It’s been…… 4-5 years since the last time I made lasagna. So why all of a sudden did I make it now?

Recently, my kid was on a mid-winter break from school and I had continuous exposure to The Garfield Show and that did it! (In case you don’t know, Garfield is a fat, lazy cat who lives to eat and his favorite foods are pizza and lasagna.) After hearing “lasagna”, “lasagna”, “lasagna”, “lasagna”, “lasagna”, “lasagna”, “lasagna”, “lasagna”, “lasagna”, “lasan-ya”, “lasagnnnnnnnya”, repeatedly, over and over for days—it was like brain wash—I’ve just had it. “Must make lasagna!” “Must make lasagna!” is all I could think of.

Oh, and what’s the lasagna lesson? Don’t ever, ever make a lasagna recipe that has no Béchamel sauce in it!

Béchamel sauce is a milk sauce that is cooked and thickened by a roux (Cooked butter and flour). I’ve made several different recipes in the past years that didn’t include the sauce in the layers. Hmm, maybe that’s why I didn’t miss lasagna so much, now that I think about it… The béchamel makes the whole thing so much smoother and silkier. It’s really fantastic! I will never, ever make lasagna without béchamel again. Never, ever.

It might look like a a lot of work but it really isn’t.

The meat cooks in 10 minutes—not much effort there.

The ricotta only gets to be mixed with the eggs—easy peasy.

The marinara is store bought. Pfff.

The pasta doesn’t have to be cooked, only soaked in hot water for a few minutes to soften.

You layer them all,

and the dishwasher does the rest.

Ta-da. Lasagna, assembled ahead, ready to get baked later before dinner.

And here’s dinner…

Classic  lasagna

My recipe is based on this recipe by Giada De Laurentiis.

For a 13 x x9 inch pan; serves 8-10 people

Béchamel Sauce:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups whole or 2% milk
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
Black pepper
__

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound ground beef
Salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups (store-bought) tomato/marinara sauce
1 1/2 pounds ricotta cheese
3 large eggs
1 pound lasagna sheets, soaked in boiled, salted water for 2-3 minutes*
3 cups shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Béchamel sauce: In a 2-quart pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the milk and nutmeg, whisking constantly to prevent any lumps from forming. Continue to simmer and whisk over medium heat until the sauce is thick and creamy, about 10 minutes. (The sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of wooden spoon.) Season with salt and pepper and set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (unless you plan to bake the lasagna later that day).

In a large sauté pan, heat extra-virgin olive oil, add the ground beef and season with salt and pepper. Cook the meat, breaking any lumps and continue to cook until it is browned and some of the juices had evaporated. Remove from heat and mix in the marinara sauce. Set aside.

In a medium size bowl, mix the ricotta and eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Assemble the lasagna:

Into the bottom of a 13 by 9-inch baking dish, spread 1/3 of the béchamel sauce.

Arrange the pasta sheets side by side, covering the bottom of the baking dish.

Spread 1/3 of the ricotta mixture, 1/3 of the meat-marinara blend, spoon béchamel on top, and 1/3 shredded mozzarella. (Save the parmesan for the final, top layer.)

Arrange another layer of pasta sheets and repeat the other layers.

Arrange the final layer of pasta sheets and repeat with what’s left of all the layers, plus the Parmesan cheese.

Place the lasagna dish on a large baking sheet, put it in the middle rack of the oven and bake for 45 minutes, or until the top is golden and bubbling.

NOTE:

You can assemble the lasagna ahead, cover and store in the fridge. If you do that, you might need to add 10-20 minutes to the cooking time.

* To soak the lasagna sheets: 1) do this in batches, not all at once, 2) drizzle some oil on a baking sheet, lay the softened, soaked pasta sheets on the greased baking sheet to prevent it from sticking.

I try so hard to make food that everyone will like, especially the kids.

Then one day, out of the blue, I recalled a noodles with cottage cheese dish that my grandma used to make for me when I was little. Out of sheer laziness I cooked that for my kids—I had no better plan for dinner.

My son’s response? “This is The Best pasta in the whole world!!! The best pasta you’ve ever made!”

I was floored.

So I can’t stop thinking, why, why do I try so hard and make things more complex? (It’s just my nature…)

Just cook some pasta in salted water until it’s al dente. Drain, put in a bowl, add some salt, 1-2 tablespoon of butter (The secret ingredient!), and mix.

Add cottage cheese, mix, serve. Bon appetite.

I love mishmashed pasta dishes like this one. With Israeli couscous, bacon, artichokes, corn, mushrooms, fresh herbs, some lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil… What’s not to like?

Or how about this one with kale, toasted pine nuts, a bit of cream, and parmesan? Simple. Clean. (Recipe here)

I love to take my big skillet out and toss some pasta with leftovers like roasted vegetables, sausage, chicken, crème fraiche,  and such. (Recipe here)

Or to make a fresh batch with wild mushrooms, some heavy cream, kale, and tomatoes.(Recipe here)

With only kale and cream, it’s good stuff too!

(We do like kale in this household. Recently, we’ve been eating it raw. Good, good.)

Here we have orzo, tomatoes, feta, black olives, green olives, mint, oregano, pine nuts… (Recipe here)

And here we have corn, cauliflower, kale, pesto, tomatoes, and parmesan.

In this one: farro, garbanzo beans, roasted peppers, steamed cauliflower, Israeli couscous. All good stuff!

But my children… The ones that grew inside my body… The ones who carry my genes… (Well, 50% of them), they like pasta… plain.

They like Mac and cheese too, of course.

There is no punch line to this post.

***

No, no beer-braised squirrel in that pasta dish. Don’t worry.

I told you about my snail, beer, and a beer stealing squirrel problem. And I have received some advice. Thanks!

Crystal commented that what I have are slugs and not snails and suggested “A tried and true method I have used to make a beer trap is to get a used margarine or butter tub. Cut slug-sized holes on the side of the container near the top around the perimeter of the container. Fill it with beer and snap the lid back on. Then take it to your vegetable bed and bury it so that the soil comes up to where the holes are. The slugs will smell the beer and slither right on in to meet their drunken deaths! The lid will keep the neighborhood animals out. Good luck – the beer really works! We would grow pristine strawberries year after year using this method.”

Lo wrote “Oh, gosh! We’ve totally used the beer trick with our slugs (usually shallow lids filled with beer work nicely — though I love the butter tub concept), and it really does work! But, we’ve never had squirrels pilfering our beer supply “

Tamar had another problem and solution “We don’t have slugs but we have caterpillars eating our tomato leaves. Supposedly mint water irritates them out of the pot. We shall see…” In an e-mail she sent me later she reported back “… we boiled the water and added mint.  I don’t think it works.  We ended up buying caterpillar killer spray and 5 of them dropped off dead.  5!!! That’s so many!”

Lara added “… a length of copper around the whole thing will keep new ones out.”

Snails or slugs, they are snacking on my leafy greens!

So…with a new and improved trap, I went out again; I dug a little dent and placed the beer trap in the veggie bed right under the slugs’ nose!

Man, it was so hot that day; the second I took the beer container out, I could smell its sweet aroma. That made me very optimistic about achieving some serious results!

37.5 hours (or so…) have passed.

This is what I found this morning.

Someone is messing with the beer and it ain’t no slugs…

I took a pick inside. Found only a few dead gnats(?) Someone has been trying to steal the beer.

To save what’s left until I get rid of the pesky, slimy slugs, I harvested me some greens. That’ll show ‘em!

I picked green kale, red kale, and chard

Soaked them in water and rinsed them well a few times. Pulled the leaves off the stems, torn them to pieces and put it all in a big bowl.

How lovely is that?!

The leaves are so much tender compared to the bunches I buy at the grocery store. And much sweeter.

I blanched them in boiling salted water for 4-5 minutes, cooled them in icy cold water and then squeezed them dry.

The big bowl was reduced to only two handfuls of cooked green stuff. (Twice the amount you see below.)

I used one handful to make an omelet and the other handful to cook a simpler variation to my wild mushroom ravioli with kale and cream recipe.

Creamy orecchiette with leafy greens

1/2 box orecchiette
1 handful blanched leafy greens, chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt
pepper
extra virgin olive oil
grated parmesan
a handful toasted pine nuts (Toast in 350 F oven for a few minutes)

Cook the pasta according to the instruction on the package. Drain.

Return it to the pot with the blanched greens, heavy cream, salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil. Mix and heat over medium heat until it is warm.

Serve with grated parmesan and pine nuts.

***

Next we’re going to have peas… I see some good looking ones on the vines. Those are Suburban Cowboy’s babies. He is cultivating them very gently and lovingly.

In the meantime, can someone tell me what do you do with so much lettuce?

Dinner time approached. I had no plan in mind. And so, I made dishes on the go, not being fully aware about what I was doing.

I took a peek inside the fridge. There were some leftovers… Chicken meatballs… Grilled chicken breast… Broccoli – we didn’t eat that for a long time (we’re just not big broccoli fans) – and there was the store-bought gnocchi, just lying there next to the eggs. Side dishes are always challenging, especially with two kiddies who are not huge veggie fans.

I thought “Hmm, gnocchi, why not?”

What I usually like to do with gnocchi is to cook it in salted water, as the instructions on the package instruct, and then crisp it up in a skillet with butter. People, I can hear you say “Yum!”

But that night… I was being lazy. And the medium size pot was in the dish washer and the other pots are either too big or too small for the job. So I had a problem/reason/excuse to take a short cut. I just had to. I was necessary. Or should I say “motivating”? “Inspiring?”

Either way, “So” I thought to myself (Do you ever talk to yourself?), “since my goal is crispy, browned gnocchi anyway, why not try to bake it and see what happens? Just skip the cooking in water step and launch straight right into the crispy-ing step?”

… and you know how that has ended, right?!

There wasn’t much to lose anyway. Only a box of store-bought gnocchi. I wasn’t too attached to it or something… It’s not like I hand-made them myself… Like, from scratch, you know…

I probably would have approached it with more caution and hesitation had I rolled each tiny, fluffy “gnocch” (Who knows what’s the singular for gnocchi?) one by one, lovingly and individually with my own bare hands… Which, you know… I didn’t.

Well, what da’ya know? It turned out good. Not bad at all…

The texture was more chewy, and gummy, and doughy compared to when you cook it in water first. They were like little, savory cakes. We ate it like nuts – the gnocchi, not us – with our fingers, as if it was a snack.

I will definitely do this again. Even on nights when I’m not particularly lazy.

Baked gnocchi

1 store-bought gnocchi
salt
black pepper, freshly ground
extra virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 F degrees.
Toss the gnocchi with salt, pepper, a generous drizzle of olive oil, and mix gently with your hands.
Place on a baking sheet and bake for (I believe it took) 10-15 minutes, or until it’s cooked through and beautifully tanned.

***

“… I did it myyyyyy waaaaay….” (And so did Sid. Proceed with caution.)

Ok, I know what you’re thinking – or do I? – I’m not going to tell you anything you haven’t heard before.

But maybe I will?

It’s pesto. We’ve heard of and seen it a million times before. So what else is new?

Well, Suburban cowboy told me that pine nuts are now being sold for $20 per something (Per pound? Per Costco sized bag?) so Costco stopped selling them. I guess no one bought them for this high price.

I love pine nuts. Do you?

I love all nuts. Do you?

So first, let me tell you a secret. If you’re using your nuts untoasted, you’re nuts, or simply throwing away your money. They just don’t taste like nuts when they are raw. Nuts should be lightly toasted to get the best flavor out of them. Capish?

Some pesto recipes will direct you to use the nuts, pine or not, raw and you won’t be able to taste them since the basil is so potent.

Now. Second point, pesto is really like Hummus:

1. you have to follow your instincts

2. you have to listen to your inner self

3. you have to do it “my way”. Ok, your way.

4. and, rely solely on your own judgment/don’t listen to me

So… the other day… I sent Suburban cowboy to the grocery store. One of the items on the list was basil.

I’m pretty sure I made a note regarding the quantity.

And… He… He came home with this -

A live basil (it had more leaves at the time). Costs more; Has less. Instead of basil in the BIG container I have expected. Good news is that this plant is still alive, has new leaves, and is about ready to be planted in a pot and join his other herby friends (unlike his cut and boxed siblings). So, buy a fresh living herb. We’re gonna have enough for a second batch of pesto soon for the same price!

Back to that day.

Since I had less basil than I had originally planned for – it’s always the men’s fault, right girls?! –  I had to opt for plan B: Less basil, more nuts!

Turned out beautifully. Even better than what I usually make (more basil and less nuts).

From that time on, this is how I make basil-based pesto. With lots of walnuts.

But you? You can do whatever you want.

Do you like garlic? Make a Basil-garlic pesto or a Garlic-basil pesto. Use cilantro. See if I care.

For a basic approach to pesto I recommend Ina Garten’s recipes as a general guideline minus a few garlic cloves… (click here to see it) unless you are nuts for garlic, that is.

Have I confused you?

Am I messing up with your minds?

I hope not.

And if I did, I deeply apologize.

Just, just, do your “thing”.

Capish?

Walnut pesto

1-2 garlic cloves, peeled
3/4 to 1 cup walnuts, lightly toasted in a 350 F oven
2-3 cups fresh basil leaves, washed and dried
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup grated Parmesan
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Put the garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until it’s finely chopped. Add the walnuts and pulse again to roughly crush them. Add the basil, salt, pepper, and Parmesan. With the processor running, slowly pour the olive oil through the feed tube and process until the pesto is pureed. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

Serve with cooked pasta, as a sandwich spread, or a side or topping for meat or fish.

The pesto can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days or frozen, topped with a thin layer of olive oil to prevent it from blackening.

Once upon a time, in a land not far away, with a twist of a fork, two side dishes accidentally met on a plate. The first one, pasta, loved by all, orzo shaped, whimsical and a bit chewy, seasoned simply, and the second one, garbanzo beans, not as mainstream as pasta, a bit more serious but sweet at heart, were destined to meet. Although life has taken them on different routes, it was fate that eventually brought them together. Looking back, it all makes sense. These two individuals, separated side dishes, were made to be married into one bigger and better dish.

A few nights ago I prepared dinner of one main dish and 4 simple side dishes; grilled lamb, broiled and marinated eggplants, simple orzo, garbanzo beans, and thick Greek yogurt. It was all simple and good, and the best thing? We had leftovers, my favorite! So, the following day this is what we had for lunch. I placed the side dishes neatly side by side on my plate, and then, all of a sudden… in a spin of destiny, I uploaded orzo and garbanzos on my fork and ate them together in one single bite… There was love in the air. The sun came out of the clouds. The next thing that happened, unexpectedly, unplanned-edly… I had an “A-ha! No one moves” kind of moment and I ran to fetch my camera. I wanted to capture and share that happy moment with you, my friends, and the rest of the world.

The only sad thing to shed clouds on that joyful moment was the fact that we didn’t have any leftovers of the thick Greek yogurt I mixed the night before with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, chopped mint, a spray of lemon juice, salt, pepper. But other than that, I think I should just move the camera to be permanently placed in the kitchen because there were “A-ah! Oops, too late” kind of moments before, you know, like here, and here. You can never know when life will bring a sweet surprise that you would want to tell the whole world about, right?!

I can easily see how this couple, orzo and hummus, can make a lovely life for themselves together. Go places, have adventures, and create a family of little side dishes similar but different than they are. And when life together might become a bit boring, too much routine-like, they can spice things up. Because, when you have a good foundation together, the sky is the limit. You can always add tomatoes, red onion, feta, olives, nuts, fresh herbs, whatever, to a duo when they complete one another so well. (Wait, am I really talking about food here?) But first, you got to have that strong bond between two good ingredients that can do well on their own before they join forces together to create something that is more than the sum of its ingredients.

Do try this at home.

I don’t have an exact recipe but this was a no brainer to make, really.

For the orzo: Cook1/2 box of orzo pasta in salty water according to the instructions on the package. When it’s cooked al dente, drain, season with more salt and a little ground black pepper, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and mix well, so the pasta don’t stick (It is sticks, it will make it harder to mix with the garbanzo beans. Just think about it…)

For the garbanzo beans: Drain the beans and rinse with cold water, and drain again. Sauté 2-3 tablespoons of finely chopped onion in a little extra virgin olive oil over medium heat until it softens. Add the beans, a pinch of salt, cumin and paprika, mix and cook until the beans are warm.

Marry orzo and garbanzo beans together.

Enjoy the party.

Enjoy life.

Everyone says that spaghetti and meatballs in tomato sauce is a kid-friendly food. One of the ultimate favorites. Way up there in the top 10, maybe even top 5, on the kids’ food list. Well, at least that’s the theory. But in our household? Not so much.

I always wondered why magazines/restaurants/cookbooks make that claim because every time I made this dish, aiming to make my son happy with this supposedly kid-friendly meal, he refused to eat it. I made spaghetti and meatballs in tomato sauce numerous times hoping that he will warm up to it. Finally, I came to the conclusion that he is not a tomato sauce fan, even more than he dislikes ground meat in any shape and size, whether a meatloaf, burger, round or flat meatballs (should they be called meatflats in that case?). He is a cheese and/or butter sauce type of guy. Last week, I made it again. Surprisingly, everyone was licking their red sauce covered lips and wiping their faces with napkins.

But my goal is not to cook kid-friendly meals.

My goal is mostly different. It is to create memorable meals. The kind that my children will remember when they grow up. The kind that they will miss when they become adults. The kind that will bring them back home to me after they fly away and leave the nest. I think that this spaghetti and meatballs in tomato sauce is that kind of dish. Same as stuffed bell peppers.

Now, I’ll tell you a little secret, come close – I used a jarred marinara sauce. Shhh, don’t tell anyone. I know my kids won’t remember the jar, but they will remember having pasta with meatballs in tomato sauce at their parents’ home because I plan to make it again and again and again. When I took the photo of the leftovers the next day, when I warmed it for my lunch, I thought that if I was a kid I would have remembered this dish as a childhood favorite. Slurping the long spaghetti strands, making a mess all over my face, and sinking my teeth into the two-bite-size meatballs covered with a sweet and thick tomato sauce will bring out the child hidden in any grown-up.

One year ago: Walnut cake, Sweet and smoky pork chops, Chocolate-Halva Babka Cake

Spaghetti with beef meatballs

I used fresh bread crumbs flavored with fresh herbs which I make every time I have leftover bread and herbs that are about to go bad. (Click the link for the recipe). It makes one big shortcut when a recipe calls for breadcrumbs and chopped herbs.

Makes 8 servings

For the meatballs:
2 pounds ground (preferably grass-fed) beef
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
2 tablespoons chopped parsley, plus a few sprigs with leaves for the sauce
1/2 cup grated parmesan or any other hard yellow cheese, plus 1/2 cup more for serving
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
Canola and/or olive oil for frying
1 (25 oz.) jar good marinara sauce
1 package spaghetti

Put the meat, bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, salt, pepper, and egg in a bowl. Mix lightly with your hands and form into two-bite-size meatballs.

Pour canola and/or olive oil into a large (12-inch) skillet to a depth of 1/4-inch. Heat the oil over medium heat. In batches, place the meatballs in the oil and brown them well on all sides, turning carefully with a spoon or tongs. Don’t crowd the skillet. This will take about 10 minutes for each batch. Remove the fried meatballs to a plate. Discard the oil and lightly wipe the pan with clean paper towels.

In the same pan, heat the marinara sauce, scraping all the brown bits in the bottom of the pan. Add parsley, salt, and pepper. Return the meatballs to the sauce, cover, and simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked through.

While the meatballs are cooking in the sauce, cook the spaghetti according to the instructions on the package.

Serve the meatballs hot over the cooked spaghetti and top with grated Parmesan.

Sometimes unplanned dishes are the most delicious (Ooh, a rhyme!). And sometimes making pasta for dinner is actually an excuse to eat kale.

Kale, chard, mustard greens, and all their green friends are new in our fridge, on our table, in our hearts, and now also in our backyard (more about it later). Those are ingredients I have added to our foods only about a year ago. Until that point in time, I’ve never heard or known anyone who ate them. Well, actually, in our close circle of family and friends I still don’t know of anyone who eats them besides us.

Although I have experimented a lot and tried many new dishes and cuisines with their ingredients, those leafy greens were left untouched. As I read more and more food books and magazines I kept seeing them again and again but I still was not convinced. They just looks so… unappetizing. A type of “healthy food” I thought doesn’t taste good and no one really wants to eat and so it is being marketed as “healthy” so someone will buy them.

For example, about 2 years ago I saw a lady at the grocery store at the leafy greens section. She piled 10-15 bunches of the stuff into her cart. Curious, I went and asked her how does she cook them. A bit embarrassed, she replied: “ Oh, I don’t eat them. I buy them for my rabbits”. And added “the rabbits seem to prefer the mustard greens”. Ooops.

Finally, I got brave enough, or was it bored enough with the food we ate, to give them a try. I cooked them simply in salty boiling water for 4 minutes, let them cool then chopped them, and added them to the Creamy Orecchiette. Everything has changed at that moment. Surprise, surprise, they were delicious!  (Right, Vicki?) Same experience as we had with Brussels sprouts (here and here).

I find the cooked leafy greens’ flavor to be mild even and a bit sweet and tender with a touch of savory. We now love them so much that I don’t care if they are healthy or not. We just plain love them. The kids… are a different story, but then they don’t show mercy for a 5 star dinner either for that matter. Oh, well, at least when they grow up they will be able to say “our mom cooked these when we were kids and we hated them. But now we love ‘em!”

The general guidelines:

I usually use the cooked greens as a simple side dish that soaks the sauce of the entree or I add them to any pasta dish. After taking the cooked pasta  out of the water with a slotted spoon or tongs, reserving the water in the pot, I add the washed and torn away from the rib leafy greens (ribs discarded) into the boiling salted water and cook them for about 4 minutes.

Take them out, rinse ‘em in cold water (or shock in ice water) and when they are cool enough to handle, I squeeze the water out of them, chop them a bit, and add to the dish. Toss together, and that’s it. Simple and quick, tasty and… healthy. “Healthy” is not a bad word, is it?!

One year ago: Cowboy Cookies, Wild salmon with sweet fennel butter, Leftovers: Mashed potatoes turned into Light-as-a-feather potato pancakes, Thanksgiving-y Chicken Dinner, A simple yet delicious fall stew

In this dish I had a chance to use some of our last home-made tomatoes from the backyard. Conclusions about this little adventure of building a raised veggie bed in the backyard will be posted soon.

Like most of my last-minute dinner ideas, this is not an exact recipe and there’s plenty of room to improvise. You can use more or less of everything as you like or have in handy, use any ravioli you find at the store, there’s pumpkin filling, cheese, spinach, etc. I’m just into mushrooms lately so I bought the ravioli mushroom filling.

Wild mushroom ravioli with kale and cream 

Makes 4-6 servings

1 bunch kale, washed, leaves removed from the central rib
2-3 tablespoons butter
2 cups mushrooms (I used crimini), washed and sliced (without the “leg”)
salt
black pepper, ground
1/4 – 1/3 cup heavy cream
1 package store bought wild mushrooms ravioli
1 handful cherry tomatoes
grated parmesan for serving

In a medium size pot, bring water to a boil to cook the pasta. When it boils, add 2-3 tablespoons of salt.

While the water is coming to a boil, take a large skillet and melt butter over medium heat. Add the  mushrooms and sauté without disturbing much until they are nicely browned. Season with salt and pepper. Lower the heat and add the cream, keep it simmering gently (or turn the heat of if your water is still not boiling).

Back to the pasta, cook the ravioli according to the instructions on the package. When they are cooked, remove them from the pot with a slotted spoon, reserving the water!, and add to the skillet with the mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper.

Throw the kale into the pot where the pasta cooked. Cook them for 4 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon or tongs, rinse quickly under cold water. Squeeze the water out, chop, and add to the skillet with the mushrooms and pasta, toss gently. Add the tomatoes and grate parmesan on top. That’s it.

An innocent and unsuspecting salad… but then… a little hand…

Who could it be?

…a little thief…

“I’m so hungry and I just can’t wait. Emmm… Yum!”, she can’t actually say it but her eyes say it all…

Finally, got her own plate

Happy…

The background story:

We got back from a little family vacation, and, as you probably know, you don’t eat too many fresh vegetables in restaurants. So I thought that making a pasta salad – which the kids love (do you know a kid who doesn’t like pasta?) – and adding fresh veggies will be a nice change from the usual mashed potatoes, French fries, roasted potatoes, potato salad… that we ate so much in the past week as potatoes are the most popular side dish served at restaurants.

I was doubtful about the kids willingness to eat this creation, but it turned out to be a great hit. As you can see…

One year ago I posted Try something new: Brussles sprouts 

Israeli couscous with fresh veggies salad
Makes 4 servings

1 box (12 oz., 340 grams) Israeli couscous pasta*
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 1/2 cups boiling water
1 teaspoon salt
1 large and juicy lemon, zested and juiced
1/3 cucumber, chopped small
1/2 bell pepper, chopped small
3 medium tomatoes, chopped small
a few mint sprigs, leaves picked and finely chopped
small handful parsley, finely chopped

Sauté the pasta with the oil for 3 minutes over medium heat, stirring frequently. Remove the pot from the heat and add salt and boiling water (Do this carefully! You’re adding water to a hot pot with oil.) and cook according to the instructions on the package (between 8-12 minutes, until al dente).

When the pasta is cooked, remove it from the pot into a bowl and let cool a bit. Add the lemon zest and juice. Mix and let cool a bit more, stirring gently from time to time.

Add the rest of the ingredients and more oil, salt, and black pepper to taste.

* I use only 1/2- 1/3 of the cooked pasta in this salad and save the rest for next day’s fresh salad (I don’t like the taste of leftover chopped vegetables).

Serve with grilled chicken…

As for the grilled chicken, I don’t have an exact recipe, in case you are interested. I threw all kinds of ingredients/condiments on (2 pounds of) boneless skinless organic chicken thighs like,

Mustard
Ketchup
Soy
Salt, black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
and Hawaij (a spice blend, sort of like Garam Masala, from the cuisine of Yemen. I highly recommend trying this spice blend. it’s delicious!).

Let it marinate for at least one hour so the meat absorbs the flavors.
Grill on medium heat.