Sometimes, the simplest meals are the best. We have a Latino market across the street where we can get two heavy bags of fresh produce for $10. With fresh ingredients, it’s easy to make a delicious meal. Like this pepper parmesan pasta…

You can substitute whatever fresh veggies you like. This time I used orange bell pepper and mushrooms. Sometimes I’ll throw in frozen peas as well. For lots of color, use red, yellow and green bell peppers.

Safeway had a sundried tomato spread on the discontinued shelf for $.49 a jar, so we got two! If you don’t have a spread, substitute sun dried tomatoes packed in oil, and saute them first omitting the olive oil.

I served this with some storebought sourdough bread and olive oil and vinegar. The whole meal took 10 minutes to make and cost us about $2 each serving.

Pepper Parmesan Pasta
Ingredients
1 small handful spaghetti noodles
2 TBS olive oil (eyeball it)
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 orange bell pepper chopped
5 white mushrooms (washed, stems removed, sliced)
2 TBS sundried tomato spread
1/4 cup freshly shredded italian cheese blend (or parmesan)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Break spaghetti in half (if desired) and cook according to package directions.

Meanwhile in a frying pan, heat oil over medium high. Add garlic and saute about 20 seconds, add pepper and mushrooms. Saute for 3-5 minutes or until peppers are tender. Add tomato spread and mix well.

When pasta is ready, drain and then add to frying pan. (turn off burner) Mix the noodles well with the vegetables to make sure they’re coated in the oil. Sprinkle on cheese and give one final mix.

We had a little bit of our favorite steak left over, so I decided to make a salad with it. I’d never made or even had a steak salad, but though a vinaigrette dressing sounded good. Of course, no salad is complete for us without feta! I experimented with the dressing adding a little of different things, and here’s what I came up with…

Favorite Steak Salad

Salad Ingredients
6-8 slices of our favorite flank steak
1 handful romaine lettuce
1 handful baby spinach
1 handful italian greens
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 red onion chopped
1 Roma tomato chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Dressing Ingredients
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
1/8 cup raspberry vinegar
1 TBS lemon juice
1 tsp honey
1/8 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Mix dressing ingredients in a bowl or jar.

Mix salad ingredients in a large bowl. Plate the salad, top with steak slices. Drizzle liberally with dressing, season with salt and pepper.

We buy large servings of flank steak at Sam’s Club, and when we get home, cut them into smaller portions. I’ll use some for curry or stir fry, some for new recipes, but I’ll always marinate some in our favorite marinade. I’ve made it up by trial and error of what I’ve had in my cupboard and what sounded good together. I freeze it in the marinade, then we can just thaw overnight and grill on our hibachi or George Foreman grill.

Dianasaur’s Flank Steak Marinade
Ingredients:
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 TBS lemon juice
1 tsp minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
1 tsp ginger powder
3 TBS Olive Oil
2 person serving of flank steak (I don’t know the weight since we eyeball it and cut it up)

Put the steak in a quart size ziploc bag. Add all the ingredients to the bag, seal and mush well to mix. Either marinate overnight, or freeze and thaw when you’re ready to cook it.

Some tips on flank steak:

After you cook it, wait a few minutes to slice it so the juices can absorb.

Cut against the grain. I didn’t know what this meant for the longest time. Basically if you look at the top of the steak you’ll see the lines or threads of steak going in one direction. You want to slice perpindicular to those lines. If that still doesn’t make sense, do a google video search. That should make it clear if you’re a visual learner.

Last week we had a youth staff BBQ and were supposed to bring a side or dessert. I happen to know almost everyone brings desserts, so I knew I wanted to do a side. The problem was, money is tight and I didn’t want to spend to much putting together some amazing dish to bring. So I thought about what we had from Sam’s Club. I figured since we bought things in bulk, it’d be cheaper if I used some of those items. I came up with spiral pasta, baby spinach, and feta. For inspiration, I searched foodnetwork.com and found a recipe that used all three! I tweaked it some (of course!) and dubbed it spinach pasta salad. Isn’t it gorgeous?

This does make a large bowlful. It is much better fresh, the dressing gets too soaked up after a couple days in the fridge, so if you’re not taking it to a potluck I’d suggest making a half recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 cups colorful spiral shaped pasta
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/2 cup diced red onion
• 1 1/2 cups chopped baby spinach leaves
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon raspberry vinegar
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Salt and pepper

Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package.

Meanwhile, in a dry pan, toast the walnuts on medium-high 2-3 minutes.

Drain pasta and rinse with cold water until chilled. Drain well. In a large bowl, toss together the pasta, walnuts, feta cheese, onion, and spinach. In a small bowl whisk the oil, vinegar, garlic and mustard. Pour the dressing over the pasta salad and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

What happens when you don’t read things carefully at the grocery store? You don’t make the dish you planned on making! I thought I was grabbing puff pastry the other day, but I ended grabbing Phyllo dough instead. Very different! I didn’t even realize it until I was thawing it and putting it on the baking sheet. I decided I’d go through with what I wanted to try anyway and see how it turned out.

It actually worked pretty well. I probably wouldn’t make it with phyllo again, and think it will be amazing with puff pastry. But my husband Eric absolutely loved it. I think he ate almost the whole thing! It makes a yummy light snack.

For the pesto sauce, you can make your own. I just use a mix and use the leftover sauce for pasta, sandwiches or pizza.

Vegetable Tart
Ingredients
4 inches zucchini sliced very thin
1 roma tomato sliced very thin
2 TBS finely chopped red onion
pesto sauce
olive oil
2 sheets phyllo dough
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place two sheets of dough on a sheet of wax paper on a cookie sheet. Brush lightly with oil. Place in the oven for 5 minutes or until lightly golden.

Meanwhile heat a TBS of olive oil in a small pan. Lightly stir fry the onions and zucchini until tender.

Remove dough and brush lightly with pesto sauce. Place a layer of tomato slices, then zucchini slices. Sprinkle with onion and feta. Bake for another 10 minutes or until dough is lightly browned.

Slice with pizza cutter. Can be served hot or cold.