Sizzling Surf and Turf Pasta

Recipe Title: Sizzling Surf and Turf Pasta
Recipe Link: http://quickiesonthedinnertable.yolasite.com/recipes/sizzling-surf-and-turf-pasta
Status: Approved
Rating: 8/10

Jen's Notes: This recipe is not specifically gluten-free, but it's easily made that way by substituting gluten-free pasta. The prep for this is pretty simple - just slice up the chicken and dice the garlic. If you start the pasta at the same time as the chicken and shrimp concoction, it should all be ready at about the same time. You can have this on the table in twenty minutes, no sweat. Always a nice thing on week night!

If you can't find chili paste, you can also substitute garlic chili sauce, found in the Asian section of most supermarkets. If you go this route, and you aren't a garlic fanatic like me, you'll probably want to cut back on the amount of diced garlic. Also, if you don't like spicy food, cut the chili paste back to 1 or 2 tablespoons. I used the full three tablespoons, and the result was extremely spicy.

We really enjoyed this dish - the combination of shrimp and chicken is unusual but tasty. The recipe recommends adding some salt to the final dish, but I think this could be cut. I added about a teaspoon of kosher salt, and found the mixture to be a little on the salty side. I also would have liked for some veggies to be mixed in there, so I think next time I'll add some spinach so that this is a complete meal.

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Start to Finish: 25 minutes

Penne Arrabiata with Brown Rice Pasta

Recipe Title: Penne Arrabiata with Brown Rice Pasta

Recipe Link: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2006/12/christmas-penne.html
Status: Approved!
Rating: 9/10

Jen's Notes: I used chipotles instead of chiles on the first run – very tasty, but very very spicy. If you don’t like spicy (and I mean really spicy), don’t use chipotles. I also added some lean ground beef to it – I think it made it a much more satisfying meal. I used some of the sauce from the canned chipotles too - I'm sure this didn't help the spice factor but I think maybe it helped the YUM factor.

I also just used about six fresh Roma tomatoes, instead of fire roasted ones. I was a little worried about this recipe because I hate fresh tomatoes (it’s a texture thing), so I was afraid the tomatoes would be too much for me. I just let them cook for a good long time, and it was all good in the hood, baby. I've met a lot of people with the same tomato issue as me - if you are one of those people, do not shy away from this recipe. If I like it, so will you. I've been refusing to eat tomatoes since I was five, so trust me, I hate tomatoes just as much as you do ;)

Kitchen snags? Not much on this one. It was also my first time using Tinkyada pasta (try Whole Foods if you haven't been able to find it - much better than the DeBole's stuff I bought the first time around), and the penne tended to clump together worse than I am used to, so just make sure to give the noodles a quick stir here and there.

Prep Time: 20 minutes to chop up the onion, garlic and tomatoes. Also, if you are using canned chiles, you might need to chop those up too (I did).

Cook Time: 30 minutes, but this could probably be slimmed down a bit since I am not always the most effecient cook.

Start to Finish: 50 minutes, but you can reduce this if you let the onions and garlic cook while you chop up the tomatoes.