Taco Tuesday (with a twist)

My husband and I love Taco Tuesday.  I often like to change it up a bit, and do different Mexican themed dinners when we get tired of plain old tacos.  This week we did tacos in a shell, a pasta shell that is, giving the traditional taco a twist. 

Original Ingrediants:

lean ground beef, cream cheese, pasta shells, butter, taco sauce, shredded cheddar cheese, shredded jack cheese,  crushed tortilla chips. sour cream, and chili powder.

My Ingrediants:

extra lean ground turkey, pasta shells, hot taco seasoning, diced green chili peppers, tomoatoes, olives, red onion, green onion, cilantro, lime juice, lime zest, red enchilada sauce, shredded low fat cheddar cheese, shredded pepper jack cheese, and fat-free sour cream.

After I cooked the pasta shells, I loaded them up and put it all together in my casserole dish

While this was cooking away in the oven I prepared my sour cream which I decided to jazz up with lime juice and lime zest.

And Wa-lah, the finished product:

And there is our twist on the taco, the lime zest sour scream has a very refreshing light taste, and complements this dish very nicely, I would definitely recommend incorporating this.

Goat Cheese and Arugula

I have never tried arugula before, but had always heard it had great flavor.  When I came across this recipe, the arugula really captured my attention.  This recipe is also SO quick and easy for a week night meal, which is exactly what you want after a long day at work.  The most time consuming part is the prep work, but personally I like the cutting and chopping part of cooking. 

The original ingrediants to this recipe were:

 raw arugula penne pasta, raw garlic, cherry tomatoes, and of course goat cheese.

Now for the ingrediants I ACTUALLY used:

whole wheat penne, a mixture of home grown tomatoes and heirloom tomatoes, sauteed garlic and red onion, goat cheese, portabella mushroom caps, parmesan cheese and a mixture of raw and wilted arugula.

While the pasta was cooking, I grilled the portabella caps on the BBQ, and mixed some of the other already prepared ingrediants in a large bowl.

Once all the ingrediants were done, I mixed it all  together except for the mushroom caps.  I placed the portabella mushrooms, unsliced onto the plate, and then served the pasta on top of the caps, topped it with some raw arugula and sprinkled it with some parmesan cheese. 

THE END PRODUCT!

This dish was amazing, I highly recommend it, and I would definitly recommend using my little tweaks! 

Three in One

This first blog will give a taste of three of my favorite things.  Adventures, delicious food, and garnishes.  Enjoy!

Ziplining in Juneau, Alaska

I would honestly try just about anything once, and ziplining is something I would definitely do again and again. The feeling of the air brushing against your face as your flying through the air, feeling completely weightless while taking in an amazing bird's eye view is an experience that you will never forget.

Martini Wednesdays

My husband and I have created a tradition with another couple of Martini Wednesday's.  Every Wednesday we get together with our friends via "text" and share our unique, amazing martini concoctions.  But the challenge of finding new recipes every week just wasn't enough for me.  I made a goal for myself to construct amazing garnishes to go with them.

Pesto Chicken Penne Casserole

For me, food doesn't have to be fancy, it just has to taste amazing. I made a couple adjustments to this recipe (as always)  The original recipe called for a jar of pesto, but to me, nothing beats the flavor of fresh, made from scratch pesto.  So that's what I did.