Quick and Easy Baked Ziti (For Dinner or For the Freezer...)

This is one of those dinners that I love for multiple reasons.

It's quick and easy to put together.

You can make it ahead of time, stick it in the fridge, and pop it in the oven at dinnertime.

It is GOOD left over for lunches or future dinners.

It freezes VERY well.

It is ideal to take to someone if you are bringing them dinner.

.....have I convinced you to try it?

Here's what you need:

1 lb tube-shaped pasta (I used penne)

1 lb ground beef or turkey

1 onion, chopped

2- 26 oz jars pasta sauce

2 cups shredded cheese, mozzarella, monterey jack (what I used) or provolone

1 1/2 cups sour cream (I used light)

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

. 

Cook up the pasta, drain. While it's cooking, brown the ground meat and onion in a large saucepan, drain, and add the pasta sauce. Simmer until the pasta is done, or about 10 minutes.

Grate the cheese. Or buy already grated cheese. (But just so you know, already grated cheese is a rip-off)

Oh, except this Parmesan cheese, it's the same price as the block of Parmesan,

Spray a 9x13 pan with Pam. I used a disposable pan, because I was taking this to someone else for dinner. If I was going to freeze the baked ziti, I would also use a disposable pan, just so I'm not putting one of my regular pans out of commission. 

Put half the pasta in the pan, then half the shredded jack cheese, spread all of the sour cream over that, then add half the sauce:

Then put the other half of the pasta, the other half of the jack cheese, and the rest of the sauce. The pan will be full. Mmmmmmmmm.

Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the top:

Spray some foil with Pam, then cover the ziti with the foil, Pam side down.

Okay, now you have three options! If you want to freeze this for a later day, let it cool then freeze it! I usually put it in a large Ziploc bag or wrap it in saran wrap before freezing. When you bake this from the freezer, you can either thaw it and bake it for 30-40 minutes at 350, or I have put it directly in the oven from the freezer, and it takes about double the cooking time, same temperature.

Option two is to put the covered pan into the fridge for later that day, then bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes at dinnertime. This option also works for taking this to someone else for a meal! Just add a sticky note with the instructions!

Option three is to bake right after you assemble the pasta. If you do this, bake it at 350 for about 20 minutes. It takes less time because it's already hot. 

This kind of dish is perfect for our current crazy holiday time of year, when your people still want to eat, but you have less time to cook!

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com

Mouth- Watering Crock Pot Pot Roast

I really just wanted to type pot pot to see if anyone thought it was a typo. Ha ha.

I have to apologize in advance- I got so busy around dinner time that I forgot to take an "after" photo of the Pot Roast all served up on the plate!! But rest assured, it is delicious and will get rave reviews from your people!

PLEASE don't tell Wade that this recipe contains Cream of Mushroom soup!! He loathes mushrooms, yet loves this roast. (It makes me sad that I am the only mushroom lover in the house. Here is what I don't get- the boys will eat CANDY CORN for Pete's sake, but not mushrooms!! Seriously??!)

Here's what you need:

• Potatoes (either a small bag of red potatoes, or 3-4 baking potatoes peeled and cubed)
• Carrots (I used a small bag of baby carrots
• 2 cans cream of mushroom soup (shhhhhhhh)
• 2/3 soup can of milk
• 1 packet Lipton Onion Soup mix
• pot roast- I've used all different cuts, between 2.5-5 lbs. 
• a handful of rosemary sprigs (optional, but good)

Throw the potatoes and carrots in the bottom of the crock pot. Plop the frozen meat-sicle on top. You can also use a thawed roast. I usually put mine in frozen, but I have put a thawed roast in and it works just fine!

Mix up the mushroom soup, milk, and onion soup. Pour over the top of  the meat.

Throw the rosemary sprigs in... and cook on low for 8-10 hours.

P.S....... when your dad gives you a roast from his side of beef, make sure there aren't little strings tied around the roast. Because those strings are not delicious. That is all.

I got this recipe from www.allrecipes.com

Healthier Make Ahead Baked Mac and Cheese

I love casseroles. I like to make them early in the day when I have extra time, and then when it's dinner time, I can just throw them in the oven and not have to worry about dinner prep! I LOVE Eating Well's magazine, and I got this recipe off the website- they have some great recipes! 

What you need:

• 3 tablespoons plain dry breadcrumbs, (just make your own, the store bought are a rip off)
• 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika (I think paprika is gross, hence, I left this out)
• 1 16-ounce or 10-ounce package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1 3/4 cups low-fat milk, divided
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups shredded extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
• 1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 8 ounces (2 cups) whole-wheat elbow macaroni, or penne (I used white pasta) (don't judge me)

Use your blender or Magic Bullet (LOVE the Magic Bullet) to pulse a few slices of bread and make breadcrumbs. I used whole wheat bread, since I used white pasta. See??! It all works out. 

Heat 1 1/2 cups milk in a large heavy saucepan over medium-high heat until steaming. Whisk remaining 1/4 cup milk and flour in a small bowl until smooth; add to the hot milk and cook, whisking constantly, until the sauce simmers and thickens, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in Cheddar until melted. Stir in cottage cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Try not to get a bag of tortilla chips and use this mixture as a dip. It would probably be gross anyhow (it isn't) so just don't do it.

Yum. Just sayin'.

Cook the macaroni for 4 minutes. It will still be a bit undercooked, which is fine since it will cook fully in the oven.

I used large elbow macaroni, so I HAD to take this photo. Sometimes I get a little loopy while I'm in the kitchen fixing dinner. I apologize. Carry on.

Add the cooked macaroni to the cheese sauce mixture and stir it up...

Then grease a casserole dish and put half the macaroni mixture in, then sprinkle the spinach over that layer, then spread the rest of the macaroni over the top of the spinach. 

Mix together the breadcrumbs and olive oil (and <gag> paprika, if you're using it) and top the casserole with the breadcrumb mixture. 

Bake at 450 for 25 to 30 minutes, or until bubbly and golden. I prepared it up to the "put it in the oven" stage, then threw it in the fridge until dinner time. I increased the cooking time to 40 minutes. It was a hit. I thought it needed more salt, but I like things salty. So I just added some at the table.

I got this recipe from www.eatingwell.com

Oven- Roasted Greek Potatoes

Have you ever tried to do one of those low-carb diets?

Wade and I did Atkins one time. For a week. ..well, actually, I SAID I was doing it for a week, but I started eating carbs again on the second day. I made some pudding from a recipe in the Atkins diet book. It had a whole bunch of artificial sweetener in it, so the first part that hit your tongue tasted so good....

....but then something went horribly wrong. It was AWFUL!!!!!

I immediately decided that this diet wasn't for me. But Wade was liking it, and wanting to continue. So I would sneak candy, and bread, and fruit when he wasn't looking.

Then Wade discovered my deception. I was shoving two pieces of See's candy into my mouth and he walked up behind me, and yelled, "I KNEW IT!!"

....seriously, he should have known me better. There's no way I could ever live without carbs. Not that I would even try now that I train for endurance races. I can't imagine how that would feel, but I am thinking it would be terrible. I'll never know, because I have no plans to EVER give up carbs.

In celebration of the glorious carb.... here's a GREAT and EASY potato recipe!

Here's what you need:

8 potatoes, peeled and cut into large wedges (about 6-7 per potato)

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup olive oil

1 cup water

1 Tb dried oregano

1 lemon

sea salt

Put the potato wedges into a 9x13 pan that's been coated with Pam. Squeeze the lemon over the top. Then pour in the olive oil, water, and garlic.

Sprinkle the oregano over the top:

Then give the potatoes a generous sprinkling of sea salt. Bake at 425 for 40 minutes, then flip the potatoes. Bake for another 30-40 minutes, until nice and golden brown. Your house will smell AMAZING!

I served these with rosemary roasted chicken. Perfect combo! If you have any leftovers, they are GREAT with eggs for breakfast!

I got this recipe from www.food.com 

AWESOME Crock Pot Lasagna!!

Here's the deal.

Wade doesn't love food nearly as much as I do.

He likes food, don't get me wrong. But he isn't enamored with eating and cooking like I am.

That said, when I make a new recipe, he doesn't tend to be overly excited, in general.

When I served this lasagna, he said, "Wow!! This is a home run!!"

........'nuff said.

It was really tasty! Plus I love having more crock pot recipes in my arsenal, especially now that our home school has started up. It is really nice at the end of the day to have most of the dinner prepared. This recipe makes enough for leftovers, which is super nice for me, I love to have leftovers for lunch!

Here's what you need:

• Ingredients

  • 1 pound (16 ounces) ground beef (I used ground turkey)
  • 1/2 cup diced white onion
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1 (24 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
  • 1/2 cup water (I used a full cup, didn't want the lasagna to be dry)
  • 1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
  • 2 cups mozzarella cheese
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 whole egg
  • 2 Tablespoons fresh parsley or 2 teaspoons dried parsley (I used basil and oregano instead)
  • 6 uncooked lasagna noodles (I used 8- I like lots of noodles)

In a mixing bowl, mix up the ricotta, 1 1/2 cups mozzarella, 2 Tb Parmesan, the egg, and the parsley. (If I were making this again, I would add a tsp of salt. But I like things salty.... so decide for yourself)

The remaining cheese is going to be sprinkled over the top at the end, so I went ahead and grated it and put it in the fridge in a Ziploc so it was ready to go.

What is up with the wrinkles on my hand??!! I have avoided toe thumb photos quite well lately.... now I have to worry about hand wrinkles??!! Sheesh!

Brown the meat and onion until cooked, adding the garlic the last minute or so of cooking. Then add the sauce and water, and mix well.

Now you're going to put 1 cup of the sauce mix in the bottom of the Pam-sprayed crock. Then layer 3 noodles on top. I broke mine up quite a bit to fit, and it turned out great! Then you're going to spread half of the ricotta mixture over the top of the noodles:

Then top with 2 cups of sauce, 3 more noodles, the other half of the ricotta mixture, then the remaining sauce. I pressed 2 additional noodles on top of the sauce, so that they were pretty well covered with the sauce. Then cook on low for 4 hours.

If you work in the morning, or wouldn't have time to do the prep in the morning, you could totally make it to this point the night before and just stick the crock in the fridge and plop it on the crock pot the next day.

Then, about 10 minutes or so before serving, sprinkle the Ziploc bag of cheese over the top. It will get all melty and delicious.

Oh yeah.

I got this recipe from http://www.tablespoon.com/

Crock Pot Coconut Curry Beef

I don't know what the weather is like where you live, but it's been HOT here.

It doesn't exactly promote cooking over a hot stove at dinner time.

So..... YAY for a great crock pot recipe!!

Here's what you need!

1-2 lbs. beef stew meat (I used 1.5 lbs)

1 onion, cut into chunks

1 can coconut milk

juice from one lime

2 Tb butter

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp ground coriander (I didn't have any so I left this out)

1 tsp cumin

1 1/2 tsp chili paste (or 1-2 tsp red pepper flakes)

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated (I used the kind in a jar)

I put my meat in the crock pot still frozen.

Stick the butter in the crock pot:

Then add the meat (or, in my case, the meatsicle):

Then pour/sprinkle the other stuff over the meat. Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 8 hours.When it's done cooking, stir it up, the sauce sort of separates and you need to mix it.

I served this with some steamed rice (the sauce is GREAT on the rice!) and some green beans that I sauteed with a bit of teriyaki sauce.

I got this recipe from http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Make Ahead Calzone... For Tonight or For the Freezer!

There are often two teams in our house.

Team #1- boys

Team #2- girls

Unfortunately for me, there are 3 people on team #1, and one person on team #2.

In the interest of balance, I am going to give you two recipes- one for MY favorite Calzone (Three Cheese and Spinach), and the BOYS' favorite (Pepperoni). Both are yummy.

Here's the post with the recipe for the Spinach and Three Cheese Calzone, with instructions on how to assemble them: Calzone Recipe

For the Pepperoni variety- I used one of the Whole Wheat Pizza Crusts from freezer cooking- here's the post with the recipe for that crust: Whole Wheat Pizza Dough. I thawed it out , then divided the dough into 4 pieces, then rolled each into a circle and put 1/4 of the following mixture in each:

~1 container ricotta cheese (mine was 15 oz)

~1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (either mozzerella or I like jack cheese)

~1 egg

You'll also need:

~20 slices pepperoni

I spooned the filling into each dough round, then places 5 slices of pepperoni onto the top of each mound of filling. Fold in half and crimp, and freeze as directed in the above recipe.

I put the frozen calzone in a 400 degree oven for about 35 minutes. Serve with marinara sauce for dipping. Yum.