A rockin' new recipe!

Thursday's are our fabulous Miller evenings.

We meet up at Perry & Donna's house,

and take turns bringing parts of dinner,

and then spend the rest of the night

watching good shows...

Survivor, The Office, & Community.

Yesterday it was our assignment to bring the main dish.

We all have been trying new recipes.

This one sounded healthy, and good,

and supposedly a quick meal.

A forewarning, it takes more than 30 minutes...

Maybe just because it was my first time trying it...

next time, I am sure it will be quicker.

Everyone loved it, so it is a must share!

I found it on myrecipes.com

It's a recipe from Cooking Light Magazine.

It's a site that offers healthier recipe ideas.

It even throws in the nutrional facts, which is cool.

I will add some side notes of things I changed on the recipe,

that turned out well. For one thing I added chicken,

so it would be more filling and more protein.

(LOOKS GOOD ALREADY, RIGHT?!)

Here's the website address if you want to print your own recipe card off the website:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1898541

Pair flavorful pasta with olive tapenade breadsticks for a superfast and delicious meal in minutes.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2 tablespoons minced shallots
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 5 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 (9-ounce) package refrigerated linguine
• (I used boxed lunguine noodles, it worked the same)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic
• 3 cups chopped zucchini (about 1 pound) (I quarted them in size)
• (I did about 2 cups zucchini, and 2 cups yellow squash to add more for a larger serving)
• 3/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint, divided
• 1/3 cup (1 1/2 ounces) grated fresh pecorino Romano cheese
• (I served it with the option of grated Parmesan cheese, if people wanted it)
• 3 tablespoons sliced almonds, toasted
• 
  

Preparation

1. Combine first 7 ingredients in a medium bowl. Add 2 teaspoons oil, tossing to coat.

2. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain well.

3. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to pan, swirling to coat. Add garlic to pan; sauté 30 seconds. Add zucchini; sauté 3 minutes or until crisp-tender.(This is where I added the chicken I previously cooked, and cut into cubes) Add broth; bring to a simmer. Stir in pasta and 1 1/2 tablespoons mint; toss well. Remove from heat; stir in tomato mixture. Place 1 1/2 cups pasta mixture in each of 4 bowls; top evenly with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons mint. Sprinkle each serving with 4 teaspoons cheese and 2 teaspoons almonds.

Olive tapenade breadsticks: Combine 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic, 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, and 15 finely chopped pitted kalamata olives in a small bowl. Spread olive mixture over 1 (11-ounce) can refrigerated breadsticks dough. Twist each breadstick; bake at 375° for 15 minutes or until browned.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

344

Fat:

12.7g (sat 3.1g,mono 6.6g,poly 2g)

Protein:

14g

Carbohydrate:

45.5g

Fiber:

5.3g

Cholesterol:

58mg

Iron:

3.4mg

Sodium:

601mg

Calcium:

163mg

I just put all the ingredients in a big bowl at the end, rather than each bowl individually, and left the option of people putting cheese on top, almonds, and/or mint. It was great with the chicken cooked in, I used a Mrs. Dash lemon marinade to cook the chicken in, just to give it a little flavor. To accomodate 7 servings instead of 4, I used zucchini and yellow squash, added chicken, and of course more noodles. Also, this time around, we did not make the breadsticks, but I think it would have been a great addition to the meal, so next time I am going to try that part of the recipe.

It was definitely a fun night.

Meghann & Emy brought a salad,

we all thought it tasted like the salad

at The Olive Garden.

Donna made some cute pumpkin, peanut butter treats,

and some delicious Chocolate Mousse.