Lasagna

Ingredients:
2 lbs lean ground beef
2 big jars spaghetti sauce ( I use Bertolli - tomato/basil)
1 lb fresh sliced mushrooms
1 medium onion (diced)
4 cups mozzarella
1 pkg lasagna noodles


Directions:

Boil lasagna noodles (not too long or they'll fall apart). Let cool.

In large skillet or dutch oven, brown ground beef. Right before it's completely browned (still a little pink) add onion and mushrooms. Once onions and mushrooms have softened and ground beef is completely done, add spaghetti sauce.

In 9x13 pan, place lasagna noodles in bottom. I usually place four-five and let them overlap if they have to. Then spoon out a layer of the sauce, just covering the noodles, then spread out a layer of cheese, just covering the sauce. Do this two more times, making three complete layers - noodles, sauce, cheese.

Bake @ 350 for 30 minutes.

This is also a good recipe for baked spaghetti, just add a can of cream of mushroom soup to the sauce and swap out the lasagna noodles for spaghetti noodles and the mozzarella for cheddar. I usually only make half when I do baked spaghetti, though. Both meals are totally freezer friendly, just prep all the way up to baking and stick in the freezer.

Peppered Shrimp Alfredo

Being from the south, I LOVE seafood recipes. This is our latest one, and everyone at my house loved it, even my one year old! I left out the cayenne pepper for him, but I'm sure it would be great with it! You could totally substitute cooked chicken strips if shrimp isn't your thing.

Here is the original recipe from www.allrecipes.com:

Ingredients

• 12 ounces penne pasta
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 pound portobello mushrooms, diced
• 1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 (15 ounce) jar Alfredo sauce
• 1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or more to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2. Meanwhile, melt butter together with the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in onion, and cook until softened and translucent, about 2 minutes. Stir in garlic, red pepper, and mushroom; cook over medium-high heat until soft, about 2 minutes more.
3. Stir in the shrimp, and cook until firm and pink, then pour in Alfredo sauce, Romano cheese, and cream; bring to a simmer stirring constantly until thickened, about 5 minutes. Season with cayenne, salt, and pepper to taste. Stir drained pasta into the sauce, and serve sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Here are my modifications:

I used frozen shrimp and thawed them in the fridge in a container with olive oil, salt, pepper, and parsley for two hours before cooking. The stock that came off the shrimp from them being frozen replaced the cream. Cheaper and healthier... that's how I like it!

Enjoy!! :o)

Bacon Wrapped Chicken

I'm sure most people get kind of tired of chicken, especially if you use the same recipes over and over...I know I can!  I found this recipe on Pinterest and tried it since I already had everything (which never happens!).  I didn't take a picture, but here is the picture from the blog, Blog Chef with the recipe.

Ingredients:
Boneless skinless chicken breasts (how many you want)
Bacon slices (turkey bacon is cheaper and better for you, we had the real stuff though)
Cream cheese
Butter
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Chives (or parsley, oregano)
Salt
Pepper
Toothpicks

1. Pound chicken breasts until flat (if they are frozen thaw first).
2. Liberally spread each chicken breast with cream cheese and a little butter.
3. Top with seasonings (you don't have to use the ones listed, that's just what I used and it was good).
4. Roll up each chicken breast, wrap with bacon and put a toothpick in each piece.
5. Bake @ 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes in a casserole dish or cookie sheet (with sides)
6. Turn on broiler and cook for 5 minutes about six inches away from the boiler to get the bacon crispy.
7. Serve with rice, a veggie or pasta.  Enjoy!

We had large pieces of chicken breast and smaller ones (smaller than my palm) and the smaller were so good!  So I recommend cutting the large pieces in half before putting cream cheese on it.  The original recipe called for chive and onion cream cheese but I didn't have that so I used an opened block I had and just added the spices.  It was so good and very easy!! (Brett did most of the work actually because I was doing school work!) 

Funny story, for some reason we only have colored toothpicks (I don't even recall buying them that's how long I've had them).  Well the color came off in the chicken so some pieces of chicken were colored! Haha  It tasted fine and we got a good laugh (Brett didn't even notice, I had to tell him!)  :)

Spinach Lasagna Rolls

I saw this recipe on Skinny Taste and thought I would try it out.  Each roll is 6 WW+  (or 4 WW - old point system) points if you don't add meat.

• 9 lasagna noodles, cooked
• 10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and completely drained (I used 3/4 this amount)
• 15 oz fat free ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• salt and fresh pepper
• 32 oz jar spaghetti sauce
• 1/2 cup part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded (I didn't measure this and probably used more than that! ha!)
• I added 2 hot italian sausages, cut up and cooked.  You could also add some shredded chicken instead.  Or just make them meat-less.

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, egg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.  Mix in cooked meat, if you like.  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. Rollcarefully and place seam side down onto the baking dish. Repeat with remaining noodles.

Ladle sauce over the noodles in the baking dish and top each one with shredded 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.

Baked Parmesan Chicken

Chicken Breasts

1 stick of butter

¾ cup bread crumbs

¾ cup parmesan cheese

½ tsp. garlic powder

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix bread crumbs, cheese and garlic powder together. Melt butter in separate dish. Dip chicken breast in melted butter, then coat in breadcrumb mixture.  Place chicken in greased baking dish (I use a foil-covered cookie sheet for easy clean-up).  Pour remainder butter over chicken and sprinkle additional bread crumbs on top.  Bake for 1 hour.

Savory Tuscan Vegetable Soup

I got this recipe off of Campbell's Kitchen. It took about 30 minutes to make, and I used a mix of carrots, green beans, corn and peas instead of the cauliflower/broccoli mix the recipe suggests.

What You'll Need:
4 cups Swanson® Natural Goodness® Chicken Broth
3 cups Campbell's® Tomato Juice
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or 2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves or Italian seasoning, crushed
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 bag (16 ounces) frozen vegetable combination (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots)
1 can (about 15 ounces) red kidney beans or white kidney beans (cannellini), rinsed and drained

Directions:
1. Heat the broth, tomato juice, garlic powder, oregano, black pepper and vegetables in a 3-quart saucepan over medium-high heat to a boil.
2. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 10 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Add the beans and cook until the mixture is hot and bubbling.

Biscuit Dough Powdered Donuts

This recipe comes with a warning: You will find yourself dreaming of ways to somehow make and eat these, a whole recipe of them, without your family members finding out.  I haven't figured out how yet, let me know if you have any ideas.

A can, or 2, 5, 8, of those tiny baby biscuits (usually 10 per can).
oil
powdered sugar or icing


Flatten a biscuit on your hand and tear a small hole in the center.

Place in hot oil (between 4 and 6 on my burner).  When you can tell the oil side is becoming toasty (around the edges) flip the donut.  You do not want them to be dark-at all!

Place yummy donuts on paper towels.

Variation of colors: the middle one on the left column is way too brown.  I think the perfect one is the bottom right corner :)

 Cover in powdered sugar or your favorite icings.

Incandescently perfect.