Tag: Quick & Easy Dinners

Daily Thoughts · Starches · Uncategorized · Vegetables

Lemon-Green Bean Pasta

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

This week I saw this recipe on FB and decided that I had to try it. We cooked it Friday evening and it was delicious. No meet, yet, it was so good that we didn’t even miss the meatballs! Quick and easy, you might even have everything in the house that is needed to make it. We have decided next time to add some fresh spinach along with the green beans but you will love this wonderful meatless Italian dish.

1 box angel hair or spaghetti
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 tables olive oil
1/3 cup finely chopped purple onion
5 tables unsalted butter
4 teas lemon zest
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 teas Italian Seasoning
1/2 teas crushed red pepper
2 cups fresh green beans (I bought the bag of fresh green beans that you can cook in microwave in the bag and cooked them for 3 min in microwave before adding to the skillet.
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
2 teas lemon juice

Cook pasta according to directions on box, set aside saving about 1/2 cup pasta water.
Add olive oil and butter to skillet and stir until butter is melted. Saute onion, garlic and green beans in the oil/butter mixture until onion is clear. Add salt and pepper to your liking. Add the crushed red pepper and Italian seasoning and cook until green beans are tender (remember I cooked them first in the microwave to save on time). When these vegetables are done, add the pasta to the green bean mixture along with the pasta water, lemon juice and zest to mixture. Add the Parmesan cheese to the mixture before serving. Serve with garlic bread and Tomato-Mozzarella salad!

Beef · Daily Thoughts · Meats · Uncategorized

Spoon burgers

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

So much of our conversation revolves around food. At dinner the other night we began to talk about what our moms use to cook when we were growing up. Randy began to tell me about his mom making hamburgers where she just browned hamburger meat with seasonings, breaking it up into very small pieces and then grilling the buns and spooning the meat mixture onto the bun. I had never heard of doing that except for when you have sloppy joes, but he informed me that that was one of their best meals. As I began to look through the old cookbook I mentioned when posting the Oatmeal cake, I ran across, wait for it….spoon burgers! And there it was in all it’s glory. So in case you want to try a different approach to a hamburger, here is the recipe.

1 lb lean hamburger meat

1/4 cup finely diced onion

1 teas salt and pepper, each

1/2 cup chile sauce

 

Brown meat in skillet with onion and seasonings, stirring with fork to break up the meat. Spoon off any fat left in skillet. Stir the chile sauce into meat mixture and heat for about 3 minutes allowing the meat to absorb the chile sauce flavor. Cover the inside of each bun with a little butter and grill in a different skillet. Spoon meat mixture onto bun and serve hot.  Makes 2-4 hamburgers, depending on how much meat you use for each.