Chicken & Mini Farfalle Pasta Salad
This chicken and pasta salad would be a nice pasta salad to make use of whatever leftover chicken you’ve got in the fridge. Having said that though, I actually didn’t use leftover chicken here but I just want you to know that you could easily use leftovers. And this is just a different version of the other pasta salads I’ve made before. I just added chicken here and used raspberry vinaigrette instead of Italian dressing. And of course, different pasta.
Mini Rotelle Cold Pasta Salad W/ Cheese & Sunflower Seeds
Summer means a lot of things. One of them is making cold pasta salads. I suppose it’s ok to make them during winter too but it is usually during the Summer that I get to indulge in whipping up different kinds of cold pasta salads. They’d go with any grilled meat entrees, including kebabs, satays, burgers, just to name a couple. Pasta salads prefect to serve as side dishes during the summer parties in the backyard or as lunch for the family on regular days. This Mini Rotelle Cold Pasta Salad W/ Cheese & Sunflower Seeds is basically another version of Pasta & Broccoli Salad W/ Golden Raisins and Sunflower Seeds but without the golden raisins and chopped fresh broccoli. I added chopped eggs instead.
Domino’s Artisan Pizza: Spinach & Feta
I “won” this Domino’s Artisan Pizza 2 weeks ago through Facebook. Finally, I was one of the lucky ones who got the timing correctly. There’s a certain hour when you could enter and get 1 free pizza but it’s all about great timing. It doesn’t last all day and they give it to a certain number of entries.
Meatballs W/ Mushrooms & Green Peppers
When I took out the ground beef for dinner last night, I knew I wanted to make meatballs out of it but didn’t really want to cook another pasta dish. Yah know, like spaghetti and meatballs. We just had the cod fish and penne with asparagus the other night so another pasta night was really not an option. Who said you have to have pasta with meatballs anyway? Meatballs sub sounded good but I didn’t have the bread for it.
So what to do, what to do, tick tock tick tock, you’re husband is going to school in an hour or so, start cooking for dinner. That was my mindset in the kitchen yesterday. I finally made the decision to make large meatballs big enough to serve as main entree. I added sliced green peppers and mushrooms for an added texture and flavor.
Cod Fish & Penne W/ Asparagus
My fish and pasta combo experiments like salmon & penne alfredo, and the Catfish Spaghetti W/ Garlic-Tomato-Scallions Sauce have been very good so I decided to try this cod fish and penne with asparagus dish too. Like the 2 former fish & pasta combo dishes, this one is also a hit. After my husband and I had seconds , I had to put away the rest before getting the crazy idea of having a third serving each. Seriously!
Catfish Spaghetti W/ Garlic-Tomato-Scallions Sauce
Yes, another catfish dish. A dish that was surprisingly good. And definitely a seafood dish that’s perfect for people who are skipping meat this Holy Week. But catfish and spaghetti? Really? I KNOW, I was really surprised how good this is. My children loved it too. So let me show you how I made it.
Pastini Pastaria
Have you heard of Pastini? It’s a Portland, Oregon Italian restaurant which offers more than 30 authentic pasta dishes using fresh and local ingredients. Some of their pasta dishes include Ziti with Winter Squash and Gorgonzola Sauce which has roasted butternut squash, gorgonzola cream sauce, leeks, garlic, nutmeg and thyme, over ziti pasta. Another one of their delicious pasta offering is a Chicken Cacciatore with Rigatoni dish. The chicken is simmered slow in the traditional cacciatore sauce, cremini, porcini mushrooms, carrots, red and yellow peppers and white wine. Besides the main entree of pasta, there are also antipasta, salad, soup, and authentic Italian desserts.
Pastini is also a place that offers gluten free Italian restaurant menu. And if you’re looking for a Portland Italian catering, it’s available at Pastini as well via the lunch specials catering. Their combos are only less than $10 each but they’d be happy to help you out in creating a menu for office parties, seminars, and other events
You can find Pastini if these following Portland locations: Northwest 23rd, downtown, Northeast Broadway, Southeast Division, Cedar Hills Crossings in Beaverton, Bridgeport Village in Tigard, The Old Mill in Bend, and NW 9th St in Corvallis.
Check out Pastini if you’re ever in those areas.
Lunch At Mi Casita’s
We went to lunch at Mi Casita yesterday over in Dunn. A perfect way to welcome the 81° weather to match our blue spring dresses. That was our first time to eat at Mi Casita. Our usual Mexican digs are La Cocina and Fiesta Mexicana. There’s another Mexican restaurant in Dunn that we went to months ago but it’s so terrible I can’t remember the name anymore. It’s either Las Brisas or El Charro. Maybe the acid reflux I got afterwards is contributing to my memory loss.
Anyhooo, the second we entered Mi Casita I knew I was going to like it. The ambiance is fresh, smooth, and quiet. The seating is booth style with tall back wall. Tall enough to keep kids away from the other booth. I’m sure you know what I mean. There’s a bar just like the aforementioned Mexican restaurants but it’s not that close to the booths. I like the open space going to the booths. Unlike at La Cocina or Fiesta Mexciana where there are added tables and chairs in the middles of the walking area. I can’t help but feel awkward when walking to my table at those places. I try to walk sideways to avoid accidentally hitting someone in the head with my huge and full purse. There’s also that awkward feeling not to look at a table while walking just in case a person is chowing down something and couldn’t help but have an open-mouth at that exact moment. Know what I mean?
Leftover Chicken, Salsa, & Green Onions Quesadilla
Besides fried rice, soup, or frittata, quesadilla is what I make to use up leftover meats. Just chopped up the meat, tomatoes, and green onions, then throw ‘em on top of a flour tortilla, then bind everything together with shredded cheese on top, and another flour tortilla to finish it. In this quesadilla, I used the leftover southwestern chicken and salsa instead of fresh tomatoes. This is perfect for quick lunch or those weekend munchies with the family. It’s quite easy so let me show you how.
Shrimp Scampi W/ Fettuccini
What exactly is a Scampi? According to Seaffod Experts website;
Scampi is a type of lobster and is one of the world’s finest delicacies. There are, however, other species frequently referred to as scampi. For example, in the Midwest region of the US freshwater shrimp (Macrobrachium Rosenbergii) are referred to as scampi. So again, what exactly is scampi?
Is scampi a crawfish? Is scampi a crayfish? No, scampi are small clawed lobsters that unfortunately look a little bit like a crawfish. But they definitely shouldn’t be confused with the freshwater crawfish, which is primarily from the Gulf of Mexico and China. Crayfish is another name used for spiny lobster, and if that’s not confusing enough, in the southern US crawfish is called crayfish!.
“Scampi” is actually the tail of the “Nephrops Norvegicus” which is more commonly known as the Norway Lobster, Dublin Bay Prawn (although its not a prawn!) or langoustine. According to Wikipedia, the Nephrops Norvegicus is an orange pink lobster that grows up to 25cm in length and is typically found in the North East Atlantic, the North Sea and parts of the Med.
In short, Scampi is not how the dish is cooked, it’s actually a small clawed lobster that looks like a crayfish. But I bet you when you hear the word scampi you’d think of shrimps cooked in butter, white wine, lemon juice, with some sort of pasta, either spaghetti, linguine, or fettuccini noodles. Now that you know what a Scampi really is coz it certainly doesn’t hurt to know food trivia sometimes, let’s cook shrimp scampi with fettuccini coz that’s what we’re familiar with.
