Tuscan Soup

This is DEEEEEELICIOUS!! Our friends made it for us once and ever since Mark's been on my back to get the recipe. Yes, you read that right, MARK wanted the recipe and that man never likes soup.  Then I made it while mom and Jim were here and they wanted the recipe. The other great thing: it's SUPER easy and pretty fast.

Ingredients:
-1lb spicy (hot) sausage
-3/4 c chopped onion
-1 slice bacon (or 2 tbsp bacon bits) (optional - I don't use it)
-1/2 tsp minced garlic
-1 quart water
-2 tbsp chicken bullion
-4-5 medium russet potatoes
-2 c (or more) chopped Kale (it looks like a lot, but it shrinks down tons. Next time I will use more.
-1 cup half and half (or heavy cream)

Directions:

-Chop everything ahead of time. Peel and chop potatoes into bite size pieces, dice onion and garlic, and chop kale. You can leave the kale in fairly large pieces, like you're preparing a salad.
-Heat a bit of EVOO in a large stock pot and saute onion and bacon until onion becomes translucent.   --Add garlic and saute for another minute or so.
-Add chopped potatoes, water, and bullion and simmer about 15-20 minutes until potatoes are tender.
-While it's simmering, brown sausage.
-When potatoes are tender add sausage, kale, and cream and simmer for an additional 5 minutes.

Serve with crusty bread or rolls. The left overs are great too!

Lemony Chicken Saltimbocca

I did take a picture of this, but my computer won't let me download it for some very annoying reason. Just imagine mine looks as good as the picture in the recipe. Because it totally did... Regardless, it was very delicious and a lot quicker than I thought it would be. Came together in like 10 minutes. So on a night you're not feeling like cooking this is a good option.

What you need:
-Chicken cutlets or whatever type of chicken you want to use
-Sage leaves
-Prosciutto
-Chicken broth
-Lemon Juice
-Cornstarch
-Olive oil

All you do is put the sage leaves on top of the chicken. Wrap it in a piece of prosciutto to hold the leaves on. Cook it in a little olive oil in a pan on medium. Take them out and then combine lemon juice, chicken broth, cornstarch, and a little olive oil. Cook unit boiling and slightly thickened. Spoon that on top of the chicken and you're done! Very tasty!

Here's the real recipe: Yummy chicken

Veggie Manicotti

I combined mom's manicotti recipe with a recipe that I found on Peas and Crayons. Adding veggies made me feel a bit better about eating all that cheese :) and it was good to boot.

Ingredients:

• 
  
• 1 box of manicotti noodles
• Torn up baby spinach
• 1/2 medium onion
• 1/4-1/2 cup (or more) of grated carrots and/or zucchini 
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 15 oz ricotta cheese
• 1 cup (approx) shredded parmesan/romano cheese
• 1-2 cups (approx) shredded mozzarella cheese - and some more to sprinkle on top
• to taste: black pepper, salt, parsley, oregano, thyme & garlic powder.
• 16 oz marinara sauce

Preheat your oven to 350.  Gently boil shells until tender/al dente (Very important you don't boil them too long or you'll end up doing a manicotti noodle casserole like me). Drain & arrange cooked noodles in a glass baking dish with a layer of spaghetti sauce on the bottom.  Dice and sauté, onions and garlic together with shredded carrots/zucchini in olive oil. In a large bowl, fold ricotta, parmesan, and mozzarella cheeses, and torn spinach together with all your herbs and spices.  A note about cheese: I NEVER measure. I just go with what looks/tastes right. Next, add your veggies to the mix.  Put the stuffing in a bag with a hole cut in the corner and stuff the noodles gently. Pour more sauce on top.  Top with shredded mozzarella/parm cheese and bake for approx 20-30 minutes at 350F.

Easy Chicken Parmesan Bake

From Food Wishes

Really easy and quick! This was good and made tons! Definitely the way to go if you want chicken parmesan without the hassle. 

Ingredients: 
2 tbsp olive oil 
2 cloves garlic, crushed 
hot red pepper flakes, to taste 
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (approx. depending on how big the breasts are) 
2 cups marinara sauce 
1/4 cup chopped basil 
8 oz mozzarella, shredded 
4 oz Parmesan, grated 
1 (5-oz) package garlic croutons

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
In bottom of 9x13 casserole dish pour in olive oil, crush the garlic and spread it around, then sprinkle some pepper flakes on top. Place chicken breasts on top of oil. Pour marinara sauce on top of chicken and sprinkle on the chopped basil and half the mozzarella and half the paremsan. Next spread the croutons over the entire dish and cover again with the rest of the mozzarella and parmesan. 
Cover with foil and bake for about 35 minutes taking the foil off about half way through. (I didn't cover mine at all because it didn't say to in the original recipe and I ended up having to cover it about 20 min through because it was getting too brown on top and I didn't want it to burn. So the exact time of coverage vs non-coverage has not been perfected yet.) 
Make sure to check the temp of your chicken to make sure it's done. 

Baked Ziti with Summer Veggies

From Rantings of an Amateur Chef
This was great! But a bit dry. Next time I will add some marinara sauce.

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces uncooked ziti (I used rigatoni and probably more than 4 oz)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cups chopped yellow squash (my squash measurements were approximate based on what I had. I think I ended up with 1 1/2 c yellow squash and 1 1/2 c zucchini)
• 1 cup chopped zucchini
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 cups chopped tomato (I've also used a can of diced tomatoes)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided (I used more cheese all around. I don't know my measurements. I just kept putting it in until it looked the right cheesiness to me)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
• 3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1/4 cup (2 ounces) part-skim ricotta cheese (same with this)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• Cooking spray
• Marinara sauce (to taste)

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, drain.

2. Preheat oven to 400°.

3. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan. Add squash, zucchini, and onion; sauté 5 minutes. Add tomato and garlic; sauté 3 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in pasta, mozzarella, herbs, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper.

4. Combine ricotta, remaining salt, and egg. Stir into pasta mixture. Spoon into an 8-inch (mine was probably bigger since I used more pasta) square glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray; sprinkle with remaining mozzarella. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until bubbly and browned.

Homemade Alfredo Sauce

From 100 days of Real Food

This was so good! Proof: When I asked Mark how often I could make this. He said, "As often as you want." He basically says that . . . never. I doubled this recipe and we had enough left overs for maybe 1 1/2 lunches, but we like a lot of sauce on our pasta.   

• 1 lb boxed 100% whole-grain pasta
• 2 tablespoons butter, unsalted
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream, (I have also used half and half and it worked just fine) (I only used 2/3 c to get it thicker, but I may try it her way next time just to see)
• 2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (I just went by taste and look - not sure how much I used)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• I also added some garlic, peppers, and onions to give it a little kick

1. In a large pot, boil the pasta according to package directions
2. Meanwhile melt all the butter and saute some garlic.
3. Add 2/3 of the cream in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Stir with a wooden or other large spoon.
4. In a separate pan saute some peppers and onions to sprinkle on top
5. Once the cream and butter start to thicken (after a couple minutes) turn the heat to medium low. (mine never really thickened, but it thickens up when you add the cheese and let it sit for a bit before you eat).

6. Slowly stir in the cheese a little at a time so you don't get clumps. (if you want to use the remaining 1/3 c heavy whipping cream (or half and half) this is the time to stir it in)

7. Stir in salt, pepper

8. Remove it from the heat and let sit for a while to thicken.

At this point you can stir it into the pasta or serve separately. I don't stir it in since Mark likes more sauce on his noodles than I do. Be creative and add whatever you want. It's pretty versatile. 

Whole Wheat Pizza Pockets

From 100 Days of Real Food

These were so good! Seriously! And now that I know the tricks to the trade they are a pretty quick meal too. The cheese mixture is what really makes it. Man now I want these for dinner again!

Dough Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 2 teaspoons dry active yeast (did you know that yeast should be refrigerated or in the freezer)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cups whole-wheat flour (same with this - whole wheat flour needs to be refrigerated or in the freezer to keep it good).
• 2 tsp sugar (I tried this SEVERAL times without sugar and it never ever ever foamed like it's supposed to. I even tried to see if foaming was really necessary and the dough would not stick together - it was just a clumpy mess. Finally Mark looked at the back of my yeast jar and in the directions it says to add sugar. Anyway, it may just be the yeast I have, but check to make sure).

Filling Ingredients

• 1 ¼ cups ricotta cheese (maybe you could substitute with cottage cheese)
• 1 ¼ cups mozzarella cheese, shredded 
• ½ cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
• Salt and pepper, to taste 
• Other fillings as desired: (Italian sausage, mushrooms, green bell pepper with onions and garlic. Other ideas: BBQ chicken, cilantro, pineapple, caramelized onions, olives, basil, roasted garlic, spinach, eggplant, goat cheese, figs, and zucchini. (We just used Italian sausage. I was going to saute up some onions and peppers, but after fighting with the dough for an hour I just wanted to get it over with. Next time, next time).
• Pizza sauce

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. In a glass measuring cup heat 1-cup water until warm. Drop in 2 teaspoons yeast (and sugar) and let rest for a minute. (more like 5-10 minutes)
3. After the yeast foams up a bit add the salt and olive oil to the water mixture and gently stir if necessary.
4. In a food processor or mixer with a dough blade/hook add 3 cups flour. Pour in the water mixture and process until a dough ball forms. (I still had to knead mine by hand a little bit to get it good and doughy)
5. Coat a large bowl with olive oil, add the pizza dough ball, and cover with plastic wrap while you prepare the other fillings. (She says this in her blog post, but you don't have to let it rise. I didn't and it was still good).
6. In another bowl mix together the ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan. Chop and/or cook other desired fillings while dough rises on the counter (20 – 30 minutes). 
7. Divide dough into 6 equal sized pieces. Shape each one into a ball and then flatten it out with a rolling pin. 
8. Spread a spoonful of pizza sauce in the center of the dough. Add two heaping spoonfuls of the cheese mixture and one spoonful of filling (or 3 spoonfuls of cheese mixture if no other filling is desired).
9. Seal edges of the dough together as best you can with your fingers. (After reading some of the comments I folded ours like a calzone. Otherwise the cheese filling comes out and the dough doesn't cook all the way in the middle. Make a couple of holes with a fork in the top.
10. Bake in the oven for 12 – 15 minutes and once done let cool for a few minutes.
11. Serve with warm pizza sauce for dipping and enjoy!

Totally Amazingly Delicious Vegetable Lasagna

Sorry...this is not a vegan recipe but Elaina I HIGHLY recommend it once you can have cheese (that and eggs ...oh yeah.. and cottage cheese are the only things in it a vegan couldn't have). Heather.. if you ever have a break, this is DELICIOUS! Or Melissa.... you should try it... now!!

http://collectingmemoriess.blogspot.com/2012/02/veggie-lasagna.html

This is the website. I'm sorry I'm lazy and not posting the recipe itself...but just go to this website. I think the lady who made it must be from Europe because she measures stuff in grams... but just guesstimate. I was thinking 200 g (cottage cheese) was relatively close to 1 c but I just kind of made it a good consistency with the cheese, spinach and eggs. The vegetables cooked up nicely. I didn't have carrots or a red bell pepper so I just used a green bell pepper and put in some more broccoli. Kyle loved it and so did I. Honestly, you didn't miss the meat at all. It was so nicely flavored and just really delicious. It is definitely a favorite lasagna for me. I felt healthy while I was eating it (despite the mass amount of cheese....) but healthier than regular lasagna which is mostly just sauce, cheese, noodles, and meat. It was a good way to get a ton of veggies in that tasted delicious. 7 cloves of garlic seems like a lot but the seasoning was seriously perfect. I also loved getting the noodles that I didn't have to boil (HUGE time saver and they tasted great!!) and the ones I got at Sunflower Market (do you guys have one of those?) were only 2$ for a pack. Okay.. sorry..this was REALLY GOOD!! Highly recommend.

Also... we made a quinoa recipe that all you vegans could have and even took a picture. I will get that on here soon. Love you guys!

Pasta Fagioli

Pasta Fagioli (Pasta and Beans)
From Skinny Taste

(I made this last night and it was yummy! Tyler ate it and Mark said it was good for a soup. It is very versatile - you can add basically whatever veggies you want. I served it with warmed up hard rolls - double yum!)


Ingredients: 

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 onion
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• ( I added about 1/3 zucchini, chopped)
• 1 15 oz can cannellini beans
• 15 oz can tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes
• 1 large bay leaf
• 1 tbsp basil
• 1 tbsp parsley
• 1 tsp oregano
• 2 (14 oz each) cans fat free chicken broth (or vegetable broth for vegetarians)
• 2 cups water (1 cup of water is used to blend the beans if you choose to do so , the other is for the broth.  I only used 1/4 cup of water for the broth)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1-1/2 cups (6 oz) dry Ditalini pasta or other small pasta
• grated parmesan or Romano cheese (optional) (Or unparmesan)

Directions:

In a deep pot, saute onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat.

Blend the can of beans with one cup water in electric blender until almost smooth. (You don't have to do this. I did because she said it was a way to hide the beans from little kids.  I thought that was a great idea, because Tyler won't eat whole beans, but he ate this soup without even noticing he was eating beans...hahaha I win!) 

Add blended beans to pan then add the can of tomato sauce, celery, carrots, chicken broth, basil, bay leaf, parsley, oregano, salt and pepper. Add 1 cup water (or however much you want) and bring to slow boil. Let simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally (I did about 5 min more). Add pasta and cook uncovered until pasta is al dente, according to pasta directions.

Vegan Pizza

I was a wee bit wary of making a vegan pizza, but I finally decided to try and boy was it a success!! I haven't had pizza in a long time and to be honest, back when I could have pizza I didn't really like it.  But this pizza was great - fresh and nongreasy!  YUMMY! I basically ate most of it by myself - mom had a couple pieces. I'll take a picture the next time I make it.

Ingredients:
Pizza crust.  (I bought Freschetta crust from Winco)
Pizza sauce.  (I bought the homemade Winco sauce)
Toppings: peppers, onions, meat (I used the soy faux ham), pineapple, mushrooms, etc
Unparmesan

Directions:
Preheat oven. (Just follow the directions on the package). Spread sauce on crust and top with toppings.  IMPORTANT: Put the toppings on first - BEFORE the unparmesan. If you don't, the juice in the sauce will make it goopy, pasty, and yucky. Same thing goes for veggies/fruit that have a high juice content.  This is what I did to try and avoid pasty fake cheese: Put on all toppings (minus unparmesan) and bake the pizza for approximately half the total baking time.  Then pull the pizza out, sprinkle on a generous amount of unparmesan and return to the oven for the remainder of the baking time.  This worked great! I was able to use pineapple and not worry about the juice content. And the cheese wasn't pasty at all! Please make this! It was sooooo good! I'm basically planning on having a pizza night once a week!   

Balsamic Chicken Pasta

Another winner with both Mark and Tyler.  Mark says it's especially good with the parm cheese - I wouldn't know.  

Balsamic Chicken Pasta

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 large broccoli crown

3 cloves garlic, minced

14 oz can or 1 1/2 cups chicken broth

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 cups cooked and shredded chicken

1 tsp dried basil

12 oz whole wheat fettuccine, cooked according to package directions (I used spaghetti. Don't use a whole 12 oz or it will be kind of bland and will take over the whole dish)

parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add red bell pepper and broccoli, cook until tender (add some water, 1/4 cup, if you want it to steam up a bit). Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Add broth, vinegar, chicken, and basil. Bring to a boil, then simmer until liquid is reduced by half. Add fettuccine. Mix it all up. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with parmesan sprinkled on top.