Pasta | 1 Cup Awesome

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Pasta Salad with Tomatoes and Corn

Dave and Sarah Eickelberg — May 14, 2012 — Leave a comment

We needed a light and healthy side to go with our grilled chicken breast and honey mustard sauce for our Mother’s Day lunch. After scouring the pantry and freezer for some staples, this pasta salad came together in a snap. The combo of corn and tomatoes screams summer, which we are definitely ready for! We are all for making our own salad dressings, but sometimes it’s so nice to just open and pour! Brianna’s French Vinaigrette was perfect on this salad. It was bold enough to hold up the to flavor of the whole wheat pasta but not over power the other ingredients.

In Pasta, Recipes, Salad

Mac n’ Cheese

Dave and Sarah Eickelberg — February 9, 2012 — 5 Comments

Mac. n. Cheese.

Enough said, right?! It’s one of those meals that always sounds good. Warm, cheesy and comforting. We’ve always been big fans and have gone through many different phases of mac and cheese recipes. When we first got married, Kraft Shells and Cheese was a regular on our weekly rotation of meals. (Oh my, look how far we’ve come!) Then we progressed to a homemade version, which included Velveeta (of course), cottage cheese, sour cream, and shredded cheddar cheese. Wow…that one was a doozy. Then we decided that maybe ”Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product” maaaay-be wasn’t the best thing to feed our bodies. This is when we moved on to a more traditional method of preparing Mac n’ Cheese by starting with a bechamel sauce and adding cheese. The only problem is that “warm, cheesy and comforting” also usually means “heavy, calorie laden, sticks to your ribs…and gut.” This brings us to today, where we present you with our latest cheesy endevour. We found this recipe in Health Magazine where it was featured in their CarbLover’s Diet Cookbook article. It slashes the calories and fat without sacrificing any of the flavor. +2 awesome points!

In Pasta, Recipes

Lemon Poppy Seed Chicken and Couscous

Dave and Sarah Eickelberg — January 11, 2012 — 8 Comments

We Eickelbergs do have a few tricks up our sleeves. These “tricks” make us seem way more awesome than we actually are. But we don’t care if it’s just an illusion. For us, we just need these tricks to help us get through our day with a little more ease.

One thing we do to entice our kids to stay in bed (which happens to be a huge struggle at our house!) is to reward them with a surprise. If they can lay in bed quietly and not wake up their baby sister for fifteen minutes, we will give them some random toy from their toy box to snuggle with for the rest of the night. We end up looking like a hero, with really no effort at all! I don’t know why this works…but it does. So we do this every. single. night.

Another go-to trick for us is the Starbucks drive through. Any road trip, shopping day, or doctors appointment is way more enjoyable with a warm latte (or $1 kids hot cocoa) in your hand. It makes everything feel like an event!

Now, our last and most awesome trick we will share with you today is Lemon Poppy Seed (I just typed poopy seed….oops) chicken and couscous. We saw it on Rachael Ray about four years ago and it really stuck with us. This recipe is our number one go-to meal to serve dinner guests. Somehow this one has become somewhat famous with our friends! Which we sort of think is hilarious since it’s so simple and quick to make. But therein lies the secret! Everyone thinks that we’ve masterfully handcrafted this delectable meal that’s taken us hours to perfect. The reality is that it’s ready in less than 30 minutes and uses ingredients that we most likely have on hand already! Again, we appear way more awesome than we actually are. Perfect. Muhahaha!

In Meat and Poultry, Pasta, Recipes

Krith-a-raki

Dave and Sarah Eickelberg — January 2, 2012 — 10 Comments

If you missed our post a couple days ago, we talked about how we recently came pretty close to quitting our blog completely. Time constraints and a couple other issues were beginning to get the best of us. But we had a change of heart and came up with some great plans for 2012. One of our plans for 2012 is to get back to eating fresh, healthy meals. There had been a serious lack of fresh produce in our fridge during the holidays, but we are back on track now! One of the first meals we made after re-stocking our fridge was a a copy cat recipe of Z’Mariks’ Greek inspired Krith-a-raki. Just look at all these fresh ingredients!

We love pretty much everything at Z’Mariks, but the Krith-a-raki has been one of our go-to noodle bowls lately. The dish features fresh vegetables and orzo noodles. We love these little things! They look just like a big grain of rice, but have the taste of traditional pasta.

Since Sarah was working late last night, I decided to try my hand at making my own version for us to eat when she got home. I have to say…I kind of kicked butt.

In Pasta, Recipes

10 Comments

Crispy Gnocchi Pesto with Tomatoes and Goat Cheese

Dave and Sarah Eickelberg — October 13, 2011 — 19 Comments

Gnocchi.

Same of you may love it and same of you are probably asking what in the heck it is and/or how you pronounce it.

Gnocchi (pronounced noki/no-key) is a soft dumpling. It can be made from flour, semolina, potatoes, or various other similar ingredients.

We had only eaten gnocchi twice in our lives before this dinner. The first time was a few years ago when we bought it but had no idea what to do with it. It was kind of flavorless and awful. The second time was at a restaurant in Des Moines named Lucca. They served their gnocchi with a sage butter and it was mind blowing. This was a much more pleasant experience and made us want to try it again at home. When we saw this recipe from Rachel Ray, we knew it was the perfect meal to give home cooked gnocchi another try. After eating this dinner, it’s safe to say gnocchi will now be a regular purchase in our home!

In Pasta, Recipes

Spaghetti Squash with Veggie Ragù

Dave and Sarah Eickelberg — September 13, 2011 — 4 Comments

Check it out!

Fall weather will be in full force tomorrow! Rainy with a high of only 60° F. That’s what I’m talking about! Our favorite thing about the cooler weather is that it gives us permission to make some our favorite dishes like chili and cinnamon rolls, chicken noodle soup with cheesy bread, and spaghetti squash with veggie ragù.

This recipe has become one of our favorites over the past couple of years. It is a super healthy and delicious way to get your spaghetti fix! Just look at these fresh ingredients!!!

We love how rustic it looks and feels to serve the meal straight out of the squash shells.

In Pasta, Recipes, Side Dish

Pizza Burgers and Warm Mini Farfalle Pasta Salad

Dave and Sarah Eickelberg — August 10, 2011 — 29 Comments

Alright, we’ll just cut right to the chase here. The only thing that really matters about today is finding out how you can get this in mouth for dinner tonight…

Oh yeah, and we have another giveaway to announce today! Keep reading to find out how to win!

Back to the molten lava of cheese…

We both grew up with pizza burgers on our school lunch rotation. They usually appeared on the menu about once a month or so and they were ok. We never got too excited over them. We saved our school lunch excitement for chili, chicken fried steak, crispitos, and Italian dunkers!

But these pizza burgers are definitely worth getting excited over! Here is what we did…

In Giveaway, Meat and Poultry, Pasta, Recipes

Chickpea Pasta

Dave and Sarah Eickelberg — May 12, 2011 — 13 Comments

In yesterday’s post we suggested building a meal into your weekly menu that you could make with your eyes closed since you’ve made it a hundred times. We also suggested including a meal that is quick and easy so you can keep the stress level low at dinner time. For us, Chickpea Pasta is the way to go!! We saw this recipe in an issue of Real Simple and have been making it for years, but somehow it still delights us with how incredibly delicious it is!! Another bonus with this recipe is that it’s made with mostly pantry items so we usually have everything on hand. Oh, and everything is made in one pot so clean up is a snap! Have we won you over yet?! Warning: we were skeptics at first wondering how this could be a satisfying dinner. Do not fear. It never disappoints!!

In Pasta, Recipes

Tortellini Caprese Kebabs

Dave and Sarah Eickelberg — April 27, 2011 — 12 Comments

We love the flavors of tomato, basil and mozzarella together, but wanted to experience them in a new way. When we came across Barilla cheese and spinach tortellini we knew we wanted to try it too. So, we thought, “Let’s put them together!” This came together beautifully. We made kebabs out of the tortellini, mozzarella and tomatoes. Then we incorporated the basil in a classic pesto to dunk everything in. We added the grilled baguette because no Italian meal is complete in our house without bread to wipe up all the extra sauce! The tortellini makes this substantial enough to be a vegetarian meal. You won’t miss the meat, we promise! This dish is such a fun way to break away from the norm and would be great for a get together!

In Pasta, Recipes

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