Food Friday: A Comfy Cozy (but quick & easy!) Homemade Fall Supper

Here is a really great Fall dinner! Cozy comfort food, but truly (believe me) quick and easy! And totally vegetarian too!

• Penne with Spinach and White Beans
• Caesar Salad
• Zucchini Bread

PENNE WITH SPINACH AND WHITE BEANS~~

This is one of my stand-by pasta dishes for Fall/Winter/Spring. We take a break from it over the summer, which is just enough time off from it to keep it beloved the rest of the year. I’ve posted about it before (click here). I’ve updated (making the recipe even simpler and easier) and re-posted the recipe below.

 CAESAR SALAD~~

I have posted before about our love of Caesar Salad, and have posted my favorite Caesar recipe (click here). Somehow, each year, the feel of fall makes me crave Caesar Salad. So, we end up eating a lot of Caesar Salad in the fall! The great thing about Caesar Salad is that it is so versatile. [See * at very bottom of this post.] And depending on how much time/energy you have, you can whip it up fast in any of three ways:

1. Easy and Best: Make the dressing yourself (I’ve re-posted my favorite recipe below), make the croutons yourself (cut up a store-bought baguette into bite-sized pieces, drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and bake at 350, turning croutons a couple of times, until they are brown and toasty), chop up some fresh Romaine, and toss it all up together with some fresh Parmesan cheese and freshly ground pepper!
2. Easier and 2nd Best (but still good): Buy a bottle of your favorite Caesar dressing, some store-bought croutons, a bag of ready-to-go Romaine lettuce, and toss it all up together with some Parm!
3. Easiest and Worst (but totally decent): Buy your favorite Caesar Kit from the produce section, and follow the directions! Our favorite is this one: click here. I buy this a lot. I need to buy 2 bags of it when I’m serving it to my family, because Kyle and Owen alone will devour one whole bag.

 ZUCCHINI BREAD~~

This is the only portion of this meal that I have never posted about. But let me just tell you: we LOVE zucchini bread in the fall! I’ve already made this bread twice this October, and will surely be making it a few more times before zucchini disappears from the farm stands around here. I can’t seem to keep a loaf in the kitchen for more than 48 hours before it is entirely eaten. We eat this zucchini bread for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Kyle likes to eat his with cream cheese on it. Owen likes his with butter. Meera is not a fan of it (yet!!!). Mommy & Papi especially like it for breakfast, toasted! I’ve posted my tried and true recipe below.

THE RECIPES:

Penne with Spinach and White Beans

1 box penne pasta

2 bags of fresh baby spinach

1 can of white beans (cannellini beans/white kidney beans), drained and rinsed

olive oil

butter

4-5 cloves garlic, sliced thin

red pepper flakes

salt, pepper, dried oregano

fresh parmesan cheese

Cook penne in boiling, salted water. While penne is cooking, heat up large sauté pan to medium-low heat and add about 1-2 tablespoons butter with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil. Once butter is melted, add garlic, and red pepper flakes (I usually add a small pinch; add as much as you want depending on how much spicy heat you like). Stir occasionally, cooking until garlic is soft but not browned. Add white beans. Season generously with salt, pepper, and oregano. Once beans are heated through turn off heat and let sit. Meanwhile, when pasta is just one minute from being done, dump all of the spinach into the pot. Let cook for a minute (literally! just until the spinach is barely wilted in the pot of water and pasta). Drain pasta and spinach, reserving about 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid. Toss pasta and spinach with the white bean mixture. If dry, add some of the cooking liquid and/or more olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with lots of freshly grated parmesan cheese.

 

Caesar Dressing, recipe from one of my all-time favorite cookbooks, At Blanchard’s Table: A Trip to the Beach

1 cup Hellmann’s mayonnaise

3/4 tsp anchovy paste

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

3 1/2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

3 medium garlic cloves, minced

3/4 tsp coarsely cracked black pepper

Put all ingredients into a medium bowl and whisk until well blended. Will keep in the fridge for at least a week. My own notes, not from original recipe: I (Heather) actually half the amount of garlic in this recipe… I also make it in the Cuisinart (instead of hand whisking it)!

 

Zucchini Bread, recipe from my Mom (I have absolutely no idea where it originated)

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

2 cups grated fresh raw zucchini

2 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Beat eggs. Add oil, sugar, vanilla; cream well. Add zucchini; mix well. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon; mix well. Butter and flour loaf pan (makes 1 large or 2 small loafs; can also be made into muffins). Bake for about an hour—or until toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean. Let cool. Slice to serve.

 

* P.S. One of our favorite ways to eat Caesar Salad is as a stand-alone lunch or dinner with grilled or blackened shrimp, chicken, or steak on top of it! Also, even easier: I like to use leftover rotisserie chicken to put on top of the salad (or sometimes I even buy one just for this purpose!). We also love to make Caesar sandwich wraps with this salad (with or without shrimp/chicken/steak).