f u l f i l l m e

Didn't feel like cooking tonight, but my bf helped so it wasn't too bad. We just threw together some pasta, shrimp, butter and basil. I used the garlic butter to make some bread with Parmesan cheese on it. Yum!

The weather was stormy -- perfect soup weather. I overcooked the noodles so they were a little mushy, but it was still tasty. Some of the carrots and most of the onions weren't soft enough after the 8 hours, so next time I will probably cook it longer and add the noodles later. I liked the onions with a little crunch, but I like my carrots really soft. Also, I normally detest celery, but I didn't use as much as directed, and they were soft, so I didn't mind them as much.

( Slow Cooker Vegetable Minestrone )

We didn't have enough leftover for lunch tomorrow, so we're bringing chimichangas instead.

Click here for the shrimp and basil recipe.

Chicken with pesto sauce, red onions, provolone and romaine lettuce on a sourdough french roll. My bf had his on panini bread. The pesto was made with my hand blender. It's not ideal, but it still works.

I just realized I forgot to add garlic to the pesto =/

Click here for the pesto recipe.

I also made tomato sauce this morning before we left for the party. The picture is of the early stages. This time, I didn't bother to cut anything up because I was going to blend everything later. I haven't had the sauce with food yet, but I'm concerned that the taste suffered since the herbs weren't cut first.

Also, this time I added a big handful of oregano and 3 tablespoons of white sugar.

Click here for the recipe.

Finally got around to trying the pocket pie I saw on a Good Eats episode ("A Pie in Every Pocket"). I filled them with home made pizza/tomato sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni.

( Tomato Sauce )

Alterations:
- Used about 6lb of heirloom tomatoes
- Smoothed out with hand mixer instead of blender
- Dumped in a whole bottle of wine
- Added Frank's Red Hot

( Pocket Pie )

Spread the pesto on a tortilla, top with lettuce, cheese, red onions and chicken.

Click here for the pesto recipe. I added a jalapeño to spice it up a little. Tasty!

This recipe is really quick and simple. I got it from Better Homes and Gardens' Cooking for 2, one of those impulse buys at the checkout stand in the grocery store.

( Pasta with Shrimp and Basil )

Alterations:
- Cooked, tail-on shrimp because they were on sale (pulled off tail before adding to pasta)
- Rotellini (though I did look for fusilli)

Also, I got excited when I went to the grocery store and saw so many different flavors of So Delicious, my favorite soy ice cream. I have only seen it in vanilla, but at the store the other day, I saw it in three additional flavors. ( So I went a little overboard... )

I was trying to recreate a sandwich that I used to have at school all the time. My pesto looks different than theirs, but it still tastes good.

( Pesto Sauce )

Alterations:
I used a blender instead of a food processor. After it was all done, I put the pesto in a bowl, mixed in boiled, cubed chicken and some minced red onions. Then I laid a couple of romaine lettuce leaves on a french roll opposite a slice of provolone cheese and spread the mixture on the lettuce.

Because the recipe is tasty and the weather is hot: cantaloupe and littleyuzu's lemon spaghetti. Rather, a variation thereof.

Same lemon recipe from littleyuzu. It tastes different from when I made it last time because I used less lemon and more pepper.

Was in a bad mood when I made this for a variety of reasons. One being that my brother still hasn't cleaned the mess from his party last night, so my kitchen is a wreck. Grrr.

I got the recipe from littleyuzu. The original recipe is for spaghetti but for some reason I don't like spaghetti noodles. Anyway, it is really simple, but delicious. I didn't feel like meat today, so I just went with the pasta.

( the filling )

( Thai Chicken Wrap with Spicy Peanut Sauce )

My alterations: I used spearmint tea instead of fresh mint and left the skin on the cucumber.

Smoked salmon soba, strawberries and fuji apple slices. I forgot to include the salad dressing bottle filled with balsamic vinegar in the picture. In the carrot spreaders is peanutty chocolate spread, recipe below.

*edit*

Not pictured: I made a bento for him (looks just like mine, but without the carrots) and put the marble cake he brought home for me in my penguin mini bento.

( Smoked Salmon Soba )

( Peanutty Chocolate Spread )

For the peanut spread, I did not use the plain yogurt because I could not find plain soy yogurt and I can't eat regular yogurt. It still tastes good; I imagine it's just not the same consistency as the recipe.