Elbow Pasta Salad

During the summer my family loves to have barbecues and picnics. It's a good chance to bring everyone together and enjoy some great food. What we serve varies, but one thing everybody always asks me to bring is my pasta salad. Not only is it easy to make, it's nice and refreshing on a hot day and it tastes great as a side with whatever meat you're cooking. This is a must have family recipe!

Ingredients:

8 oz of mayonnaise

1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil

lunch meat "spam"

2 cups of elbow pasta

1/3 cup of brown sugar

salt (to taste)

1/4 cup of chopped onion

1/4 cup of chopped green pepper

1/4 cup of chopped green apple

Procedure:

1. Put the mayonnaise in a mixing bowl.
2. Add the brown sugar.
3. Add the salt.
4. Add the olive oil.
5. Whisk them all together.
6. Chop up your onions and peppers.
7. Chop the lunch meat into small cubes.
8. Before adding in the other ingredients make sure you mixture is blended smooth.
9. Add the onions and peppers into the bowl.
10. Add your lunch meat.
11. Chop up some green apples and add them in. 
12. After cooking and draining, add the elbow pasta into the bowl.
13. Chill in the fridge for an hour and enjoy!

Put the mayonnaise in a mixing bowl.

Add the brown sugar.

Add the salt.

Add the olive oil.

Whisk them all together.

Chop up your onions and peppers.

Chop the lunch meat into small cubes.

Before adding in the other ingredients make sure you mixture is blended smooth.

Add the onions and peppers into the bowl.

Add your lunch meat.

Mix everything thoroughly.

Chop up some green apples and add them in. 

After cooking and draining, add the elbow pasta into the bowl.

Chill in the fridge for an hour and enjoy!

Vegetable Fritatta

I made this recipe for my hubby a while back, like... almost a year. It was before I got pregnant. I was on bed rest for a while and couldn't cook. After that I was too tired to even think about making elaborate recipes or anything that took more than half an hour to make, so my hubby had to eat spaguettis with chicken, mashed potatoes with chicken, quesadillas, sandwiches, rice with chicken or take out. He really loved this recipe though so I decided to make it again for him.

The first time I heard the name fritata I thought the recipe was gonna be hard to make. Sometimes they make the names more difficult than the recipe. So I took a aimple recipe and studied the basics. In a frittata the essential elements are: eggs, vegetables and the baking time. From there you can make a lot of variations. Have fun and make yourself, your partner, kids and friends some delicious and easy meals.
The traditional fritatta uses more eggs than what I used in this recipe. If you google images of fritatta recipes you will see that classic fritattas tend to be bigger and fluffier than in my recipe. The reason for the change is that I prefer using fewer eggs. But when my whole family comes for a visit, I just inclrease the eggs to make a bigger fritatta! So here is my combination for an all vegetable fritata. Hope you guys enjoy it as much as my husband and me!

Ingredients: (to taste)

Butter
Eggs
Garlic
White onion
Tomatoes
Green pepper
Red bell pepper
Cilantro
Salt
Ground black pepper


Procedure:  ( It's important to use an oven safe pan for this recipe!)

Put the butter in the pan. When the butter is melted add the garlic and cook it for a little while.

While that is in the skillet, cut the tomatoes, onions, cilantro and bell peppers.
Put all the ingrdients in, except for the cilantro. When the onions look transluscent add the cilantro. 

Mix up the eggs then pour them onto the vegetables and cook for two minutes.

Put the pan in the oven at 350 grades for 15 to 20 minutes. Take the pan out of the oven and it will look like the picture above or bigger depending on the quantity of the eggs.

Chicken Lasagna Rolls

Remember those amazing looking chicken lasagna rolls sitting next to the sweet dinner rolls? Well, today I’ll give you guys the recipe. That night I wanted to do something different for my husband and what goes better with those rolls than lasagna? It was late and I really didn’t want to do all the work required for lasagna… so I decided to make lasagna rolls instead. It’s the first time I attempted it, but I think it went pretty good. My husband loved it. Hope you guys enjoy them too! Let me know if you try it!

Ingredients:

For the chicken:

4 chicken breasts (cut in to cubes)

1 onion

1 sweet green pepper

½ teaspoon of salt

1 clove of garlic

4 whole tomatoes

Olive oil (to taste)

1 Tablespoon of unsalted butter

½ teaspoon of fresh oregano

½ teaspoon of fresh basil

½ teaspoon of green onions

½ cup of grated Romano cheese

For the rolls:

6 lasagna sheets

1 cup of mozzarella cheese

½ cup Parmesan cheese

½ cup of Romano

Tomato sauce (to taste)

 Procedure:

Put olive oil on the pan and wait until it's hot. Add the onion, green peppers and garlic.

Add the unsalted butter.

 

Let it cook until you see the onion is translucent.

Add the chicken.

 

Cut the whole tomatoes.

Add the tomatoes to the chicken.

 Meanwhile shred the Romano cheese.

Add the herbs to the chicken.

 Add the cheese. Mix everything and let it cook.

Tear the chicken until it's fine. (My husband did it for me and he used a potato masher, instead of tearing it.)

 The end result should look like this.

This is what I used to fill the rolls.

Lasagna "sheet"

Chicken filling

Add the mozzarella

Add the Romano cheese.

Roll the lasagna with the filling. Put it in the pan sheet.

 You should have 6 rolls.

 

 Add your favorite tomato sauce to taste.

Add cheese on top of the rolls and put it in the oven @ 350 degrees until you see that the cheese has melted.

ENJOY!!!