Pasta Slim Spinach Fettucine

Hey there!

I've found some great new pasta replacement noodles. They are called Pasta Slim, these are the spinach fettucine variety. You could use whatever vegetables you have on hand. The main thing to be concerned about with these noodles is to drain all of the fluid from the noodles and rinse them thoroughly and chop them up a little to make them easier to eat. The other thing that makes them better tasting is to pan fry them with a little olive oil spray for 5-10 min before adding them to the sauce.

Ingredients:

1 1/3C Morningstar Farms Recipe Crumbles

2 bags Pasta Slim-drained, rinsed, chopped and sauteed

2 small zucchini sliced

4 large mushrooms sliced

1 medium green pepper chopped

1/2 medium onion chopped

3 C spinach rinsed and torn

1 shallot chopped finely

3 cloves garlic chopped finely

olive oil cooking spray

1 larg can tomato sauce

1 can Red Gold Tomatoes with garlic and basil

2 wedges of Laughing Cow cheese garlic and herb flavor

salt, red pepper flakes, dried basil and pepper to taste

Spray a large non-stick pan and begin sauteeing the garlic, shallots, and onions. Salt them and stir a few times before adding the can of tomaotes, including the juice and bring to a boil to soften the vegetables. Add red pepper flakes and basil if desired. Take half of the tomato sauce and add to simmering pan, at this time you can add the prepared noodles and recipe crumbles to the sauce mixture. Take the remaining sauce and, I use my Magic Bullet, to blend up the 2 wedges of cheese with the rest of the sauce and set aside.

Heat another large pan and coat with cooking spray-to this add all of the remaining vegetables and sautee until they reach desired tenderness. Once they are done add in the spinach and give it a few stirs to wilt it down.

At this point add all of the vegetables to the sauce and noodle mixture add the remaining sauce and cheese mix and stir to mix completely. Bring to a boil and simmer 5-10minutes or until sauce has thickened.

This makes 3 servings each is about 3C of pasta and vegetables. The recipe clocks in at 5 WW points per serving.

Hungry-Girl Very VERY Veggie Stew and Polenta Stuffed Green Peppers

For the veggie stew visit Hungry-Girl website-for Thursday 2-05-09. The recipe for the polenta stuffed peppers is as follows-

-2 medium green peppers cut in half lengthwise

-2 cups of spinach roughly chopped

-2 cloves of garlic-chopped

-1 teaspoon olive oil,

-1/2C frozen corn kernels

- 1/2C chopped onions

-2-3tsp salt or to taste

-3/4C un-cooked polenta (instant or regular)

-4tsp grated parmesan

-Pre-heat oven to 375

-Spray a 9x13in pan with non-stick spray and place peppers in it.

Heat oil over medium heat-add garlic and onions and sautee until soft, add spinach until it starts wilting add corn and reduce heat-stir occasionally. Meanwhile boil water for polenta, add polenta and salt and cook according to package directions. Once polenta is cooked add in spinach and corn mixture and 2tsp of the parmesan cheese. Working while the mixture is still warm fill peppers with polenta mixture-top each pepper with 1/2tsp cheese, cover peppers with foil and bake for 20 minutes, remove foil and bake an additional 10minutes or until peppers appear done and cheese is browned.

Enjoy with a side of the HG veggie stew. I topped mine with a T of light sour cream and a sprinkle of cilantro.

Homemade soft pretzels!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Yummy!! This treat was copied from a similar dish we had at a friends cook out a few weeks ago. The base is cream cheese (actually neufchatel) with onion powder and garlic salt mixed in. I used 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts that I sauteed on the stove with a little red onion. Once it cooled I chopped it into small dice and coated it with Franks Buffalo Wing sauce. Then I covered it with diced tomatoes and green onions. It was amazing with celery and crackers.

9th Birthday Double Cheeseburger Cake!!

This cake was a major under taking, especially considering it was over 90 degrees that day! I used yellow cake for the bottom and top bun, two brownie mixes for the burgers-frosting the egdes and sticking crushed up oreo type cookies around the edges to give a meaty burger effect. The cheese is made of fondant-as are the lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles and mound of ketchup. The ketchup and mustard on the burger are colored frosting. The fries were simple and made from sugar cookie dough (from a tube) and just cut into strips before cooking. There are actual real sesame seeds on top to finish off the effect!

Hungry Girl Fluffy Lemon Squares

This is such a great swap for fattening lemon bars! The flavor is great and really lemony. When taking the picture I remembered some of the pointers I'd read about shooting food pictures. I used low light and contrasting colors, found that adorable pink lemon plate at Target last year. I just threw in the 200 under 200 book as a cute backdrop. Let me know what you think.

Chocolate Covered Pretzel-Fest

Meg's and I created an amazing array of chocolate covered pretzels....dark chocolate, peanut butter, sprinkles, white chocolate, colored sugar, peanut butter chips and pecans!! It was a great night of dipping and decorating.

Hungry Girl 200 Under 200 Book Signing

I met Lisa Lillien, the Hungry Girl herself, again! Yay she signed my book, and we got tons of free swag.