice, and serving it as a one-dish meal. It's an option, and it would be easy if you're using boneless chicken.

Pancakes

Here's a recipe from my mom. She makes the best pancakes ever. Light and crisp at the edges, fluffy in the middle. Mmmmm. :)

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
heaping teaspoon baking powder
2 shakes salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon cooking oil
approx. 2/3 cup milk (soy milk may also be used)
Optional: capful of vanilla, a generous helping of cinnamon, chopped frozen or fresh fruit, ginger

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add egg, oil, and a little milk (1/3 cup or so), and any extras, and whisk together. Add milk until the batter is runny, but not too thin. (If you get it thin, you can use it that way, you'll just have thin pancakes.)

Heat about a tablespoon of cooking oil on the griddle over medium heat. When the oil is hot, pour pancakes onto griddle. (You can tell if the oil is ready by dripping a drop of batter onto the griddle -- if it instantly starts to sizzle at the edges, it's hot enough.) Make them whatever size you want. I like to make small-ish ones for the kids. When the edges start to brown and the middles are bubbly, flip the pancakes over to brown the other side. When that side is browned, remove them from the griddle, add a bit more oil to the griddle to heat, and make another pan full. You'll need to make sure you have a bit of oil on the pan, because that's what's going to give you the crispy edges. Serve with butter and warm syrup.

My new favorite pancakes are with vanilla and a bit of cinnamon. The kids like "purple pancakes," with frozen blueberries -- the juice makes the batter purple. Experiment!

Basic white bread

This recipe is stolen from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. My version is older than the one linked here, but I'm sure the recipe is the same in the new one. Best cookbook ever. Buy it.

Anyway, on to the recipe. It's a very basic white bread recipe, great for beginners.

Ingredients:
5 3/4 to 6 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
2 1/4 cups milk or buttermilk
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon butter, margarine, or shortening
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1. In a large mixing bowl combine 2 1/2 cups of the flour and the yeast; set aside. In a medium saucepan heat and stir milk, sugar, butter, and salt just until warm (120F to 130F) and butter almost melts. Add milk mixture to flour mixture. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.

2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes total). Shape dough into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface of dough. Cover; let rise in a warm place until double in size (45 to 60 minutes). *Note from the sidebar in the cookbook: You can tell if the dough has doubled and is ready to shape by pressing two fingers 1/2 inch into the dough. Remove your fingers; if indentations remain, it is ready to punch down.

3. Punch down dough (push your fist into its center, then use your fingers to pull the dough edges to the center). Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half. Cover; let rest 10 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease two 8x4x2-inch loaf pans.

4. Shape dough halves into loaves by patting or rolling. To shape by patting, gently pat and pinch, tucking edges underneath. To shape by rolling, on a lightly floured surface roll each dough half into a 12x8-inch rectangle. Roll up each rectangle, starting from a short side. Seal seams with your fingertips.

5. Place shaped dough halves in prepared pans. Cover and let rise in a warm place until nearly double in size (30 to 40 minutes).

6. Bake in a 375 oven about 40 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when lightly tapped (if necessary, cover loosely with foil the last 10 minutes of baking to prevent overbrowning). Immediately remove bread from pans. Cool on wire racks.

*Amy's note: the bread can get too heavy and kind of dry if you use too much flour. When you're kneading the dough, add only enough flour so that the dough is slightly sticky -- not enough to come off and stick to your hands, but more like the stickiness of a Post-It note. If you need to make this dairy-free, you can use plain soymilk and vegan margarine, and it will turn out just fine.

The best grilled cheese ever!

I know what you're thinking. "Grilled cheese? Grilled cheese? She thinks I need a recipe for grilled cheese?! Seriously?!" Yeah, seriously. Because I can guarantee you that if you make a basic grilled cheese, it has never been this heavenly.

What you need:

2 slices of whole wheat bread
A little butter or margarine
2 slices of American cheese (white American is even better)
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Garlic powder (to taste)
*Optional, but fabulous: Creole seasoning (gives it a little kick)

Heat up your non-stick skillet or griddle. Lightly butter one side of both pieces of bread and put one piece on the skillet, butter-side down. Layer one piece of American cheese, a healthy fingerful of mozzarella, a sprinkling of garlic powder, just a little sprinkle of Creole seasoning, the other slice of American cheese, and the other piece of bread, butter-side up. When the bottom slice of bread starts to get nice and warm, but not quite yet browned, flip the sandwich over (carefully, the mozzarella will try to escape -- you might want to use two spatulas, or else pick up the skillet and use it to help hold the sandwich together). Sprinkle a little mozzarella on the outside of the now-warmed bread and kind of press it into the bread lightly. You don't need to smash it, but you want it to kind of stick in there. After the other piece of bread is warmed, flip the sandwich and give that side the mozzarella treatment. Now, when your cheese on the inside is getting kind of melty and the bottom piece of bread is browned and the mozzarella on the bottom is nice and crispy, flip it over to brown the other slice of bread. When it's browned, remove the sandwich from the skillet and let it sit for a minute or two to finish melting the cheese and to cool enough to not burn your lips off.

Then eat it, and try not to pass out from the fabulosity.