Cheesy Stuffed Shells

I used to get Kraft Kitchens magazine when it was free. It was full of quick and simple recipes that used an awful lot of Kraft products, but many were easily modified to make great dinners and desserts. And of course, I didn't always use Kraft products!

This recipe is probably our favorite from the magazine. My carnivorous husband loves it, and I think you could add either some cooked Italian sausage to the cheese mix, tuck a meatball in each shell, or just serve it as a side with a grilled steak or chicken. But it is also great on its own!

Easy Cheesy Stuffed Shells

Prep time - 30 min - Total time - 60 min
Makes 5 servings

Ingredients:
1 container (16 oz.) 2% Milkfat Low Fat Cottage Cheese
1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, well drained (I use a bag of fresh spinach)
2 cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, divided
1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
20 jumbo pasta shells, cooked, drained
1 jar (26 oz.) spaghetti sauce

DIRECTIONS

HEAT oven to 400°F. Mix cottage cheese, spinach, 1/2 cup mozzarella, Parmesan and seasoning; spoon into shells.

SPOON half the sauce into 13x9-inch baking dish. Add filled shells; top with remaining sauce and remaining mozzarella (and more Parmesan, if desired - I like it cheesy!).

BAKE uncovered 25 min. or until heated through.

Make Ahead
Assemble recipe as directed. Refrigerate up to 24 hours. When ready to serve, bake, covered, at 400°F for 35 min. or until heated through.

Freeze Ahead
Reserve 1 and 1/2 cup of the mozzarella. Assemble recipe as directed, but do not top with the reserved mozzarella. Wrap casserole in foil; freeze. When ready to serve, heat oven to 400°F. Unwrap casserole; cover with foil. Bake 55 min. or until heated through, removing foil after 30 min. Top with reserved mozzarella; bake 10 min. or until melted.

Peach Quesadillas

I forgot the photo and this was supposed to be posted mid-summer when peaches were in season.

8 tortillas
2 large peaches, peeled and thinly sliced
2 sweet onions
2 cups shredded gouda cheese (though I intend to try other cheeses)
Tablespoon olive oil
Olive oil cooking spray

Thinly slice onions. Heat olive oil over medium heat. Saute onions.
Divide onions, peaches, and cheese evenly between tortillas; put on one side.
Cook quesadillas in a skillet coated with cooking spray. Fold in half after 1-2 minutes and then flip. Sides should be golden brown. Cut into several sections.

Teach A Man To Fish...

It's still hot here. And this Labor Day, we ran errands and finished off with a trip to the local splash park. So by the time we got home, we were hot and hungry. And I decided to make ravioli.

Crazy, right? Not really. It took about 20 minutes, tops.

I can't publish the recipe here because it's copyrighted and I'm a lawyer so I'm kind of picky about that. Instead, I'll recommend the cookbook, because I use lots of recipes from it anyway.

You know how you can make Mac & Cheese without reading the box? And spaghetti, and a few other things without recipes? Pam (not Pamela) Anderson wants to expand your repertoire with How To Cook Without A Book. She is apparently an incredible cook who would always go out to eat with her family, because cooking was too much work and she didn't want to find and follow a recipe every night. Her mission in publishing this cookbook was to teach some basic cooking rules (i.e. how to sear a meat and make a pan sauce) and then expand on the recipes with different ingredients for different meals. In that way, you learn to make a recipe once or twice with the help of the book, and then can do it from memory.

Let me tell you, I'm reading Ad Hoc At Home by Thomas Keller right now, and that is not his philosophy. But Anderson's recipes really work for those non-special occasion, weeknight dinners. You probably won't need to make an extra trip to the grocery store for exotic ingredients. And her super-easy salad dressings have been a real hit!

How To Cook Without A Book is going on my Christmas list this year (I checked it out from the library), both to give and to get. And I am not a cookbook collector. Do you have it? What do you think of it?

Stuffed Pepper Lasagna

I regret to inform all of you that it's still hot here and therefore, still no baking. Here is a quick and easy summer favorite, especially now that peppers are in season! If you need meat, you could probably simmer some sausage or hamburger in a little tomato sauce (so it's flavored and moist but not soupy) for 20 minutes and mix it with the rice.


Stuffed Pepper "Lasagna"
(modified from BHG)

Ingredients

* 4 medium green and/or red sweet peppers - I cut them in to bit-sized pieces

* 1 8.8-oz. pouch cooked Spanish-style rice

* 1 14.5-oz. can stewed tomatoes - I used Muir Glen Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes for extra spice.

* 4 1-oz. slices Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeño peppers

Directions

1. Quarter peppers; remove stems, seeds, and ribs. Place in 2-quart square microwave-safe baking dish. Add 2 Tbsp. water. Cover with parchment. Microcook on high 4 minutes, until crisp-tender; turn dish once if no turntable. Remove peppers from dish; drain and set aside.

2. Cook rice according to package directions. Drain tomatoes, reserving 2-4 Tbsp. liquid. In baking dish layer half the peppers (cut sides up), the rice, drained tomatoes, Jack cheese, and remaining peppers (cut sides down). Drizzle reserved tomato liquid. Cover with parchment. Microcook on high 5 to 6 minutes, turning once. Let stand 5 minutes. Makes 4 servings.

Enjoy!

Amazing Alfredo Asparagus Chicken

• Four to Six chicken breasts (I used frozen boneless/skinless); whichever fit well in a covered saucepan without overlapping.

• One bunch asparagus, I cut the woody part off and then cut the tops in half so they were about 1.5" long.

• One 15 oz. can alfredo sauce (I've also made my own, which is yummier, but this was super easy/quick)

• Enough pasta for six servings. I used a "summer" pasta that was a macaroni weight, so it was nice and light.

• 1 small red-onion, diced to a nice size, not too small or it will just mush

• Salt, Pepper, granulated garlic, oregano (dried)

• Butter
Saute the onions in butter over medium-heat until semi-translucent, scrape to the side, add more butter and turn up the heat to high. Sear the chicken in the butter (both sides), forming a nice, brown crust.

Spinkle the chicken with salt, pepper, galic and oregano. Redistribute the onions around and on the chicekn, lower the heat to low-medium and cover.

Cook the pasta until ALMOST cooked, it should still be somewhat stiff. Drain, then put back in the pot with the alfredo sauce, warm the sauce over low-heat while the pasta finishes. Do not boil.

Remove the chicken from the sauce-pan (cover and keep in a warmed oven, or use a separate skillet for the next part).

Add a couple of tablespoons of butter to the chicken fat and onions in the sauce-pan, turn the heat up to medium, and then add the bottom, woodier parts of the asparagus. Add the tops of the asparagus to the pan once the bottom halves are almost halfway cooked, and then scrape the entire pan into the pasta and alfredo pot.

The asparagus will be soft but not slimy when it's cooked. If there is a large diameter difference between the bottoms and the tops, cook the bottoms until they're mostly done before adding the tops in, the tops (esp. the crown) will cook much faster than the woodier parts.
Serve.

Product Weigh-In:

If you have a Costco, and can get some of this pasta, it comes with two other macaroni weight

shapes and is AWESOME with light sauces. It's called something like their "Summer Collection" and was fairly inexpensive (esp. considering it's organic).

When pairing it with an alfredo sauce, I found that the twists were just heavy enough to stand up to the thicker sauce, but they didn't grab too much of it in a bite, so you were getting a balance of asparagus, alfredo and

pasta, vs. some thicker pastas (like fettuccine) that would outweigh the sauce+veggie duo.

Nice and Easy

Last night I fixed a tasty little dinner of grilled cheese, soup and freshly sliced strawberries. (I'm proud of myself, can you tell?) At Nathan's request the grilled cheese had a twist to it: thinly sliced apples inside with the cheese. I was skeptical at first, but this variation is actually quite tasty.

Another easy meal I fix often is Pita Pizzas. I use whole wheat pitas for my crusts. Top with sauce, mozzarella and your choice of toppings, then bake at 425 until the cheese is melted and golden. Very quick, healthy meal with a salad and great cold for lunch the next day.

Any other suggestions out there for easy meals? Oh, and cheap ones, too. ;-)

What chicken can do for you

There were lots of adjectives that would have done for the title (cheap, cheery, etc.) but I dismissed them all as too cheesy (ha ha!); however, chicken is a wonderful dish and forms the building block for many a meal. So here's the overview for all the mileage I can get out of your average fryer chicken, bought in bulk on sale at $0.49/lb. and frozen for future use:

Roast Chicken
By far the simplest, cheapest, and one of Michael's favourite meals:

1 whole fryer chicken
Several cups water
Salt
Pepper

Pour water over chicken in roasting pan; sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover; cook at 350 for 2-3 hours, at which point meat should be juicy and tender. I drain the broth (of which I have a lot because of all that added water) and make a quick and simple Stovetop Gravy:

Chicken broth
1-2 Tbl. cold water
1 Tbl. white flour
Milk (optional)

Stir broth in saucepan on medium heat. Shake up flour and water in airtight Tupperware; stir in gradually to broth; add milk if desired. If there are lumps, whisk vigourously. This makes a lot of gravy so I always save the leftovers for future recipes.

I always serve at least two sides with roast chicken: mashed potatoes (I assume you all have a recipe for this) and either open a can of creamed corn or make Candied Carrots:

Several carrots, sliced
Butter (like 1 Tbl., depending on how many carrots)
Brown sugar (ditto)

Boil carrots in a saucepan until tender. Drain. Add butter and brown sugar; stir and serve.

There are always lots of leftovers with just the two of us. Cooking up two chickens works great for company (and, I assume, a small but growing family). The best method of dealing with a leftover chicken carcass is to have your husband de-bone it while you read a book aloud to him. Let's assume you have all the leftover chicken meat tidily stored away in Tupperware. At this point I have several option for yummy follow-up meals:

Chicken Casserole
Cornbread crumbs (8x8 pan's worth - I usually bake a cornbread with the chicken just because I like to be efficient with my oven)
1 medium onion, chopped
Sage
Poultry seasoning (optional)
Salt
Pepper
Chopped chicken
1-3 cups chicken broth (leftover gravy)

Crumble cornbread into bottom of casserole dish; stir in chopped onions, sage, salt, and pepper. Sprinkle chicken over this; pour chicken gravy over the top. You can water it down with milk to stretch it, because it will usually thicken in the oven. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. (Not less, as the onions will be crunchy otherwise.)

Hearty Chicken and Rice Stew
Chicken broth (leftover gravy)
1 medium onion, chopped
1-3 carrots, chopped
Parsley
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. thyme
1 bay leaf
Chopped chicken
2 cups cooked barley
1 Tbl. lime juice

Stir gravy in saucepan over medium heat until warmed up. Add onion and carrots and spices, and simmer until tender. Add chicken and barley; simmer for a few minutes to allow the flavours to absorb but not too long or the barley will get soggy. Add lime juice right before serving. The quantities are approximate, but this always does for at least two meals.

California Chicken Enchiladas
10 flour tortillas
Chopped chicken
1 can cream of chicken soup (cream of mushroom works, too)
1 can chopped green chilis
8 oz. sour cream
1 cup shredded cheese

Mix soup, chilis, sour cream, and most of the cheese. Save 1/2 cup; dice chicken and stir in to main mixture. Scoop mixture into tortillas, fold up, and place in 9x13 pan. Spoon leftover mixture over the top with the rest of the cheese. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. (Not quite so cheap, I'm afraid, unless you get the cans on sale; but SO good!)

One-Dish Meal: Inspired by Melody

I made a supper the other night that was inpsired by a musical piece. I don't know who composed it, but it's commonly known as "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."

I say "commonly" because this version has added verses. One of them runs,

Save, save, save the wheat,
Meat and sugar too!
Corn and potatoes and rice and tomatoes
Are mighty good for you!

The last two lines sounded appealing at the moment, so I went home and made it. I'd already cooked some chicken -- threw a couple of frozen quarters in a pot and boiled it most of the morning. I cooked the rice in a rice cooker, about twenty minutes for white rice.

* Meat from two leg quarters, shredded
* About a cup and a half of rice
* Two potatoes, peeled, cubed, and boiled till tender
* Small can of corn
* Half a can of drained diced tomatoes, with a little juice
* Some celery salt, garlic, salt, and curry powder

When the rice and potatoes were done, I put them all into a skillet and heated them through. Made a great meal, and obviously the quantities are flexible!

Not good for leftovers, though. I still haven't figured out how to reheat potatoes so they taste like anything except cardboard.

-- SJ