Lazy Sunday Italian Mini-Feast

If this doesn't look like a good start to a Sunday meal, I don't know what does!  Fresh basil and garlic- yum!


During the school year, weekends tend to be pretty hectic for us but we try really hard to make Sunday (or at least part of it) very restful.  I'm definitely a believer in the Sabbath so I have been trying to maintain it in the summer too, so that it is second nature when school starts back up. Today, we slept in, went to the 10:30 service at church and spent a leisurely afternoon around the house with the pugs.  Sunday night is our favorite day of the week for summer TV.  We wait in anticipation all week for the Next Food Network Star and HGTV Design Star. 

But before we can snuggle up in front of the TV, we like to have a good dinner and take a walk around the neighborhood.  I wanted to use up a bit of leftover spaghetti squash and R.T. requested chicken and garlic bread so we collaborated to come up with quite a delightful dinner.  He seasoned and baked two chicken breasts.  I sliced mine and ate it atop my romaine salad with red peppers.

Garlic Bread:

Using some left over Italian bread from my bruschetta, I placed four thick slices on a baking sheet.  I melted a couple tablespoons of natural yogurt butter because it has 45 calories per tablespoon unlike the 100 in regular butter.  I added some chopped garlic, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper and some chopped parsley from my garden.  You can put it in the fridge to firm if you want or just drizzle it over the bread as is.  Then, top it with a little shredded cheese.  I considered parmesan, asiago and romano but the Big Dog prevailed with mozzerella this time.  I didn't even feel guilty for the carbs since we had squash instead of pasta. 

Not-so-secret sauce:

I plan to try my hand at making homemade spaghetti sauce when my tomatoes ripen but in the mean time, I have been using inexpensive store bought sauce that I tweak to my liking.  This time, I added a bunch of chopped basil from my garden (pictured above), crushed red pepper, pepper and chopped garlic.  I would normally add some chopped roasted red peppers but was, to my surpise and horror, out.  It was delicious nonetheless and perfect with the crisp spaghetti squash.  What do you do to your sauce to get it just right? 

Time to go for a walk and get ready to root on our favorite food network star- gooooo Aarti!  Hope you found a way to enjoy your Sunday too!