Cozy Cooking
During the week, I am usually all about quick and easy meals with minimal clean up. For these recipes, I always check to see what my dear friend the Pantry Chef is up to. Her meals are easy, cheap and most importantly, delicious!
But last night, I was feeling adventurous and creative and with the “cooler” weather in Arizona, I was ready to try something new, cozy and complicated. Something that would make me spend some more time than normal in the kitchen. Our temperatures are finally out of the 90s and into the low 80s and it feels good here! I was no longer afraid to turn the oven on. So, I searched some of my favorite blogs and found this delicious recipe.
I found last nights dinner at For The Love of Cooking. With a few slight changes (for time’s sake) we had a delicious meal Baked Penne Pasta with Mushrooms.
I cut the recipe in half but, in retrospect, could have used more sauce for sure. It was so good. I also did not have time to simmer the sauce for a few hours but it simmered for about ten minutes while the penne cooked and that was enough. The recipe at For the Love of Cooking called for an immersion blender. I don’t have one of those but would love one for my upcoming birthday. Hint, friends. Hint. Instead I used a masher to blend the roasted tomatoes and it worked just fine.
This part was my favorite – roasted tomatoes to make the sauce, stuffed with garlic and topped with olive oil and onion. Delish!
Roasted Tomatoes and Onions with Garlic
The finished product!
We have plenty of leftovers too for lunches and future dinners. This would be a great meal to take to a new neighbor or a new mom.
Tomorrow I’ll spend some time talking about working out while growing a baby!
Reality Check and Breakfast Enchiladas.
Living on base can often feel like camp.
There’s bowling.
There’s Bingo.
There is a golf course.
It can really feel like summer camp. However, this past week has been a slap in the face that we DO NOT LIVE at military fun camp. There are actually two wars going on. Well, there are more than that. But, two big wars that most of our Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen are fighting. The slap in the face started last week when 8 US Airmen were killed in Afghanistan. The slaps kept coming last night with the announcement of Osama Bin Laden’s death.
I love living on base. There’s always a lot going on and a lot of people running around. But, if it’s easy to forget here, then it has to be super easy to forget off base when people aren’t in uniforms every day and they don’t play the Star Spangled Banner every day at 5 pm. Yes, they do that here. The truth of the matter is that whether we like it or not, we are still a nation at war and we will always be the land of the free because of the brave.
I’ll get off my soapbox now but just needed to add my two cents. I also wanted to share a quick and easy breakfast recipe. We ran out of milk last week – chaos ensued. For sure.
Here was my solution. I was in a hurry so I don’t have any pictures.
Breakfast Enchiladas
Serves 2
Ingredients:
- 2 corn tortillas (flour is fine too but corn is a bit healthier)
- 3 egg whites (you can use all of the egg if you prefer, but again, whites are a bit healthier)
- 1 egg
- 1 Bell Pepper, chopped (I went to the grocery store and they were SO expensive so I cut these out)
- 1 Onion
- 1 Tomato
- 1/4 cup cheese, reduced fat
- Pinch of Salt
- Pinch of Pepper
- 1 Tbsp Salsa
- 1 Tbsp Sour Cream
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray. Scramble egg whites and egg until cooked. Add chopped bell pepper, other veggies and cheese. Sprinkle salt and pepper. Place 1/2 of mixture in one tortilla and the other half in the other tortilla. Folds end of tortilla in and roll up. Place seam down on baking sheet. Put in oven until tortilla is browned, 5 – 8 minutes.
Top with salsa and sour cream.
It’s a quick, easy breakfast fix and you can use whatever is in your kitchen.
We are off for a quick run before dinner, which tonight will just be leftovers. 
Still Unwritten
