Broccolini Pasta

That's right, it's broccoLINI. Now, if you're not a fan a broccoli or broccolini don't let that turn you off of this recipe. I don't like either but I looooove this pasta. It is so good and pretty healthy for you. My step-mom - who, let's be honest, is not the greatest cook - gave me this recipe. It's that easy! I made it for Husband and he has a craving for it at least once every 2 weeks. It is my favorite pasta dinner and it might be his favorite meal that I make.

 Ingredients: 

• 1/2 lb of bacon
• 1 lb of linguine 
• *OPTIONAL* if you'd like a low carb option of spaghetti squash substitute follow the link here! 
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 - 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can garbanzo beans/chickpeas
• 1/3 package of grape tomatoes
• 1 bunch broccolini
• grated parmesan cheese to taste

Raw, no bacon

Cooked & with bacon added

How To Cook It

• start cooking your bacon first as it takes the longest
• start water boiling for pasta as it takes the second longest
• in large frying pan add oil and garlic over medium heat
• add chickpeas/garbanzo beans
• chop broccolini and add to pan
• chop grape tomatoes and add to pan
• reduce heat to low-medium and let simmer until bacon is ready to be chopped and added - bacon should be cooked through but not crispy
• drain noodles and add sauce mixture
• plate pasta and add parmesan to taste

If you want to make this extra healthy, use whole wheat pasta and dab your bacon grease off before adding it to the 'sauce'. If you want to make it super delicious but add a whole bunch of fat, forgo the olive oil and use bacon grease instead. When you do this you have to start your bacon earlier so you can have the grease to start cooking the garlic, chickpeas, tomatoes and broccolini. 

Enjoy!

Closet

Summer is heeeeereee (imagine I said that like Oprah)! It is supposed to be 90+ degrees for the next 5 days at least! So get ready for a lot of shorts and dresses. WOO! I'm pumped, I love the sun. I don't really love HOT heat that much but whatever, I've got an air conditioner.

Shirt: Forever 21

Shorts: Old Navy

Shoes: TJ Maxx / Steve Madden

Necklace: Forever 21

Watch: Urban Outfitters

Tortilla Soup

Husband has not been feeling well for the last week and requested some soup. He had just eaten about 3 cans of Campbell's chicken noodle so... yeah, chicken noodle was out. (Although I do a really good one that I'll share at some point in the future). He's sick with a sinus infection and likes spicy food so I thought, TORTILLA! Awesome.

Ingredients: 

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 a white onion - chopped
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 6 c. chicken broth
• 2 c. chicken - chopped or shredded
• 1 can black beans - drained
• 1 spicy pepper
• juice of 3 limes
• monterrey jack cheese - to taste
• cilantro - to taste
• salt - to taste
• avocado - to taste
• tortilla chips - to taste

How To Cook It:

• over medium heat, heat the olive oil 
• add onion, saute until translucent (about 3 minutes)
• add chili powder, stir until fragrant (about 1 minute)
• add chicken broth and chicken, bring to a boil
• reduce to medium heat, add black beans and spicy pepper, heat through
• let simmer about 10 min
• spoon into bowls and add toppings to taste

For heat, I'll usually add more than one spicy pepper or I'll leave a few seeds in. Also, as you can see, I used a red onion. White, in my opinion really does give better flavor. And last, I usually blob some sour cream in my soup because husband likes it a lot spicier than I do; I also like my broth a bit creamier than he does. Obviously you can add a myriad of other things too: tomatoes, corn, etc. according to your taste. Soup is really hard to screw up (which is why I love to make it).

Closet

Remember when I said I copy a LOT of my outfits from Pinterest? Here is the proof. This outfit (and if I'm being honest with myself, a LOT of my outfits) I stole from THIS girl's wonderful blog - that I found on Pinterest.

Shirt: Aerie by American Eagle

Pants: American Eagle

Denim Jacket: American Eagle

Shoes: Payless

Scarf: TJ Maxx

Jewelry: Were both gifts

Huh, that's a lot of American Eagle in one outfit - and totally by accident. I think I only have 2 or 3 other garments from there....

A Week Of Groceries

I don't claim to be a health nut but I DO try to keep my meals relatively unprocessed. If anyone is wondering (and I don't flatter myself enough to think that you actually are wondering but) here is what a week's worth of groceries looks like at our house. Husband has Type I (insulin dependent) diabetes and we have discovered he fares better when we eat home made meals. For example, if I make spaghetti, I make my sauce from scratch, not from a jar with a bunch of sodium and preservatives. Make sense? K cool.

You can see that about 85% of our groceries are fresh produce. I'm not a huge fan of vegetables and I was probably the world's pickiest eater when I was growing up but I've found enough recipes that make me start to drool when I get to the produce section at the grocery store.  

On the menu for this week is: Tortilla Soup, Taco Salad, Broccolini Pasta, Bistro Steak, and a random thyme/roasted grape/ricotta cheese recipe I found here. (Although with this recipe, I have found you get better flavor if you strip the thyme leaves off the sprigs and leave them on the grapes. That will make sense if you read the recipe.) 

I try to hit up the grocery store Sundays instead of Mondays because, like Peter Gibbons, I suffer from "the Mondays".. and I have a work-out class until 6:15 Monday nights, and there's usually laundry, blah blah blah...

Closet

I love getting new clothes and mixing them with old. I haven't worn pearls in so long but get me a few new pieces and suddenly my boring old closet is full of new possibilities. Or at least I think so.

Shirt: H&M
Cardigan: Forever 21
Pants: Nordstrom Rack
Wedges: Payless (I don't know why they are showing up this weird yellow color, they are nude and the color doesn't really look anything like what is shown in the picture)
Pearls: Forever 21

Berry Picking

It was a BEAUTIFUL day yesterday and we really wanted to do something outside. One of my students told me about a great little u-pick berry farm a couple of miles out of town. An afternoon in the sun and some cheap, fresh berries? I'm in.

On the way out to the berry farm, we stopped at Davis Family Farm (where we bought our moms hanging baskets for mothers day) and picked a few strawberries. Oh. My. Gosh. These little devils aren't big but they taste soooooooo good!

We got more than you would in the store for a whopping $0.72! Seriously? Awesome.

Picking strawberries

Right next to the strawberry patch was a field of peas. I don't want to get anybody in trouble, but Erika is a thief....

THIEF!

Next stop was the Red Barn Berry Farm (http://redbarnberryfarm.com/). They have cherries, raspberries, blackberries, and boysenberries ripe and in season RIGHT NOW!

 

Husband and Jessica were most excited about the cherries so we went for those first. They had mostly bing and rainier cherries and another kind, we weren't sure what it was but they were bright red and sour!

Next up was the raspberry patch. Although I like boysenberries the best, raspberries are most fun to pick!

Raspberry picking

And last, we came to what we thought were blackberries but turned out to boysenberries. Not that I complaining. These little nuggets explode in your mouth like a big bomb of awesome. So good! Although watch our for the stickers on the plant. I swear, you don't even have to touch them, it's like they sense your presence and shoot out at you!

I could not think of a better way to spend our afternoon. Husband eats berries like they are going out of style and I always yell at him to save me some. We have so many now, I'm more worried about them spoiling before we can eat them all. Breakfast this morning was out of this world - and now I'm kind of thinking about a smoothie....

Our haul