Weekly Recipe Roundup 3

The kitchen (and chef) got a bit of a break with our trip to Boston but it's open now and has made up for lost time. All of the recipes from this week are worth mentioning. The majority were from the April edition of Cooking Light magazine and one was from another blogger friend. In no particular order:

Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta - I had this one tagged as one to try and decided since I had almost all the ingredients, I'd try it this week. As I was beginning to prepare it, I worried that it didn't sound like it had enough oomph but then I remembered where I had found this recipe - The Review Lady. I didn't give it another thought after this because I trust her opinion and we share similar tastes. As I added the entire CUP of whipping cream, I wondered why I had ever doubted this recipe. How could it not be good with that much delicious cream?! Right on, this dish made you want to go back for seconds. Simple yet delicious is how I would describe it. The only alteration I made was the addition of chopped spinach. I just warmed the spinach in the skillet after removing the mushrooms.

Wes joked that the dish was good but we'd never see it again. I said well if you'll just request it, we can have it whenever you want. I just get caught up in trying new things and tend to forget about our favorites.

Italian Tomato Tart - I'm a huge breakfast lover so anytime I get the opportunity to sneak breakfast for dinner, I jump on it. While I love quiche, I find myself feeling somewhat guilty for the non-homemade crust and added calories. This tart is the perfect marriage for a less guilty, but just as tasty, quiche. The brown rice crust actually holds it's shape - something I was concerned about. I would advise to coat your baking dish with butter or olive oil though to make removal a little easier. I cooked my own brown rice instead of using the frozen kind the recipe called for (I didn't even know such a product existed, truthfully). I used a total of 3 eggs instead of the 1/2 cup egg substitute. I also forgot to stop and get prosciutto but I had bacon on hand and just subbed that in (after I cooked it). Serve it with a green salad or fruit salad and you've got a nice, low-fat, spring meal.

Southwestern Corn and Shrimp Chowder - Quick, easy, and delicious - what more could you want. The only issue I had with this recipe was the quantity. It only yielded 4 small bowls of chowder but it was so good, we would have liked seconds! I never pay much attention to the cooking time printed at the top of the recipe but I did happen to notice this one said 15 minutes. I doubted it but shouldn't have because that's really all the time it took. Now with the addition of the quesadillas the recipe mentions at the end, the cook time gets bumped up a little just because you run out of hands. I added thin slices of squash and zucchini to them to boost the nutrients up a little. Yum, I need to remember this one!

Peppery Monterey Jack Pasta Salad - Another quick and easy springtime meal. After reading several of the comments on CL I was surprised to find the anici de pepe pasta at my grocery. The pasta is quite interesting. It has the consistency of couscous but with a pasta flavor. It's a fun pasta for your taste buds! I agree with another commenter that the salami gets lost. I used about 3 times as much as the recipe called for and I still never tasted the first bite. Perhaps it did lend some salt to the dish though. I omitted the capers and used shredded Monterey Jack instead of cubes. The breadsticks were somewhat disappointing to me but perhaps that's because I knew they came out of a can. The recipe made a ton - like 7 to 10 depending on portion size - (I did add an extra shake of pasta because the number of servings the recipe said were 4). You could pair this with a simple bowl of soup, as we did.

Chow!