2 days behind

Monday:
Balsamic Tomato Pasta
**We used brown rice noodles from Trader Joes**
Ingredients
-2 cans (14 oz) chopped tomatoes
-4-8 pieces of drained sun dried tomato in olive oil, thinly sliced - use more or less to your liking
-2 garlic cloves
-3 T olive oil
-1 t sugar
-3 C Corkscrew pasta
-3 T Balsamic Vinegar
-Parmesan cheese

Directions
-In a large skillet, stir together the first five ingredients and simmer on low for 30 min (to remove some of the water from the tomatoes and infuse the flavors).
-While sauce is simmering, cook pasta in large pot of salted water until al dente.
-Drain pasta and return to pot.
-When 30 min simmering is done on sauce, add vinegar on Tbs at a time to taste.  Cook another 1-2 min.
-Pour sauce over drained pasta and toss.  Sprinkle with cheese
-Serve as a main dish or as a side to grilled chicken or other light meat dishes.  **I usually grill chicken, chop it up, and throw it in with the pasta.

Serves 6-8

BUT THE RECIPE THAT STOLE THE DINNER SHOW SITTING AS A SIDE TO THE PASTA:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/roasted-butternut-squash-recipe/index.html
This was the best, best, BEST butternut squash I have ever ate!  I seriously felt like I was eating a rich buttery cake with every bite.  It was sweet, soft, buttery, and SO delicious!  I can't wait to buy more squash so I can make it again!

Tuesday:
Herbed Cheese-Stuffed Salmon
http://www.bhg.com/recipe/seafood/herbed-cheese-stuffed-salmon/
**I used herbed goat cheese for the semi-soft cheese, and ground walnut meal (I ground walnuts in my food processor as fine as I could get them before they started turning into walnut butter) for the bread crumbs.

I made a side salad of: Romaine, chopped pears, cranberries, walnuts, and Trader Joe's Champagne Pear Vinaigrette.

And another side of cooked quinoa and mixed in cucumbers, tomatoes, mint, parsley, black beans, and a drizzle of olive oil and red wine vinegar, and I placed chopped avocado on top.  The two side dishes didn't really go together, but it was what I had on hand, and they were both good in their own way :)