Things have been a little hectic in my life lately because (drum roll, please) I got a job! The last week has been full of packing, moving, shopping and just general craziness. I start my job February 1st so hopefully after a few days of getting settled I’ll be back to cooking. I definitely miss it. And I miss sharing it with you! So keep your eye out for new posts. I promise there will be one within the next week. :]
– Amy
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Cook noodles according to package directions. Saute mushrooms in 2 Tablespoons butter and minced garlic.
Return drained noodles to pot. Add tuna, sour cream, milk, mushrooms, salt and pepper. Pour into a greased 9 in. x 13 in. baking dish.
Combine 4 Tablespoons melted butter, Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs. Sprinkle over casserole. Bake uncovered 35-40 minutes.
Serve with a vegetable, if you desire. Enjoy!
Have you ever thought about how weird meatloaf is? A loaf of meat. It sounds so odd. But this recipe is particularly delicious. Why, you ask? Cheese. Three kinds of cheese. Yeah, I thought that would convince you.
Ingredients:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl combine meat, onion, pepper, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and paprika. In a small bowl combine eggs and milk, add to meat. Blend 1-1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning with the cheeses. Add to meat.
In the center of a 9-in. x 13-in. baking dish, mold the mixture into a loaf, leaving space on the side. Top with remaining 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
In honor of Paula Deen being diagnosed with Type II diabetes, here is one of her super unhealthy recipes! In all seriousness, I am very upset about this. She seems like such a nice woman and I hope she never, like, loses a foot or anything. But that woman probably has butter flowing through her veins. And the incarcerated women in the musical “Chicago!” would say, she had it coming.
*Not my picture. We devoured it too fast.
Ingredients:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Generously grease a 9-inch square baking dish.
In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon and mix well with a fork. Separate biscuit dough into 10 biscuits. Cut each biscuit into quarters, and dip each piece in melted butter and coat with brown sugar mixture. Arrange in a single layer in baking dish. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the oats.
Combine blueberries and sugar in a bowl and toss to coat. Spoon over oats and biscuits and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup oats. Drizzle remaining melted butter on top. Bake for 20 minutes or until cake is golden brown and center is done. Cool for 20 minutes. Serve warm.
Seriously, enjoy. Because you’ll probably get diabetes after eating this, too. But it’s so worth it.
My family has been getting cooking magazines sent to our house for years. I recently decided to go through all of them and pull out recipes that sound good, and throw away the rest. This helped unclutter our cookbook cabinet and also gave me some great ideas. This is a great slow cooker soup for these cold winter days.
Ingredients:
Combine all ingredients in a 5-qt. slow cooker. Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours, stirring occasionally. Chicken will begin to shred, but you may need to help break it up a bit. Top with cheese, sour cream, green onion and avocado if you wish. Enjoy!
This dish was a favorite at my ISU apartment. I found the recipe in a great cookbook, “College Cooking.” It’s an essential anyone learning to cook should have. It has sections of recipes that include cheap eats, feeding a crowd and date night cooking. This is a pretty impressive recipe and what’s great about it is it only takes about 30 minutes!
Ingredients:
Cook rice noodles according to package directions.
In a large skillet, heat olive oil. Cook chicken and onion together over medium-high heat until chicken is no longer pink and onions are translucent. Remove to bowl.
In the same skillet melt butter and add garlic. When garlic starts to sizzle add soy sauce, ginger, chili paste and peanut butter. Stir until peanut butter melts into the sauce. Toss with cooked rice noodles and top with green onions. Enjoy!
This is one of Giada De Laurentiis’ amazing recipes. I love the fresh flavor from the spinach and arugula. While the raw garlic and jalapeno may be intimidating, I promise it works. If you’re not a big fan of spicy food just remove the ribs and seeds from the jalapeno. This cuts the heat by a lot. I like to top this pasta with sauteed mushrooms for added flavor.
Ingredients:
Combine the first six ingredients in a large food processor. Add spinach and arugula, pulse until combined. Stream in olive oil until mixture comes together.
Mix with the hot cooked pasta. Top with extra asiago cheese and serve. Enjoy!
I decided to try to make deep dish pizza after my mom and I came across a beautiful deep dish pan my late Aunt Irene made. The pan is ceramic with a holly border, but doubles as a cake stand when you flip it over. She was a brilliant woman and an amazing artist. She died of breast cancer in 2007 and I am reminded almost daily of how incredible she truly was. She sent Lisa and I different handmade Christmas ornaments every year and we were always so excited to get them. She had an amazing knack for finding the most unique things. But the thing we had most in common was food. She loved to eat and was even great at finding unique foods. I know she would have loved this pizza, and I hope you do too.
Ingredients:
Prepare dough according to recipe. Be sure to do this ahead of time because the dough needs a total of one and a half hours to rest.
When dough is almost ready preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake crust for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the filling ingredients.
Heat about 2 Tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet. Add onions and peppers and saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook about a minute more. Season with salt, pepper, basil and red pepper flakes. Set aside.
Cook and crumble Italian sausage until no longer pink. Drain, if necessary.
When crust is pre-baked it’s time to start filling! Layer the provolone slices,
peppers and onions,
sausage,
mozzarella and tomatoes,
tomato sauce and Parmesan.
Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes. Let rest about 5 minutes before cutting.
Enjoy!
I set out to give you a great fish recipe tonight but unfortunately it fell flat. But this side dish is one of my all-time favorites. My family has been making this for years and I swear I could eat the whole pan. It pairs well with just about anything and even vegetable haters will do a double take.
Ingredients:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 in. x 13 in. baking dish and fill with zucchini, onion and garlic. Mix well. Dot with butter and bake for about 25 minutes, stirring once.
Top with cheeses and bake an additional 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted. If you want a nicer presentation put the dish under the broiler until cheese is lightly browned. Serve with your favorite meal and enjoy!
I wasn’t sure what to make for dinner tonight, so I gave myself a challenge. I could only use ingredients that we already had at home. Because we’re a super healthy family we had pasta and bacon. (Sarcasm, anyone?) So I immediately thought of carbonara. I had only made this once before so I looked up recipes and came across this gem from Tyler Florence. Bonus: it only takes 25 minutes.
Ingredients:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender yet firm (as they say in Italian “al dente.”) Drain the pasta well, reserving 1/2 cup of the starchy cooking water to use in the sauce if you wish.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a deep skillet over medium flame. Add the pancetta and saute for about 3 minutes, until the bacon is crisp and the fat is rendered. Toss the garlic into the fat and saute for less than 1 minute to soften.
Add the hot, drained spaghetti to the pan and toss for 2 minutes to coat the strands in the bacon fat. Beat the eggs and Parmesan together in a mixing bowl, stirring well to prevent lumps. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the egg/cheese mixture into the pasta, whisking quickly until the eggs thicken, but do not scramble (this is done off the heat to ensure this does not happen.) Thin out the sauce with a bit of the reserved pasta water, until it reaches desired consistency. Season the carbonara with several turns of freshly ground black pepper and taste for salt. Mound the spaghetti carbonara into warm serving bowls and garnish with chopped parsley. Pass more cheese around the table.
Enjoy!
amyschobinger 