Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Greek Spaghetti with Tomatoes and Feta

Chicken update: still frozen
Avocado update: still rock hard

Sigh. I hope at some point this week I can use the chicken and avocados. Instead I'm just rearranging my meal plan every night until one of them is good to go. Actually tonight's dinner is my back-up back-up dinner. I was going to do something else but realized I didn't have enough sour cream. This had been my "I might as well grab canned tomatoes at the store to have stuff on hand to make this if I need it" recipe. I've been dying to have it since the baby was born because feta, to be perfectly honest, tasted like puke to me while I was pregnant. It was a sad time in my life. I bought a thing of feta at Costco before Christmas and have been antsy to use it. I generally don't like to have two pasta dishes in a week, and since I made stuffed shells earlier this week, I was going to have to put this on the back burner until next week. And then my chicken was still frozen, avocados were still hard, and I didn't have enough sour cream. Obviously the Good Lord wants me to make this for dinner tonight.

Greek Spaghetti with Tomatoes and Feta
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 large garlic clove, minced
3 cups diced tomato
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, divided
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 cups hot cooked thin spaghetti (about 8 ounces uncooked pasta)
1 cup (4 ounces) crumbled feta cheese, divided
Freshly ground pepper
Lemon slices (optional)
Green onions (optional)

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add oregano and garlic; sauté 30 seconds. Add tomatoes, green onions, 2 tablespoons parsley, and lemon juice; cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Combine tomato mixture, spaghetti, and 3/4 cup cheese; toss gently. Top with remaining cheese and parsley, and serve with pepper. Garnish with lemon slices and green onions, if desired.

*****

I'm so excited...it seems like forever since we've had this. Really it's been at least 11 months probably--nine months of being pregnant and the baby is almost two months old now. I know, can you believe it?! Where is time going??? I'm glad I got two cans of tomatoes at the store because I thought it only called for one, but three cups is really more like 1.5 cans. I'll probably live on the wild side and just use both full cans instead of having half a can left over. Darn it...another recipe I planned on making this week called for one diced tomato, and half a can would have been about that. Too bad I already bought tomatoes for it. Shoot.

*****

I'm so glad I can eat feta again because this was yummy. Two cans of tomatoes was a bit too much sauce, and I think I was a little shy on the amount of pasta, but it was still good. This is so easy to make and so tasty. The feta melts and makes the sauce all creamy and delicious. There were hardly any leftovers.

No comments: