Italian

A Cookin' Teens Original

Quick and Yummy Spaghetti Sauce With Stuff from the Garden

If (sadly) you don't have access to this stuff from a garden or farmer's market or grocery store, you can eliminate the eggplant, bell pepper and zucchini and the sauce will still taste good!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced
1 large eggplant, NOT peeled and cut into bite-size chunks
1 bell pepper (green, red, yellow or orange is fine), seeded and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 carrot, peeled and grated
1 zucchini or 1 yellow squash, seeded and grated
6 large tomatoes, chopped, or one 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
1 large handful of fresh basil or 1 tablespoon dried basil
1 can black olives (pitted), drained and chopped
1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon salt
8 ounces shredded mozzarella (optional but tasty!)
1 ½ pounds of spaghetti
To Prepare
Before you start making the spaghetti sauce, fill a large pot about two-thirds full with water and turn the heat up high. This will help ensure that the pasta and the sauce are ready at around the same time).

In a large, non-stick skillet, heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat. When the butter is melted, add the garlic and onion and stir. Cook for a couple of minutes, then add the eggplant and the pepper. Cook for about three minutes, stirring occasionally, then cover and simmer for about five minutes more. If chunks ’o veggies turn you off, remove the eggplant and pepper now and either dice them or puree them in the food processor, then return to the pan. Next add the carrot, zucchini, tomatoes and tomato paste, salt and pepper. Stir, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. (This would be a good time to add the pasta to the boiling water in the other pot.) Add the olives and basil, then stir, cover and cook for about 10 minutes more.

Remove from heat and serve over drained spaghetti. Top with mozzarella and enjoy!

© Rising Moon Media, 2008

Tags: quick, easy, pasta, Italian, veggie, recipe, vegetarian

A Cookin' Teens Original

Rising Moon Media, 2008

Ingredients

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (plump, rather than skimpy)
1 bag baby spinach leaves
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons fresh parsley (chopped), or 2 teaspoons dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chicken broth
the juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon butter
Optional:
2 teaspoons capers, drained

To Prepare

In a medium-sized bowl, combine breadcrumbs, parsley, pepper and salt. Place the raw chicken breasts smooth-side up on a cutting board. With a good knife, slice the chicken from top to bottom into slices about 1/4-inch wide. (Don’t worry if they come apart.) Drop those pieces into the breadcrumb mixture and coat them on both sides.

Heat oil in a large, non-stick frying pan over medium high heat. Add the chicken slices to the pan, making sure they don’t overlap, and cook a few minutes on each side or until all traces of pink are gone. (You might have to cook them in two batches. If so, add a tad more oil prior to the second batch.) Remove the cooked chicken from the pan and put it aside. Add broth, lemon juice, butter and capers to the pan, and simmer. With a wooden or plastic utensil (or some other material that doesn’t scratch), loosen the cooked bits in the pan. Stir in the spinach and cover. Cook until the spinach wilts (just a minute or two). Return the chicken to the pan and toss with spinach mixture.

Serve with crusty bread, cooked rice, or angel hair pasta. Enjoy!

Tags: quick, easy, chicken, Italian, recipe

A Cookin' Teens Original
Rising Moon Media, 2009

In the mood for pizza but don't want to do any combination of the following: pick it up, pack on those pizza pounds, pay so much for it or wonder what, exactly, is in it? Well, with this recipe you can create a most delicious (and healthy) pizza in pretty much the same time it takes for the pizza delivery person to arrive.
We know what you’re thinking: turkey, onions, pita – yuck! Au contraire. Don’t let the ingredients deceive you; the way they’re put together makes for a winning combination.
Granted, extra lean ground turkey is pretty lame in the taste department – okay, tasteless. But when it simmers in smoked tomatoes and a sea of spices it takes on a whole new flavor. And before you do anything with the turkey you slowly cook the onions, which caramelizes them, or brings out their natural sugars. And that pita bread – we know, so 1980s. But whole-wheat pitas are much more robust than the white ones, and when you crisp them up on cookie sheets they’re nearly as crunchy as tortilla chips. Then you add other pizza-perfect ingredients to each pita (more of what you like on yours and less of the stuff your little brother hates on his) and you’re done in a jiffy.
This recipe is extremely forgiving in the substitution department. Feel free to swap last night’s leftover cooked protein for the turkey (chop roasted chicken, for example, into little morsels and throw them in with the tomato and herbs) or use crumbled feta or goat cheese (four ounces instead of six, as these pack a more flavorful punch) for the Italian blend. And if you don’t have whole wheat pitas, no worries. Whole wheat Italian bread or French bread, the loaf sliced in half vertically then horizontally, works great too.

Ingredients

4 whole-wheat pitas (about 6 inches each in diameter)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound lean white meat turkey, ground
1 can (14.5 ounces) roasted/smoked diced tomatoes
1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
6 ounces shredded Italian cheeses (we used a blend of Asiago, parmesan, provolone and mozzarella)
4 teaspoons grated parmesan cheese, separated
Optional:
1 teaspoon crushed red chili pepper
1 red or green bell pepper, washed, seeded and cut into strips
handful of pitted black olives, sliced

To Prepare

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
In a non-stick skillet over medium/low heat, sauté onions in olive oil for about 10 minutes, or until the edges of the onions are brown. Stir every couple of minutes to keep the onions evenly cooked. Then add the turkey to the skillet, breaking up the meat and mixing it in with the onions. Raise the heat to medium. Stir the turkey every couple of minutes and cook until the pink is gone, which takes about eight minutes.
Next, add the diced tomatoes (plus bell and crushed peppers, if using) to the pan, along with the garlic powder, oregano, basil, fennel seeds and salt. Let simmer on low for about 10 minutes (stirring every now and then) or until most of the liquid is evaporated.
While the mixture is simmering, toss the pitas on a couple of cookie sheets and put them in the hot oven to crisp. (This will prevent your pizzas from getting soggy.) Take the pitas out after five minutes and keep them on the cookie sheets.
When the turkey mixture is ready, take a slotted spoon and spoon a quarter of it over each pita. Top each pita with (the olives, if using) a quarter of the cheese and top that with a teaspoon of the parmesan. Return the pizzas to the oven and bake until the cheese is melted, or about five minutes. Enjoy!

Tags: quick, easy, Italian, recipe, turkey