Mushroom, Bacon, Chicken Pasta

I made this up last week with a bunch of leftovers from my fridge. I wanted to type it up before I forgot. I'm sorry again that the amounts are estimates. The combination of these flavors were pretty good. This is a little similar to the other spinach dish but this is a little lighter on the cream.

2 hand fulls of mushrooms, sliced
1 yellow onion
1 bunch of spinach (or 2 handfuls of bagged spinach)
4 slices of bacon, diced (I used turkey bacon from Trader Joe's)
1 cup of cubed chicken (I had some leftover from one I picked up from Whole Foods and this was the 3rd meal)
8-10 oz of pasta (like more ingredients than pasta)
1/4-1/2 Cup of wine
4-6 oz Mascarpone


In a big pan saute mushrooms and onions on low in olive oil until barely caramelized. When they're good and ready add the wine and let the mushrooms and onions soak up the liquid. Saute bacon in a separate pan and add to the mix along with the diced chicken. In the meantime, blanch the spinach in boiling water about 1-2 mins, remove with a finely mesh strainer and add to the big pan, and boil the pasta in the spinach water. When the pasta is cooked to your liking add to the mix (after draining) and then add the mascarpone and stir. Salt/Pepper to taste.

*sorry no photos.

Spinach Aritcoke Pasta

Ok, so yes this has lots of cream and cheese in it, but it's so so good and the kids loved it. I had all of this spinach leftover from my farm box and wanted to use it somewhere and happened to have cream cheese and sour cream which I rarely have in my fridge. I modified this recipe a bit by using fresh spinach, and swapping out the hot sauce for sundried tomatoes. My 1 yr old will eat anything with wine in it so I added a little extra of that.

INGREDIENTS
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic
4 oz. neufchatel cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup white wine (or more)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1 can (14 oz) quartered artichoke hearts
1 pkg (10 oz) chopped spinach, thawed (I used 2 bunches of fresh from my farm box)
1 Tbsp hot sauce 1 Jar of sun dried tomatoes, drained.
1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
to taste
salt and pepper
12 oz. pasta (any shape)



STEP 1: Put a large pot of water on to boil with a lid. When it comes to a boil, blanch the spinach until bright green, about 1-2 mins. Remove from boiling water with a fine mesh hand held strainer. Cook the pasta in the spinach water.
STEP 2: While you are cooking the pasta, start making the sauce. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Mince the garlic and cook it in the oil until it is slightly tender (1-2 minutes).
STEP 3: Add the neufchatel (cream cheese), sour cream and white wine. Stir until everything is evenly incorporated. Reduce the heat to medium/low.
STEP 4: Add the milk and parmesan cheese. Stir it in until the parmesan has melted in and is evenly incorporated. Stir in the hot sauce and thawed/drained spinach. Add the sundrieded tomatoes.
STEP 5: Drain the can of artichoke hearts. Roughly chop them and add to the sauce. Taste the sauce and season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes if desired.
STEP 6: Add the cooked and drained pasta and stir to coat. Serve warm.

Spinach, Mango, Avocado Smoothie

I promise this is more delicious than it sounds. The kids love it and I make it instead of a salad sometimes for dinner. It's tasty and the prettiest green. When I make it I just throw things in the blender so these proportions can be played with (I'm trying to estimate the amounts.) We try to eat lots of spinach, I really believe it makes us stronger, just call me Popeye. I get my avocado's from TJ's, in the packs of 4 because they're cheaper, always are hard though. Put them with you apples and they'll ripen quickly.

- 1/2 bag of spinach (TJ's)

~ 1 cup of sweetened almond vanilla milk

~ 1/2 cup of apple juice (I get the unfiltered kind from TJ's.)

~ 3/4 to 1 cup of whole milk yogurt (red container from TJ's)

~ 7-8 chunks of frozen mango (also from TJ's)

~ 1 avocado (this makes the smoothies so creamy)

~ 1 squirt of honey (omit if feeding to child under 1)
1 banana

BLEND! BLEND until it looks beautiful and creamy. Increase the liquid if it's too thick, you want it to flow! If you don't believe me how good it is, come over and I'll make if for you:)