Mushroom Tuna Thin Spaghetti

I created this recipe just because I had to really use up the organic button mushroom that I bought few days ago.  I also saw 4 canned of tuna in waters that I would have to use before it expired in 2018.  I know tuna was good in spaghetti with a little lemon juice added, so this was the best way to use up my tuna and mushroom.  I stocked up some Non-GMO thin spaghetti, spaghetti and linguine when it were on sales the last time.  I bought 2 bottled of Non-GMO spaghetti sauces too for the really lazy moment or quick fix.  I figured my elder daughter should be able to boil a package of spaghetti and heat up a bottle of spaghetti sauce for herself and little sister if needed to.  Perhaps I need to make some meat balls and freeze it for their convenience.

Oh yeah, if you have noticed my recipes recently, I liked to use both the Himalayan pink salt and sea salt together.  I thought in this way I would get the best of the 2 different minerals that were found in these 2 different salts.

Baked Cheesy Rotini

I hardly cooked a proper Chinese meal these days.  Hmmm...not sure why!  Perhaps when I have an off day, I wanted to bring my girls out.  It might be also it will be too hot to cook at home during the Summer when my house doesn't have an air-conditional.  I didn't want to warm up my house and sweat myself when wok frying on the stove.  If I do cook, simple one dish meal would surface. Maybe one dish rice dish finished in a rice cooker is another idea.  Or just a simple noodle soup with frozen dumplings, green veggie and an egg throw in.  Something simple like that or just a bowl of fresh salad with dressing.

This pasta dish was actually not quite simple to make as I have to precook the pasta first and then set it aside and then cook the ground chicken (with chicken breast that I have to cut and ground myself) with tomato sauce and then set it aside.  Before I assemble the poultry tomato sauce and pasta with cheese in layers before finishing it off with a cheese layer on top and then baked it in a preheated 350'F oven for 20 minutes and then broiled it for 3 minutes to brown the cheese to finish it off.  I probably won't be making this anytime soon as it was quite tedious.  Ha!

Butter Parmesan Linguine

This is one simple one dish meal to prepare for your family.  I like the simplicity of it and yet so delicious.  All you need is some leftover chicken breast meat, frozen veggie, linguine or any kind of dried pasta, butter and shredded Parmesan cheese.

I like the frozen broccoli and cauliflower mixed as it matched well with the pasta but you can certainly used any kind of veggie you have at home, frozen peas and carrots work well too.

Cheesy Sausage Rotini with Broccoli and Cauliflower

My little Edda told me she wanted to eat cheese pasta and my Evy told me she has a craving for sausages.  Hence, this dish was created to satisfy both of my girls.  As for me, I wanted some veggies in every meal so of course I had to add some broccoli and cauliflower into the pasta to make this one dish meal more balance.  Very easy to make and delicious to eat, try to make it yourself!

These days I found frozen vegetables more suitable to my lifestyle.  With work and taking care of my girls, sometimes I just don't have time to cook an elaborate meal anymore.  I am not a wasteful person and I hate to throw away rotten vegetable but I found myself doing that quite often because I just didn't have the time to cook it.  So, frozen veggies work best for me and it is so convenient too and I don't have to worry about wastage.

Cilantro Pesto Chicken Small Shells

One pot dish that can last for lunch and dinner is an easier way to feed the family.  I would just make sure that I have one protein and lots of vegetable for a well balance diet.  It is really healthy with this pesto too as cilantro can move heavy metal out of your body and you will get the benefits of garlic, pecan, extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil into your body.  Note that I used sea salt and Himalayan salt instead of table salt.  If you are still using the table salt, please google about it and starts making the change.

This dish is really easy and delicious, try it and feedback to me ya!  I would love to hear/read about it!  :)

Cream Cheese Shrimps Spaghetti

I was not supposed to cook this pasta dish that day.  I wanted to use the spaghetti to cook an Asian noodle dish.  But I was out of fresh greens and only left with frozen peas and carrots which I always stock up for fried rice.  As I looked through my ingredients, I only had some shrimps, frozen peas and carrots, garlic and some scallion, how to cook an Asian noodle with these ingredients?  Then, I went to look at my refrigerator again and noticed the 1/2 cream cheese that I used before and the whole milk that I had.  So, tada, I could make a Western dish out of these ingredients and thus this dish was created.  It was well liked by my girls and we even had leftover for them to bring to their school for lunch.

Arugula Elk Garlic Pasta

I love the Sweet & Spicy Tuna Arugula Pasta that I made earlier.  But this time I wanted to try it with ground elk meat ( of course you can use any ground meat of you choice as a substitute) that I bought at Sprouts.  Got to say, this combination tasted better with the sweet and spicy tuna, but it was not too bad either.

Sweet & Spicy Tuna Arugula Pasta

I can't believe I made a mistake of buying a vegetable!  I was trying to pick up a bunch of organic spinach and some how mistook the organic arugula as the spinach.  Interestingly, even the cashier thought it was the organic spinach and charged me that.  So, I was clueless until the next day when I decided to wash my spinach.  When I took it out, it smelled different and then when I looked at the leaves, I realized it looked different and then when I checked the tag, it read organic arugula.  WOW!  What a surprise there as I never bought arugula before and frankly not too sure of how to cook it.  So, I searched online and found a recipe that I wanted to try and thought it would taste good.  So, this recipe was inspired by Simply Recipes.  I changed it a little bit to what I had at home at that time and it turned out delicious.  You all should try it too!
Even my husband took a second helping!

Simple and delicious!  Guess next time I can add arugula into my shopping list as I took some to make kimchi fried rice and it was good as well.  I stir-fried the rest with olive oil, chili flakes and sea salt.  How do you normally cook with arugula? 

Cream Cheese Chicken Pasta

My quick way of disposing the cream cheese, use it to make cheesy pasta!  Or to make cream cheese chicken soup (old recipe back in 2008) or cream cheese pound cake (2009).  I got to admit, this cheesy pasta is a bit dry, so make sure you don't over-cook the pasta like me until most of the almond milk was evaporated.  Take it out when it's still wet.  Or just add more almond milk or milk (your choice).  Edda loved it and requested to finish the leftover.  Of course I warmed the leftover pasta on the stove in a saucepan and added more almond milk to make it creamy for her.  She said it was delicious!  I have 4 more ounce of cream cheese, more cheesy pasta or cream cheese pound cake to make....hmmm...

Summer Pesto Rotini

I made this summer pesto rotini for a picnic, I named it summer because this made a great summer picnic food, also great for potluck.  I wanted something easy to make and tasted good at room-temperature and this dish was created with what I had at my house at that time.  I made some cilantro walnut pesto for this dish, it was easy to make with a food processor.   If you are thinking of what to make for your 4th of July BBQ or picnic, give this dish a try!

Homemade Cilantro Walnut Pesto

Turkey Meatballs Spaghetti

An easy dinner with the baked turkey meatballs that I made earlier.  I liked the whole wheat angel hair pasta because it cooked fairly quickly.  Since this was a quick and easy dinner, I used the Target brand traditional spaghetti sauce, added some chopped red onion and button mushrooms and lastly some spinach to make it more nutrition.

If you look closely, you can see a dollop amount of red chili paste on top of my pasta.  That was my extremely spicy chili paste (that's why a small amount was sufficient) to increase the appetite of this dish.  If you haven't tried eating it this way, try it next time, it's really delicious (given that you can take the heat to begin with).

Angel Hair Pasta with Clams

If you are my avid blog reader, you should know that I loved to watch healthy Chinese cooking shows from Taiwan.  And clams have always been brought up as a healthy food to eat.  It is high in vitamins and minerals especially B12 (prevents Alzheimer disease) , iron (prevents anemia) and selenium (helps fight arthritis), protein, manganese, Vit. C, copper, riboflavin, zinc, and potassium.  You can read more about the health benefits here. 

Since the clam meats that I bought were frozen and cooked, I made a pasta dish with it.  If I have some fresh and live clams, I would cook Kam Heong clam/ lala or steam it with homemade sweet rice wine with gingers and scallion.

Anyway, I read that wild clams or any seafood might have some mercury in it, so I paired it with cilantro!  Oh yes, as cilantro can remove heavy metal like mercury from the body through elimination process.  Hence, it's a great idea to pair cilantro with any seafood that you cook.

Calamari Spaghetti

Recently, I saw a Healthy Chinese Cooking Show that actually suggested eating squid, calamari, octopus and cuttlefish to lower your cholesterol.  That was completely news to me as I always thought these have the highest cholesterol level among all other seafood and which should be avoided. But they said when you clean your calamari, squid, octopus and cuttlefish completely (don't eat the internal organ and the eggs), then the cholesterol level is not too bad.  Furthermore, it has good vitamins and minerals that the body needs such as Vitamin B2, B3 and B12, potassium, magnesium, zinc, selenium, iron, protein and phosphorous that are actually good for us.  It also has omega 3 fatty acids such as DHA and EPA which can lower bad cholesterol.  However, how you cook and prepare this is important too, raw (as in sushi), steam, or lightly stir-fry is best compared to batter it and deep-fry and eat it with dipping sauce.  For people with already high cholesterol level, consult with your doctor first as this piece of information is very new to me too.  Food high in cholesterol doesn't mean it will raise your blood cholesterol such as egg and squid, unlike food high in saturated fat.  In any case, moderation is still the key, occasional treat shouldn't be a problem.

Spaghetti Meat Balls

Did I fool you?  Does it looks like spaghetti meatballs?  If  yes, then you have been fooled.  LOL!  Those were actually cut-out brats!!  You know, with the summer BBQ parties, you might have some leftover brats in your refrigerator or freezer.  If you are tired of pairing the brats with hotdog buns (well if one can), then why not pair it with the spaghetti pasta sauce?

If my picture doesn't entice you enough, I don't know what does.  Because seriously this was very delicious and one of my best spaghetti sauce recipes.  If you tried it, remember to feedback to me ya!

Italian Cheese & Herb Fettuccine

Lazy me called for lazy lunch.  I found the Philadelphia cooking creme a short-cut for creamy based pasta.  I always have frozen mixed vegetable for fried rice, Japanese curry and pasta in my freezer and packages of dried pasta in my pantry.  So, this was an easy lunch to whip up.  I only need to thaw a boneless and skinless chicken breast, sliced it and seasoned it.  Another alternative is to use the canned tuna or tuna in pouch for a quicker preparation.

This noodle dish was rather inexpensive.  1 package of pasta was $1 (on sales), 1 container of cooking creme was about $3 (with coupon), 1 chicken breast was about $1.50 and the mixed vegetable was about $0.25.  So, total cost for this lunch was about $5.75 and it served 4 persons.

Sharing this with Presto Pasta Nights hosted at Ruth of Once Upon a Feast and  "S$20 Budget Meal"  or "US$15 budget meal" hosted by Cuisine Paradise.

Easy Cheese Pasta

This is one super duper easy cheese pasta targeted for kids.  My girls loved macaroni with cheese, but I am staying away from the box kind (processed food).  So, I bought these tiny wheel, alphabet, flower pasta that I saw in a Hispanic market recently intended to cook something for my girls.  I thought of this idea based on the Korean spicy noodle with cheese post that I did recently.

I will provide pictures with illustration in my next post, so that you can use this easy method to cook for your kids too.

I am also submitting this recipe to Aspiring Bakers # 6:  Say Cheese! (for April) which will be hosted by Noms I Must.

Cheesy Shell Pasta

I am not sure how to name this pasta dish because I created it on a whim just for Ruth!  Ruth is hosting Presto Pasta Night this week and I wanted to be a part of it.  :-)  I called it Cheesy Shell Pasta because it had cheese in it.  LOL!  I have some Camembert cheese in my fridge and milk, so why not give it a try.  You can certainly make it more creamy and cheesy by using heavy cream instead of milk and sprinkle with more cheeses on top and bake in the oven for 5 minutes before serving.  Whatever you like right?

I just used what I have in the refrigerator and pantry to create this delicious pasta dish.  My Edda said it tasted like Chicken Alfredo.  Hehehe...  This was our lunch and Evy's lunchbox for tomorrow.

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is Ruth herself! Check out her delicious round up on Oct, 1st!

Herdez Salsa Macaroni with Shrimps

My girls didn't want to eat the porridge so I made this pasta dish for them.  It just so happen that I had a bottle of salsa in the pantry that I needed to use.  So, I created this easy macaroni and shrimps pasta with it.  None of them complaint that it was spicy so I guess it was not spicy to them, as it only listed as mild.  However, my picky eater Evy won't eat the tomatoes.  She is a strange little girl, as she will eat the blended pasta tomato sauce but not if she can see the tomato.  So, she only ate the macaroni and shrimps and picked out all the tomatoes and set it aside on her plate.

It is really hard as tomato is good for her.  I think she got influence by her daddy as he would not eat tomatoes too.  Because of this, I don't buy tomatoes.  Guess I will have to cook more spaghetti with tomato based pasta sauce as this is the only time she would eat it with no complaint. 

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is Valli of More Than Burnt Toast. Check out her delicious round up on Sept, 24th!

Stir Fried Macaroni with Broccoli and Tuna

This meal was created when I took out the fish fillet to defroze in the refrigerator and ended out too lazy to do a Chinese stir-fry dinner for the night.  I loved baked fish because it was easier and healthier.  The baked fish above was really easy which I will provide the recipe in a later post.  Since I was not cooking rice, I had to come out with a dish to complement my American style baked fish .  I came out with stir-fried macaroni pasta and added broccoli and tuna in canned.  I did a similar pasta dish before but with a different pasta.  This pasta dish alone was healthy because it had broccoli, tuna and extra virgin olive oil. 

Have you tried turkey bacon before?  I tried it at Denny's when I ordered my healthy breakfast (egg white scrambles, turkey bacon and chicken patty).   I was hooked since then because it was really crispy and good and less fat than the original bacon.  I would recommend you to cook the bacon in a convection microwave oven if you have one, it was really crispy and most of the oil oozes out during the cooking process.

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is The Sweet Kitchen. Check out her delicious round up on June, 18th!

Salmon Noodle Soup

This noodle soup is almost identical to my Chicken Shells Soup.  The only different is salmon was used and I added red bell peppers.  This is the first time I used salmon in soup and I was impressed at how well it hold it's shape and tastes really good.  Now I have new way of cooking salmon as this gives me an idea of creating other soupy salmon dishes.

I really loved these two types of noodle soup, of course you can use other kind of dried pasta that you have at home.  You can easily cook a big pot and enjoy it for days.  Give it a try and feedback to me ya!

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is Daphne from More Than Words! Check out the delicious round up on April, 16th!