Faithful Families and whats for dinner part II

Our church has a small group called faithful families. We have a family friendly outing appropriate for all ages once a month. Last night was at Bouncing off the walls. It's an indoor bounce house with those huge inflatable slides - let's just say the kids are sleeping well tonight. There are a few of these places in Salt Lake. They are particularly great in the winter on the weekend when you just need a place for the kids to blow off some energy. The last time we went during the day I got a four hour nap out of each kid - worth every penny of the entry fee :) I think tonight dad had just as much fun, but he's feeling his age in a few places.



Onto dinner~ our second new experiment was:



Whole wheat penne with artichoke -red pepper sauce

1 lb whole wheat penne or other small pasta

1 14 oz cans artichokes hearts, rinsed and drained

1 12 oz jar roasted red peppers, drained

2 T. EVOO

4 t. lemon juice

1 t. dried basil

1/8 t salt

freshly ground pepper

1/2 c. parmessan cheese, optional



Bring pot of lightly salted water to boil. Cook pasta according to directions. Drain and return to pot. Meanwhile, in food processor, combine artichoke hearts, red peppers, olive oil, lemon juice, basil, salt and pepper. Puree until smooth. Set aside until the pasta is cooked.

Add sauce to pasta and toss over low heat until heated through. Serve immediately, topped with parmessan. Makes 6 servings.



notes: I figured being pasta this would be my favorite of all the ones we tried, it wasn't (the recipe I'll post tomorrow was). I kept thinking it had too much red pepper, and then would change my mind and think it was too much artichoke. It actually might have been both or it was a perfect balance, whichever. It seems that I could have halved both and added a little heavy cream. I think the idea is that this is pretty healthy thought and that would notch it down the health scale. I was never able to get the puree smooth and I tried multiple times and used small batches in the processor. Nathan didn't like it so much, Andrew did -no surpises there. Paul liked it, and it was pasta so that's saying something. It was SUPER easy though and I'll probably try it again. Also, altough it said it makes 6 servings, since people today tend to eat more than an actual serving, I thought it would just feed us and we had it as a main dish, not a side. It made more like 10 sevings (p.s. last nights - the sausage chili was perfect for four servings, we had a tad left over, but we have small people eating the servings). I'll probably make half next time. Oh, and it was re-posted in the Salt Lake Trib, the author was originally Larry Crowe of the associated press (or maybe he just took the picture) I don't have the original paper, just the clipping ... trying to give proper credit.