Manicotti

There will be no more complaining from me, I got a couple hours of much needed rest this weekend! We still had a busy weekend... Justin rearranged our bedroom and Andrew had a friend spend the night, but at least we got to stay home! I cracked open the windows (for the first time this year) and got some spring cleaning done! The house is clean and I'm caught up on laundry and dishes... did I mention this was a wonderful weekend?! :-)
I've been making this manicotti for over 10 years. I got the recipe from Justin's mom Trish, she even made it for Justin's brother Chad's wedding rehearsal dinner!

Ingredients
1 package manicotti noodles (14 pieces)
1 3/4 cups (15 oz container) ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (or dried Italian seasoning)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3 cups (28 oz jar) spaghetti sauce
Extra mozzarella and Parmesan cheese for topping (optional)

Directions
Cook pasta according to package directions; drain. Cool in single layer on foil. In large bowl, stir together cheeses, parsley, salt and pepper; pipe into cooled pasta tubes (I put the cheese mixture in a ziploc, cut the corner off the ziploc and pipe the cheese into the noodles). Spread thin layer of sauce on bottom of 13x9 inch baking dish; arrange filled pasta in single layer over sauce. Pour remaining sauce over pasta; cover with foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Remove foil; top with extra cheese if desired and bake 15 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Spaghetti a la Philly

I was glancing through Kraft's website because I had some extra Philadelphia Cream Cheese and saw this recipe! The concept is simple... adding cream cheese to your favorite spaghetti and meat sauce. However, the result is surprisingly good! It gives this creamy lasagna-like quality to the spaghetti. I am not a huge spaghetti lover but we eat lots of spaghetti at my house; it's cheap and easy so we end up eating it once a week. I LOVE this twist!

Ingredients
1 large jar spaghetti sauce
8 ounces spaghetti noodles
1 pound ground beef (I sprinkle some Italian seasonings and garlic in my beef)
8 ounces cream cheese
Sprinkling of Parmesan cheese, optional

Directions
Cook the beef in a skillet over medium-high heat until well browned, stirring often to separate meat. I like to season my meat with a teaspoon of Italian seasonings and garlic but you don't have to. Pour off any fat. Add the spaghetti sauce to the meat. Cut the cream cheese into chucks and add it to the red sauce. Stir the cream cheese into the red sauce over medium-low heat until it's completely incorporated. Add the spaghetti to the sauce and toss to coat.

Sweetie Pie's Mac and Cheese

I haven't had much luck with homemade macaroni and cheese...
Attempt 1, 3 Ingredient Macaroni and Cheese was the first recipe I ever posted on my blog (the picture makes me laugh, you can see my shadow... we've learned a lot about taking pictures these last 3 years). This is a great stove-top macaroni and cheese but it's not that wholesome macaroni and cheese casserole old ladies bring to pot-lucks.
Attempt 2, The Lady's Cheesy Mac was dry and tasteless.
Attempt 3, Betty Crocker's Macaroni and Cheese was the best so far but it tastes EXACTLY like Stouffer's macaroni and cheese which you can buy in the freezer section of the supermarket for $2.

Sweetie Pie's was my 4th attempt and hallelujah, I've met perfection! It was featured on Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives... It was terrific! It was creamy with the right amount of gooeyness but the flavor is what sets this macaroni and cheese apart. It's got a hint of sour cream and sweetness but full of stringy cheese! My only complaint is that my 9x13 pan overflowed in the oven, so next time I am going to try using only 1 can of evaporated milk, I will adjust my blog recipe if it goes well! Ingredients
1 pound elbow macaroni pasta
1 cup whole milk (I didn't have whole milk so I used heavy cream... don't judge me)
2 (12-ounce) cans evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 sticks butter, cut into small pieces
1 pound Colby-Jack cheese, shred it yourself (the pre-shredded cheese in bags is covered with flour and can make your macaroni oily)
1/2 pound Cheddar cheese, shred it yourself
1 pound Velveeta cheese, cut into small chunks
Salt, to taste
1 tablespoon pepper
1 tablespoon sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions. Now, Sweetie Pie's mixes everything in the casserole pan but our 9x13 pans aren't big enough, so I used a LARGE bowl. In a large bowl combine the whole milk, evaporated milk, sour cream, and eggs. Mix with a whisk until thoroughly combined. Add the butter, Colby-Jack, Cheddar, and Velveeta cheeses to the pasta. RESERVE A CUP OF CHEESE to sprinkle on the top. Pour the cooked pasta noodles into the cheese mixture and season with salt, pepper and sugar and toss. Now transfer the noodle cheese mixture to a 9x13 pan. Sprinkle the top of the pasta with the remaining cup of cheese.Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned.

Skillet Chili Mac with Corn and Green Chiles

We are officially snowed in! Well, in all honesty we could shovel ourselves out but we are having too much fun being stranded at home! I've cleaned the house, played with all the Christmas gifts (with my boys), found homes for all the Christmas gifts, and have snuggled on the couch with my husband for hours.... yeah, we're enjoying being together to much to shovel our driveway! I think we got around 7 inches of snow but the wind blew it all up against our house, we have a two foot snow drift right outside our front door!
This was the perfect time for My Kitchen Cafe's Skillet Chili Mac! If you're wanting a traditional hamburger helper type meal omit the corn, chiles and cilantro.

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1 onion, minced
3/4 tablespoon chili powder (add more if you want more heat)
1/2 tablespoon ground coriander (substitute ground cumin for a smokier flavor)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
2 cups water
8 ounces (2 cups) noodles (elbow macaroni or whatever you prefer)
1 cup corn
1 (4.5 ounce) can chopped green chiles
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
2 cups shredded cheese (I used a combination of cheddar and monterey jack but you can use pepper jack or a mexican shredded cheese blend)

Directions
Heat a 12-inch non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add the ground beef, onion, chili powder, coriander, cumin and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cook the ground beef until it is no longer pink. Drain off any excess fat or grease (the amount will depend on how lean your beef is). Stir in garlic and brown sugar and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomato sauce, water, and macaroni. Cover and cook, stirring often and keeping the heat at a steady simmer, until the macaroni is tender, about 12-12 minutes.
Stir in 1 cup of the cheese, frozen corn, green chiles and cilantro and sprinkle remaining 1 cup of cheese over the top. Cover and let sit off the heat until the cheese melts, about 2 minutes.

Bowtie Chicken Pasta with Fontina Cream Sauce

There's a restaurant here in Kansas City called Paulo and Bill's that has an outstanding Bowtie Chicken Pasta! The Paulo and Bill's menu said they used Fontina cheese so I wanted to create a copycat recipe for my family (plus it gave me an opportunity to try a new kind of cheese)! I got surprisingly close for my first copycat attempt! I will only change one thing the next time I make it... I made the mistake of adding the chicken to the cheese sauce before the noodles and the cheese fused all the chicken together into a giant chicken-cheese lump that wouldn't incorporate into the noodles. I thought the pasta was fantastic but Justin, Andrew, and my father all sprinkled seasonings (Cajun and red pepper) on their pasta... I don't think they like Alfredo type pasta as much as I do! We had our favorite Chocolate Torte for dessert, it was a wonderful evening!

Ingredients
Bowtie Noodles, cooked and drained
2 cups shredded chicken
1 cup sauteed mushrooms
1/2 pound Fontina cheese, grated
1/2 cup heavy cream
5 1/2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 clove garlic, minced

Directions
Place the Fontina cheese, cream, butter, garlic, and Parmesan a sauce pan. Heat on medium, stirring occasionally, until the cheeses have melted and the sauce is smooth and hot. Stir in the cooked Bowtie noodles, when they're covered with the cheese sauce stir in the shredded chicken and mushrooms.

I found the Fontina cheese at my local groccery store but it was $6 for a 1/2 pound. I will definitely but it at Sam's Wholesale Club in the future! Justin described the cheese as a buttery mozzarella.This is my dad's pasta that he spiced up... just like Emeril, BAM!

Abbott's Spaghetti Tacos

Abbott loves the Nickelodeon TV show iCarly and on the TV show Carly's favorite dinner is spaghetti tacos. So Abbott's been asking for them for awhile now, I finally gave in. Justin and I had a lot of trepidation but they were actually pretty good! In fact... Justin's sitting beside me and when he saw the spaghetti taco pictures he went "Mmm... those were good"!
If your serving dinner to an elementary school child who watches Nickelodeon then surprise him/her with spaghetti tacos, you won't be sorry!

Ingredients (is this really necessary?)
Spaghetti Noodles, cooked
Spaghetti Sauce
Taco Shells (I got the white corn shells)

Directions
Mix the spaghetti noodles and sauce in a big bowl. With a fork twirl the noodles and put them into the taco shells. We cooked our taco shells but I don't know if it really made a difference. I know photo directions aren't needed for this recipe but watching Abbott eat his spaghetti taco just made me smile. I love him so much it hurts! This is my first animated GIF of Abbott eating his taco (for email readers, I think this will only work on my website).
Create avatar

Tuna Pasta Salad

I love cold tuna pasta salad but it smells up my house. I wish canned tuna didn't smell so bad, it tastes so good! I know this is lame, but I can't wait for fall so our TV shows are back. We've spent the summer watching Friends reruns, which happens to be the best TV show ever by the way!

Ingredients
12 ounces pasta shells or macaroni, cooked and drained
12 ounces canned tuna, drained
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup frozen green peas, cooked
1 1/2 cups Miracle Whip
Salt and pepper

Directions
Combine the cooked and drained pasta with the drained tuna, chopped celery, peas, and mayonnaise, using only enough mayonnaise for the salad to be creamy. Chill at least 1- 2 hours before serving.

Spicy Chicken Pasta

This is a great weeknight dinner! I like that there's a little green leafy vegetable slipped in, Justin said that he liked the bites with spinach better than the bites without! Wow! I also like that everything cooks in one large skillet, it makes clean up a cinch! Which meant we had plenty of time to see Night at the Museum 2 (great family movie) and watch Jon & Kate Plus 8 announce their divorce (which made Abbott cry). Making this pasta reminded me of an awesome stop-motion animation video!

PES gives his unique vision of cooking a spaghetti dinner. He transposes various household items into their humorous counterparts in the kitchen (a clove of garlic becomes a Rubik's cube, dry spaghetti become pick-up sticks). I love watching it!

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
Cajun seasoning
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 can of tomatoes with green chilies, pulsed in a blender to break up the large chunks
A big handful of fresh spinach
1 box of Gemelli pasta(or whatever is you prefer)

Directions
Prepare pasta according to package directions. Sprinkle lots of Cajun seasoning on the chicken breasts and cook them in a large skillet. When the chicken is done take it out of the pan, shred the breasts, and set aside for later. Now pour the olive oil into the same large skillet. Add the minced garlic. Cook over medium-low heat until tender. Add the can of tomatoes with green chilies (remember to mince or pulse it, you want the consistency of salsa). Let the juice cook and reduce. Add butter and flour to the skillet to make a roux. Add milk and stir continuously until it starts to thicken up, if it gets too thick add a little more milk. Add the shredded chicken, Parmesan cheese, and salt to the sauce. Now shake on some more Cajun seasoning, taste the sauce, and shake on some more! If I were to guess I think I used 3-4 teaspoons of Cajun seasoning. When the cheese is melted add the spinach and pasta, cook just until spinach starts to wilt.

Asian Noodle Salad

This recipe comes from Pioneer Woman, she has an amazing blog with step-by-step pictures for this salad, check it out! I've had my eye on this recipe for awhile and I finally had the perfect opportunity to make it! I took it to work to celebrate Shalee's (one of the secretaries) last day of work for the summer... we celebrate the small things ;-)
I am kicking myself for not making this earlier! It was absolutely fantastic! I was always hesitant to make it for my family because of all the veggies, I knew my husband and boys wouldn't eat the cabbage or bean sprouts. However, you can't even taste them! Seriously, I am going to make this for my family, for my non-veggie eating in-laws, and maybe even my boy's Friday night sleepovers! Ha! This may be the best recipe I've ever found to get my kids to eat healthy vegetables! You have to make it!!
**Important tip! This makes more salad than I've ever seen in my life. I brought my two giant salad bowls to work to serve it in but they weren't big enough. I had to borrow one of those industrial sized steam table pans from the high school cafeteria! Salad Ingredients
1 package linguine noodles, cooked, rinsed, and cooled
1/2 to 1 head sliced Napa cabbage
1/2 to 1 head sliced purple cabbage
1/2 to 1 bag baby spinach
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 orange bell pepper, diced
1 small bag bean sprouts (also called “mung bean sprouts”)
3 sliced scallions (green onions)
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
LOTS of chopped cilantro—up to one bunch
Dressing Ingredients
Juice of 2 limes
16 tablespoons olive oil
5 tablespoons sesame oil
12 tablespoons soy sauce
2/3 cup brown sugar
6 tablespoons fresh ginger, chopped
4 cloves chopped garlic
2 hot peppers or jalapenos, chopped

Directions
Grab some comfy shoes and a cutting board, you're going to be here for awhile! Chop and dice all the salad ingredients. Mix them together with the chilled linguine noodles or put in a Ziploc and store in the fridge for later. To make the dressing you whisk together the ingredients and pour over salad. Mix the salad with tongs and serve in a large platter or bowl. The dressing keeps up to three days in the fridge before serving.

I took my salad to work so here's what it looked like before I left. The veggies were all chopped in a bag, the 3 cups of dressing was in a sealed travel bowl, the cooked linguine noodles were in a bag, and I left the spinach and sprouts in their bags. Then when I got to work I put everything in the fridge until lunch. At lunch time I just dumped the bags out into the serving tray tossed with the dressing and served. Everyone loved it and I can't wait to make it again!

Baked Lemon Pasta

This pasta is delicious but I would call it a side dish, rather than an entree. You can only eat so much of it before the lemon and Parmesan flavor gets overpowering. The boys were cute; they were hesitant to try the pasta and when they tried it they both gave a "Hmph"... the kind of Hmph that implies it's better than they expected. After that they just gobbled noodles faster than they could talk. This pasta would be fantastic served with seafood, maybe next time I'll serve it with my lemon pepper fish!!
**Overnight Update- I thought about this pasta all night long and I finally realized what taste it resembles, shrimp scampi... like noodles that have had scampi sauce poured all over them! We didn't have any leftovers (the neighbor boys finished it off) but I am craving some more today! Can we have the same dinner two days in a row?

Ingredients
1 pound thin spaghetti
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon
2 cups sour cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
Grated Parmesan cheese
Flat leaf parsley, chopped

Directions
Cook spaghetti until al dente. In a skillet, melt butter with olive oil over LOW HEAT. When butter is melted, add minced garlic. Squeeze lemon juice into the pan. Turn off heat. Stop to inhale the magic you've just created! The butter, garlic, and lemon... Mmmm it is quite possibly the best smell in the world! Add the sour cream and stir mixture together. Add lemon zest and salt. Taste, then add more salt if necessary. Pour mixture over drained spaghetti and stir together, then pour spaghetti into an oven safe dish. Bake, covered, for 15 minutes at 375 degrees. Then remove foil and bake for an additional 7 to 10 minutes. (Don’t bake too long or the pasta will dry out.)

Let me pause for a second and talk about cheese. We like cheese, so I thought I would shred the entire 7-ounce triangle of Parmesan cheese. It would be the perfect amount for our pasta, right? Wrong! It was WAY too much cheese! In the future I will only shred 3-ounces of cheese! Look at the mountain of cheese I ended up with!! When you remove it from the oven, top generously with Parmesan cheese, then chopped parsley.

Baked Pasta

This baked pasta is so easy, you can't mess it up! It's one of the few recipes I make with different ingredients each time depending on what I have in my pantry. I am frugal... hmm, I don't know if I'm frugal or thrifty. What's the difference? I think a thrifty shopper buys cheap things they don't need and a frugal shopper buys items they need at a good price. So according to my definition I qualify as frugal. I fight poor Justin kicking and screaming when he wants to purchase something, I even made him go without a TV for a few months when ours died in a lightening storm. So I LOVE when we skip our grocery store trip and live off what we have in our pantry/fridge. It's like an Iron Chef challenge trying to figure out how to use the food we already have! So if you make this baked pasta all you really need is pasta and sauce, try looking around your pantry/refrigerator to find other ingredients (veggies? cheese? meat?), it's fun! Here's what I used...

Ingredients
1 bag of pasta
1 large jar of spagetti sauce
1 package of shredded mozzarella cheese
1 pound ground beef
Italian seasoning
Minced garlic

Directions
Boil the pasta while you brown the ground beef. I added around a tablespoon of Italian seasoning and minced garlic to my ground beef while it cooked. I would have added an onion or some spinach too but we didn't ave any. When the beef is brown add the spagetti sauce and turn the heat off. Drain the pasta and stir in the spagetti meat sauce. Put it all in a 9x13 casserole dish, stir in the cheese, cover with foil, and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Corkscrew Pasta Salad

This is my absolute favorite pasta salad (notice I didn’t say macaroni salad)! When we go to BBQ’s it is so difficult for me to decide if I should bring my Delicious Macaroni Salad or this Corkscrew Pasta Salad, I usually end up bringing both… I love these salads that much! This pasta salad is sweet and tangy, nothing like the usual Italian dressing pasta salad. I brought it for lunch today and all morning I couldn’t wait to eat lunch (that’s not lame, is it?). I ate lunch during a meeting but all I did was savor every bite of my pasta salad wondering why I don’t make it more often. Whenever I get those recipe emails or someone asks for my favorite recipe I always give my corkscrew pasta salad and delicious macaroni salad recipes, yumilicious!!

Ingredients
16 ounces corkscrew pasta
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1 cucumber (sliced)
1 green pepper (chopped)
1/2 cup red onion (chopped)
Optional- 1 cup cheddar cheese cubes
Sauce
1/2 cup olive oil
3/4 cup vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons mustard
1 tablespoon Accent or any MSG
1 teaspoon garlic salt or powder

Directions
Cook the corkscrew pasta in boiling water, drain, and cool. In a large bowl whisk together the sauce ingredients. Add the pasta, tomatoes, cucumber, green pepper, and onion to the sauce and stir to coat everything. Cool in the fridge for at least 4 hours or over night. Stir before serving (the sauce tends to settle at the bottom).

Lasagna

This is probably the first recipe I ever thought up (not that I would claim ownership of this basic recipe), but I’ve been making it since I was 16 and in all these years I haven’t changed a thing! When Justin was eating it he said “you really do make a mean lasagna” and Abbott (who doesn’t like lasagna) said “that’s what’s wrong with it, it’s mean”, lol. The recipe for this lasagna isn’t an exact science (as you can tell from the ingredients), I’ve used a little more and less of things depending on what I had and it’s always turned out great.

Ingredients
Lasagna noodles
1-2 pounds ground beef
1 extra large jar spaghetti sauce (about 4 cups)
1 small container ricotta cheese (about 2 cups)
2 cups mozzarella cheese

Directions
Boil lasagna noodles and set aside. Cook the ground beef until brown, drain, and add the spaghetti sauce. In a medium bowl stir together the mozzarella and ricotta cheese. Now in a 9x13 baking dish put a thin layer of meat sauce. Lay a layer of lasagna noodles on-top of the sauce. Now a layer of the cheese mixture, it won’t spread over the noodles easily so I drop small clumps on the noodles and try to smear them together. Now another layer of noodles, then another layer of meat sauce, then noodles, then cheese, then noodles, then meat sauce... you get the picture. Keep layering until you run out of room in your baking dish. Top the last layer with meat sauce. Cook at 375 for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

Betty Crocker’s Macaroni and Cheese

In our quest to find that perfect potluck macaroni and cheese I couldn’t go without trying Betty Crocker’s Macaroni and Cheese! We were all excited because we knew it had to be good! I learned my lesson from The Lady’s Mac so I put this macaroni and cheese in a much deeper dish. It was very gooey and creamy and after the first bite we looked at each other and laughed. This macaroni and cheese tastes exactly like Stouffer’s Macaroni and Cheese.

Seriously, if you took a blind bite of each you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference! The boys were thrilled because they love Stouffer’s Mac and Cheese, Justin and I love it too but personally I would prefer to stick a frozen box in the oven to cooking in the kitchen for an hour. So this isn’t a recipe I will make again because I’ll buy the easier Stouffer’s version in the freezer section of my grocery store, but I would suggest this macaroni and cheese to anyone who doesn’t have Stouffer’s! It truly is THE BEST macaroni and cheese!

Ingredients
2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni (7 ounces)
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground mustard
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 cups milk
2 cups shredded or cubed Cheddar cheese (8 ounces)

Directions
Cook macaroni as directed on package. While macaroni is cooking, melt butter in 3-quart saucepan over low heat. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in cheese. Cook, stirring occasionally, until cheese is melted. Drain macaroni. Gently stir macaroni into cheese sauce. Pour into ungreased 2-quart casserole. Bake uncovered at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly.

The Lady's Cheesy Mac (Fail)

Justin is a macaroni and cheese connoisseur, he remembers having the perfect macaroni and cheese at a church potluck when he was little but hasn’t had one he really enjoys since. So over the next couple weeks I am going to try out different mac and cheese recipes, this one is from Paula Dean. This mac and cheese was just ok, to be fair I really think I need to make it again because I put it in a 9x13 pan and it was way too dried out to be any good; it needs a deep bowl type dish to cook in instead of a pan. It didn’t have much flavor and wasn’t creamy. The search for the perfect macaroni and cheese continues…

Ingredients
4 tablespoon butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cup grated cheddar cheese
3 eggs, beaten
4 cup cooked elbow macaroni, drained
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Once you have the macaroni cooked and drained, place in a large bowl and while still hot and add the cheddar. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and add to the macaroni mixture. Pour macaroni mixture into a casserole dish and bake for 30 to 45 minutes. Top with additional cheese if desired.

Italian Cheesy Spinach Pasta

Ok, I know this isn’t the most appetizing picture we’ve ever taken, and to be honest this isn’t really an inviting looking dish but… this was good, sinfully good (although it has spinach I am sure it is quite fattening). Justin and I continuously popped cheesy bites of spinach shells into our mouths while we read our Twilight books (for the second read this month, it’s an awesome book). We both ate so much we feel like we’re going to be sick!

Ingredients
1 (12 ounce) package medium seashell pasta
1 (8 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 minced garlic clove (I was out of garlic today so I used 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder)
2 eggs
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
1 jar tomato pasta sauce
1 (8 ounce) package shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook pasta in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente and drain. Rinse the pasta with cool water and drain again (so when you add the egg it doesn’t cook it). In a small pan saute the spinach, italian seasoning, and garlic until warm and tender. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and oil. Toss the pasta with the cooked spinach, egg mixture, and bread crumbs.

Cover the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish with 1/3 of the pasta sauce. Pour the pasta mixture into the baking dish and cover with the cheese. Pour the remaining sauce over the cheese and bake for 40 minutes in the preheated oven, or until bubbly and lightly browned.

Fettuccine Alfredo

I’ve tried making fettuccine alfredo so many times because seems like an easy dinner. It hasn’t ever turned out very yummy though. So, last week I did some research and read online that the trick to making fettuccine alfredo is to buy a block of parmesan cheese and shred it yourself so I thought I would give it another try. They were correct! This was scrumptious and the whole dinner took around 20 minutes. Let’s just be happy with it being so quick and easy, try not to dwell on how fattening it is ;-)

Ingredients
10 ounces fettuccini pasta
1/2 cup butter
3 cloves minced garlic
1 cup heavy cream
1 egg yolk
2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add fettuccine pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
In a large skillet melt the butter and add the chopped garlic. Cook on low for about 5 minutes, stirring often, making sure not to burn the garlic.
Pour about a 1/4 cup of the heavy cream into a small bowl. Add the egg yolk and beat together; put aside. Pour the remaining cream into the frying pan. Increase the heat to medium-high. As the cream starts to boil, mix rapidly using a whisk. Slowly add the cream/egg mixture. You do not want the egg to curdle. Continue whisking until well blended.
Add 1 cup of the Parmesan cheese and continue to mix the cream. Pour in the remaining Parmesan and the parsley, mix until smooth. Immediately remove from stove. Serve over cooked pasta.

Stuffed Shells Florentine

This recipe is from Mary (easily the nicest person I know). I asked Mary for one of her favorite recipes, but Mary doesn’t eat meat and my boys don’t eat vegetables so this was quite a feat! She gave me this stuffed shells recipe and everyone loved it! Even Justin (who is the King of disliking veggies) said we would have to make it again soon! I made 2 changes from her original recipe which I have noted below, but I think following her recipe exactly would have been delicious!

Ingredients
1/2 cup chopped onion (I omitted the onion)
2 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1- 8 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
1- 16 oz container lowfat cottage cheese (I used ricotta instead of cottage)
24 Jumbo pasta shells
1 package shredded mozzarella cheese
1- 15 oz jar spaghetti sauce or homemade

Directions
Cook shells according to the directions. Meanwhile, in large saucepan, over medium-high heat, sauté onion, garlic, Italian seasoning, pepper and olive oil. Mix in the spinach and cook until heated.
Remove from heat; stir in cottage/ricotta cheese and ¾ the shredded cheese.
Spoon into Cooked Shells.
Spread 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce in bottom of 13X9 inch pan; arrange shells over sauce. Top with remaining sauce and cover. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Sprinkle some remaining cheese over the top.

Delicious Macaroni Salad

Those recipe exchange emails made their rounds last week, I got at least 5 and gave my usual two favorite pasta salad recipes. I got a couple responses back from friends who asked why my favorite salad’s weren’t on my blog. So here’s my favorite macaroni salad that I got from a neighbor when we first moved to Gardner 7 years ago. The veggies are all shredded so not only is this salad delicious but it is very quick and easy!

Ingredients
2 (16oz) boxes of shell macaroni (2 lbs of macaroni total)
1 small onion, shredded
1 green pepper, shredded
1 carrot, shredded
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 cups salad dressing mayonnaise (Miracle Whip)
1/2 cup sugar

Directions
Cook, drain, and rinse macaroni. In a large bowl shred the onion, green pepper, carrot. Mix in the sweetened condenses milk, vinegar, mayonnaise, and sugar. Finally add the macaroni noodles, stir, and refrigerate (over night is best).

Creamy Italian Chicken with Pasta

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com probably 7 years ago, to date it is probably the best recipe I found on that website. It could definitely benefit from sliced mushrooms and diced onions but in a family of picky eaters those are always out of the question (boohoo).

I first started making this recipe for my family right after I turned 21 so I remember going to the grocery store to look for white wine and bringing home Arbor Mist (I had no idea what real white wine was nor what it looked like). So… if this recipe can make mouths water using Arbor Mist for the wine then it is pretty fail safe!

Ingredients
6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 c. butter
1 (.7 ounce) package dry Italian-style salad dressing mix
1/2 c. white wine (you can sub chicken broth)
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed golden mushroom soup
4 ounces cream cheese with chives
1 pound angel hair pasta

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
In a large saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Stir in the package of dressing mix. Blend in wine and golden mushroom soup. Mix in cream cheese, and stir until smooth. Heat through, but do not boil. Arrange chicken breasts in a single layer in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Pour sauce over.
Bake for 60 minutes in the preheated oven. Twenty minutes before the chicken is done, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a rolling boil. Cook pasta until al dente, about 5 minutes. Drain. Serve chicken and sauce over pasta.