Baked Pizza Pasta

I made this the other night, and although I started with another recipe, I just wanted to make this easy and I know my husband likes meat, so I used some turkey pepperoni I had left over.  This was simple and good, although not full of flavor.  There are 276 calories in 1/12 of the total.  Aaron and I gave this a 7, Owen gave it a 6, and Noah gave it a perfect 10.

1 lb pasta
6 c marinara sauce
1/2 c parmesan cheese
34 pepperoni slices
2 c Italian blend cheese
Italian seasoning, to taste

Cook pasta until al dente.  Preheat oven to 400 and grease 13x9 in pan.  Mix pasta and marinara together.  Layer half in the bottom of the prepared pan, then cover with pepperoni, and 1/2 the cheeses.  Repeat, and season with Italian seasoning.  Cook for 20 minutes in the oven.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I am so grateful for my life, my family, and most especially my Savior.  We love all of you!  Have a safe and filling ;) Thanksgiving.

Chicken Enchilada Soup

We used to have this all the time when we lived in Mexico, and I hadn't made it for such a long time, but I was looking for something good and filling, and easy, and I happened to remember this recipe.  My sister Sonia is the one who introduced us to this soup, and I'm glad she did!  Sorry for the picture, I almost forgot to take it, and there are no tomatoes or cilantro in it to add color, so it looks terrible, but I promise the soup is delicious!  For 1/8 of the total, the calories are 434.  Kind of high, if you use half and half like you are supposed to, it will be less, I used more cream and a little milk because I didn't have any half and half.  Aaron, Noah and I gave this a 9, and Owen gave it an 8.

Chicken Enchilada Soup

 

1 lb boneless skinless chicken      2 chicken bouillon cubes

3 T. butter or margarine        2 c half and half cream

1 clove garlic            ¼ to 1 tsp. hot pepper sauce

½ c chopped onion Fresh cilantro and/or parsley (dried works as well)

4 oz can chopped green chilies            1 can (16 oz) cream-style corn (optional)

½ to 1 tsp. ground cumin                    2 c shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1 c hot water                                      1 med tomato, chopped

Cut chicken into bite-size pieces. In a large pan, brown chicken, onion, and garlic in butter until chicken

in no longer pink. Add green chilies and cumin. Pour in water and add bouillon. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Add cream, cheese, corn, cilantro, and hot pepper sauce.

Cook and stir over low heat until the cheese is melted. Stir in tomato. Simmer until tomato is heated

through. Serve immediately. Garnish with more cilantro or parsley if desired. Yield: 6-8 servings

Yogurt Pancakes

Thanks to my awesome brother-in-law for these yummy pancakes!

 

My sister Sonia and her husband went to a bed and breakfast in Utah and had these pancakes, which are really good, and Joe asked for the recipe, which the B&B kindly gave him.  They have shared the recipe with me, and now I am sharing them with you :).  These made 18 pancakes for us, and each pancake was 95 calories using skim milk and Greek yogurt.  Use any flavor yogurt to get new pancakes each time.  Grandma was here with us, and she and I gave them a 9, Noah gave them an 8, and Owen and Aaron gave them a 7 because although they liked them, they wanted chocolate chip pancakes.  Oh well :).

 

 

Yogurt Pancakes

 

Sonia and Joe

2 eggs    2 cups flour

1 ¼ cups milk    3 T sugar

2 T oil    2 tsp baking powder

7 oz yogurt, any flavor    ½ tsp salt

1/8 tsp baking soda

 

Mix all wet ingredients and then add dry ingredients, beating just until mixed. If too thick, add a little more milk. Cook like normal pancakes. Very yummy and moist. Will go further than regular pancakes.



Crustless Pumpkin Pie, or Pumpkin Pudding

This is one of those great crockpot recipes from the cookbook 365 Days of Slow-Cooking.  This is definitely my favorite crockpot cookbook, and this is another winner.  The calories for 6 servings are 296 calories/serving.  Here's what you do.

16 oz canned pumpkin
1 T pumpkin pie spice
2 T butter, melted
2 eggs
4 oz cream cheese softened
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c flour
2 t vanilla
1/2 t baking powder

Mix these all together and cook in a greased slow cooker for 3-5 hours.  Top with whipped cream. 

So easy, Aaron gave it a 7, Owen gave it a 6, and Noah and I gave it a 9.  You can tell who likes pumpkin around here :).  This is a great, easy, no fuss alternative to pumpkin pie.  It tastes great and requires so little preparation.

Chicken Pizzaiola

This is such an easy meal.  Owen gave it an 8, Aaron and I gave it a 9, and Noah gave it a perfect 10.  This is Chicken Pizzaiola from Cook's Illustrated, and we really like this meal.  It's tasty and quick to make.  I use turkey pepperoni to cut down on the calories, but other than that I follow the recipe exactly.

1 lb chicken tenders
turkey pepperoni
1 c grated parmesan
1 c grated mozzarella (I use a little more)
3 c marinara sauce
salt and pepper
Pasta to serve

Preheat oven to 450.  Salt and pepper the chicken pieces well (do not undersalt!).  Spread the parmesan in a dish and coat the chicken pieces liberally with parmesan.  Grease a 9x13 pan.  Pour marinara in the bottom.  Place chicken pieces on top.  Cook for 15 minutes, then carefully (sauce splatters and it's hot!) remove the pan from the oven and increase oven temperature to 475. 
Cover chicken pieces with pepperoni slices, then cover with mozzarella cheese.  Cook for an additional 5 minutes, until cheese is melted.  (I cooked mine a bit longer.)  Serve with pasta.

This ends up being about 275 calories per serving, and this recipe makes 6 servings.  So great!

Pumpkin Apple Spice Muffins

These were a really good, easy muffin.  We liked it, and Jonah helped me make them by banging measuring spoons and cups together while I made them :).  I found the recipe here, and am glad we tried these.  I love me some pumpkin, so I'm glad they turned out well.  Noah and I gave them a 9, and Owen gave them a 7 because he didn't like the apple chunks.  He said otherwise they would've been a 9.  I followed the recipe exactly, so here it is from the tastykitchen.com website.
1-⅔ cup All-purpose Flour
1 cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
¼ teaspoons Salt
¼ teaspoons Baking Powder
1 cup Pureed Pumpkin
½ cups Butter, Melted
2 whole Large Eggs, Lightly Beaten
1 whole Granny Smith Apple, Peeled, Cored, And Finely Chopped
* * * * * *
FOR PUMPKIN SUGAR CRUST:
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice

Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the mixture. Combine pumpkin, butter, and eggs in another bowl and add to the dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Fold in chopped apple and spoon into greased muffin pans, filling two-thirds full.
Combine 3 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice; sprinkle evenly over muffins. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

These were super simple and they turned out well.  I only got 20 out of the recipe, rather than the 24 the recipe said, and so each muffin was 141 calories.

Super Nacho

This is a great dish that I have been making since I married Aaron.  This is a Tunell recipe that my mother-in-law shared with me, and every Tunell I know loves it :).  Aaron thinks it is wonderful, and I like it a lot, especially when I make it the way I like it.  Owen gave this a 6, because he thought it was too spicy, and the rest of us gave it a 9.  I think Aaron would've given it a 10 if it weren't spicy, but I like it that way :).  The calories for 1/9 of the total are 380, so high, but so good!  Here's the easy recipe:

1 lb chorizo
1 onion, diced
1 can green chilies
1/2 c El Pato taco sauce
1 can refried beans
3 c shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 400.  Brown chorizo and onions together until cooked and onion is softened.  Add in green chilies and taco sauce.  Spread beans in the bottom of a square baking pan, then top with meat mixture, then top with cheese.  Cook in the oven for 25 minutes, then serve with favorite toppings and chips.

We are going to layer the cheese next time and add a little more beans, because the kids and I think there is too much meat to bean/cheese.  Anyway, quick, easy, and delicious.

Cheesy Garlic Biscuits

Does anyone ever use those delicious biscuits that you pop open, and then have left overs?  Our family always has at least 2 biscuits left over, usually more.  Well, I have a great way of using up left over biscuits that my family loves.

 

Is this even a recipe?  Not really, but we really enjoy it :)

 

1/2 biscuit

1 T butter

garlic salt

2 T cheese

 

Bake at 350 for at least 5 minutes, or until the biscuit has reached desired crispiness.



Mexican Style Scrambled Eggs

These eggs are flipping fantastic!  I do not always love eggs, but these are so good.  I found the recipe in my Cook's Illustrated cookbook, I seriously love the Cook's Illustrated cookbooks, and this recipe is another fabulous one.  I changed the recipe a little to accommodate my family's taste buds, and they liked it!  Here's what I did

6 eggs
2 oz tortilla chips, crushed
1/4 t salt
2 oz pepperjack cheese
1/2 jalapeno, diced
1/2 onion, diced
1 T butter

Melt 1 T butter, then add in the onion and jalapeno.  While these are cooking, mix together the chips, the salt and the eggs.  Add the eggs to the jalapeno and onion, then when the eggs are done, add in the pepperjack cheese.

This made four servings, and each serving was 276 calories.  Aaron gave this a 9, Owen gave it a 7 because he thought it was too spicy ;), and Noah and I gave this a perfect 10.  Noah helped me make this, it is so simple and easy.  We'll be having these a lot!

Vampire Cookies

Remember these vampire cookies I posted the recipes to a few weeks ago?  We made these on Halloween, and they were easy and fun for the boys.  The boys also told me they tasted awesome, I refrained from trying them, too much sweetness and I don't like marshmallows :).  Anyway, I have reposted the recipe, and they are super fun!

 

 

VAMPIRE COOKIES

Ingredients
1 package (18.25 ounces) refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough or your favorite cookie recipe...

1/2 cup prepared vanilla frosting, tinted red
1 3/4 cups miniature marshmallows
48 slivered almonds

Instructions
Prepare cookies as directed on package or according to your favorite recipe. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool completely. Cut each cookie in half for a total of 48 halves.
Frost the bottoms of all cookie halves with frosting. Place 6 marshmallow teeth around curved perimeter of 24 halves. For additional support, an additional marshmallow can be placed behind the teeth. Top with remaining 24 halves. Insert two almond slivers in between teeth for fangs. If fangs do not adhere, dip tips into frosting.

Crockpot Sesame Beef

I found this recipe in my cookbook from the lady who does this blog, www.365daysofcrockpot.com.  I really like that cookbook, since it is easy, and one of the tastiest crockpot cookbooks I have ever seen. 

 

This is so easy, and not very high in calories.  Aaron gave it a 6, and the rest of us gave it an 8.  Aaron said he wishes there wasn't so much broccoli, oh well ;).  Here's what to do.

 

1 lb beef roast

1/2 c oyster sauce

1 1/3 c beef broth

salt and pepper

sriracha to taste

1 package steamed broccoli florets

2 T cornstarch

sesame seeds

rice to serve

 

Place seasoned roast, oyster sauce, beef broth and sriracha in crockpot and cook for 8-9 hours on low.  When beef is tender, take 2 T of cornstarch and mix with some of the liquid in the crockpot.  Return mixture to crockpot and mix.  Add in the broccoli and sesame seeds and serve over rice. 

 

This is low in calories, only 297 calories per serving.  Easy and great!

 



Slow Cooker Fajitas

 

We had these great fajitas the other night, and although not traditional fajitas, they were really good.  I love how easy these are.  One of these days I'll share my favorite fajita recipe from Cook's Illustrated, but for now, these are really good and easy.  I of course changed things a little, but that is normal for me :).  We had 12 servings for this, so each serving of meat was 127 calories.  Here's what I did.

1 1/4 lb beef chuck roast, seasoned
1 10 oz can rotel
1 bell pepper, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 t cumin
1 t chili powder
salt
1/2 t garlic salt
a couple of dashes of tabasco sauce
3 stalks dried lemon grass (I didn't have any lime juice, so I made do.  I just removed the lemon grass before serving.)

Place onions and peppers in the bottom of the slow cooker.  Add the rest of the ingredients on top.  Cook for 8-9 hours on low.  Serve how you desire.

Aaron and Owen and I gave this an 8, Noah gave it a perfect 10.

Creamy Pesto Chicken Pasta with Bacon and Veggies

So we had this yummy dinner the other night, and although it took a little bit of time, longer than the 5 minute crockpot meals I have been making, this was worth it.  It was fresh and full of flavor.  Here is the link to the original recipe, and I basically followed the recipe exactly, just did my chicken a little differently.  The calories for 1/12 of the total, which was quite a bit of food, were 397, and I like how fresh the broccoli and peppers made this feel.  I didn't add mushrooms, because we have mushroom haters in this house.  Noah gave this a 9, I gave it an 8, Aaron and Owen gave it a 7.  Here's what I did.

5-6 chicken tenders
4 slices thick cut bacon, cooked and chopped
1 lb pasta
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 T olive oil
2 T minced garlic
one baggie steamed broccoli
15 oz can white beans
15 oz chicken broth
1 c whipping cream
1/2 c basil pesto
1/2 c grated parmesan cheese

Season chicken tenders with salt and pepper, then cook in a sprayed pan on both sides until chicken is cooked through.  Chop and set aside.
Cook pasta according to package directions.
In a large pot or dutch oven, heat the olive oil.  Cook onion, pepper and garlic until pepper and onion are softened.  Add in the broccoli and cook for a couple of minutes.  Add in the beans, chicken broth, cream, pesto, and parmesan cheese.  Cook until well combined, then add in chopped chicken and bacon.  Cook until sauce has reduced a little, and serve.  If sauce becomes too thick, add in a little cream or milk or chicken broth to thin it out again.

Try this, it is really good!