Johnny Marzetti With A Twist

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Andrea

Recently, my friend John, contacted me and a few other local food bloggers about doing a blog post on the Johnny Marzetti dish. We each would create our version of the dish and then all post about it on the same day.

I immediately said I was in! Then I asked what the Johnny Marzetti dish was. Not being a Columbus, or even an Ohio native, this was completely new to me.

John directed me to this link explaining the dish. I knew exactly what it was once I read the description. Where I grew up, it was called Goulash. Some folks, mostly those from the New England area, refer to it as Chop Suey.

It’s elbow pasta with ground beef in a tomato sauce. We had this all the time growing up and it was one of the few ways I would be willing to eat ground beef. I made it for Scott when we started dating and he fell in love with it.

Spaghetti and Eggs

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Andrea

When one arrives back home from a trip away, I fully believe that a warm and comforting meal is a must. Whatever food is your favorite, whatever dinner makes you content, that’s what you should be eating.

When Scott got back home from being gone for a week, he said he was ready to eat some good food. He said he missed my cooking and couldn’t wait to sit down to a lovely dinner.

Is he fab or what?

And because of my belief mentioned above, I knew he needed something comforting. Scott has a lot of comfort foods and two of them happen to be pasta and fried eggs. I was going back and forth about what to make him.

Breakfast? Or a pasta dish?

Then it occured to me, why not combine them?

The measurements aren’t exact because this is a recipe that can easily be adjusted to serve one or 20.

Andrea’s Spaghetti and Eggs

Try New Combinations

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Andrea

There’s a little diner here that serves the best black beans I have ever had. I dream about these black beans.

Scott and I went one day for breakfast and I got a side order of beans. Yeah, beans for breakfast, don’t knock it! I had eggs with my breakfast and decided to just plop the beans right on top. With a little hot sauce on top, I was a very happy lady.

Had I not ordered beans with my breakfast, it probably never would have occurred to me to try mixing them with eggs.

Once I did, I couldn’t figure out why this hadn’t done this before! Now black beans over eggs is one of my very favorite combinations.

I scramble up eggs and season them with garlic and chili powder. Then I top with:

Black Beans
Cheese
Salsa
Hot Sauce

You can even add in some sour cream as well!

It’s an easy dish to put together and is also very budget friendly. Eggs and beans are inexpensive and pantry staples.

Loaded Baked Sweet Potato

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Andrea

This is my newest obsession, the loaded baked sweet potato. A little while back I wanted to try creating a loaded baked sweet potato.

I love sweet potato and pumpkin as savory items more than I do sweet. Hence why I put pumpkin in just about every chili I make now and why I think sweet potato fries should contain chili powder.

Previous meals, I had a little bit of cheese mixed in with my baked sweet potato and it was glorious. I decided at some point I was going to jump in with both feet and make a savory baked sweet potato.

Last week I tried it out and will never go back to butter and cinnamon on a sweet potato again.

Andrea’s Loaded Baked Sweet Potato

Sweet Potato

Pepperjack Cheese

Sour Cream (I use Greek Yogurt)

Hot Sauce of Choice

Chopped Green Onions

Bake sweet potato in oven at 400 for about 1.5 hours. How long will depend on how big your potato is. Baking a sweet potato is similar to baking a regular potato. Poke holes in it first. I do not put anything on the skin of the sweet potato. I line a baking sheet with foil, spray with oil and bake the sweet potato as is.

Read more on Loaded Baked Sweet Potato…

Kale Hash

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Andrea

Friends, what I’m about to share with you is one of my favorite meals. It came into my life not all that long ago and will be with me forever and ever, amen.

We all know that I love potatoes, right? So this dish is full of my favorite things.

Potatoes
Kale
Eggs

And it’s eaten out of a bowl

It’s heaven. And so easy! I was flipping through a Ray Ray magazine a few months back and saw the title, Kale Hash. I didn’t even read the recipe because I created my own right on the spot. I think I even made it that same night.

Kale hash is pure genius. It’s also purely delicious and completely perfect.

Life will never be the same again.

Andrea’s Kale Hash

2 Idaho Potatoes, scrubbed, and cut into bite sized cubes

1 Large bunch of kale, stemmed and chopped

1/2 Onion, chopped

1/2 Green pepper, chopped

4 eggs, beaten

Stuffed Zucchini

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Andrea

We are in full swing with the summer season around here and one thing that is abundant at the farmer’s markets is zucchini.

Not just any zucchini, but HUGE ones, longer than the length of my forearm.

Those kinds of zucchini demand the need for stuffing. A lot of people stuff zucchini with ground meat, and this was highly typical where I grew up. Ground beef was usually the meat of choice stuffed into the zucchini along with maybe some tomato sauce.

I like the flavor of cooked tomato along with zucchini but I wanted to do a meatless version of stuffed zucchini. Instead of meat, I used my favorite grain, millet.

Andrea’s Stuffed Zucchini

1 HUGE zucchini, (literally like a foot in length, or as big as you can find)

1/2C Uncooked Millet

1 1/2C Chicken Stock (or veggie broth)

2-3 Green onions, chopped (both white and green parts)

1/2C Shredded Carrot

1C Cherry Tomatoes, quartered

Baked Potato Bar

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Andrea

We’ve talked about my love for potatoes, right? I have so many great memories of potato dishes that I could never give them up. I also have a soft spot in my heart for the potato since it gets such a bad rap from the low-carb crowd.

Let’s keep things real, a white potato is not evil. It’s a vegetable and has a lot to offer us in terms of nutrition. Let’s embrace the potato!

One of my many favorite ways to eat a potato is by loading up a baked potato. Whenever I got a chance to get a loaded potato out at a restaurant, I always ordered it as a side. My high school alternated between a salad bar and a baked potato bar during the week, which I loved. A huge baked potato for lunch? Yes please!

Because of how much I adore loaded baked potatoes, I’ve taken to recreating the experience at home.

Chilled Veggie Pizza

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Andrea

Growing up, one of the more popular dishes that I saw at potlucks was veggie pizza and it always excited me. It was a cold pizza and it had veggies! And cheese! It tasted fantastic and I always felt a big smug as I was gladly eating up all my veggies while others munched on chips and dip.

Then when I moved out on my own, I looked up the recipe for veggie pizza so that I could make some for Scott and I. This is when I realized that what I thought was healthy was in fact not healthy at all.

Typical “veggie pizza” had a crust made from canned croissants and a sauce made from cream cheese mixed with a packet of ranch dressing. Tons of pre-shredded cheese on top. The only saving grace was that it did actually contain raw veggies but man the other processed foods really bring this pizza way down.

Leftover Idea: Baked Mashed Potatoes

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Andrea

I’m not sure if we’ve ever discussed how much I love potatoes but I do. I love them more than Paula Deen loves butter and just by that statement alone, you know I mean business.

Potatoes are good for you. Potatoes are a veggie that can be utilized in so many different ways. Pasta? Forget about it. I prefer my carbs and starch from root veggies, thank you.

Leftover mashed potatoes can be just lovely on their own the next day but sometimes they need a little extra love and attention.

Sometimes you just want something a little different with your leftovers.

I took some leftover mash that we had, added a few extra ingredients, baked it for about 20 minutes and got an entirely new dish out of some basic leftovers.

Andrea’s Baked Mashed Potatoes

Leftover Mashed Potatoes

5 Green Onions, chopped

1/2C Greek Yogurt

Preheat oven to 400. Grease a small baking dish. Combine all above ingredients and place in baking dish. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the the edges and top get a crispy brown. Serve hot and enjoy!

Pretty simple right? You could add some cheese in there too and maybe some bacon. Or leftover ham? Heck you could even add some greens in there like spinach for some extra veggie action. Leftovers are what you make of them, and they can be a completely different dish if you allow your imagination to wander a bit.

Burrito Bowl

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Andrea

Shaking off yesterday’s heavy topic let’s talk about something fun! And let’s make it about fun food!

Scott and I have a favorite diner that just happens to be very close to us and they have the best veggie burritos. The. BEST. The burrito is gigantic and stuffed with beans, cheese, and all manner of veggies. They won my heart because they actually use a variety of real veggies in their burritos.

Listen, I tend to eat mostly veggie when I’m dining out. I’ve gotten veggie burritos and such at many places and the “veggies” that restaurants tend to give you are as follows:

Onion
Green Peppers
Mushrooms

That’s it. Maybe if it’s your lucky day, there will be a sad basement tasting carrot tossed in the mix. But usually “veggies” are those three things and if we’re being truthful, mushrooms aren’t even a veggie.

Please leave them off my veggie meals!

Anyway, at our favorite diner the veggie burritos are full of: