Pasta Raccolta Estivo {A Guest Recipe from Love in the Kitchen}

Are you all ready for Day 3 of Birthday Week on the blog? :) Susan from Love in the Kitchen is stopping on over today to share her recipe for Pasta Raccolta Estivo.  She knows that Italian dishes are one of my favorites! Can't wait to dig into this one... 

Howdy Frugal Foodie Mama readers!  I'm Susan from Love in the Kitchen where I share my passion for cooking easy and tasty homemade food with fresh ingredients with you.  

Today I'm here to help Carrie celebrate her birthday Week.  {Happy Birthday Carrie!}

I know that Carrie is a fan of Italian food, and, as it is her birthday, I am sharing a wonderful pasta dish that I've created - a special one-skillet Italian dinner, made with ingredients fresh from the garden called Pasta Raccolta Estivo (aka, pasta from the summer harvest).  This is a perfect summer celebration dinner - filled with summer flavors and simple to make so you can spend time celebrating instead of slaving over a hot stove.  And with just one skillet to wash, you've got more time to eat cake!

Sound good?  Then come on over to Love in the Kitchen where I will show you how to whip up this flavorful dish in less than an hour!  I hope to see you there - and thank you Carrie for the opportunity to share this with your readers.  I hope you have a spectacular birthday!

Click on over to Love in the Kitchen to grab this recipe now! 

If you loved this recipe, you might also like my...

Summer Pomodoro Sauce

Summer Gazpacho

Foodie On a Budget- Chile con Pollo (& the $5 Grocery Budget Conclusion!)

As those of you who have been following along know, my husband and I wrapped up our successful $5 Grocery Budget Challenge last Friday.  (Click here for my initial post on our grocery budget challenge, including my meal plan for the week.)  The only two things that we bought at the grocery store last week were a loaf of bread and shredded mozzarella cheese.

I had planned to make something like a white chicken chili for dinner Wednesday evening, but it evolved into something more like a Mexican chicken stew.  A Chile con Pollo! ;) 

What you will need:
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped (I used the half that I had leftover from my Summer Pomodoro Sauce from Sunday.)
2 tbsp of canola oil
2 tsp of Penzeys Arizona Dreaming spice blend (You could also use a combination of chili powder and cumin in lieu of this spice blend.)
2 tbsp of flour
1 1/2 cups of cooked chicken (I had some roasted chicken frozen in my freezer from when I made my Slow Cooker "Roast" Chicken a couple of weeks ago.)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 cup of frozen or fresh corn kernels
4 cups of chicken broth
1 tbsp of brown sugar
salt, to taste

Go ahead and chop and mince up all of those veggies.  I put the onion and garlic in one bowl and the peppers together in another bowl.  Set those aside.  In a large stock pot or dutch oven, heat about 2 tbsp of canola oil over medium heat.  When oil is heated, add the onions and garlic and saute for about 1 minute.

 Next add the jalapeno pepper and red bell pepper, and saute with the onion and garlic for another 2-3 minutes.  In a small bowl, mix together the Arizona Dreaming (or your chili powder and cumin) with the flour.  Add the flour mixture to the veggies in your pot and cook for another minute.  

Now add your cooked chicken to the pot and stir with the pepper mixture for another minute or so.  

Pour in the chicken broth and then season with the black pepper.  Add the corn kernels.  Cook over medium heat for another 10-12 minutes.  Towards the end of the cooking time, add the brown sugar.  I like to add brown sugar for the slight smoky sweetness it lends to the stew.  Taste your broth.  Add salt if needed.

I served our Chili con Pollo garnished with a little shredded Mexican cheese on top and a wedge of homemade cornbread on the side.  (Click here for the recipe for the best homemade cornbread I have ever made, and the only that I will make from now on.)
For Nutritional Info on this recipe, please CLICK HERE.

Thursday evening was homemade pizza night.  We have been kind of obsessed with homemade pizza in this house since I found THIS RECIPE for making pizza dough in my bread machine.  This dough makes THE perfect pizza crust.  I topped our pizza with homemade pizza sauce I had leftover from our pizza I had made the week before and had froze, pepperoni (also leftover from the week before), jarred banana peppers, fresh basil from my garden, and shredded mozzarella cheese.

Friday evening we had planned to have pancakes for dinner, but that day was also payday. And my husband had a friend in town from out of state.  So we all went out to dinner. ;) 

So you may be wondering what did we do for breakfasts and lunches?  We had plenty of cereal and frozen waffles already in the house.  Lunches were usually leftovers from dinner the night before if there were enough.  If we didn't have any leftovers, then we made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or grilled cheeses.

Eating well and eating healthy are doable on almost any budget.  You just have to be resourceful, freeze-freeze-freeze (hardly nothing is thrown out in this house!), find ways to use what you have on hand, and be creative with your substitutions. 

Chile Con Pollo

by Frugal Foodie Mama

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

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Ingredients (Serves 6)

• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 2 tbsp of canola oil
• 2 tsp of Penzeys Arizona Dreaming spice blend (You could also use a combination of chili powder and cumin in lieu of this spice blend.)
• 2 tbsp of flour
• 1 1/2 cups of cooked chicken
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 cup of frozen or fresh corn kernels
• 4 cups of chicken broth
• 1 tbsp of brown sugar
• salt, to taste

Instructions

Go ahead and chop and mince up all of those veggies. I put the onion and garlic in one bowl and the peppers together in another bowl. Set those aside. In a large stock pot or dutch oven, heat about 2 tbsp of canola oil over medium heat. When oil is heated, add the onions and garlic and saute for about 1 minute.

Next add the jalapeno pepper and red bell pepper, and saute with the onion and garlic for another 2-3 minutes. In a small bowl, mix together the Arizona Dreaming (or your chili powder and cumin) with the flour. Add the flour mixture to the veggies in your pot and cook for another minute.

Now add your cooked chicken to the pot and stir with the pepper mixture for another minute or so.

Pour in the chicken broth and then season with the black pepper. Add the corn kernels. Cook over medium heat for another 10-12 minutes. Towards the end of the cooking time, add the brown sugar. I like to add brown sugar for the slight smoky sweetness it lends to the stew. Taste your broth. Add salt if needed.

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Foodie on a Budget- Easy Cheesy Stove Top Mac 'n Cheese

Monday night was barbecued chicken thighs with roasted new potatoes.  Nothing too fancy.  The husband doctored up some bottled BBQ sauce.  I tossed the potatoes in olive oil, kosher salt, and pepper.  Near the end of the cooking time, I tossed in some fresh parsley from my herb garden.

And Tuesday evening was creamy, cheesy mac 'n cheese.  From scratch.  Not to toot my own horn, but this was actually THE BEST mac 'n cheese I have ever made from scratch.  I have tried a couple of those one pot mac 'n cheese recipes.  You know, where you boil the macaroni in milk instead of pre-boiling it?  Have you ever tried that?  It takes FOREVER to cook the pasta that way.  Forever.  
I still kept this one pot.  I boiled and cooked the macaroni first, drained it in a colander, and used the same pot to make the cheese sauce.
I have to say I think the difference in my mac 'n cheese recipe versus others that I have tried is that I did not use regular milk in my cheese sauce.  I used evaporated milk instead.  I had it leftover from making a batch of My Secret Ingredient Brownies, and thought why not?

What you will need:

2 cups of dry macaroni (or shells, or another small pasta shape)

2 tbsp flour

1 tsp dry mustard

1/4 tsp nutmeg (or paprika if you are not a fan of nutmeg)

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 tbsp butter

1 1/2 cups evaporated milk

1 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese (You could use a different cheese instead. Use what you have on hand.)

1 cup of pasta water, reserved

Salt, to taste

First things, first.  Boil the pasta and cook it until tender.  Drain the macaroni in a colander, but be sure to reserve 1 cup of the pasta water.  Set the drained macaroni aside.

While the macaroni is cooking, whisk together the flour, dry mustard, nutmeg (or paprika), and black pepper in a small bowl.

Using the same pot you used to boil the macaroni, melt the butter over medium heat.

Once the butter is melted, whisk in the flour mixture.  Keep whisking for a few minutes to form a roux.  This is what will make your cheese sauce thicker, and will season it.  Next pour in the evaporated milk, whisking as you pour.  Continue cooking over medium heat, whisking often.  Cook for 5-7 minutes, until the sauce is thickened.  

Remove the sauce from the heat, and stir in the shredded cheese.  Whisk until melted and smooth.  At this point, if your sauce is overly thick whisk in some of the pasta water you saved to loosen it up a bit.  Taste your sauce, and add salt if needed.

Now mix in your cooked pasta and voila! Easy, cheesy stove top mac 'n cheese. :)

This recipe makes enough for about 4-5 servings.  Since there were only the two of us this week, this meant leftovers for lunch the next day! ;)  I have to be honest.  This was the first time I have ever heated up leftover mac 'n cheese and it was almost better the next day.  Usually reheated mac 'n cheese is thick, glumpy.  Not this mac 'n cheese.  It reheated nice and creamy.  I am going to have to attribute that to the use of evaporated milk in lieu of regular milk.

Foodie on a Budget: Summer Pomodoro Sauce

Summertime is often synonymous to me with a bounty of homegrown tomatoes and veggies. Whether I am pulling fresh zucchinis and peppers from my own garden or a family member's garden or picking up some locally grown beauties at the farmers market, it inspires me to want to create something beautiful and fresh to put on my dinner table.

This past Sunday was the start of another grocery budget challenge for me.  This time it was $5 for 6 days for 2 people.  After doing an inventory of my pantry, garden, and freezer, I concluded that I would only need to buy a loaf of bread and a package of shredded mozzarella cheese.  If you would like to read my initial post about this week's grocery budget challenge, click here.

I had a decent haul of fresh vegetables on hand so I decided that a nice pomodoro sauce was in order for Sunday dinner.  

What you will need:

1-2 tbsp of olive oil

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 a medium onion, chopped

7-8 smaller tomatoes or 3-4 larger tomatoes, roughly chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

1 small to medium zucchini, chopped (Yeah, I know. The zucchini pictured above is massive.  I only used a small portion of it. ;) )

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

7-8 basil leaves, chopped

3 sprigs of parsley, leaves removed and chopped

1 tbsp sugar

Salt & pepper to taste

Heat your frying pan over medium heat.  Once hot, add the olive oil.  Then add the garlic and onion, and saute for about 1 minute.  Add in the chopped zucchini and red bell pepper.  Saute until the zucchini and pepper are tender, about 3-4 minutes.  Meanwhile, slightly process the chopped tomatoes in a blender or food processor.  Only blend for a few seconds.  You want the tomatoes to still have some body to them.  

Add the blended tomatoes to the veggies and mix.  Next pour in the balsamic vinegar.  Let the sauce simmer for about 5 minutes. Mix in the sugar. Then add the fresh basil and parsley and cook for another minute.  At this point, taste your sauce.  If it is not sweet enough for your taste, you can add a little more sugar.  Salt and pepper the sauce to taste.  

Serve immediately over pasta.  

If you prefer a smoother sauce (like my husband does ;) ), you can let the pomodoro cool slightly and then blend in a blender or food processor for a few seconds.  

What is really great about this sauce recipe is that it is versatile.  Don't have a red pepper, but you have a green one?  Then use it instead.  You can throw in summer squash instead of the zucchini.  Don't have fresh tomatoes on hand?  Then use canned tomatoes.  Of course, fresh will taste better. ;) But being a foodie on a budget means using what you have on hand the best you can.  

I will be posting more updates (and recipes!) from my grocery budget challenge this week soon.  Be on the lookout for them! ;)

Foodie on a Budget- A New Grocery Budget Challenge

Well, I am at it again.  But this time I am challenging myself just a bit more.  Can I do just $5 of groceries for 2 people for 6 days??  Some of you who have been following me for a little while may remember my My $15 Seven Day Grocery Budget Challenge I did in May.  Now that I have had a couple of months to replenish my pantry and freezer, I am ready to go at it again.  

This time it is just my husband and I for the week.  My son is at the beach with my parents for the week (lucky bum!).  

I have taken inventory of what I have on hand.  I was also fortunate in that my mother gave me some of her perishables before leaving for the beach- some tomatoes, celery, romaine lettuce, zucchini from her garden.

Here is the dinner menu plan for the week:

Sunday- Fresh Summer Pomodoro Sauce with Angel Hair Pasta (and this was made last night)

Monday- Barbecue Chicken Thighs with Roasted Herb Potatoes

Tuesday- Homemade Mac 'N Cheese

Wednesday- White Chicken Chili

Thursday- Homemade Pizza

Friday- Pancakes for Dinner (This is kind of becoming a weekly thing in our house now. ;) )

If I have calculated all things correctly, I *should* only need to buy a loaf of bread for sandwiches and shredded mozzarella cheese for the pizza.  Everything else is either in my fridge, freezer, pantry, or garden! :)

Be watching for updates (and recipes!!) throughout the week!