Angel Hair Pasta with Peas, Tomatoes and Garlic ~ Recipe

 

It's been a while since I've posted a recipe here on the blog, so I thought I would share a simple dinner that we had last week.  Pasta is my go-to dinner when I want something quick, easy and satisfying.  This easy pasta dish can be prepared in about 15-20 minutes!

Angel Hair with Peas, Tomatoes and Garlic

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 lb. Angel Hair pasta

1 can diced tomatoes (14 oz) with garlic and olive oil

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup frozen peas

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese plus more, to taste

Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat.  Add garlic and cook for one minute.  Add canned tomatoes and a quarter cup of starchy cooking liquid (from pasta pot) and cook for five to seven minutes. Add salt and pepper, to taste.  Add frozen peas and cook for 1-2 minutes or until peas are warmed through. 

Drain pasta.  Add pasta to skillet with tomato and pea mixture.  Top with 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (or however much you like).  Toss pasta with tongs. Serve in bowl with additional sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and freshly ground black pepper on top.

Enjoy!

Cottage Mama's Note:  If you can't find canned tomatoes with olive oil and garlic, try substituting Italian seasoned tomatoes or just use plain diced tomatoes.  During the summer months try using diced, fresh tomatoes to take advantage of the delicious seasonal ingredients that are available. Pin It

Easy, Healthy Snack ~ Spice Roasted Crunchy Chickpeas Recipe

I really like snacks.  I definitely prefer to graze throughout the day rather than having three large meals.  I'm always on the look-out of a snack that is great tasting, but also is somewhat healthy.  I don't know about you, but one of my favorite types of snacks is those of the savory, crunchy kind.

Spice Roasted Crunchy Chickpeas are an easy, inexpensive, delicious, protein packed snack that you and your family will love.  If you've ever had corn nuts and you like those, then you will certainly like these!

Spice Roasted Crunchy Chickpeas Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cans chickpeas (or garbanzo beans)

1-2 tablespoons of olive oil

Dry spice seasoning (any flavor you like)

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Drain, rinse and pat dry the two cans of chickpeas.  Place chickpeas onto a large baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil and a liberal amount of any dry spice mixture you like.  Toss to coat.  I used a southwestern seasoning on mine, but you could use a taco seasoning, curry powder, or chinese five spice.........whatever you and your family like.

Bake chickpeas for 40 minutes until they are completely dried out and crunchy.  Check on them around 30 minutes to make sure you don't have any burning since oven temperatures can vary a little.  You know they are almost done when they start to shrivel up and become about half of their original size.  It should take the entire 40 minutes for them to dry out.  

Store in an air-tight container.  

This is a great recipe that the kids can help out with in the kitchen.  Let them pat the chickpeas dry, drizzle the olive oil and sprinkle the seasoning.  And then let them mix it all up.  They will love getting their hands in there!

These crunchy chickpeas are loaded with protein and if you get your cans of chickpeas on sale, they will only cost you pennies to make.  Try finding some seasonings that your children enjoy and this would make an excellent snack to send in school lunchs.   

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{ Matilda's Summer Garden Party }

This past weekend was my daughter, Matilda Jane's 1st Birthday Party.  The party was inspired by the fabric I made her birthday outfit from - Heather Bailey's "Nicey Jane". We decided to do an intimate party and had 20 of our closest family and friends over to the Cottage Garden to celebrate.

Miss Matilda had a great time at her party and thoroughly enjoyed her cake.  It was her 1st time to have something that delicious so she was in baby heaven!

I used the same fabrics that I designed Matilda's birthday dress in and made a pennant banner.  I didn't have a pattern for this, I just sewed two rectangles of fabric (right sides together), turned them right-side out, pressed them and stitched them to coordinating bias tape.  I think these will also be great for Easter decorations in the future.

The flowers were cut from our own garden.  We have several large hydrangea bushes that are in full bloom right now.  So the morning of the party, I went out and cut a big bouquet of flowers.  I placed the flowers in a silver, tall galvanized bucket to match some of the other decorations for the party.  I love being able to use the nature around us - and what's even better, is the flowers were absolutely free!

I made large, over-sized paper pinwheels from several shades of blue and green.  I spray painted wooden dowel rods green, cut square pieces of scrapbook paper into pinwheel shapes and hammered them into the rods with basic tacks.  I placed these into the same tall, galvanized metal buckets as the flowers.  I placed fiberfill inside the buckets to hold them in place, but florist foam would work even better.

I wrapped each set of silverware in coordinating yellow napkins and tied them with a blue satin ribbon.

I made large paper balls using this great tutorial from Martha Stewart.  These were VERY easy to make (they took like five minutes each) and only cost me $1.00 since I bought the tissue paper from our local dollar store.

 

Here is little Matilda's birthday hat.  I simply covered a cardboard birthday hat with coordinating fabric, added a ruffle and some rick-rack to match her dress.

As I have mentioned before, my husband is an award-winning home-brewer.  He makes a beer (for the adults, of course) for each of the girls birthday parties.  Here is Matilda's 1st birthday beer.  Brett made this sign to put on the keg at the party.  He served four different beers on tap, but "Tilda's Sweet Cheeks Wheat" was the main attraction.

For the party favors, I gave out summer beach bags.  I took a store-bought tote bag and appliqued each family's last initial onto the bag in fabric from Matilda's birthday dress. 

I have so much fun menu planning!  It takes me some time to figure out what I want to serve, but since we did a smaller party this time, I was able to focus more on the food.

I wanted to make something festive to drink, so I pureed a 1/4 of a watermelon, added 1/2 cup sugar and mixed it with some ginger ale.  This made, what I like to call, Watermelon Fizz.

I made a large anti-pasta platter as an appetizer for our guests.  I used red-leaf lettuce as the base for my platter.  I marinated some fresh mozzarella, lightly roasted some tomatoes, and got some other store-bought ingredients to complete the tray.  I served crostini and bread-sticks on the side.

Loaded Potato Salad

Pecan Coleslaw

Zucchini with Red Onion and Feta

Grilled Corn Salad with Roasted Peppers

Fruit Kabobs

Fresh Watermelon

These are the birthday cupcakes on the tiered trays that I made last week (remember this post?).  These are store-bought cupcakes - have I mentioned before that I DO NOT bake?  I simply added large, clear sugar to the top of these little cakes.  

I don't care for baking and I don't think I'm very good at it - too much precise measuring and science for me.  I much prefer the creativity of cooking.  Anyway, I made these "1" cupcake toppers using my Cricut Expression machine and glued them to lollipop sticks. 

Big sister Savannah had a great time at the party and was a really big helper.  She thoroughly enjoyed the juicy watermelon.

We truly lucked out with fabulous weather the day of the party - low 80's, no humidity.  It could not have been more perfect!

It's very hard for me to believe that my little sweet pea will be one on Thursday.  Matilda Jane has brought so much joy to our lives and as I write this post, I just want to give that little munchkin a squeeze.  

We Love You, Matilda!

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Homemade Cranberry Granola

I'm a huge fan of granola or anything with oats for that matter, especially oatmeal cookies!!  This afternoon I decided to try my hand at making my own homemade granola from scratch.  I just put the ingredients together that I enjoy and luckily it turned out (you never know when you are making up your own recipe)!

So if you have an extra minutes one of these days, whip up a big batch of this yummy granola for you and your family.  First of all this recipe will make your house smell A-mazing! It's also great for breakfast, served with milk or over yogurt, makes a healthy crunchy snaking food, and would be "oh so good" on top of some vanilla ice cream!

The Cottage Mama's Homemade Granola

Ingredients:

3 cups traditional oats

1 cup shredded coconut (sweetened)

1/2 cup pecan pieces

1/4 cup walnut pieces

3/4 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup honey (I used really good local honey)

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon cinnamon (I love cinnamon, so if you don't, you may want to use less)

1/2 cup brown sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  

In a medium sized mixing bowl combine the following; oats, coconut, pecan pieces, walnut pieces, honey, and vegetable oil.  Mix until thoroughly combined.

Once combined, spread mixture out onto a large baking sheet.  Place baking sheet in the oven for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Oat mixture is ready to come out of the oven once it has reached a nice, toasted golden color.

Immediately after you remove the oat mixture from the oven add the brown sugar and stir to combine.  This will allow the sugar to melt into the granola.

After the granola has cooled add your dried cranberries.  Store granola in an air-tight container and enjoy!!

Cottage Mama's Note:  You can change up the ingredients easily with this recipe.  Add any type of dried fruit you like (i.e. raisins, apricots, apples, cherries) and feel free to change up the type of nuts you use as well.

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