Chicken Florentine

I had a bunch of bacon and spinach left over from this recipe so I was happy to find this recipe from You Got Served. After reading the ingredients it sounded pretty tasty! Something that I learned that I love are things that come pre-prepared, like minced garlic, bacon bits, shredded cheese. All were things used in this recipe which saved tons of time. I'm not a fan of mincing garlic, it seems like it takes me forever. And I really don't like cooking bacon, the smell is way too overpowering. It's pretty much the best when it's grilled outside, at Bear Lake. This would be a great recipe to use if you have left over grilled chicken, saving you about 20-30 minutes. Anyway, here is my take on this recipe.

2 large chicken breasts, cut into 3rds or 4ths

1 big bag of fresh spinach

4 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced

1/4 c butter

1 T Italian Seasoning

1/2 c half-and-half

3 t minced garlic

1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese

1 T lemon juice

1 can cream of mushroom soup (can also use cream of chicken or cream of roasted garlic)

1 c shredded mozzarella cheese

2/3 c bacon, crumbled

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the chicken breast halves on a baking sheet; bake 20 to 30 minutes, until no longer pink and juices run clear.

While chicken is baking, sautee spinach and mushrooms in 1 1/2 T olive oil, until it becomes fragrant and spinach withers. Set aside. Then, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stirring constantly, mix the garlic, lemon juice, cream of mushroom soup, Italian seasoning, half-and-half, and Parmesan cheese in with the melted butter. Be careful not to let mixture bubble or it will thicken, just heat long enough to melt cheese.

When chicken is through baking, increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees.

Arrange the sauteed spinach and mushrooms over the bottom of a 9x13 inch (or 2- 8x8, baking 1 now, freezing the other for later) baking dish. Pour half the mixture from the saucepan over the spinach and mushrooms. Arrange chicken breasts in the dish, and cover with the remaining sauce mixture. Sprinkle with bacon bits, and top with mozzarella cheese. Bake 20 to 25 minutes in the 400 degree oven, until bubbly and lightly browned. Serve over pasta.

Serves 4.

Spinach Stuffed Shells

Only 17 more days until baby boy is here! It's hard to find motivation to cook when all I want to do is lie down and rest when Whitney is sleeping, but when I know I can get a freezer meal out of a recipe (meaning, I can slack off later when #2 gets here) it's not so bad! This recipe was found on Sister's Cafe, surprise surprise!

1 pkg jumbo pasta shells

1 jar favorite spaghetti sauce

1 pkg chopped spinach, thawed

2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded

1 lg carton cottage cheese

1 egg white

Thaw spinach and drain well. Cook shells according to package directions (I always slightly undercook them by a minute). Mix in a large bowl; cottage cheese, mozzarella, parmesan, spinach and egg white. Stuff mixture into shells and place in 9x13 baking dish Or use 2 smaller sized ones, baking one and freezing the other one for later. Spray the baking dish with cooking spray and pour a little bit of sauce in the bottom. Stuff mixture into shells and place into prepared dish (or dishes). Pour spaghetti sauce over shells. Cover and freeze or you can bake it at 350 for 30-45 minutes until heated thru. If you freeze it, plan on adding an additional hour to your baking time.This is also a great recipe to make earlier in the day and keep in the fridge. Then all you have to do it throw it in the oven for dinner.

*I just read one of the comments from this post on Sister's Cafe, and someone recommended adding sausage. Sounds yummy that way and what a good way to use left over meat!

Curly Italian Pasta

We had our Webster girl's Weekend this last weekend and had a blast. There are enough of us that go so we split up meal preparations. I like doing it this way because we get to try something new to add to our recipes. For dinner Friday night, Laura made this Curly Italian Pasta from a new blog she found, Missygrub.blogspot.com. It was so yummy and I liked all the tasty extras in it. It looked pretty easy and made PLENTY for all 11 of us.

Cavatappi pasta (I usually cook half the box for my family of 5)
1 package Italian Ground Sausage
1/3 cup diced green bell pepper
1/3 cup diced onion
1-2 cloves garlic
1 can of Italian diced tomatoes
1-1 1/2 cups of Heavy Whipping Cream
Salt and Pepper to taste
Fresh grated Parmesan and Romano Cheese (I use Sargentos shredded cheese)

Bring water to boil for noodles. Cook sausage until cooked through, drain, return to pan and add green bell pepper, onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Continue browning meat, and cooking veggies. Add Pasta to water, and cook according to package. Add tomatoes to meat mixture, continue cooking for 5 more minutes. Then add Heavy Whipping Cream to meat mixture, low-mid heat. Drain pasta, return to pan. Add about a cup of cheese in the meat mixture and stir till combined, then add to pasta. Top with more cheese.

Spaghetti with Artichoke Hearts and Tomatoes

Spaghetti (or silly noodles) is one of the few things that Whitney will eat so I was excited to find a new twist on it. This is the first thing that I've tried from Pioneer Woman and we love, love, loved it! I liked the creamy-ness of it and that there was just a hint of tomato to it. It was a really light, but filling meal, if that is at all possible. Here is my adaptation for the 3 of us: (with enough left over for 2 or 3 more servings. We LOVE spaghetti leftovers)

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 Tablespoons butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 onion, finely diced

1/2 (14.5 oz) can artichoke hearts, quartered or whole, drained

1 can diced tomatoes with juice (14.5 oz)

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup chicken broth

dash of nutmeg

1/2 pound of spaghetti

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Melt olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes.

In a separate pan, boil water for spaghetti. Cook spaghetti till al dente (10 minutes)

Add artichoke hearts and tomatoes to the skillet. Stir and cook for 8-10 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Stir in cream and chicken broth. Cook over low heat until heated through, then turn off heat.

Drain spaghetti and place drained pasta in a large bowl. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Pour sauce over the top. Toss lightly to combine and coat.

Poor Man's Stroganoff

I had my regular stroganoff on the menu for tonight but Mel's Kitchen Cafe posted this recipe so I had to try it. I'm glad I didn't wuss out and stick with what I was used to. According to Jake, bacon....good. Mushrooms.....good. He even helped out by chopping the onions and garlic and boiling the noodles. I love that man-o-mine.

1-2 teaspoons olive oil
6 ounces turkey bacon, diced
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 ½ pounds lean ground beef or ground turkey
1 medium red or yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
¼ cup flour
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 or 1 1/2 cup low-sodium beef broth
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
½ teaspoon paprika
1 cup sour cream, light or regular
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley or 1 tablespoon dried

Cooked egg noodles or rice, for serving

In a 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat 1-2 teaspoons olive oil and saute diced bacon over medium heat until crispy. Transfer bacon to a paper-towel lined plate and set aside, leaving any grease/oil in the pan. Add sliced mushrooms to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, for about one minute (if the pan is too dry, add a teaspoon of oil as needed). Add salt. Continue cooking until the mushrooms are softened and have given up most of their juices. Transfer them to the same plate as the bacon.

In the same skillet, brown the ground beef or turkey with the onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Cook until the meat is no longer pink. Drain the grease.

Stir in the flour and tomato paste to the meat mixture and mix to combine well. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, for 1 minute. Add the beef broth and bring the mixture to a simmer, whisking to combine all the ingredients. Simmer vigorously for 3-5 minutes until the mixture is slightly reduced and thickened. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce and paprika. Cook until flavors blend, about 5 minutes on medium heat. Add sautéed mushrooms and bacon back to the skillet. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the sour cream, mixing well to avoid lumps. Stir in the parsley. Serve over egg noodles or hot, cooked rice.

Mock Lasagna

• 1 8-oz. cream cheese
• ¼ cup sour cream
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 1-1 ½ lbs. ground beef with chopped onion
• ½ lb. lasagna noodles*
• Can of Hunt’s spaghetti sauce (+ 8 oz. tomato sauce for more sauce)
• Mozzarella cheese
• Parmesan cheese

Combine cream cheese, sour cream, and cottage cheese in mixing bowl. Heat beef with onion in saucepan until cooked. Boil lasagna noodles until cooked. Layer half of the noodles in a 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Top noodles with all of cheese mixture. Top cheese mixture with remaining half of noodles. Top with meat mixture. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, and then bake at 375 for 45 minutes. Top with mozzarella and parmesan cheese to taste. Pairs well with French Peasant Bread

*To cut out 1 preparation step, oven ready lasagna noodles can be substituted. Just add 1 cup of water to the spaghetti sauce mixture so the noodles can cook the same time as the lasagna. I still like it a little better with regular noodles, however.

Ravioli Bake

I was in the mood for something easy tonight since I knew I would be working and it also served as a pretty good Super Bowl dinner (with the breadsticks). I adapted it a little from this recipe with the stuff I had on hand. I liked the sausage as opposed to the ground beef I normally use in recipes like this because it gave it a little more flavor.

1/2 lb turkey sausage

1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes

1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh basil

1/8 c heavy cream

salt and ground black pepper

1 (9 ounce) package fresh cheese ravioli

1/2 c shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 475 degrees. Bring 2 quarts water to boil in large pot.

Cook sausage in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, breaking meat up with wooden spoon until lightly browned and no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Drain meat and set aside.

Add oil and garlic to skillet and return to medium heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes and reserved sausage and cook until slightly thickened, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in basil and cream and continue to simmer until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Remove skillet from heat, cover, and set aside.

Add 1 T salt and ravioli to boiling water and cook, stirring often, until tender. Drain ravioli and return to pot.

Stir sauce into ravioli and season with salt and pepper to taste. Spread mixture into 8 x 8-inch baking dish and sprinkle evenly with mozzarella. Bake until cheese is melted and lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Serve warm with breadsticks.