March Recipes YUM!

Quick Chicken Noodle Soup

Picture taken from Myrecipes.com

Heat the broth mixture in the microwave to jump-start the cooking. Meanwhile, sauté the aromatic ingredients in your soup pot to get this dish under way. Though we like the shape of fusilli, you can also make this soup with wide egg noodles, rotini, or even orzo.

• Yield: 6 servings (serving size: about 1 cup)
• Total:20 Minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 1 (32-ounce) carton fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup prechopped onion
• 1/2 cup prechopped celery
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 medium carrot, chopped
• 6 ounces fusilli pasta
• 2 1/2 cups shredded skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken breast
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (I left this out!)

Preparation

1. Combine 2 cups water and chicken broth in a microwave-safe dish, and microwave at HIGH for 5 minutes.

2. While broth mixture heats, heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add onion, celery, salt, pepper, and carrot; sauté 3 minutes or until almost tender, stirring frequently. Add hot broth mixture and pasta; bring to a boil. Cook 7 minutes or until pasta is almost al dente. Stir in chicken; cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated. Stir in parsley.

Veggie Burgers from Real Simple

Serves 4

Hands-On Time: 15m

Total Time: 45m

Ingredients

• 1/4  cup  couscous
• 1  large  egg
• 1/4  cup  sunflower seeds (left these out because I could not find them at the store)
• 1  15-ounce can lentils, rinsed (I used dried lentils but I would recommend using canned lentils. My veggie burgers had a good flavor but ended up kind of dry)
• 1  medium carrot, coarsely grated
• 1/2  medium red onion, finely chopped
• 1  tablespoon  fresh lemon juice
• kosher salt and black pepper

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine the couscous and 1/4 cup hot tap water. Let sit for 5 minutes; fluff with a fork.

2. In a food processor, puree the egg, sunflower seeds, and 3/4 cup of the lentils until they form a paste; transfer to a bowl. Mix in the carrot, onion, lemon juice, couscous, the remaining lentils, 1/2 teaspoon salt,and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Form the mixture into four 1/2-inch-thick patties. Refrigerate, uncovered, until firm, 20 to 25 minutes.

3. Heat grill to medium-high. Oil the grill grate. Grill the patties, turning once (do not press or flatten), until charred and heated through, 4 to 5 minutes per side. Serve on rolls with the desired toppings.

Tip

Beans made from scratch have better flavor, but the cooking can take hours. Canned beans are a solid alternative, if you rinse and drain them well.

VEGGIE LASAGNA
I made lasagna for the first time ever! I ended up getting inspired by a couple different recipes but made my own recipe :) So, there aren't really measurements but you can see what I put in and then have fun with it if you want to try to recreate it!

Ingredients
6-8 precooked lasagna noodles
Marinara sauce (Any brand)
Mozzarella cheese (I used slices)
Spinach- About 2 cups (I used frozen because it was cheaper, but I think we would have liked the taste a little more if it had been fresh
Stir fry veggies- About 2 cups (This is a bag of frozen veggies that we buy that has peppers, squash, carrots, onions, zucchini, broccoli and more- Great addition to the lasagna)
Part-skim ricotta cheese- 8 oz.
(I also added in an extra zucchini- which I steamed and then added to the bowl of stir fry veggies)

I precooked the noodles because I didn't know how they would cook in the toaster oven if they were raw. I microwaved the frozen spinach and veggies to defrost them. I combined the spinach with the ricotta cheese and mixed it all up. After greasing the pan, I put 2-3 spoonfuls of marinara on the bottom of the pan. Next, I put down the noodles to cover the 8x8 and covered the noodles with marinara. I spread out the ricotta mixture across the marinara and topped with the mixed veggies. Lastly, I covered the veggies with mozzarella cheese. Repeat 2 times and end with marinara and mozzarella cheese. Cover with foil until the last 10 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour or until cooked all the way through (and cheese is melted on top). I did bake ours in a toaster oven so your timing may be a little different :) Enjoy!