Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Light Pasta and Tina's Oatmeal bars



I'm sooo glad tomorrow is already Wednesday-yayyy! Work today was alright. Afterwards, I did a ton of errands and then Jill and I team taught Body Step. After B-step, I ran to BJs and picked up a bundle of exciting items! First off, BJs has the best and largest bag of mixed frozen fruit ever! I was so excited to find it! Frozen fruit is my new obessision! Once I was back, I made a fresh pasta mix based on this recipe from Cookie Baker Lynn's blog. It turned out awesome! I used whole wheat spiral pasta because I couldn't find any whole wheat bowtie. The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:

8 cups broccoli florets (4 heads)
1/2 lb farfalle (bow tie) pasta (or whatever you have on hand)
1 whole chicken breast, or 1 large 1/2 breast (I only cooked up 1 chicken breast and gave it all to Josh...I wasn't in a chicken mood :))
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
2 Tbsp. good olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup toasted pignoli (pine) nuts
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, optional

Directions:

To toast the pignollis, place them in a dry saute pan over meium-low heat and cook, tossing often, for about 5 minutes, until light brown.

Cut the chicken into strips on the diagonal. Place the chicken in a skillet and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, cover, turn down the heat, and let simmer till chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Don't overcook, or your chicken will be rubbbery.

Cook the broccoli for 3 minuts in a large pot of boiling salted water. Remove the broccoli from the water with a slotted spoon or sieve. Place in a large bowl and set aside.

In the same water, cook the bow-tie pasta according to the package directions, about 12 minutes. Drain well and add to the broccoli.

Meanwhile, in a small saute pan, heat the butter and oil and cook the garlic and lemon zest over medium-low heat for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add 2 tsp. salt (I didn't add the salt), the pepper, and lemon juice and pour this over the broccoli and pasta. Toss Well. Season to taste, sprinkle with the pignolis and cheese and serve.

I have been using this pasta lately and I think it is just the best! I found it in the organic aisle as my grocery store.


I have also been seeing rice pasta, has anyone ever used this? Is it any good?

After dinner, I decided to bake up Tina's amazing looking oatmeal bars. Instead of raisins, I used walnuts (Josh doesn't like raisins :( ). You can find the recipe here. They turned out delicious! I can't wait to eat one for breakfast tomorrow! Thanks Tina!!

13 comments:

Jenn said...

You amaze me, chick. You were hella productive today!

Anonymous said...

that pasta looks so light and delicious!!
can't wait to hear about the bars, they sound awesome
have a great night!

HangryPants said...

Oooh delicious. I love pine nuts. Do you ever make pine nut cookies? I will have to show you at Christmas time.

Anonymous said...

That pasta looks great! I wanted to respond to your mention of rice pasta: I eat it because I'm gluten-intolerant, it's pretty good but doesn't really come close to real pasta! I'd say go for the real thing if you can eat gluten. :)

Anonymous said...

am I old or do you think SEINFELD when you see FUSILI?

Fusili Jerry?

no?

:)

Erica said...

Jenn- aw thanks :) Of course it comes at a cost of not getting much sleep....I need more hours in the day, how about you haha?

Fitnessista- The bars are awesome! They are sweet, but not too sweet...mm mmm

Hangry-Pine nut cookies??? I have to wait for christmas??

The balanced grad- thank you! I was going to try it sometime soon, so I'm glad you commented!

Mizfit hahahhahah

healthy ashley said...

Fusilli? I've never seen that before..

Thanks for giving your review of Tina's oatmeal bars. I was thinking I'd make some with bananas...and chocolate chips!

AlwaysJoy said...

I *LOVE* Trader Joe's brown rice ziti. It is different than "regular" pasta but so so so good! I usually eat it with just salt and pepper (and occasionally some parm)

Sarah said...

Pasta! What yummy comfort food.

Where are you moving to Erica?

Anonymous said...

Pine nuts + pasta were made for each other! I've never tried rice pasta before though...wonder what it's like?

I can't wait to hear what you think of those bars! I would love a portable breakfast or snack that's homemade and not in a wrapper that says "Larabar" or "Clif" once in a while :o)

Cookie baker Lynn said...

I'm so glad you liked the recipe. Yours looks fantastic!

Samantha said...

I saw Tina's oatmeal bars and they look really yummy. How did yours come out?

Erica said...

Ashley- those bars would be out of this world with banana added. Chocolate added to anything makes it better too :)

Always- thanks for the comment, I may have to look for that!

jenn- I <3 the pinenuts! Yes, fresh bars are always a nice break from the store bought kind!

Lynn- thank you :) You have amazing ideas on your blog!

Sammie- they're perfect- make them!