Penne, Green Beans, & Goat Cheese

I made this last night for dinner.  I usually try to stick as close as I can to Gordan Ramsay's recipes, but I made a few changes this time.  First of all, it says "green beans" in the title, but the pic in the cookbook looks like light colored beans.  Also, they are referred to as "Kentucky Wonder Beans" which I could not find.  And Mel hates canned green beans anyway.  So I told him to pick out the beans and he picked out the "Northern beans."  Also, it calls for pine nuts which were $15 a pound a WinCo so I decided to skip them.  It was Mel's very brilliant idea to try sunflower seeds instead since they are salty and crunchy.  This was a very good idea as they went perfect in this dish.  Also I chose feta cheese because goat cheese is sometimes gross and without someone to guide me to the good kind I decided to use feta.  I also added an onion.  This was very yummy.  Mel gave this a 10.  I gave it a 9.  It was surprisingly tasty and I will make them again with the same changes.

Beef Fajitas With Guacamole

I made these last night for our dinner.  Mine, of course, had no meat!  This was the first time I've ever made these or guacamole.  I prefer something more like tacos or burritos with more ingredients, but this was still very tasty, especially the guacamole.  Mel gave it a 10 and said it "could not have been better!"  I gave it a 8 1/2, but just because I would have liked a little more in it.  I will make these again and just add more veggies to mine!

Julie's Garbanzo Bean Dip

I posted this some time last year on my other blog.  This is 100% my invention.  Mel really loves Mexican food so I've been really wanting to make this for him.  I made it only slightly different because I added fresh cilantro which I didn't do before.  On a scale from 1-10, Mel gave this a 20!  Said it was the best bean dip he's ever had!!  I'll give it a 10!!  I will definitely make this for him again!

Peanut Butter Goodies (No-Bakes) Again

I made the no-bake cookies again.  This time one batch with cocoa & one without.  And I made them as cookies instead of bars.  I wanted to bring them to our Tuesday night home bible study.  We love our church family so much I just wanted to do something nice for them.  Luckily they were a big hit!!

"The Little Red Cat" Menu Board This Week

It will probably take me 2 weeks to make this short menu because we are on a tight budget right now, but I plan on doing some cooking this week.  It seems like forever since I've been in the kitchen.  Maybe today I'll get to do some real cooking!!  The "Peanut Butter Goodies" are just the no-bake cookies again. If time, I want to make those Tuesday for our home bible study group.  One batch w/ coca and one without.  Should be fun!

No-Bake Cookies & Rice Krispie Treats

I know these are not terribly original, but they are cheap to make and I am on a very tight budget right now.  They are classics for a reason.  They are super yummy!  Mel says these are the best he has ever had of both treats and gave them each a 12!  I give them both 9's!  I have never had the no-bakes without cocoa, but this recipe didn't call for any.  We both like them better chocolate-free.  Yet, ironically, I added a tiny bit of cocoa to the krispie treats!  My mom taught me the trick of peanut butter in krispie treats so I've always made them that way.  When I was a dispatcher, I used to make tons of different kinds of krispie treats for the cops and they all went crazy over them.  It's fun to be creative with them.  Some of my ideas were adding: chopped up cinnamon bears (the #1 favorite of everyone, they went the fastest), caramel squares, dried fruit & nut mixes, and various flavors of baking chips.  Anyone out there want to comment about another idea - I'd love to try it!!