Basil | Eat at Home

Pepperoni Pizza Pasta – 15 Minute Meal

April 3, 2012 by Tiffany

I am a huge fan of the 15 minute meal. Some days, there just isn’t any more time than that to pull dinner together.

I’ve even got an eBook full of 15 minute meals. I frequently pull it out when I need something quick for dinner. A quick scan of the book, matched up with the items in my pantry will always yield a dinner idea.

This meal idea came from my mom. She had something similar when she ate out recently. I’m not sure what restaurant and I don’t know exactly how she fixed hers. There are many different ways you could take this, depending on what your family likes and what you’ve got in the pantry.

I happened to have a variety of bell peppers in the fridge, so I used them to add color and flavor. Doesn’t this pan of cooking peppers and onions look good?

Here’s what you’ll need for this quick meal: [Read more...]

Filed under: Main Dish, Pasta Tagged with 15 minute meal, basil, bell peppers, crushed tomatoes, Italian cheese, onion, oregano, penne, pepperoni2 Comments

Italian Parmesan Herb Chicken and Potatoes in the Slow Cooker

August 25, 2011 by Tiffany

I put this together before church one Sunday morning. It smelled (and tasted!) fantastic when we got home. If you have garden fresh tomatoes, they make a wonderful side dish. A simple tossed salad would be good too.

I don’t have an ingredient picture this time. I think I was too busy getting ready for church, cooking as fast as I could. I forgot to snap the photo.

I did use frozen chicken tenders and skipped thawing them. They cooked just fine. You can also save time by estimating the herb measurements instead of measuring.

Here’s the how-to: [Read more...]

Filed under: Chicken, Crockpot, Main Dish Tagged with basil, Chicken, Crockpot, Italian, kosher salt, olive oil, onion, oregano, parmesan, pepper, potatoes, slow cooker, thyme13 Comments

Ingredient Spotlight: Fresh Herbs

June 8, 2011 by Tiffany

Do you grow your own herbs?

I don’t have much of a green thumb, but I do like to try to grow herbs. Right now I only have basil and chives, but in the past we’ve had parsley, cilantro, thyme, rosemary, mint and lavender.

Basil is my favorite to cook with. I love to walk out to the garden boxes and gather a handful while the pasta boils. Small pleasure.

Here are a few of my recipes that use fresh herbs: [Read more...]

Filed under: ingredient spotlight Tagged with basil, chives, cilantro, fresh herbs, lavender, oregano9 Comments

Italian Seasoned Salt Chicken in the Slow Cooker

April 26, 2011 by Tiffany

A few weeks ago I decided to make some flat bread with homemade Italian Seasoning. That didn’t work out too well on my first try. I’ll have to play around with it a bit.

But I have been using the Italian Seasoning on all kinds of other foods and it’s been really good. The seasoning adds lots of flavor to chicken or pasta dishes. This time, I used it on chicken thighs in the slow cooker. Here’s what you’ll need:

[Read more...]

Filed under: Chicken, Crockpot, Main Dish Tagged with basil, black pepper, Chicken, crushed red pepper flakes, garlic, Italian, kosher salt, oregano, slow cooker, thyme9 Comments

Bowtie Pasta with Italian Sausage and Bell Peppers

April 5, 2011 by Tiffany

There are nights when I stare into my pantry, wondering what I’m going to fix. On this particular night, the contents of the pantry made me consider making Italian Sausage with Bowties but I didn’t have any stewed tomatoes. I decided to change the recipe up a bit and came up with this.

Like the original, it’s a cinch to make and quick too. This one gets an added taste boost from the peppers. Here’s what you’ll need: [Read more...]

Filed under: Main Dish, Pasta Tagged with basil, bowties, crushed tomatoes, garlic, green pepper, half and half, Italian sausage, onions, oregano, Pasta, red pepper8 Comments

Meatballs and Spanish Rice

February 11, 2011 by Tiffany

I found this recipe in Whole Foods for the Whole Family cookbook. I’ve done a little altering to it though. First, it calls for brown rice, which I swear I bought, but is nowhere to be found in my pantry. So I subbed white rice.

The method for making this involves baking the raw meatballs on top of the rice. Because of this, you’re going to need to use very lean meat or else the dish will be too greasy. I’ve made it before with ground bison. This time I used some of the 88 meatballs I made and froze. I froze some of them raw, specifically to use in this dish. A quick thaw in the microwave was all they needed. It sped up the prep work a lot to start with the meatballs already made.

Here’s what you’ll need: [Read more...]

Filed under: Main Dish Tagged with basil, beef broth, bison, cornstarch, garlic, meatballs, oregano, rice, stewed tomatoes6 Comments

Cheesy Rice and Meatball Skillet Dish

February 10, 2011 by Tiffany

Remember all the 88 meatballs I made and froze? Some of them were destined for this dish.

This is based on a recipe in an old church cookbook. I made it according to the recipe the first time (unusual for me to follow a recipe exactly!), which means I used the Velveeta it called for. Much as we like Velveeta, it was too gooey and sticky for us.

A week later, I gave the recipe a make-over. I swapped out the Velveeta for Italian blend cheese and added garlic and Italian seasonings. It’s still a quick stove-top meal, but with much better flavor.

Here’s what you’ll need: [Read more...]

Filed under: Main Dish Tagged with basil, carrots, garlic, green pepper, Italian blend cheese, meatballs, oregano, rice, skillet dish5 Comments

Angel Hair with Red Onion and Black Olives

September 21, 2010 by Tiffany

This dish is full of flavor – garlic, red onion, black olives, basil, parsley and Parmesan all in white wine sauce. It pairs up beautifully with grilled chicken, although the chicken didn’t make it into the photo.

Best of all, it is quick to fix.

Here’s what you’ll need:

[Read more...]

Filed under: Chicken, Main Dish, Pasta, vegetarian Tagged with angel hair, basil, black olives, butter, Chicken, garlic, parmesan, parsley, red onion, white wine6 Comments

Ravioli with Red Onion, White Wine, and Asiago

August 25, 2010 by Tiffany

This tasted like something from a good restaurant. It can be made in the time it takes to boil water and cook the ravioli.

I found the Asiago cheese in the cheese case near the deli. It was the same price as Parmesan, which can be substituted if you can’t find it. The label states that Asiago has a “mild and nutty” flavor.

Oh, I’m detecting nuttiness.

Name that movie.

I’m pretty sure Remy and Gusteau would approve of this dish.

[Read more...]

Filed under: Main Dish, Pasta, vegetarian Tagged with asiago, basil, garlic, half and half, Italian, parmesan, Pasta, pepper, ravioli, red onion, white wine6 Comments

Italian Sausage Pasta Sauce

August 17, 2010 by Tiffany

I used to think that homemade pasta sauce took a long time to make. That’s the way my Grandma made it and hers was always so good.

But pasta sauce doesn’t have to be an all day deal. This one only takes about 10 minutes if you already have the Italian sausage browned out. Add an extra 10 minutes if you need to do that step too.

[Read more...]