Gluten Free Penne Carbonara

Gluten Free Organic Quinoa, Amaranth, Brown Rice Penne. Delicious!

Yesterday was meatless Monday...well we went with 'almost meatless Monday' instead. :)

Gluten Free Penne Carbonara

1 lb GF Penne, cook as directed
1 Tbsp. Oil
1 Onion, diced
3 Cloves Garlic, minced
1 Cup Bacon Bits
1 Tomato, diced
2 Cups Heavy Cream
1 Cup Parmesan Cheese (fresh grated, or powdered)
4 Eggs


Cook pasta as directed (if using gf pasta, do NOT overcook, this can happen quickly so it pays to stay close to the stove for the 6-8 minutes it takes to cook!).
Fry onion in oil until translucent, then add garlic and mix together. Add bacon bits and tomato and fry for 1-2 minutes until tomato softens. Remove from heat until pasta is ready.

Lightly beat eggs in a bowl and add heavy cream and parmesan cheese and mix together.

Strain pasta and put back into pot. Add onion mixture. With pot over low heat, slowly add cream and egg mixture. BE PATIENT! If you try to heat it up too quickly by raising the temperature, you will just end up with cooked eggs on pasta! Stir together and slowly heat through, stirring often.
Serve hot.

This was wonderful! I think next time I would add some spinach in at the end too, just to add some colour, but it was great just the way it was too!

I know it has bacon so it's technically not 'meatless', but I think this will make it into our meatless monday rotation on a regular basis!!

Vodka Cream Sauce

This is my first time cooking with alcohol beyond wine and I have to say I'm thoroughly impressed! The whole family gobbled it down in no time!
I cooked up chicken breasts and cubed them, then put them into the sauce. Poured it all over rice pasta (a twisty kind, I'm really not sure what type!) and it was delicious. I haven't been able to stomach brown rice pasta very much since we switched and I ate a huge plate of this! And it was easy!! I was out of tomato sauce, so I used 2 tins of whole tomatoes (I blended them first), and 3 Tbsp. of tomato paste and let it boil for about 15 minutes before adding it to the recipe, worked like a charm!

2/3 Cup Vodka
1 Cup Whipping Cream/Heavy Cream
3 Cups Tomato Sauce
Meat (Bacon would taste good, I used chicken)
Pasta of your choice.
Parmesan cheese, for topping.

Cook your meat, pour in vodka and boil for 4-5 minutes until it has reduced by about half. Add tomato sauce and cream. Let simmer for 20ish minutes. Serve hot over pasta of your choice and top with Parmesan cheese!

Macasagna

Macasanga? This is what my 2.5 year hold has dubbed it :) It's a variation of the Super Easy Lasagna recipe.

If there is one thing you probably know about me by now it's that I'm frugal (I do not like the term 'cheap' because I feel it has a totally different definition...I'm frugal, but if we (especially our kids) need something, I wont hesitate to get it, to me cheap is avoiding purchasing anything that isn't an absolute live or die need, even if it might jeopardize your health to not have it (vitamins, medicine) etc. I'm not talking about absolutely not having the money to purchase necessities, but rather choosing to hoard money in the bank instead) But I digress! Back to Macasagna!

Lasagna noodles are pricey, and they almost never go on sale. Cheese is expensive and even when it is on sale it's still expensive! I really really enjoy lasagna, now that I know how to make it easily, but can't bring myself to make it as often as I would like.
Thus, Macasanga was born!!

Use the same sauce recipe from Super Easy Lasagna. But instead of lasagna noodles you use, yup you guess it!, macaroni noodles :) And in the cheese layers instead of fully layering cheese use mostly cottage cheese with a bit of grated cheese and then use grated cheese on top. It's delicious, it's economical and it's easy! It's a win win!

I buy the No Name Cottage Cheese at Extra Foods (Superstore), and it's approx. $2.50 for a 500mL tub, and the huge boxes of macaroni are available at the same store, or Costco for a fairly modest price. I'm sure it brings the price of the lasagna to half or less then it's original cost. Yes, it's nice to still have regular lasagna sometimes, but especially when you're coming to the end of the month (and the end of the budget!), this is a quick, easy, filling and economical meal :) Oh, and kids love it because what kid doesn't love macaroni?

Super Easy Lasagna

Mmmm Yummy!

This is my friend Jen's recipe, and as soon as I tasted it (and saw how easy it was to make), I knew I had to have the recipe! Thanks Jen, this is definitely going into our regular rotation of meals!
I have always hated making lasagna because of the noodles. Boiling them, then burning my fingers while laying them out in the dish, hoping they don't rip in the meantime. I never make lasagna.
This has got to be the easiest way to do it!

Sauce Ingredients
1 lb Hamburger - Browned
1 Tsp. Dehydrated Onion
1 Tsp. Salt
1 Tbsp. Sugar
1 Tsp. Chili Powder
1 Tsp. Garlic Salt
1 1/2 Tsp. Basil
1 6oz. Can Tomato Paste
1 14oz. Can Tomato Sauce
4 Cups Water

Put it all together in a big pot and simmer for 10 minutes (or so). Using a 9x13 pan start layering.
1 1/2 Cups Sauce on the bottom of the pan
Layer UNCOOKED noodles across the pan
Sauce to cover 
Cheese (any type you want, I used Tex Mex, but Cottage Cheese, Ricotta, Mozza etc. would work)
More UNCOOKED noodles
Sauce
Cheese
ETC. ETC. until your pan is full, ending with cheese.

Cover with foil and cook at 350 F for 1 Hour, then remove foil and cook another 20 minutes. 


The sauce will appear very watery, that's good since the noodles will suck it all up! I used 3 of the tin 'lasagna pans' (the disposable ones), since I'm giving away 2 of them. They weren't very deep, so a double batch of the sauce above filled them all. I made the sauce last night after the kids went to bed, and put everything together this morning. I had 3 lasagnas made before 9am!

Good Idea from Jen: Make up a bunch of sauce, and freeze just the sauce in batches (You know your pan and how many layers it takes. Plan on about 1.5 cups of sauce per layer and then add an extra 1/2 - 1 cup just to make sure!). Takes up less space in the freezer and you can always have fresh lasagna anytime with very minimal work!