Summer Squash Alfredo Pasta

With the abundance of garden produce every summer always comes lots of squash--although not too much this time, because we didn't overplant. :) But I had several summer squash that needed using at once, so I decided to try something new. It was a success!


Summer Squash Alfredo Pasta

I just threw together the following:

Cooked whole wheat pasta (about 26 oz. uncooked)
5 or 6 medium-sized summer squash, diced and cooked
Homemade Alfredo Sauce--my favorite homemade Alfredo sauce can be found here, but I included it below for convenience:

Light Alfredo Sauce

2 c. milk
1/3 c. (3 oz) cream cheese
2 Tb. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 Tb. butter
3 garlic cloves
1 c. grated Parmesan cheese (I used the real kind)

Toss milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt in blender (I love how easy this part is!)

Process until smooth and set aside.

In non-stick sauce pan, melt butter on med-high heat and add garlic.

Let garlic saute for about 30 seconds, being careful not to burn it. It should be nice and bubbly.

Add milk mixture to pan. Stir constantly for about 3 or 4 minutes or until it just comes to a simmer. Keep stirring and let it cook for a few minutes more. It should be much thicker now.

When nice and thickened remove pan from heat. Add cheese, stir it up, then cover immediately. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before using. It will continue to thicken upon standing. Also, if you have leftovers in fridge, sauce will thicken almost into a solid; just re-heat and add a little milk.

Italian Chicken (Sauce)

Updated Note: I first posted this recipe 3 years ago and it is still a family favorite. I repost it now with an updated picture and a reminder of how good it is!
                       * * * * *
This makes very tasty chicken that is fabulous on pizza and in quesadillas, as well as on salads or anywhere else you enjoy seasoned chicken.

Italian Chicken (Sauce)

2 Tb. vinegar
2 Tb. olive oil
4 Tb. soy sauce
1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional)
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder

Mix all ingredients. Cube up raw chicken (about 4 breasts), place in sauce and let sit 5 minutes. Cook until chicken is fully cooked and liquid is gone. Serve on pizza, quesadillas, salads, etc.

Beef (and Zucchini?!) Enchiladas

The other night I was looking for an enchilada recipe that included ground beef, as it had been a few days since we'd had any red meat (for my oldest daughter's benefit), and I was in the mood for enchiladas. When I found this recipe, I got a bonus because it also included a veggie--zucchini--and I am always looking for ways to include more vegetables in our dinners, in ways that my girls will eat them (the baby eats everything). I had never thought of putting zucchini in an enchilada, but I was certainly willing to try it!

Verdict? My second daughter wouldn't try any (she's not a fan of tortillas), but her older sister liked it and my husband and I thought it was delicious. I especially like the homemade enchilada sauce (and the fact that I could include more zucchini than ground beef with no problem).

Note: Since I had shredded zucchini in the freezer, I used that instead of diced, as the recipe calls for.

I didn't include a picture here because the pictures at the original site are so beautiful, you really should check them out. In fact, since I didn't modify anything, why don't you just mosey on over there for the entire recipe...?

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

When my 4-year-old tasted this a couple nights ago, her response was, "Mommy, this is so yummy!" The rest of us agree.


This "bread" recipe is modified from my mom's and is actually more like cake. The sauce recipe I modified from my Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook, p. 483.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

3 to 3 1/2c. whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3 eggs
1 c. oil (or butter)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. almond flavoring
1 1/6 c. honey
1 1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. finely shredded lemon peel
1 1/2 Tb. poppy seeds

Mix all ingredients together. Add more flour if too runny, but should be like cake dough, not bread dough.

Pour into 2 greased and floured loaf pans or 1 large Bundt pan (don't use regular cake pan).

Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour, depending on size and depth of pan, until nicely browned and passes the toothpick/knife test.

Once out of oven and while still warm, mix sauce and baste on loaves.

Lemon Sauce

1/3 c. raw sugar
2 tsp. cornstarch
1/8 c. water
1 tsp. finely shredded lemon peel
1/8 c. lemon juice
1 beaten egg yolk
3 Tb. butter, cut up
1/8 c. half-and-half, light cream, or milk

In small saucepan stir together raw sugar and cornstarch. Stir in water, lemon peel, and lemon juice. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture is slightly thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 1 minute more.

Remove from heat and gradually stir egg yolk into hot mixture. Return to hotplate and cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Gradually stir in butter until melted. Stir in half-and-half (or milk). Pour slowly over cake loaves while still in pans, until top is all coated.

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Homemade Alfredo Sauce

It's so easy to buy a bottle of pre-made Alfredo sauce, but have you ever looked at the epistle of ingredients in those things?! It's really not difficult or time-consuming to make your own, and this recipe uses only 7 ingredients.

One of my friends sent me this recipe the other day and I tried it out to great reviews from even my picky 3-year-old. I've tried several different Alfredo recipes, most of which had a great taste, but they were all too thick and sticky in my estimation (and therefore, difficult to dish up or have as leftovers). This one, while light, still has a good flavor, and it covered all the pasta evenly, without clumping or being lumpy.

Note: I used one box of whole wheat linguine and it seemed the perfect amount of pasta to use. Also, I like to serve Alfredo pasta with some kind of green vegetable, so I added cooked, diced asparagus to the pot at the end. Other times I've used broccoli; they're both good.

Light Alfredo Sauce

2 c. milk
1/3 c. (3 oz) cream cheese
2 Tb. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 Tb. butter
3 garlic cloves
1 c. grated Parmesan cheese (I used the real kind)

Toss the milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt in a blender (I love how easy this part is!)

Process until smooth and set aside.

In a non-stick sauce pan, melt butter on med-high heat and add garlic.

Let the garlic saute for about 30 seconds, being careful not to burn it. It should be nice and bubbly.

Add milk mixture to the pan. Stir constantly for about 3 or 4 minutes or until it just comes to a simmer. Keep stirring and let it cook for a few minutes more. It should be much thicker now.

When it's nice and thickened remove the pan from the heat. Add the cheese, stir it up and then cover immediately. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before using. It will continue to thicken upon standing. Also, if you have leftovers in the fridge, the sauce will thicken almost into a solid; just re-heat and add a little milk.

Homemade Barbecue Sauce (for Chicken)

Here is the family recipe I used for the barbecued chicken (turkey) sandwiches I made, as mentioned previously. Since I had shredded turkey already cooked, I just mixed together the sauce (below) in my crock pot, added a small diced onion, and set the pot on high for a couple of hours (though this long probably isn't necessary, since only the onion needed to cook). Then 45 minutes to an hour before dinner time, I added the semi-frozen turkey to the pot, mixed it all in, and that was it.

Barbecue Sauce (for Chicken)
(As opposed to the one for spare ribs)

1 c. ketchup (preferably corn syrup free)
1 c. water
1 Tb. salt
2 Tb. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tb. vinegar
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 black pepper

Homemade Poppy Seed Dressing

This is my aunt Karen's recipe and the only modification I made was to substitute Florida Crystals less refined sugar or raw (turbinado) sugar for the regular sugar. (Note: This gives the dressing a light brown tint, instead of the pretty pink that the red wine vinegar gives it when using white sugar.) Only 7 ingredients, no preservatives, no artificial anything. Can't beat that! And it's yummy. 

It lasts well in the fridge for up to 2 weeks when I half the recipe, which is usually how long it takes my family to go through that much.

Homemade Poppy Seed Dressing

1 1/2 c. less refined (or raw) sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. dry mustard (scant)
2/3 c. red wine vinegar
3 T. onion juice (If you don't have onion juice--who does?--liquefy pieces of onion in blender. Or eliminate this altogether--which is what my children prefer.)
2 c. salad oil
3 T. poppy seeds

Mix together sugar, salt, mustard, and vinegar.

Add onion juice; blend.

Using blender (or immersion blender), blend salad oil slowly into mixture until thick. With a spoon, mix in poppy seeds.

Enjoy dribbled over your favorite salad!

I'm in Love...

With this salad.

I've had similar salads before, but something about this salad the last couple of weeks has had me in raptures. I enjoyed it so much at Thanksgiving dinner that I replicated it at home. And I even found some store-bought salad dressing that is MSG-free with all natural ingredients (Brianna's)--not that I couldn't have made my own. At Thanksgiving I enjoyed it with honey mustard dressing; at home I enjoyed it with poppy seed dressing. I love how versatile salads can be! And this one has such a pretty color combination as well...

Cranberry-Almond-Feta Salad

Salad base:

Green leaf lettuce, torn
Spinach, torn
cucumbers, sliced
tomatoes, sliced

Over the top sprinkle:

green onions, diced
original feta cheese, crumbled
dried cranberries
candied almonds, crushed
salad dressing of choice

Healthier Alternatives

Tomorrow night I will be giving a short presentation at my church on nutrition. My topic is healthier alternatives--which is much of what this whole blog is about. It was a bit difficult to condense everything I thought of to discuss, but I managed to fit onto one page what I felt were the most important things to cover (it doesn't fit quite the same here). I include it below for those who are new to my blog or those who may appreciate a refresher, complete with links to places where I talked about them (or found the information) in more detail.

COOKING WITH HEALTHIER (AND USUALLY CHEAPER) ALTERNATIVES

• Try to do most of your shopping around the perimeter of the store (or better yet, produce as much of your own food as you can). (See Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food.)
• Cook from scratch - Get as close to possible to the natural source. Ex: Kroger’s All Natural sour cream has only cream, milk, and enzymes. Use butter instead of margarine. Even make your own spice mixes and cook desserts from scratch too.
• When you do buy prepackaged/prepared foods, check ingredients: The fewer the ingredients the better--and if you don’t know what some of them are, it’s probably better to opt for something else. (Again, see Michael Pollan.)
• Avoid MSG (monosodium glutamate). It’s added to many bottled sauces, salad dressings, canned soups, premade spice mixes, bullion, prepackaged foods, and even some sausages (not to mention many restaurant foods).
• Eat more vegetables. Try planning some dinners more around vegetable (and bean) dishes than meat dishes. This can also be cheaper.
• Limit or cut out white flour and refined grains. Bake with whole wheat flour and whole grains, including whole grain pastas and brown rice. Whole wheat flour is best ground fresh, since wheat begins losing its nutritional value (particularly its protein content) 72 hours after it is milled. You can also save a lot of money by grinding your own.
• Add more beans to your diet (preferably cooked from scratch). Ex: Substitute hummus for your vegetable or chip dip. If you do use canned beans, be sure to rinse off the sodium. Beans are super nutritious and very inexpensive. (Tips on how to get rid of much of the gas when cooking dried beans.)
• Refined sugar: Cut it down or out! Examples:

- Use healthier substitutes like honey, fruit juices, or raw sugar.

- Drink 100% juice instead of punch or soda.

- Replace fruit snacks with dried fruit.

- Instead of pancake syrup, use honey. Buy items such as peanut butter and

applesauce without sugar.

- Conscientiously check for corn syrup on labels and limit intake (there’s even some

new ketchup without it!)

Ranch Dressing from Scratch

Have you ever noticed how many ingredients are in those bottles of Ranch dressing you buy at the store? How about soybean oil as a first or second ingredient? And do you regularly add these ingredients to your meals?: autolyzed yeast extract, tapioca dextrin, calcium lactate, caramel color, "artificial flavor" (don't you love that?), xanthan gum, sodium alginate, sodium metabisulfite, maltodextrin, phosphoric acid, sodium benzoate and sodium sorbate (preservatives), calcium disodium EDTA (to protect flavor). Bon apetite, anyone?

I've known for a long time that such dressings really have more gross ingredients than good ones, and that has bothered me even while I eat them, but I never got around to figuring out how to make my own Ranch from scratch. Now I have, thanks to this site.

Like my Italian Dressing mix, this recipe makes a large batch of the mix so that you have it on hand and can easily use 1 Tb. of it at a time to make the dressing. (Which isn't really that much harder than pulling that bottle of syrupy, preservative-filled stuff out of the fridge!) This is definitely a keeper recipe and I'm so glad I found it.

Homemade Ranch Dressing
Makes 12 batches (use 1 Tb. at a time)

2/3 cup dried parsley flakes
1/3 cup dried minced onion
3 Tbsp. garlic salt
2 Tbsp. onion salt
1 Tbsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. onion powder
1 Tbsp. dried dill weed
1/4 tsp. pepper

In a medium mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well with a wire whisk. Store in airtight container in a cool dry place.

To make Ranch Dressing, combine 1 Tb. of mix with 1 c. mayonnaise* and 1 c. buttermilk**. Note: If you want it for vegetable dipping instead of drizzling over a salad, use about half as much buttermilk.

Refrigerate until serving. Yields 2 cups

*I used a combination of mayonnaise and sour cream and really liked it.
**Click here for easy buttermilk substitutions (if you're like me, you don't often have the real thing on hand)--for dressing I preferred to use vinegar rather than lemon.

Homemade Barbecue Sauce

There are so many pre-made barbecue sauces out there, and many you can buy for cheap. But many of them also have extra ingredients that aren't desirable. If you make your own you can tweak it anyway you want to, make it hotter or more mild, according to your family's taste. This is a classic family recipe that makes the best barbecued spare ribs ever!

BBQ Sauce (for spare ribs)

1 onion
1 c. ketchup (preferably corn syrup free)
1 1/4 c. cider or water
1-2 Tb. vinegar
2 Tb. brown sugar (or 1 Tb. honey)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. dry mustard
2 Tb. Worcestershire sauce
dash cayenne pepper

Taco Seasoning Mix from Scratch

Wanting an option other than a pre-made taco seasoning mix with tons of sodium and all sorts of additives, I remembered the Italian Dressing recipe I found a while back that we have enjoyed so much. So I went looking and found this recipe the other day on diylife.com and tried it out. It's excellent, so I thought I'd pass it on. In this case I didn't actually use much meat, but needed the seasoning for a slightly different version of my tortilla soup recipe, to make it more taco-y.

Taco Seasoning
(for 1 lb. of meat)

2 tsp. chili powder
1.5 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. unrefined sea salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. oregano
dash of ground cayenne pepper
freshly ground black pepper to taste
(If you like it spicy, add more cayenne)

Homemade Italian Dressing

The other day I wanted to make a recipe that called for Italian dressing (a stir-fry, to be exact), but we didn't have any. However, remembering all the extra yucky stuff store-bought dressings usually contain, I decided to make my own. So I found a recipe online, modified it a bit, and tried it out. The result was tasty, though not yet perfection, so I will be tweaking it again until I find the right combination. But I wanted to offer it as food for thought (and experimentation). What I love most, though, is that this recipe prepares a bunch you can store and use by the tablespoon whenever you need to whip up a quick batch of Italian dressing.

Update: I've used this twice now to make chicken and vegetable fajitas and they were excellent!

Homemade Italian Dressing

• 1 Tb.onion powder
• 1 Tb. garlic salt
  
• 1 Tb. white sugar (I'm going to cut this down next time, as I like my Italian dressing more spicy than sweet)
  
• 2 Tb. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1 Tb. dried parsley
• 1/4 tsp. celery salt
• 1 Tb. salt

In a small bowl, mix together the garlic salt, onion powder, sugar, oregano, pepper, thyme, basil, parsley, celery salt and regular salt. Store in a tightly sealed container (or a baggie).

To prepare dressing, whisk together 1/4 c. white vinegar, 2/3 c. canola oil, 2 Tb. water and 2 Tb. of the dry mix.

Update (6/15/10) - The second time I made this I preferred the variation of adding more garlic salt and cutting down on the oil.

Homemade Tartar Sauce

Of course homemade is always best, and that also goes for sauces. Have you ever seen how many ingredients are in those jars of tartar sauce at the store?! Crazy, and definitely unnecessary. This family recipe has only 5 ingredients and is delicious on white-fleshed fish.

Tartar Sauce

1/2 c. mayonnaise
1/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. grated onion (or substitute dry minced)
1 T. chopped pickle
1 T. lemon juice

Stir together all ingredients, cover, and chill until ready to serve.