2014 - 52 in 52 #6 - Creamy Spinach and Sausage Pasta

I am always on the look out for easy dinners.  Both my husband and I work full time jobs.  Plus I have my insane commute which takes me at least an hour and a half to get home in the evenings.  Needless to say by the time I get home I am normally less than excited about cooking a bit fancy meal.  I need something easy to prepare and easy to clean up so we are not up half the night scrubbing pans.  If I can find one pot meals, even better! 

 

I first found this recipe(link) when I was looking for new meals per my husband’s request for this month.  It has all of the ingredients to make an awesome dish – cheese, pasta, and sausage. 

 

I have never pan fried a smoked sausage like that before and I had no idea how much grease was actually produced.  You will need to know that ahead of time and make sure that you dispose of that properly.  Please don’t dump it down the sink.  I laid down several super thick napkins and drained the sausage on those before I added the onions. 

 

This recipe was simple to make with very simple ingredients and it turned out awesome!  Both my husband and our eldest daughter remarked at how good it was while they were eating.  My husband even requested for us to make this again, which is a step in the right direction.  I was apprehensive when reading through the ingredients about how the dish was going to turn out with the Rotel and spinach together but it was actually an awesome taste.  We added some pepper jack cheese to ours and the spice level was awesome.  It was a bit spicy but overall not too much so that your mouth was on fire.  The sauce was creamy and the dish overall had just the right amount of seasoning and heat.  The spinach added an extra flavor that really balanced out the entire dish.  We will definitely be making this again!

 

Creamy Spinach and Sausage Pasta

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

 

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 package smoke sausage – we used a kielbasa

1 medium onion, diced

1 can diced tomatoes and green chiles

2 cups chicken broth

8 ounces pasta – we used egg noodles

3 cups spinach, chopped

4 ounces Monterrey jack cheese, shredded

2 ounces pepper jack cheese, shredded

 

Instructions:

 

In a high sided skillet, cook sausage in olive oil until browned over medium high heat.  Drain off excess grease.  Add onions and cook until onions are softened (approx. 6 minutes).  Add diced tomatoes and green chiles and chicken broth.  Use spatula to scrape up all browned bits from the bottom of the pan.  This is your flavor and you don’t want to lose this!  Bring mixture to a boil.  Add pasta and return to a boil.  Once liquid has reached a boil, ensure that all noodles are at least partially submerged, and cover with a lid.  At this point you should reduce your heat so the liquid remains at a simmer.  Simmer for 10 minutes stirring occasionally to ensure that nothing sticks.  After 10 minutes, add cheese, cover with the lid and heat until cheese is melted. 

Enjoy!

 

2014 - 52 in 52 #2 - Baked Ravioli

I first pinned this recipe last year sometime.  I am always looking for simple and quick recipes for the weekdays.  The last thing that I want to do is come home after a long day at work and more than an hour and a half commute home and cook dinner.  This is one of the main reasons why I wanted to try freezer meals – I am not in the mood to cook dinner by the time that I get home from work. 

 

So I found this recipe for something called baked ravioli.  Shortly after I pinned this recipe, a woman on Youtube named Amy with the handle dreamflight6000 made this video where she made this recipe for a baked ravioli.  Now, you have probably read me talk about Amy before on another post – I love her!  She is really funny and smart and an excellent mother to her two boys (and pregnant with a third!), and she is a self-proclaimed picky eater.  I knew that if she and her family loved this recipe than certainly I could get my hungry albeit sometimes picky kids to eat it.

 

In my meal plan for the month of Dec-Jan (I decided that I need to do my meal plan for the end of one month and beginning of the next – better for our budgets and my sanity), I decided to try to make this meal.  I bought the ingredients and forgot about it.  If you follow me on Facebook or talk to me in person then you know that my home has been an acting convalescent home for some time with this crud that we are all passing around.  Well, Friday it came to a head with my son.  He was feeling awful and whiney, and needing to be held by someone and rocked most of the day.  For anyone who has now or who have ever had a toddler, you know those days.  I had no idea what I was going to make for dinner.  Luckily this recipe came to mind and it ended up being perfect. 

 

Isabella is a busy girl lately.  She just turned three, and she is all about helping.  I don’t want to stifle that help, because I don’t want her to turn into a sloth or (further) demanding toddler.  She is all about wanting to help in the kitchen.  I would LOVE to have the storage space for one of those Learning Towers, but alas, this rental that we are in has NO storage space, hence the reason why we had to build shelves to use our coat closet as a second pantry.  I will further explain that later.  She loves to help me cook, but since we have a gas stove, I am less than excited about the possibility of her doing that, especially since he will want to follow closely behind her and he has no natural apprehension towards fire like she does.

 

This recipe was awesome for them because it was simple and they were able to help.  It honestly is just laying several different pieces together and tossing it in the oven.  You could easily make this your own by substituting different kinds of ravioli, or different kinds of pasta sauce, etc.  We just used regular cheese ravioli and a traditional pasta sauce.  I do fresh grate my cheese always so that was just standard mozzarella from the store.  Let me know what substitutions you would do and I will check them out!

 

Baked Ravioli

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

 

Ingredients:

1 28 oz jar pasta sauce

1 package frozen raviolis (do not thaw)

8 oz grated mozzarella

½ cup Parmesan, to taste

¾ Tbsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp Garlic powder

 

Instructions:

Grease a 9x13 pan liberally with cooking spray and heat your oven to 400(check) degrees.  Spread about ¾ cup pasta sauce in the bottom of the pan.  Layer half of the frozen ravioli over the sauce in an even layer.  Spoon half of the remaining sauce over the top of the ravioli.  Top with half of your mozzarella cheese and half of the Parmesan cheese.   Repeat that layer ensuring that you use all sauce and cheese.  I sprinkled the top of this with Italian seasoning and garlic powder to give it more flavor.  You can certainly omit those if you feel like you get enough flavor from your sauce or pasta, but I felt like it would need a little something.  (The picture above is what it looks like right before it goes into the oven.  No after picture - sorry we were too busy enjoying!) 

 

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove foil and bake another 10-15 minutes until cheese is browning and completely melted.  Let stand 10-15 minutes after removal from oven before serving to allow the dish to set and the sauce to not be so runny. 

 

Enjoy!           

52 in 52 #34 - Homemade Lasagna

Lasagna. 

I don't know why I have always been so scared to make lasagna.  I have successfully made stuffed shells and baked ziti numerous times... same basic ingredients but different placement in a pan.. what is so mystifying about that?  Maybe it's the fact that most people from Italy know someone who can make a lasagna that is life-changing.  Maybe it's the fact that there are *so* many awful recipe reviews online.   

As a part of my monthly meal plan, I have started to ask my husband for input during the planning process of what he would and would not like to eat during the month.  After first month of meal planning, I learned that it is better to ask up front what he would like to eat instead of assuming that during the month he will want to eat tacos and spaghetti.  Baby steps to happiness during marriage.  I should write a book.  I digress... This month his request was lasagna.  Luckily, Pinterest is there and ripe with recipes that people claim to be "The Best (insert random item here) that they have ever had!"

I found this recipe.  Now, of course, I had to make some changes.  Today was my shopping trip for my monthly meal plan and we didn't end up getting home until after 6pm.  This recipe, as written, wants you to cook the sauce for more than an hour by itself.  I had three hungry kids and a starving husband... we did not have time to wait, so I did substitute making my own sauce and used a jarred marinara sauce.  I have made my own sauce before with both the ziti and stuffed shells and it is completely worth the time that it takes the sauce to simmer.  I didn't have plans to make any changes and at some point this month or next, I will make the recipe exactly as written.  However, even with my modifications, this recipe is awesome, and it was easy enough even for a novice like me to make. 

Try it out or let me know your favorite lasagna recipes! 

Homemade Lasagna
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 50 mins

Ingredients:

• 12 regular lasagna noodles, cooked according to package directions - these are not the one minute/no cook/etc. 
• 1 container ricotta cheese (15-16oz)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbsp fresh parsley
• 1 large jar marinara sauce of your choice
• 1lb ground beef
• 1lb mild Italian sausage
• 1 medium white onion
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1lb mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
• Liberally grease a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.  Unless you want to celebrate the awesome-ness of this recipe by standing over a sink full of a gross pan of stuck on lasagna, I 100% recommend that you use what you feel is too much cooking spray on your pan.  You have been warned. 
• Brown ground beef, Italian sausage, onion and garlic over medium heat.  Drain off any excess grease. 
• Add marinara sauce to the browned meat mixture and stir to incorporate.  We had to add a bit more of an open jar of sauce to our meat sauce to get the desired texture.  If you like your sauce a bit more hearty, then you might be fine with one jar.  You could also thin in out with an un-drained jar of diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, beef stock, etc.  We just happened to have an open jar already hanging out in the fridge. 
• Allow sauce to warm over low heat. 
• Mix together ricotta cheese, parsley, salt and egg and set aside.
• Boil lasagna noodles according to package directions.  My package said to cook 12-14 minutes.  I cooked them a bit less than that because I knew that they would continue to cook in the lasagna and I didn't want a mushy noodle in my dish. 
• Drain pasta and prepare to layer.  I drizzled about 2 tsp olive oil over my colander after I drained the pasta so that the noodles wouldn't stick together while I was working on the other layers. 
• Add approx. 1 and 1/2 cups of sauce to the bottom of your 9x13 pan.  Layer 4 lasagna noodles over the sauce.  Top of 1/2 of the ricotta mixture and spread evenly over the top of the noodles.  Add enough sauce just to cover the ricotta mixture and top with approx. 1/3 of your Mozzarella and 1/3 of your Parmesan cheeses. 
• Repeat last step one time starting with the layering of another 4 lasagna noodles on top of this cheese mixture. 
• Top with last 4 lasagna noodles, remaining sauce and remaining cheeses. 
• Baked covered with aluminum foil for 25 minutes. 
• Remove foil and bake for another 25 minutes. 
• Allow to set for 10-15 minutes after removing from the oven to ensure stability of all layers and to prevent your hard work from turning into a lasagna soup. 

Enjoy!