Tomato Parmesan Fettuccini

So, it seems the last time we spoke, I was on a roll. Something like 2 blog posts in a week and I was taking photos of food, coming up with ideas on what to make and blog about, and then life happened.

 

My dog became sick suddenly, and within 4 days passed away. As I was beginning to cope with that loss, my cousin passed away unexpectedly. Still reeling from the first loss, this second loss was like a punch to the gut. Honestly, blogging, even making food, was the last thing on my mind. And then we went on vacation. 14 days. It was nice to get away. It was nice to be with my husband and kids. I've had time to reflect, time for myself, time with family.

Now I'm here, ready to get back to it.

 

Tonight's dinner was inspired by a recipe I found through Pinterest!

Although inspired by this recipe, I did modify it somewhat.

 

Here's what I used:

16 oz. package of fettuccini

2 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 onion finely diced

2 garlic cloves

3/4 carrot finely chopped

1/2 pound ground beef

28 oz. can of San Marzano tomatoes

1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese

1/2 cup of heavy cream

To taste: salt, pepper, basil, red pepper flakes, sugar

 

 

I started by dicing my onion, garlic, and carrot. I prefer a fine dice. I then shredded my parmesan cheese.

A note about the carrot: First, I would have used a whole carrot, but the minute my son saw I was using a carrot, he swiped about a 1/4 of it. I'm surprised he's not orange with the amount of carrots he eats. Second, the original recipe does not call for a carrot, but I like adding carrot to some of my pasta sauces to cut the acidity of the sauce with the carrot's natural sweetness.

 

I added the olive oil to a pan and turned the heat to medium low. Once warm, I added the onion, garlic, and carrot to the pan. I cooked these on medium low until translucent and soft. If you crank the heat here, you'll burn your garlic and it'll give your sauce a very bitter taste.
                                                                                                                          While that was sautéing, I opened the tomatoes and threw them in a food processor. One tip I learned from the above website was to pulse the tomatoes slowly. Blending quickly will result in a pink, foamy, thin sauce. That's not what you want here. So, pulse a little at a time, until tomatoes are broken down, and sauce is relatively smooth.



Let's take a minute and talk San Marzano tomatoes. A lot of recipes call for them. They are supposed to be the best you can get canned for your sauce. Maybe it's my unsophisticated palate, but I can't tell the difference between the San Marzano and any other canned, whole, peeled tomatoes. Having said that, they're also a little pricey. Having used other ingredients that were relatively inexpensive, still makes this meal pretty cheap. However, if you were making this in bulk (for freezing or giving away or a huge family dinner) I'd use regular tomatoes. If you want a good compromise, use organic canned tomatoes.

 

 Ok, back to cooking, and here's where it gets slightly complicated, but stay with me. I am not a fan of chunky sauce, so I always blend it. However, with a meat sauce, you don't want blended meat. So, I put the onion, garlic, and carrot into a bowl, and then brown the meat.

 

 

 

 

I added salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to the meat, to taste. As the meat cooks, I let the onion, garlic, carrot mixture cool and then add to the food processor with the blended tomatoes. I again, process slowly, so that the mixture and tomatoes combine until smooth. Once the meat is browned, I drain the oil from the pan. I then added the tomato sauce to the meat, mixed, and added salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, basil, and sugar to the sauce, to taste. I know what you're thinking, I added carrots to provide sweetness but then added sugar. Well, instead of having to add a tablespoon or more of sugar, I only added a teaspoon.

 

Simmer.

 

A note about the salt. You'll want to add salt to the meat and tomato sauce, but you'll eventually be adding 1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese, which can be salty. It's better not to add too much, since you can add some at the end.

 

After adding the cream.

At this point, I began the process of boiling the pasta. Fill your pot, turn on the burner, add salt. The water should taste salty like the sea. I prefer to cook my pasta in a big-ish pot (not the biggest I have though) and waiting until I have a rolling boil. Once there's a rolling boil, I drop my pasta. Now the next two minutes are critical. The temperature of the water will drop when you add the pasta and work its way back up and at the same time, the pasta releases its starches. You'll want to constantly stir your pasta for at least the first two minutes to prevent the pasta from sticking together. In fact, I do a two and two kind of deal. Stir constantly two minutes, let boil two minutes, stir constantly two minutes, etc., until the pasta is done. I know it seems like a lot of work, but it works for me and I don't have sticky pasta. During the first two minute boil, I added the cheese to the sauce and mixed well. During the second two minute boil, I added the heavy cream. When adding the heavy cream you have to stir constantly. I don't know why.

 

 

I need a bigger pan!

Once the pasta is done, save a little pasta water in case you want to thin your sauce. I saved water, but I did not end up using it. Drain your pasta. Add to your sauce. Mix. Done.



 

All that's left is to plate, garnish, and eat. I used more basil and parmesan as my garnish. The basil I cut using a chiffonade technique and I used the potato peeler for cheese shavings.

 

This recipe turned out better than I thought it would. The kids liked it too. This makes quite a bit, so it's a great family night meal; you could serve bread and salad to complete the meal. If you have some leftover, this should be an easy freezer meal as well. Either as a tray for a complete dinner or in quart bags for individual meals.



 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Our Hipster Garden

In an effort to eat healthier and potentially save some money*, we decided to replant our garden.

Last year, we had everything in buckets.  Lots and lots of buckets.  It was a very hot summer, and our sprinklers were low.  That led to mass destruction of our garden.

So about a month ago, we decided to re-do the whole thing.  With many thanks to Pinterest! we opted to create a raised garden using concrete blocks.  We decided to use the small squares for herbs, spinach, strawberries, and lettuce.  In the bigger space we planted tomatoes, carrots, bell peppers, broccoli, and cucumbers?  Seriously, I have no idea what seeds my son threw in there, but something is growing.

To ensure we don't set ourselves up for failure, we did a few things: before laying the blocks and soil, we laid down some cardboard to help with weeds, we bought taller sprinkler heads, and we planted some plastic bottles with holes drilled in to catch excess water and have that water distributed deep into the roots.

A month in, and everything is growing beautifully.  Way better than I thought it would and with minimal effort from me which is a huge plus.

The basil and cilantro are growing like crazy.  In order for it not to go to waste, I decided to make herb ice cubes, so I can use them any time.  Cut, rinse, and dry herbs (with salad spinner) - then place them in ice cube trays, fill with water, and throw them into the freezer.  Once completely frozen, put cubes in a freezer bags and use whenever you need them.

Now that we're pretty serious about this whole garden thing, we went back to the Home Depot and bought more seeds/plants, including marigolds.  I know that the whole marigold thing may not be entirely accurate, but it can't hurt, right?  So, here's what the garden looks like as of today:

Marigolds along the back, tomato cages for the growing tomatoes, new plants, newly planted seeds, and just as many herbs as there were last week (1st picture).  Looks like there are more herb cubes in my immediate future.

Here's the *money saving disclaimer: it costs money to plant something like this.  Even more money if you want it to be organic, like ours.  We utilized sales at Home Depot and didn't buy everything all at once.  I used to buy Dorot cubes at Trader Joe's for about $2 each.  My organic cilantro seeds cost $2.49, but made three cilantro plants.  I think it will be cost effective in the long run and well worth it.  Besides using the garden to get healthier, it has given us (me and Owen anyway) a new hobby.

I'll keep you updated on it's progress and the meals we make with it.

Let me know if you garden or what you would plant if you could.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder...

Strangely enough, I've missed blogging.  I've been asked more than once in the last week why I haven't blogged.  I would have thought that unemployment would be the perfect opportunity to update my blogs every day, or at least a few times a week.  Yet somehow, I haven’t updated this blog since December 2012.  It’s not because I’m not cooking, the opposite is true in fact.  I cook all the time, nearly every day.  I think it’s just a matter of adding blogging to my list of daily activities.  You know:

Wake up

Make coffee
Feed dog
Beg son to use the potty
Write blog
Etc…

Of course, in no particular order.  The daily activities always seem to be the same; the order however, leaves something to be desired on some days.

With all of this in mind and with no promises of the future of this blog, let’s talk food.

I have found that lately I have been the voice of the frugal meal maker.  Partly because of our situation with my unemployment, but partly because it’s easy and I have the time.  We have become pupils of the “all cash” budget with categories (ala Dave Ramsey) and I seem to really have this food thing for our family down to a science.  I budget $100/week for groceries and only $25/week in fast food.  I plan all of our meals on Saturday for the following week (Sunday – Saturday).  Sometimes, I even make multiple things on Sunday, and freeze or just store for that week in the fridge.  I like to think that these kinds of habits are very much needed for when I eventually find a job.  Besides being cost effective, we’re eating much healthier.  Note: I don’t always make the healthiest meal, but it’s got to be much healthier than take out/fast food?  Right?

I’m not a couponer, but I do look for deals.  And I don’t grocery shop with the husband or teenager.  They have a habit of making my bill higher than it needs to be.

This week’s menu:

Sunday: dinner @ mom’s

Monday: roasted chicken, veggies, potatoes
Tuesday: tostadas
Wednesday: chicken parm with pasta
Thursday: pork chops, veggies
Friday: sopes, rice
Saturday: hamburgers, pasta salad

And of course, that didn’t go as planned at all.  When I went to prepare the chicken for the slow cooker on Monday morning, the chicken was completely frozen, despite thawing in the fridge for 2 days!  So, I made tostadas on Monday.  Rice, tostada, beans, ground beef, cheese (the stinky feet crumbly kind), lettuce and homemade salsa:

 

Which means, I made the roasted chicken today, with a side of steamed broccoli and smashed potatoes:

 

This now means I’m not making chicken parm tomorrow, because I’m not a fan of having the same protein two days in a row.  So, maybe sopes tomorrow?  I have leftover rice from yesterday’s tostadas.  The beauty of making the menu is that even if I don’t follow it EXACTLY, I know that I have all of the ingredients necessary for each meal at my disposal.

It's worked out nicely since the beginning of the year.

Here some things I'm working on, and will hopefully update you all on:

Planting and growing our own veggies
Growing our own herbs
Mastering the art of sauces (I'm getting close, I can feel it!)
Organizing the freezer
Making more recipes that I've pinned on Pinterest!
Cake/Cupcake decorating

Until next time...