Lettuce Wraps courtesy of Bountiful Baskets

I recently discovered Bountiful Baskets. If you haven't heard about it, check it out! It. is. AWESOME! In fact, our entire meal tonight was entirely {minus the sauce and canned chicken} made from the produce I received in my basket last week. I wanted to find some way to use the radishes and celery as neither of us like radishes and rarely eat celery by itself. So I googled a whole bunch of lettuce wraps recipes and couldn't find anything I really liked so I improvised. Minus the garlic overload, it was delicious!

Cut up the following (anyway you'd like):

carrots

radishes

celery

onion

garlic

honey roasted peanuts

throw in some canned chicken {what I had on hand} or the real stuff. I also think Chickpeas would be delightful too.

Chop up some parsley and basil, salt and pepper to taste and throw into a skillet to warm through.

For the sauce I threw in some sesame seed oil, soy sauce, tiny bit of honey, and lime juice.

I peeled off the leaves of a head of lettuce and we used these to wrap up the veggie mix.

It was yum-yum-yummy!!!

We also had a fruit melody consisting of mangoes, strawberries, and honeydew {all courtesy of bountiful baskets} and some foccacia bread with olive oil and pepper on the side. Mmm....

Adapted PW Three Cheese Stuffed Shells with Meaty Tomato Sauce

This is definitely a recent Staples favorite. I "accidentally" adapted the recipe since I thought I had certain ingredients on hand when I had none. However, it turned out oh-so-yummy and will continue with my adaptions.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces, weight Jumbo Pasta Shells {I used double the shells and ended up with maybe 1/4 of the shells left}
• 30 ounces, weight Whole Milk Ricotta Cheese {I used cottage cheese and neither of us really care for ricotta}
• 8 ounces, weight Parmesan Cheese, Grated, Divided
• ½ cups Grated Romano Cheese {I used a combo Parmesan/Romano that comes pre-grated in a tub}
• 1 whole Egg
• 12 leaves Basil, Chiffonade {couldn't find fresh basil so I used dried}
• 2 Tablespoons Minced Parsley {doubled, maybe tripled this}
• Salt And Pepper, to taste
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• ½ whole Medium Onion, Chopped
• 5 cloves Garlic, Minced
• ½ pounds Italian Sausage
• ½ cups Red Wine {okay, Kody totally made fun of me because all we had was red wine VINEGAR so I used it. It was SOOO good}
• 1 whole 28 Ounce Can Crushed Tomatoes
• 1 whole 15-ounce Can Crushed Tomatoes {I thought I had both of these tomatoes on hand but nope, so I improvised and found this super tomato-ey salsa on our shelf. It was perfect and actually didn't end up tasting so tomato-ey (which neither of us like)}
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 2 Tablespoons Minced Parsley

Preparation Instructions

Cook pasta shells for half the cooking time; make sure not to overcook. Drain and rinse in cool water. Set aside.

Heat olive oil in large skillet or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic and saute for a minute or two. Add Italian sausage and brown, breaking it up into small pieces as it cooks. Pour in red wine and let it cook for a minute or two.

Pour in cans of crushed tomatoes and stir. Add sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and cook 30 to 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Check for seasonings; can add crushed red peppers if you like a little heat.

In a separate bowl, mix ricotta, half the Parmesan, Romano, egg, salt and pepper, basil, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Stir until combined.

To assemble, coat the bottom of a baking dish with sauce. Fill each half-cooked shell with the cheese mixture. Place face down on the sauce. Repeat with shells until cheese mixture is gone. Top shells with remaining sauce. Sprinkle on extra Parmesan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.

Serve with crusty French bread.

Yum! Yum! Yum! We will definitely be eating this one again and again.

Chicken/Turkey and pasta with peanut sauce

6 ounces fettuccine or linguine                 
2 cups fresh pea pods                                                       
1 cup turkey or chicken strips                                              
1 cup pineapple chunks                                                      
1 red pepper sliced                                                         
1/4 cup chicken broth                                                       
2 T creamy peanut butter                                                  
1 T soy sauce                                                             
1 T lime or lemon juice                                                   
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper                                                 
1 clove of garlic minced                                                    


Pre cook turkey or chicken any way you want. I just boiled mine.                                                                           Cook pasta according to package directions.                                                                                                            Place pea pods, chicken and red pepper in a large colander.  Pour hot cooking liquid from pasta over pea pods etc, in colander, drain.               
Return pasta mixture to hot pan.  Add pineapple.                                                                                                       For sauce, in a small saucepan stir chicken broth into peanut butter.                                                                             Heat and stir with a whisk until peanut butter melts.  Stir in soy sauce, lime juice, red pepper, and garlic; heat through. Add sauce to pasta mixture.  Gently stir to coat pasta with sauce.                                                    




Kody got this recipe from a co-worker. It was oh-so-delicious! I quadrupled the sauce because I used a little more pasta then what it called for. However, go easy on the crushed red pepper flakes as it adds a lot of spicy hot. I made the mistake of adding too much. Also, we didn't add the pineapple because neither of us really like 'warmed pineapple'.