Traveling the World One Plate at a Time: Karahi Chicken with Mint and Dessert!

I didn't get the chance to cook this meal last weekend, so I made it a point to make it today. Thankfully, it only took a little less than an hour to prepare and cook, which is great for a lazy Sunday evening. I feel like I need a weekend for my weekend!




Friday night, Jose and I saw the second Narnia movie at Alamo Drafthouse; it's definitely a place you should check out if you're not from around here. They serve pretty good food and even feature a special menu for some movies; Turkish Delight was on the menu for Prince Caspian :)! Of course, we ordered some. On Saturday we checked out IKEA. Jose and I think it might be best to purchase boxed, unassembled furniture instead of driving to Cambridge with a bunch of bulky furniture that can't be taken apart. (We're trying to figure out the best and cheapest way to move to Cambridge from Austin...any ideas? We did the numbers. Paying a moving company would be too expensive; if we flew there, we'd still need to figure out a way to move our stuff. So it seems driving to Cambridge in a large van with our stuff is the best idea, at least this weekend it is :)...we only have 2 more months to figure it out, though! Oh, but I can't wait :)!) As for today, we cleaned the apartment, sold a few of our many books to the folks at Half-Price, and went shopping for pants and shoes. So, as you can see, or read, it was a very busy weekend and I didn't have much time to cook dinner. Now I'm starting to feel myself catching Jose's cold; it seems my body always gets sick when I take the time to relax and slow down!

At least I got to squeeze in a bunch of baking last week. I was craving a healthy dessert earlier, so I made an apple and carrot cake that's moist, cinnamony, and milk-free. I made a blueberry peach pie too, but I'll post that recipe little later :).

Very Tasty Caribbean Stew and Jerk Tilapia

One of the best parts about cooking is that you can take a handful of random ingredients that are actually good for you, cook them with a few interesting spices and sauces, then you end up with something colorful, tasty, and healthy. Last week at work, my friend brought in a bowl of wonderful stew, it was from a recipe that her father initially introduced her to. She gave me some to try so that I'd know how to describe it on the Key Ingredient blog. Right after the first spoonful, I was convinced that this was a stew I definitely needed to make, asap!

This hearty meal was inspired by Moosewood's Caribbean Stew. The recipe is delicious as is, my friend Heather just added a few more veggies - I pretty much did the same. In my opinion, the more veggies, the better! This is a vegetarian stew that's filling as is, but it can also be served with rice or jerk tofu. I loved the idea of the jerk tofu, but I recently purchased some fish that needed a marinade; I thought the spicy/sweetness of the jerk would complement the tilapia quite well, and it did.

Because I wanted a baked and breaded fish, I mixed a few tablespoons of breadcrumbs with a tablespoon of melted butter and created a topping for the fish that also included some of the marinade. The end result was a flavorful meal without the fishy flavor, but I think next time, to preserve the light flavor of the fish, I'll just marinade then bake the tilapia in the jerk sauce. Though I only added half the amount of chili in both recipes, it was still spicy enough to be considered tasty.

If you want to give your taste buds a wake-up call, the stew and jerk recipes will do the trick. As for the stew, its spiciness wanes against the sweet potato's natural honey-like taste and the kale's deep earthy flavor. What's more, together, the cilantro and lemon add an herby freshness while the onions give the already rich broth an even fuller flavor. This stew is mouth-watering, to say the least, and your body will definitely thank you for eating such a healthy meal! The jerk sauce/marinade has a sweet and spicy flavor that even smells great, thanks to the freshly grated ginger that's like heaven for the olfactory glands. If you can't already tell, I'm a huge fan of this soupy stew. If it were a musician, I'd definitely make it a point to get its autograph.

The Jerk recipe will make enough marinade for about 3-4 small fish, I marinated the fish for about 2.5 hours before popping them in the oven for about 15 minutes at 425. Jose and I decided to take our fish and stew outside and make a picnic out of our dinner; the weather was beautiful and the meal was the perfect end to a fun-filled day spent at Wimberly and in the kitchen baking. (This month I'm baking 60 different batches of cookies for a little project I was assigned at work. My last day is the 23rd of April, so I'll be busy baking for the next few weeks! I can just see the Doughboy planning an invasion in the name of sweets, just like last time!)

Speaking of the little guy, look who I saw tagged and behind bars at Wimberley Market Days early this Saturday morning! It's a very old Doughboy, an antique! But I decided I couldn't deal with anymore tricks, so I had to leave him there for someone else to adopt!

mixed berry and white wine chicken

I recently paid a visit to the library in Downtown Austin and fell in love with the cookbook section! I literally had to put some back because I couldn't even walk down the aisles due to the weight of all the books I was carrying. When Jose saw me, the first thing he did was laugh; it was a site, a funny one. Anyway, I haven't had a chance to absorb all the wonderful goodness of the many recipe books I borrowed, but there is one book that I haven't been able to put down. It has really great pictures, plus it's so darn cute...it's called Shakespeare's Kitchen! For a degree holder in English and foodie, that's pretty much like heaven in binding! It's a great book, plus it even smells delicious (I feel that each book has it's own wonderful, unique smell that's in a category all its own...). I asked Jose to skim the pages so that he could pick out something we could make for dinner together last weekend, and he chose the Chicken with Wine, Apples, and Dried Fruit...which sounded pretty yummy. Of course, being that I always have to change recipes around in one way or another (well, not always, just most of the time) I went ahead and tweaked a few things here and there, they were very minor changes. The recipe called for whole wheat flour and we didn't have any so I used regular white, and I also changed what dried fruit went into the dish. I'm not much of a date fan, so I decided to add cranberries instead. It's always fun to add in your own personal touch, because in the same way our personalities differ, our taste buds experience flavor in their own unique ways as well. I'll post the original recipe, then I'll add my semi-copy-cat after it :).

Chicken with Wine, Apples, and Dried Fruit
4 chicken legs and thighs
Salt and freshly milled black pepper
1/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups dry white wine
1/4 cup currants
1/2 cup dried plums
1/2 cup pitted dates
1 TBSP minced fresh ginger
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tart apple, cored and quartered, skin on

Here is my mixed berry and white wine chicken
8 chicken thighs (instead of 4 of each)
salt and pepper
1/3 cup white flour
2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (I used a large pan :)
1 2/3 cups dry white wine (I'm not used to cooking with this, so I figured I'd add a little less first)
1/4 cup fresh pomegranant seeds
1/4 cup sweetened, dried cranberries
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/2 tbsp minced fresh ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg (I used the powder)
1 tsp cinnamon (I always add more of this!)
1 tbsp brown sugar (it counteracts the sourness of the cranberries)
1 sweet fuji apple, cored and thinly sliced w/ peel...because I love fujis!


Instructions (these are basically the same for both recipes):
Cut apart the chicken legs (and/or thighs). Sprinkle the chicken pieces with the salt, pepper and flour (I rolled it in the flour :). Heat the olive oil in large saute pan over high heat and brown the chicken on all sides. Remove the chicken from the pan. Add 1/4 cup of the wine to the pan and stir to loosen the pan drippings. Add the remaining wine, then the dried fruit, apples, and spices also. Return the chicken to the pan, cover with a lid, and reduce heat to low. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 45 minutes (the book says 30 but I like to make sure it's really cooked :). About 20 minutes into the chicken-cooking process, I sprinkled the brown sugar on top of the meat so that it could have a nice lightly sweetened coat. Remove the chicken and cook the pan sauce for 5-10 minutes, or until it's reduced by half (so it thickens and becomes more rich in flavor).

That's about it! Have fun experimenting with adding your own favorite dried fruits! I think maybe olives would add a nice touch too!

quick and healthy stuffed bells

Hey Everyone,
I made these stuffed bell peppers on Friday night in about 30 minutes! They are super healthy, and if you don't eat oranges, eating bell peppers is a great way to get in a good amount of Vitamin C to help prevent those common winter colds. Here's another tidbit: Did you know that the lighter a bell pepper is, the sweeter it tastes? So the yellow ones are significantly sweeter than the green ones, but this time of year they're also a lot more expensive. But once these green bell peppers are boiled for just a few minutes (about 5), they are tender enough to bite into, and their overall strong, raw flavor subsides during the cooking process.

You can stuff these bell peppers with almost anything, but I used the basic recipe template that my mom introduced me to, which included ground turkey and rice. I added in a few extra veggies to the rice, because I like incorporating veggies into my dishes as often as possible. Here's the general recipe I used. I didn't get a chance to measure because I was so hungry. I just wanted to eat! But I really do think these are pretty easy to whip-up and hard to mess-up. They're so flavorful, and not to mention festive looking!

This is what went into the rice (I made this in the rice cooker!)
1 cup white rice
2 cups water
1/8 cup chopped olives
1 1/2 tsp olive oil
a few pinches of garlic salt
1 chicken bouillon cube
2 TBSP dehydrated veggie soup blend
2 medium-sized celery sticks, chopped
about 1/3 cup frozen peas & carrots

One thing I'd like to mention is that I mixed the rice half way into the cooking process because I wanted to make sure all the ingredients were equally distributed-it didn't negatively influence the rice (I know it's not a good idea to continually stir rice when cooking it, but I think doing it once or twice is ok, I haven't had any problems with this yet). Oh, and this recipe will make enough to fill about 5 bell peppers.

As the rice cooked, I cooked 1 lb of ground turkey with the following ingredients:
2.5 TBSP Pace Picante
a few pinches of garlic powder
a few pinches onion powder
2 tsp basil
a few sprinkles of black pepper
1/8 cup chopped sweet onion
1/8-1/4 cup chopped green onion

While the meat cooks in one pan, you can wash the bell peppers, then cut the tops off with a knife. You'll also want to use the knife to cut out the "insides" of the bells. I filled up a small soup pot with about 1 1/2 cups of water, then set the bell peppers in there standing upright. I cooked them over a medium flame for about 5-7 minutes, or until they were slightly tender but not falling apart. I made sure to put the tops in the pot too.

I also made the sauce that goes along very well with the bell pepper, it adds a little bit of natural sweetness to the dish
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup cheese
2 tbsp sour cream
about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce
a pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning

This should simmer in a sauce pan for about 5 minutes over a low-med flame, or at least until everything is melted together.

It's a good idea to mix the rice and meat together before stuffing the bell peppers. I also think that adding in a few sprinkles of colby/jack cheese to the rice/meat blend adds some nice flavor. After serving the bell peppers, each person can drizzle the tomato sauce/topping on top of the bell pepper, or you can serve it on the side. It's that easy, and it really is pretty good...but the best part about these bell peppers is how healthy they are!

honey ginger chicken and a fun seasonal veggie mix

When there isn't much time to make something fancy to eat, I try to make up for the lack of complexity with a dash of spices, a quick vinaigrette, or a fun texture. I tried to incorporate all those things into this dish, making sure to use up one of the many squashes I've managed to collect in my refrigerator. Chicken breast is a versatile protein I like to work with, though it does tend to be a little dry if it's cooked the wrong way. Essentially, I would've preferred to let the chicken marinate over night in the "sauce" I made for it, but, like I mentioned earlier, I didn't have the time. Instead, I decided to let the chicken cook on a very low setting for a few minutes, then sear in all the flavors by cooking the meat over a high flame for a much shorter period of time. In doing so, the end result was reasonably moist and very flavorful. I would still like to know how to get a perfectly juicy piece of chicken breast, though; most of the time it seems that the fattier meats are the juiciest, but I'm sure there's a trick out there I've yet to learn that could easily prove that idea wrong...time will tell :).

I used about a pound of chicken breast to make this dish, and I actually sliced each chicken breast in half so it would cook faster. After cutting the chicken into smaller portions, I placed it in a pan with a little olive oil and 1/3 cup of orange juice. One thing I'd like to note again is that I cooked the chicken breast with the seasonings covered with a lid over a low setting for about 40 minutes. Afterward, for about 3 minutes, I uncovered the chicken and raised the flame to a very high setting until almost all the liquid/juice evaporated and the chicken itself was slightly browned on one side--I think this is what helped "lock-in" the flavor.

Here are the ingredients I added to each side of the chicken pieces equally:
1 3/4 tsp ginger
3/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp pepper
2 1/2 tsp parsley
2 TBSP honey

While the chicken cooked over a low setting, I prepared the veggies. Sometimes veggies can use a little bit of sweetness for extra flavor, so why not incorporate fruits when preparing them? I decided to add raisins to a mix of carrots and squash, but I also added chopped almonds because nuts tend to add a fun bite to whatever they're thrown in--I will never use pine nuts, though...just discovered I was allergic to those a few years ago, and it was not a fun discovery, to say the least :P.

Here are the measured ingredients I added:
1 1/2 cups cubed squash pieces
3/4 cups chopped carrots (a smart chopper does a great job with this)
1/8-1/4 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup raisins
3/4 tsp fine herb spice
pinch of salt and pepper
2 TBSP olive oil

the veggies cooked pretty fast, especially the squash. I think it's best to actually cook the carrots alone in the olive oil before adding the other ingredients; the squash cooks a lot faster and almonds burn easily. By the way, burned almonds smell horrible...kind of like popcorn--I know because I burned some a few weeks ago and they do not give off a very pleasant smell when that happens :D.

Random Sidenote:
Oh, here are a few interesting excerpts from a CNN article about produce:
A research review of 41 studies conducted by the University of California at Davis found that, on average, organic produce contains as much as 27 percent more vitamin C, 21 percent more iron, and 29 percent more magnesium compared with traditionally grown foods.

USDA researchers have found that if it's [produce] not handled properly, produce can lose up to half its nutrients in transit. Water-soluble nutrients such as vitamin C are particularly
vulnerable.

You can read the rest of the article here

sweedish meatballs with veggies and croutons? yep!

I've never had an original sweedish meatball dish, but I had the "American" version a few times growing up. When I started trying to figure out how to make them, I used canned cream of mushroom...but, eventually, I decided to try making these meatballs without using canned soup, or anything canned, for that matter. I also wanted to throw in some veggies that would work well with the meatballs, and I thought croûtons would be a fun way to add a new texture to the usually warm and meaty dish. I don't normally eat salad, but I really love putting homemade croûtons on any pasta dish I make. Even though it's fun to buy the box kind sometimes, I had some leftover bread from when we made honey oatmeal bread in our breadmaker, so I decided to use a few slices to make the croûtons. Here are the ingredients I used along with the steps I took when making the dish:

I mixed 1lb of ground turkey in a bowl with the following ingredients
3 tbsp dried veggie soup blend (salt free)
1/2-3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 TBSP chervil leaf
1/2 cup sweet white onion, diced
1 egg
1/2 cup garlic and herb bread crumbs
2 roma tomatoes, diced

Once these ingredients were all mixed together, I rolled them into 1" meatballs and cooked them in an everyday pan with some olive oil until they were golden brown on the outside--they cooked in about 30 minutes covered up with a lid. About 20 minutes into the cooking process, I added 1 1/2 cups water with 2 1/2 tsp of dissolved chicken bouillon and 1 TBSP mixed-in flour (to thicken the sauce) to the pan with the meatballs; I also like to add about 1-2 TBSP sour cream and 1 TBSP butter so that the sauce is creamier. I threw in a few more spices like 2 tsp Italian seasoning, and a few whole bay leaves. I also added about 2 cups of mushrooms, and about 1 1/2 cups raw spinach, then allowed these ingredients simmer for 15 minutes.

While the meatballs were cooking, I cut up about 1 cup worth of bread into croûton-size pieces. I then put them in a small baking pan, drizzled them with about 1 TBSP of olive oil, sprinkled about 1/2 tsp basil, 1/8-1/4 tsp garlic salt and a pinch of pepper. Then I baked these guys in the oven for about 10-12 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

I served the meatballs with croûtons over some lightly seasoned pasta sprinkled with parmesan cheese, and that was basically it! I try to add veggies to whatever I make. They have so much nutrients and I prefer to eat veggies over consuming vitamins. I also try to buy organic veggies whenever I can, but did you know that frozen vegetables, in general, are actually better than the fresh ones because they're picked when they're perfectly ripe (so they have more nutrients)? Interesting.

cranberry chicken summer salad with citrus honey sauce

This is something I made this weekend when I was feeling too lazy to make something more time consuming. I basically made baked chicken fingers, a quick veggie/cranberry salad, some seasoned rice and decided I'd call it a salad. It was fast and easy but still flavorful. I didn't measure the spices I added to the bread-crumbs that covered the chicken, but here's a rough estimate of what all went in to this part of the meal:
about...
1 lb chicken breast tenders
3/4 cup garlic and herb bread crumb
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp basil
Then the chicken breast tenders were dipped in an egg wash, covered in the bread crumb seasoning mixed. They cooked in the oven for about 30-35 minutes at 325.

The "salad", if you want to call it that, was also easy to make. Most of the prep time for this dinner was spent cutting up the ingredients I used, which included:
1/2 sweet onion
1/4 cup sweet, dried cranberries
1/4-1/3 cup finely chopped celery
1 finely chopped onion
2 TBSP olive oil
a pinch of salt and pepper
1/2-3/4 cup chopped mushrooms
I then seared all these veggies/fruits together until they had a sweet and spicy aroma.

The rice was cooked in chicken broth and a mixture of spices, then I made the dressing last, so I could throw it over the baked chicken before serving. This is enough dressing for about 2 people:
1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp freshly squeezed tangelo or orange juice (I actually squeezed a tangelo...and I've only recently heard of them :)
1/2-1 tsp honey (depending on how sweet you want it)

This was all pretty quick and easy to make, I had a very lazy weekend. Today we made a pizza...and I'm really happy with how well the bread maker makes pizza dough! With just a few extra seasonings sprinkled over the dough after rolling it into a pizza shape, and the proper veggies and cheeses, the bread maker pizza dough, and the pizza in general, comes out so much better than delivery! I should have taken a picture, but it was so good that I couldn't resist diving into it before getting the camera out. Slow weekends are nice...especially on cold winter days...which I am definitely looking forward. But there's good news, it seems the unbearable Texas heat is finally giving in, at least a little, to the slight coolness of the approaching autumn days...we're finally in the low 90s!

fresh tostadas and salsa

I bought a $4 whole chicken at the grocery store on Sunday, cooked it in the crock-pot and I'm still finishing it up! What a bargain! I've been able to make so many meals with it, including last night's tostada dish.

I had to add a few more spices to the chicken, since it seems only the skin absorbed the flavor of the spices I added when I cooked it in the crock-pot. So I just chopped up about 1 1/2 cups of chicken, threw it into a pan with a little bit of olive oil, then seasoned it with cilantro, salt, pepper, and parsley. I added about 1/2 tsp of parsley, 1/4-1/2 tsp of cilantro, then a few shakes of salt and a sprinkle of pepper. I also cut up a small garlic clove and 1/8 cup of onion--added that to the chicken while it was spiced over a medium flame for about 5-7 minutes--or until it was slighty golden (I like toasting chicken sometimes because it adds good flavor, especially in Mexican dishes...I notice that pork chops also taste better when they're on the crispier side, not burned, though!)

As for the tortillas that I used for the tostadas, I purchased a bag of locally made tortillas that are completely preservative free (I am horrible at making tortillas, I tried a few times and all that results is a horrible mess and blocks of flour!), then I fried them in olive oil over a medium flame until they were crispy. If you don't want to fry them (I actually didn't fry the ones I ate) you can toast them on a grittle pan until they get crunchy--this is what my grandma does.

The garnish I used for the tostadas included the following ingredients: romaine lettuce (chopped), a chopped roma tomato, some grated cheese, and of course the salsa.

My grandma taught me how to make salsa a few months ago, but I wanted to add a few more things to it. I added chopped red bell pepper because it has a sweetness to it that balances out the spiciness of the chili piquin I used.
Here's what went into the salsa (this makes about 1/2 cup of salsa):
2 boiled roma tomatoes, with the skin removed
1 chili piquin
1/8 cup sweet onion
1 small chopped garlic
2 TBSP finely chopped red bell pepper
3/4 tsp cilantro
1/4 tsp salt
a pinch of pepper
I threw the roma tomatoes into the blender with 2 1/2 tsp of warm water and the little piquin. While this was blending into a liquid, I chopped up the garlic, onion and red bell pepper, then lightly sauteed these ingredients in olive oil with the cilantro and pepper. I then added the sauteed veggies to the plain roma tomato/piquin chili "sauce", added about 1/4 tsp of salt, then I turned the blender back on for a few seconds on the "grate" setting; I didn't want a complete puree, there should still be some small pieces of bell pepper in there.

That's about it for the salsa, you can chill it if you want to, or eat it warm on top of the tostadas.

One thing I really like on my tostadas is refried beans. I still had beans left over from the other day (you can get the recipe here), so I just added a couple of tablespoons of oil to a pan (I used olive because it doesn't smell up the house as much as canola/vegetable oil, and it does taste good with the beans), spooned in the beans, raised the flame to a medium-low setting and started mashing them with a spoon once they warmed up. I didn't completely mash them into a big mushy thing, I left a few semi-whole and then let all the beans simmer over a low flame until most of the watery bean "soup" evaporated, so that I was left with the refried beans.

Oh, and before I go, here are a few more pictures of my guineas, I took these a few days ago:
This is Mochi (we refer to him as the mini buffalo, he kinda looks like it)


This is Yoshi! (he's actually really hyper, but you can't tell that here)

spaghetti with (ground TURKEY!) meatballs in a homemade sauce and Italian bread on the side!

It looks like I only cook pasta, at least this blog would give visitors that impression! But I don't, it is one of my favorite things to make and dress-up, though. I was in the mood for some spaghetti and meatballs today, but I wanted to make a sauce that wouldn't feel like I was just eating, as Jose called it, a bunch of plain noodles lathered in tomato puree. I've gone to quite a few Italian spots, never really finding a place that serves a good and tasty spaghetti and meatball plate. It does seem that most of the sauces are overly-tomato tasting, and it doesn't seem like much thought actually goes into the sauce. I hate boring food, and this is definitely not a plain pasta dish. Pasta and french/garlic bread go perfect together, at least I think they do, so I decided to spice up a baguette I bought at the grocery store just yesterday, giving it a little bit more of a kick with a sauce that isn't just butter and garlic based. So here's the recipe and instructions on how to make this flavorful stuff:

As far as the meatballs go, they alone carry quite a bit of flavor and can definitely be used for meatball sandwiches if any are leftover. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, I used ground turkey for the meatballs. My parents used to cook with it a lot when I was growing up, and it was actually my mom who taught me how to make these meatballs from ground turkey. It might sound a little odd if you've never tried it, but ground turkey actually has a much milder taste than beef, so it can showcase/hold the flavor of spices much better, in my opinion. It's also a lot leaner than beef, and you definitely won't have to worry about mad-cow disease if it's your meat of choice for this meatball recipe (by the way, this recipe makes enough servings for about 5 people):
1 pound ground turkey breast (or whatever ground meat you prefer)
1/4 cup chopped sweet white onion
1/2 cup garlic and herb bread crumbs
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 TBSP mustard
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1 egg
All these ingredients can be mixed together in a bowl, then rolled into little 1 inch balls before being placed in an all-purpose pan to lightly fry in some olive oil, I used 1/4 cup and that might sound like a lot, but it actually wasn't since the pan I used was a good size.

As the meatballs cooked for about 25 minutes over a low-medium flame, I got started on the sauce, this is what went into the sauce:
15 oz can of Muir Glen salt-free organic tomato sauce
3/4 tsp garlic and herb spice
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp sugar (to balance out the sourness of the plain tomato sauce)
3 whole bay leaves
1/2 tsp ground sage
1 3/4 tsp parsley
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp vegetable broth powder
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
a pinch of nutmeg (everyone on food network does it, so I figured I should too :)
1/4 cup water (the sauce is kind of thick and will continue to thicken as it cooks)
1 cup portabella mushrooms
So I let this sauce simmer for about 10 minutes before adding it to the meatballs, which should now be browned on the outside. After I added the sauce to the meatballs, I let them simmer together while I cooked the pasta.

As far as the pasta goes, I just used a 12 oz bag of spaghetti. After I cooked it in the boiling water with a little bit of olive oil and garlic salt, I just added about 2 tsp of butter, a few shakes of Parmesan cheese, and a couple of olive oil sprinkles (as you can see, I definitely cook with a lot of this stuff :).

Now here's the Italian bread recipe, it's so fast and easy to make it could be served alone as a snack.
Preheat oven to 375
1/2 small baguette (horizontally halved--basically, it makes enough for 3 people)
1/8 cup melted butter
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
These ingredients can be mixed together in a cup, then drizzled with a teaspoon on the bread right before sprinkling it with about 1/2 cup of fresh spinach and 1/8-1/4 cup of a mozzarella/parmesan cheese blend. The baguette can then be placed in a 375 degree oven for 7-8 minutes. Afterward, you can garnish it with a few sliced roma tomatoes, and slice it into 3 medium-sized pieces, or about 4-5 small ones.

Funny thing about this spaghetti & meatballs plate is that I've actually made it before, but it came out so much better now that I actually measured the ingredients...even though it's my recipe. I don't get it haha! Happy cooking, next time I'll post something non-pasta related ;)!