Splendid Spaghetti.

Both recipes came from The Starving Students Vegetarian Cookbook by Dede Hall. I'll post the recipes later tonight/tomorrow!

Spaghetti w/Spinach Mushroom Sauce

• 8 oz. fettuccine, cooked to package directions (I used spaghetti)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 fresh garlic clove, chopped
• 12 fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 1/4 onion, chopped
• 1 cup fresh spinach, washed, dried, and torn into pieces
• 2 tablespoons vegetable broth or water
• 1.5 cups Ricotta Cheese (I used cottage cheese)
• 1/2 cup grated romano or parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

While the pasta is cooking, make the sauce. In a skillet, hear oil on high heat 1 minute. Add garlic, mushrooms, and onion and stir. Cook for 2 minutes. Turn heat to medium and add spinach and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil and let cook 5 minutes. In a large serving bowl, combine ricotta cheese, Romano cheese, milk, and pepper. Add hot spinach mushroom mixture and hot drained fettuccine. Toss well to mix and enjoy!

Pasta Primavera w/Creamy Garlic Basil Dressing

• 2 cups leftover cooked pasta
• 1 zucchini, chopped into slices
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 1 4 oz. can of chopped black olives, drained
• handful of cherry tomatoes
• couple handfuls shredded mozzarella cheese

Toss all ingredients together in salad bowl.
Creamy Garlic Basil Dressing

• 1 6 oz container yogurt
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 4 fresh basil leaves, cut up (or 1 teaspoon dried basil)
• pinch of dried oregano.

Mix all ingredients together in small jar or cup. When ready to eat, pour dressing over salad and toss to mix well.

Brazilian Black Bean Soup ~ hopefully it will help me get over this cold.

Ingredients: (Makes 4-6 servings)

• 1 red onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can of black beans (29 ounces - I used 14 ounces)
• 1 can of vegetable broth (14.5 ounces)
• 1 tablespoon of Chili Powder
• 2 teaspoons of cumin
• 2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
• 2 tablespoons of rum or sherry (optional - I didn’t use any) 

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in 3 quart saucepot. Cook and stir onion and garlic for 3 minutes or just until tender. Stir in 1.5 cups water water and remaining ingredients except rum. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cook, partially covered, 20 minutes or until flavors are blended, stirring occasionally.
2. Ladle about half of soup into blender or food processor. Process on low speed until mixture is smooth. Return to sauce pot. I would not suggest doing this UNLESS you have a towel to cover the top of the blender because let me tell you, one scolded hand later and soup all over the counter and floor ~ this is not a good IDEA. Stir in rum. Cook over medium-low heat 3 minutes or until heated through and flavors are blended. Garnish with lime slices, minced onion, or cilantro, if desired. 
3. Heat up a bag of Uncle Ben’s 90 second rice to add to the bottom of the soup bowl. This is what I added to the bottom of my bowl. If you’re not vegan, you can add some grated cheddar cheese to the top of the soup. 

Zucchini Casserole!

Tonight I made Zucchini Casserole for dinner. Although, I didn’t have quite everything a quick phone call to my dough-tastic father helped me out along the way!

The original recipe is from Skinnytaste although I did alter it to fit what I had and to make the recipe a bit cheaper, for us college kids struggling with financial issues. So my revisions included a homemade recipe for one cup of bisquick, but if you happen to have that on hand, just use 1 cup of bisquick. I also just decided to reduce the amount of olive oil and use 3 eggs rather than the 2 egg whites, 1 whole egg. Just because I didn’t see the rest of the ingredients as necessary for the recipe unless you’re on a weight watchers diet as the original recipe author is, then by all means, follow what she says!

So this is my revised list of ingredients;

Zucchini Casserole

• 4 cups grated zucchini
• 1 small onion, grated
• 3 eggs
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1 tsp parsley

Homemade Bisquick (makes 1 cup):

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp. of butter

You’re going to want to make the homemade bisquick first if you are choosing the homemade bisquick route. So to do this you mix all the dry ingredients and then fold in the butter with a fork until it has been worked into all or most of the flour. Next you just mix everything from the casserole recipe into the homemade bisquick. Remember to either rub some extra butter or pam the pan first! Next just pour it into the pan or casserole dish that you plan on cooking it in. I cooked mine in a 9x12 cake pan. But I do warn you that the mixture or at least mine only filled about 3/4 of the pan. So I baked for mine at 350 in the oven for 25 minutes and then checked to make sure the knife I stuck in it was clean, and it seemed so, so I took it out and let it cool! 

This pre-made Publix salad is so delicoius.

It’s called Carrot Salad:

• Shredded Carrots
• Chopped Green Onions/Scallions
• Raisins
• Walnuts

Cinnamon Sugar + Peanut Butter Toast w/Starbucks Vanilla Instant Coffee.

Tonight for dinner I made a Ravioli Panzanella Salad from a lovely little cookbook I bought a while back but hadn’t found the time to use. The name of this wonderful little and easy to follow cookbook is Incredibly Easy Vegetarian - Favorite Brand Name Recipes. If you just happen to wildly know what book I’m referring to or even have it on hand, the recipe is on page 50 in my edition!

Ravioli Panzanella Salad: (Makes 4-6 servings)

• 1 package (9 ounces) of refrigerated cheese ravioli or tortellini (I used 16 raviolis to make the recipe 2 servings.)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons of white wine vinegar (apple cider vinegar works too!)
• 1 cup halved grape tomatoes or 1 large tomato chopped
• 1/2 cup sliced pimiento-stuffed olives
• 1 large shallot, chopped or 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
• 1/4 cup finely chopped Italian parsley (I just used dried Italian Spices)

• 1/4 cup finely chopped celery (omitted this because I didn’t have any!)
• 1/8 teaspoon of black pepper (I didn’t use this because I don’t prefer pepper)

1. Cook ravioli according to package directions; drain well. Transfer to a large serving bowl; set aside to cool 10 minutes.
2. Whisk oil, vinegar and black pepper in small bowl until well blended. Add to ravioli with tomatoes, olives, celery, and shallot; toss gently. Sprinkle with parsley.