Creamy Bow-Tie Chicken Alfredo Pasta

This I cannot take credit for. My dear friend and co-worker Dale came up with this one. She may even be reading this (Hi Dale!). It has quickly become one of our favorite recipes, so thanks Dale!

Here is what you'll need:

• 1 box of bow-tie pasta (I only had a bag so I used about 3/4ths of it)
• 1 small onion diced
• 1 tbsp of minced garlic (see my previous post a few down about the type to buy at the store)
• 1 pkg of fajita chicken (I get ours at HEB, you can find it anywhere in the freezer section of your grocery store) or you can grill 2-3 chicken breasts.
• 1 jar of Bertolli Alfredo sauce
• sprinkle of crushed Red Pepper flakes (this will add heat, so if you like heat, add a generous sprinkle, if not, just a bit)
• a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese
• olive oil for sauteing

Directions:

In a large pot, bring water to boil and cook pasta according to directions. Also, in a large saucepan bring olive oil to medium heat and add in onion and garlic to saute for a few minutes until onion is tender. While this is happening, chop up chicken into smaller pieces. Toss in chicken to garlic and onion mix and let warm up. Mine was only partially defrosted so I gave the chicken a few extra minutes to defrost and warm up.

When pasta is finished cooking, drain and transfer into chicken mixture. Add in one jar of Bertolli Alfredo sauce and a little Italian crushed red pepper. Toss in a generous handful of shredded Parmesan cheese. Mix together and let heat through. Serve with your favorite sides.

It makes a lasagna tray full-so it's great for company or leftovers! :)

If you make it, let me know how you liked it!

Yummy Chicken Spaghetti!

My first food post in a loooong time!

This recipe was given to me by our good friends Jon and Amy. They had us over for dinner one night when we first moved to the Austin area and wow'd me with this dish. Tony loves it and I've shared it with a few people at work who have worked it into their monthly rotation. It is really easy and can be tweaked to your liking. Here's what you'll need.

Ingredients

• 3-4 chicken breasts, cooked on grill or your way of preference (you can use frozen ones you buy chopped up already or a can of chicken breasts). They need to be chopped into small pieces.
• 1 can Rotel (we go for the extra hot stuff but up to you)
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1/2 block of the small Velveeta, diced
• 1 package of spaghetti noodles

Directions

Cook noodles and drain. Combine cooked chicken and noodles with Rotel, both soups, and diced cheese. Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly.

We usually serve this with a salad, corn, and yummy garlic bread. I've found this is a great make ahead meal to take in a tin casserole dish to someone who just had a baby or surgery. If you make it, let me know how it goes! =)

No Mess Lasagna Rolls!

I love lasagna! My mom always called her version "the poor man's lasagna" because there was nothing fancy about it. I've taken hers and over the past few years tweaked it to make it a little heartier. What I had not tried, was making lasagna rolls. I had seen them all the time on various food blogs I read, but for some reason they scared me. I was afraid they would be messy or hard to keep together. Boy I was wrong! Gone are the days of Tony or I slicing into a beautiful lasagna dish and making a mess to try to get the layers out perfectly in order to have a pretty presentation. This will now be my go-to way to make lasagna.

Ingredients:

• 1 box of lasagna noodles cooked according to directions.
• 1 jar of favorite spaghetti sauce
• 1 pound of ground beef (or your favorite ground meat)
• 1/2 of a yellow onion diced
• 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
• 1 cup of low fat ricotta
• 1 cup of low fat cottage cheese
• 1 bag of spinach
• a few handfuls of your favorite Italian shredded cheeses

Directions:

While noodles are cooking, heat large skillet over medium heat with a few splashes of olive oil. Place spinach in pan and let cook until wilted (5-7 minutes and you may want to put half the bag in first until it starts to wilt and then the rest after that because spinach is some fluffy stuff and tends to spill over the pan). After all spinach is wilted remove from heat and let rest for a few minutes. Cook ground beef, diced onion, and minced garlic and drain fat. Add in spaghetti sauce and reduce to a slow simmer. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.

In a food processor (or blender) mix in the cottage cheese, spinach, and ricotta until well blended. I then laid out three lasagna noodles at a time and started by spreading my spinach and cheese mixture on the bottom. I followed up with the meat sauce, and sprinkled some of the shredded cheese on top.

Then, starting at one side, slowly roll up each noodle. and place in lasagna tray.

Continue steps until all noodles are filled, rolled, and placed in lasagna tray. After this you will want to grab a spoon and spoon some spaghetti sauce from the jar (unless you still have some meat sauce left, then use that) over the noodles to keep them nice and moist and from burning while in the oven. Sprinkle cheese over the top until they look about like this:

I made the entire box of noodles so I had to get a small casserole dish to fit all the little guys.

Cover tray with foil and place in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until sauce is bubbly. Remove foil and allow to cook for 2-3 more minutes (or more depending on your oven). You will love how easy these guys are to serve!

I imagine this recipe will freeze well or you could store it in your fridge minus the cooking step for 1-2 days. Here's a great guide to make ahead meals and freezer friendly tips. I'm going to try to perfect freezing ahead this summer to make my life much easier! Again, you can do this with whatever lasagna recipe you love! You could skip the meat, substitute eggplant, etc. If you make it, let me know how it went!

Baked Penne with Roasted Veggies

I can't take credit for this recipe. I found it here. I have tweaked it though to our liking and of course you could tweak mine and do the same!

This is a delicious meat free meal that doesn't feel like you're going without meat. That's because it's loaded with meaty veggies that have tons of flavor and fiber! Here is what you'll need minus the grated Parmesan and olive oil because I forgot to put them in the picture. Oops!

Ingredients:

• 1 yellow squash
• 1 zucchini
• 1 red bellpepper
• 1 yellow bellpepper
• 1 yellow onion
• shredded Italian cheese
• about 3/4 of a jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
• 1 box of penne pasta

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Rinse and then slice up all the veggies into bite sized pieces. Place on lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, mixing to cover all sides. You can add some garlic powder or salt to season or leave plain. Place in oven and roast for 10-15 minutes until tender.

At the same time, boil water and cook pasta according to directions until al dente. Transfer pasta into lasagna dish and add in sauce and veggies.

Mix in desired amount of cheese (I did about a full handful). Top with grated Parmesan.

Place in oven at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until top is golden and cheese is melted. This makes for plenty of leftovers.

Enjoy!

Here's a shot with my cheap but delicious romaine!

Someone Else's Super Easy Fettucine Alfredo

I can't take credit for this (as usual) but you should try it. It's VERY easy. You can season it however strongly or lightly you wish. You can make it with chicken, shrimp, or by itself. I got it from here and her picture is way more appetizing and better (can you tell I work with 5 year olds by the way I'm typing?).

Ingredients:

1 box or package of fettucine

1-2 boneless chicken breasts

1 tablespoon olive oil (like I ever stick to that)

salt and pepper

For the alfredo sauce:

3 tbsp. butter

2 cloves garlic smashed (or the equivalent in the jars of minced garlic)

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Bring a large pot of water to boil for pasta. While you are waiting, cook the chicken breasts. Heat the oil in a skillet at medium high heat. Season and cook until golden brown. Remove to a plate and let rest for a few minutes. Cut into small strips. Cover with foil to keep warm while you prepare the sauce.

Cook pasta until al dente.

To make the sauce, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cream, and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to cook until thickened, about 5 minutes. Mix in the parmesan cheese and cook until completely melted. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve pasta with sauce and topped with grilled chicken strips.

***Warning: this recipe does not bode well for leftovers. It results in a mystery sauce-less pasta.***

If you make it let me know how it goes! :)

P.S. someone PLEASE make this recipe. It looks killer (in many ways).

Stroganoff Casserole

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces wide egg noodles
• 1 pound lean ground beef (turkey works too)
• 1 whole onion, chopped
• 1 whole bell pepper, chopped
• 2 whole celery ribs, chopped
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
• 6 ounce can of tomato paste
• 4 ounce can of sliced mushrooms, drained
• 1/2 teaspoon dried Oregano
• 8 ounces sour cream (I used light)
• 12 ounces small curd cottage cheese (I used low fat)
• 1 teaspoon Garlic salt
• 2 cups shredded Mozzarella
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

I'm not going to lie. I wrote down all the ingredients I thought I needed for this and forgot to get the dry red wine. In a panic as the egg noodles were nearly done cooking, I googled what I could replace for the dry red wine. Thank you Yahoo answers for telling me I could use either cranberry juice or apple juice to substitute. Lucky for me I still had some cranberry apple juice (oh yes I did use it for this!) left over in the fridge. Since it was my first time making this dish, I couldn't tell the difference (ha!).

Overall this dinner was pretty good! It's a great way to get kids to eat a ton of veggies (especially if you serve it with a salad) at once! The only thing I think is that one of the veggies was pretty strong in the dish. We couldn't figure out if it was the mushrooms or bellpepper but next time I'll go easy on both and hope for better reviews. Everyone still cleaned their plate so it obviously didn't put anyone off too much. I'm so surprised at how many recipes I'm seeing using cottage cheese as a replacement for ricotta. I have said before how I despise the stuff, but it's a great way to lighten the calorie load in a dish and inside a meal like this I can't even taste it.

I can't take credit for this recipe since I got it here. If you try it let me know how you liked it!

Cajun Chicken Pasta A La Laura Walton

This is one of my favorite recipes of all times. OF ALL TIMES! My good friend Laura had us over for dinner last fall and served this wonderful meal! It is amazing! She and her husband are FANTASTIC cooks. I wish we could eat every meal at their house! I can't take credit for this recipe, but I wanted to post it because I know it's so great other people will want to try it! You can substitute shrimp for chicken if you wanted.

I love pasta dishes and this one is one that I can't wait to have on our monthly rotation. I would eat this every week if I could! I know it's good because Tony sits silently scarfing his plate until he gets up and scoops another plate full and sits back down again and eats. His first comment every time we have this when he takes his first bite is "I LOVE this recipe." It's even better the second day for leftovers.

Ok, enough praising. Let's get to the good stuff.

Ingredients:

• 1 box penne pasta (I use Dreamfields because it's suppose to break down better in your system and not be so hard on your blood sugar)
• 2 chicken breasts (sliced into thin strips)
• 1 link of Andouille sausage thinly sliced (I had to ask Laura how you even pronounce this, but it's a cajun sausage)
• 2 tsp. Cajun seasoning (see picture below for idea)
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 green onion, minced
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream (so, so worth it!)
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp. lemon pepper
• ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup shredded Italian cheese blend
• 2 tbsp. grated parm. cheese (sometimes I leave this out or I just use bagged shredded parmesan)

HEB sells the Adam's Reserve line of spices usually near the area they test recipes. I have a love/dislike relationship with this line because they're SO great, but SO pricey. I paid $6.99 for this jar but I've made this recipe probably 6 times with it and still have this much left, so it does last a long time. I will continue to buy the cajun seasoning from this line, but all others I'm not so tied to.

Directions:

Cook pasta to al dente. Place chicken and cajun seasoning in a bowl, toss to coat. In a large skillet, over medium heat, add in olive oil. Then add in green and red bell peppers and onion and cook until soft (lacking the right word here!). Remove peppers and saute chicken and sausage in olive oil for 5-7 minutes (or cook on grill). Once chicken is cooked, add back in peppers as well as cooked pasta and reduce heat and stir in heavy cream. Season sauce with all the spices, heat through. Add Italian cheese blend and simmer. When finished, you can add 1-2 tsp. more of the cajun seasoning.

ENJOY!

Low-er Fat Stuffed Shells

These get me in trouble.

These get both Tony and I in trouble.

These would get Einstein in trouble if we actually shared some with him.

They're soooo good. They make enough to have lots of leftovers. If you wanted to double the recipe it would be a breeze. You can change up the cheeses and add in meat if you wanted to. They're yum. We eat too many when we have these, but that's ok because it's a lighter version because of the cottage cheese. Cottage cheese weirds me out. Blech! I would never, ever eat it plain, and I almost didn't make this recipe because it had this in it. But, once put in the food processor you can't even taste it and it saves lots of calories.

Here is what you'll need:

• 1 box jumbo pasta shells
• 1 large bag fresh spinach
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• cooking spray
• 1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded Asiago cheese (I just use the italian cheese blend in a bag from HEB)
• 1/3 cup grated fresh Paremesan cheese (or the stuff in the tub from HEB)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 bottle of your favorite spaghetti sauce
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside. Cook the spinach in olive oil over medium heat, until the spinach is wilted. Let the spinach cool and then wrap the spinach in cheesecloth or a clean kitchen towel; squeeze to drain. Set the spinach aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat a 13x9 inch baking dish and a 8 inch square baking dish with cooking spray; place cooked shells in baking dishes seam side up.

Place cottage cheese and ricotta cheese in a food processor; process until smooth. Combine cottage cheese mixture, Asiago, Parmesan, chives, parsley, garlic, black pepper, salt, and spinach in processor until smooth.

Spoon or pipe 1 tablespoon cheese mixture into each shell. Pour the spaghetti sauce over stuffed shells. Sprinkle 1/2 cup mozzarella over top.

Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 5 more minutes, or until the tops of the shells are nicely browned.

Enjoy and try to hold yourself back from finishing off the whole batch.

Cheesy Baked Mexi-Rigatoni

The other night we tried this new recipe after I stared at it for a few days on a few of the food blogs that I read. They all claimed it was delicious and the picture appeared to say the same thing to me. I think the original recipe came from Picky Palate.

Cheesy Baked Mexi-Rigatoni

(my picture doesn't give it much justice!)

1lb Rigatoni

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion finely chopped

2 Anaheim green chili's finely chopped

1 lb lean ground beef

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon Lawry's garlic salt

1 can cheddar cheese soup

1/2 cup milk or half and half

1 cup sour cream

2 15 oz cans diced fire roasted tomatoes

1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves (I ommitted this one because I didn't have it and don't really care for that much cilantro).

2 cups mexican blend cheese shredded

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook pasta and drain. Place olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. Saute onions and chiles until softened. Stir in beef, salt, pepper, and garlic salt. Cook and crumble until browned. Stir in soup, milk, sour cream, and tomatoes. Stir until well combined. Reduce heat to low and stir in cilantro and cooked pasta. Pour mixture in lasagna dish. Sprinkle with cheese and bake until cheese is melted and bubbly about 20-25 minutes.

The verdict: It was very good and easy to make! Next time, I may cut back the fire roasted tomatoes to 1 1/2 cans or maybe even 1 can because at times certain bites were overwhelming. We loved it even more for leftovers the next day but we think it was because we were able to pick out the parts of the pasta that we liked the most (i.e. not a scoop with tons of fire roasted tomatoes in it). I'll make it again, but put my own spin on it. If you make it, let me know what you think! :)