Black Rice Pasta

I had to try this black rice pasta when I saw it in the store. I already had some black rice soba noodles and I loved it, but it is hard to do it justice in a photograph. I will definitely try that again. Black rice is rich in antioxidants which I like to eat instead of blueberries. Everyone gives me a hard time because I don't like blueberries and they are so healthy for you. Then I found that black rice has just as much antioxidants as blueberries so I eat that instead! Now I found the black rice pasta...what could be better?

Anyway the other thing that I have found in the stores lately is Philadelphia Cooking Creme, that is supposed to make cooking a meal a snap. It comes in many flavors like Santa Fe, Italian, and Savory Garlic. But looking at the ingredients it has little "creme" but various gums, and additives even corn syrup. Being that it is next to the cream cheese I thought I would go with that instead.

So I used:

• 4oz cream cheese (just 4oz, I have a small family, use the whole 8oz package if making more)
• 2 tablespoons sour cream (or creme fresh or Mexican crema)
• 1/4 cup chicken broth (or vegetable broth if going vegetarian)
• 2 cloves chopped garlic (more or less to taste)
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped chives

This is the basic sauce that I used for the savory garlic. for the Santa Fe you can use chilies and cumin. The Italian use some Italian seasoning . You could probably even use some Greek yogurt instead of the sour cream. I just heated it in a sauce pan to make in smooth and creamy. Just a few more steps from opening the tub, but i think it's worth it.

I quick stir fried some Chinese broccoli, shallots,  and chicken if you like, this one was vegetarian. Then add shredded carrots, and diced tomatoes, then add the cooked pasta, and mix in the sauce. Top with Parmesan, or cotija cheese like I did here.

Really it tastes better than it looks, and it's fairly healthy with the greens and black rice pasta. The pasta will look better for serving if you didn't use a cream sauce, but it sure tastes good and the flavor was there.

)

She had fun checking everything out, just so many new things to take in...she was chasing birds and lizards, and even got a chance to meet some doggy friends.

This was Linked to Camera Critters and Meatless Mondays. Weekend Potluck and (Gluten free) Weekly Meal Plan .

Eggplant Roll Ups

I had an eggplant that I had to use up. My husband loves eggplant, but not my daughter so much, so it is hard to use it unless I make something just for him. So that is what I did...since my daughter had a friend over to watch The Bachelorette, when I fix dinner for them, I made stuffed poblano peppers for them, because my husband doesn't like peppers...so I guess it was a win win, but a little busy for me.

For the eggplant I hand sliced it so the slices could of been a little more even...should of got my slicer out of the drawer, but you know how it goes, it was just week a night dinner. You can grill them or use a grill pan, but I placed them on a stoneware sheet and oven roasted until soft.
 Ingredients:

• 2 medium eggplant sliced thin about 1/4 inch (brushed w/oil, salt and baked until soft)
• 8 oz spinach I use chopped frozen in a bag
• 1 small onion or shallot chopped
• 4 oz mushrooms sliced or chopped
• 3 oz cream cheese
• 2 cloves garlic chopped
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts toasted (optional)
• 1 teaspoon Penzey's Mural of Flavor (or Italian seasoning)
• 1 squeeze lemon juice
• 1 pinch of nutmeg
• a few fresh basil leaves
•  salt and pepper to taste
• tomato sauce as needed (I use a prepared marinara sauce) 

In a skillet saute the onion, garlic, and mushrooms for about 3-5 minutes until the onions are soft, and mushrooms are cooked. Add the spinach and cook some of the moisture out, squeeze the lemon juice over the spinach, add the nutmeg, seasoning and cream cheese, cook until the cheese is melted and stir to blend. Finally add in the Parmesan and pine nuts (I like to toast the pine nuts first) salt and pepper to taste, mix well.

Place a basil leaf and a spoonful of the filling mixture at one end of the eggplant slice, roll up and secure with a toothpick if needed. Place the roll seam side down in a baking dish with some sauce on the bottom. Sprinkle a little cheese over the top.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes until the cheese melts and it's bubbly.

A Few Things - This and That for Quick Meals

Just thought I'd stop in and try to put a post together. I think this is the longest I've been away without saying anything. I just hate using the excuse that I am so busy at work and then trying to keep the house running, meals on the table, lunches made, chores to be done and just about drop into bed each night. I have to keep moving when I get home from work to get anything done. Otherwise once I sit down, boy it's hard to get back up!!
So to relax a little I enjoy walking the beach and collecting sea shells...here are a few I've picked up off the beach lately. We were collecting some things for Maranda's Marine Biology project

This is my husbands busy time at work...people need their jet skis when the weather is this good!! The pro racers need their race skis ready for the up coming race season! So often my daughter and I will eat earlier and he will have to warm his dinner up when he gets home.

To squeeze some greens into a one dish meal, I often add spinach to it, like soups and here in my lasagna.

Nice and cheesy and you can't even tell it has some healthy spinach!

Lasagna is a good meal for him to warm up...and plenty left for lunch or to freeze for later.

A walk along the bay front is relaxing, I always enjoy the way the sun plays off the boats and water.

Yes! Just as good the next day!!

Just throwing some ideas out there. Scrambled eggs made with verde sauce, queso blanco, flowering chives, wrapped up in a fresh tortilla.

Was good for breakfast or lunch!

So here I had an idea how to use sweet soy sauce,. My mom used to make meatloaf for us when we were growing up and she would use ketchup and brown sugar for the topping while baking. It was a little too sweet for me. Well I make my meat loaf different because I don't use ground beef usually ground pork or ground turkey sometime add in some ground chicken. Anyway I just love the flavor of this thick medium sweet soy sauce that I have, so I thought it would work great for a topping instead..

Course I love scraping good caramelized dripping off the bottom of a pan. It did give it good flavor, but I have to figure out what I need to do to make a good sauce thick enough to stay on top. Maybe add it a little while after baking some.

An easy way to make leftovers tasty. Tortillas do come in handy for this. A little chicken, cilantro, fresh squeeze of lime, Mexican cheese, fresh spinach, and tomatoes if you like!

None of these really have recipes so I didn't post any, but I just wanted to share some ideas for things you can throw together for the busy weeks that sometimes sneak up on you! I really admire those who can plan out their weekly menu. I just am not one of them. I like to see what looks good in the store, and use up what I have in the pantry and fridge.
I had some purple potatoes, and sweet potatoes are always easy to find, along with any white potato, and onion. Saute in some good olive oil, rosemary and thyme or your favorite herbs, salt and pepper. Confetti potato hash was a hit!!

The purple potatoes look prettier on the inside than they look before they are cut.
Hope this helped you with some quick supper ideas. I am just happy that I was able to get it out there. I have been off line all day, and off and on throughout the past week. It is so strange that it will do this. I think it is our splitter, even though we replaced it. So our phone and Internet will go down, but not cable TV. We will jiggle the connector, hit the reset button, sometimes it works and some time it doesn't work. We've replace the cable coming to the house, upgraded to an expensive splitter and this will still happen...off and on, no rhyme or reason! Sheesh! Talk about frustrating!! So this brings us to our last relaxing photo...

... of course I couldn't leave you all without a beautiful Florida sunset!

Blogger friends visit, a weekend in Sarasota

Okay enough playing around, I've got to get back to work. After a week of quick dinners (I had to squeese some food in) like above of yellow rice with cilantro, steamed carrots and kale, and pork cutlet....not much to write about there. It has almost been a whole week since we had our lunch, where we got to meet up with some fabulous fellow blogger friends of mine. I am sure many of you know Rebecca from Chow and Chatter, she is just as nice in person as she is in all of the videos she posts, and she is every bit herself everywhere you'll see her on facebook , twitter and where ever else she might be. Rebecca and her family are awesome, if you haven't been there please check out her blog...I admire all that she does.

We also met Sam from My Carolina Kitchen, we were so lucky that they were in Florida for the season, and they drove up to Sarasota to join us for lunch at Mattison's City Grille downtown...just as the farmer's market was pulling out for the day. Sam and her husband were such a delight, we all had plenty to talk about. If you want to see some fantastic food and stunning photography, be sure to visit Sam's blog, you won't be disappointed.



Rebecca with her finally napping little guy...cat naps for him on this trip.




Sam and her husband Meakin, never a dull moment...




Daddy helping out so mom can eat...he's got his hands full and he can still eat, now that's talent!



I always have to get and action shot...I don't know how I do it!!! :) sorry!




I was busy working on my shell ornaments and crafts for the season. I wanted to bring them along to share...the glue was drying in the car on the way over...it's a long story...about the wrong glue. I didn't get a photo of those, but you can see one of the shell angels I made on Rececca's blog.




Later, I did work on my sea urchin snowmen, and finally found something that would work for a hat. What do you think? Any other ideas what I could use beside a cheap bead?




They were able to enjoy some beautiful weather, and sunsets. So much fun to have Rebecca walk my beach and enjoy the beauty that is around us and where I live. It was great we ran into them there on the beach. So much more to see and do.



After all the sunsets I post, I wanted to share a sunrise looking out my kitchen window. If any of you are visiting Florida and are near Sarasota, please give me a shout and email me. Would love to meet you!

Lemon Tahini Orzo with Seafood

My summer vacation is coming to and end...


...only one week left, before I have to go back to work at the school. Don't want to take much time in the kitchen making dinner...so here's a quick one.

First off these were the only photos I was able to get, and my camera just would not focus (really, it's stuck). Then it was too close to dinner so it was all eaten up! This is another versatile dish you can really add to it what you like or what you have in the fridge.

It was good warm and I'll bet it would be good cold or room temperature if it lasted that long! Great in a bento lunch.

I really didn't want to post this photo, but you can get an idea...next time I make it I'll be sure to change the photos.

Ingredients:
Cooked orzo (I really don't know how much I had, but you can eyeball it, probably 1 cup dry)
1 tablespoon white miso paste
3 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste - you can find some nice tahini in a middle eastern store if not your grocery store)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
3 table spoons water
1-2 clove garlic minced
1-2 teaspoons capers
sea salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste
a handful cilantro or parsley chopped
1 tablespoon perilla oil (Korean) you can use any nut oil like walnut, hazelnut or even olive oil
Use what you have, any greens or veggies, I had snow peas, broccoli florets, pan grilled shrimp and sage leaves (that wasn't a hit with my husband, I would probably chop them) imitation crab.

Method:

I marinated the shrimp in Makoto's Sesame Ginger dressing for about 30 minutes the cooked them on a grill pan. Near the end of the cooking time of the orzo I tossed in the broccoli flowerettes and the snow peas, cooked and drained with the pasta.

In a medium bowl add the miso, tahini, water, lemon juice...stir to mix it all together and loosen up the miso and tahini paste. Stir in the garlic, capers and set aside. In large bowl or in a pan mix together the cooked orzo, vegetables, cilantro, oil, crab, and shrimp. Salt and pepper to taste, I thought it needed a little something so I added a little garlic powder, and a little soy sauce, but this is optional of course anything is optional.


I have some photos to brighten up my post since my food pics were so bad. Before summer ends we had to again visit the nation's number one beach!

...we do visit it often anyway since it's just minutes from our house, this was at 10:00 AM everyone is already in the water...



...a bright sunny day with clear skies... not like today...

...and filling up fast, even though our peak season is in the winter...good thing it's a large beach!

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Our Anniversary on an Island at The Sandbar

Yesterday was our 18th wedding anniversary and we spent part of the afternoon on Anna Maria Island. It is only about a 40 minute drive north from us, but it always feels like we went away on vacation. So where do you go when you live in a vacation destination? :D Summertime is nice for us locals who can take advantage of the vacation spots and waterfront restaurants and not have towait to get in.

So funny though right now on the news they are saying northerners are coming down to Florida to beat the heat! What? We are in our normal summer weather of high 80s to low 90s, sometimes afternoon showers to cool us off a bit and we never reach 100 here on the coast!

Our first stop was the Anna Maria City Pier that turned 100 years old this past May. We like to walk out and enjoy the view...looks like he has a pretty good view up there.


We do have to share it with the fishermen...but we liked watching the cormorant and pelicans dive for fish...

...you can see many fish just peaking over the edge....I wonder...is this is 100 year old wood?

nothing fancy here, but they have a little bar here as well, a nice spot to buy a drink and enjoy whats around you.

The island is painted so pretty, reminds me of the Caribbean. I didn't catch a photo of all the pastel and pictures painted on the buildings, just couldn't while we were driving.

We went to the Sandbar Restaurant for an early dinner, we did the same thing a couple of years ago and enjoyed it so much we wanted to do it again.

This was what we had to look at while we ate. I love it! nothing like sitting right on the beach, even if it's in the sun!

start off with a couple of cocktails...the glasses didn't take too long to become all sweaty...

we tried to keep them in the shade...

at this time of day looks like the rest of the deck is catching some sun too.

...on to the the appetizer...
ESCARGOT –Tender Escargot baked in Garlic
Butter




We decided to get salads instead of a big dinner, mine was the salmon salad.

WASABI ENCRUSTED SALMON – Filet of Salmon in a
light coating of Wasabi and Japanese Breadcrumbs, baked
and served over Mixed Greens with Mandarin Oranges,
Grape Tomatoes, Red Onions and our Sesame Ginger
Vinaigrette Dressing

My husband went for the seafood pasta salad.


SANDBAR CRAB PASTA SALAD – An Old Anna Maria
Island Favorite! Chunks of Crab and White Fish tossed
with Seashell Pasta in an Herb Mayo Dressing, served
with Tropical Fruit

I couldn't get over how big the piece of salmon was... mmm...so good too, loved the sesame ginger vinaigrette.

but the best part is eating in a restaurant where you can kick your shoes off and have sand between your toes!

and listening to a little island beach music to go with it...

a nice walk on the beach afterward, the white sand doesn't get hot down here, so you can always go barefoot with out burning your feet on hot sand.

that was our table, the waiter was too tall...had to duck under the umbrella to take our order.

One of the painted courtyards on the walk back to the car, before my memory card was full.

Thanks for coming along with us to Anna Maria, Florida and celebrating with us!