Lasagna Soup

Sorry for the lack of posts again lately. I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month, and trying to write 50,000 words in 30 days is surprisingly time-consuming. With Thanksgiving coming up, too, I wouldn't expect too many posts in the next couple weeks if I were you. That being said, let's get on with it.

I'd like to introduce you to one of my new favorite soups. It's really easy to make, and it tastes delicious. I expected to enjoy this recipe, but I didn't expect to love it quite as much as I do. Justin decided as we were eating the leftovers that it kind of tastes like the adult version of spaghetti-o's, which is probably why I'm in love with it. Spaghetti-o's are one of my inner child's ultimate favorite foods--yes they're terrible for you, I know, but I really don't care. If you're not a fan of canned pasta, however, don't be scared into not trying this recipe. It's really nothing like spaghetti-o's; Justin just thought that the sauce in particular reminded him of it a bit, but in a good way, I swear. Give it a try, and see what you think!

Sausage and Tortellini Soup

It's getting colder outside, so you can expect to start seeing a lot more soup recipes on here. I love soup because it warms you up but also because it tends to be fairly low in calories, as long as you're not making anything that's heavy on the cream. This soup has a wonderful combination of Italian flavors, so it makes a nice alternative to a heavy, pasta dinner. Try it out next time you're craving spaghetti. For an even lighter version, use Italian-style chicken or turkey sausage instead of pork.

Ricotta Pasta Salad

I have to admit, I'm not as obsessed with Pinterest as everyone else seems to be. For quite a while there, I just didn't get the appeal at all. I've come around a bit though and used it to find inspiration for some DIY art projects for our master bathroom as well as some recipes. I don't spend hours and hours on the site, but I can see the usefulness of it now. (If you, on the other hand, are all about Pinterest, you can also access all of my recipes from the Cake & Coke Pinterest board. Feel free to re-pin and share your favorite recipes with friends!)

I happened across a photo of this recipe, but my attention was really captured by the caption which said that this pasta salad was made with ricotta instead of mayo. First of all, I love ricotta cheese. I can just eat it straight from the container. Second of all, I love creamy pasta salads but would like to be able to make them lighter (aside from just using light mayo). Justin, however, isn't a big fan of the texture of ricotta unless it's mixed into something like lasagna where he won't really notice it. This recipe, though, mixes in some pasta water to make the ricotta into a creamy sauce rather, which I thought would be a perfect way to hide the texture a bit. We adjusted the veggies to what we thought would be tasty and gave it a try. I think if we made this again I would maybe add a packet of ranch seasoning or something similar to the sauce to make it more flavorful--it was a little on the bland side--but otherwise I definitely liked this idea for a different take on pasta salad.

Classic Lasagna

Classic lasagna is a fairly simple concept--you stack up some noodles with spaghetti sauce, maybe some meat or veggies, and some cheese, and you bake it. Everyone has their own little twist on it though. Some people don't pre-boil their noodles, and some do. Some people use beef, some use sausage, and some use mushrooms or eggplant. That's why everyone loves lasagna--it can be so easily tailored to suit your tastes. This is what I do when I make lasagna.

Salsa

Justin's major weakness is chips and salsa. If he has them, he will eat them. Quickly. He gets sad when we come home with a brand new jar of salsa and he has to wait for it to get cold before he can eat it. I'm not kidding.

I had always wanted to try making homemade salsa. However, chopping up all those tomatoes and what not seemed like a lot of work. I convinced myself to give it a try once, and the flavor was super weak. I don't know if I just had a bad recipe or bad tomatoes or what, but I thought that homemade salsa would just forever be out of my reach. Then came Pioneer Woman to the rescue. Although everything she makes looks fantastic, I try to avoid making a lot of it because of the ridiculous amount of butter and heavy cream that goes into everything she makes. Oh, the calories. How bad could salsa be though? There's no butter or cream anywhere in sight, so it should be okay.

Chicken Creole

I haven't always been a big fan of chicken Creole. It's very tomato-y, and as I've talked about before, I didn't really like tomatoes much until fairly recently. When I was a kid, the tomato chunks in chicken Creole are what turned me off, but now that I'm over it, I really enjoy this dish. It's still not my favorite Cajun-style dish, but it's definitely worth making once in a while.

Mom's Spaghetti Sauce

We ate spaghetti fairly often when I was a kid, and as far as I was concerned, spaghetti sauce came from a jar. If you wanted the "real thing," you got it at a restaurant. People didn't just make spaghetti sauce at home. Well, maybe if you came from an Italian family, but my family's not Italian. For whatever reason, one day she decided that she wanted to make homemade spaghetti sauce. I don't know where she got the recipe, but the day she made it for the first time, my life changed; there's life before homemade spaghetti sauce and life after it.

Roasted Tomato Caprese Salad

There aren't too many things that I crave that Justin doesn't eat and vice versa, but sometimes we just have to have a fend-for-yourself night where we each get to eat whatever it is that individually makes us happy. It's summer, and it's been a pretty hot one at that, and so I just want to eat cold things. Caprese salad is one of those things that just hits the spot. Yes, technically caprese salad is usually more of an appetizer than a full dinner, but it's cold and delicious and everything that's good about summer.

I actually didn't really eat tomatoes until fairly recently. I always ate tomato sauce and spaghetti and whatnot, but I never ate actual tomatoes. I didn't like them for whatever reason. Since I've grown up and started eating a wider variety of foods, I've discovered that I do like them after all, and since I started eating tomatoes, I discovered the delight of caprese salad. Fresh basil? Love it! Fresh mozzarella? Can't get enough of it! Put that on a perfectly ripe tomato with a drizzle of balsamic reduction, and you've nearly got perfection. (If only there was a good way to work in some bacon there. Hmmmm. I might need to work on that.)