Mario Batali Spaghetti Sauce

I saw this on the shelf at the store and I had no idea that he made spaghetti sauce. However it looked good. There were three kinds, we chose Tomato Basil. Its made with san marzano tomatoes and fresh basil. It looked really chunky and good. So I decided to give it a try.

I made it with a package of Trader Joe's linguine, grilled chicken breasts and mushrooms. I sprinkled some shaved parmesan on top. I think it came together really good.

I also made some cheesy garlic bread to go with it. Except this time instead of slicing the bread, I just cut the loaf in half and baked it that way. It came out really good. I think it was less maintence that way.

Two new things to try

I love food blogs and I've been seeing a lot of posts about these two things:



Peanut Butter & Co's Dark Chocolate Dreams
(basically chocolate and peanut butter in a jar! yum!)

and

Barney Butter (or Almond Butter)

I grabbed both to try out and definetly worth it. Both were really good.

I think the chocolate peanut butter was really really really good. Like a peanut butter cup in a jar. Peanut butter cups are my favorite candy ever. I think having this in the house is dangerous.
The almond butter - well tasted like peanut butter - but apparently its better for you with more vitamins and minerals.

Trader Joe's Product Rave: Trader Ming's Soyaki Marinade

I've been eyeing this for weeks at the store. It looks so good with the sesame seeds floating in it. You can see the ginger too. It has to be good...

and it is. Its not that sweet. For sweetness, I guess you would have to go for Island Soyaki which has the additional of Pineapple Juice. I almost got that one instead but I thought it might be too sweet. I think the soy sauce cuts the sweetness that traditional teriyaki sauces have. The addition of the ginger was really good.

I marinaded chicken in it for about an hour, grilled it up and served it with white rice and voila a quick and easy meal.

Costco Rave: Morton's Chipotle Tri Tip

Morton's Chipotle Marinated Tri Tip

Who doesn't love pre-marinated tri tip. Its almost always juicy and flavorful. The question is will you actually like the flavor? I thought this was spot on and delicious. The chipotle flavoring made it smoky, spicy and really really good. There wasn't a lot left. Its definetly something we are going to try again. Its definetly worth the $15 investment.

Product Rave: Trader Joe's Lemon Pepper Parpardelle Pasta

I bought this because I've seen so many people raving about it on the boards that I frequent. It is really good. Its great for an easy dinner because the pasta is already flavored. It can be served either by itself or with something simple.

I choose portabello mushrooms.

I cooked the pasta. While I was cooking the pasta, I sauteed the mushrooms with a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice, some fresh cracked pepper, a little olive oil and thats it. I tossed it all together and had a pretty easy meal in about 10 minutes.

Product Rave: Tortilla Land Uncooked Tortillas

We bought these at Costco. They were in the refridgerated section by the pastas.

We weren't sure how they would freeze, but we hoped they would. It says on the packet that once the packet is opened, to use all the tortillas in 20 days. I wasn't sure if we could eat 44 tortillas in 20 days. So when we got home, I split them into packets of 6 and 8 tortillas, put them in gallon freezer bags and put them in the freezer.

I left a bag in the refridgerator. The next morning I cooked some up with some eggs and bacon and made breakfast burritos.

The packet says to cook on medium heat. So I put them in a skillet and browned them up. It took about a minute or two per tortilla, so it was pretty time consuming, but the end product was worth it. Soft, moist, warm and really yummy.