Chicken Parmesan

 Chicken Parmesan

12 Chicken Tenders (I cut up 2 chicken breasts)

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

1/2 cup Bread Crumbs

1 Egg

1 cup Marinara Sauce

Basil, dried or fresh

1 c shredded cheese  (I used Cheddar and Mozarella)

Oil for cooking

Mix up your parmesan and breadcrumbs together in a shallow bowl. Mix up the one egg in a separate bowl. Dip the chicken into the egg, and then cover with the bread crumb mixture and cook in a pan for about 3 minutes on each side. After chicken is cooked, place in the bottom of a baking pan. Sprinkle with basil (or place basil leaves on top) Spoon the cup of marinara sauce over the chicken and sprinkle the cheese over the top.

Bake for 10 minutes at 375

Chicken cut into tenders

Bread crumb mixture

cooking the chicken in a pan for 3 minutes on each side

Place the cooked chicken on the bottom of baking dish

Sprinkle with basil, marinara, and cheese. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

(optional) Serve chicken over cooked pasta such as ziti or penne and marinara sauce

Roasted Butternut Squash and Bacon Pasta

This is a Cooking Light recipe that I changed up a little. :-)

Roasted Butternut Squash and Bacon Pasta

3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
3 cups (1-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash
Cooking spray ( I used Olive Oil)
12 Turkey Bacon (raw)
1 cup thinly sliced shallots
8 ounces uncooked mini penne (or shell, elbow)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded sharp provolone cheese (I used Extra Sharp Cheddar)
1/3 cup (1 1/2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese  (I just used regular)


Preheat oven to 425°.



Combine 1/4 teaspoon salt, rosemary, and pepper. Place squash on a foil-lined baking sheet coated with cooking spray; sprinkle with salt mixture. Bake at 425° for 45 minutes or until tender and lightly browned. Increase oven temperature to 450°.



Cook the bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving 1 1/2 teaspoons drippings in pan; crumble bacon. (Since Turkey Bacon doesn't have a lot of fat, I just cut it up and cooked it, and then used Olive oil to make the milk and flour mixture) Increase heat to medium-high. Add shallots to pan; sauté 8 minutes or until tender. Combine squash mixture, bacon, and shallots; set aside.



Cook pasta according to the package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain well.



Combine flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly with a whisk; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute or until slightly thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add provolone, stirring until cheese melts. Add pasta to cheese mixture, tossing well to combine. Spoon pasta mixture into an 11 x 7-inch baking dish lightly coated with cooking spray; top with squash mixture. Sprinkle evenly with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 450° for 10 minutes or until cheese melts and begins to brown.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Lasagna Roll Ups

This is a recipe adapted from both Kitchen Smack and Blog Chef.  I wanted my meat sauce more meaty, but you can do vegetarian or quite a bit less.

Lasagna Roll Ups

8 Lasagna Noodles, cooked

Mozarella

Sauce:

1lb Ground Beef

1 can Tomato Sauce

1/2 can Diced Tomatoes

Oregano

Basil

Cayenne Pepper

Onion Powder

Garlic, minced or powder

Cheese mix:

1 c Ricotta cheese

1 c Cottage cheese

1/4 c Parmesan cheese

1 Egg

Parsley

Garlic Salt

375 for 20 minutes, cover with Mozarella and cook for 5 more minutes or until cheese melts

Brown your hamburger and then add the rest of the sauce ingredients. Simmer.

Mix together all the cheese sauce ingredients

Spread out over the lasagna noodles, roll up

Place roll ups in a 13X9 baking dish with a layer of the meat sauce on the bottom

Cover roll ups with remaining meat sauce and bake for about 15-20 minutes

Cover with Mozarella cheese and bake until cheese is melted.

Fettuccine Carbonara

 I adapted this recipe from Ragu. :)  Clearly, I didn't use fettuccine noodles either, and I try to cook with whole wheat noodles in case you were thinking they looked strange in the picture.

Fettuccine Carbonara

11 oz Fettuccine noodles (angel hair pasta worked nicely, and I only used about 1/2 the box)

1 jar Alfredo Sauce

5-6 pieces Turkey Bacon

1 c Peas, cooked

Pepper (optional)

Minced Garlic (optional)

Parmesan Cheese (optional)

Have the noodles cooking in water, fry up the turkey bacon. I added some minced garlic, but I like garlic.

I'm lazy and like to cut down on the amount of dishes I have to wash, so I just warmed up the peas with the bacon.

Pour the jar of alfredo sauce over the cooked (and drained!) noodles, add peas and bacon. Season with pepper, parmesan, and serve with garlic toast.

Meatballs

This recipe was in the latest Food and Family magazine from Kraft foods. I thought it looked good even though I'm not usually a big meatball fan, and the two gravy/ sauces intrigued me. I did the tomato sauce recipe with about half and froze the rest of the meatballs

The Best Meatballs

2 lbs Ground Beef

1 box Stuffing mix for Chicken

1-1/4 c Water

2 Eggs

Bake at 400 15-18 minutes

Tomato-Basil Cream Sauce

Mix 1 jar (14 oz.) spaghetti sauce

2 oz. cubed Cream Cheese 

 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil in large skillet; cook on medium-low heat 3 min. or until heated through, stirring occasionally. Add 16 hot meatballs; stir to evenly coat. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese before serving. Makes 4 servings, 4 meatballs and 1/3 cup sauce each.

Creamy Brown Gravy

Mix 1 jar (12 oz.) beef gravy,

1/2 cup  Sour Cream and 2 Tbsp.

chopped fresh parsley

in large skillet; cook on medium-low heat 3 min. or until heated through, stirring occasionally. Add 16 hot meatballs; stir to evenly coat. Makes 4 servings, 4 meatballs and 1/3 cup sauce each.

Mixing up the ground beef with eggs and water

add stuffing mix

Bake for 15-18 minutes at 400 (or longer if yours are huge like mine) :-)

For the sauce

Add meatballs

It's kind of a glorified spaghetti, but it's good . :-)

Slow-Cooker Lasagna

This is from Kraft Foods.

Slow-Cooker Lasagna

1 lb. ground beef

1 jar (26 oz.) spaghetti sauce

1 cup water

1 container (15 oz.) Ricotta Cheese (I used Cottage Cheese)

2 cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, divided

1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese, divided

1 egg

2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley (I used dried)

6 lasagna noodles, uncooked

BROWN meat in large skillet; drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce and water. Mix ricotta, 1-1/2 cups mozzarella, 2 Tbsp. Parmesan, egg and parsley

SPOON 1 cup meat sauce into slow cooker; top with layers of half each of the noodles, broken to fit; and cheese mixture. Cover with 2 cups meat sauce. Top with remaining noodles, broken to fit; cheese mixture and meat sauce. Cover with lid.

COOK on LOW 4 to 6 hours or until liquid is absorbed. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses; let stand, covered, 10 min. or until melted.

Browning the meat...and I seasoned it too.

I just added everything into the meat so I save myself time and dishes. :-)



Spoon the first layer down

Put the noodles on top. Rinse and repeat. End with meat layer

After it's done cooking, sprinkle on remaining cheeses and let melt

Spinach Artichoke Chicken Pasta

Here is something I made a while back and we really liked it, I tried to recreate it, but left out the Spinach this time since I wanted leftovers for Cary's lunch the next day and he's not a fan of leftover Spinach. So try to picture it in there. :-)

Spinach Artichoke Chicken Pasta

1/2 box cooked Pasta (I used Rotini today)
2 Chicken Breasts
1 can Artichoke Hearts
4 oz Cream Cheese
1/2 c Parmesan Cheese
1 c Milk or Cream
1/2 c Wine (optional)
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Onion Powder
Cook, season (with salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder), and cut up the Chicken

Add the Artichokes

Add Wine, Milk, Parmesan, and Cream Cheese... Add more or less Milk depending on how thick you want the sauce to be. Add your Spinach and melt the Cheese.

I added some Parsley for my Spinach. Totally the same thing.......:-)

Shell Pasta Skillet

Shell Pasta Skillet

little shell Pasta
3-4 pieces of cooked Chicken breast, cut into pieces
1 c chopped Spinach
Pasta Sauce
8 oz Cream Cheese
Parmesan Cheese

Get your pasta cooking in water
Chicken and Spinach

Add Pasta sauce and Cream Cheese

Add pasta once it's cooked, melt the Cream Cheese, sprinkle with Parmesan.

Viola.