Texas Tijuana Taco Penne

This one is downright delicious! It's easy, quick, filling and presents well... It's excellent for serving for guests. You can garnish it how you see fit. This is a copycat recipe from pasta ya gotcha! We used to serve it at the pizza place in worked at when I was 18. I'm so happy to be able to recreate it at home! 

Ingredients:
1 lb. Ground chicken or turkey
1 jar alfredo sauce
3 TBSP taco seasoning (or one packet)
1 lb penne pasta
Shredded cheddar
Sliced black olives
Diced tomato
Sour cream
Hot sauce

Cook pasta according to package.  Brown meat, drain and return to pan.  Add alfredo sauce and taco seasoning.  Mix well and simmer for about 5 minutes.  Serve over hot pasta and top with cheese, olives, green onion, tomato and sour cream.

See, it's that easy! Let me know how it turns out for you :-)

Cauliflower Pasta

I made this dish last night and I am amazed by the simplicity of it! I am also now obsessed with roasted veggies and pasta, they come together for sucha wonderful, light pasta dish. I wish initially a little worried about not having a "sauce" but the flavor from the roasted veggies is delicious! You can always swap out the veggies in this recipe with some of your own. Also, I made some changes to the original Marth Stewart recipe and I'm posting this recdipe as I made it. However, after I making it, I found some mkore adjustments that should be made, I'll add those at the end :)

1 large head of cauliflower (cut into florets with very little stem attached)

1 small red onion cut into wedges

5-7 whole garlic cloves, peeled and cut in half

2 TBSP olive oil (plus 1 more additional TBSP)

salt and pepper to taste

lemon juice

1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped fresh grated parm 1/4-1/2 cup

bread crumbs

12 oz pasta

Preheat oven to 475, be sure you have a rack on the bottom or 2nd to bottom position. Toss your fresh veggies with 2 TBSP of olive oil and salt and pepper. I also just bought some greek seasoning and used some of that as well (yummy). Add some lemon juice too. Put these on a baking sheet and bake at 475 for 20 minutes, stirring once.

Boil some water and cook your pasta. I chose to try out some gluten free brown rice macaroni noodles and I was amazed by them! They are a healthier option then regular ol' noodles and personlly, I'm not a fan of whole wheat. I also think 12 oz was too much, I'd try more like 8 oz or double the veggies. Be sure to reserve 1/2 cup of water when you drain the noodles.

Okay, so now, toss your pasta with veggies, fresh parm, (I also added some more greek seasoning), 1 TBSP of olive oil, a little lemon juice and reserved water (you might not need all of the water, just enough to coat everything). Sprinkle each serving with some breadcrumbs and additonal parm.

I paired this with some Nearly Naked Chicken breasts but it could be served as a main course as well. Enjoy! (Sorry for the stolen picture, I just had to share this recipe and didn't have one of my own)

Tex Mex Shells

This is certainly a favorite around our house. I think I might have gotten this recipe off of one of those recipe cards in the meat department at Walmart, go figure :)

1 lb ground beef
1.25-1.5 lbs large shell pasta cooked and drained
1/2 onion, chopped
1 can olives, drained and sliced (or 2 cans pre sliced olives)
1 can diced tomatos, drained (you could also use about 1.5 cupsof halved cherry tomatos)
3 cups shredded cheddar
1 can condensed tomato soup
1 can milk (tomato soup can)
1 package of fajita seasoning (I really think this recipe tastes best with Great Value brand seasoning, I have tried others)

Brown beef with onion and drain.



Mix beef, onion, olives, tomatos and pasta. Mix together seperately tomato soup plus one can of milk and fajita seasoning. Pour this over pasta mixture and add shredded cheese.



Place in pyrex dish and cover with foil and bake at 375 for about 45 minutes.

This is also really yummy topped with crushed fritos!