pasta and books

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

I can hardly believe how quickly Thanksgiving has snuck up on me! I am really looking forward to the festivities this year, though :) My brother is home from the Marines, so that will be really nice to spend the weekend with him! Then the usual Black Friday madness with my sister, and the traditional family outing to the movie theater to see Harry Potter! It will be great!

Anyway, thought I should share with you a recipe and a book review! Recipe first. A delicious pasta dish from Cooking Light's December issue. I decided to make it because I have only cooked with kale once before this dish, and I didn't particularly like it. This time around, however, it was YUMMY! It is a seriously low-cal and healthy dish, super simple too, so it's a perfect quick meal for during the week! Enjoy!

Orecchiette with Kale, Bacon, and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Other Time: 20 minutes minutes
Yield:  4 servings (serving size: about 1 1/4 cups)


8 ounces uncooked orecchiette pasta {we used farfalle, because that is what we had on hand}
5 cups bagged prewashed kale {just got a bushel for cheap at Sprouts!}
2 slices center-cut bacon {we used turkey bacon to cut down on fat cals}
1/4 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and roughly chopped {probably my new favorite ingredient to incorporate into meals! YUM!}
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
3 large garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/8 teaspoon salt
1 ounce Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, shaved
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Cook pasta in boiling water 8 minutes or until almost tender. Add kale, and cook 2 minutes. Drain in a colander over a bowl, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid.
2. While pasta cooks, cook bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat 4 minutes or until crisp. Remove bacon from pan with a slotted spoon; crumble and set aside. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add sun-dried tomatoes, crushed red pepper, and garlic to drippings in pan {since turkey bacon doesn't leave drippings, we added a dash of olive oil here to give these ingredients something to cook in}; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add pasta mixture, reserved 1/2 cup cooking liquid, black pepper, and salt to pan; toss to combine. Top pasta mixture evenly with bacon and cheese; drizzle evenly with lemon juice.
 

CALORIES 350 {lower if you use turkey bacon!}; FAT 9.2g (sat 3.1g,mono 3.4g,poly 1.3g); CHOLESTEROL 12.4mg; CALCIUM 218mg; CARBOHYDRATE 53.7g; SODIUM 486mg; PROTEIN 14.7g; FIBER 4.1g; IRON 3.7mg

On to the book review!

Tonight I finished Stephenie Meyer's The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, an Eclipse novella. I wouldn't consider myself a Twilight Saga fan, but I have read all of the books, and I was curious when this novella came out this summer. 

This book follows Bree, a newborn vampire made by Victoria during her attempt to create an army of newborns to take down Bella {for revenge of her fallen lover}. It is a short read {178 pages}, and it offers an interesting perspective. Twilight readers are so used to seeing the composed side of vampires, not the savage side of newborn vampires. Stephenie Meyer admits that by the end of writing this book, she wished she hadn't written Bree such a tragic ending in Eclipse, because she grew to love Bree so much. 

Overall, it was worth the time to read. I wouldn't call it a good book {but then again, I wouldn't call any of the Twilight Saga books good books}, but it gave a fresh perspective, one less attached directly to the plight of Bella {which got old for me real quick}. 

Have any of you read this book? If so, what did you think?

Oh, and sorry if I offended any of you Twihards, but I'm just team Harry Potter :) 

Cheers {as I move on to my next book on the reading list!}