Recipe: Taco Rice Bake

All the flavors of a taco neatly baked in to a casserole. My only problem with this recipe is that because it uses cans you can’t halve it really neatly unless you’re making something with the other half of those cans and this really makes eight full servings of food and I tend to enjoy it the first three times and then get bored and it doesn’t freeze particularly well.

Taco Rice Bake

Adapted from Epicurious

Recipe: Spätzle

We first had spätzle in Germany, which probably surprises no one, and we quickly fell in love with it. It’s a very simple recipe that provides you with pillow soft egg noodles. You can make these with a Spätzlehobel (spätzle maker) OR you can push the dough through colander or you can try your hand at cutting them on the edge of a board which looked like all together too much work. Yeah the maker is a mono-tasker but for $5 it was worth it for me.

Spätzle

Adapted from Food Network

Recipe: Cacio e Pepe

Cacio e Pepe is literally cheese and pepper and that’s all that’s in this. It’s hard to tell from the picture but basically you use a bit of the pasta water to melt the cheese in to a sauce that coats the pasta. This absolutely simple and stunning dish is the perfect crowd pleaser that involves little work. Simply perfect.

Cacio e Pepe (Cheese and Pepper)

Adapted from Tales of Ambrosia

Recipe: Lentil Falafels

I love falafel. I love chickpeas and spices and the delicious tangy yogurt sauces that always come with it but what I don’t really like is lentils. So when I saw this recipe at first I was skeptical but even though I used to crappiest form of lentil they came out so delicious and so perfectly seasoned that I was nibbling them right out of the oven!

Lentil Falafels

Adapted from Macheesmo

Recipe: Vegetable Stuffed Ziti

This recipe uses extra vegetables so you can use less pasta. It’s really delicious and has a nice pleasing way of making you feel full (pasta, vegetables, and cheese do that though I guess). The best part about this recipe is that it doesn’t take much effort and if you have leftover cooked pasta around it’d be even less effort.

Vegetable Stuffed Ziti

Adapted from Oh My Veggies

Recipe: Vegetable Pancakes

I love these pancakes and they turn breakfast for dinner in to a much healthier prospect overall. You can use store bought mix or any other pancake batter that you like as well as substituting any vegetables you like in to the batter. I like to use carrots and zucchini because they are both mild and a little bit sweeter than your average vegetable though.

Vegetable Pancakes

Adapted from The Kitchn

Recipe: Potato and Fenugreek Stuffed Naan

If you’re like me you probably assumed that even if you could make regular naan (which I do on occasion) that stuffed naan was a bridge too far. This recipe made it super simple and while the original has you grilling them lightly while coated in oil/butter, I actually made these for Thanksgiving so I simply baked them in the oven so I wouldn’t have to babysit a pan. The dough rolls out perfect and not sticky at all. In the future though I think I’ll add some cheese and more spice!

Potato and Fenugreek Stuffed Naan

Adapted from Playful Cooking