Spinach-Roasted Red Bell Pepper Pesto

The other night for dinner, I wanted something fresh.  And just my luck, our spinach is coming in nice, so I decided to whip up some Pesto.  I love making pestos...it's nice to have something different on our pastas over than Red Sauce.

~Spinach from my garden~

I threw in some Garlic Bread & Peas, and the family was happy.

Spinach & Roasted Red Bell Pepper Pesto

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups of Spinach
• 1/2 Cup of Parmesan
• 1/4 Cup Pine Nuts
• 2 Garlic Cloves
• 1 Roasted Red Bell Pepper
• EVOO
• 1 Cup of Reserved Cooking Liquid

Directions:

1. Cook up enough pasta for you family, and reserve a cup of the liquid once the pasta is done cooking.
2. In a food processor, combine the following ingredients: Spinach, Parmesan, Pine Nuts, Garlic and Pepper.  Give it a whirl.
3. Stream in enough EVOO to combine everything together...usually between 1/4-1/2 cup.
4. Stream in the reserved Cooking Liquid till you get a decent sauce.
5. Pour enough sauce over your pasta, coating every piece.
6. Enjoy!

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Turkey, Pineapple & Swiss Grilled Cheese Sandwich

When trying to find a grilled cheese sandwich recipe for the Crazy Cooking Challenge, I told ya yesterday how I came across this blog & how that blogger was doing a month-long grilled cheese sandwich month.

 

One of the recipes that I pinned was a Ham & Pineapple recipe.  Now as you can see from the title of this blog post, that it does not say Ham.  It was suppose to be Ham, but somehow, my Ham got misplaced when I went grocery shopping & it ended up at my parents house.  So we went out on a limb & substituted with Turkey {that we did have in the house}.

 

And ya know what???  This sandwich tasted fantastic!

 

The sourdough bread, turkey, pineapple, green onions & swiss worked great with each other.

And my family still ate my sandwiches even though they were a little crispy on the outside.

Turkey, Pineapple & Swiss Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

~Original Recipe~

Ingredients:

• Sourdough Bread
• Turkey Slices {I used a good lunch meat that my family likes, & used 4 slices for each sandwich}
• 1 Can of pineapple rings {since the bread was kind of big, I used 2 rings per sandwich, and there was just enough in the can for the 6 sandwiches I made}
• Swiss Cheese {1 slice per sandwich}
• 2 Green Onions-sliced green & white parts
• EVOO

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Assemble your sandwiches: Bread, turkey, green onions, pinapple and cheese.
3. Place onto a baking sheet & drizzle the outsides of the sandwich with EVOO.
4. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes...or until the outside is golden brown.
5. Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

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Crazy Cooking Challenge : Bacon, Sun-Dried Tomatoes & Roasted Garlic Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

 

This months challenge was Grilled Cheese....Tina must have been inspired because there have been a slew of grilled cheese sandwich recipes floating around the internet.

 

I've learned that grilled cheese does not have to consist of processed cheese & sandwich bread {something I do not like}.....in fact there are so many flavor combinations to make what I call a "grown-up"grilled cheese.

 

One of my favorite sandwiches that I'll make every once in awhile is my Ciabatta with bacon & brie combination, so I was excited for this challenge to search for a couple of new recipes.

When I typed in grilled cheese into the Pinterest search engine, I found a wonderful blog, Gallery Kitchen-Bake Up Little Suzy.  I hit the jackpot.  She was doing a month-long grilled cheese special and I immediately starting pinning recipes to try out.

My favorite out of all of them {that I made & tried}....the Bacon, Sun-Dried Tomatoe & Roasted Garlic.

I tried to stay pretty true to the recipe, but I adapted some to feed my family of five....here's a rundown of how I made these fabu-deliciosity sandwiches.

First, I started out with some homemade Challah Bread.  The recipe I used was fantastic, I think I calculated that each slice was 80 calories or so.

While the bread baked, I wrapped 10 cloves of garlic in some foil-with some EVOO-and roasted it for about 25-30 minutes.  Heavenly smell.

For the Bacon part, I used Turkey bacon.  I really like the stuff & it's a little nicer for you calorie wise.  Sun-Dried tomatoes, Italian Cheese Blend, Basil & EVOO rounded out the rest of the ingredients.

 Because I was mass producing this sandwich, I used my Oven.  Made it much easier to cook 5 {or 6} sandwiches at once.

I fully enjoyed this sandwich.  From the smoky bacon, to the sweet tomatoes, to the roasted garlic, my mouth was having a par-tay!

Bacon, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, & Roasted Garlic Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
~From Suzanna @ Gallery Kitchen~
{Oringial Recipe}
{My Version-Printable}

Ingredients

-Makes 6 servings

·         12 cloves of roasted garlic

·         EVOO

·         12 slices of Challah Bread

·         12 slices of cooked Turkey Bacon

·         Sun-Dried Tomatoes

·         Basil

·         Italian Blend Cheese-about ¼ cup to ½ cup for each sandwich

Directions

1.      Preheat the oven to 450˚

2.     On each slice of bread, spread some roasted garlic.

3.    Pile on the bacon, sun-dried tomatoes, cheese, and basil-a little sprinkle for each sandwich.

4.    Drizzle the top & bottom of the sandwich with EVOO, and if you want, some more cheese.

5.     Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, and then flip the sandwiches to bake for another 10 minutes.

6.     Sandwiches are done when they are nice and golden on the outside.

7.     Enjoy!

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Frogmore Stew

When I went up to my sister-in-laws for Easter, I took some time to look through some of her cookbooks.  In one of her cookbooks I found this recipe:

It reminded me so much of the crawfish boil I had while down in Louisiana, so I knew that I needed to try it.  Plus it gave me an excuse to open up this sucker we picked up down there:

I halved the recipe and we left out the shrimp {more so because I forgot to buy some & I'm picky about shrimp}.

We were excited in the Clegg household that night :)

And the verdict???

Absolutely, freakin', delicious!!!

But man o man.  Did it kick our butts!  Have you ever had something so good, yet so spicy/hot???  We felt sorry for the kids and told them to just eat whatever they could.  I forgot to get a picture of my boys....a chunk of bread in one hand & an ear of corn in the other.  We made it up to them though....we took them out to get ice cream :)

My husband & I are so excited that this turned out though, we've heard that a lake here in Utah is full of crawfish begging to be boiled up in this yummy stuff.

Frogmore Stew
~from Pam Anderson's Cookbook~

Ingredients:

• 1 Onion-quartered
• 2 Garlic Cloves-Smashed
• 1/4 Cup of Old Bay Seasoning or Equivalent {we used that Louisiana Boil Seasoning}
• 1 Lemon
• 1 lb of Red Potatoes...or 2 potatoes per person-halved or quartered depending on size
• 1 lb of Smoked Sausage-cut up into bite size pieces
• 8 half-ears of corn

Directions:

1. Combine 6 Cups of Water, the onions, garlic, and seasoning together.  Squeeze the juice from the lemons and then throw them in the pot.  Bring up to a boil over medium-high heat.
2. Add the potatoes and sausage & return to a boil.  Partially cover, and let simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Add in the corn and let simmer for another 10 minutes.
4. Enjoy!





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