Garlicky Broccoli Pasta

Ingredients:
- approx. 8 oz of pasta (I only use whole wheat pastas, and for this recipe, I like ones that kind of catch some of the garlic and broccoli, like fusilli or macaroni.)
- 12 oz of broccoli florets
- about 7 cloves of garlic crushed or chopped finely
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup of milk (I use non-fat) or Mocha Mix (to make it non-dairy)
- 1 1/5 tblsp. all-purpose flour
- Seasoning: Garlic salt, chili flakes, oregano

Directions:
- In a large pot, bring water to a boil.
- Pour in pasta and give a stir and cook for about a minute and half.
- Add broccoli florets in with the pasta (saves time and dishes) and cook for about 8 minutes until pasta is cooked and broccoli is bright green and a little tender.

- Meanwhile, in a small pan over low heat add about 1 1/2 tblsp. of olive oil and garlic.
- Once garlic starts to cook, add in flour (add a little bit at a time and mix well with a wooden spoon, you may not need all of the flour).
- To the garlic, add the chili flakes, garlic salt, and oregano.

- Add milk to the garlic mixture a little bit at a time, mixing thoroughly with the wooden spoon after each addition. The mixture will thicken up very quickly. Continue to add a little bit of milk, stirring after each addition, until the sauce is the consistency you want.

- When the pasta and broccoli is done, strain them both well and then add them back to the pot.
- Add garlic sauce to the pasta and broccoli and stir until pasta is evenly coated with the sauce.

You may also want to try:
- Rather than boiling the broccoli with the pasta and making the sauce separately, spread the florets on a baking sheet with ample olive oil, garlic, and seasoning and roast in the oven at 350 degrees until broccoli begins to brown. Add broccoli and garlic to the pasta and enjoy! (Add diced roma tomatoes to the roasting sheet for additional liquid, flavor, and color.)
- I've also made this recipe without any milk or Mocha Mix, you may just need to add a little bit more olive oil if you choose to do this and just skip the milk/Mocha Mix step.

Cheryl's Chicken Soup

My mom is a pretty amazing cook, and not too long ago, she was kind enough to share her chicken soup recipe with me. It's simple, it's delicious, it creates enough soup to last me a week, and, did I mention it's delicious?

Ingredients:
- 2 to 4 chicken hind quarters bone-in (You can use any part of the chicken with bones, but I like dark meat and I like a lot of pieces of chicken in my soup, so I use 3-4 hind quarters of thighs and legs. Chicken can be frozen or defrosted.)
- 1 medium onion cut in half
- 8 whole cloves of garlic
- 2-3 carrots peeled and cut into large chunks
- 2-3 stalks of celery cut into large chunks
- fresh dill
- 4 bay leaves
- Seasonings: Bouillon powder, salt, pepper, and garlic salt taste

Directions:
- In a large soup pot, put in chicken. I have a large pasta pot with the strainer insert that I use to easily separate the chicken and veggies from the broth.

 - Add carrots and celery.

- Add onion, garlic, dill, and bay leaves.

- Add seasoning. You'll need to add a lot of salt and I think freshly ground pepper adds a lot of good flavor. But don't add too too much, you can always taste it when it's ready and add more salt later.
- Fill pot with water to cover all the ingredients.
- Place on stove over high heat and bring to a boil.
- Lower heat to medium/low and then leave on the stove for 2 hours.
- Now, here's where you can choose your own soup adventure:
                 - I don't like carrots or cooked celery, so I strain all ingredients out of the broth, then peel the chicken off of the bones and add that back into the soup. I throw away everything else.
                 - I will sometimes buy the "No Yolk" whole wheat egg noodles to add to the broth that cooks while I'm getting all the chicken off the bones for yummy Chicken Noodle Soup.
                 - Sometimes I use some of the broth in my rice cooker to make some rice, and then add a couple spoonfuls of rice to my bowl of soup.
                 - Try shredding zucchini and/or sweet potato in a food processor, and then adding that to the soup for a hearty vegetable soup. Just be sure to cook it for a little bit until the sweet potatoes are soft.
                 - This is also the recipe my mom uses to cook Matzah Balls in.....YUM!!
                 - Or....do all of the above! Keep the veggies, add the noodles, add some rice (noodles AND rice might be overkill), add the zucchini, sweet potato, and Matzah Balls, and enjoy some super delicious soup!

*TIP: If you leave the soup in the fridge overnight, you will notice a bunch of fat coagulated on the top. Use a ladle to skim it off.....it's pretty gross.

Whoa, Edamame!!

Here is a recipe for a healthy edamame, spinach, tomato, and garlic pasta.

Ingredients:
- 1 package of small sugar plum tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes)
- 1 package of shelled edamame (available at Trader Joe's)
- 1 bag of baby spinach
- approximately 6-7 cloves of garlic finely chopped
- about 2 cups of dry whole wheat pasta (here I used whole wheat rotini, but I've also used whole wheat egg noodles which have the lowest calories/fat and it comes out just as tasty)
- Seasoning (to taste): salt, pepper, chili flakes, garlic salt

Directions:
- Prepare pot with water to boil pasta. In the amount of time it takes the water to boil and for the pasta to cook, the rest of the dish should be ready to go.
- In a large skillet over medium heat, put about 1 tablespoon of olive oil and then pour in all of the sugar plum tomatoes whole and sprinkle with a little bit of salt.
- Cover skillet, occasionally moving tomatoes around the skillet for approximately 5-8 minutes until the tomatoes start to char a bit and become easy to squish.
- Lower the heat just a tad, and use a fork to squish all the tomatoes.

- Once all the tomatoes are squished, add in the finely chopped garlic and add a little more salt, pepper, and chili flakes.
- Let some of the liquid cook out, then add in shelled edamame.
- Stir everything together with a wooden spoon, and let everything cook together for about 2-3 minutes on low heat.

- Add baby spinach a pinch more salt, chili flakes, and garlic salt, then cover and let cook for another 2-3 minutes until spinach begins to wilt.
- Stir spinach into edamame, tomato, garlic mixture, then, use a slotted spoon to drain and scoop pasta out of the water and directly into the skillet.
- Stir everything together for a minute or two until everything is evenly distributed.

Serve it up, and enjoy!

Always Thyme for Chicken!

This is a chicken recipe that is super juicy, super yummy, and pretty easy. I wrote down the amount of ingredients I used (shown in the picture), but you can always add or subtract ingredients based on your taste and the number of people you need to feed.

Ingredients:
- 4 Chicken hind quarters (legs and thighs with bone and skin)
- 1 yellow onion (1/3 finely diced, 2/3 thinly sliced)
- 3 Roma tomatoes (cut into wedges)
- 1 red bell pepper (rough chopped into squares)
- 1 bulb of medium garlic (Yeah...the whole thing. Half of cloves crushed, other half chopped.)
- 1.5 tlbsp of thyme (fresh chopped)
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tblsp BBQ sauce (I use Bulls-eye)
- 1 bag of small gold potatoes (cut into fourths)
- SEASONING (to taste): salt, pepper, garlic salt, chili powder

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Add finely diced onion, crushed garlic, thyme, lemon juice, olive oil, BBQ sauce and seasoning to a bowl and mix it together. Add more lemon juice if more liquid is needed.
- Place chicken pieces in a roasting pan. Use a spoon to scoop onion/garlic mixture under chicken skin and all of the top and bottom of the chicken. Pour extra mixture on top of chicken.
- Spread out cut potatoes all around the chicken.
- On top of potatoes, surround the chicken with sliced onion, chopped garlic, tomato wedges, and red bell pepper.
- Drizzle olive oil over the top of everything and add salt and pepper.
- Place in oven for approximately 1 hour.

You can always drizzle some olive oil and a little bit of salt to asparagus and throw on top of the chicken about twenty minutes before taking the chicken out of the oven to have a delicious vegetable side dish. Serve the chicken with some potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and bell pepper for a complete meal.