Broccoli Rigatoni

Anyone else notice that most of my recipes come from Billy? Ah well. This one does, too.

Start with a crown of broccoli and cut or pick the pieces apart to be bite sized (after rinsing, of course).

Boil water in a medium saucepan. Add the broccoli for about 4 minutes. Take the broccoli out of the water but leave the water boiling. Pat the broccoli dry with paper towels, and add about 1/3 of a box of rigatoni. Salt to taste.

In a pan, add a Tbsp or two of good olive oil. Then chop 4 cloves of garlic. The rigatoni takes about 10 minutes to be "done" so heat the broccoli and garlic after about 8 minutes. At minute 10, take 1/3 C. of the boiling water and add it to the pan with the broccoli. 

Strain the rigatoni and add it to the pan. Let it simmer and reduce in the water until all of the water is gone. Add a dash of kosher or sea salt, a bit of crushed red pepper, and some good parm (or mozz). 

The secret is to just undercook the broccoli and pasta so the former stays green and the latter stays al dente. 

Sweet and Savory Pastrami Crispbread

I read recently that eating a meal high in both dietary fiber and protein will keep you feeling full and satisfied longer into the day. I've been experimenting with it, and it sure seems to work.

Here's my tasty fiber / protein lunch for the day. They're like the little cracker sandwiches you had as a kid. Kinda like kicked up, adult Lunchables:

Ingredients:

Crispbreads (Wasa and Ry Krisp are two brands of this stuff. You can find it in the cracker aisle. Here's a good health overview for the conscious readers. )

Deli Pastrami or Corned Beef (or just about any deli meat will work)

Cream Cheese

Blue Cheese Crumbles

Dried Cranberries

Mayonnaise

A lemon (or some lemon juice)

Directions:

1. Put a couple scoops of cream cheese in a bowl with some blue cheese crumbles, a small handful of the dried cranberries, and a squirt of mayo.

2. Microwave this mixture at 1/2 power for about 15-20 seconds (just enough to make it stirrable)

3. Stir the ingredients together with a spoon.

4. Grab 4-5 of the crispbreads, break them in half (so they're bite-sized) and spread a spoonful of your cream cheese mixture on top.

5. Take a half slice of your chosen deli meat and mush it into the cream cheese so it stays put.

6. Squeeze juuuust a little lemon juice over the top, and chow down.

Tri-Colored Pepper Spaghetti

This is taken DIRECTLY off the back of the Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Whole Wheat Blend Spaghetti box (although I'm modifying their garlic saute suggestions), but it looked good, so I thought I would record it here before I recycle the box.

Ingredients:

1 pkg Ronzoni Healthy Harvest spaghetti 

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp minced garlic

2 ea. of red, green, yellow bell peppers, de-seeded and thinly sliced

salt and pepper

Cook pasta according to package directions. Heat a large saute pan over medium heat with olive oil, and saute garlic (they say until golden brown but, to me, that's a bit too long, so I'd say just a couple of minutes). Toss in peppers and heat until just tender (about 2-3 minutes). Add pasta to peppers and toss until warm.