A little pasta for dinner

On Sunday I wanted to make something special for supper.  I decided to start with making some homemade pasta and see where that took me... 

Well it took me to  

Chicken Veggie Stuffed Cannelloni with Tomato Spinach Marinara

Super delicious and very satisfying because I knew it was all homemade. 

So lets start with the pasta...

Homemade Pasta:

  2 cups of all purpose flour

  3 eggs (lightly beaten)

  1/4 cup cold water

Mound the flour on a clean counter make a well in the centre add the beaten eggs.  Get in there with your hands and start mixing in the egg and flour together you will notice it is very dry, start slowing adding the water little by little until you reach a smooth dough. Once the smooth dough has been made wrap in plastic wrap and let it rest for 20mins.  

Filling for the Cannelloni:

While the dough is resting you can begin cooking up the chicken and chopping the vegetables.

Take 2 chicken breasts and place them in a deep frying pan filling the pan with water so the chicken breasts are 1/2 covered.  Cook with lid on so that you get a steamed chicken breast, making it tender. 

Vegetables:

2 carrots

4 mushrooms

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup chopped parsley

dash of olive oil

1 cup ricotta cheese

I added the carrots, mushrooms, garlic, parsley and olive oil in a food chopper and ensured it was chopped very fine.  The ricotta cheese was then added to the mixture.  Once all was mixed together I put in the fridge to let the flavors mix. 

When the chicken breasts are cooked chop them up and let cool.  Once it has cooled toss in the food chopped and mince the chicken.  Add the minced chicken to the vegetable and cheese mixture. 

Tomato Spinach Marinara:

Coarse chop 5 tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic flattened and chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp basil

2 tsp oregano

2 tbsp sugar

Combine in a sauce pan and allow to cook down

Wash and chop the coarse ends off a large bunch of Spinach allow to dry to remove alot of  the water. 

Once the tomato mixture has cooked down add the spinach and allow to cook together.  

Back to the pasta....

Cut the pasta into 3 sections.  Re-wrap the sections you are not using so it does not dry out.  

Start by rolling the section in your pasta maker.  Roll until you get to the second thinnest setting. Flour the pasta both sides and fold over cover with plastic wrap on counter.  Continue with another section.  I wrapped up the third section of pasta and put in the fridge for later on in the week.  

Putting it all together....

Cut the pasta into 6 inch sections spoon the Chicken Veggie & Cheese mixture into the middle of the pasta begin rolling from one end to the other.  To seal the roll use a little water on the pasta and dampen then fold to dry pasta.  I made 8 Cannelloni rolls.  Once it is all done I placed them in a baking pan and poured the hot Tomato Spinach Mariana sauce over.  Sprinkled Parmesan on top and popped in the oven at 375 F for 30-40mins. 

Whew... A lot of work you might think, but totally worth it, it remember it is a labor of love.  I loved this the sauce was so good  and it was great for left overs the next day at work. There is nothing like eating  a meal that was made from scratch and enjoying all the flavors that your have infused into it. 

My downfall to this is I should have taken more pictures when I was rolling the pasta and making the stuffing and sauce.  Oh and I did not even have enough time to take a picture of the entire dish before hubban dished up... So forgive me about the lack of pictures.

Super easy and not so everyday

So tonite for supper I was thinking of going with the fish taco route and then decided after I got the fish out I wanted potatoes.  So, I threw some things together keeping my craving for Mexican flavor (Quick Mango Salsa) and voila an excellent supper. I can't take credit for the fish, it was Healthy Bake Cod from Highligher. 

Over all this was super easy supper was a nice change from the usual.

Shredded Potato Fry

Super easy, super delicious...

Shredded 3 potatoes, rinsed and pat to dry with paper towel

Heat a skillet with some oil ( I should have gotten my cast iron skillet out for this, it would have added a little extra to it, good thought for next time).  Once the oil is heated and the potatoes are patted dry add to the skillet.   Stir and potatoes frequently allowing them to crisp up, at this point you can add what ever spices you need, I just decided on some Real Salt and Pepper.  I had some other flavors I did not want to over power.

Quick Mango Salsa

I will definitely make this again  even my husband liked this a lot.  I loved the sweet flavor with my fish!!! I never used garlic or jalapenos in this I wanted a sweet salsa with a savory cilantro flavor. For more zest I would add chopped jalapenos and diced garlic.

1 Mango peeled, seeded and chopped 

a handful of cilantro chopped ( I left mine a little coarse, but next time I would got finer)

half an avocado peeled, sliced and chopped

1/4 of a lime

Sea Salt

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and squeeze lime juice over the all the chopped fruits.  Grind a touch of coarse sea salt just to bring out the juices in the mango. Enjoy!!

Unpulled pork sandwich

So we had some left over pork chops from a family BBQ last nite.  I was between doing a pork stir fry or doing something tangy with BBQ sauce. This was super easy and a great way to use up left overs.  There is definitely not enough recipes out there to help you use up leftovers and create something new with them. This is try on some pork.

Unpulled Pork Sandwich

2 cloves of garlic chopped

1 tsp of ginger chopped

2 left over already cooked chopped pork chops (bone and fat removed)

1 cup of apple juice

1 tsp brown sugar

1/4 cup favorite BBQ sauce

2 tsp chili powder

Combine garlic, ginger and pork together in a saucepan.  Cover with apple juice and simmer for 10 mins. 

Add the brown sugar and allow to simmer for another 5 mins.  Add chili powder and BBQ sauce and cook with lid on for 10 mins.  Remove the lid and let cook down for another 5 mins.  

Serve on a bun.  I did mine on an open face homemade bun.

This would be complemented with a great coleslaw!!!