Too Delish Not to Share, Part I

I've been stretching my culinary muscles as of late, and I have some killer recipes to post. Though, for fear that I have nothing to post later and because I'm a fervent control freak, I am going to allocate my recipes one at a time ....


Before I moved to Hawaii, my mother gifted me with a subscription to Taste of Home magazine. Since as long as I can remember, we've loved cooking together. In the summer, especially, Mom and I would peruse through recipe magazines in the grocery store and find new and interesting combinations to try in our own kitchen. Probably my favorite investment Mom ever made in the recipe realm was The Taste of Home's Big Book of Soup, though that is for another post entirely and to be honest, I'm sitting here typing on my computer and sweating profusely so I don't want to talk about soup right now.


Anyway, aside from Taste of Home sending me fake bills saying I need to pay for the subscription my mother already bought for me, I love this magazine. I found, in their most recent issue, a recipe for Spinach Penne salad. Nick and I have completely been on a salad kick. Our apartment bakes in the Hawaiian afternoon sun, and even by the time the Army finally allows Nick to go home and our body's are telling us we're famished, it hasn't cooled off yet. That said, we've found it absolutely repulsive to sweat while we eat, so we stick to the coolest meals we can possibly find-- and those meals have mainly been salads.


How much can you vary leafy greens so they don't make you gag every night for three weeks straight? Just ask the editors of Taste of Home.


DISCLAIMER: I have my own, vague measurement system since I size everything down to feed only two people. One of the last issues of ToH provided recipes to serve TWELVE humans.

Spinach Penne Salad

Whole wheat penne pasta, cooked, rinsed and cooled in fridge

Fresh baby spinach, chopped into bite sizes

Parm Cheese

EVOO (1/3 cup)

Red Wine Vinegar (3-4 splashes)

Sm squirt of yellow mustard

oregano

garlic powder

salt + pepper

goat cheese

onions

banana peppers

black olives

In a mixing bowl, combine spinach, penne, onions, banana peppers, black olives. Set aside.

In small bowl, add EVOO, parm cheese, vinegar, mustard, oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Mix together with a small whisk. Pour on top of spinach penne mix. Toss together. Add more EVOO if desired. Transport to plate. Top with goat cheese. 

Makes 1 serving. 

Repeat process for additional servings. 


DISCLAIMER #2: Photo credit goes to Taste of Home magazine; the final product I created looked nothing like that.