The Pasta With BITE - Rattlesnake Pasta

I know what you are thinking! Rattlesnake?! Let me tell you that if I have to worry about being bitten by a rattlesnake, there is no way on this earth that I would even think about eating one! At least not while I have food in the cabinets. Rattlesnake Pasta is a type of chicken alfredo with bite. A huge bite depending on the type of peppers you use. A not so huge bite, if you are not a hot pepper fan or have little ones eating.

Rattlesnake Pasta: The Pasta with Bite {Chicken Recipe}

Rattlesnake Pasta


I read a friend’s status on Facebook and saw where she was talking about this particular dish at a local restaurant in her area. After hearing about the ingredients, I knew I had to try it. So I tried to come up with my version of this dish.

Over the years of making this yummy dish, I've tried different hot peppers from my dad's plants, canned chilies, jalapenos, and Anaheim peppers. This weekend, I used the Anaheim because I've heard the words heart burden too recently. Anaheim peppers are not quite as hot as the jalapenos and I kind of wish I would have used at least one jalapeno in the mixture. But, it is what it is.

I love recipes like this one because like I said, depending on the type of pepper you use, it can be as hot or as not as you want. :) I'm all for having the whole family enjoy a meal without mom or dad being a short order cook for everyone.

I was not one to cook a different meal for my son when he was little. If the recipe called for extra spiciness I improvised the ingredients and steps in getting the food cooked so he could enjoy it without the added heat. In fact, I have never been a short order cook, so my son was required to eat what was cooked no questions asked.Now, my son loves hot, hot, hot foods along with many others. I think my encouraging (requiring) him to try different things when he was little helped him have a palate for a wide variety of foods. Would you believe he loves sushi? Yep, but I never encouragement him to eat it because it is something I'm not fond of. He learned to love it on his own.

Depending on how big your family is, this recipe will be easy to double or cut down the ingredients.



When you look at the ingredients you will notice bell peppers and hot peppers. The bell peppers alone give the recipe a nice peppery taste without heat, so if you have a little ones eating, leave out the hot peppers and cut back on the Cayenne pepper.

Rattlesnake Pasta


Ingredients:

  • 1 pkg chicken breast seasoned and grilled
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 red bell pepper diced
  • ½ green bell pepper diced
  • 1 small onion chopped
  • 3  jalapeno peppers or any hot pepper you like
  • 3-4 cups heavy whipping cream
  • 1 cup Parmesan cheese
  • 3 Tbsp Cayenne pepper
  • 1 box linguine
  • enough water to cook the pasta

Directions:

Season and grill the chicken. When cooled, cook into bite sized pieces and set aside.

Bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta. Add salt and a drizzle of oil, to help keep the noodles from sticking together. Cook pasta according to your taste.

In a large frying pan sauté garlic, onions and peppers over medium heat. Add chilies/peppers. Slowly pour heavy cream into pan and add Parmesan cheese. Stir until melted and smooth. Add Cayenne pepper stir until well mixed.  Add chicken.  Cook until sauce becomes thick. Serve over the pasta.





Do you have a favorite recipe that has a kick or a bite when you eat it? I'd love to hear about your recipe.

Unstuffed Stuffed Bell Peppers

I made Unstuffed Stuffed Bell Peppers on Saturday for the first time. When I share a recipe, I usually cook it more than once just to be sure I have the ingredients correct and my family approves of the recipe. I don’t take pictures during the first run since I don’t want to create a picture and us not love the food enough for the recipe to be shared. Something told me to grab the camera and take pictures even after I put everything in the pan. I’m glad I did, this recipe is fantastic!

Do you like stuffed bell peppers? Would you believe I have never had them, it’s true...

Frog's Lilypad: Unstuffed Stuffed Bell Peppers - Unstuff those stuffed bell peppers with this amazing recipe. Unstuffed Stuffed Bell Peppers is just as good only you don't have to heat up the oven. l frogslilypad.net

The first time I heard about stuffed bell peppers was in my 9th grade Home Ec class. As a silly 15-year-old girl, I crinkled my nose at the thought of them. Listening to my teacher talk about her recipe, I couldn’t picture them in my mind since they were not being prepared in class. My mom cooked for our family what she knew, the foods she grew up on and bell peppers were not part of the trusted camaraderie.

My husband had stuffed bell peppers once and since his mother never made them either, he has never requested them. Funny, both of us never remember eating anything with bell peppers while we were growing up.

I found this RECIPE two weeks ago and wanted to try it since I’ve never had stuffed bell peppers. I used ground turkey with chicken broth since we’ve cut out beef for health reasons. The skeptic in me caused me to check recipes on allrecipes.com to see if the ingredient amounts were about the same with regular stuffed bell peppers and they were. I mentioned why I do that here. For the bell peppers, I used ½ each of a green, yellow, red, and orange bell pepper since they were in my freezer. When Jamie came to eat, he asked why there were no stuffed peppers; I just smiled. He gave my creation the name Unstuffed Stuffed Bell Peppers and I loved it. He named one other recipe as well that we all love.

This is one of those recipes you can make it your own. Use ground beef and beef broth, more or less garlic and bell pepper, and any kind of cheese your family likes. It really is the perfect recipe to

Unstuffed Stuffed Bell Peppers


Ingredients:

  • 1 pound ground turkey
  • 2-4 minced garlic cloves (I used 4)
  • 2-4 TBSP oil
  • 1 cup long grain rice
  • 1 can diced tomatoes
  • 1 (8oz) can tomato sauce
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 2 bell peppers, diced
  • 1 onion
  • 1 TBSP brown sugar
  • 1 TBSP Italian seasoning
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 8 oz Monterrey Jack Cheese, shredded

Directions:

In a hot skillet cook ground meat and garlic, chopping into small pieces, until done and remove from pan.  * Add the rice to the pan with a little oil and cook until it browns about (4-5) minutes.  When the rice is golden, add the meat and all the other ingredients except for the cheese, stirring well. Bring to a boil and reduce heat and cover. Let simmer for about 20-25 minutes. When the rice is cooked through, add half the cheese and mix it in well. Top with the remaining half and cover with the lid for about 5 minutes or until the cheese has melted.

*I cooked the rice like I do at the beginning of my Baked Mexican Rice recipe. You want golden colored rice.

Frog's Lilypad: Unstuffed Stuffed Bell Peppers - Unstuff those stuffed bell peppers with this amazing recipe. Unstuffed Stuffed Bell Peppers is just as good only you don't have to heat up the oven. l frogslilypad.net


If you try making Unstuffed Stuffed Bell Peppers, let me know. I love to hear about you using the recipes I share.

Quick and Easy Chicken Taco Rice

Quick and easy recipes are my favorites. Recipes that don’t require a lot of cooking and heating up the house are always on the top of my list during the warmer months. Taco Rice is quick,easy and perfect for the summer months. Using precooked chicken, you can have this on the table within 30 minutes.
Frog's Lilypad: Chicken Taco Rice is quick,easy and perfect for the summer months. Using precooked chicken you can have this on the table within 30 minutes. frogslilypad.net


My friend Crystal introduced me to this recipe years ago when she had The Homemaker’s Homestead forum. Crystal has a large family and most of her recipes reflect the fact, but they are easy to adjust for your needs. When I first read the ingredients of the Taco Rice Recipe, I knew it was something I wanted to try. At that time we were still eating red meat, but over the years, I have changed the recipe for using chicken.

When I make this recipe, I normally cook a package of boneless, skinless chicken breast and roughly shred it. But last week when I made this, I cooked a whole chicken in the crock pot and picked the meat off the bones and froze what I needed for the day it would be used. If you are only cooking for 1 or 2 people, a package of chicken tenderloins would work perfectly.

I serve Taco Rice with tortilla chips and all the fixings for tacos.

Chicken Taco Rice


Ingredients:
  • 2 cups cooked rice
  • 3 cups of shredded chicken
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 TBSP butter
  • 1 ½ TBSP taco seasoning (I use homemade, but 1 package of store bought will work)
  • 1 can diced tomatoes
  • 1 cup salsa
  • 1 cup shredded cheese
  • Additional water or chicken broth may be needed

Directions:

Cook rice and set aside to cool enough to fluff. Fluffing the rice with a fork will keep it from mushing together when adding it to the other ingredients.

In a pan, add butter and sauté onion. Add tomatoes, salsa, taco seasoning, chicken, and rice and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add cheese at the end before serving. If needed, you can add a little water or chicken broth to the pot to keep everything from sticking to the bottom.

Frog's Lilypad: Chicken Taco Rice is quick,easy and perfect for the summer months. Using precooked chicken you can have this on the table within 30 minutes. frogslilypad.net


If you try this recipe, leave me a comment because I'd love to hear about it. Or if you just want to leave a comment and say, "HI!" do that because I'd love to hear from you either way.

Mad About Lentils! {Spicy Lentils Recipe}

Do you like lentils? I love lentils! If you’ve never tried them, you need to. I’ll never forget the first time cooking them after reading about the health benefits of lentils, I wasn’t too impressed because the recipe listed was basically just boiling them. I wish I would have known a little more about them then because if I had, I would have tried them sooner.
Lentils are tiny legumes and they do big, powerful jobs within our body. With the right flavoring and seasoning you can have a bowl of Spicy Lentils. frogslilypad.net

Spicy Lentils


I started cooking lentils again last year and was determined I was going to find a way to cook them where we all would enjoy them. I even like to take a spoonful or two of cooked, cooled lentils and add them to a fresh garden salad to get the extra fiber and all the goodness. Lentils are easy to cook and they are so good you won’t even realize you’ve had seconds or thirds before it’s too late.

Would you believe they are one of the world’s healthiest foods? They are packed with folate, fiber, protein, and many more important vitamins and nutrients. While lentils are tiny legumes they do big, powerful jobs within our body – lower cholesterol, give you energy while stabilizing blood sugar, and decrease digestive issues.

There are two kinds of lentils found in the local stores here – brown and green. They both taste the same, the green ones do hold up in shape more than the brown while cooking, but they are both just as tasty.

The following recipe is what I cook for my family so we can enjoy leftovers for several days, but it can definitely be cut down. I found the recipe HERE, but worked a few things differently for my family's tastes, they had rather have grated carrots instead of big pieces, I like bigger pieces so sometimes I’ll add larger pieces for me.

With our limited selection of certain things in the stores, I ended up using red pepper flakes. The flakes when heated give off a more intense heat, you can add them to the pot after you’ve added the liquid to help keep the heat down a little. If you’d rather leave out the pepper flakes for a non-spicy dish, you can and the lentils will still be yummy!

The BEST thing about this recipe ONE POT is all it takes to cook in!

SPICY LENTILS

Ingredients:
  • 1 pound of lentils, rinsed
  • 5-6 strips of bacon, chopped
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 large carrot, grated
  • 4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 bay leaves
  • ½ teaspoon of dried pepper flakes
  • 4 cups beef broth
  • water (if needed)
  • 1 Tablespoon bacon grease or your favorite oil
  • salt and pepper, to taste at the end of cooking
Directions:

In a large pot, heat the bacon grease, cook bacon until crisp and remove from grease. Add onion and sauté until it is soft and translucent. Add shredded carrot and garlic to the pot and sauté for about two minutes. Next, add the bay leaves and dried pepper flakes and cook for about a minute, adding the bacon, lentils, and broth to the pot. Cover the pot and let the lentils simmer until they have softened. You will probably need to add a little water to the pot while simmering. When the lentils are softened to your liking, test for salt and pepper flavoring.

Lentils are tiny legumes and they do big, powerful jobs within our body. With the right flavoring and seasoning you can have a bowl of Spicy Lentils. frogslilypad.net


Mediterranean Chicken and Pasta

Pasta is a weakness for my family. At one time we ate spaghetti every two weeks with one other pasta dish included in the list of foods. I came across a recipe while searching for another pasta option for my Master Meal Planner. With a few little tweaks I made my version of Mediterranean Chicken and Pasta that suits my family's tastes.
Try this Mediterranean Chicken and Pasta dish tonight. Quick, Easy, and Frugal.  Chicken, Tomatoes, Zucchini,and Pasta topped with  Feta cheese. frogslilypad.net

Mediterranean Chicken and Pasta


The changes I made from the original recipe are I left out the olives for my non olive eaters. I used Italian seasoning instead of just oregano. I used 2 cans of diced tomatoes instead of a can of tomato sauce. I think my sauce had more of an Italian flare than I had wanted, boy that Feta cheese took care of it when I topped the dish with it. Another thing, we only eat whole wheat pasta.

The only negative thing I heard about the dish, my son said the zucchini should have been left out because no pasta dish should have a green vegetable in it. This is coming from someone who will eat his weight in fried zucchini during the summer months.

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups pasta
  • water for cooking pasta
  • 1 Tablespoon oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 small zucchini cut in slices
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 cups chicken breast, cooked in bite size pieces
  • 2 cans diced tomatoes
  • 1 ½ Tablespoon Italian seasoning
  • 1 teaspoon basil
  •  ¾ cup crumbled Feta cheese
 Directions:

Cook pasta according to package.

In a skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook about 3 minutes, add zucchini and garlic and cook for about 3 minutes. Stir in chicken, tomatoes, and seasoning. Simmer on low for about 10 minutes.

Mix chicken mixture and pasta together and top with cheese.



What's your favorite pasta dish?