Stuffed Shells (High Tech Style)

Confession: After seven years, I finally figured out what some of the buttons on my oven are for! When we got the stove, I really liked all of the features that it had to offer. But somewhere along the way I got overwhelmed with other things and forgot all about them.

With my husband out of town and me left to my own devices, I've had to get creative in the evenings when it comes to fitting in baseball/swimming/guitar and dinner. Last night I left work at 5 pm and had to pick up both kids and be on the baseball field by 6 pm. What is a mom to do?

This mom packed some snacks for the kids to eat so that they weren't starving through baseball practice and then she came home to a meal that was ready to eat as she walked in the door. How did I do it? I prepped the meal the night before, stuck it in the oven as we left for practice, programmed my oven to start at a certain time (the "Start Time" button) and then programmed it to bake for 40 minutes ("Cook Time" button). It was so easy! Why hadn't I thought of this before?!?!?!?

I adapted this recipe from The Full Table. I loved the recipe because you do not have to cook the shells before you stuff them! They soak in the pasta sauce overnight and soften enough to be perfectly cooked after 40 minutes in the oven the next day. The recipe made 20 stuffed shells. I served 10 last night and then froze 10 for a later meal.

Make Ahead Stuffed Shells:

Ingredients:

1 lb large shell pasta
2 8 ounce blocks of cream cheese
1 small package of chopped spinach (I bought the frozen kind, defrosted it in the microwave, and pressed it through a cheesecloth to get rid of the excess liquid)
1 or 2 cloves of chopped garlic (I added 2, but my daughter thought it was too much)
1 egg
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Pepper to taste
2 jars spaghetti sauce

Directions:

1. Mix cream cheese, spinach, garlic, egg, mozzarella cheese and pepper thoroughly.
2. Spoon mixture into uncooked shells. Alternatively, you can place the mixture in a ziploc, cut off a corner of the bag, and pipe the mixture into the shells. I started this way, but it didn't work well with the shells that had only a small opening. I found that in those instances, a fork worked best.

If Cooking The Next Day:
Place stuffed shells in a baking dish (8x8 for half of the batch or 9 x 13 for the whole batch).
Pour spaghetti sauce over the top - be sure to cover all shells as this is how they will soften. (1 jar for half of the batch; 2 jars for the entire batch).
Cover baking dish and place in refrigerator overnight.
When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. (I put the shells in the oven before we left for practice and set my start and bake times so that they were just finishing up as we arrived home).

If Freezing:
Place stuffed shells on a cookie sheet in the freezer until they are fully frozen. Then transfer to a freezer bag for storage.
When ready to eat shells, remove from freezer the night before.
Pour spaghetti sauce over the top - be sure to cover all shells as this is how they will soften. (1 jar for half of the batch; 2 jars for the entire batch).
Cover baking dish and place in refrigerator overnight.
When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

At first the proportion of sauce to noodles seemed wrong to me. I thought that there was way too much sauce. But after the shells soaked overnight, they absorbed quite a bit which gave them great flavor and made the sauce to shell ratio perfect. This is a dish that I will put on my go to list!

Crockpot Cheesey Chicken

Winner winner chicken dinner! We really liked this recipe, which I found on allrecipes of course!

Ingredients:
6 chicken breasts
2 cans condensed cheddar cheese soup
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon garlic powder
frozen broccoli


Directions:
1. Add the chicken breasts to your crockpot.
2. Dump the soup, milk and garlic powder into crockpot over chicken.
3. Cook on low 6 to 8 hours.
4. 30 minutes before you're ready to serve, add the frozen broccoli to the crockpot.
5. Serve over rice or egg noodles and enjoy!

Turkey Meatballs in Garlic Sauce

We tried this recipe last night with steamed rice and veggies. As usual, the recipe is adapted from allrecipes.com.

Photo Courtesy of allrecipes.com.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 4 drops hot pepper sauce
• 1/2 cup finely crushed butter-flavored crackers (I used Ritz)
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 pound lean ground turkey
• 1 cup V-8 juice
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 2 garlic cloves, minced

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine the first seven ingredients. Crumble turkey over mixture and mix well. Shape into six meatballs. Place in a greased 9-in. pie plate. Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the V8 juice, broth and garlic. Turn meatballs; spoon sauce over top. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F. Bake 20 minutes longer, basting every 5 minutes. Serve over rice.
   

The verdict: We thought that the recipe was so/so. The sauce needed a little something extra - hot sauce maybe? I would definitely add more garlic to both the meatballs and the sauce. I'll try this again sometime, but it won't go into the regular rotation.

A Favorite Side Dish

I'm back. Did you miss me? Aw, thanks!

I'm getting back into the swing of things slowly by posting a short recipe today. I'll attach a photo later this evening.

When it comes to menu planning I generally don't have a problem choosing main dishes. It's the side dishes that get me. I tend to go back to my stand by dishes, can you say steamed broccoli, more than I care to admit. Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with steamed broccoli, but sometimes I need a change and want to spice it up a little. Sure I'd love to have the time to whip up fantastic elaborate sides that would knock my family's socks off, but it just doesn't happen. While we're trying to prepare dinner the kids are vying for our attention, so whatever we make has to have a short prep time.

Today I'm sharing with you one of our favorite side dishes. It goes together quickly, cooks quickly and doesn't need babysitting. I LOVE roasted veggies and when you pair them together with two of my other favorites (garlic and balsamic vinegar) you've got a recipe that I cannot resist.

Roasted Asparagus with Garlic and Balsamic Vinegar

1 pound fresh asparagus
2 garlic cloves chopped (I tend to add more, but this is the recommended dosage)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
drizzle of balsamic vinegar

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Snap the woody ends off of the asparagus by holding both ends and bending gently. The snap will naturally occur between the edible portion and the woody stem. Rinse the asparagus and dry completely.

Mix asparagus, garlic, olive oil, and salt & pepper together. I generally put them all in a baggie together and shake to ensure that everything is properly mixed and coated. Arrange on a baking pan (I use a cookie sheet lined with foil for easy clean up) in a single layer.

Roast in oven for approximately 12 to 15 minutes. Upon removal from the oven, drizzle with balsamic vinegar and serve immediately.

It's just that easy. To make the preparation even easier, I buy the pre-chopped garlic. This is can be a non-cutting board side dish. Less dishes is a good thing in my book!

Slow Cooker Meal We All Enjoyed

The weather on Saturday was AWFUL! It was cold and rainy. After braving the elements for a short while in the morning, we decided we needed a warm and hearty meal. I visited my old standby(http://www.allrecipes.com/) and found a recipe for slow cooker beef stew. It was divine! We all gave it a thumbs up except for the three year old who pronounced it "icky" because of the "veguble" he saw in it.





Slow Cooker Beef Stew (adapted from allrecipes)

Ingredients
2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 onion, chopped
2 cups beef broth
3 potatoes, diced
4 carrots, sliced
1 stalk celery, chopped
1/2 cup red wine

Directions:
Coat meat with flour and saute in olive oil with onion until browned (doesn't have to be cooked through). Remove meat and onion from pan and place in slow cooker. Add broth and wine to the pan and bring to a boil while you stir. Be sure to stir up the bits of meat and flour which will add a lot of flavor to your stew.

Pour the sauce into slow cooker over meat. Stir in the garlic, bay leaf, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, onion, beef broth, potatoes, carrots, and celery.

Cover, and cook on Low setting for 10 to 12 hours, or on High setting for 4 to 6 hours.

To this base recipe I added some veggies I had in the freezer (green beans and corn).

Also note that if you don't have the wine on hand (or you drank it last night) just add additional broth.

To accompany the stew we prepared this YUMMY fococcia bread found at www.joyinmykitchen.com. It was so easy to make. I made the 9x13 loaf and my six year old has eaten over half of it in the last day. She has it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.

Smoked Sausage, Kale and Potato Soup

My family in Minnesota has a bunch of snow on the ground - and I'm jealous! I decided to pretend that we were having the same weather here in Portland and made a batch of Smoked Sausage, Kale and Potato Soup to warm me up.

This is a very simple recipe that can be made fairly quickly. The sausage really gives the soup a good flavor.

Ingredients:

4 ounces smoked fully cooked sausage (such as kielbasa or hot links) sliced into rounds. I use the Hilshire Farms Kielbasa.

2 3/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth

3/4 pound small red skinned potatoes, thinly sliced

1 cup dry white wine (may omit and use additional broth instead)

5 cups thinly sliced trimmed kale leaves (about 3/4 of medium bunch)

1/4 Tbsp caraway seeds, lightly crushed

Directions:

Saute sausage slices over medium-high heat until beginning to brown, about 3 minutes.

Add chicken broth, sliced potatoes and white wine and bring mixture to a boil.

Reduce heat to medium, cover and simmer until potatoes are almost tender, about 10 minutes.

Add kale and caraway seeds to soup. Simmer soup uncovered until potatoes and kale are very tender, about 10 minutes longer.

Season soup to taste with salt and pepper.

Note: You can use any kind of greens you have on hand with this recipe. Tonight we used mustard greens, and thought that it was just as good as kale.

Linking this recipe over to Mouth Watering Mondays at A Souther Fairytale.

Turkey Pizza Burgers

Tonight I was in the mood for pizza, but we had turkey in the fridge so I combined the two. This recipe received a thumbs up from all four of us. My daughter, who has never ever taken more than one bite of any burger, ate HALF of hers. That is the highest honor a recipe can receive.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey ( I used extra lean ground turkey breast)

1/4 cup pizza sauce (you can use store bought or try out this recipe from my friend Cara's blog)

2 cloves minced garlic

1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning

1 Tsp Fennel Seed

Mozzarella Cheese shredded

Mix the turkey, pizza sauce, garlic, Italian seasoning, and fennel seed together. Divide the mixture into four patties. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, if desired.

I grilled my burgers on my George Foreman grill for eight minutes. You could also pan fry or broil your burgers until they reach 160 degrees.

After burgers are cooked top liberally with shredded mozzarella cheese and let rest for a few minutes.

We constructed our burgers on Orowheat sandwich rounds. They are thin, 100% whole wheat, only 100 calories and very yummy. They sort of have the appearance of a thicker pizza crust. I broiled the buns until they were toasted and then rubbed them with a garlic clove.

We topped the burgers with more pizza sauce, a bit of mayo, and some of our favorite pizza toppings: tomatoes, mushrooms, black olives.

This was a very fast, satisfying, delicious and healthy meal. It gave us so much energy that we went directly to the park afterwards to soak up the last hour of sunshine for today.

Barrett's famous tuna casserole

Tonight we had a favorite of ours - Barrett's famous (in our house anyway) tuna casserole. This is Madeline's favorite dish - she requested it for her birthday dinner. You all probably have a similar recipe in your files, but I'll give you ours. BTW, it tastes a lot better than it looks in the picture!

12 oz whole wheat pasta ( I like to use a short pasta like penne, bowtie or shell)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 soup can of milk

1 cup peas (either frozen or canned is fine)

Sliced Mushrooms (amount to your liking - again either fresh or canned)

2 cans tuna

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook noodles to al dente according to package directions. When noodles are done, drain well. Mix together soup and milk. Add peas, mushrooms, noodles and tuna to soup/milk mixture. Pour into a casserole dish and bake for 30 to 40 minutes - until the sauce is thickened. Top with cheddar cheese and bake for another 10 minutes until cheese is melted. Enjoy with a salad and your favorite veggie.