Spinach Bowtie Strawberry Salad

Are you having a Memorial Day weekend cookout?  This salad would be an awesome addition to whatever you are grilling up!  We had it for dinner one night combined with grilled chicken.  Absolutely fabulous!  I really liked the dressing but Matt wouldn't even try it because of the vinegar :(  I told him he was missing out (and he was!) but he still didn't try it.  I am still learning how to make salad dressing.  Mine didn't combine very well, so I just did my best to shake it up before I added it to my salad.

Spinach Bowtie Strawberry Salad  Source: One Crazy Cookie

1 bag baby spinach
8 oz. mini-bow tie pasta
1 package bacon cooked crisp and broken into small pieces.
4 oz. mozzarella cheese, cut into about 1 inch cubes
4-6 strawberries cut into bite sized pieces
1/4 cup almond slivers (I omitted)Dressing
1 cup canola oil
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon sweet onion
1 Tablespoon poppy seeds
*Optional 1 strawberry (for a pretty pink color)

Directions:

1. Boil pasta as directed on the package.  Rinse under cold water and set aside.  

2. Combine dressing ingredients in the blender. Mix thoroughly.  
3. Place salad ingredients in a bowl.  Toss gently to combine.

4. Shake the salad dressing well before adding to salad.

Tuna Casserole

Tonight I made the dinner I felt like having.  Often times I will cook what I think Matt would like or the boys would enjoy but tonight I wanted Tuna Casserole with peas and that is exactly what I had.  While I have recipes for Tuna Casserole, I always enjoy trying new recipes so I made the dinner I was hungry for using a recipe I had seen at Can You Stay For Dinner? and couldn't have been happier with the result.

Yum. The ratio of noodles to creamy sauce was dead-on.  I liked the hints of flavor from the Parmesan cheese and garlic powder.  The recipe called for a whole teaspoon of pepper and I hesitated but then decided to go for it.  It was a lot of pepper.  I went back to the original post and saw that in the recipe section it called for 1 teaspoon and in the body of the post she said 1/2 teaspoon.  Fortunately we really like pepper so it wasn't a problem that I did a full teaspoon but I would recommend a 1/2 teaspoon unless you are a huge pepper fan, you can always add more in later.

Tuna Casserole  Source: Can You Stay For Dinner?

Ingredients:

5 cups cooked pasta- rotini or egg noodles were recommended (I used rotini)

2 cans tuna, drained
2 cups peas, fresh or frozen
2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 cup milk
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper  *(Or if you really like pepper up to 1 teaspoon)
1/2 cup finely crushed french fried onions (I used cheddar sun chips)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the soup, milk, cheese, garlic powder, and pepper. Add in the pasta, tuna, and peas. Stir to combine and pour into a greased casserole dish.
3. Bake, covered with foil, for 20 minutes.
4. Remove the foil, sprinkle the french fried onions evenly over the top and bake uncovered for an additional 5 minutes.

Peanut Butter Pie

Life has gotten busy for me lately!  I don't even know how exactly or why but I am trying to get it figured out because I know that things will only be more busy once baby girl comes in July!  Of course, I am still making at least some time to cook and bake :) 

If you haven't had enough peanut butter and chocolate from my last two posts, can I suggest a wonderful creamy Peanut Butter Pie?  This is excellent for a hot day becuase it requires no baking and is kept cold in the refrigerator.  Rich, smooth, cool and quite dreamy!  You will love this one for sure!

Peanut Butter Pie  Source:  Combination from My friend Katy and The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

1 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
1 package (8 Ounce) Softened Cream Cheese
1-¼ cup Powdered Sugar
1 package (8 Ounce) Cool Whip, Thawed
Chocolate bar for shaving on top of pie
Graham Cracker pie crust or Oreo Cookie pie crust

Directions:

1. Combine peanut butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar using a mixer.
2. Once throughly combined stir in the cool whip.
3. Spread into desired pie crust.
4. Top with chocolate bar shavings.
5. Allow to set up in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Refrigerate any leftovers.