Baked Ravioli

I've made a New Years Resolution to spend more time in the kitchen this year and really challenge myself with learning new recipes. I've been off to a good start lately and using my dear friend, Pinterest, for inspiration. This recipe comes from Inspired Dreamer and it is delicious. And easy.


Ingredients:

Bag of frozen ravioli
1 Jar of marinara sauce
2 Cups of mozzarella cheese



Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray bottom and sides of rectangular baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Spread 3/4 cup of the pasta sauce in baking dish. Arrange half of the frozen ravioli in single layer over sauce; top with half of remaining pasta sauce and 1 cup of mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers once, starting with the ravioli. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
3. Cover with aluminum foil and bake 30 minutes. Remove foil; bake uncovered 10 to 15 minutes longer or until bubbly and hot in center. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Seriously, SO easy!

Roasted Garlic, Chicken & Herb White Pizza

Long time no see!


I posted this picture on Instagram last night after finally getting around to trying this recipe I saw on Pinterest and had a few requests to share it.

Roasted Garlic, Chicken & Herb White Pizza from Dinners and Desserts


Ingredients:

• 1 pound pizza dough
• 1 Tbls butter
• 8 cloves roasted garlic, minced
• 2 Tbls all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp black pepper
• ½ cup skim milk
• ¼ cup half and half
• ¼ cup Parmesan cheese
• 1½ cup boneless skinless chicken breast, cooked and shredded
• ¼ cup red onion, diced
• ¾ cup Mozzarella cheese
• 1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• 1 Tbls fresh parsley, chopped

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with a siplat liner, or grease and sprinkle with cornmeal.
2. Melt butter in a small saucepan. Saute roasted garlic for 1 minute.
3. Add flour, and mix until well blended. Cook for 1 minute.
4. Slowly whisk in the milk and half and half. Mix in the pepper. -If you want to go a little healthier, I used skim milk and it still came out amazing
5. Cook for about 3 minutes, or until it starts to thicken. Remove from heat, and stir in Parmesan cheese.
6. Spread dough into roughly a 12 inch circle on prepared baking sheet. Spread white cause over the dough. Top with chicken, red onions and cheese.
7. Bake for 17 minutes, or until the crust is golden, and the cheese is melted. -Don't forget that the thinner the crust, the quicker it cooks. We only put ours in the oven for about 11 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with herbs. Cut and serve immediately.

I chose not to use the red onions

Serves: 6
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes



This pizza seriously tasted just like my favorite restaurant pizza, California Kitchen and it was relatively easy to make. SOOOOOO good!!

Vegetarian Spinach Lasagna

This meal is brought to you by Skinny Taste and it is gooooood.

In an effort to try and eat healthier, we are starting to cut out some meat in our diet and this website has a lot of great vegetarian options.

This was my first time attempting lasagna and I had no idea how involved it was or how many steps. We ended up eating almost an hour later than I thought we would but it was very worth it.

Ingredients:

9 lasagna noodles, cooked

10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and completely drained
15 oz fat free ricotta cheese (I like Polly-o)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
salt and fresh pepper
32 oz tomato sauce
9 tbsp (about 3 oz) part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded



Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, egg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.

Remember when you used to read recipes out of a cookbook and not your phone?

Ladle about 1 cup sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 12 baking dish.



Place a piece of wax paper on the counter and lay out lasagna noodles. Make sure noodles are dry. Take 1/3 cup of ricotta mixture and spread evenly over noodle. Roll carefully and place seam side down onto the baking dish. Repeat with remaining noodles. - We actually decided to go with normal lasagna and not the rolls so ended up doing layers instead. Either way works with this recipe.


Ladle sauce over the noodles in the baking dish and top each one with 1 tbsp mozzarella cheese. Put foil over baking dish and bake for 40 minutes, or until cheese melts. Makes 9 rolls.

To serve, ladle a little sauce on the plate and top with lasagna roll

Prep Time: 60 minutes
Serves: 9

Bistro Apple Panini

Ingredients:

12 thick-sliced bacon strips
1 medium apple, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp. ginger ale
1 Tsp. lemon juice
1/4  cup apple jelly
4  Tsp. minced fresh tarragon
12  slices sourdough bread
6 slices Havarti cheese
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
3  Tbsp. butter, softened

Directions:

1. In a large skillet, cook bacon until crisp
2. In a small bowl, toss apple slices with ginger ale and lemon juice; set aside.
3. Place jelly in a microwave container on high until softened. Stir in tarragon.
4. Spread jelly mixture over 6 bread slices. Top with cheese, apple and bacon. Spread mustard over remaining bread slices; place over bacon.
5. Spread the outside of sandwiches with butter.
6. Cook on panini maker or indoor grill for 3-4 minutes or until browned and cheese is melted.

6 Servings

Prep Time: 20 minutes



Chicken Fajita Pizza

And the Mexican recipes just keep on coming... Another one from Taste of Home Cooking.

Ingredients:

1      Tube (13.8 ounces) refrigerated pizza crust
1/2   Pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
2      Tablespoons of Olive Oil
1/2    Cup Sliced Onion
1/2    Cup Julienned Green Pepper
3       Garlic Cloves
1      Teaspoon Chili Powder
1/4   Teaspoon Salt
1/8   Teaspoon Pepper
1       Cup Salsa
2      Cups Shredded Mexican Cheese

Directions:

Unroll crust into a greased 15 in. X 10 in. X 1 in. baking pan; flatten dough and build up edges slightly. Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute chicken in oil until lightly browned. Add the onion, green pepper, garlic, chili powder, salt and pepper. Cook and stir until vegetables are tender and chicken is no longer pink.

Spread salsa over the crust. Top with one cup cheese, chicken mixture, and remaining cheese.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and golden brown.

Serving: 12 slices
Prep Time: Half an hour

Andrea's Baked Spaghetti with White Wine Tomato Cream Sauce

First of all, we are so sorry for taking forever to upload the recipes you guys have been sending to us. We are going to try and do a lot better from here on out. This one came from Andrea and sounds absolutely amazing!

Ingredients for Marinara Sauce

3 Garlic cloves 2 tablespoons Thyme
1 Carrot 1 tablespoon crushed Rosemary
1 Celery stalk 2 teaspoon Basil
½ small Onion 1 teaspoon Sage
1 pound of Italian Sausage ¼ teaspoon White Pepper
2- 15 oz. can of Tomato Sauce
2 tablespoons Oregano Olive Oil

Ingredients for Cheese Sauce

1 pound whole milk Ricotta Cheese
¾ cup Three-blend Cheese
½ cup Heavy Cream
1 cup above Marinara Sauce

Additional Ingredients for Baked Spaghetti

1 pound Spaghetti noodles
2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese

Ingredients for White Wine Tomato Cream Sauce

1 – 15 ounce can Diced tomatoes
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup Heavy Cream
¼ cup White Wine
Salt, Pepper, and Garlic Powder

Instructions for Marinara Sauce

Mince the garlic, carrot, celery and onion. Sauté in oil olive until the vegetables are slightly brown and getting soft. Cook Italian sausage. Combine vegetables, Italian sausage, and tomato sauce in large saucepan. Add all the spice and stir sauce to combine all ingredients well. Simmer over low heat until ready to use.


Instructions for Cheese Sauce

Mix together ricotta cheese and three-cheese blend in medium saucepan. Slowly incorporate the heavy cream into the cheese mixture. Heat over medium heat until the cheese is melted and smooth. Stir occasionally and take off the heat when the cheese is melted. (Be careful stirring the mixture as it tends to have air pockets within it that burst upward as it heats.)Add 1 cup of prepared Marinara Sauce to the Cheese Sauce.


Instructions for putting together the Baked Spaghetti

Begin by preparing the Marinara Sauce. Next cook spaghetti noodles to al dente. Don’t over cook the noodles as they will continue to cook in the oven. Next make the cheese sauce. Drain the spaghetti noodles when they are finished cooking. Keep the spaghetti noodles in a large pot and add the cheese sauce to the noodles. Stir to combine well. Preheat oven to 350°. Place the spaghetti noodle/cheese mixture into a 13 x 9 glass baking pan. Smooth out the picture to be even in the pan. Top this mixture with approximately 2 cups of marinara sauce. Top with the 2 cups of mozzarella cheese. Cover the top of the pan first with a layer of shrink wrap and then a layer of aluminum foil. (Don’t skip the shrink wrap. It will come off the pan after baking and is very important to maintain the moisture within the baked spaghetti.) Bake, covered, for 25 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 5 minutes or until cheese is browning and bubbly.

Instructions for the White Wine Tomato Cream Sauce

While the Baked Spaghetti is baking, prepare the White Wine Tomato Cream Sauce. Start by placing the diced tomatoes and 2 tablespoons of butter in a Sauté pan. Bring to a boil. Let the mixture boil for 10 minutes. (This helps eliminate the acidic tomato taste.) Add the heavy cream to the mixture and continue to boil for 5 more minutes. Add the white wine and continue to boil for 5 more minute. Add the last 2 tablespoons of butter to finish the sauce. Place ½ cup of sauce under each serving of Baked Spaghetti.

Enjoy!

Pasta With Bacon and Mushrooms

So, I was reading through my google reader account and came across this incredibly mouth-watering dish on the Pioneer Woman’s blog. It looked fairly easy and I sent Jon off to the store to buy the rest of the ingredients that we needed.

A couple of things to note.

• Always read through the whole recipe first. I actually added about 4x the amount of bacon than was needed.


• And I added two chicken breasts to the dish to make it a heartier meal.

I definitely give this recipe two thumps up!! So yummy!

Ingredients
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
3 slices Thin Bacon, Cut Into 1/2-inch Pieces
3 cloves Garlic, Minced
1 package (10 Ounce) White Button Mushrooms, Sliced Thin
1 cup Low Sodium Chicken Broth (OR Dry White Wine)
1 cup Half-and-half
¼ cups Heavy Whipping Cream
3 whole Green Onions, White And Light Green Parts Sliced
¼ cups Flat-leaf Parsley, Minced
½ cups Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
Salt To Taste
Freshly Ground Black Pepper, To Taste
1 pound Thin Spaghetti Or Angel Hair Pasta
Extra Parmesan, For Sprinkling

Preparation Instructions
Cook pasta according to package directions.

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add bacon pieces and cook until light brown but not crisp. Remove bacon from pan and set aside. Do not clean pan.

Add mushrooms and garlic to pan. Toss/stir around and cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes; increase heat to high if needed to help mushrooms begin to turn golden brown.

Pour in chicken broth. Stir, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen any bits. Cook over medium-high heat for several minutes, or until the liquid is reduced by half.

Reduce heat and pour in half and half and cream. Stir and allow to bubble and thicken for a couple of minutes. Add sliced green onions and parsley, then cook for one more minute. Finally, add Parmesan and stir, allowing cheese to melt and incorporate into the sauce. Turn off heat.

Add cooked pasta to a large bowl. Add half the sauce from the pan. Toss with tongs.

***Add 1/2 cup hot pasta water at this point if the pasta mixture is too thick and gunky. Toss and add more water until it reaches the consistency you need.***

Serve pasta in individual bowls, topping each helping with the rest of the sauce. Sprinkle with extra parsley and extra Parmesan.

Enjoy!

Basil Pesto Chicken Pizza

Oh, this recipe just sounds absolutely delicious! Many thanks to Caroline at Cookbook Jungle!

Premade Pizza Dough
Basil Pesto Sauce
Chicken Breast - boneless skinless
Fontina Cheese - cut up into small pieces
Olive Oil
Black Olives - sliced
Diced vidalia onions (optional)
Balsamic Vinegar (or your fav balsamic dressing)
Salt + Pepper
Garlic Salt (or raw garlic if you are watching the sodium, hehe)
Flour
Pizza Stone - or cookie sheet

1. First take the pizza dough out of its packaging, form it into a big ball, put it in a deep bowl, drizzle olive oil over the top, and cover the bowl with a dish towel. The dough needs to rise and it should take about 20 mins. At the same time - preheat your oven for 400-450. The best pizza is cooked in a HOT oven.
   
2. While the dough is rising you can cook your chicken in a skillet over medium heat. Coat the bottom of the skillet with olive oil - not too thick though or you will end up with oily fried chicken! If you are using the onions you can add them now. Sprinkle the chicken with salt, pepper, garlic salt, and any other seasoning you like.
   
3. As the chicken begins to cook I start to cut it up, right in the skillet, into bite sized pieces. (I hate cutting raw chicken so I always wait until the outside is tough and white.) Drizzle a bit of balsamic oil over the cooking chicken (I use a capful). It should reduce and become syrupy and sweet. I usually don't overcook my chicken because it is going to bake in the oven. Once I do the cut test and see the inside is no longer pink I take it off of the burner and allow it to cool.
   
4. When the dough has risen, sprinkle some flour over the top of the dough ball and onto some counter space. You can roll your dough out - but I HIGHLY advise just using your hands to work it into whatever shape pan you plan on cooking the pizza on. I usually don't put anything on my pizza stone, but if you are using a cookie sheet you need to cover it with olive oil.
   
5. After you have shaped your dough and put it on its baking sheet, spoon on the basil pesto. This is another time when you can use as much or as little as you wish. If you go with a little bit of pesto, make sure to add some olive oil so the pizza remains moist.
   
6. Bake your pizza for 5-10 min so that the crust begins to form. (I just added this step on Monday and it was the first time our pizza had real chewy crust!)
   
7. Remove the pizza and while it is still boiling hot arrange the toppings in this order: chicken, olives, cheese.
   
8. Put your pizza in the oven and cook it for 20 minutes. If you have never made pizza in your oven I recommend that you constantly check on it to make sure nothing is burning.

Spinach Ravioli Bake

I made this new recipe from Taste Of Home tonight.

It's very easy and quite yummy. It's almost like a Ravioli-Lasagna.

2 Cups Spaghetti Sauce
1 Package (25 ounces) Frozen Italian Sausage Ravioli
OR Ravioli of your choice (Cheese for Vegetarians)
2 Cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1 Package (10 ounces) Frozen Chopped Spinach, Thawed and Squeezed Dry
1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese

Grease a 2-qt. baking dish.
Place 1 Cup spaghetti sauce in greased dish. Top with half of the frozen ravioli (ravioli does not need to be cooked, it can be frozen), mozzarella cheese, spinach and Parmesan cheese.
Repeat Layers.
Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted.

Here is the dish before it went into the oven:




And here it is all finished and ready to eat. Almost looks too good to eat, doesn't it? :)



Serves: 4-6

Homemade Fettucini Alfredo

This is definitely not the most healthy meal, but it's oh so delicious!

1 Package Fettucini Noodles
1/2 Cup (1 Stick) Butter or Margarine
1 Cup Heavy Cream (May use Half and Half instead)
1 1/2 Cups Grated Parmesan Cheese
2 Tbsp. Parsley Flakes

Cook fettucini noodles until tender; Drain.

While noodles are hot, add 1 stick of butter (cut up), cream, parmesan cheese, and parsley flakes. Toss together well; serve.

***To make into a MAIN DISH: Add cooked chicken breasts cut up into bite-size pieces OR cooked shrimp. May also add broccoli for an all-in-one dish meal.

Serves:4-6

Baked Ziti

1 lb. Italian sausage
1 can marinara sauce
15 oz. container of ricotta cheese (I use half)
2-3 cups of shredded mozzerella cheese
Package of Ziti pasta
Parmesean cheese to taste

In saucepan, bring water to boil and then pour the pasta to cook. In skillet, brown the Italian sausage.

Once the sausage is browned and the pasta is soft, mix the sausage, pasta, marinara sauce, ricotta and mozzerella cheese in a large bowl.

Pour into 9x13 baking dish and top with either mozzerella or parmesean cheese, or both. Bake at 375-degrees for 25-30 minutes until bubbly.

Homemade Lasagna

9 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained
1 can of spaghetti sauce
1 pound of italian sausage
1/2 onion, chopped
1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped
12 oz. carton of cottage cheese
1 lb. of shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp. parsley flakes

Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Grease a 9x13 baking pan.

In skillet, brown italian sausage with onion and garlic. After browning, add can of spaghetti sauce. Simmer for ten minutes.

Meanwhile in a large bowl, combine cottage cheese, shredded mozzarella cheese, and parsley.

Spoon a layer of layer of sauce on bottom of pan, layer three lasagna noodles, 1/3 of cheese mixture, 1/3 of sauce on top of cheese mixture. Repeat layers two (2) more times, ending with meat sauce. Sprinkle with parmesean cheese.

Bake at 350-degrees for 30 minutess, until hot and bubbly.