Buffalo Chicken Pasta

A staple at our home. This meal isn't for someone who can't handle a bit of heat. It's adapted from Rachael Ray's original recipe, which she actually made for Olympians. My version of the recipe won a small cooking contest. If you're not heavy-handed with the cheese, it's quite a healthy meal, even though it tastes so hearty. Best yet, this recipe makes a large batch of pasta--enough for a Double Dinner! Freeze half of this recipe and there will be plenty to go around twice!

Ingredients:

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1" pieces
• 4 ribs celery, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 4 large carrots, chopped
• 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 box whole wheat pasta (like penne)
• 1/4 cup Sriracha sauce
• 1/4 cup Frank's hot sauce
• 1 cup shredded Monterrey or Pepper Jack cheese

Directions:

1. In a large pot, cook pasta according to package. Drain pasta while it still has a little bit of a bite to it, as it will continue to cook in the meal. Draining pasta when it is fully cooked will result in it becoming over-cooked once added to the rest of the meal.
2. Put extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) in a large skillet on medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper and cook in skillet until done.
3. Add onion, celery, and carrots to the skillet and sautee until veggies are tender.
4. Add tomatoes and stir everything together. Turn heat down to low.
5. Add pasta to the skillet.
6. Add both hot sauces, using more or less depending on the level of heat desired.
7. Add shredded cheese and stir until all cheese is melted and well-blended. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Zucchini Lasagna

This sounds like an overly-healthy lasagna, which might make veggiephobes run and hide, but it's actually a pretty basic lasagna recipe with thin layers of zucchini instead of noodles.

I plant zucchini every year and this year, they did pretty well. I usually let the squash get to be 1-1.5 feet long, so we usually have a lot of zucchini in the summer and fall! There's really only so much zucchini bread you can make to get rid of it, so I had to get more creative this year. This lasagna recipe became a favorite and something I will look forward to along with zuke bread.

Ingredients:

• 1 large zucchini, sliced long-ways into 8" strips
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 15-oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1.5 tablespoon dried oregano
• 15 oz ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1.5 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1.5 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Get out an 8x8 baking pan
2. Using a mandolin, slice zucchini long-ways into 8" strips. You'll need roughly 12 strips.
3. In a skillet, heat some extra virgin olive oil. Sautee onions until tender. Add ground turkey and cook completely, until meat is no longer pink. Add the can of crushed tomato and season with the oregano, salt, and pepper to taste.
4. In a separate bowl, mix the ricotta, egg, basil, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper.
5. In the 8x8 pan, layer the ingredients: zucchini, ricotta mixture, meat mixture, mozzarella and parmesan. Repeat once more. Top with another layer of zucchini and top with mozzarella and parmesan.
6. Cook, uncovered, until lasagna is bubbling on the sides. Let rest about 10 minutes before serving.