Chicken Spaghetti

This is a favorite dish of mine. It is very filling and "comfort food" at its finest! I like this dish because it is very versatile, I'm going to put the full recipe as I received it but I have made it before without the peas, pimento or bell peppers, so if you do not like these items then you can leave them out!

INGREDIENT LIST:
4 chicken breasts (I have found that you get a better flavor with the chicken if you buy the chicken on the bone)
1-2 bell peppers, chopped finely
1-2 onions, depending on your taste, chopped finely
1 large can English peas
1 small jar pimento
1 can Ro-tel tomatoes (this dish has a kick to it but it you want to kick it up even more you can add the hotter variety of Ro-Tel)
1 package spaghetti noodles, 16 oz.
One large box Velveeta cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Boil chicken with salt and pepper. After chicken is cooked debone and cut into bite size pieces.
2. At the same time the chicken is cooking, boil spaghetti noodles, onions and bell pepper until pasta is done.
3. When pasta is almost done, melt cheese in microwave. When cheese is melted, (it is okay if cheese is a little lumpy) add Ro-Tel (with the juice), pimento and English peas to the cheese. After pasta is done, drain all water and add cheese mixture to noodles. Mix well. Add chicken.
4. Pour into large casserole dish, mix well and bake in oven at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until bubbly.

Amazing Mac & Cheese

By far a family favorite! I've made this with the bread crumb topping and without and either way it is delicious!

Recipe courtesy of Food Network, http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/the-best-of/chef-joes-baked-macaroni-and-cheese-recipe/index.html

Kosher salt
2 cups elbow macaroni
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2-1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar
1 cup bread crumbs
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the macaroni and cook, stirring occasionally until it is almost tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Drain, rinse with cold water, and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the milk, 1/4 cup melted butter, the cayenne pepper, and a teaspoon of salt.

Put half the macaroni into a buttered 2-quart casserole and top with half the cheddar cheese. Repeat. Pour the milk mixture over the macaroni and cheese.

In a small bowl, mix the bread crumbs with the paprika, the remaining butter, and the Parmesan. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture over the macaroni and bake until brown and bubbly, 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm.

Baked Spaghetti & Meatballs / Baked Vegetarian Spaghetti

It's been a rough week for me this week and after eating out or ordering in way too much I decided to whip up something for dinner last night. I've been meaning to make Spaghetti and Meatballs for about a month but didn't have the ground beef and kept forgetting to pick some up. So now that I was equipped with some fresh ground beef I decided to go ahead and make it. But I didn't feel like spaghetti...I was actually more in the mood for a lasagna, of course I lacked the lasagna noodles so I compromised. Here's what I did...and remember I'm also cooking for a vegetarian so that meant I was cooking two seperate meals. However, this meal is so simple that it didn't make a difference.

Meatballs:

1 1/2 lbs of beef
2 eggs
1/4 cup of milk
1/4 cup of dry bread crumbs
1 tbs parsley
3 cloves of finely chopped garlic
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Heat oven to 400. Saute garlic in olive oil. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and roll into 1-1.5" balls and place into a lightly greased pan. For this recipe I recommend 1" balls. Place into oven for 15-20 minutes or until no longer pink in the center.

Spaghetti:

1 package spaghetti

While cooking meatballs cook the Spaghetti noodles as directed on the package.

Sauce:

1 jar of your favorite marinara or spaghetti sauce (reserve 1/2 cup)
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 cup of Ricotta cheese
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
1 tbs Olive Oil
1 1/2 cups of your fave brand of "meatless" crumbles (optional)
2 cups grated Mozzarella

Set oven to 325. Saute garlic in olive oil. If you are going for a vegetarian dish you can add the crumbles and saute with the garlic and olive oil and omit the meatballs. Once the noodles are cooked thoroughly drain the noodles and combine with all the sauce ingredients except the mozzarella and 1/2 cup of marinara. Mix well and transfer to a baking or casserole pan. Place the meatballs onto the mixture and nestle them into the spaghetti. Pour remaining sauce over the spaghetti and meatballs and top with the mozzarella cheese. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until bubbly.

NOTES: Even though it's a lot of steps this actually didn't take much effort to make...and I was exhausted by the time I started. The best part is that you can make the meatballs ahead of time. This made one large pan of baked Spaghetti and meatballs and 2 small pans (bread pans) of vegetarian Spaghetti. What I did was combine the sauce with the noodles except for the meatless crumbles. I poured the mixture into the large pan then mixed in the crumbles and poured into the smaller pans. I put the extra small pan into the freezer along with a freezer bag of extra meatballs. This will help when I'm too tired to cook but too broke to order in.

Sauce for Lasagna

As requested, a fabulous sauce for Lasagna or pasta in general (if you want to freeze some). Courtesy of Allrecipes.com

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Worlds-Best-Pasta-Sauce/Detail.aspx?prop31=1

Here is the sauce that I use for Lasagna.

• 1 pound sweet Italian sausage, sliced
• 3/4 pound lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup minced onion
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
• 2 (6.5 ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook the sausage, beef, onion, and garlic until well browned; drain fat. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Mix in sugar and season with basil, fennel seed, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Spinach Baked Pasta

• 1 box of penne or other pasta
• 1 box of Silken firm tofu...drained and crumbled
• 3 bunches of spinach blanced, drained, and chopped
• 1 jar of marinara (I used mushroom & ripe olive)
• 3/4 cup of diced onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 cup of parmesan cheese
• 1-2 cups of mozzarella to top

Preheat oven to 350. cook pasta as directed on box. saute onion and garlic in olive oil. blanch and chop the spinach then add to onions. add crumbled tofu and saute for a couple minutes (add salt and pepper if you want). When pasta is cooked and drained add all ingredients together and mix well. Pour into pan and top with mozzarella cheese. bake for 20-30 minutes or until bubbly.

Notes: I threw this together tonight based on a lasagna recipe found on the box of tofu. I put my own spin on it. I didn't have 3 bunches of spinach...I had half a bag of prewashed baby spinach...and I didn't have mozzarella so I used the 4 blend Mexican cheese I did have...and I didn't have fresh garlic so I used powdered garlic. This made 1 large and 1 smaller pan. It was pretty easy to put together. Usually I would make baked pasta dishes with ricotta cheese but the tofu is perfect in it--and it makes it a healthier alternative! And if you made it with soy-based parmesan and omitted the mozzarella it would be a perfect dish for any vegans in your life.

I always say that most recipes are flexible. And this is one is no different. If you don't have spinach, oh well! You can use what vegetable you have that could be substituted based on your preferences. Squash or zucchini could be used instead of spinach, or even fresh or frozen peas. Don't be afraid to play around with recipes. You can really cut down your grocery budget by trying to use what you have on hand instead of heading to the grocery store when you see you're missing an ingredient.

Lasagna

I made a lasagna last night for today, just in case we didn't have power. I used Mueller's no boil noodles. I won't list the recipe b/c it's on the box. Good, but not absolutely amazing.

I say this to make the pledge. I am on a mission to find an amazing sauce for the lasagna. I usually use whatever spaghetti sauce I have on hand. This time I had an actual marinara sauce. I simmered my meat in it. Chris said that he usually adds a glass of wine and some Italian seasoning to it. I should have done that, but at midnight I was too tired to care. ;) His sauce usually comes out really nice. But I want more than nice or good, I want great, amazing, fabulous, fantastic. I want people to taste my lasagna and ask for the recipe.

Know any great sauce recipes? Do you have a secret ingredient? I want to know!