Seafood with linguine

Nicole and I were feeling a bit lazy after an afternoon out in the sun with Conner at the dog beach, so we decided to improvise some dinner, have some wine, and watch a movie.  We made a linguine dish with onion, red peppers, shrimp, scallops, and calamari in a garlic, wine sauce.  It was good, easy, and quick.

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, diced
  
• 1 red pepper, diced
  
• 3 cloves of garlic, diced
  
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
  
• 1 pad of butter
  
• 1/2 pound of linguine
  
• 1/4 cup of diced tomato (or tomato sauce)
  
• 1 teaspoon of capers, optional
  
• 1/3 cup of dry, white wine
  
• 2 tablespoons of white vinegar/lemon juice
  
• salt, black pepper, oregano, parsley, paprika
  
• an assortment of seafood
  
• parmesan/romano cheese
  
• 2 tablespoons of flour
  

I started by putting the water on for the pasta and  diced up the onion, pepper and garlic and then put a marinade on the seafood. The marinade was my standard seafood one, where I added a tablespoon of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of white vinegar, salt, black pepper, paprika and oregano.  

After I added the pasta to the water, I sauteed the onion and pepper in the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and pad of butter.  After the onions and peppers were about half cooked, I added the garlic.  Once the peppers and onions were fully softened, I added the seafood.  I sprinkled a little oregano (and parsley, if we had it) on the mix at this point too.

Once the seafood was mostly cooked, I added the 2 tablespoons of flour to the oily mixture of vegetables and seafood.  After the flour was combined, I added the white wine, tomatoes and capers (technically, I added tomato sauce with capers that we had left over). I let the wine cook down and and the sauce thicken...which happened almost exactly when the pasta was ready. I added salt and black pepper to taste.  I tossed this with the linguine and served it topped with the parmesan/romano cheese.

I actually roasted up half of the red pepper over an open flame before chopping.  Marinated, roasted red peppers from a jar would be equally good, and properly even more flavorful.  In that case, I would add those once the onions and garlic were mostly cooked and cut back on the total amount of oil just a bit.

Banana Zucchini Bread

I learned a little from my first experiment with Banana Muffins. The banana muffins came out good, but needed a little more sugar.  This time, I was feeling too lazy to clean muffin tins, so I made version 2 in loaf-form.  This was more or less improvised from what was in Nicole's kitchen using my last batch as guidance. It seemed to work well, although it didn't rise as much as I would have liked (more baking powder next time I guess).

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe bananas
  
• 1/2 a zucchini, peeled
  
• 1/3 cup of plain yogurt
  
• 1/4 cup of milk
  
• 2/3 cup of whole wheat flour
  
• 1/2 cup of oats
  
• 3 tablespoons of sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon of molasses 
  
• 1 teaspoon of honey
  
• 1 egg
  
• 1 teaspoon of oil or melted butter
  
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
  
• pinch of salt
  
• a dash of cinnamon 
  

I put the zucchini in the food processor and chopped it up.  To this I added the yogurt and bananas and blended.  I then added all the ingredients together in a bowl and mixed.  I baked at 350°F until cooked (i.e. a toothpick inserted in the center came out dry).  I made sure to make the batter a little bit sweeter this time because the sugar does mellow when you bake it (thanks mom).  

Next time, I think I'll use a whole zucchini as it wasn't over powering.  A teaspoon of vanilla would probably have been good too.  Obviously, banilla or vanilla yogurt would have also worked well, and brought some additional flavor to the party.

From YummyFood

TVP Stuffed Peppers

Trader Joe's used to carry stuffed peppers that were stuffed with TVP.  They were really good and pretty healthy...Dre was smart enough to stock up on them before they disappeared (they have yet to make a come back in the last 6 months either in MI or in CA).  I whipped up my own version for Nicole.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup onion
  
• 1/2 cup of diced bell pepper
  
• 1/2 a zucchini, diced
  
• 1/2 can of refried black beans (I get the healthy ones with no lard, or mushed up black beans would work)
  
• 1/2 can of pinto beans
  
• 1/2 cup of TVP (I used the Boca crumbles this time)
  
• 1/2 cup of rice, cooked
  
• 1 cup of diced tomatoes
  
• 1 can of tomato sauce
  
• 1 small hot pepper (optional)
  
• Cholula hot sauce
  
• cheese (I used pepper jack)
  
• cilantro
  
• cumin, salt, chili powder, black pepper, oregano
  
• 3-4 bell or Anaheim peppers
  
• 1/4 cup of crushed tortilla chips
  

I sauteed the onion, bell pepper, garlic, hot pepper, and zucchini together.  Once softened, I added the refried and pinto beans and heated.  I also added a few dashes of chili powder at this point.  Once this was heated, I added the the diced tomatoes and about 1/2 of a small can of tomato sauce.  Again, I let the mixture heat.  The cheapo, bland canned tomato sauce, despite being something I wouldn't normally eat, actually works really well in the filling.

I added the crushed tortilla chips, cilantro, a dash of cumin and a few dashes of hot sauce.  I let the mixture simmer together for a while before adding some salt, black pepper, and more chili powder.  Next, I added the rice and finally the TVP.  I've discovered that it's better to go a little light on the TVP...too much can be overwhelming.  I used about 1/2 a cup which seemed about right.  

I took the rest of the tomato sauce, added a few dashes of Cholula, cumin, chili powder, cilantro and a few dashes of oregano and mixed.

I cut the tops off the peppers and steamed them in my steamer basket to soften the skin.  The first time I made stuffed peppers, I didn't steam them and the skin never got fully cooked into the oven.  Once soft, I filled the peppers with the bean, TVP, and rice mixture.  I topped with the tomato sauce mixture and cheese. 

If you were going to eat them immediately, I would just throw them under the broiler to melt the cheese.  These freeze pretty well and take about 5 minutes in the microwave to defrost.