A little bit Italian...

When I want something REALLY easy to make for dinner I boil some pasta and thaw out some of my home-made marinara sauce!  The process to make the marinara takes a good long while, but it is mainly just simmer time on the stove!  I use this sauce for just regular spaghetti,  baked penne pasta, and for pizza sauce... it could just as easily be adapted for anything where you need a tomato sauce.

To make my marinara you need:
1 BIG can of crushed tomatoes (I usually get the kind with basil already in it)
1 BIG can of diced tomatoes
1 regular can of diced tomatoes (or whole if you like your sauce a little chunkier)
1 small can of tomato paste
2 onions, diced
2 tablespoons EVOO
3 tablespoons of minced garlic
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons dried basil
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 tablespoons parsley
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
1 1/2 tablespoons dried granulated garlic
1/2 tablespoon pepper
1/2 tablespoon crushed red pepper
1/2 tablespoon garlic salt
2-3 bay leaves

Start by heating the oil in a big pot.  Saute the onion and garlic for 4-5 minutes.  Add ALL the spices and saute for a few more minutes.  Add all the cans of tomatoes and stir so that all the spices are pretty incorporated with the tomatoes.  Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer.  Taste your sauce and this point and see if you need more salt, garlic, or basil.  The three flavors should be there when you taste your sauce. I usually end up adding more garlic and basil.  Simmer on the stove for AT LEAST 2 hours, but I usually do a minimum of 3, and stir every 10-15 minutes.   Taste as you go! Sometimes you need more seasoning- don't be afraid to add more seasoning!! If you think your sauce is getting a little too thick, add a little bit of chicken broth or another can of diced tomatoes.  This makes 4 different meals worth of sauce for Billy and I.  I just put the sauce into zip lock bags and then freeze.

I ALWAYS have this in my freezer!  When I open my last bag, I make sure that I make more that day, or the next weekend.

When I am ready to eat, I just take the sauce out and defrost it in some warm water.  Last night I cooked some turkey meat with garlic, parsley, basil, and salt and then added the defrosted sauce for a few minutes before draining and adding the pasta.

The process of making the sauce, not so fast... the process of eating it once defrosted? SUPER fast! (and good!) Yum!

FEC Pesto

I have another FEC meal!  Today was LONG.... School starts tomorrow and I am overwhelmed.  I got to work at 7:25 and got home at 5:10.... it was a very long day, complete with breaking down into tears over a very frustrating set of computer wires that took an hour to de-tangle.  Whew!
   When I got home, it had just stopped raining and the basil that I have growing in my backyard smelled a.maz.ing.   I decided right when I smelled that sweet, wonderful basil that I was making pesto in some way for dinner tonight. I always have at least one basil plant growing, but during the summer I grown tons of the stuff!  Right now, I have little mini basil plants growing wild all over my backyard.  Basil is one of those things that can be expensive if you buy just a bag of the leaves (and it doesn't last long either), but if you buy a plant it ends up saving tons of money.  Right now, Publix has their live herb plants at 2 for 4 dollars.  Two bucks for something that will continue to reproduce over and over again, yes please!!

 Pesto is super simple to make, and its pretty dang cheap, too! (and it's about 2 WW points for 1/4 cup of the recipe!)
You'll need:
20ish basil leaves
1/4 cup EVOO
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
a couple of pinches of salt
1 1/2 heaping tablespoons minced garlic (or less if you don't like garlic as much as I do!)
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts or pistachios-- I like using pistachios because I think it gives the pesto more flavor, but pine nuts are traditional.  * Keep your pine nuts in the freezer! They last forever that way!*

Put everything in a food processor and then blend until it becomes a paste-like consistency.  Taste and add ingredients as needed.  Sometimes depending on your Parm, you'll need more salt.  If you think your pesto is a little too salty, add a little EVOO and a couple of basil leaves.    I don't really measure anything when I make pesto, I just eyeball it! It is so easy to fix, there's no problem!  This recipe makes about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup. Easy, right!?!

I just toss the pesto with hot pasta and serve with sauteed shrimp!  YUM!  This whole meal can be made in the time it takes to cook the pasta-- 8-10 minutes!  Fast! Just process the pesto and saute the shrimp with salt, pepper, and garlic powder for about two minutes on each side while the pasta is boiling!

Cheap, too! 1/2 a lb of shrimp costs about 4 bucks, the pasta I bought (and use three separate times!) for 79 cent as a BOGO at Publix, the Pesto can be made for about a buck if you take into account how many times you can use the ingredients that you buy for the pesto (especially if you buy a basil plant!)

*****Just a warning! The pine nuts are kind of expensive, BUT I have had the same container of pine nuts in my freezer for like 6 months.  And, I make pesto a lot!****

Look at all that stuff!! The basil has gotten SO big this year!  I have another pot of it in another container too!

Look at that wild growing stuff!! (along with all the weeds! lol!)

Go make some pesto! It's really good!!

fast. easy. cheap.

If you ask most people about what they want when they make dinner and they will probably tell you they want something to be fast or easy or cheap or any combo of the three. (I personally prefer all three!!) 

   Most of the year, I am exhausted after a long day of teaching, but I still need to make dinner because, lets face it, teaching doesn't exactly pull in the big bucks, and dining out every night is simply out of the question!  I also genuinely enjoy cooking... it becomes a de-stresser of sorts.  I tend to bake or cook when I am stressed out or upset about things.  For example, when I was told I was going to be moved to the high school at the end of last school year, I did LOTS of baking.  I liked teaching at the small one grade school where I was, and I am still upset about moving away from all of my school friends.  I am in the process of getting settled at my new school and that stress is starting to rear its ugly head again.  I found myself this afternoon forcing myself to stay out of the kitchen so I wouldn't make cookies for no reason.  

   Instead of eating the rest of my weight watcher points for the year, I decided to look for something to make  for dinner.  I am NOT a huge pork chop fan, so I don't tend to make pork chop or loins very often.  This week, however, pork loin was on sale at Publix so I grabbed a package.  My husband, Billy, said it best tonight at the dinner table,  "At 2.97 for the whole package, that's way cheaper than tacos!!"  I do love a taco, and use the inherent cheapness of tacos as an excuse to make them often! :)

  Tonight, however, I make a new FEC meal- pan seared pork loin with garlic cheese biscuits and sauteed apple and onions.  I think that the meal turned out GREAT and Billy said it was a keeper.

  The pork was just seasoned on each side with grill seasoning and a little bit of salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  I heated a couple of tablespoons of EVOO in the bottom of a saute pan on medium high heat and then cooked the pork on each side for about 2 minutes.... Easy right!! 

  

 I got the biscuit recipe from the back of the bisquick box- it was also super easy-- Bisquick, cheese, milk, minced garlic, garlic powder and melted butter were all the ingredients.  The only thing I do differently is add more garlic and cheese.  The more of those, the better!! 10 minutes later at 450 and YUM! 

   The apples and onions were what I was most worried about since I hadn't attempted this recipe before.  

I sliced about 2 small onions into thin slices.  I didn't have any green apples, or whole apples for that matter, but I have pre-sliced apples that I eat for snacks, so I just used them.  I used about 15 slices of the pre-sliced apples and cut them into thinner slices as well.   I heated another skillet to medium high heat and put in 2 tablespoons of butter.  Once that had mostly melted,  I put in my onions and apples and cooked them until they were just tender.  It took about 7 minutes.  Once tender, I added a tablespoon and a half of brown sugar and stirred it in.  I cooked that for about 5 more minutes so that the sugar had coated and melted onto the onions and apples.  SO good!! I don't know why I was worried!! 

Try the apple and onion recipe and I promise, you will love it with the pork! The sweet apples and onions with the slightly smokey and savory pork is amazing!! 

Eat something good for me!

Emily G