Three Cheese Manicotti with Meat Sauce

Nate and I were discussing Italian food. First, we absolutely love it. All of it. But second, what about all the different types of pasta noodles? I'm pretty sure the Italians were just trying to trick us into thinking that the different noodles taste different. I mean come on, really, what is the REAL difference of rigatoni and penne noodles. I know, I know, one is cut diagonally and the other straight, but what is the PURPOSE of this difference.  If I were to have a taste of each, blindfolded I wouldn't be able to name which was which.Or even angel hair, vs spaghetti, vs linguine, vs fettuccine. And why does alfredo sauce have to be eaten with fettuccine noodles?

Manicotti. I'm pretty sure that manicotti noodles are just large penne noodles.

Regardless of this trickery, I really do love Italian food. And I hope that you do too. Because I post a lot of Italian inspired recipes. And this is one of my favorites. So, I hope you enjoy this as much as we did.

Three Cheese Manicotti with Meat Sauce

14 oz diced tomatoes

14 oz crushed tomatoes

14 oz tomato sauce

1 lb ground beef

2 TBS olive oil

2 TBS garlic cloves

1/4 tsp red pepper

½ tsp salt

2 tsp basil

1/2 TBS oregano

1/2 TBS thyme

15 oz ricotta

1 cup parmesan (split)

8 oz mozzarella (split)

2 eggs

3.5 oz spinach, steamed

¾ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1 ½ TBS parsley

1 tsp basil

12-14 manicotti shells

1. Heat olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat.
2. Add garlic and ground red pepper to olive oil and heat 1 to 2 minutes.
3. Add ground beef to pan and brown.
4. Add diced and crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, salt, basil, oregano and thyme to ground beef.
5. Bring to a simmer.
6. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
8. Bring a large pot of water to boil.
9. Add manicotti noodles and cook for about 5 minutes, until al dente.
10. Meanwhile in a large bowl combine ricotta, 1/2 cup parmesan, 1 cup mozzarella (4 oz), eggs, spinach, salt, pepper, parsley, and basil.
11. When noodles are cooked, allow them to cool for about 5 minutes.
12. Spread about 2 cups of sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.
13. Completely fill noodles with cheese mixture.
14. Place noodles into the sauced pan, however you think they fit best.
15. Cover noodles with the remainder of the sauce.
16. Cover pan with foil and bake about 40 minutes in preheated oven.
17. Remove foil and sprinkle manicotti with remaining 1/2 cup of parmesan and 1 cup of mozzarella.
18. Bake an additional 8-10 minutes until cheese is golden brown and bubbly.
19. Remove and allow to cool for about 10 minutes before serving.

The steps of this dish do not have to be done in this exact order, you can prepare the cheese mixture first. You can also make this meatless, or you (of course) use store bought sauce, whatever you like.

This was delicious and we decided to freeze about half of the pan, so hopefully in a month or so we'll have some delicious manicotti for dinner. Yum.

What is your favorite type of pasta noodle?

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Italian Seasoned Croutons

Throughout my 4.5 years of college I ended up only working at one place. I didn't work at all my freshman year (and still managed to get horrible grades some how!) And I did go home for my first few summers, and worked while there, as well. But while I was actually taking classes at BYU, the only place I worked was Legend's Grille.

Although I had an approx. 10 month break in the middle, I worked at Legend's Grille for about a year and a half total. That equals more than  150 days coming home, or going to class smelling like french fry grease. But you know what, no matter how much I complained about it then. I actually loved it.

I loved the student athletes I got to know because of their regular appearances (and my working a few too many hours) well enough that they'd even say hi to me around campus, or around town. I loved making breakfast for the football coaches, and how they learned my name and would ask me about my day, my weekend dates, and were so excited for me when I got engaged. I loved the students who I worked with, and how we had so many jokes together, and howthey respected me when I became a student manager. I loved working with Wayne (the chef), and although I'm pretty sure he blamed me for anything that went wrong in the restaurant (because as a student manager I should be watching everyone else and fixing their mistakes ), we were able to talk about sports, and life, and he trusted me. And I even loved the food at the restaurant as well, even still after working there for 1.5 years.

And, although I'm sure this recipe is no big secret. I learned it while working at Legend's Grille. 

And when I made a salad for dinner this week, I decided last minute that I wanted croutons in my salad - and whats the point in going to the store when we have leftover hot dog buns, and spices and I know how to make my own croutons, that taste way better than any kind I could get at the store.

So there you have it.

Next time you have some left over bread that you would have otherwise thrown away, think again and make some delicious croutons instead.

Italian Seasoned Croutons **

2 old hot dog buns (or three to four slices of bread)

2 TBS oilve oil (or melted butter)

1/2 TBS basil

1/2 TBS oregano

1 TBS parsley

1 TBS parmesan cheese

** except the hot dog buns, all amounts are approximations due to the fact that I never actually measured the seasonings out, but only sprinkled everything. However, you'll want your croutons to have a decent amount of seasonings covering them, to get the right flavor.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Cut buns/bread in half inch by half inch pieces

3. Put pieces in a medium sized bowl and sprinkle with olive oil as you stir with your hands.

4. Sprinkle spices and parmesan over bread pieces while you are mixing with your hands. 

5. Try to get bread pieces evenly covered with oil and seasonings. (The oil is used to hold the seasonings to the bread pieces).

6. Bake for about 8 minutes.

7. Enjoy as a snack (like Nate does), or on top of a fresh salad, or homemade soup.

Do you like croutons on your salad?

Homemade Red Pepper Beef Ravioli

Red Pepper Beef Ravioli

1 lb beef roast

2 cups chicken broth

1 TBS oregano

1/2 TBS thyme

1 and 1/2 medium sized red peppers (or 1 large)

1 cup Parmesan cheese

1 TBS garlic salt

1 batch fresh noodles

Special Equipment Needed:  Kitchen Aid meat grinder attachment

1. Put beef, chicken broth, oregano and thyme in the crock pot.

2. Cook on low for 6 hours, high for 4 hours.

3. Send meat through your meat grinder using the coarse setting.

4. Send meat through again on the fine setting, adding sliced red peppers this time.

5. In a large bowl combine meat mixture, parmesan cheese and garlic salt.

6. Either using the pasta roller attachment or a rolling pin, roll the dough out into long strips, about 4-5 inches wide and as long as you can make them.

7. You will need two strips that are the approximately the same length and width.

8. Take approx. 1 TBS of meat mixture and space about 1 inch apart on one strip of dough. 

 

9. Place the other strip of dough on top.

10. Cut and seal the raviolis using a pastry cutter.

  

11. Set raviolis aside to dry for about 30 minutes.

12. Boil a large pot of water.

13. Put raviolis in boiling water and cook for about 8 minutes.

14. Enjoy raviolis topped with your favorite tomato marinara sauce (canned or homemade) and some mozzarella cheese.

This was seriously so yummy. 

Although next time we'll probably make the raviolis a little smaller. When making this I would recommend making your raviolis about 1x1 inches. But bigger is okay, they'll just get more air in them and might pop while boiling in the water.

We can't wait to make other variations of homemade ravioli soon.

What is your favorite kind of ravioli?

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Garlic Bread Sticks

 

 These were seriously some of the best bread sticks I have ever had. The dough recipe we use makes the best pizza dough ever, so we figured we should try it for bread sticks and they turned out amazing as well. (I'm sure you could use your favorite pizza dough recipe if you don't trust ours.)


1/2 cup margarine, melted
1/8 cup parmesan cheese
1 TBS parsley
1 TBS chopped garlic
1 tsp garlic salt
pizza dough 

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2.  Separate dough into about 15 pieces.
3. Roll dough out into stick shapes.
4. Combine margarine, parmesan, parsley, garlic and garlic salt.
5. Coat bread sticks with margarine mixture.
6. Place bread sticks in oven on pizza stone or cookie sheet.
7. Bake bread sticks for about 8 minutes, until golden brown.
8. After bread sticks are baked, re-coat with margarine spread.
9. Enjoy as a side for a salad or some warm soup.

Meatball Marinara Sandwich

I saw a version of this recipe here, from the Pioneer Woman and decided it looked to delicious not to try it for ourselves. I slightly adapted the recipe to make it more my own, and also decided we might as well eat the sandwiches on deli buns, instead of eating 3 or 4 dinner rolls. Either way, this turned out really tasty.

1 lb ground beef

1/2 cup Italian flavored bread crumbs

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 TBS garlic

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

2 TBS olive oil

1/4 of an onion, chopped

16 oz marinara sauce **

**You can use a jar of sauce, or make your own. I chose to make my own similar to this recipe, but I left out the salt, pepper and garlic since the meatballs had so much flavor already.

deli rolls

mozzarella cheese, shredded

1. Put ground beef, bread crumbs, garlic, salt, pepper and milk in a large bowl.
2. Knead together with hands, mixing thoroughly.
3. Roll meat into tablespoon sized balls.
3. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.
4. Add onions and saute for 1 minute.
5. Add meatballs between the onions and brown for 1 minute. (I had to do this in 2 batches).
6. Flip meatballs over carefully and brown for 1 minute.
7. Pour marinara sauce into the pan.
8. Put lid on pan and shake gently to mix.
9. With lid on pan, allow sauce to simmer for 20 minutes.
10. After 20 minutes, cut deli rolls open in the middle.
11. Put about 6 meatballs on each roll, with extra sauce.
12. Top meatballs with desired amount of mozzarella cheese.
13. Eat immediately and enjoy!

This makes enough for about 4 sandwiches. We each had one sandwich and we were still a LITTLE hungry, (especially Nate because he only had eaten plums for breakfast/lunch). So Nate asked if I would share one with him. I told him I wanted less than half, but he told me I had to eat half. Anyway, we had a good amount of sauce left over and a few meatballs (which would have been perfect to freeze, and enjoy on pasta later). But I forgot. And we went to Lowe's to get a light bulb, and then to get dessert and it sat on the counter the whole time. So needless to say, our dog, Aspen, enjoyed some of it this morning on top of his breakfast (of dog food of course). Lesson learned. Put leftovers in the fridge right away, because it really is a shame to waste them.

What's your worst story of accidentally wasting food?

Baked Ravioli

So my second job is basically a receptionist position. I'm sitting at a computer for 4 hours, where I have to do basic computer skills such as emails, scanning, data entry, etc. and I'm answering any phone call that comes in, and helping anyone who comes through the front door. But when there isn 't any of that stuff going on, I can do whatever I want (on the computer at least) as long as I'm ready to answer the phone if it does ring. So during these 4 hours, after I get bored of Facebook and finish reading all the blogs posted during the day I browse recipes, cooking blogs (such as those listed on my side bar), martha stewart, all recipes, my recipes, or any others I happen to happen upon. I make lists of the recipes I like, and lately I've even started to organize them according to type of food, dish as well as ethnicity.

Of course there are probably many of those that I will never actually make, because when I'm thinking of what to make for dinner I don't always go back to the list. BUT, the other day I was craving Italian food. (Probably because the previous week Nate and I basically cut carbs from our diet.) And I went to the listed and decided upon Martha Stewart's Baked Ravioli. Here is my slightly edited version.

Baked Ravioli

1 TBS olive oil

1 1/2 TBS minced garlic

salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

1 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp oregano

1 (14.5 oz) can stewed tomatoes

1 (14.5 oz) can diced Italian flavored tomatoes

2 lbs frozen ravioli **

1 cup shredded mozzarella

1/4 cup Parmesan

**I actually used 1 lb ravioli, and then realized I needed more noodles and used about 1 cup of rigatoni noodles. You could use any type of noodle that you have around the house.

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

2. Heat olive oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat.

3. Add minced garlic and saute with salt and pepper for about 1 minute.

4. Add thyme, oregano and tomatoes.

5. Bring sauce to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer.

6. Break up tomato chunks with a spoon as much as possible.

7. Scoop most of the bigger tomato chunks out and blend (I used a magic bullet, but a regular blender would work too) till chunks are gone. (There will still be some chunks, but small ones, you don't want any full sized tomatoes in your sauce).

8. Return blended mixture to the sauce.

9. Simmer for about 15 minutes.

10. Meanwhile, cook ravioli in a large pot of boiling water, until they float to the top (pasta does not need to be completely cooked because it will continue to cook in the oven.

11. Drain water from pasta.

12. Toss pasta and sauce in a large bowl.

13. Pour pasta into a 9x13 pan. 

14. Top pasta with Parmesan cheese, then mozzarella cheese.

15. Bake for 20 minutes, until pasta is golden.

I though this was amazing. Although I really like the sauce recipe I learned from my parents, I'm always up for finding new tomato sauce recipes, and this one was perfect. 

I made this, and it was so good, I had to go back for seconds. I even had this reheated the next day. In my opinion Italian food makes the best leftovers.  

What is your favorite meal to eat as leftovers?

Chicken Parmigiana

The past couple weeks Nate and I have tried to be extra healthy. We are back to a regular routine of exercising a few times a week, and we both feel really good about it (in the past 12 days I have ran 8 - I feel awesome.) And along with exercising we decided it helps to eat healthy too. (But eating healthy is really hard for me, as in, I love sweets way too much). But, we can at least try to eat a healthy dinner right?

So this week we decided to cut out most of our carbs, and throughout the week we had garlic sirloin, fish tacos (baked, not fried), and last night we had chicken parmigiana. Although chicken parmigiana would normally be great over noodles, we decided to have it alone, with a side of steamed broccoli instead.

And let me tell you, this was so delicious that our stomachs were not left wanting. Except for maybe wanting more chicken because it was really that good.

To save ourselves from some extra fat, we again baked the meat instead of frying it. Which is what I have always done when making a chicken parmigiana. But this one was just perfect. I don't know if it was the extras I added in the sauce, or the moist chicken, or the hunger in my stomach, but this was AMAZING.

 1 tsp chopped garlic

1 small sweet pepper, diced

1/4 white onion, diced

1 TBS olive oil

1 can tomato sauce

1/2 tsp parsley

1/4 tsp basil

1/4 tsp oregano

**We made this with 2 chicken breasts, cause there's 2 of us, BUT we had sauce left over, so this part of the recipe could be doubled or tripled or whatever, if you need to feed more people.

2 chicken breast

1 egg

1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs

1/8 cup Parmesan cheese

2 oz mozzarella cheese 

For the sauce:

1. Saute pepper, onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat. (The pepper was from our land lord's garden - yum!)

2. Once vegetables are a little browned, add tomato sauce and spices. (we used our homegrown basil and parsley too)

3. Simmer for a few minutes, or for a while, until you're ready to eat.

For the chicken:

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Cut each chicken breast in half (hamburger style, as in how you would fold a piece of paper, hamburger or hotdog)

3. Whip egg in a bowl.

4. Combine bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese in another bowl.

5. Dip chicken in egg and then in bread crumb mixture

6. Spray cooking pan with Pam, so it won't stick.

7. Cook chicken for about 25 minutes.

8. Top chicken with shredded or sliced mozzarella and bake for about 5 more minutes. (This is approximately how long we baked it, but we used our meat thermometer to make sure the chicken was thoroughly cooked, and added the mozzarella when the chicken had about 10 degrees to go - this ensured that our chicken was extra moist)

9. Top chicken with sauce and a couple sprinkles of Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy.  

Like I said before, this is great over noodles, or would be good with a side salad to keep it a little lighter. Yum yum.

This is definitely one of my favorite Italian dishes. When I go to Italian restaurants I often order chicken parmigiana, but this was so good, I can make it at home now, and save some money. 

What is your favorite Italian dish?

Pizza Dough

1 cup water, warm
2 1/2 tsp yeast (1 package)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 TBS sugar
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 lb flour

1. Put water, yeast, oil, cream of tartar and sugar in a bowl.
2. Mix until yeast dissolves.
3. Pour in bread flour slowly, while continually stirring.
4. Knead with dough hook for about 10 minutes straight.
5. Roll dough into a ball and place into a slightly oiled bowl.
6. Cover bowl with damp kitchen towel.
7. Let dough raise for about 30 minutes, in a warm environment (we turned the back burners on the stove to low and stuck the bowl in the middle)
8. Slightly flour countertop and roll dough to desired thickness.

Nate is the expert dough maker at our house. Honestly, I don't ever make the dough (for pizza). But, he's totally a pro now. And he's decided that this will now be our go-to dough. Its mixes so well with our kitchen aid, and turns into such a good little (not really little) ball. He loves the consistency of this dough, so after 2 times making it in one week there will probably be many more to come.

We used this dough for some delicious calzones, check the recipe out here.

Garlic Ranch Chicken Bacon Calzone

The past couple of days we've been lazy, so we just heated up some frozen food (potstickers one night, breaded chicken another) and topped them with some teryiaki sauce. Because both of those meals were 'asian' I told Nate we had to to Mexican or Italian last night. We decided upon Italian, but we wanted something new. Now, I can't say this recipe is VERY Italian, but anything calzone/pizza is close enough in my book. Plus, even if this isn't "Italian" I promise you'll love it, nonetheless.

1/2 cup ranch dressing

1 TBS chopped garlic

2 chicken breasts

1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

7-8 slices of bacon

1 large pizza dough

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Cut the chicken breasts in half and slightly season (I used seasonall, garlic salt, onion salt, and basil)

3. Cook the chicken for about 15 minutes (until inner temperature is 165), chop into 1 inch pieces when cooked.

4. Cook bacon strips over medium heat, crumble into small pieces when cooked

5. Combine ranch dressing and chopped garlic in a bowl and stir.

6. Seperate pizza dough into 2 equal sized sections. **

7. Roll each section into a circle, about 10 inches.

8. Top 1/2 of each circle with garlic ranch dressing.

9. Cover garlic ranch generously with cheese.

10. Top with chopped chicken and crumbled bacon.

11. Fold dough in half, completely covering toppings

12. Crimp edge over itself a little and pinch closed.

13. Make 3 slits on top of dough with knife (so the hot air can be released).

4. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

**If you don't like calzones, you could always just make these into pizzas instead.

If you like tomatoes, these calzones would probably taste great with them.

Warning, these calzones were VERY filling. We cut one of the calzones into 6 slices and we each only ate 2. We saved some for Sunday lunch and froze the rest. So we're hoping it tastes just as good reheated.
 

But seriously, this turned out to be so good.  Nate gave this meal an A+, and I HAVE to agree. Like, oh my goodness good. Pizza is always one of my favorite meals, and this type will have to be added to the regular rotation.

 

What's YOUR favorite type of calzone/pizza?

Spaghetti with Meatballs

For a graduation gift, my parents were kind enough to buy me a pasta maker attachment for our kitchen-aid. We were pretty anxious to try it, so on Sunday we finally did, and the noodles turned out to be delicious.

We were a little nervous because our dough was extremely dry and crumbly, but we tried it anyway and after a very slow start we had a steady flow of spaghetti noodles coming out.

Marinara Sauce with Meatballs

1 can tomato sauce

1/2 TBS chopped garlic

1 TBS parsley

1/2 TBS oregano

1/2 TBS basil

1/4 tsp salt

a sprinkle of pepper 

 1/4 cup onion, chopped

12 meatballs (we used frozen meatballs from Costco)

1. Heat meatballs in the microwave on high for 3 minutes.
2. Meanwhile combine sauce and spices in a medium sized pan.
3. Heat to a simmer. Simmer until sauce becomes desired thickness.
4. Cook chopped onion in a small pan over medium heat, until slightly brown and tender.
5. Put cooked onions and meatballs in sauce.
6. Cook for another couple of minutes, to blend the flavors.

 Spaghetti Noodles

4 eggs

3 1/2 cup flour

1 TBS water

1 tsp salt

1. Break eggs into a liquid measuring cup.
2. Eggs should measure to be 7/8 of a cup. If not, add 1 tsp of water at a time until eggs are 7/8 cup. 
3. Sift flour.
4. Put salt and sifted flour into kitchen aid mixing bowl. 
5. Beat with flat hook, on speed 2, as you slowly add the eggs and water.
6. Mix for 30 seconds.
7. Put on dough hook. 
8. Mix on speed 2 for 2 minutes.
9. Dough will be very very very crumbly. (If you are not using the kitchenaid pasta-extruder this might not be the recipe for you. But a good one can be found here)
10. Knead the dough with your hands for about 2 minutes.
11. Separate the dough into small balls (About the size of a walnut).
12. Don't worry about the dough being crumbly and dry, the machine will still send it through.
    It starts out slow, and gets faster as the machine warms up (don't push the dough balls through, the machine will take them at the right pace)
    
13. Put a couple balls in at a time. Add more when the first ones have gone into the twisty tube.
14. Let the noodles sit for about 1 hour (We just stored them in the fridge till we were ready to make dinner)
15. Cook noodles in boiling water, for about 3-5 minutes. (It took 4 minutes for our noodles)
16. Drain water from noodles.
    

 

Top noodles with sauce. And enjoy!

Warning, this sauce only makes enough for 2 (maybe 3), but you'll have way more noodles than that. We dried some of the noodles (and are saving them for later) and we still cooked too much. But if you're making this for more people remember that the fresh noodles will weigh more than dried noodles would (because they aren't DRIED, and have liquid in them still). So try judging more on space that the noodles take to guess how many you should cook. Also, you can always make more sauce by doubling or tripling the recipe depending on how many people.

Stuffed Squash

2 squash

1/2 cup marinara sauce (a recipe for mine can be found here)

parmesan cheese

Italian seasoned bread crumbs

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
3. Cut the squash in half, lenthwise.
4. Slightly scoop out the center of the squash.
5. Spoon marinara equally into each squash half.
6. Generously sprinkle parmesan cheese to cover marinara.
7. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top of the parmesan cheese.
8. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, until golden brown. (We cooked it a little longer because we were cooking chicken too and wanted to make sure it was cooked thoroughly.)
9. Remove from oven and enjoy.

We ate this with some chicken that I just coated in the same Italian bread crumbs as I used for the squash. This meal was super tasty, and super easy. Plus it seems relatively healthy too.

Chicken and Asparagus Spaghetti Carbonara

8 oz spaghetti noodles

2 cups asparagus (cut in 1 inch slices)

1/2 cup evaporated milk

2 eggs

2 tsp olive oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 chicken breasts (cooked and cut in 1 inch pieces)

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1 1/2 TBS parsley

1/2 tsp black pepper

3/4 tsp salt

6 slices of bacon

1 TBS chopped garlic

1. Heat water in a large pot, until boiling.

2. Once boiling, cook noodles in water for about 8 minutes.

3. Add asparagus pieces to noodles, and cook 2-3 more minutes.

4. Meanwhile, cut bacon into pieces (about inch wide)

5. Cook bacon and garlic in 1 tsp olive oil in a small pan on medium-low heat, until bacon is crispy.

6. Set bacon and garlic aside.

7. Cook onion pieces in 1 tsp olive oil in same pan, until  tender and a light brown color.

8. Drain noodle mixture, and save 1/3 cup of liquid.

9. Mix noodle liquid, milk and eggs with a whisk.

10. Return noodle mixture to large pot, and add onions, milk mixture, chicken and parmesan.

11. Heat over medium heat for about 4 minutes, until slightly thick

12. Stir often.

13. Remove from heat and add parsley, pepper, salt and bacon.

14. Enjoy.

I have grown up loving spaghetti carbonara. My dad would always be the one to make it for us because he learned it while serving his LDS mission in Italy. This meal was always a family favorite, and was always delicious.

Although this meal was always delicious every time it was made, I never actually made it myself. On Friday as Nate and I were looking for a good recipe for dinner we found this recipe, and decided that it sounded good to make. Asparagus is one of our favorite vegetables, and how could adding chicken be a bad thing. 

Now, I've sadly never gotten my dad's recipe from him, so I don't know how similar or different this recipe is, from what he would make. But I do know that it turned out great, and its definitely one we'll want to make again. Nate did suggest that it was a little weird to have the asparagus in the spaghetti, and we may just eat it as a side next time. It would be really tasty either way.

Personal Pita Pizzas

As Nate and I were trying to figure out what to have for dinner, he suggested homemade pizza. We used to make pizza once every week or two, but we haven't made homemade pizza in at least a couple of months. We just bought pitas from Costco today, so I suggested we try personal pizzas with pita for the dough. I did however make homemade sauce, because I feel like it is always so much better than canned/store bought sauce.

It was so nice to have our own personal pizzas because we were able to choose our own toppings and how much sauce and cheese we each wanted. We especially liked being to pick our own toppings, although for these pizzas we used the same toppings, Nate is happy that he'll be able to have mushroom on his pizza in the future (I hate mushrooms). We also decided this was a perfect amount of pizza for each of us as well. (Because when we cook a frozen pizza or buy a pizza we always feel like 'if there is more to eat, I might as well eat it.')

Pizza Sauce  (Please note that for the parsley, oregano, basil, garlic, salt and chicken broth these amounts are guestimates, taste the sauce as you are making it, and add more spices according to what you like.)

1 small can tomato paste

1 can tomato sauce

1 1/2 TBS parsley

1/2 TBS oregano

1/2 TBS basil

1 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp salt

2-3 TBS chicken broth**

cheese (we used italian blend and a little cheddar)

4 pitas (we actually made 3 (Dain had one) but have enough sauce left over for maybe 1.5 more.

**Tomato paste is a little sweeter than I like, and so I added a little chicken broth to take away from the sweetness. This little addition made the sauce have a perfect amount of sweetness.

1. Combine tomato paste, sauce, parsley, oregano, basil, garlic, salt and chicken broth in a small pot or pan.
2. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
3. Reduce to a simmer.
4. Simmer for about 7 minutes, (until it is the consistency you like) stirring occasionally.
5. Coat pitas with pizza sauce (as much or as little as you like).
6. Sprinkle with cheese, covering entire pita lightly
7. Top with your favorite pizza toppings. (We used canadian bacon, pepperoni and sausage. Yum!)
8. Bake in the oven, set to 450, for about 8-10 minutes until the cheese starts to bubble.

Having the pita as the crust was also perfect because it tasted delicious. It tasted like a really good pizza crust, without all the hassle or making it and waiting for the dough to rise. Our crust was still soft with a little bit of crispiness on the ends. If you want a crisper crust, try toasting the pita for a couple minutes before you put everything on.

Baked Penne with Meatballs

I got this recipe from For the Love of Cooking. And it turned out really great. I just used Costco's frozen meatballs instead of making my own, but if you want to make your own, she tells you how. And I changed a couple other little things to. So here you go:

Ingredients

2 tsp olive oil

1/2 sweet yellow onion, diced
3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
1 15 oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 15 oz can of tomato sauce
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp parsley
1 tsp  basil
1 tsp  oregano
1 tsp white sugar
1 pinch of red pepper flakes
Salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste

Penne pasta, prepared per instructions (we used a little over half a bag -- probably 5 servings)
1 cup of mozzarella cheese, shredded (I actually would have liked more cheese)
1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, shredded

Meatballs (we probably added about 25)

1.Saute onions in olive oil, until tender.

2. Add garlic and cook for 60 seconds, stirring frequently. (get ready for a delicious smelling kitchen)

3. Add garlic, onion and remaining sauce ingredients to crock pot. (You could probably just simmer it in a large pan)

4. Cook on high for 2 hours (I only cooked it about 1)

5. Add defrosted meatballs.

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

7. Cook the pasta, according to instructions on package and drain. 

8. Pour the pasta and sauce into casserole dish.

9. Mix in the cheese, putting the most on top.

10. Bake for 30 minutes.

Chicken Fettucine Alfredo

1 cube butter (not margarine)
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
3 T parsley flakes
1 cup parmesan cheese
1 box fettuccine noodles
Chicken Breast (as much as you want for your recipe)

1. Melt butter in a pan
2. Add cream, Parmesan, and parsley
3. Melt together
4.  Cut the chicken in small pieces
5. Cook on low in a pan till thoroughly cooked
6. Turn burner to high and sear the chicken
7. Add chicken pieces to the Alfredo sauce
8. Cook fettuccine noodles according to instructions on box
9. Pour sauce over noodles

This is a recipe that Nate got from his mom. Its definitely not very healthy, but its really delicious, and it hardly takes any time at all.

Chicken, Spinach and Pasta with Lemon Cream Sauce

I found this recipe off Mrshardingcooks, I changed it slightly to fit what I had in the house. Click on Mrshardingcooks and you can get the original recipe, here is my version. I bolded my changes.

1 lb. pasta (farfalle, rotini or penne or fusilli all work)
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 clove garlic minced
white pepper (I imagine regular pepper could work, I just used a dash)
1 tsp. lemon juice
4 chicken tenders
1/2 cup half and half
1 cup milk
2 tsp. flour
1/4 cup lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup chopped spinach

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Cut chicken tenders into bite size pieces. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium-high, add garlic, stir over 1 minute until fragrant. Add chicken breasts and season with white pepper and 1 tsp. lemon juice. Cook chicken through, lightly browning. When cooked remove from pan.

Return pan to stove over medium heat. In a shaker container add 1/2 cup milk and 2 tsp. flour, place lid on container and shake to mix flour and milk. Add flour/milk mixture, half and half, and rest of milk to pan. Heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens slightly. Add more milk if necessary to reach desired thickness. Add 1/4 cup lemon juice, stirring and simmer for 5 minutes. Add Parmesan cheese. Add frozen spinach and diced chicken, stir everything till heated through out, a minute or two. Add pasta and stir it all together. You may not use all the pasta, just add enough to have the right amount of with sauce.

We decided as a family it was a keeper recipe.

Spaghetti

Spaghetti:

Makes 2 or 3 servings  

 

16 oz tomato zauce

quarter size dried parsley (crushed)

nickle size dried oregano (crushed)

dime size dried basil (crushed)

salt (to taste)

apple size ground beef

one garlic clove (minced)

spaghetti noodles (cook according to directions on package)

1. Brown ground beef with garlic.

2. Drain Grease.

3. Add tomato sauce and crushed spices and simmer.

4. Heat on low for about 30 minutes.

5. Cook noodles half way through.

This is one of my favorite recipes. I've made it so many times now, I think I've got it down without looking at the recipe anymore. I usually just add garlic salt instead of regular salt and a garlic clove. I don't think I've ever had spaghetti better than when my mom or dad follow this recipe.