One Pot Creamy Chicken Pasta

I guess I should start being a real human again. While its been nice and easy plopping some Willowtree chicken salad on a couple slices of wheat bread for the last month and a half, there's nothing like a good 'ol home cooked meal. On Monday afternoon, I spent my morning going through Pintrest for ideas and came across a few inticing recipes that I have made this week! The first was a one pot meal (the best) that actually came out really good!

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup chopped carrots
3/4 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup diced onions
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 large chicken breasts (or 5 breast tenderloins)- cut into one inch pieces
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
3 tbsp flour
8 ounces dry fettuccini pasta
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Parsley

Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add your veggies and minced garlic. Saute them over medium heat until the vegetables become tender (5-7 minutes)

 

Add chicken pieces and season with salt and pepper. Continue to saute over medium heat until the chicken is no longer pink.

 

Add your milk, broth and flour. Stir to combine and add your dry pasta (yes, dry pasta). Make sure the pasta is completely covered by the mixture- you can use more broth if necessary. Bring the pot to a boil. Cover, reduce to low and cook for 20-25 minutes or until the pasta becomes tender. MAKE SURE to stir the pasta every 5 minutes so it doesn't stick together!

 

Remove the lid and cook for 5 more minutes, so the sauce can thicken. Remove from heat, stir in your shredded cheese until incorporated. Top it with parsley and serve!

 

 

 

This is an awesome dish for a weeknight din! The pasta is tender, creamy and not too cheesy, and the veggies and chicken are a great addition (and make me feel like I'm kinda healthy-here's hopin). Will definetly be making this again!

Nanner's Pierogies

My 50th post! Gotta make it a good one!

 

As I've said in this blog before, there are some dishes that no matter how hard you try, your mom always makes them better. For me, its my mom's calzone. What's even harder is attempting to make someone else's mom's recipe (its a confusing way to put it, take it word by word), because you know it will never be as good, but you still try, because your a dreamer. a believer. a chance taker.

Jake's mom makes the best pierogies, so I decided earlier this week to put it on the meal schedule for Friday! Let's see how it goes...

 

Now this recipe is divided into three parts, the filling, the dough and the sauce. So I'm going to separate the post that way as well.

 

Filling- What you need

2 Large potatoes

1/2 cup cottage cheese

Pepper

 

Peel and cut your potatoes. Put them in boiling water until they cut easily with a fork. Drain and Mash them. In a large bowl mix the mashed potatoes, cottage cheese and a couple dashes of pepper.

Dough- What you need
3 cups flour
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons oil
1  egg
1 tsp salt

 

Whisk your egg in a small bowl. Add oil and water. Mix this in a large bowl with your flour and salt. Knead well, to make dough soft. Let it stand covered for 10 minutes. Roll out thin on a floured surface. With a large class, cut out circles in the dough as close together as possible.

Place a teaspoon of your filling in the center of each circle and fold over. Pinch the edges to seal.

 

 

Drop the pierogies in salted boiling water with a little oil. Cook for 10 minutes or until they float, stirring occassionally (and gently).

 

 

Sauce- What you need

Salt pork- 1 chub (diced)
1 Large onion- diced

 

While the perogies are cooking, fry your diced salt pork (like bacon) and diced onion.

 

After 10 minutes, your pierogies and sauce should be done. Drain your perogies carefully and place them on a plate. Cover them with the salt pork and onion. Serve with sour cream.

 

 

This recipe took A LONG TIME to make- at least an hour and a half. Definitely worth the while, just wish I had planned for it to take that long!!

"Frugal" Lasagna

I woke up in a cold sweat thinking about lasagna last week...

is that weird?

I have actually never made lasagna before so I started looking online for good recipes. Now when I look for recipes in general, my biggest concern is not the level of difficulty but the amount of ingredients I will actually need to buy for the dish, mostly because I'm frugal (aka the nice word for cheap as heck) like my mom.

As I was looking online for lasagna recipes, a lot of them included lists of ingredients that could really rack up my grocery bill. So at the cost of it not being the best lasagna ever, I FINALLY found an easy recipe that I could share.

What you need:
9 "no boil" lasagna noodles
1 32 oz jar of your fav pasta sauce
1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
2 bags mozz cheese
2 (16 oz) containers of cottage cheese
1 lb of ground beef or turkey (I chose turkey)
2 eggs
2 tsp of parsley
1/2 cup water

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cook your meat in a saucepan until golden brown. Add in all of your sauce and let it simmer for 5 min.

 

 

In the meantime, in a large bowl,  mix together your cottage cheese, 1 bag of mozz cheese, 2 eggs, and parsley.

 Now its time to build your lasagna. Pour 3/4 cup of your sauce mixture to coat the bottom of your 13x9 pan and cover with 3 uncooked noodles. Next spread 1 1/4 cup of your cheese mixture and 1/4 cup of sauce atop the noodles.  Once you have placed your last 3 uncooked noodles on top, cover them with the remaining sauce mixture, 1 cup of shredded mozz cheese and your Parmesan cheese. Add 1/2 cup of water around the edges of the pan.

 

 

 

 

Cover with 3 more uncooked noodles and repeat this process once more.

 

 

Once you have placed your last 3 uncooked noodles on top, cover them with the remaining sauce mixture, 1 cup of shredded mozz cheese and your Parmesan cheese. Add 1/2 cup of water around the edges of the pan. 

 

Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Then remove the foil and cook for 10 min.

 

The lasagna will be super hot coming out of the oven, but I obviously couldn't wait so i cut right into it- BAD IDEA. Let the lasagna sit for at least 15 minutes to firm up for a clean cut, otherwise its more like mush- but still very delicious mush!

Baked Ravioli

I feel like raviolis are a really underestimated food. They are really quick and easy to whip up and good with just plain butter or tomato sauce. I was having crazy Italian craving for anything with sauce and cheese, so when I saw this baked ravioli recipe online, I needed to give it a whirl.

What you need:
1 (16oz) package of large raviolis
1 jar of marinara sauce
1/3 of a block of cream cheese
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp parsley
1/2 cup shredded mozz cheese
1/4 cup parm cheese
Cooking spray







Preheat your oven at 350 degrees. In a large boiling pot, cook ravioli until tender (about 2-3 minutes). In the meantime, combine the marinara sauce and cream cheese in a saucepan. Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, until the cream cheese melts. Stir in thyme and parsley.

 

 

Coat an 8x8 casserole dish with cooking spray. Pour in your cooked ravioli. Cover with the sauce mixture and top it off with your mozz cheese. Bake for 20 min.

 

 

Crock Pot Mac and Cheese

As some of you know, my crock pot reached its tragic end last night. I watched in horror as it busted through the bottom of a brown paper bag, and CRASH. tears and sadness.

Several hours earlier... it was a happy little crock pot making one of my favorite dishes of all time- mac and cheese. I feel it is my culinary duty to share this memory with you, even though my crock's remains are at the bottom of a trash barrel.


What you need:
2 bags of shredded mild cheddar
1 (12 oz) can of evaporated milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups of regular milk
1/2 stick butter-melted
1/2 box of elbow macaroni
A dash of paprika

 

Cook the pasta per box instructions.

 

Once its done, the pasta and put it in the crock pot. Add almost all of the cheese (save about 1/2 cup), evaporated milk, regular milk, 2 eggs (whisked) and melted butter. Mix everything together, and add the dash of paprika. Finish it off by sprinkling the remaining cheese on top.

 

Cook on Low for 3 hours and 15 min

 

Yummmm...

 

This mac and cheese was so creamy,cheesy and delish! I think its the best mac and cheese I've ever made!

 

 

 

 

Marinarafredo Pasta

*****FAT ALERT FAT ALERT*****

If you are currently working on your new years resolution to either a.) eat better or b.) lose weight- STOP READING NOW!!

Ahem, moving on. I was in the mood for pasta, but couldn't decide if I wanted marinara or Alfredo sauce. So I found this awesome pasta recipe that combines the two. It only requires 4 ingredients!

What you need:
Penne pasta
1 (24 oz) jar marinara sauce
1 (15 oz) alfredo sauce
2 cups shredded mozz cheese
1 cup parm cheese (I opted out because "grated cheese" gives me the heebeejebees...and it smells weird)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cook pasta per package instructions. In a large bowl combine both jars of sauce, and the mozz cheese. Mix everything together. When the pasta is done, toss it in the marinarafredo sauce. Bake for 20-25 minutes. When its all done, sprinkle the parm cheese on top.

 

This is really easy and filling, a little heavy for my normal dinnertime meal, but overall worth the easiness of the recipe. It also makes a ton, so i will have leftovers for dayzzz.