Creamy Latin Pasta Salad ~ 5.20.09

This would make a great side dish for your Memorial Day picnic this weekend! It is THE OFFICIAL start of summer and I'm hoping the weather cooperates with the calendar b/c we intend to grill!

Oh how I love a grilled burger or veggies or hot dog or... anything!

I made this when I had the twin's birthday party back in March. We went for a Mexi-themed party and I served Beef and Bean chimichangas, Sweet Potato Burritos, Taco cups (for the kids) and this Creamy Latin Pasta Salad. OH and my favorite Black Bean Salsa made an appearance as well!

So Friday night, 2 days before the party... I was just, you know, looking around on the web for what I was going to make. I already knew the main course, I just needed my sides. AND I went looking to Ingrid Hoffman of Food Network fame.

This recipe doesn't disappoint. It lives up to it's creamy name and gets it's latin flavors from cilantro and lime juice. I add whatever veggies I have around the kitchen. But, the past 2 times I've made it, black and green olives and grap tomatoes have always been present!

Give this a try if you're tired of the same old Italian pasta salad and you'll be glad you did. I just wish my kids liked pasta salad- I think they can't get past the "it's pasta and it's cold" thing. their loss.

Here's what you need and how do make it!

1 lb rotini pasta --- cook to al dente in boiling salted water

Dressing (I double this!- the salad seems to be too dry without adding more dressing)
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 lime juiced
S&P

place all the dressing ingredients in a blender and whirl until smooth and creamy. toss with drained pasta and fold in your add ins....

Add ins:
choppped black olives
chopped green olives
zucchini- I cut into thin slices, stack and then cut into strips
red pepper
red onion (no thank you)
grape tomatoes- cut in half
thin sliced ham
jicama- thinly sliced
1 cup frozen peas

Chill, covered, for at least 2 hours. Mix before serving and taste to see if you need to add a bit more dressing. I did. It seemed dry. As I didn't want to add too much more, I added a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil to loosen it up a bit.

Makes 6-8 servings, at least. I'd say more. I only made this much and had plenty for our large group of 25 + people ('cause not everyone eats it...)!

Bananas Foster French Toast Bake

oh dear.

oh dear, dear, dear.

I was afraid something like this might happen. I neglected blog #2.

Well, that's okay. I have been busy on my little menu planning project. Don't think I forgot about it. I am tweaking and it will take me a bit to do so. Just thought you might like to know.

BUT it is STILL monday and I always have these HIGH hopes that I have these thematic little posts revolving around the days of the week. Who knows if I'll ever stick to that, but in case I do, I'm calling this MAKE THIS MONDAY. As in, you seriously need to make this recipe soon. It's so yummy.

I was inspired by the chica over at Whatever to make her Baked French Toast recipe. I was so inspired that I made it way back on May 1st and have been waiting for another opportunity to make it again.

BUT this time, I put my own little spin on it. I'm getting brave like that lately. Taking a recipe and craftitizing it. ooo. that sounded fancy.

So, I was inspired by the original and came up with my Bananas Foster Baked French Toast.

Smell = heavenly and honestly, it's all you need to smell to get you in the right mind frame for the day...

Taste = sugary and french toasty

Sight = when you see the caramelized sugar glistening in the morning light when you bring this hot breakfast treat over to the table, you'll thank me.

I'm so humble.

Here's how I made this...forgive the non-recipe looking format, I'm typing this from memory...

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take a 9x13 pan and put a stick of butter in it and pop it in the oven to melt. I prefer unsalted. You can use whatever you have in the fridge.

Measure out a cup of brown sugar and 2 tsp. of ground cinnamon.

Slice up 3-4 bananas- depending on the size of the banana and your need to get rid of some over-ripe nanas (but never toss them! throw them in the freezer till you have some time to make banana bread or mexican monkey cake).

Okay, now that the butter is melted, throw in the brown sugar and the cinnamon. Shmush it all around and mix it all up and then even it out on the bottom of the dish. Now scatter your bananas on top of the sugar mixture. Here's where you can take this to the bananas foster level and add a few dashes (like 1 tsp) of rum extract or dark rum! I went without this option as I thought of it after this concoction came out of the oven. I couldn't wait till I tweaked all the ingredients before I shared it with you... so maybe I'll revise at a later date!

Take one loaf of bread- I used

a cinnamon loaf and it was great! I sliced mine thinly as you'll want to shoot for 3 layers of the bread. Lay the bread slices on top of the banana/sugar mixture- turning the bread to get a good even layering without too many holes. You can tear up a few slices to fill in the holes, too.

Now for the custard:

6 eggs
2 cups of milk
1-2 tsp vanilla
dash of salt

whisk that all together and slowly pour it over your bread. You want it to soak in and get into all the nooks and crannies.

Pop it all in the oven at 350 for 30-35 minutes. You want to make sure the custard is cooked and not goopy.

As an optional step (and this was part of the original recipe, but you can take it or leave it)- drizzle maple syrup (the real stuff) over the top of the french toast after it's baked and broil it for a few minutes. Until bubbly. Watch out though it happens FAST!

I got about 12 servings out of this-or 6 BIG servings. Perfect with fresh fruit over the top!

Take the plunge & have a slice of breakfast pizza ~ 4.27.09

I've been inspired.

I've been thinking about taking the plunge lately and well, I'm just going to dive in.

I'm sick of it being 4:30 and me wondering, what exactly can I throw together for these 4 kids and myself? (I usually know what's for dinner on the nights when Mr. Crafty is going to be home) I'm tired of running to the grocery store with 2-4 kids (depending on the day and time) b/c I don't have cilantro or milk or food.


Leila is inspiring me to get those meals thought out, planned and money will be saved!

Let's here it for knowing what's for dinner before dinner! WOO HOO!

Let's here it for saving money! WOO HOO!!!

Let's here it for taking the time to finally plan it all out! WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!

If there's anything that having a blog (or two) has taught me, it is this- if I put it "out there" in the world that I'm going to do something, I will do it. I have accountability. I have friends and Mr. Crafty P asking me, "have you done _____ yet?" It's a remarkable system and it's working. And I'm trusting in this practice that it will work with this as well.

So, it began when I found Leila's posts on her sidebar. You can start HERE and then check out her sidebar for worksheets and more posts to inspire YOU!

Who wants to join me? I love a party and this seems like a good party to get into on a weekly basis, no?

Wondering what the picture up above is? Those are the infamous Bananaroni Pizzas. I saw a picture of them in a parenting magazine, I believe it was a freezer waffle ad and thought - awesome idea!

Make your frozen waffles. Spread with butter, then your favorite jam/jelly. Top with sliced bananas, maybe sprinkle on some wheat germ (ooo! good idea! just thought of that!) and cut with a pizza slicer.

A fun way to mix up eating waffles the same way all the time!

p.s. I've begun this process in varying stages for awhile now, but I'm ready to embrace it fully! Let's GO!

Sweet Potato Burritos! Ole~ 4.24.09

Now with PICTURES!

I've had this recipe dog-eared to try for a LONG time, but I could never justify making it b/c I figured I would be the only one eating it. It does sound like a strange combination, but trust me, it is so darn good! I've made them twice now since the first attempt and may try sticking to the recipe a bit more. I would say I'm often "inspired" more by recipes lately, than I am at making them verbatim. Nothing wrong with that, it helps me be more creative in the kitchen!

I made these along with another recipe from the same cookbook for Z & D's second birthday a few weeks back. A good crowd pleaser and 5 thumbs up from me! It does help if you like sweet potatoes b/c they are the star ingredient!

Addictive Sweet Potato Burritos
inspired by Allrecipes dinner tonight cookbook, pg. 163

1 can refried black beans
2 large sweet potatoes (or more depending on who you're feeding)
8 oz shredded monterey jack cheese
10-12 burrito size tortillas- the whole wheat ones were great for this!

1. Roast your sweet pototoes until they start to ooze, split open and are easily pierced with a knife. Peel and mash up those potatoes until nice and smooth. Get a baking sheet ready with foil and a little cooking spray on it. (NOTE: since this step takes a good hour +, I often do it ahead of time, say, the night before when I'm making dinner. I just throw the taters in while I'm cooking something else!)

2. Get your ingredients ready assembly line style: refried beans and spreader, mashed sweets, shredded cheese, tortillas.

3. Heat up a couple tortillas in the microwave to help make them soft and malleable- spread on a little refried beans- keep them away from the edges. I usually spread enough to make an oval shape in the middle of my tortilla- remember you're rolling them up and you don't want them to ooze out on the baking sheet. Then spoon a couple tablespoons of sweet potatoes. Lastly, sprinkle on some monterey jack cheese.


4. Roll 'em up and line 'em up on your baking sheet. Keep going until you have enough or you're out of ingredients.

5. Bake at 375 until hot- about 12-15 minutes. I rub a little olive oil on top of the tortillas to crisp them up and b/c it tastes good!

Serve with chips and salsa or my favorite Black Bean Salsa!

But today, I had mine with Our Best Bites Lime Cilantro Rice with Pineapple... c'mon, you know this is good stuff!

I think I'll start adding who in the house likes the recipe I write up, so that I can have a good reference when I'm searching for something to make.

Mr. Crafty hasn't tried these yet... somehow, they're always gone before he gets to them.
G gobbled them up with me.
The other three are a mixed bag- depends on the day, the hour, the moon's phase and the weather.

I'll also try and get some pics up a bit later so you can see the finished product...

How to make a s'meep ~ 4.22.09

To celebrate this great and wonderful 2nd Wednesday of Easter, I thought I'd introduce you to our new favorite seasonal treat, the s'meep.

hello soon-to-be-s'meep!
simply a graham cracker, some chocolate bar on top of that and the peep or bunny of your choice on top of that!

into the oven you go... hot and melty s'meeps!


and ready to be eaten while we cheer on the PENS!

delicious little s'meeps!

Thai Peanut Noodles with a TIP~ 4.16.09

It looks like the Thai Peanut Noodles have won that little contest over there. So, here goes.


I found these via Our Best Bites (which you'll see a link to on my sidebar). Great recipes over there by 2 lovely ladies. I have my eye on several and you will certainly find one, two or a dozen that you'd like to try, so check them out!


A few weeks back we celebrated my cousin Karen's 50th birthday while her daughter, Brooke, and grandson, Shane, were in town. Brooke's a faithful reader over here and at She's a Crafty Pumpkin and my second cousin!

there's mom getting the cake ready and see in the bottom corner, those are the noodles!



Anywho, we decided to throw Karen a Asian Fusion party. Fusion b/c we had an eclectic mix of foods and it just sounds so sassy to say "Asian Fusion", don't you think?

We made a delicious Asian Chicken Salad, Thai Peanut Noodles, heated up some pre-made egg rolls and had a couple dips thrown in for good measure. The highlights were the chocolate fountain and the Italian Creme Cake. Mmmmm.... delicious.

However, I thought these thai peanut noodles were especially lip delish. I made them up earlier in the day and absolutely

could

n o t

S T O P

eating them! I've made them twice now and lowered the heat a good bit for the kids. They didn't get into them as much as their mum, but whatever, I love these noodles and will make them from time to time as they are simple, simple!


Here's what you need:

1/2 cup chicken broth
3 Tbsp. creamy peanut butter
**1-2 tsp Sriracha chili sauce (1 is mild w/ a bite, 1 1/2 is medium and 2 is HOT)
1 1/2 Tbsp honey
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp. minced fresh ginger
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz of linguine or Udon noodles (I used linguine)
chopped green onions
chopped cilantro
2 limes, cut into quarters
chopped peanuts

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and then salt it. Add your noodles. Remember the recipe calls for 8 oz, so if you make a whole package, be sure to double your sauce!!

In a medium saucepan, combine the PB, chili sauce, chicken broth, honey, soy sauce, ginger and garlic over medium-low heat. Whisk together until smooth and warmed through. Taste as to adjust the heat level to your liking.

Once the noodles are done cooking, drain and put them back in the pot. Add the Peanut sauce and combine.

Serve it up in bowls and let everyone add their own toppings: green onions, cilantro, lime and peanuts! I like it all and the lime juice really makes these noodles sing!

**NOTE about the Sriracha chili sauce- it's HOT and I am a complete wus when it comes to spicy foods, but this is an essential ingredient and I love the background heat that it added to the noodles. I found it to be cheapest at Wal-mart and almost a dollar more at my grocery store!

Now here's a great tip for chopping up herbs, like the cilantro in this recipe. I love this trick b/c the herbs don't fly off your cutting board and it's seriously QUICK!

Get a small cup and toss in some herbs. Here I have flat leaf parsley that I've cut off from a big bunch of parsley.

Grab your kitchen shears. If you do not own these, please go put on a pair of shoes and grab your keys and get yourself a nice pair. I could not survive in the kitchen without them. They are indispensable!

For those of you who have them, let's continue, the others will catch up later...Put your shears in the cup and start cutting up those herbs!


Voila! Perfectly cut up herbs and no mess but a cup.

Coming up next post...

Addictive Sweet Potato Burritos- oh my!

Easter Feast ~ 4.11.09

Tomorrow we'll be celebrating the great feast of Easter!

While I'll be quite the busy little bunny hopping around the kitchen today, I thought I'd post some of the foods that will grace the Costain table.

Neely's Peach Glazed Ham - quite excited about this one!
Scalloped Potatoes - mom is making these
Roasted Asparagus - pan roasted

Baked Fruit!
Cucumber Salad
Mandarin Orange Salad
Sauteed Spinach with corn and tomatoes
bread

Dessert
Oats'n Honey Pie
Fresh Strawberries with Chocolate dip