Recipes from "Real Food for Real People"

Suzette's Quick Pasta

1 container of ravioli*
1 tbsp olive oil
2-3 cloves of garlic
½ small onion, diced
1 large tomato, chunked
Basil leaves
Parmesan cheese

Prepare ravioli according to package directions. In a non-stick pan, add oil and sauté onions and garlic until onions are translucent. Once pasta is cooked, drain and rinse with cool water. Place in a bowl and pour contents from the pan over the top. Chiffonade** basil leaves and distribute over pasta. Grate parmesan cheese into the bowl. Stir gently and serve. *Note: I used chicken and mozzarella, but any ravioli will do. In fact, Suzette used rotini (corkscrew pasta). ** Chiffonade is a fancy culinary term. It simply means to stack your basil leaves one on top of the other, roll them, then slice the rolled leaves creating little basil ribbons.

Easy Salsa

1 large can crushed tomatoes
½ small onion, diced
4 leaves green onion, sliced
½ bunch Cilantro, diced
1 jalapeno, diced
½ cup roasted red bell peppers, diced
2-3 limes
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt

This is a very easy recipe. Amounts are generalized and can be adjusted to suit your taste. Pour in crushed tomatoes, onions, cilantro, jalapeno and roasted red bell peppers into a large bowl. Stir. Cut the limes into quarters and squeeze juice directly into your salsa. Watch out for lime seeds that may sneak their way into your salsa. Add your cumin and salt, stir and let stand in fridge. The longer it stands, the better the flavor will be.

Chicken Wrap

Shredded rotisserie chicken
Tortillas (heated)
Salad mix
Shredded cheese
Spread

This is as easy as making a sandwich. Lay out your heated tortilla and spread out your spread covering the tortilla. Place in salad mix, chicken and shredded cheese. Roll it up and eat. You can put just about anything into this wrap. Cut up some of those left over roasted red bell peppers and put that in or some diced tomatoes. Other things, try some spinach, fresh or frozen (be sure to squeeze out the water) or sprouts.

*SPREAD: we used reduced fat sour cream and powdered ranch dressing mixed together. Other spreads you could use are a low fat mayo and Dijon mustard or low fat cream cheese. Experiment with this one.