ROASTED VEGGIE PASTA IN CREAMY FETA SAUCE

Since summer began I've been obsessing over squash and zucchini from the farmer's market.  Normally when I buy yellow squash at the grocery store, it is pale yellow and just okay.  But the bright, bold yellow zucchini from the Saturday market is so much better!  Look how beautiful it is:

So my go-to side dish these days has been roasting these beauties with red onion, olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper.  Then I mix it in a bowl with some crumbled feta and red wine vinegar.  The veggies are still warm enough to give the feta a perfect melty/solid balance.

So today I was about to make the veggies but realized I wanted them to be more substantial, more like a meal.  Enter my best friend: pasta!  That and a splash of pasta water and you've got a delicious, saucy dish.  Measurements are rough, since I made this on a whim, but just use your best judgement and you'll be fine.

Ingredients

1/2ish pound any short pasta
1 large green zucchini
1 large yellow zucchini
1 large red onion
olive oil
dried oregano
salt
freshly ground black pepper
red wine vinegar
1 lbish crumbled feta (buy a block and crumble it yourself!  so much better!)
1/4-1/2 cup pasta water

Preheat your oven to 475 for the veggies.  Bring a pot of salted water to a boil for the pasta.
Medium dice the zucchini and thinly slice the onion.  Drizzle a sheet pan with olive oil then toss the veggies on there.  Generously season with oregano, salt and pepper.  Mix with tongs or your hands to thoroughly combine, then drizzle on some more olive oil.  Roast for 7ish minutes, stir, then roast for about 7 more minutes.  You want your veggies to be colorfully cooked but still have a little bite.  Remove from oven and set aside.
While the veggies are in the oven boil your pasta to al dente, or a little bit shy of al dente.  It'll cook more when you simmer all the ingredients together.  Reserve a cup of pasta water (you won't use it all, but better safe than sorry) before you drain the pasta.  Keep the stove on.  Put the pasta back in the pot and drop the veggies on top.  Splash on some red wine vinegar and add the feta.  Splash in some pasta water and give it a good stir while it simmers on low heat.  If it seems too tight, add a little more pasta water.  Simmer and stir for a couple minutes until it gets thicker, saucy and combined.  Taste and add more salt, pepper and oregano as necessary.  I added a couple extra pinches here to bring out the natural flavor.  Serve immediately!

CHICKPEA FETA SALAD

We just started doing Blue Apron, which means perfect and delicious dinner portions for two!  Unfortunately, it also means no easy tupperware of leftovers for lunch at work the next day.  People pack sandwiches for lunch I guess, but that seems like a boring idea.  A stuffed pita bursting with turkey, cucumber and hummus sounds like a lunch I'd look forward to!  But it needs a side.  A bag of chips?  Some sad baby carrots?  Gogurt?  No.  A SALAD?  YES!  This chickpea salad can be a side, a snack or even a meal.

First, make your dressing.  Use the container you're going to use to store the salad in the fridge so you don't have any dishes to wash.  I combined equal parts extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar.  Then some generous dashes of oregano and a big squeeze of lemon.  Whisk it up!  Then, drain and rinse a can of garbanzo beans and add to the bowl.  Dice some cucumber and jarred roasted red peppers and toss them in.  Finally, crumble some feta!!!  It tastes better if you buy it and break it apart yourself instead of buying the already crumbled kind.  I used tomato and basil flavored feta.  You could even use plain and add some more seasonings to the salad, if you'd like.

Ingredients are rough estimates, you can adjust to your preference.

Ingredients

Dressing:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Salad:
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
2 snacking sized cucumbers, or 1 small cucumber, diced
4 ounces roasted red peppers, diced
3 ounces tomato basil (or plain) feta, crumbled
Salt to taste

Whisk together dressing ingredients.  Add salad ingredients and mix well.  Chill for at least two hours before consuming, or overnight for maximum flavor.

PIONEER WOMAN'S BEAN WITH BACON SOUP

I love, love, love, loveeeeeeeee soup.  You know those snobby soup people who only make it from scratch, and gag at the thought of (shudder) canned soup?  Those people are the worst!  Just kidding.  Because those people include ME!  I only became a soup snob in the past five years or so, and there is one canned darling that still has my heart: Campbell's Condensed Bean with Bacon.  It is just something else; it is SPECIAL.  But I do feel snobby soup person guilt when I purchase it.  So when I saw that the Pioneer Woman herself had figured out how to make it, and make it deeeeeelicious, I figured I could kick the canned version to the curb for good.  And I did.  And I have.  Come over and check out my pantry, there are no canned soups!

I followed her recipe except for two tiny things: I did not save any bacon for garnish, I threw it all in the soup.  And I added a dash of Slap Ya Mama cajun seasoning for a kick.  This soup was good the first day, but great the next day!

OVEN ROASTED PARMESAN POTATOES

I found these adorable little potatoes at the store and thought they'd be perfect for roasted potatoes.  I normally just toss potatoes with coarse Kosher salt, pepper and olive oil before baking, but wanted to make these cuties slightly more exciting.  I followed this recipe except for the part where it says to only use 2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese.  I used more of course!  I think it helped crisp up the outside while still leaving the inside creamy and delicious.  These were almost impossible to stop eating.

Look how small and cute they are on the big baking sheet!  Mashed cauliflower and steak came in second place to these bad boys.

CREAMY WHITE BEAN DIP WITH BAKED CHIPS

I love dip.  Do you ever just make a meal of chips and dip?  Or several varieties of chips and dips all at once, like a mealtime dream come true?  Actually, it's not a dream.  A restaurant I frequented in college, Macado's, had the world's best menu item.  It was called, "Chips, Dips & Things" and consisted of house-made kettle chips, soft pretzels, tortilla chips and DIPS.  French onion dip, salsa, ranch.  Wow, a decade later and I still remember the important things I learned in college.  My parents are bursting with pride right now.

Onto the real reason we are here, a different dip.  This dip, which I spotted here but originally came from here.  I used flour tortillas for the chips.  They were easily cut into triangles with a pizza slicer.

Dip was delicious when I made it, but even more delicious the next day!  Be generous with the freshly squeezed lemon juice.

SAUTEED BRUSSELS SPROUTS

This is an easy side you can add to almost any meal.  Hmm... or you could even just eat an entire bowl as a snack or small meal.  It pairs especially well with steak!

Have you ever roasted whole, or even halved, brussels sprouts?  You know the tiny little leaves that fall off and then just get absolutely crispy and delicious?  This is like eating all of those at once.  YUM.

You can use your mandolin to shred/shave some brussels sprouts, OR you can take the easier route and get them pre-shredded from the produce section.  The kind they shred IN the store, not the mass produced, bagged kind.  Those are not the best.

First, heat your nonstick skillet over medium-high and add in some olive oil.  Once it shimmers, throw in your sprouts.

Toss them around to coat them in the olive oil, then DO NOT TOUCH!  You want them to get nice and crispy and beautifully browned.  Maybe 5 minutes.

Then, give them about 10 turns of the pepper grinder, and two nice pinches of coarse kosher salt.  Toss.  Keep cooking and gently tossing until they're to your desired doneness.  I like them a little bit crisp, so I don't cook them too long for fear of mush.  Maybe 5 more minutes.  Follow your heart.  And your eyes!

Sometimes I add a squeeze of lemon or a few splashes of balsamic vinegar.  My favorite way to enjoy them is with BACON, but of course we can't eat bacon every day.