Creamy Bacon Tortellini

A few years ago I asked Mike what he wanted for his birthday dinner.  He requested a creamy tortellini.  I had made a creamy tortellini before but Mike wanted something a little different.  He told me the ingredients and I came up with a creamy bacon tortellini.  I didn't do a great job of writing down the exact amounts so you might want to adjust things to your taste.

Creamy Bacon Tortellini
garlic (1-2 crushed cloves)
onions (1/2- 1)
2 TBS butter
1 pkg cream cheese
1 tomato (I usually use Roma)
1/4 c. milk (you can add more to thin it out a little)
1 c. Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
fried bacon (just a few strips)
frozen (or fresh) spinach  (I just put in about half a container but you can do more or less)
mushrooms (I use about a half a package)
1 pkg tortellini

In a skillet saute the mushrooms, onion, garlic, and butter.  Add the cream cheese, milk, cheese, spinach, seasoning, salt, and pepper.

While you make the sauce, crisp the bacon and cook the tortellini.  Cook the tortellini as the directions say on the container.  Once the tortellini is finished you can add it to the skillet. Just before serving add the bacon crisps and tomato.

Southwest Pasta Salad

This is a fun change from the normal pasta salad.  We like to have it as a side dish with hamburgers or with a Mexican flavored chicken (either marinated or with a seasoning).  If we just have the pasta I cook up some chicken chunks to add to the pasta.

Southwest Pasta Salad
Recipe by Our Best Bites

1/2 lb bowtie pasta
1 14 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 Roma tomatoes,  diced or about 3/4 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1 large red, yellow, or orange bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup sliced green onions (I always forget this so I usually end up using normal onions)
1/2 cup fresh corn (or frozen corn)
zest from limes
optional: 8oz diced cooked chicken
1/2 cup Queso Fresco or Cotija Cheese  (or you could sub grated jack, cheddar, or perpperjack)

Dressing:
6 TBS fresh lime juice (about 3 juicy limes)
1/4 C white wine or rice vinegar
4-5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp kosher or sea salt
2 tsp sugar (add a touch more if your limes are extra sour/bitter)
3/4 C canola oil
1/2 C roughly chopped cilantro

To prepare dressing boil pasta in salted water until cooked.  While it's cooking, prepare dressing.

First, zest your limes and place the zest in a large salad bowl.

Place the lime juice, vinegar, garlic, chili powder, cumin, coriander, salt and sugar in a blender.  (Basically everything except the cilantro and oil).  Process until smooth.  With the motor running slowly, add the oil in a steady stream until incorporated.   Add the cilantro and pulse so it gets broken up, but some pieces still remain in tact.

When pasta is done cooking, drain and rinse immediately with cold water to cool.  Place the pasta in the large salad bowl with the lime zest.  Add black beans, tomatoes, diced pepper, green onions, corn (no need to thaw the corn), and chicken if desired.  Toss with dressing.  Taste, and add additional salt and pepper to taste.  For best results, chill for 1 hour before serving.  Right before serving, sprinkle cheese on top.  Serve with extra lime wedges if desired.

Makes about 4-6 dinner sized servings or 10-12 servings.

Crockpot Cheese Tortellini

We tried this recipe tonight and both Mike and I liked it.  The boys did not but that didn't surprise me--we are still trying to get them to try new things.  I made a few changes to this recipe which I put in parenthesis.  We will definitely eat this again.  It was super easy to prepare and delicious.  The original recipe came from here

Crockpot Cheese Tortellini

Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen tortellini (I did not use frozen tortellini)
1 small bag of fresh spinach (I didn't have fress spinach but had frozen spinach so I used frozen)
2 cans of italian style diced tomatoes
1 box or 4 cups or chicken broth
1 block of cream cheese
1 lb. of roll sausage

Brown the sausage and put all ingredients in crockpot,
chunking up the cream cheese.(Because my tortellini was not frozen I waited to put the tortellini in until the last hour and a half.)
Cook on low for 5-6 hrs.

Skillet Chicken Parmesan

We love this meal!  It is super easy to make and so good.

Skillet Chicken Parmesan

Skillet Chicken Parmesan

printed from melskitchencafe.com

*Note: I use really thick boneless, skinless chicken breasts to make thinner cutlets (by cutting in half lengthwise) but if you don't have or can't find thick chicken breasts, use thinner chicken breasts, keeping on eye on cooking time to make sure they cook all the way through.

*Serves 6

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in half lengthwise to make 6 thinner chicken cutlets

Salt and pepper

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons canola oil

3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

3/4 cup shredded provolone or sharp provolone cheese

Hot spaghetti noodles for serving

In a medium bowl, combine the garlic, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, oregano, basil, sugar, salt, pepper and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Set aside.

In a large 12-inch skillet, heat the canola oil over medium heat until rippling and hot. Thoroughly dry the chicken pieces and season with salt and pepper on both sides. Place the flour in a shallow dish and dredge the seasoned chicken pieces in the flour, coating both sides. Gently place 3-4 of the chicken pieces in the hot oil and cook for 3 minutes and then flip and cook 3 minutes longer until a nice golden crust has formed on the chicken (they'll continue to cook in a later step). Remove the chicken to a plate and continue with the remaining pieces, removing them to the plate when they have been browned.

Wipe the skillet of excess oil and pour the sauce contents in the bowl into the skillet, taking care of splatters if the skillet is still piping hot. Turn the heat to medium and gently nestle the pieces of browned chicken into the sauce, making room for all six chicken breast cutlets. The chicken should be mostly covered with the sauce. Cover the skillet and simmer the sauce and chicken on medium or medium low for 15 minutes, checking every few minutes to make sure the chicken isn't sticking to the bottom of the skillet. If so, turn the heat down a bit.

Uncover the skillet, sprinkle the mozzarella, provolone and remaining Parmesan cheese over the chicken and sauce. Cover and cook for five more minutes, or until cheese is nicely melted.

Serve over hot spaghetti noodles, if desired.

Recipe Source: inspiration from my friend Tori and a recipe in Cook's Country

Scooter's Spaghetti (baked Spaghetti)

copied from Salad In A Jar 

Scooter’s Spaghetti

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Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

35 mins

Total time

55 mins

Layered spaghetti casserole topped with french fried onions. A family favorite!

Author: Scooter

Serves: 10

Ingredients

• 8 ounces uncooked spaghetti
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 large can spaghetti sauce (26.5 ounces)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• ½ cup chopped green peppers (I usually omit or substitute red peppers)
• ⅓ cup chopped onions
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons milk
• Fresh grated Parmesan cheese
• French-fried onions (small can)

Instructions

1. Cook spaghetti according to directions on the package. Cook to al dente, drain and set aside.
2. Brown ground beef. Drain excess grease. Add spaghetti sauce to skillet and heat.
3. Combine onions, peppers and butter in small glass bowl. Cover and microwave 4 minutes on HIGH until soft.
4. Add cream cheese and milk to vegetables and stir well. (If cream cheese is not soft, nuke it for 20-30 seconds to make it easy to spread.)
5. Using a 12 x 8-inch baking dish (or something close), assemble in the following order: thin layer of spaghetti sauce, cooked spaghetti, cream cheese/vegetable mixture, remaining spaghetti sauce, parmesan cheese (amount subject to your own taste)
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Top with french-fried onions and continue baking 5 more minutes. (This is the secret ingredient–don’t let them burn.)

Notes

Make this ahead of time and refrigerate or freeze without the French Fried onions. Don’t forget to add them 5 minutes before casserole is finished cooking.   

**I make a few changes to this recipe.  First, instead of putting the veggies in the microwave, I sauteed it.  Also, I flavor the meat--just a little salt and garlic (either powder or minced).  I also added a little salt to the veggies, but not much.  The spaghetti sauce I used was a garlic and herb flavor.  

Garlic Pesto Chicken with Tomato Cream Penne

We found this meal from a blog, I have no idea what the name of the blog is but you can find it here if you so desire.  It was really delicious.  At first the boys thought it looked disgusting and wouldn't try it but then after their first taste they all said, "Oh wow, this tastes good!"  The original poster of the recipe said that she didn't use half and half in her recipe and that she used wheat pasta noodles and she said the Penne didn't turn out as well as she had hoped.  When I made it I put in the half and half and I used half wheat Rotini and half Garden Rotini.  It was delicious.  So don't omit the half and half!  This is going in our rotation of delicious recipes for sure!

Garlic Pesto Chicken with Tomato Cream Penne

1/2 bottle of lawrys Herb and Garlic Marinade
2 large spoonfuls of Pesto
2 boneless chicken breasts.

Cut chicken into one inch strips. Using same knife make slits into chicken. Pour lawrys marinade and pesto over chicken. Marinate over night (I did mine Sunday morning and cooked mine Monday evening so it marinated a while!!)

Sauce:
8 ounces of your choice of pasta (I used whole wheat penne)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
2 spoonfuls of pesto
1/2 cup of chicken broth
8 ounces of tomato sauce
1 cup of half and half

Boil water and start on noodles.

Pour entire batch of chicken, marinade and all, into skillet and cook chicken fully (the marinade will evaporate/cook down)

Heat olive oil, cook garlic. Add pesto. Simmer in chicken broth until half has cooked down. Add tomato sauce. Then add milk. Simmer for 5 minutes. Toss pasta in. Add flour if it needs to be thickened. Place chicken on top.

Source:http://www.plainchicken.com/2009/08/grilled-chicken-tomato-cream-sauce.html?m=1

Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

We tried this recipe this week and loved it as well.  It isn't super healthy so if you are looking for something healthy, don't try this...but, if you are looking for a delicious meal, this is a great choice.  I made this for a friend that just had a baby and she called me the next morning to tell me that she even ate it for breakfast.  So it was good.  I found the recipe off of Allrecipes.com


Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves-cut into cubes (I don't ever use the amount of meat called for--I almost always cut the amount of meat in half in all my recipes so I just used 3)
6 Tbs butter, divided
4 cloves garlic, minced, divided
1 Tbs Italian seasoning (I didn't have any on hand so I just made up my own)
I pound fettuccine pasta
1 onion, diced
1 (8 ounce) package sliced mushrooms
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbs salt (this seemed really salty to me until I mixed it with the noodles so you can subtract salt if you choose)
3 cups milk (I didn't have milk on hand so I used powdered milk and it was still delicious)
1 cup half-and-half
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
8 ounces Colby-Monterrey Jack Cheese
3 Roma tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup sour cream

In a small skillet over medium heat combine chicken, 2 Tbs butter, 2 clovers garlic, and Italian Seasoning.  Cook until chicken is no longer pink inside.  Remove from skillet and set aside.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.  Add pasta and cook for 8-10 minutes or until al dente; drain.

Meanwhile, melt 4 Tbs butter in the skillet.  Saute onion, 2 cloves garlic, and mushrooms until onions are transparent.  Stir in flour, salt and pepper; cook two minutes.  Slowly add milk and half-and-half, stirring until smooth and creamy.  Stir in Parmesan and Colby-Monterrey Jack cheeses; stir until smooth and creamy.  Stir in chicken mixture, tomatoes and sour cream.  Serve over cooked fettuccine.

Spaghetti with Tomatoes, Black Olives, Garlic, and Feta Cheese

We have been trying some new recipes lately.  Here are some recent ones that we enjoyed.  

We made this one minus the capers.  Very good.

Recipe: Spaghetti with Tomatoes, Black Olives, Garlic, and Feta Cheese

• FAST
• VEGETARIAN

INGREDIENTS

1. 1 1/2 pounds tomatoes (about 3), seeded and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2. 1/2 cup Kalamata or other black olives, pitted
3. 1/4 pound feta cheese, crumbled
4. 3 tablespoons drained capers
5. 3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
6. 1/4 teaspoon salt
7. 1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
8. 3/4 pound spaghetti
9. 6 tablespoons olive oil
10. 3 cloves garlic, minced

1. In a large glass or stainless-steel bowl, combine the tomatoes, olives, feta, capers, parsley, salt, and pepper.
2. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the spaghetti until just done, about 12 minutes. Drain.
3. Meanwhile, in a medium frying pan, heat the olive oil over moderately low heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the cooked pasta and the garlic oil to the tomato mixture and toss