Delicious Dish: Rock My World, Arugula

There is something I recently discovered that is rockin' my world. Arugula. Yes, I know... it sounds a bit strange, but recently I've been all about this leafy green. A few weeks back I posted about a warm pasta tossed with Arugula, and since then I've been looking for different ways to use it. 

Monday was a lazy day around here. Jason put a tri-tip on the grill and I started looking through the fridge and cupboards to see what what indigents catch my attention, then see what type of things I can make with it.  I do this a lot, in my head I've branded it "Google Recipe Roulette" - I find 1-2 things that I want to use in a recipe, and type them into Google and see what comes up. Since it was memorial day, I was looking for some kind of pasta salad, and after breezing through a few different recipes, I found the site The Arugula Files  and their pasta salad offering.

Recipe from The Arugula Files:

Ingredients
1 bag of arugula
1 box of rotini
2 lemons
4 garlic cloves
1 cup of garbanzo beans ** I used the Trader Joe's 3 Bean salad and it was delish!
1/2 block of feta **or crumbled feta
a knob of butter
1/4 cup of olive oil
Dash of rice vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1. Chop garlic into small pieces
2. Heat butter and olive oil over low heat – add garlic
3. Add juice of 2 lemons
4. Add dash of rice vinegar
5. Let simmer for a few minutes (do not burn the garlic)
6. Boil pasta
7. Strain pasta and save a few tablespoons of pasta water
8. Mix pasta water with lemony oil mixture
9. Pour 1/2 of lemony oil mixture over hot pasta
10. Add half of the arugula bag to hot pasta and stir around until it wilts
11. Add garbanzo beans
12. Add remaining arugula
13. Add the rest of the lemony oil mixture
14. Add feta
15. Toss
16. Add salt and pepper to taste

Have you tried that marinated bean salad from Trader Joes's yet? It's fabulous - a great item to always have on hand. I drained the liquid and just used the beans, but they gave it a little more flavor. Also, my feta was a seasoned crumbled feta, which I prefer to a block feta.

The salad was a hit and I think it would be a great item to bring to a summer BBQ. Something a little different and great for those who don't like a mayonnaise-based salad. 

Delicious Dish - Pasta Heaven

I think we can all say that we are looking a little closer at the things we eat these days. Not just from a dieting calorie counting stand-point, but from a healthy lifestyle view. Movies like Food, Inc and shows like Jaime Oliver's food revolution have really brought to the forefront the idea behind trying to eat simpler, healthier and not so processed food. 

I struggle with this daily. I love food and love to eat good food. I'm not happy replacing items that I love with things that are just over-processed and lower in fat/calories. Earlier this year, I started seeing a naturopathic doctor regarding some recurring issues. Since I've been seeing her, I've learned a lot about treating the underlying issue, and not just treating the symptom. An idea so simple that I'm working on approaching my diet the same way.

Over the past week I was introduced to two similar fresh and easy pasta recipes from two very cool bloggers - ModChick's Lindsey and PureMama's Juli. Both were simple, fresh, easy and OH SO DELISH. 

Over at ModChick, Lindsay made her family a summer pappardelle with tomatoes and arugula. Go check out her pictures and tell me your mouth is not watering. I dare you! While I'm not not a fan of tomatoes (that's actually putting it nicely), I know that Jason loves them and that he would so dig this dish. And arugula ON your pasta?! I had never thought of that, but lemme tell you.. I may never eat pasta without it again. 

Then last Saturday night my friend Juli from Pure Mama's had us over for dinner. She told me she was just whipping up some simple pasta, but I will say that nothing about this pasta was simple tasting. Juli sautéed some green beans, asparagus and garlic and in a separate pan mushrooms. She made some Angel Hair noodles, tossed in some olive oil - then served the pasta, the veggies with fresh parsley, toasted pine nuts, some parmesan cheese and a squeeze of lemon. Simple, easy, fresh and heavenly!

With these thoughts in mind as I ran to Trader Joe's at 5:00 yesterday (obviously, I'm insane), I did a bit of a mash-up between the two pastas. Jason's had the tomatoes, while the rest of us had the peas and asparagus mix. 

The arugula, cheese and lemon made the dish for me, with the added hint of bacon crumbs rounding out the flavor with that touch of salt. 

The kids liked it, Jason liked it - and I actually COOKED something which made everyone happy...  we were in Pasta Heaven.