Variation on Tortellini Spinach Bake

Remember this post? The tortellini spinach bake that's beyond heavenly?
Well, I was making it this weekend and found myself short several ingredients.

So, I made a variation that turned out really good! It takes less time, and it uses fewer ingredients, and it doesn't heat up the house in the sumer because you don't bake it. It's awesome (although, the original is too!)!!

Here's what you do.

Boil the tortellini.
Make the sauce from the recipe (so much better by the way if you use real garlic, not the pre-minced kind)
Mix them together. Add bacon pieces if you want.
Oh, and of course throw in some cheese. Mozzarella or Parmesan...or both :)

So easy, but it's way better than just having pasta with store bought alfredo, and it's SO stinking easy to make!!! TRY IT!!!! You'll be glad you did :)

I got this recipe from Betty Crocker's website, and it's a good one!

I made it without the pine nuts though, and instead of the 1 cup fresh basil, I used  3/4 cup spinach and 1/4 cup cilantro.

I also made an entire bag of pasta (I think it was a1 lb bag) and the pesto recipe was plenty for all that pasta.When it was made, I filled my bowl, mixed in a little alfredo and then topped with parmesan and a bit of dried basil.

Here's what it looked like, don't be disenchanted by it's color!

Rigatoni with Basil Pesto

Rigatoni

1/2	teaspoon salt (for cooking pasta), if desired
3	cups uncooked rigatoni pasta (8 oz)

Basil Pesto

1	cup fresh basil leaves
2	cloves garlic
1/3	cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3	cup olive or vegetable oil
2	tablespoons pine nuts or walnut pieces

1. 1Fill a 4-quart pan half full of water. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt if desired. Cover with lid; heat over high heat until the water is boiling rapidly. Add the pasta. Heat to boiling again. Boil uncovered 14 to 16 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender but not mushy. While the water is heating and the pasta is cooking, continue with the recipe to make the pesto.
2. 2To measure basil, firmly pack basil leaves into a measuring cup. Use a measuring cup for measuring dry ingredients. Rinse the basil leaves with cool water, and pat dry thoroughly with a paper towel or clean, dry kitchen towel. Peel the garlic cloves.
3. 3In a food processor or blender, place the basil leaves, garlic, cheese, oil and pine nuts. Cover and process, stopping occasionally to scrape sides with rubber spatula, until smooth.
4. 4Place a strainer or colander in the sink. Pour the pasta in the strainer to drain, and place in a large serving bowl or back in the Dutch oven. Immediately pour the pesto over the hot pasta, and toss until pasta is well coated. Serve with additional grated Parmesan cheese if desired.

Expert Tips

EXPERT TIPS:
Substitute 3/4 cup firmly packed fresh cilantro leaves and 1/4 cup firmly packed fresh parsley leaves for the fresh basil.
Substitute 1 cup firmly packed fresh spinach leaves and 1/4 cup firmly packed fresh basil leaves (or 2 tablespoons dried basil leaves) for the 1 cup fresh basil.
Use pesto immediately because it will darken as it is exposed to the air. Or store the pesto immediately by placing in an airtight container and refrigerate up to 5 days or freeze up to 1 month.

Great Harvest Pumpkin Bread

So the other day, Ben was craving pumpkin. As a result, he made pumpkin bread! It was pretty funny, the only pumpkin we had was a 30 oz can, so we ended up with a TON of bread (4 loaves and 24 muffins!) but OH MAN were they GOOD!!!! He found the recipe online
Best pumpkin bread ever!

GREAT HARVEST PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP BREAD 


2 1/2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
16 oz cooked or canned pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
1 cup oil
4 eggs, beaten lightly
2/3 cup water
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two (9x5 inch) loaf pans or three (8x4 inch) loaf pans.

Mix flours, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together in a large bowl; set aside.


Mix pumpkin, oil, eggs, and 2/3 cup water together and stir into dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips. Place batter in prepared pans.


Bake 60 or 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.Let cool completely.


NOTE--The bread only reaches it's delicious peak after a while. We thought it would be the most delicious when it was warm and the chocolate chips were all melty, but wrong. We put it in a covered cake pan to store overnight, and it was SO much better the next day!

Sugar Cookies

So we got this recipe from Ben's Mom, and they are seriously the yummiest sugar cookies ever! They're so soft and fluffy, you'll love them! Easy to make too!


Sugar Cookies

1 C butter
1 ½ c sugar
Cream together
3 eggs
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp Vanilla
4 ½ c flour
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda

Bake 350 8-10 minutes


Sorry there are no pictures, I forgot to take some!

Behind

I'm so behind!

Recipes coming soon:

limonada
best ever square breadsticks
pumpkin bread
pesto pasta stuff (I can't remember what it's called right now)
dutch babies
super soft sugar cookies

Tortellini Spinach Bake

Okay Yum.
That's all I have to say!
I'm not even going to bother cutting and pasting the recipe... this is where I got it. .I LOVE this blog :) Everything I've found on it has been delicious!

This is what mine came out looking like:

Add garlic bread and Voila!
It's actually pretty rich thought, so I'd recommended having some salad on the side to lighten the meal up :)

Chicken Enchiladas

This is my mom's recipe for chicken enchiladas. Growing up, if my mom would ever ask us what we wanted for dinner, our immediate response was, "chicken enchiladas!"

They're YUMMMMMMY. 

Ingredients: 

Tortilla layers:

Tortillas (probably 12-15)

2 cans of cream of chicken soup

1 cup milk

1 good dollop of sour cream

taco seasoning (you add it to the sauce to taste...I think I usually use about 2-3 Tbsp)

In between layers: 

olives

2 chicken breasts

shredded cheese

Optional: 

1 can of black beans 

chopped onion

(it's easiest if you get your ingredients all ready before hand because your hands get gooey and if the stuff isn't all ready, you'll have to wash them a ton. I )

Alright, here's what you do. 

First, boil the chicken until it's cooked so you can shred it. 

Then, preheat the oven to 325

Next combine 2 cans of cream of chicken (don't make it like it says to on the can...just dump it i) , milk, taco seasoning and dallop of whip cream in a 2 quart sauce pan. Turn heat on medium and whisk together until the sauce is smooth. Don't get the sauce too hot though, it will burn you when you're dipping the tortillas in it. 

Grab a 9X13 glass pan, and get your tortillas out of the bag. Grab 2-3 tortillas and rip them into quarters. Dip the tortilla pieces into the sauce until they are covered on both sides. Make a layer of these tortillas on the bottom of the pan like this:

 once you have a layer of tortillas, make your layer of stuff. Basically, sprinkle on shredded chicken, shredded cheese, olives and if you want, beans and onions. My mom always put onions on half of it, because the kids didn't like them. I never put onions on, but I do put black beans on, which my mom never did but I decided to try it one day and decided I liked it.  I didn't put olives this time because we were out and I didn't want to run to the store.....but they make the dish SO much better so make sure to put them on!

Put another layer of tortillas on top of the stuff, and repeat the process. You'll end up with 4 tortilla layers and 3 stuff layers. Make sure you sprinkle the tortilla  layer on top with cheese, and then put it in to bake for 25-30 minutes. This is what it looks like before the oven.

Then TA-DA!!!!

I usually make a pot of rice to go with it, and I just mix some taco seasoning in the rice to give it a bit of flavor. I also really like to put tomatillo sauce on top (of the rice and enchiladas), or salsa.  

Winner

You know a recipe is a winner when the day after you first try it, your husband begs you to make it for lunch.

You guessed it, Ben this morning is begging me to make hearty nachos.
He's addicted already.

He's even going to go to the store in the rain just to buy more chips so we can have them.

he's HOOKED.

Hearty Nachos

Okay, so sometimes I like making really nice Sunday dinners, and sometimes I just don't want to bother. For the days I don't want to bother, I found an AWESOME solution. We had these today and they were CHEAP and EASY, plus they were a hit with my husband. In fact, he loved them so much I should have him write a testimonial on here :)

Here's what they look like before the toppings:

And here's after:

Here's what you need:

1 chicken breast
Half a bag of frozen corn
1 can tomato sauce
1 can black beans
1 packet taco seasoning
1 bag of tortilla chips
cilantro
cheese

Here's what you do:

Get a chicken breast and slice it into small squares. Cook the chicken in a skillet with a little bit of oil (it only takes a few minutes) .While the chicken is cooking, boil the corn so it's not frozen.  When the chicken is cooked, add in corn, tomato sauce, taco seasoning and beans (make sure to strain and wash the beans). Oh, and of course, throw in some cilantro, because cilantro is YUMMY!!!!!
 Simmer until it's heated up, then put over tortilla chips and top with cheese and cilantro.
TA DA!

Healthy (well, minus the chips :)) , yummy, easy, quick, simple, and economical.

Cost Breakdown:
1 chicken breast= 1.00
Half a bag of frozen corn=lets see, I got frozen corn at Maceys last week for .75, so half is like .37

1 can tomato sauce= .25

1 can black beans = .55 (yay for macey's case lot sale!) 

1 packet taco seasoning  ( I have this HUGE container of taco seasoning that I got at costco a long time ago so I just used the equivalent of a package---but really it didn't cost me anything.  The huge container only cost a few dollars, and I've been using it for years. 

1 bag of tortilla chips= Don Julio tortilla chips at smiths....always $1.00
The cilantro was on sale for .33 a bunch, so there's another .11
Cheese on top? I don't know....let's guess the cheese cost us .30? maybe?

So for $2.58 cents, you can make three huge plates. It only takes one huge plate to fill me up. for my husband it took about 1 1/2....so basically it was just the right size for dinner for two.
NOT BAD.

No Crust Quiche

So this has always been one of my favorite recipes. We ate it a lot growing up and I'll never get tired of it! It's super yummy and SUPER filling, and it's EASY to make! It does take some time to bake, but another benefit is that the prep time is super quick.

Funny story........
We had it for lunch yesterday.
One tip:
Don't DON'T forget the bisquick.
Ha, I've made it a ton, but somehow, I forgot the bisquick yesterday .We still ate it and the flavor was still yummy...the texture was just a bit off :)
So don't forget the bisquick :)
Gotta love cooking mistakes :)

No-Crust Quiche

1 lb bacon
2 cups diced ham
1 cup shredded cheese
 6 eggs
1/2 c bisquick
1 c sour cream
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Spread ham and cheese out over the bottom of a 9x13 glass pan.
Mix everything else together in a large bowl  and pour it over the top of the ham and cheese. Most of the cheese should end up floating.
Bake at 425 for 12 minutes, reduce heat to 350 and cook another 35-40 minutes

Notes:
--I put green onions on top and it was a delicious little flavor add. My husband suggested I put them inside next time, and I'm going to try it :)
--I usually use either Ham OR  Bacon. It's yummy with both, but not necessary.
--I always put in more pepper than it asks for....because we really like pepper :)
--I don't even measure out the cheese, I just grate it right into the bottom of the 13X9 until there's cheese everywhere.