Food Favorites

This past Saturday I had planned to share the recipe for one of my favorite meals, but I was very surprised to see somebody else had the same thing on her blog! I let this keep me from posting, but after thinking about it I decided to go ahead and post mine since I'm sure I have readers that probably don't follow her blog. Actually, I've even forgotten which blog it was!

The picture above was taken a few months ago and I've been waiting to share the recipe which is Lemon Garlic Broccoli Bow Tie Pasta. I have just started making this recipe this year since I'm making a lot of meatless meals these days. My stomach doesn't tolerate meat very well anymore, and my husband is a cancer survivor and shouldn't eat a lot of meat (although he loves it!) I found this recipe on the net and we have it often, sometimes I add chicken breast to the recipe. I will share the recipe at the end of this post, but first I want to share some of my favorite kitchen utensils.

Do you have most of these utensils? I use them a lot, several times a week.

I have all sizes of whisks, including a large one not shown here. I use them for everything such as mixing jello. The green one is nylon and won't scratch Teflon pans when making gravies or sauces.

Left to right: small spatula, lemon juicer, melon baller, grater, toast tongs. I use the melon baller for cookie dough. I love the grater and use it with the recipe above. The toast tongs I use daily to get toast from our toaster over and not burn myself!

I love lemon zest in a lot of foods, baked as well as vegetables, this tool makes it easy!

I have several orange and lemon juicers, but prefer this one above.

Here's the recipe, I hope you will try it and enjoy it as much as we do!

Lemon Garlic Broccoli Bowtie Pasta

INGREDIENTS

• 2 Tbls extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 Tbls butter
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Grated lemon rind of 1 lemon
• freshly squeezed juice of one lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 (8 ounce) package farfalle (bow tie) pasta
• 1 head broccoli, cut into florets (I use 1 bag frozen broccoli florets)
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1 small bag pine nuts, Toasted (¼ cup)

DIRECTIONS

1. Toast pine nuts, watch carefully as they burn easily (I set the timer to remind me)
2. Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water. About 5 minutes before pasta is done, drop broccoli into the pasta water. Continue to cook until pasta is cooked and broccoli is crisp-tender. Drain. (I use the 5 min microwave broccoli instead of this step.)
3. While pasta is cooking, heat olive oil and butter in a small frying pan over low heat. Slowly cook garlic in oil until golden, about 2 to 3 minutes. Be very careful not to burn garlic. Stir in lemon rind, and juice, season with salt and pepper.
4. Toss pasta, broccoli, and lemon sauce and pine nuts in a large bowl. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese.

We like this as a meatless pasta meal, but chicken chunks or strips can be added, sauté them in the butter/oil and garlic, till done. Shrimp may also be used instead. I have also started using whole wheat bow tie pasta (found at Target.)

Have a happy day!
God Bless.

Katherine