Healthy, Hearty Veggie Pasta Casserole - Freezer Friendly

I had a request for this earlier and it's something I've made to take to friends and neighbors in need of a little help.  It is a great casserole style pasta with lots of healthy veggies and protein that feeds a bunch or will freeze well for leftovers.  

1 box whole grain rotini or ziti
1 1b ground chicken
1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes with basil
1 zucchini
¼ cup red onion
½ pint button mushrooms
1 package frozen spinach, thawed, drained and dried
1 roasted red pepper (I use the jar version in oil)
1 clove garlic
Basil leaves or basil paste
Tomato paste
Bay leaf
Olive oil
Fennel seed
Red pepper flakes
Salt and white pepper
Shredded mozzarella
Grated aged parmesan

Dice zucchini, onions, garlic, red pepper and quarter mushrooms.

Start by browning the ground chicken in a large skillet with palm full of fennel seeds and shake of red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste. Do not strain. Halfway through browning add zuchinni and mushrooms and let sauté but don’t overcook since the whole dish will be baked.

For sauce: in a medium sauce pan, add enough olive oil to coat bottom of pan.  Add red onion and garlic, sauté until translucent, add a pinch of salt and pepper.  Add tomatoes and begin to simmer.  Add bay leaf, 2-3 chopped basil leaves or 1 tblspn of basil paste and 1 tblespn of tomato paste.  Stir in roasted red pepper.  Let sauce simmer for at least 10 minutes.

Transfer sauce to skillet with chicken and veggies, add spinach to sauce and mix it all well.  Don’t forget to take out the bay leaf!

Cook pasta to al denté.  When done, transfer drained pasta to large casserole dish.  Add sauce over pasta and toss to coat.  Sprinkle mozzarella  over entire top and grate parmesean over.  Bake until bubbly and cheese starts to brown (at 350°). 

I think it would also be really tasty ‘Greek style’ with feta cheese baked in and just the parm on top. Enjoy and make it for someone in need of a helping hand.

Fresh Lime-Basil Sorbet

I found this recipe a few weeks ago while I was doing some research on different varieties of basil.  One could say I am a little obsessed with the bright, versatile summer herb that can be used for anything from pizza to dessert.

Couple things to note on this recipe:

1. Delicious.

2. You must like lime.

3. You must love basil.

Here's the recipe I found and some of my modifications listed below (pics to follow shortly):

Fresh Lime-Basil Sorbet
1 cup fresh squeezed lime juice (8 to 10 limes)
1 cup water
1 cup simple sugar syrup (1 cup sugar plus 1 cup water, boiled then cooled)
12 whole basil leaves
1 egg white (optional)

Combine all ingredients, except egg white, into a freezer friendly container and freeze 6 to 8 hours or overnight.

Remove from freezer and allow to soften a little. Put chunks of frozen mixture into a food processor and process until all crystals have disappeared and mixture is smooth. Re-pack into container and keep frozen until needed. This will keep for up to 2 months. If you prefer a lighter, less icy sorbet, add 1 egg white during processing.  Yields 4 servings.
(Recipe from Herbal Gardens’ website)

In terms of ingredients, the only thing I modified was adding basil leaves to infuse the simple syrup (I pulled 8 leaves, gave them a quick chop and added to the water sugar mixture before it started to boil) .  Using equal parts sugar to water, I made a little extra syrup because I thought it would be a really tasty topper for fresh strawberries and vanilla ice cream and I wanted to try making a lemonade basil cocktail with it.  More to come on those...

My changes in process included using my handy-dandy Cuisinart Ice Cream and Sorbet maker because I am not a patient person and it helped to speed the process up significantly.  I froze the initial liquid for about 4 hours, transferred to the blender and processed with one egg white and then transferred it to the ice cream maker.  My machine takes about 20-25 minutes to get the sorbet to a good consistency and then it only took about 2 hours in the freezer to get to that right serving temp.  I also like the texture that's created while churning away in the machine.

One last note, I think the 'yields 4 servings' is an understatement.  I was able to pack my quart-sized ice cream freezer container to the brim with the quantities listed above.  Also, because the sorbet is so tart, it is best served as a tasting rather than a heaping  scoop which means you can get a lot more than 4 servings out of this recipe.

One thing is for sure, it is a delicious and refreshing way to kick off summer!