Spinach and Cheese Tortellini

This came from a cookbook my husband got me for Christmas (I made it easy for him and sent him the link to buy it from Amazon).

I follow their food blog, but there is something great about having the actual cookbook in hand.  (Their picture makes this meal look about 1,000 times better, but despite my iphone photography, this meal is super good)

Spinach and Cheese Tortellini

Ingredients:

1 120z package of cheese tortellini

4-5 strips of bacon

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 Tablespoons flour

2 cups milk

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 red pepper flakes (or more to taste)

1 medium lemon

2 cups spinach, roughly chopped

3/4 cups mozzarella cheese, divided

3/4 cups grated parmesan cheese, divided

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350º

2.  Cook tortellini according to packaging

3.  Cook bacon on a skillet until crisp.  Remove from skillet and place on paper towels to drain.  Reserve 2 tablespoons of the drippings and discard the rest. Add garlic to the skillet and cook until tender and fragrant.  Add flour to pan and whisk for about a minute.  Slowly add milk and continue to whisk until smooth.  Add salt, pepper, basil and red pepper flakes and bring the sauce to a simmer

3.  While sauce is simmering, zest the lemon.  Cut the lemon in half and juice it.  Add 2 tablespoons of the zest and 1 tablespoon of juice to the sauce.  Continue to simmer and stir until thickened.  Remove from heat. 

4.  Drain the tortellini and return to the stockpot you used to cook it.  Chop the bacon and reserve 1 tablespoon of it and add the rest to the pasta.  Add spinach, 1/2 cup mozzarella and 1/2 cup parmesan and then add the sauce.  Gently stir to combine.

5.  Place the pasta mixture in a casserole dish and top with remaining cheeses and crumbled bacon. 

6.  Cover the pan with foil and bake for about 20 minutes.  Remove foil and bake another 5-10 minutes until the cheese on top is melted.

Crockpot Meatball Subs

We went to a get together with some friends recently, and our friend, Heather, had these yummy meatball subs fixed up for everyone.  While the wives were visiting at the table I asked my friend for the recipe.  As she's telling me the simple steps I hear my husband holler at me from across the room (because he and all the husbands are gathered at the other side of the room giving each other high-fives)  He says, "Ask Heather for the recipe!  These are awesome!"  Whenever there is a meal that he gets excited about, I take note.  I think I made these at our house about 2 weeks later. 

Instant favorite!

Thanks, Heather!

Crockpot Meatball Subs

Ingredients:

1 bag of Italian meatballs (32 ounces)

1 package of spaghetti seasoning (Thick and Zesty)

4 cans of tomato sauce (the small size)

Hoagie rolls

sliced cheese (provolone or mozzarella)

Directions:

Mix the seasoning with the sauce and pour over the meatballs in the crockpot, and cook until the meatballs are heated through and the sauce is nice and thick. 

Serve on hoagie rolls with your choice of cheese, usually provolone is the best. 

Baked Sausage and Noodles

Nothing beats a full plate of noodles drenched in speghetti sauce.  It's pretty hard to go wrong with the basic noodles and sauce.  The best part is if you have those two ingredients as the foundation, you can add such a wide variety of other ingredients and almost always hit a jackpot recipe!  Adding sausage isn't a new idea, but it's a welcomed change in the regular noodles and sauce routine. 

Thanks for another winner, Favorite Family Recipes!

Baked Sausage Noodles

Ingedients

1 package, uncooked ground italian sausage

1 clove garlic, minced 

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 package noodles, wagon wheel, bowtie or curly (Go crazy!  Pick any one you want)

1 bottle 4-cheese spaghetti sauce

2 tsp red pepper flakes

2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions

Preheat oven to 375º

In a large fying pan, heat oil and brown garlic.  Add the sausage and cook until browned, crumbling as you cook.  

In a large bowl, toss the cooked sausage with all the other ingredients, reserving 1 cup of the cheese.  

Pour the pasta mixture into a 9x13 pan that is coated with cooking spray.

Bake about 25 minutes, then remove from oven and top with the reserved cheese.  

Bake another 5 minutes until top cheese is melted. 

Serve with breadsticks. 

FFR cookbook

Cheesy Noodle Bake

At our house, if a meal has cheese and noodles it's a keeper. I liked this recipe initally because it didn't call for heavy cream.  Most mac-n-cheese recipes seem to.  I liked this recipe even more when the sauce  turned out creamy and rich with just the right about of cheesiness!  I just wish it made more!

Cheesy Noodle Bake

Ingredients:

1 can Cream of Mushroom soup

2 cups 2-cheese blend, shredded (cheddar and jack is tasty)

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (not the powdered stuff)

1 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

3 cups spiral or corkscrew noodles, cooked and drained

crushed red peppers, to taste

Directions:

Stir the soup, cheeses, milk and black pepper into a bowl.  Add pasta and combine.  Pour noodle mixture into a baking dish. 

Bake for about 20 minutes or until bubbly. 

Sprinkle with crushed red peppers for a nice kick. 

Source: Celebrate the Holidays Cookbook

Enfrijoladas

For someone who really enjoys Mexican food, I can't believe the first time I'd heard about this dish was just about a year ago!  

When I saw it online, I thought some genius homecook had created it.  

Then when I went out to eat at a local Mexican restaurant I noticed it on the menu.  

These are beany, cheesy and saucy and basically nothing more than a classic bean and cheese burrito!  

Enfrijoladas

Ingredients:

4 cups refried beans, make your own or use canned

1 cup Vegetable or chicken stock

1 cup water

1 Tablespoon tomato paste

1 package of small to medium size tortillas, corn and or flour

3-4 cups Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350º

Heat up the refried beans in a saucepan.  Add in the vegetable or chicken stock, water and tomato paste and stir until blended and smooth.  The sauce needs to be thin (so you can coat the tortillas easily without them being too heavy and tearing), so add more stock if needed.

Using tongs, take a torilla and lay it in the sauce ensuring that the entire tortilla gets covered with sauce.    You don't want them to soak too long or they will tear too easy.  Lift out the tortilla and lay them in a baking pan. Fill the inside with cheese and fold over like a taco.  

Repeat with as many tortillas as you can.  Pour remaining sauce over the tortillas and sprinkle with cheese.  

Bake for about 10-15 minutes, until the cheese is melted. 

Serve with a dollop of sour cream on top.  

Source: Tasty Kitchen

Just like: Outback Steakhouse Alice Springs Chicken:

 Back when we first started dating, my husband was working at Outback, which also gave him a 50% discount.  So, that's basically the ONLY place we ate for a long time.  And even though he doesn't work there anymore, it's still our go-to place to eat.  Ok, I'll be honest, we eat at Outback for almost every single "special" occasion.  Sometimes we just make up an occasion so we can justify going to eat there.  It's SO GOOD!

For a while I would order the same thing off their menu.  Alice Springs Chicken.  A mountain of cheese, mushrooms and bacon on top of a chicken breast makes the perfect combination of flavors, not to mention awesome leftovers for lunch the next day!

When I found this reciepe in my new cookbook, it was one of the first ones I tried out! (with only a few slight changes)

Favorite Family Recipes

Just Like: Outback Steakhouse Alice Springs Chicken

Ingredients:

Honey Mustard Marinade: 

Honey Mustard Sauce

Chicken:

4 boneless chicken breasts, halved

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

2 Cups sliced mushrooms

2 Tablespoons butter

salt and pepper, to taste

paprika, to taste

8 slices bacon, cooked

1 Cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

1 Cup cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine all the marinade ingredients together for about 30 seconds.  Place chicken in a plastic ziplock bag and pour about 1/3 of the marinade in with the chicken.  Press out as much air as you can and seal the bag.  Marinate in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.  Chill the remaining marinade for later. 

Once the chicken as marinated, remove it from the bag and discard the bag.  Preheat the oven to 375º.  In a large skillet, heat 1 Tablespoon of oil and sear the chicken for about 3-4 minutes on each side until golden brown and cooked through.  Transfer chicken to a baking dish. 

In the same skillet, saute the mushrooms in butter. 

Brush each chicken breast with some reserved marinade, season with salt, pepper and paprika.  Break the bacon in half and stack four pieces of bacon on each chicken breast.  Spoon the sauted mushrooms onto the bacon and sprinkle with Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheese evenly. 

Bake the chicken dish for 7-10 minutes until the cheese is melted and starting to bubble.

Serve with steamed broccoli and remaining Honey Mustard Sauce. 

Macaroni and Tomato Sauce or "Zombies"

My Dad grew up eating this.  I think it's because it was a cheap way to feed 6 boys after they worked all day on the farm.  But Grandma knew what she was doing, because I grew up eating this too.  And I've never worked on a farm.  Now that I have kids, this has become a regular at our house.

I'll admit, it's a little weird and plain, but the taste is satisfying and it hits the spot.

I'm not totally sure why, but my boys started calling it "Zombies"  So you can call it "Macaroni and Tomato Sauce" (because that's what I called it growing up)  or you can call it "Zombies"



*Now try to follow this: My husband's little sister is best friends with my cousin's daughter.  My cousin's father is my Uncle, who also grew up on that same farm eating Macaroni and Tomato Sauce with his 5 brothers.  After we'd been married a few years, I spotted my sister-in-law making herself Macaroni and Tomato Sauce for lunch one day.  "What's that?!"  I said.  She had been eating this with her best friend (My cousin's daughter) for years!  (although she adds hot dogs to it....).  Looks like my Uncle passed on the yumminess of this meal to his kids, who passed it on to theirs...who passed it onto their friends! Whoa.

Macaroni and Tomato Sauce or "Zombies" 

Ingredients:

1 lb macaroni, cooked, drained

2-3 15 oz cans of tomato sauce

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Add sauce to cooked noodles.  Stir.  Season with some salt and pepper and eat with a slice of buttered bread.