Creamy Balsamic Pasta Salad

Friday night brats and a thrown together pasta salad.  This is one of those salads that you just dump stuff in a bowl, wing a dressing and have something better than you expected.  That is my favorite way to cook.  No recipe inspiration, just plain old dump cook.  Thanks mom for teaching me the way!  I mentioned our Friday night plans to go to the Spokane Indians game, we got there and it was sold out.  Bummer.  So we went to this little brewery that just opened up called the Budge Brothers.  They have potential, but need a little work.  You can tell that it's two brothers living their dream and neither them have a lady by the way they have their space is designed.  Just a few chairs around the of perimeter of the room, and a big open space where tables should be.  Kind of awkward.  But we did meet both brothers, which was cool.  Best of luck to them!  On to the salad!

What you'll need:
1 avocado diced
1/2 cucumber quartered and diced
1 head broccoli cut into small pieces
1/2 can olives halved
1 cup feta
1/4 cup fresh basil chopped
2-3 cups cherry tomatoes halved
3 cups pasta uncooked

Dressing:
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
1/4 cup mayo (I always use the olive oil kind)
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1 tablespoon lemon lemon juice

Cook pasta.  Once done, strain and run cold water over to cool completely.  Set aside.  In a large bowl add first 7 ingredients and cooled pasta.  In a smaller bowl, mix all dressing ingredients until smooth.  Pour over pasta and fold until everything is well coated and combined.  Place in fridge at let sit at least 2 hours before serving.  It really tastes 100 times better if you let it sit.  Trust me on that one!

I had to share this photo.  This is what I happens when I'm photographing blog pictures and Kam decides what he's making should be blogged too.  Artistic wiener photos.  I never know what I'll find when I dump the camera.  Thanks hun!

Left overs for lunch!  It's saturday morning and my coffee just finished brewing....have a fun weekend friends!  Enjoy!

Broccoli Salad

This would be broccoli salad favorite #1.  I think this salad is just about on everyone's top 5.  It's just so good.  Salty, sweet, crunchy and all kinds of other flavor wonders!  I made this salad a few summers ago to just have around to snack on.  I went to work and came home to Kameron and our good friend Pat having ate all of it.  So I made another batch and threatened both of them!

What you'll need:
4 heads broccoli
1 cup thick cup bacon (any bacon will do tho)
1 cup feta crumbles or shredded cheddar
1 cup nuts (walnuts, pistachio, cashews, sunflower or a combination)
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup plain greek yogurt
1/2 cup mayo
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
1-2 teaspoons sesame seed oil (add one and taste to see if you need more)

Cut broccoli florets down into tiny bite sized bits. Add to a large bowl. You should end up with around 8 cups.  Cook bacon.  Allow to cool.  Add feta, nuts, green onions, and cranberries to bowl.  Crumble bacon and add to bowl.  I removed most of the fat from mine as a crumbled it.

In a smaller bowl, mix yogurt, mayo, sugar, vinegar, honey and sesame seed oil.  Mix until smooth.  Let sit about 10 minutes so sugar will dissolve.  Add to broccoli and fold until broccoli is evenly coated and everything is evenly distributed.  Chill for a few hours before serving.

This is another one of those salads that can almost be a full meal deal. Enjoy!

Vegetable Fritters

I am in love with these veggie cakes.  The spices and the lightly crisp vegetables make this such a good side dish.  I think I could just eat these for a meal and be perfectly happy.  I made these a few months ago with the intention of sharing the recipe, but I was missing one ingredient that I knew would make them A+.  So when I made them, they didn't come out quite like I wanted them too.  So yesterday I grabbed my missing ingredient....perfecto!

What you'll need:
2 cups bean sprouts
1 cup diced onion
1 cup chopped broccoli
2 cups shredded carrot (bigger shreds the better.  I have one of those giant hole shredders.  Maybe even julienne instead of a shredder.)
2 cups thin sliced cabbage
2 eggs
1/4 cup cilantro chopped
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon coriander
3 cloves garlic minced
1 sleeve saltine crackers crushed
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 cup water divided
1/2 cup flour
Oil for frying

Add vegetables, spices, cilantro and soy sauce to a large bowl.  Add Crush crackers and 1/2 cup water.  Mix flour and other 1/2 cup water until no longer lumpy.  Add eggs and flour paste.  Mix until everything is well combined and vegetables are coated and kind of pasty.

Heat about 2 tablespoons oil over medium high.  Use a half cup measuring cup as a scoop and drop into oil.  Press the fritter down to form more of a patty.  Let fry until very golden browned.  If you flip too early it will fall apart.  Once browned, flip, but do gently.  Fry other side. You may have to add a little more oil at some point.

I was barbecuing flank steak at the same time so I fried the fritteres out on the bbq burner.  It was nice because it didn't make our little apartment smell.  Once they were done I kept them warm by placing them onto a piece of foil I placed over the top rack in the bbq.

You could make a sort of tzatziki sauce to go with them, we just ate them as is.  Next up, the other half of this meal...flank steak!  Enjoy!

Creamy Tomato Sausage Pasta

Another one dish wonder meal.  This one was simple but a little timely.  You have to let the sauce reduce reduce reduce, so it takes some time.  Other than that, just chopping and dumping.

What you'll need:

1 package or 1lb pasta (use your favorite)

1 pound sausage or 4 links cut into bite sized chunks (ours was spicy links)

2 heads broccoli

1 red pepper thinly sliced

1/2 onion

6 medium mushrooms sliced

1 can diced tomatoes

2-3 artichoke hearts sliced (Optional but recommended.  I had left overs from skewers)

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup sour cream

salt

pepper

3 garlic cloves chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon chicken bouillon

fresh basil

In a large pot, boil pasta with 1 tablespoon salt.  In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high.  Add onion and sausage.  Cook until onion is translucent.  Once pasta is done, take one cup of the starchy pasta water and add one teaspoon of chicken bouillon to it.  Stir to dissolve.  Add chopped garlic to pan and cook for a few seconds.  Now add pasta water and tomatoes.  Leave at medium high and allow to by half reduce, about 15-20 minutes.  Stir occasionally.

Once visibly thickened, add milk and sour cream.  Mix until combined.  Allow to reduce for another 10 minutes or until sauce is a consistency you like but not too thick.  Add vegetables and pepper.  Mix until everything is coated.  Cover and allow to steam for 5 minutes stirring occasionally.  Once broccoli is crisp tender, add noodles and about 1/2 cup torn basil leaves.  Fold noodles into vegetable sauce.

Kam was so pasta satisfied that he took a picture of his empty bowl.

Bowl up.  We enjoyed this.  A lot.  I thought our spicy sausage was a little too spicy but Kam was all about it.  Next time I might add a little more sour cream, which you could do, maybe 3/4 cup instead of a half, but to keep calories down, stick to the recipe. Which I will probably do next time too.  Enjoy!

Broccoli Tomato Salad

I love broccoli salads.  I have two favs.  This is my #2 favorite, I'll be making my #1 favorite sometime soon.  I had an idea of how this salad is usually made, but wasn't completely sure what seasonings go into the dressing for it.  So I just took a guess, and it came out great.  The only thing that I would change next time is that my bacon my must have been cured in something super salty, because I added a little salt to the dressing, and its a tad too much.  I'm pretty sure I just got a salty batch of bacon, maybe keep that in mind when you're making it, test bacon for saltiness.

What you'll need:
3 medium crowns broccoli
3 Roma tomatoes
1 cup bacon crumbles
1/2 cup mayo (I like the olive oil kind)
1/2 cup plain green yogurt
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1 teaspoon cracked black peper
1/4 teaspoon celery seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 tablespoon olive oil

Cook bacon.  Set aside and let cool.  Cut broccoli crowns down into bite sized pieces, I like mine pretty small.  Slice tomatoes in half and remove all seeds and slime.  Cut into quarters and chop into smaller pieces.  Crumble bacon.  Mix the remain ingredients in a small bowl until well combined.  Pour over broccoli/tomato/bacon and toss until evenly distributed and all the broccoli is coated.

Eat it up!  Little protein, little veggies, meal in a bowl.  Enjoy!

p.s. I had a super crazy day at work today and totally spaced fortune friday...rain check until monday for your weekly fortune.  I will make it up to you by sharing my favorite fortune ever!  Be excited, it's a good one!