Deb's Mexican Pasta w/ Veggies

I was going to make myself some Penne today in the more or less Italian style (translate that to Ragu). I had pulled out a roll of ground turkey that I THOUGHT was Italian seasoned. It turned out to be taco seasoned so I decided to experiment and here it is.

Mexican Pasta w/ Veggies

Box of whole wheat pasta - I used Penne but any whole wheat pasta should work
1 lb Taco seasoned ground turkey or 1 lb ground turkey and 1 packet taco seasoning
1 can Nacho Cheese soup (non-negotiable)
1 can tomato soup or small can tomato sauce
1-2 cups cooked beans or 1 can beans (I used pinto)
Veggies which can be a combination of any frozen veggie that suits your mood, celery, peppers, onion or any leftover veggies. How much you use is up to you, I usually use a total of a cup or two of veggies in this type of dish.(I used frozen broccoli, celery and onion)

Cook the pasta as directed and drain
Saute the onions, peppers and celery if being used then brown ground turkey in same pan
Cook frozen veggies in your preferred method, heat beans and any leftovers your adding
Put all this and the two cans of soup back in the pot you cooked your pasta in heat together then serve.

I live alone and this makes a lot. I freeze things like this in small plastic containers and it's perfect for when I don't feel like cooking.

Tired of Boring Green Beans?

One of the things that seems really popular among my clients is to pour bacon grease and crumbled bacon over their green beans. This makes the health conscious part of me cringe. However, bacon bits or crumbles without the bacon grease works very nicely. Here's some other quick and easy ideas to add some interest to your beans.
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Add some mushrooms, peppers, water chestnuts, green onions and/or chopped onion.
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Add some salsa
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Toss cooked beans with a tablespoon or two of Parmesan cheese
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Saute with onions, mushrooms, celery and/or peppers
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Simmer in cream with mushrooms and/or onions
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Toss with a little bit of sour cream and chives
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Toss with sauteed or toasted almonds
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Cook with a crushed clove of garlic
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Add fresh thyme, basil or parsley
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Add a dash or two of Worcestershire or soy sauce
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Saute with one or two seeded and chopped tomatoes
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Cook with a small can of diced or stewed tomatoes
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Sprinkle with lemon juice
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Sprinkle with crushed red peppers
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Coleslaw Scramble

My veggie scramble can involve a lot of preparation that some people may not be up to first thing in the morning. You could, of course, do it the night before if you can plan that far ahead (something I'm not really good at), so I've tried this the other day and it's a fast and easy alternative to get more veggies into a meal that is traditionally devoid of them.

The recipe is based on two eggs for one person, you can of course make it for any number of people by increasing the ingredients.

2 eggs
about a 1/4 cup of fresh coleslaw blend (the one I used had broccoli and cauliflower "hearts" as well as the cabbage) you can adjust the amount to suit your own tastes
Green onion sliced or small amount diced onion
Shredded cheese

Spray pan with cooking spray. Saute onion and coleslaw blend until just tender
Beat eggs and add to vegetables. Right before eggs are done sprinkle with shredded cheese.

Of course, you could add any of the ingredients listed for the veggie scramble too. Once again it's a great way to use up leftover meat or vegetables from the night before

Freezing Onions and Peppers

A lot of veggies take some preparation and blanching to freeze, but all you need to do for onions and peppers is clean, chop and freeze. I use a lot of both in my cooking and having them ready to use can save a lot of time. You don't have to do large batches (unless you've found a really good bargain), there's been times I've used half a pepper for a recipe and froze the rest.

Doing it this way keeps them from sticking together in one big clump so you can remove the quantity needed. The procedure is fairly simple:

1. Peel onions and clean and seed the peppers
2. Slice or dice them as you would for different recipes
3. Spread out on a cookie sheet
4. Place in freezer until frozen
5. Then place in bag or container and return to freezer until needed

Mom's Garden Goulash

My father was a farmer stuck in the suburbs. Every year he would dig up over half the backyard and plant a garden. This garden was always very prolific and we ate a lot of fresh garden veggies in the summer. Certain vegetables would all start ripening at the same time and it became a race to freeze or use all of them up. Many of the neighbors would hide when they would see my dad or mom coming with yet more zucchini, tomatoes, peppers or eggplant. So my mom would chop them all up, fry them all together and called it goulash. I have since learned that it has a more fancy french name, ratatouille. This is my version which probably can't be called ratatouille because of the changes I made so I'll stick to mom's original name and give her credit. Here's my version.

1 large potato, quartered lengthwise and sliced
1 zucchini or yellow squash halved lengthwise and sliced
1/2 green pepper, coarsely chopped
1/2 red pepper, coarsely chopped
1 or 2 med. tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 med onion coarsely chopped
1 or 2 stalks of celery sliced
2 Tbs chopped fresh parsley

In a microwave safe dish cover the potatoes with water and microwave for about 5 minutes and drain. You want them not quite done. Spray large frying pan with cooking spray, add onions, pepper and celery and saute until tender. Add potatoes and zucchini and continue until both are almost done. Add tomatoes and parsley. Saute another two minutes or so.

Changes:
Use a small eggplant instead of, or as well as the zucchini

You can add oregano and/or basil as well as the parsley

You can also add leftover veggies at the end just long enough to heat them.

This and a slice of buttered bread would be all we had for dinner but it can also be a side sish.

Veggie Scramble

I work as a live-in caregiver for the elderly and one of the problems we have is getting them to eat enough veggies and fruit. I made this for a client this morning and she loved it!
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This recipe is one of the many reasons I have for saving even small bits of leftovers. I'm going to tell you what I used this morning and then give other suggestions so you can create your own unique veggie scrambles.
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For two people I used:
3 eggs, if you add enough other stuff you can cut down on the amount of eggs you use
Some leftover broccoli and carrots, cooked
1/2 stalk chopped celery
small amount of green peppers and onions, diced
1/2 small tomato, diced
small handful of shredded cheese
Spray your skillet with cooking spray.
Saute celery, green peppers and onions lightly
Beat and add eggs, broccoli and carrots and scramble
When the eggs are almost done add the cheese and tomatoes
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Now all you need is a slice of whole wheat toast with a little bit of jam to make a great breakfast
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You don't need to add everything that I did, the only really necessary thing is the eggs. Now for other things you can throw in there to make your scramble unique
Any leftover veggies
Small amount leftover meat
Leftover potatoes diced or microwave a small potato and dice
grated carrots
mushrooms
Small amount of zucchini or yellow squash, diced
Crumbled bacon or diced sausage
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I'll add more as I go. Please leave a comment and let me know what combinations you have tried.