Simple Delicious Pasta Salad

An easy weeknight side dish perfect for warm weather days, or picnics. This recipe is good for picky eaters too, as there are no tomatoes or olives present in the salad, and it's not too salty or vinegary.

1. Boil pasta according to the package instructions. It's best to use minimal additional salt as the dressing already contains the perfect amount. When the pasta has finished boiling, drain the remaining water and set it aside.
2. Meanwhile, whisk or stir together mayonnaise, mustard, sugar, vinegar, black pepper, cayenne, and garlic powder; taste before adding salt, then taste again. The dressing should taste just a little bit too salty, since it needs to provide flavor for an entire pound of pasta. Once the dressing is seasoned to your preferences, set it aside.
3. Use a food processor to mince the onion, pepper, and celery until fine. It's best to mince each vegetable individually to avoid over-encumbering the food processor. Place your minced vegetables in a large salad bowl.
4. Add the drained pasta to your salad bowl followed by dressing,  gently stir until everything is thoroughly combined. Taste for salt and pepper.
5. Serve and enjoy! Feeds a lot, and even better the next day.

Healthy and Moist Baked Chicken

Ingredients

5 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1 lemon, lemon halves reserved
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp pepper
4 cloves garlic minced
3 sprigs thyme leaves
2 bay leafs
1 onion quartered

Preheat oven to 350 F
Mix oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic, and thyme in a bowl, smashing in a mortar pestle would be even better.
Spread mixture under the skin of the chicken breast, thighs, legs, and back, being careful not to tear the skin, as it is protecting the garlic and herbs from becoming burnt and bitter.
Use your hands to generously rub the butter all over the outside skin of the chicken.
Put squeezed lemon halves, bay leafs and onion inside the cavity of the bird.
Place chicken breast side down in a roasting pan lined underneath with potato slices if you really wanna get tasty with it, or you can put the chicken straight in the pan.
Bake in the oven for 45 minutes before turning chicken over breast side up.
Bake for 45 minutes more or until juices run clear.

Serve and enjoy this delicious meal.

Easiest Slow Cooker Pasta Meat Sauce

Throw everything into the slow cooker when you leave for work, and come back to the most amazing italian scent in your home. It's like cooking all day without having to stand there!

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef

1 onion chopped fine

1/2 bell pepper chopped fine

2 cloves garlic minced

a sprig of thyme

1 bay leaf

1 cup tomato or your favorite pasta sauce

1 cup Parmesan or your favorite cheese

Dump everything into the slow cooker. 

Set slow cooker on high.

Step away from the machine and go have some fun.

In 4 hours check on meat, if not as tender as desired go for another hour or two.

Right before serving stir in cheese.

Serve over boiled pasta.

Feeds 3.

Rice Cooker Spanish Yellow Rice

A great side for almost any protein imaginable. The rice cooker makes the rice come out perfect every single time.

Ingredients 

1 rice cooker cup of rice
fresh water
1 tbsp olive oil
half an onion diced very fine
half a pepper diced very fine
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 packet Sazon Goya

Saute onion and peppers in olive oil for 4 minutes or until softened.
Add in tomato paste and cook 2 minutes more to remove "raw taste".
Dump washed rice into rice cooker.
Add sauteed vegetables, stir until rice is coated.
Add enough water to reach 'line 1'.
Place chicken bouillon cube and Sazon in rice.
Cover rice, set rice cooker to "cook", and cook until done.
Fluff , put top back on rice and let sit for 4 minutes. Serve.
Serves 2.

Alternative Method ****

Try substituting the onion, peppers, and garlic for 3 tbsp of store bought or homemade sofrito .

Crisp n Tasty Healthy Salad

Ingredients

4 cups of any combination of : lettuce (roughly chopped) tomato (sliced or chopped) cucumber (sliced thin) spinach onion (sliced extremely thin) carrot (slices thin)

1 lemon sliced in half

2 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Drizzle a tbsp or so of olive oil into the big bowl you're going to serve the salad in. 

Squeeze half the lemon on top of the oil. 

Sprinkle in a little salt and pepper. 

Place vegetables on top. Repeat steps 1 through 3. 

Serve and enjoy, the salad should be perfectly dressed!

Feeds 2

Eazy Peazy Potato Salad

An inexpensive and delicious meal isn't too hard to find, because I will be showing you some in the coming posts, but a dish THIS delicious and THIS inexpensive deserves some recognition. Potato Salad is the vice president of the American BBQ, a laughably easy way to get children to consume vegetables, and also a dish they make in Germany hot, or so I heard. I don't like to think of that last one, so I'll go back to the first point.

Make this dish for a BBQ, party, potluck, Christmas, or make a regular weeknight a whole lot more tasty. This particular recipe is really called Ensalada Rusa, so a Russian potato salad recipe that was given to me from a Dominican lady that made it every single night for her family. I kid you not, and it's by far the best potato salad I have ever had.

Stew is Short for Guisado

The easiest way to use up vegetables and possibly tough inexpensive cuts of meat is with a stew. Here is my staple all purpose Latin American Stew, or Guisado. You can use any kind of meat you want, and really any vegetables, I listed some vegetables I use as a starting point. Feel free to add peas, corn, squash, etc.

Start With The Basics (Like Basic White Rice)

Learning how to cook can be like learning to ride a bike, it feels un-natural at first but as soon as your body has the rhythm down you have a lifelong skill. Starting with a dish as simple as plain rice is great because not only does it go with almost any protein, vegetable, or legume...it's also a cinch to make! Here's how:


1 cup long grain rice
2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt 
1 teaspoon butter or oil (optional) 


Directions: 
1 In a saucepan with a lid ready bring water, salt and butter to a boil. 
2 Add rice and stir for one minute. 
3 Cover and reduce heat to medium low, if there's nuclear-cloud-sized steam leaking from your pot, you should probably set it to low. 
4 Cook for 20 minutes, without removing lid.
5 Remove from heat and fluff with fork. Cover pot and let sit 5 minutes.