Zombie Mom Pasta: Whole Wheat Pasta with Italian Chicken Sausage, Sundried Tomatoes and Broccoli – an easy weeknight meal! #zombiemom #pastarecipe #healthypastarecipe #chicken #chickenrecipe #healthychickenrecipe #simplemeal #easydinner #dinnerideas #healthyrecipe #aggieskitchen

So it’s official. I’m a zombie mom. There is no other way to describe how I feel these days. Since it’s been about 6 years since my daughter was an infant, I can honestly say that I forgot how it felt to not be able to carry on a conversation in public without saying stupid or forgetting something like your kids birthday, what you need at the deli counter or even what day it is. This is the state of my condition right now people. It’s not pretty.

We have been in survival dinner mode in our house lately. I’ve been doing my best to plan ahead two or three days at a time, especially with what I have on hand since I don’t have the flexibility to run out to the grocery store for last minute ingredients with a newborn easily and often just yet. Between moving and having a baby all within the same month, I can honestly say we have had our share of takeout and sandwiches lately. Enough is enough. You know it’s enough when pizza used to feel like a treat, but instead has become the norm and even the kids are groaning about it.  All I have to say is thank goodness for pasta. I am finding that pasta is becoming my go to dinner when I feel like I really have to make something somewhat healthy and nutritious for dinner without too much work.

My freezer and pantry are my friends right now (thankfully I stocked up on some staples before baby arrived!) and after taking inventory of what I had I successfully put together a dinner for the fam I could feel good about the other night in record time. And bonus, there was plenty leftover for lunch (for me!) the next couple of days.

Being able to make a meal out of whatever you have on hand is something I have learned to do well over the years. I think I get it from my mom (and probably my dad and my grandparents too) because I rarely ever saw anyone in my family follow a recipe – especially when making dinner – unless they were baking something special. Food was something that was not wasted in my family, leftovers were constantly being reinvented into something for the next meal. My mom is the queen out of putting a meal on the table for lunch or dinner, whatever it may be, using up odds and ends of whatever she finds – and pasta (like this one) is one of those dishes perfect for just that.

This recipe is not meant to be exact. Play with your ingredients and adjust their quantities. Use what you have, fresh or frozen. And enjoy. 🙂

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If there is one meal my kids get excited about, it’s kebabs. I’m not sure what it is about kebabs, but when I say that’s what we are having for dinner I always get a big “HURRAY!” from everyone. It makes me wonder why I don’t make them more often.

This simple and flavorful kebab recipe comes from the newest cookbook from the people at America’s Test Kitchen. It’s named 6 Ingredient Solution and when I was asked if I wanted to check out a copy for review, I couldn’t resist after reading it’s name. 6 ingredients?? Right before the busy school year is about to start? Yes, please. Talk about perfect timing.

As with all of their other cookbooks, America’s Test Kitchen 6 Ingredient Solution is chock full of recipes and tips that are tried and true. I always learn something new from the side notes that are included with each recipe – sometimes it’s a favorite ingredient that they prefer to use, most of the time it’s a technique with an unfamiliar (or familiar!) ingredient.

This Aloha Kebabs with Sesame Rice recipe is a busy weeknight dinner’s dream come true. The ingredient list is what drew me in, I always have cooked chicken sausage in the freezer and they defrost super quick (for someone who always forgets to defrost, that is a good thing). The rest of the straight-forward ingredients can be easily found already in your pantry (hoisin, sesame oil, rice) or picked up at the grocery store (peppers and pineapple). Cooking up the kebabs under the broiler with minimal effort on my part – as opposed to grilling them – was also something that intrigued me. This dinner literally came together in just about 30 minutes (give or take – with prep), and I can see it being even faster if you take a few minutes to put the kebabs together earlier in the day before dinnertime.

I even got my daughter involved with dinner prep, which is something I admit I don’t often do. Brushing on the hoisin sauce was a perfect job for her!

A few (several, actually) recipes from the cookbook I think my family will love:

Chicken Pizzaiola with Pasta

Polenta Casserole with Sausage and Peppers

Roasted Tomato and Corn Tostadas

Meatloaf Florentine

Egg, Ham and Hashbrown Pie

Mushroom-Miso Soup with Shrimp and Udon

Roasted Cod Fillets with Crispy Potatoes and Lemon

Dinner is served – enjoy!

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In just a couple of months, I’m going to be counting on seriously quick and easy meals to put together for dinner. I’ve never been a big make-ahead-freezer-meal type of person, but lately I’ve been thinking of ways to get some shortcuts together for myself to keep in the freezer to make things a little easier for when the baby comes. One shortcut that has worked for me in the past – when I’ve taken the time to do it – is pre-cook ground seasoned ground beef or turkey for Mexican or Italian recipes. I cook up a big batch, seasoned up as I want, and once cooled, store enough in separate baggies (labeled!) for a couple of meals. I did the same with chicken a month ago, and I have to say, having a bag of already shredded chicken to throw into quesadillas or soup has come in really handy the last few weeks. I usually feel like doing this after a shopping trip to Costco since I can buy in bulk and boy does it feel good when I’m done.

Recently I froze up leftovers from a big batch of homemade enchilada sauce – same concept, I just portioned it out into meal sized containers to use for our next enchilada night. The rest of this enchilada dinner came together extremely easily since all the ingredients – like Bush’s Black Beans, tortillas and cheese – were ones I typically always have in the pantry or refrigerator. I kept these Cheesy Black Bean and Corn Enchiladas as a vegetarian recipe, but if you had some precooked shredded chicken or ground turkey in the freezer, that would be a great addition as well.

I would be happy to hear any make-ahead meal ideas or shortcuts you have – I need all the help I can get! Leave me a note in the comments!

In the meantime, enjoy this recipe for enchiladas for dinner. You can honestly never go wrong with black beans and cheese, these were a total hit and no one (my husband) missed the meat!

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More often than not, I find myself with a small container of leftover roasted vegetables in my fridge. I don’t love eating leftover roasted vegetables on their own, but I do love adding them to other foods – especially frittatas.

This Roasted Zucchini and Onion Frittata Wrap came together in literally just a few minutes. I found myself extremely hungry at lunchtime one day (no surprise) and eggs seem to be my go-to lately. As I look at the picture of the wrap, I have to laugh because it looks HUGE. I was definitely a stuffed pregnant lady after I ate this so I will say this could easily become 2 wraps instead of one. All you would have to do is cut it down the middle after it’s all cooked up, and put each half on a tortilla. Or if you are finding that you have a monstrous appetite one day, then go ahead and eat it all up yourself, no judging here that’s for sure!

And of course, a little ketchup or sriracha only makes it better. 😉

What I love about this frittata wrap is that it would also make a fantastic “breakfast for dinner” option as well.

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I experienced a bit of a meal plan fail this week (nothing new, really). I had good intentions going into the week, stocking up the fridge with fresh fruits and veggies for lunches and dinners like I normally do, with a loose plan. But as the week went on, nothing I had planned sounded good anymore or fit into our evening schedule. As I saw this all unfolding, I had to regroup – and make something out of the packed veggie drawer that was easy and easy to eat within our schedule.

It doesn’t get easier than pasta salad in my opinion.

It took a little prep, yes – but I spent a few minutes yesterday afternoon chopping up the three packages of asparagus, zucchini and squash that I was afraid would go to waste if I didn’t do something about immediately. I tossed them in a little olive oil, salt and pepper and filled two baking trays to roast up. I didn’t fuss over any special vinaigrette – though I did start to brainstorm for another time – instead just simply using balsamic vinegar and olive oil and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese to dress the pasta and veggies once everything cooled down. Oh my goodness, this turned out so delicious.

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I’ve got some more grapefruit love for you today!

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Sandy posted this beautiful baked salmon dish on her blog. On the same day, I received a shipment of these gorgeous pink grapefruit from Harry & David. After seeing Sandy’s salmon, and tasting the grapefruit, I decided to play with her recipe and treat the family to a healthy salmon dinner. We love salmon at our house (well 3/4 of us do at this time), so I’m always looking for new ways to serve it. And to be honest, I hadn’t made salmon for dinner in too long. The last time was when I posted about this Salmon Salad a couple of months ago!

All the ingredients for the pistachio topping came together just perfectly. To be honest, I was enjoying the topping all on it’s own way too much during “taste-testing”. The crust was so good over the wild sockeye salmon I used. I purchase it frozen at Costco, so I always have some in the freezer for convenience. I think it would also be good on any other firm white fish like grouper or red snapper.

How do you make pistachio crusted salmon?

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
2. Place your salmon filets on a lightly greased baking sheet. Season top side with salt and pepper.
3. In a food processor or blender, add olive oil, honey or agave nectar, grapefruit juice, pistachios, paprika and a light pinch of salt and pepper. Pulse ingredients a few times until combined. Spoon nut mixture over salmon filets and spread evenly. Bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes until salmon flakes easily.

Citrus goes so well with all kinds of seafood or fish, so it’s worth a try to experiment! I paired up the salmon with a nice spinach salad, topped with this simple grapefruit vinaigrette, for a great healthy weeknight dinner. For dessert, we had raspberry-rhubarb crumble with vanilla ice cream. So delicious!

I hope you enjoy this grapefruit-pistachio crusted salmon recipe as much as we did.

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Last week my friend Julie and I had a play date. We’ve been wanting to get together for a while, and even though she lives just a little over an hour from me, it seems like it’s always hard to find the time with both of our busy schedules.

We talked about cooking up some lunch, playing with our cameras and just hanging out but little did I know that our time together was going to stir up both of our creative juices in the kitchen. Personally, I’ve been in somewhat of a cooking slump since the holidays, really not in the mood to try anything new…basically it’s been survival mode around here with lots of easy pasta dishes and big pots of soup. That’s not a bad thing. But I’ve missed the excitement and energy I get when I start playing around in the kitchen, and of course I’ve been wanting to share new stuff with all of you!

Our plan that day was to learn how to make Chinese dumplings together. It’s one of my kids’ favorite things to order when we pick up take-out and something I’ve been wanting to get better at making at home. Well, it turns out, Julie was a natural at putting these dumplings together. They turned out delicious and my kids scarfed them down at dinner time. I’m seriously so excited about making them again and experimenting with different types of fillings.

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Don’t laugh, but ever since I titled this post earlier this morning I have not been able to get the song Super Bass out of my head.

Moving on…

I have been eating a big salad every single day for the past week. I know this because I posted the picture shown above on Instagram exactly a week ago…not realizing how huge of an impact those two new salad dressings I randomly picked up that day were going to be on my eating habits this past week. I’m not kidding when I say HUGE salad either. The salad shown above has evolved since first photographed.

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Last weekend, after receiving my little stash of meyer lemons I immediately started playing with some recipes. I made this really flavorful pesto one afternoon with the huge bunch of arugula that was in my last two CSA pickups. I love the peppery bite of arugula and paired up with parmesan cheese and sweet meyer lemon juice, this sauce really brightened up a simple bowl of whole grain pasta.

Now, I have to admit a huge goof on my part. I always add pine nuts when I’m making my traditional basil pesto, and had toasted up some walnuts to add to this arugula pesto. Well, I forgot to add them and didn’t realize it until pasta was tossed and in our bowls ready to eat. So instead, I used the toasted walnuts as a crumbly and crunchy topping for the pasta. It worked. And I would make it exactly the same way next time.

You can find my Meyer Lemon and Arugula Pesto Sauce recipe over at Babble’s Family Kitchen.

And while you’re here, don’t forget to enter into my current giveaway for a chance to win a tote of meyer lemons and a$25 gift certificate to Williams-Sonoma (did I mention I’ll be picking two winners for this one??).

Have a great week!

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If you follow me on Facebook then you may remember me teasing you with some seriously delicious food that we were cooking up while in Montana with Bush’s Beans a couple of weeks ago. We spent an entire day cooking alongside chefs Jeffrey Saad and Connie Gutterson, learning new techniques and experimenting with new flavors, of course beans being the star ingredient.

(Photo Credit: Crackle Photograpy)

One of the recipes that I couldn’t get enough of is this Cumin Chicken with Black Bean Stuffing. No disrespect to the chicken, but I could seriously eat a huge bowl of this ‘stuffing’ on its own for dinner and be a happy camper. It is so good. It’s filled with all my favorite things…roasted peppers, spices, tortillas and black beans…a bowl full of goodness that gets even better after a squeeze of lime.

(Photo Credit: Crackle Photograpy)

The chicken is prepared so incredibly simple and delicious that I made it for my family within a few days of me getting home from my trip. I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs and threw them on the grill and my husband and kids seriously inhaled it and asked for more. The chicken is seasoned very simply with salt and pepper and a little oil before grilled, then brushed with a brilliant 2-ingredient mixture of sweet agave syrup (or honey) and toasted cumin seeds. If you have never used whole cumin seeds before, this is the recipe to experiment with. You quickly toast them up in a dry skillet then add them to the agave (or honey) and voila…you have yourself something delicious.

(Photo Credit: Crackle Photograpy)

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Cumin Chicken with Black Bean Stuffing and a Bush’s Beans Giveaway for you

• Author: Aggie's Kitchen
• Prep Time: 40 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: 4-6 servings
• Category: Chicken
• Method: Grill

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Ingredients

For Chicken:

• 5 pounds whole chicken
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon ground pepper
• 2 teaspoons canola oil
• 1 tablespoon cumin seed (note: toast seeds in warm skillet first until fragrant for additional flavor!)
• 3 tablespoons agave syrup or honey

For Stuffing:

• 1 each green pasilla chile*
• 1 each jalapeño pepper*
• 4 each corn tortillas (6 inch)
• 1 can (15 ounces) BUSH’S^® Black Beans or BUSH’S^® Reduced Sodium Black Beans, drained and rinsed
• ¼ cup chicken stock
• ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼  cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 6 wedges lime

Additional Supplies:

• Aluminum foil
• Grill pan

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Instructions

1. Clean out inside of chicken, rinse chicken inside and out with cold water. Pat dry with paper towel and cut chicken into pieces.
2. Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper and lightly cover with oil. Mix cumin seeds with agave syrup and set aside.
3. Set one side of clean, well-oiled grill to medium high heat and the other side to medium low heat. When grill is hot, using tongs, place chicken skin side down on hot side of grill until there are nice grill marks (about 5 minutes). Then flip chicken over (skin side up), place on cooler side of grill, close grill lid and let chicken cook (3-5 minutes for breast meat; 12 minutes for bone in leg/thigh meat).
4. In the last two minutes of cooking, brush cumin seeds and agave syrup on both sides of chicken and cook each side for one minute. Chicken is done when internal temperature reaches 160 degrees F.
5. Remove chicken from grill and let rest at least 10 minutes before serving.

For Stuffing:

1. Using metal tongs blacken chile and jalapeño peppers on the grill for 3 minutes per side. Place chile and jalapeño in small bowl, cover with foil tightly. Let sit for 10 minutes. Once cool, wipe skin off (do not rinse under water). Discard stems. Discard seeds (unless you want it spicier). Chop chile and jalapeño into ½-inch pieces. Set aside.
2. Using metal tongs, place tortillas on the grill for 30 seconds on each side or until slightly charred. Chop tortillas into ¾-inch strips.
3. Pour black beans in medium-sized grill-safe pan. Add chile, jalapeño, tortillas, chicken stock, paprika and ¼ teaspoon salt. Place the pan directly on the grill and heat just until mixture comes to a boil. Remove pan from heat and set aside to cool briefly.
4. Serve chicken with a side of black bean stuffing and garnish with cilantro and lime wedges.

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Notes

*Substitution: Use ½ cup canned roasted chiles in place of green pasilla chile and jalapeño pepper.

Note: this recipe was written for cooking on the grill, but of course a grill pan and skillet on the stove top will work just as well!

Recipe created for BUSH’S® Beans exclusively by Chef Jeffrey Saad, culinary expert and television host of numerous food-and cooking-related shows.

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Bush’s Beans wants to share a little bean love with all of my wonderful readers by offering this giveaway. I know the cold months are coming and most of you probably won’t be able to grill outdoors so this awesome Staub Grill Pan might help out with that, don’t ya think? Good luck!

Giveaway:

Staub Grill Pan
Apron
Silpat
Bean Strainer
Recipes (made at the event)
Spices
Coupons for free cans of Bush’s Beans

Starts today, Wednesday, November 2 and ends Wednesday, November 9 at 12 noon (EST)

(Sorry, giveaway open to US readers only. Winner will be chosen randomly using Pick Giveaway Winner plugin application – winner will be notified by email and have 48 hours to claim prize or another winner will be selected.)

To enter into the giveaway:

Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite way to cook with beans.

Additional Entries can be earned by:

(leave a separate comment after you complete each item, each comment will count as an entry)

1.  “Like” Bush’s Beans on Facebook.

2. “Like” Aggie’s Kitchen on Facebook. (if you already a fan, let me know, that counts as an entry!)

3. Follow @BushsBeans on Twitter

3. Follow @AggiesKitchen on Twitter (if you already follow, let me know, that counts as an entry!)

4.  Share about giveaway on Twitter: “I want to win a grill pan from @aggieskitchen and @bushsbeans http://tinyurl.com/6y9glcu!

5. Share about giveaway on Facebook with link to this post.

6. Subscribe to Aggie’s Kitchen RSS feed.

My friend Cheryl is also hosting this same giveaway…head over to Tidy Mom for more chances to win!

(and of course…I’m required to tell you…)

Disclaimer: Bush’s Beans paid for my trip to Montana but all opinions on this blog are and always will be my own.

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