Angel Hair With Artichokes

This is one of those things I throw together when I make something for my family that I won't eat. I make a few different variations. You could easily add sliced chicken breast to this if you wanted some meat in your meal. If I have fresh spinach, I will throw that in also.

Ingredients:

Angel hair pasta

2 Tablespoons Olive oil

2 garlic cloves or 1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 14oz. can petite diced tomatoes, drained or 1 small container fresh grape tomatoes, halved

1 14oz. can quartered artichoke hearts

1 small can sliced black olives, drained

2 Tablespoons capers, drained

fresh basil

grated Parmesan

1. Saute garlic in olive oil. Add tomatoes, artichokes, and black olives. Bring to a boil. (If using fresh tomatoes, heat until tomatoes are soft.

2. Reduce heat to low. Add capers and basil. Simmer about 5 minutes.

3. Salt and pepper to taste. Toss with angel hair pasta. Top with Parmesan.

Tortilla Soup

Here is another Rachael Ray recipe. (I promise I do more than read her magazine. These are actually the only two recipes I have ever made of hers, but I loved them.)

This is vegetarian, but you could add chunks of chicken or use chicken broth if you want to make it non-vegetarian.

3 poblano chilis
6 corn tortillas, halved then cut into 1/2 inch strips
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt
2 10-ounce boxes of frozen corn
1 red onion chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon minced Garlic
Pepper
4 cups vegetable broth
14.5 ounce can fire-roasted tomatoes
1 avocado chopped
1 lime
Sour cream

1. Preheat the broiler. Broil the poblanos until blackened (approx. 10 minutes). Transfer to a bowl, cover and let cool, seed and chop the poblanos (I made the rest of the soup while the poblanos cooled.)

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a baking sheet, toss the tortilla strips with 1 tablespoon oil an cumin. (To coat the tortilla strips: I like to put the strips, oil, and cumin in a ziploc bag, and shake gently.) Bake until golden (10 minutes); season with salt.

3. In a large, deep skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat. Add the corn and cook until charred at the edges (10-15 minutes). Add the onion and garlic. Season with salt and pepper, and cook until the onion is softened. Stir in broth, tomatoes, and poblanos. (At this point I transferred everything to the crock pot, so it would be warm when we got home from dance. If you are going to serve it immediately, you can just leave it in the pan. Make sure it is a deep pan!)

5. Top the soup with the tortilla strips, avocado, sour cream, and a squeeze of lime.)

Enjoy!

**You can use store bought tortilla chips if you don't want to make your own, but these are very tasty.

**This is pretty spicy. I would think you could use 2 peppers to make it less spicy.

Sloppy Veg-Head Joe

This is a vegetarian sloppy joe recipe I got out of the Rachael Ray magazine. I must say that I think even non-vegetarians will love this. (It's good without the bun, too!) I also omitted the jalapeno since I thought my toddler might be eating it, and it was still good.

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

2 jalapeno chile's, seeded and finely chopped

1 red onion, chopped

2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

Salt and Pepper

1 15-ounce can diced fire roasted tomatoes

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

a splash of vinegar

juice of one lime

1. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the bell pepper, jalapenos, red onion, and garlic. Cook until tender (6-8 minutes). Stir in the black beans, cumin, and coriander. Season with salt and pepper.

2. In a small bowl, combine the tomatoes, brown sugar, and vinegar. Add to the black beans. Simmer for a few minutes. Stir in the lime juice.

3. Serve on buns. Optional: Garnish with pickles and chopped cilantro.

(My picture with the bun was blurry, so I used this one from the magazine's website.)