Roasted Red Pepper Spaghetti

I had a jar of roasted red peppers in the fridge that I had opened to use one or two of, and needed to find a way to use the rest. I also had a jar of red pepper pasta sauce in the fridge so I decided to put a spin on our normal spaghetti. It worked out quite well!

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
1 lb Italian sausage, casings removed
1 onion
2 T minced garlic
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
1 jar roasted red peppers, chopped
1 jar roasted red pepper pasta sauce (I used this one)
Whole wheat spaghetti

1. Scramble fry sausage in a large stock pot with onion and garlic until cooked. Drain, if necessary.

2. Add mushrooms, roasted red peppers, and sauce. Bring to a boil, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer on low for 30 minutes to one hour until mushrooms are cooked and flavors are blended.

3. Meanwhile, cook spaghetti according to package directions.

4. Serve sauce over spaghetti with a nice dose of Parmesan cheese.

Makes 6 servings.

Sloppy Joes

This week's chef for the FNCCC was Guy Fieri. I had a really hard time finding a recipe from him that I found appealing. I'm not sure if I was just in a rush and didn't have an open mind/eye to his food or if he's just not my style. Anyway, I decided to go for sloppy joes because I know the FD loves them. I wasn't overly impressed - simply because sloppy joes are not my choice meal - but the hubby thought they were great. This was a great meal to make on a Monday night as it gave us enough for dinner and leftovers for FD's lunch for most/all of the week. Although the maui onion straws he included in the recipe looked intriguing, I stuck just with the sloppy joes.

Sloppy Joes - adapted from Guy Fieri
2 T extra virgin olive oil
2 yellow peppers, seeded and diced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded, deveined and diced
1 red onion, diced
2 lbs lean ground meat (beef, pork, turkey, venison, whatever!)
2 T minced garlic
1/4 cup cooking wine
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon paprika
3/4 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce
12 ounces water
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
Salt and Pepper

In a large saute pan over medium-high heat, combine the canola oil, bell peppers, jalapeno and onion; cook for 5 minutes.

Add the meat; cook thoroughly, breaking up the meat as it browns.

Add the garlic. Depending on the amount of residual grease, you may need to drain some of the fat from the pan. Deglaze with the red wine, then stir in the remaining sloppy joe ingredients and season with salt and pepper.

Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.

If the sauce gets too thick as it simmers, add up to 1 cup water to adjust the consistency. As you see in my ingredients list, I included adding some water because it was definitely too thick.

Serve on whole wheat hamburger buns with fresh veggies (carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc) on the side.

Makes 8-10 servings.

Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches

This is one of our favourite meals to make when we have lots of peppers and leftover beef. So yum!

Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches
2-3 cups sliced leftover beef (we used leftover prime rib - you can use any type of steak or roast)
1 jar BBQ Onion Sauce (or use a jar of BBQ sauce, plus one onion)
1-2 peppers, sliced
Fresh mushrooms, sliced (I didn't have any the time I took these photos)
6 of SnoWhite's Italian herb rolls, halved
1/2-1 cup mozzarella cheese

1. Saute peppers and mushrooms until soft (also add onions here if you are using BBQ sauce without onions). Add beef and sauce and cook until warm.

2. Spread beef mixture on each bun. Top with cheese.

3. Broil for 3-5 minutes, until cheese is melted and beginning to brown. Enjoy!

Makes 6 servings. You can always make more or less, as desired.

Stuffed Up Meatballs

I'm sure many of you already subscribe to the Kraft What's Cooking magazine. If you don't, you should. It's free and it is chalked full of great ideas. While I don't necessarily love how often they rely on Kraft Dinner and stuffing mix in their recipes, there are always a few great recipes and ideas in each issue. I recently received the fall 09 issue and found a recipe for "the best meatballs". I have always made meatballs the way my mama taught me but I thought I'd give it a try. This is a great make now, eat later recipe. It makes a lot of meatballs and so you can put half (or more) in the freezer for future use.

Stuffed Up Meatballs - from Kraft What's Cooking
2 lbs extra lean ground meat (the recipe called for ground beef, I used venison. You could use turkey, pork, bison, whatever)
1 package stuffing mix for chicken
2 eggs
1 cup water

1. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.

2. Form into balls. The recipe said this would make 32 meatballs but I ended up with 50 and I don't think mine were too small.

3. Place meatballs on a cookie sheet lined with foil and lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 400 for 18-20 minutes, until done. I cooked most of mine in a roast pan with a rack. I like to do it this way so the grease drips off of them instead of staying in the meat.

4. Keep desired number of meatballs out. Cool and freeze the remaining ones. To freeze, place meatballs loosely in a freezer bag. Lay flat in the freezer to ensure that they freeze individually. Store up to three months.

I kept 15 out for dinner that night and put the remaining 35 in the freezer. I'm not sure these meatballs were any better than the recipe I usually use, but they were quick, easy and tasty.