Baked Lemon Pasta, and chicken and salad

My sister sent me a link to this recipe blog done by 5 sisters. She's made a bunch of recipes from this site and has loved them all. I was looking at it the other day and came across this dish. It was so different from anything I've had before and so delicious! Jeremy had three helpings and that says a lot! I think I've found a new foodie blog to stalk...
Baked Lemon Pasta
Submitted by Amy ~ www.sisterscafe.blogspot.com
Source: the one and only Pioneer woman

1 pound Thin Spaghetti
4 Tablespoons Salted Butter
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 cloves Garlic, Minced
1 whole Lemon, Juiced And Zested
2 cups Sour Cream
½ teaspoons Kosher Salt, Or More To Taste
Plenty Of Grated Parmesan Cheese
Flat-leaf Parsley, Chopped
Extra Lemon Juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook spaghetti until al dente. In a skillet, melt butter with olive oil over LOW HEAT. When butter is melted, add minced garlic. Squeeze lemon juice into the pan. Turn off heat. Add sour cream and stir mixture together. Add lemon zest and salt. Taste, then add more salt if necessary. Pour mixture over drained spaghetti and stir together, then pour spaghetti into an oven safe dish. Bake, covered, for 15 minutes. Then remove foil and bake for an additional 7 to 10 minutes. (Don’t bake too long or the pasta will dry out.) When you remove it from the oven, squeeze a little more lemon juice over the top. Top generously with Parmesan cheese, then chopped parsley. Give it a final squeeze of lemon juice at the end or feel free to add as much as you like.

It was suggested in the recipe on the blog that you serve this with the following chicken.

Lemon Grilled Chicken:

Juice of one lemon (~3 Tb lemon juice)

3 Tb oil

1 tsp minced garlic (~2 large cloves)

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp oregano

1 lb chicken breasts

Marinate the chicken overnight. For salad, dice the raw chicken and marinate it that way so there is more surface area to marinate. You can get away with marinating for a shorter amount of time this way. Grilling is best, but cooking in a skillet is great, too.

I put the grilled chicken right in with the pasta, and also made this salad the chicken is supposed to go into, but we had it without the chicken:

Chicken Poppy Seed Salad

Resubmitted by Mindy (Originally submitted by Brittany)

www.sisterscafe.blogspot.com

Salad:
Spinach leaves

Romaine leaves

Grilled chicken, sliced (Best if marinated in Lemon Grilled Chicken Marinade*, but if you don't have time then grill with lots of lemon pepper seasoning)

Red onion, sliced thinly

Crispy bacon, crumbled

Shredded mozzarella cheese

Toasted almonds (or you can sugar the almonds. Put sliced almonds in a pan with lots of granulated sugar (about equal amounts). Cook on medium heat until sugar melts, coating the almonds as they brown.)

*Lemon Grilled Chicken:

Juice of one lemon (~3 Tb lemon juice)

3 Tb oil

1 tsp minced garlic (~2 large cloves)

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp oregano

1 lb chicken breasts

Marinate the chicken overnight. For salad, dice the raw chicken and marinate it that way so there is more surface area to marinate. You can get away with marinating for a shorter amount of time this way. Grilling is best, but cooking in a skillet is great, too.

The best part... The Dressing**:

1 1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp salt

2 tsp dry mustard

2/3 cup red wine vinegar

3 Tb Maui or Vidalia onion, chopped

2 cups canola oil

3 Tb poppy seeds

Mix the first 5 ingredients in a blender, then slowly add the oil, blending until thick. Stir in poppy seeds. Toss all ingredients together with generous amount of dressing before serving.

**This makes a lot of dressing! If you need a really big salad for a party then start with a large bunch of spinach, large head of romaine, 4 chicken breasts, 1 lb bacon, etc. I rarely make a salad that big so that is why there are no "amounts". So have fun with it - you're going to love it!

Guiltless Alfredo Sauce

How funny Mandi! Great minds think alike :) We just made this recipe last night for the missionaries. It was amazing! You totally could not tell it was low fat. I grilled some chicken I had marinated in italian dressing and tossed it in with the pasta. I'll have to do a taste comparison with Mandi's!

Guiltless Alfredo Sauce from Our Best Bites

2 C low-fat milk
1/3 C (3 oz) low fat cream cheese
2 T flour
1 t salt
1 T butter
3 garlic cloves
1 C grated Parmesan cheese

Toss the milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt in a blender. Process until smooth and set aside.

In a non-stick sauce pan, melt butter on med-high heat and add garlic. Stand above the pan (but not close enough to scald your face) and inhale. Ahhh...butter and garlic. Okay, now get cooking again. Let the garlic saute for about 30 seconds, you don't want to burn it. It should be nice and bubbly like this:

Then add milk mixture to the pan. Stir constantly for about 3 or 4 minutes or until it just comes to a simmer. Keep stirring and let it cook for a few minutes more. It should be much thicker now.

When it's nice and thickened remove the pan from the heat. Add the cheese, stir it up and then cover immediately. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before using. It will continue to thicken upon standing. Also, if you have leftovers in the fridge, the sauce will thicken almost into a solid. Just re-heat and add a little milk and it will be back to normal again.

Fettucini Alfredo

This is one of those recipes that my family has had forever and loves. It is very simple and very good. Now- beware! You are basically going to be eating straight cream, cheese and butter over pasta, but that is why it is so good, right? We usually add shrimp but leaving it without is still good.

Fettucini Alfredo

¼ C butter
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 C fresh mushrooms, sliced/optional
4 C heavy cream
½ C fresh grated parmesan cheese
1 lb pasta

Saute garlic and mushrooms in butter. Add cream and bring to rolling boil. Reduce heat and simmer sauce. Add cheese right before tossing with noodles and serving.

Shrimp Linguine Alfredo

Shrimp Linguine Alfredo

Ingredients
1 (12 ounce) package linguine pasta
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 large diced onion
4-8 teaspoons minced garlic (to taste)
2 lbs. medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
6 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
4 sprigs fresh parsley
4 slices lemon, for garnish

Directions
1.Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling water until al dente; drain.
2.Meanwhile, melt butter in a large saucepan. Saute onion and garlic over medium heat until tender. Add shrimp; saute over high heat for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in half-and-half. Cook, stirring constantly, until sauce thickens.
3.Place pasta in a serving dish, and cover with shrimp sauce. Sprinkle with black pepper and Parmesan cheese. Garnish with parsley and lemon slices.

Pesto Chicken Tortellini

2 pkgs cheese filled tortellini
1/2 cup alfredo sauce
7 oz pesto
1/2 cup thinly slices red onion
1 yellow summer squash, cut lengthwise in half
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 large tomato chopped
freshly grated parmesan cheese

Cook and drain tortellini as directed on package. Reserve 1/4 cup alfredo sauce. Mix remaining 1/4 cup and the pesto; toss with tortellini and onion. Brush squash with some reserved alfredo and set aside. Cover and grill chicken, brushing with reserved alfredo and turning occasionally until juices run clear. Cover and grill squash, cut sides down, about 10 minutes. Cut chicken into 1-inch pieces and cut squash crosswise inot 1/4 inch slices. Line serving plate with lettuce leaves. Arrange tortellini mixture, chicken, squash and tomato on lettuce. Sprinkle with cheese. Server warm or cover and refrigerate about 2 hours, until chilled. Serves 6

Bacon Tomato Rotini

This is an easy one because I usually have all the ingredients on hand and my kids love it! It has been perfect to use up the tomatoes we have growing outside.

1 pound cooked rotini pasta
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. parmesan cheese
2 tsp parsley
8 slices crumbled cooked bacon
2 medium tomoatoes, chopped

Melt butter in skillet, mix with flour, salt and pepper. Whisk in milk and cook until thick and bubbly. Stir in parmesan, parsley and bacon. Add tomatoes and toss with pasta.

Lemon and Garlic Shrimp Pasta

Olive oil + 5 Tbsp olive oil

Kosher salt

Box of penne pasta
6 tsp butter
3 Tbsp minced garlic
1-2 lbs large uncooked shrimp

Freshly ground pepper
Fresh parsley or fresh basil
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2-4 lemons
1/2 lemon, thinly sliced in half rounds
hot red pepper flakes

Drizzle oil into pot of boiling water and cook pasta according to likeness.

In large heavy bottomed pan, melt butter and olive oil. Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute. It burns easily - so be careful! Add the shrimp, 1 Tbsp of salt and some ground pepper. Sauté until shrimp just turn pink (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat; add parsley, lemon juice, zest and slices, and red pepper flakes. Toss to combine.

When pasta is done, drain and add shrimp and sauce. Toss well and serve. It is fresh or a day old, warm or cold!