Pasta, pilates and potluck

After uploading my photos for this week's post, I realize pasta has been on heavy rotation! I think it's my recent lack of time to cook complicated meals, and the fact that any veggie delivered with my Wanigan bag can be chucked into a bowl of noodles and called a meal :)

This first photo is one I haven't had a chance to post from a little dinner party we had a couple of weeks back.  Prerequisites for this meal were: 1.  gluten free (for celiac disease) and  2. vegetarian (for Kosher purposes).

To start: mixed greens salad with roasted grape tomatoes (local), toasted walnuts, pear-blue cheese (little bits of dried pear in the cheese...brilliant), tossed with apple cider vinaigrette. 

Main: Butternut Squash Lasagna.  I made two lasagnas, which wasn't in the original plan.   Even though I was sure to buy gluten free lasagna noodles, as I was pouring the delicious and creamy Bechemel sauce over the first layer of noodles, I realized I made it with flour! Oy vey...fyi flour and all wheat products have gluten in them - serious rookie mistake!  It was a good thing I started prepping for dinner so early and had plenty of time to churn out a second one.  It turned out to be an excellent mistake, because the lasagna was a big hit, and we needed two of them! 

I've posted about this lasagna before and I can't emphasize enough how delicious it is, and the brown rice noodles were equally as tasty as their wheat counterparts.  For the GF version, I used corn starch to thicken the Bechemel sauce which worked perfectly well (you only need about half as much though).  The only other change I made was to use fresh sage rather than basil.  It really did make a big change in the taste, for the better in my opinion.  Sage and butternut are just a match made in heaven.

While I don't have a picture - dessert was chocolate peanut butter banana milkshakes.  It was meant to be peanut butter banana ice cream...but my 3rd attempt at ice cream making was yet again, unsuccessful!  The ice cream was way too soft, so I blended it up with store bought chocolate ice cream and served it up in coffee mugs.  Also well received, as I'm sure you can imagine :)

Spaghetti a la leftover wilted veggies

 Other than the veggies you see all chopped up (which all but the celery were Ontario), I used jarred tomato puree and I added some past-its-prime baby spinach when I combined the sauce and noodles. For flavour, a tsp each of oregano, thyme and basil. 2 tsp of balsamic vinegar, s&p, and a Tbsp of EVOO which I sauteed the veggies in before adding the sauce.  The noodles were 100% whole wheat, and each bowl is topped with a generous helping of freshly grated Parmesan.

Such a flavourful, healthy and inexpensive meal - 5 generous portions.

Roasted Tomato, Asparagus and Scallops tossed with Egg Noodles in a Dill Cream Sauce

 

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but good gravy this was amazing!  I didn't use a recipe for this, but was inspired by my local asparagus and tomatoes, and bag of frozen Argentinian scallops I'd been meaning to use.

I roasted the tomatoes at 350F for about an hour, they were swee-eet when they came out.  I steamed the chopped asparagus until cooked but slightly on the crunchy side, and seared the scallops over medium heat for about 1 minute per side, in batches so as to not crowd the pan.

When all this was done, I cooked the noodles in salted water, and made my sauce - which if you're looking for a healthy dinner option, you may want to stop ready now...the words whipping cream and butter are comin' at ya!

I melted about 3 Tbsp of butter over lowish heat, and sauteed a clove of minced garlic for couple of minutes.  I then added whipping cream - I think about 1/2 cup, as well as some light 5% cream, another 1/2 a cup-ish.  I brought this to a simmer, and let it simmer away while the noodles finished cooking, and added s&p to taste.  

When the noodles were done, I reserved one cup of the starchy cooking liquid from the pasta.   

I added the noodles to the the cream sauce along with 1/2 cup of fresh chopped dill, and about 1/3 cup of the starchy pasta water (which helps to thicken the sauce - you may need more or less).

When all the noodles were well coated, I added in the scallops, asparagus (of which I ate almost half the bunch while cooking) and tomatoes.  Toss again and serve to your delighted fiance :)  Bring leftovers to work the following day and wow your coworkers (it maaaay have something to do with the butter and cream).

Finally, I wanted to post a couple of photos from a great pilates potluck I had last week.  A pilates potluck is one that you have with the people you do pilates with :)  Thanks so much to host and head coach Jody and her husband Jon, who enthusiastically became one of us pilates gals for a night.

Pictured below are the all of the yummy things we ate (this was an all vegetarian meal for kosher purposes). Starting at the very top, courtesy of Dara, a Southwestern Bean and Corn Salad (a variety of beans and veggies is a nice smokey cumin dressing), below that a bowl of perfect Guacamole (thanks Jody and Jon!), to the right of the guac, courtesy of Joanne, a Mediterranean Couscous salad (with feta, tomatoes and zucchini tossed with a flavourful chili dressing). The red and white blob, the bag of crackers and the Tupperware of green spread were my contribution - an arugula walnut pesto hummus, a cranberry and port goat cheese, and Ace Bakery cranberry and raisin baguette crisps.  Randomly, we also had some chocolate chip vegan muffins to try (Jody's purchase from a local producer) - surprisingly moist and yummy!

The 2nd photo pictures the main dish prepared by Jody and Jon - butternut squash enchiladas. WOW! I have a copy of the recipe (from a running room magazine!)...and will be blogging about it at some point in the future.  It's a must-make.  It also fits it in to the tough gluten-free/vegetarian category that I sometimes struggle with.  The sweet and spicy filling, inside soft corn tortillas, with a savoury cheese and enchilada sauce topping is a crowd pleaser, while also being a great unique dish to serve to guests...and it sounds pretty simple to make too!

Unfortunately, we didn't get a photo of dessert which were AMAZING double chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing (all from scratch!) courtesy of Lauren.  Picture perfect little bundles of heaven with sprinkle on top :)

It's been a pretty decent cooking week I do say.  I have my second Wanigan delivery coming tomorrow.  I have requested a substitution in my delivery to ensure I receive some fiddleheads - which I promise to post about!

Happy Eating!