Pizza Casserole

Hey!
Hope you all are having a wonderful week! Only 1 week until Christmas!! Yayy!! I love Christmas :). We don't have any snow on the ground yet, though...hopefully we will get some for Christmas Eve at least!

I have to share this Recipe for PIZZA CASSEROLE!...I had never heard of it before!, But then one day as I was browsing on PINTEREST (addicted to it!) I found this recipe and it sounded so delicious! So we tried it and it is sooo very yummy!!!....A great and easy thing to make when you are in the mood for pizza, but don't want to order in ;)

Here is the link for the original website where the recipe was found.
http://www.recipelion.com/Casserole-Recipes/Mamas-Pizza-Casserole/ml/1

And here's the REcipe!:

1 Bag Egg Noodles
1 Extra Large bottle of Ragu Pizza Sauce (I use 2 small jars of the Great Value brand)
3 C. MOzzarella Cheese (I use the Fiesta Blend shredded cheese)
1 1/2 lb. ground beef
1 package pepperonis

Brown meat and boil noodles.
Preheat oven to 350
Layer sauce, half noodles, half meat, half sauce, noodles, half cheese, meat, sauce, cheese and pepperonis.
Cover with Foil and bake 30 min. Remove foil and bake another 15 min. Let it sit for 10-15 min so it has time to set! And then its ready to enjoy!!!
For Tyler and I, i only use half a bag of noodles and 1 lb. of ground beef, and about 1/2 a package of the pepperonis and we still have 1/2 of it left over for the weekend :)
Experiment with the toppings!..Add chicken or bacon and veggies too! yumm!!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Best Pasta Salad

Hey guys!
Hope everyone's having a great week! How's your Christmas shopping going?! Guess what?! Only 12 days till Christmas!!!! Yayy! :)
This Pasta Salad is so delicious! And a perfect side dish to take to a potluck, party, or family dinner! It has such a great pop of flavor! Yumm :)
It's uper easy to make and only takes about 15 min to throw together.

Here's the recipe:
*16 oz. Noodles (I use the Tri color rotini noodles)
*1 green pepper
*1 Onion
*2-16 oz. bottles Italian Dressing
*a few carrots
**you can add tomato and celery if you wish :)

1-cook the pasta according to the directions. Drain. Rinse with cold water
2-Cut up the vegetables and poir into a bowl.
3-mix in the noodles and dressing. Stir. And put in fridge! Let cool for about 2 hours before digging in!

This is our favorite pasta salad! What do you think?!

Enjoy your day everyone!!

Vegetable Chow Mein

My fiancé LOVES Chinese food! I think he could eat it everyday! So I thought I would try to make homemade Chinese!

I made this chow mein and orange chicken...The orange chicken did not turn out :(
So if anyone has a great Chinese chicken recipe let me know!!
Until then we will make meals out of this AMAZINGLY good chow mein!

Recipe:
*2 carrots
*green pepper
*red pepper
*celery
*8 oz. angel hair pasta
*3 tablespoons oil
*sprinkle of ginger
*3 garlic cloves
*1/4 C. Chicken broth
*1/2 C. Hoisin Sauce (recipe below if you don't want to buy this)
*2 tablespoons soy sauce
*2 tablespoons honey
*salt and pepper
*Onion

1- boil veggies 1 minute. Drain and put in bowl of ice cold water. Drain
2-cook noodles 5-7 min. Rinse with cold water and pay dry
3- Heat oil in skillet, Add noodles, ginger, garlic and cook 2 min. Add veggies cook 3 min. Add broth, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, and honey stir until thick add salt and pepper

Recipe for Hoisin Sauce:
*4 tablespoons soy sauce
*2 tablespoons peanut butter
*1 tablespoon honey
*2 teaspoons white vinegar
*1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
*20 drops hot sauce
*pepper
Combine all and add 1/2 C. To noodles and veggies.

This has an excellent taste to it! Mmmmm!! Enjoy supper!!

Manicotti

I don't know about you, but we LOVE pasta!
I've always wanted to make Manicotti so I finally tried it a couple months ago!
It makes a lot and is very filling...so make room in your fridge for leftovers!!
This recipe is DELICIOUS!!!

Manicotti:
*1 pint part skim Ricotta Cheese
*8oz. Mozzarella cheese
*3/4 C. Parmesan cheese
*2 eggs
*1 teaspoon parsley
*Salt and pepper
*1 jar spaghetti sauce
*1 lb. ground beef
* 5 1/2 oz. Manicotti noodles

1-cook manicotti, drain and rinse with cold water
2-preheat oven to 350
3-Cook ground beef in skillet
4-Combine ricotta cheese, mozzarella, 1/2 c. Parmesan cheese, eggs, parsley, salt and pepper
5-pour half of spaghetti sauce in bottom of 9x13 baking dish. Full manicotti shells with cheese mixture and place them in the pan.
6-mix rest of sauce with ground beef and pour over shells. Top with remaining cheese mixture.
7-Bake 45 minutes!

Enjoy!! I like to serve mine with either garlic toast OR the Italian Bread recipe from my previous post :)
It's excellent!

Chocolate Eclair Cake

Hi all!
Looking for an amazing winter dessert?! This is it! I made this yesterday and Tyler was amazed with it! He said it was sooo delicious! :)

Give it a try!

Recipe:
*1/2 C. Butter
*1 C. Water
1 C. Flour
*4 eggs
*large box vanilla instant pudding
*2 C. Milk
* 8 oz. cream cheese
*8 oz. cool whip

Preheat oven to 400 and grease pan
On stove melt butter and water bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add flour. Mix well. Then add in one egg at a time. Press into pan on bottom and sides. Bake 30-40 min until brown
Soften cream cheese and whip with a mixer.
In a separate bowl prepare the pudding as directed. Slowly add to cream cheese mixture. Mix and cool in fridge
Let crust cool completely pour the pudding mixture into crust and top with cool whip. Refrigerate
Serve with chocolate sauce ad ENJOY!!

Turkey Soup

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
I don't know about all of you, but Ty and I have LOTS of leftover turkey!! So for lunch today I threw together a Turkey Soup!
It turned out yummy! You can add any extras that you like!...corn, celery, etc...here's my recipe!

*1 onion, cut up
*10 Small carrots, Cut up
*4-5 cloves of garlic
*6 C. water
*1 C. chicken broth
*3 Chicken boullion cubes
* about 1 C. Cream
*5 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 C. Water
* 1 teaspoon celery salt
*1 teaspoon Thyme
*1 teaspoon Marjoram
*salt and pepper
*leftover turkey
*1 C. Rice

Heat oil in pot and add onion and carrots cook for 5 min
-add rest of ingredients. Bring to a boil and simmer. I simmered for about 30 min until it got thick
- add salt and pepper to taste

We loved it! A great fall soup! :)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!

Strawberry Pie

Good morning!
Hope everyone had a great weekend!
We flew back home for a week to see family and celebrate Thanksgiving! Lots of good food and fun times with family!

Before we left I made a Strawberry Pie with Homemade Whip Cream! Tyler had never had one before and it's by far my favorite pie!! And after he tried it he said its his fav too!!!
I will be making it again this week for our thanksgiving dinner :)
I got the recipe from my mom and it's super easy!

Strawberry Pie
*1 C. Sugar
*1 C. Water
*2 Tablespoons Corn Syrup
*2 Tablespoons corn starch
Cook 6 min on the stove top. Add * 2 Tablespoons Strawberry gelatin powder cook till thick
**I buy a graham cracker crust and cut up strawberries and place in crust. Pour glaze over strawberries
** refrigerate a couple hours and Serve with Whip Cream! Yummm!!!
Give it a try! And have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

SPOOK-tacular Supper!

Happy November!! How was everyone's Halloween night?! We had a lot of fun! We just stayed in and I cooked a "Spooktacular Supper" for Tyler and I :). It was very delicious!! And Tyler LOVED it! He said he can't wait until Thanksgiving and Christmas to have more "fun food". And he also said"We can have Body Part Pizza once a week if you want" haha He really enjoyed it!! And it was a blast to cook and put together!!! For our Appetizer I made a "Graveyard Cheeseball", the Main Dish was "Body Part Pizza" and for dessert we had "Ghost Poop" (Puppy Chow).

Here are the recipes! Give 'em a try!!

 

Graveyard Cheeseball..I tried to shape it into a tombstone and grave lol. The parsley on top represents the Grass

Body Part Pizza before I put the cheese on. Its a homemade crust, Alfredo Sauce, cocktail sausages, chicken, red and green peppers and onion.

 

 

And....THE DESSERT!

 

GRAVEYARD CHEESEBALL

*12 oz Cream Cheese

*3/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder

*1/4 teaspoon Seasoned Salt

*1/4 teaspoon Celery Salt

*1/4 teaspoon dried Basil

*1/4 teaspoon Thyme

*Pepper

*Parsley

*Serve with Crackers

 

1-Mix together first 6 ingredients and Refridgerate for 30 min.

2-Shape into "graveyard" and sprinkle Pepper over whole thing. Add parsley on top of grave for the grass.

yummm!!!!

 

BODY PART PIZZA

*3 Chicken breasts, cooked and cut into chunks

*Cooking Oil

*1 Onion

*1 Green Pepper

*1 Red Pepper

*Alfredo Sauce

*Cocktail Weiners (I cut them in half length-wise

*Cheese

*Pizza Crust

 

1-I made my own crust in our breadmaker..Very easy and tasted REALLY good!!

2-Cook the chicken in skillet until brown, add Onion and cook 8 minutes.

3-Spread Alfredo sauce on pizza crust.

4-Add toppings and cover with Cheese!

5-Bake 425 degrees for 20-25 min.

 

 

***I found the idea for this recipe here:  http://www.bhg.com/recipe/chicken/body-parts-pizza/

 

And for the GHOST POOP I just made puppy chow!! :)

 

Philly Cheesesteak Skillet

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Are you all doing something fun tonight?! We are staying in, but I'm planning a SPOOK-tacular supper for us tonight :). I will add that one later this week/next week, but until then....Here is a recipe for a Philly Cheesesteak Skillet! Yummm! :)

 

You will need some green peppers, onion, garlic cloves, roastbeef, provolone cheese, butter and oil

Melt 2 T. butter and 2 T. oil in a skillet. Add peppers, onion, garlic cloves, salt and pepper. Heat up for about 15 min.

Add Roast beef and heat about another 10 min.

 

 

Top with Provolone cheese and Melt on top. And its ready to enjoy!! We love to eat it just plain...but you could also put it on a Tortilla or a sandwich. Delicious!

 

Recipe:

*2 Tablespoons Butter

*2 Tablespoons Oil

*2 Green Peppers

*1 Onion

*3-4 Garlic Cloves

*8 Oz. of Roastbeef

*Slices of Provolone Cheese

*Salt and Pepper

 

1- Heat up butter and oil in skillet. Add onion, garlic cloves, and pepper and heat about 15 min.

2-Add Roastbeef to skillet and heat up another 10-15 minutes.

3-Salt and Pepper

4-Melt Provolone Cheese on top.

5-ENJOY!!

 

Hope everyone has a fun Halloween!!!

Tator Tot Casserole w/ a Twist

Good Morning!
I've been meaning to add this recipe for a couple weeks now. It combines all that is good into one dish! Deliciousness!! And super easy to make! Just throw everything in the crock pot for 3-4 hours and come home to a yummy supper!
Here's the recipe

Tator Tot Casserole with a Twist:

*1 bag Tator Tots
*1/2 Jar of Bacon Bits (I add more)
*3-5 Chicken Breasts
*3 C. of Cheese (I use the Fiesta blend and add probably more than 3 C. cause we LOVE cheese)
*1 Onion (Optional)
*3/4 C. Milk
*Salt and Pepper

1-Grease crockpot.
2-Layer 1/2 Tator Tots on the bottom
3-Sprinkle 1/4 of the Bacon Bits on top
4-Sprinkle Cheese over the Bacon Bits (However much you would like..I just put a thin layer to cover the tots and bacon bits)
5-Add Chicken breasts and sprinkle with salt and pepper. And add 1/2 of onion
6-Sprinkle chicken with more cheese
7-Add 1/4 of bacon bits
8-Add rest of the tator tots. And sprinkle with rest of onion.
9-Cover with Cheese and rest of bacon bits
10- Pour milk in.
11-Cook on High 3-4 hours

 

Pasta with Shrimp



GOOD MORING!!

I was looking to try something different...besides just spaghetti with spaghetti sauce all the time! This is an AMAZZZZZING Pasta Dish!! Lots of flavor! And just yummy!

The finished product! yummmm

You will need Spaghettie noodles, Worchestire Sauce, Garlic Powder, Parsley, Basil, Thyme, Processed cheese, Onion and butter

Heating up the onion in the melted butter

 

Add spices

Mix butter mixture with the shrimp in baking dish. Bake 25 minutes

Cheese cubes...I only used half of them.

Add spaghetti and cheese and bake another 5 minutes!

 

Pasta with Shrimp

*1 1/2 C. Butter

*1 C. Onion (I used a whole onion)

*1 Tablespoon Parsley Flakes

*1 Tablespoon Worcestire Sauce

*Salt and Pepper

*1/2 teaspoon Basil

*1/2 teaspoon Thyme

*1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder

*3 lbs Shrimp

*12 oz. Spaghetti

*8 oz. Processed Cheese, Cubed (I only used 4 oz. of Swiss cheese)

 

1-Preheat oven to 350

2-Melt butter in pan. Add onion and cook 5 min.

3-Stir in Parlsey, Worcestire, Salt, Pepper, Basil, Thyme, and Garlic Powder. Pour into baking dish with shrimp and bake 25 min.

4-Cook spaghetti

5-Add Spaghetti and cheese cubes into baking dish, stir and bake 5 min.

 

Very good dish!!!

 

 

 

Tortilla Soup!

Hi again!!
Its starting to get chilly outside! You know what that means!!..Time for some yummy soup!! One of my favorite soups is Tortilla Soup...So I have been looking for a good recipe to try and as I was looking through one of my grandma's old cookbooks from a small town in South Dakota I found this one and it is DELISH!!!!
Definitely would recommend that you give it a try!

 

Tortilla Soup:

*1 Can Enchilada Sauce, Medium or Hot

*1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup

*1 Can Fiesta Nacho Cheese Soup

*1 Soup can filled with Milk

*2-3 Chicken breasts, Shredded

 

1-Mix enchilada sauce, cream of chicken soup, fiesta nacho cheese soup, and milk together in saucepan and simmer for 2 hours.

2-Cook the chicken, shred and add to soup...cook additional hour.

Serve with shredded cheese and chips on top!

 

Easy and delicious!

 

THE Perfect Fall Soup--Chicken Gnocchi Soup

OH MY GOODNESS!!!...This soup is Deeeeelicioussss!!! They serve something similar to this at Olive Garden, but Tyler told me this version is WAYYY better!! :) He LOVED it! Its nice and creamy and warms you up on a cool, fall day! Give it a try!!

 

 

You need Potato Gnocchi. It looks something like this. I got mine in the Pasta section at Walmart for $2.50.

Cut up Onion, Garlic  Cloves, Carrots and Celery (I left out the celery)

Chop up 2-3 chicken breasts (Cooked) I used 2.

8 Chicken Boullion Cubes

Chop 1 1/2 C. Spinach

 

Mix Cornstarch with water

 

 

 

The finished product!! yummy in my tummy!!

 

Chicken Gnocchi Soup:

*1 Onion

*2 Carrots

*4 Celery

*6 Cloves Garlic

*2-3 Tablespoons Oil

*1 C. Chicken Broth

*2-3 Chicken Breasts (cooked)

*7 C. Water

*8 Chicken Boullion Cubes

*1-16oz package Potato Gnocchi

*4 C. 1/2 and 1/2 (I didn't have any on hand so instead I used 4 Teaspoons butter and about 1 C. Milk)

*1 1/2 C. Spinach

*1 Teaspoon Thyme

*1/8 Teaspoon Nutmeg

*1 Tablespoon Sugar

*1/4 C. Water

*5 Tablespoons Cornstarch

*Salt and Pepper

*2 Tablespoons Butter

 

**Chop Onion, garlic, carrots, celery. Pour oil into Large pot. Add vegggies and cook 5-8 min.

**Chop up cooked chicken and add to pot. Pour in chicken broth, 7 C. water, boullion cubes.

**Bring soup to a boil. Add Gnocchi, boil and cook 3-4 min. (Until they float to the top)

**Chop spinach and add to pot. Pour in 1/2 and 1/2, thyme, nutmeg, sugar and butter. Boil

**In small bowl combine 1/4 C. Water with 5 Tablespoons cornstarch. Mix and pour into pot.

**Add Salt and Pepper. Boil and cook! I let it cook for about 2 hours and it got nice and thick and creamy!!



Chicken Gyros



Hello Everyone!

 

My favorite food when we go to the Fair is Chicken Gyros!! So I looked for a Homemade recipe and found one! It tastes soooooo good! :)

 

I used 3 chicken breasts...boiled them for 15 min. then chopped them up into little pieces.

 

 

Here's the chopped chicken

Mixed the chicken with garlic, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, greek yogurt, oregano, salt and pepper. Refridgerate 1 hour.

For the sauce I mixed greek yogurt, 1 cucumber, garlic, white wine vinegar, lemon juice salt and pepper and drizzled with Olive Oil. Refridgerate 30 min.

 

 

Then I heated up the sauce just to luke warm...You can also leave cold if you would like

Fry up the chicken mixture

And its ready to eat! You can use tortillas or pitas top with cheese, chicken mixture and sauce!! yummmy!

 

Chicken Mixture:

*2 Tablespoons Garlic cloves

*2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

*2 Teaspoons Red Wine Vinegar

*2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

*2 Tablespoons "heaping" Plain Greek Yogurt

*1 Tablespoon Dill

*1 1/4 lb. Chicken breasts...(For 2 of us I just used 2 chicken breasts)

*Salt & Pepper

*1 Onion (optional)

 

Combin everything together. Whisk until mixed. Refridgerate 1 hour.

 

Tzatziki Sauce:

*1 Cup Greek Yogurt

*1 Cucumber

*1 teaspoon Garlic cloves

*1/4 teaspoon Dill

*1/4 teaspoon Parsley

*1 Tablespoon White Wine Vinegar

*Salt and pepper

*Extra Virgin Olive Oil

*Couple drops of lemon juice

 

Shred Cucmeber. MIx everything together and drizzle with Extra virgin olive oil. Refridgerate 30 minutes.

 

Cook chicken mixture in a skillet till heated up. Then if you would like you can heat up the sauce as well.

Put into pita and ENJOY!!

Homemade Carmel Rolls





Hello Again! I haven't been able to write a blog for the past week, because I have been visiting my handsome newborn nephew!! He is so much fun! And such a calm baby! I love him to pieces!

 

Before I flew out I made some treats for my fiance, Tyler, to enjoy while I was gone! And one of the things I made was CARMEL ROLLS!! I got this recipe from my mom (She's been making them for YEARS)! And they are to die for!! So here is her delicious recipe!

 

 

Once the dough is done in the breadmaker it should look something like this

 

Here is the Carmel Sauce! yummm...1 Stick of butter, 2 C. Brown Sugar, 2 C Cream.

Heat on Medium heat until boiling, then remove from heat and let cool.

 

 

Roll out your dough and spread butter over

 

Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over the butter and roll up the dough

 

 

Using a piece of thread cut the dough into 12 sections and place into Carmel Sauce in baking dish.

 

Once in carmel sauce, cover with a towel and let rise for 15-20 min Then place in the oven for 25-30 at 350degrees. Or until tops are brown!

 

Serve warm! Or heat up in the microwave for 20 seconds before serving!

 

Dough:

*2 Tablespoons Sugar

*1 Teaspoon Salt

*2 3/4 C. Bread Flour

*2 Teaspoons Active Dry Yeast

*1/4 C. Watert

*1 Egg

*7/8 C. Milk (Almost 1 C.)

*1/4 C. butter

 

Measure all ingredients into breadmaker. Choose the "Dough" setting.

 

Once done, Roll out dough into a rectangle shape. Brush about 2-3 Tablespoons of butter over the dough and sprinkle with Cinnamon Sugar. Roll dough up. Using a thread cut the dough into 12 equal pieces.

 

Carmel Sauce:

*1 Stick butter

*2 C. Cream

*2 C. Brown Sugar

 

Add all ingredients into saucepan. Turn to medium heat and bring to boil. Once boiling remove from heat and let cool.

 

Place carmel sauce in baking dish. And place cut up dough pieces in carmel sauce. Cover with a towel and let rise for 20 min.

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake rolls for 25-30 min...or until tops are nice and brown.