Vegetarian Penne Italiano

Sounds fancy, doesn't it? That was the goal. I had an idea for this dish while I was grocery shopping, and I only actually paid about $2 for the ingredients, since I had most of this stuff at home already. The baby decided to enjoy some tummy time on her surfboard playmat while I put this together for about 20 minutes. My husband said it tasted great but could use some meat, so I think next time I make it I'll buy a hard salami and put some chunks of that into the mix.

Ingredients:

1 box Penne pasta, prepared
1 cup onion, sliced lengthwise and then cut in half
3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 roma tomato, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and julienned or thinly sliced
2 small (or 1 large) zucchini, cut into inch long strips
1 small yellow squash, cut into inch long strips
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup Italian salad dressing

Prepare the pasta as indicated on the box, boiling until noodles are cooked but still firm. In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil on low. Add all chopped vegetables to the pan and stir together well.

Add spices on top of that and mix well, cooking on low for about ten minutes or at least as long as it takes to cook the pasta.

Note that in the video I mistakenly said "bay leaves" when I meant to say "basil leaves".
Drain pasta and pour into a serving bowl, then add cooked vegetable mix on top. Add the Italian dressing and stir all together well.

If you like, mix in 1 cup chopped hard salami. Eat and enjoy! Fair warning, because of the mostly-still-raw garlic and onion, this dish may give you a bit of gas.

Pork Loin Roast with Sweet Potatoes, Apples and Onions

Military folks get paid twice a month, and it's almost pay day. This means that my fridge and cabinets are almost empty of all the food I bought last paycheck (two weeks ago), so I'm doing pretty well for making it last two whole weeks. But that means that the pork roast I had thawing in the refrigerator for today had little left to accompany it. So this is totally an empty-out-the-cupboard meal. And I'm starting it a little late, having waited for the baby's 10:30am nap to get this ready. And now that you'll have my recipe, I can tell you it will probably only take about 20-25 minutes to prepare in your 7-quart slow cooker, and then you just play the Crock Pot waiting game.

Ingredients:

2-pound pork loin roast (cost me a little over $3)
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp garlic pepper
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp seasoned salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 apple, cored and cut into small chunks
1 whole sweet onion, sliced lengthwise and broken up
2-3 shallots, sliced lengthwise into strips
1/2 cup water
1 tsp seasoned salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Rinse meat off and place flat side down in bottom of Crock Pot. Sprinkle next 6 ingredients (herbs/spices) over the meat in whatever order you like, rubbing into meat.

Toss in onions, potatoes, shallots and apple, mixed up altogether. You can do this in layers as it may be easier to spice that way. Pour in 1/2 cup water. Sprinkle seasoned salt on all layers of vegetables, then sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg, trying to get most of the last two on just the sweet potatoes and apples. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Makes about 4-6 servings.

The pork ended up tasting a little bit dry, but not bad. If you have time, I recommend salting the pork a half hour before you set it in the crock pot to cook.

Crispy Roast Lamb with Rosemary Vegetables

My husband's work schedule is going to be changing soon to the point where most of my dinners will likely be made in the Crock Pot while the baby looks on. Tonight, however, I had him available and so he kept an eye on the little one while I tried something new on the lamb roast we love to eat.

Ingredients for the lamb:

2 lb. boneless leg of lamb roast
1/2 cup flour
1 Tbsp rosemary
1/4 tsp garlic pepper
pinch of seasoned salt and ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Watch the terrible chunk of video my husband took of me doing this part:

Mix the flour and herbs together in a large bowl while the oil heats up in a large pot/skillet/dutch oven on the stove top (low-medium heat). Rinse off the lamb then drop into bowl and coat generously with flour mixture. Place carefully into dutch oven on the stove and brown on each side for about 5-6 minutes.

Spray olive oil into bottom of roasting pan to grease it and place lamb in center of pan. Gently pour balsamic vinegar over lamb, coating as best as you can.

Ingredients for the potato mixture:

5 red potatoes, rinsed and cubed
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp rosemary
pinch of ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely

Mix all together in a bowl, coating the potatoes well. Drop into roasting pan, spreading out to surround the lamb.

Vegetables:
1 lb. bag of baby carrots
2 shallots, sliced vertically
1/2 large sweet onion, sliced vertically
1 Tbsp seasoned salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Spread rest of vegetables in pan and mix up with potatoes. Shake the seasoned salt and pepper over all.

Roast uncovered in oven at 325 F for 1 hr. and 30-40 minutes or until cooked well on outside and pink in the middle. All in all, this took about 30 minutes to prepare.

This turned out great! We like our lamb a little on the rare side. Don't worry, moms; I'll be changing up the pace to cheaper foods very soon!