Taste of Tuesday: Speedy Spaghetti + Cheesy (Garlic) Bread

Happy Tuesday friends!

I am finally (!!!!) joining in on the Taste of Tuesday fun! I love to cook (and am apparently pretty good at it) but I am really bad at taking pictures while I am cooking/hate my iPhone pics/my apartment's kitchen is normally not very pretty. Regardless, I have some things up my sleeve for the coming weeks so stay tuned! 

Today's recipe is for a very quick spaghetti sauce and cheesy (garlic) bread. I whipped this up after some trusty Pinterest searching (which, by the way, you should follow me! Click here to do so) and did a couple of modifications to fit what I was looking for. I adapted the sauce recipe from Gina at Skinnytaste (which is an awesome food blog - lots of healthy recipes that are family friendly) and the bread from a recipe submission website, Key Ingredient. When I say "adapted" in regards to the bread it is because I spaced and forgot to add the garlic to the cheese mixture. I added meat to the sauce because I was cooking for the boyfriend - next time I make this for myself I will make it without meat. The whole meal was boyfriend approved (even though I forgot the garlic on the bread!) and very quick. I think the most difficult part of making it was searching for the ingredients at my grocery store! Gotta love being on a college campus with limited shopping some days. That being said, everything turned out really well with what I could find on campus on a Sunday night! 

Speedy Spaghetti Sauce 

(can be made with or without meat!) 

*Adapted from Gina at Skinnytaste

1 tsp olive oil 

2 cloves of minced garlic (I used the kind from a jar)

2 15 oz. cans crushed tomatoes

1 small bay leaf (I omitted this)

1 tsp oregano (I subbed 1 tsp of pre-made Italian seasoning blend)

2 tbsp chopped fresh basil (I omitted this - our store was out but there is some in the seasoning blend!)

Salt and pepper, to taste

*1 lb ground beef (or turkey or Italian sausage, whatever!), if desired (possibly consider adding chopped onions to this!)

1. In a saucepan or pot, add 1 tsp olive oil and heat over medium heat. When hot, add 2 cloves of minced garlic and saute until golden. (Try very very hard not to burn this! Use medium heat, not high)

2. Add crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper, and herbs (either a seasoning blend or oregano and the bay leaf).  Stir until combined. 

3. Reduce heat to low, cover the pan/pot, and let simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

4. After the sauce has finished simmering, remove from heat. Remove the bay leaf from the sauce (or don't, if you want to surprise your guests) and add the basil. 

5. Adding meat: While the sauce is simmering, heat 1-2 tbsp of olive oil in a saucepan. Salt and pepper your ground beef (or turkey, etc) and add it to the pan once it's hot. Brown the meat, adding more salt and pepper as needed (I normally add more salt and pepper before I stir/flip the meat to brown the other, already seasoned side). Once the meat is fully cooked, drain off the fat and add to the sauce, stirring to combine. 

*Served 2 people with leftovers. 

Cheesy Garlic Bread

(awesome with or without garlic!)

*Adapted from Key Ingredient (which has a recipe to serve more people!)

1 small baguette (I used La Brea Bakery's French Demi Baguette - one of my faves!) 

      * You could also substitute slices of a larger loaf of bread if you wanted to

2 tbsp butter, melted

1 tbsp parsley

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste (I used a sprinkling of each)

1. Preheat your broiler (I used the high setting). 

2. Slice the baguette in half lengthwise. 

3. Mix the melted butter, parsley, minced garlic, parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper together in a bowl. 

4. Spread the mixture on each half of the baguette. Place the bread onto a baking sheet or a baking dish. 

5. Place under the broiler for about 3 minutes (time will vary depending on your broiler - make sure you watch it otherwise it will burn!) until the bread gets crispy and warm and the cheese is bubbling, golden, and melty. 

6. Let cool for about 3 minutes, slice, and enjoy! Garnish with some extra parm if you wish :)

Hope you enjoyed these recipes! Making this sauce was waaaay easier than I expected and much tastier than jarred pasta sauce (which is good in a pinch). I am addicted to the cheesy bread now and can't wait for another excuse to make it. 

Some Wisconsin Weekend Shenanigans

Hi everyone! 

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend! I'm linking up today with Sami from Sami's Shenanigans for the Weekend Shenanigans link up. 

My weekend started on Thursday afternoon. I had a 7 page paper due and a meeting with one of our deans to figure out a graduation requirement snafu, so once I was done on Thursday I headed home to relax. I finished the last few current episodes of Revenge, took a long hot shower, made some high waisted denim shorts (check 'em out below!), and waited for my boyfriend to get into town! Once he did we hung out and watched an episode of Game of Thrones (he's really behind!) and fell asleep reeeeally early... very exciting, I know! 

Friday was way more exciting - I got my first pair of cowboy boots! They were my birthday present from my boyfriend. He unexpectedly had the day off so we had planned on making a road trip to a store a few hours away to find some but we got lucky and there was a horse expo in Madison so we only had to make a 15 minute trip (and pay an arm and a leg to get in) instead! These Ariat boots were the winners - I liked the plain brown leather, classic look, and minimal ornament. I wanted something simple so I wouldn't feel pressured to be "matchy matchy" with a certain color on the boot and instead get used to working them into my wardrobe as a "brown boot" and not a "cowboy boot", if that makes any sense. 

Ariat Heritage Western R-Toe

Brand new and fresh outta the box!

Since we were at the horse expo and because it was cold, we walked through all of the barns on the way back to the truck. I got to indulge my inner child and pet all of the horses and relive the days where horses were the coolest. The best part was when we discovered MINI HORSES! They were pretty much the size of my childhood golden retrievers - could you imagine having one!? I wanted to take all of them home and their full size counter parts... if only. 

Once I got my boots, my boyfriend and I headed back to campus because I had to work (woo!). He hung out at a local... establishment and befriended one of the .... drink pourers and basically had a grand old time while I was doing my thang at the store. Since I gave him my keys to my apartment, he decided that instead of making me walk home and buzz myself up, he would come and meet me at work to walk me home (cue the awws). While he was waiting he may or may not have looked like a homeless man, which once my co-worker and I figured it out, gave us a pretty good laugh. After he picked me up, we went to a local barbecue place and got dinner. We were both wayyy too hungry to snap a picture of our food before we started eating so I only got a picture of the cider I tried, ACE Fermented Berry Cider. I liked it, it was tart and light and almost reminded me of wine. A nice change of pace from the craft beers I normally drink! The boyf and I both got pulled pork sandwiches with a side of mac & cheese - I mixed some of my pulled pork into the mac & cheese and topped it with some BBQ sauce... yum! Can't wait to try making my own version of that soon. 

ACE Cider (click for website)

Saturday was the big show day. It was my first cow (or any animal) show so I was kind of quiet and followed my boyfriend's lead all day. I was trying not to stand out too horribly as a newbie/"city slicker" and I was trying to stay out of everyone's way as they prepped their cows for the show. While the weather was supposed to be in the 50's and sunny, it ended up being very windy and very very cold in the show ring itself. The boyfriend and I were not exactly prepared for that and we should have worn another layer under our jackets.... we were in need of some coffee and extra warmth (read: Bailey's) after a couple of hours. Once we got some of that we were set for the remainder of the day. I learned some handy dairy cow judging things from my boyfriend (he's kind of really good at it.... national college champ kind of thing kind of good) so hopefully by the end of the summer I will have learned a thing or two! His knowledge plus my art history background (see, I knew it would pay off someday!) should make it a bit easier for me to learn. After the show, we headed to dinner at Red Robin (#yum) with his best friend and his girlfriend. We were starving and absolutely demolished our food plus two extra baskets of fries (whoops!). Once we got home we were in such a food coma plus completely tuckered out from our day that we took a looong nap and ended up missing out on everything going on that night.

Sunday was uneventful. I almost missed work (oops) and when I got there it was so slow I only stayed for a couple of hours before leaving. I did get a white oxford and tried on a couple of sweatshirt tees - super comfy and casual! I love them and will be picking up two (green and gray) later this week. When I got home I relaxed and watched a couple of episodes of Smash - I love the show and cannot get enough of it! I also decided (on a spur of the moment whim) to cook my boyfriend dinner because he had a rough day at work. I had a serious craving for pasta and instead of heating up some jarred pasta sauce (obviously I had to do better than that for the boyfriend!) I checked Pinterest for some spaghetti sauce recipes. After consulting I came up with a pretty good version! Not my grandma or mom's recipe, but it did in a pinch. Seriously - it was so easy I have no idea why I ever bought jarred pasta sauce in the first place! I even made cheesy garlic bread from "scratch" and despite me completely forgetting to add garlic to the topping mixture, my boyfriend loved it. "It will be even better the next time you make it because you won't forget the garlic!" Hey, if he's happy then I'm happy. 

Look for the recipe coming soon!

Whew! Well forgive me for being a little bit late on this one - hopefully I can make it up with some of the awesome things I have planned for this week!