Recipe - Roasted Veggie Pasta Salad

This recipe was made on a whim and was so enjoyable hot and cold (leftover for lunch!)

You can roast ant veggies you'd like, but I must say the 3 I used went so well together.

Ingredients

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

3 cups broccoli florets

1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes

1 Vidalia onion, quartered

6-8 oz pasta of your choice

3 tbsp Parmesan cheese

Cherry tomato or pearl size mozzarella balls, optional

Salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 and place veggies in a shallow baking dish or on a cookie sheet.  Toss with olive oil.  Roast for 30 minutes.

While veggies are roasting cook pasta.  When veggies are done transfer to a big bowl, drain pasta and toss with veggies.  Add salt, pepper, cheeses and a little extra olive oil if desired.

Recipe - Chicken meatballs

I love ground beef, particularly extra lean.  But I'm always up for trying new things with ground chicken.  I was really craving meatballs today, so I thought I'd give it a shot!  Ground chicken tends to be much moister than beef, so I decide to omit the breadcrumbs and egg and see how they turned out...very good!

Ingredients

1 lb ground chicken

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 Tbsp dried parsley

2 Tbsp minced garlic

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp Italian seasoning

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and make 12 meatballs.  Cook in a shallow baking dish  at 350 for 30 minutes.  Top with your favorite sauce.

Note, ground chicken is difficult to roll, but unlike ground beef it holds its shape, so just lightly form a ball and that's it.