Three Cheese Sausage Pasta Bake

October 28, 2011 3 Comments

This is one of my favorite weekend treats to throw together. Pasta, sausage, cheese, cheese, and mo’ cheese. It ain’t much of a recipe, but sometimes the simplest of concoctions put the biggest smile on my face. You know what I mean?

Here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients List for Three Cheese Sausage Pasta Bake (serves 5)

8 ounces pasta of choice, cooked al dente
3 cups pasta sauce of choice (such as Prego Heart Smart)
4 links cooked chicken or turkey sausage (such as Harris Teeter Hot Chicken Sausage)
4 slices mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup fat-free ricotta
1/4 cup shredded parmesan
Italian herbs of choice

I like to start off with some sauce in the bottom of a casserole dish. Prego is (and always has been) my go-to standard store pasta sauce. It tastes delicious, it’s super cheap, and you can buy it in a ginormous jar. What more could you want?

1/3 of the sauce goes into the casserole:

Then I toss on half of my pasta:

Plus two tablespoons of shredded parmesan and 1/4 cup fat-free ricotta:

Then I add the sliced sausages and sprinkle with my favorite Italian herb combo: oregano, basil, S&P, and a touch of red pepper flakes.

Add another cup of sauce, followed by the remaining pasta, then the last cup of sauce, 1/4 cup of ricotta, 2 tbsp parmesan, and 4 slices of mozzarella:

Cover with foil (careful that it doesn’t touch the cheese!!!). Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes, removing the foil for the last 5 minutes.

Dinner is served!

Stats on 1 serving: 422 calories, 52g carbs, 11g fat, 30g protein, 5g fiber

Recipes

Enchi-oo-la-la-das.

October 17, 2011 14 Comments

Yow.ZAAAAAAAAA!

These enchiladas were DELICIOUS!!! Comfort food meets Mexican Fiesta in my mouth. This was my first attempt at making enchiladas (still struggling to rationalize that one in my brain), and anytime I try something new I scour the internet in search of the ultimate recipe. This time I found a winner: Angela’s Awesome Enchiladas on Allrecipes.com. The nutritional stats for the original recipe weren’t so great, so I made a few Mary tweaks (Mweaks, as we call them).

First up: The Chicken. You need 2lbs of shredded chicken. We decided to go the boiling route, and plopped 2 lbs of halved chicken breasts into a pot of bowling water for about 12 minutes until cooked through. Then we shredded the chicken using two forks. You could also cook your chicken in a crockpot or use a rotisserie chicken for this recipe.

Step two: The sauce (AKA the Creamy Goodness)

Combine the following in a small pan and bring to a light simmer over low heat:

1 (10.75 ounce) can Campbell’s Healthy Request Cream of Chicken soup
1 cup fat free sour cream
1/4 tsp chili powder

Give it an occasional stir, and once warmed through remove from heat and cover.

Step Three: Sauté a small white onion in a big skillet coated with cooking spray until the onion softens. Toss in the shredded chicken and the following:

1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies, drained
1 packet taco seasoning
1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
1 cup water
1 tsp lime juice
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Let all these treats simmer together for about 20 minutes, then stir in one cup of the creamy goodness and the filling is ready to groove:

Step Four: Rock n Roll. Get it?? Rock n Roll?? Ugh.. ok fine.

Spray a 9×13 pan with some cooking spray, spread the remaining creamy goodness on the bottom, then load up 6 Tumaro’s Low Carb Tortillas with 2/3 of a cup of the chicken filling. Roll the tortillas tight and place them seam side down in the pan:

Top the enchiladas with:

1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce
1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
Shredded Cheese, if desired (honestly this doesn’t add much bang for the calorie buck, so I say forgettaboutit)

Pop these puppies into a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes:

Then utilize the double-shovel method to extract the delicious enchiladas from the pan:

Serve with rice or corn or beans. Or Man Candy. You decide Winking smile

TADA!

Apparently someone’s thumb is a camera whore…

These enchiladas are pretty hefty (hefty, hefty… am I the only one who is physically incapable of saying “hefty” once??)… Anyway, I was full from one enchilada along with a bit of corn and rice. Jarrod ate two enchiladas and afterward questioned “how the heck he’d managed to consume that mass amount of food.”

At which point a 30 minute food coma commenced.

Added bonus: these enchiladas tasted just as good reheated the next day!

Stats on 1 enchilada (no shredded cheese): 321 calories, 31g carbs, 6g fat, 39g protein, 8g fiber.

Enchi-oo-la-la-das Ingredients List (makes 6):

2 lbs shredded skinless, boneless chicken
1 (10.75 ounce) can Campbell’s Healthy Request Cream of Chicken soup
1 cup fat free sour cream
1/4 tsp chili powder
1 small onion, chopped
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies, drained
1 packet taco seasoning
1 bunch green onions, chopped, divided
1 cup water
1 tsp lime juice
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
6 Tumaro’s Low Carb Tortillas
1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce

Recipes, Slow Cookin

Game day chili

September 25, 2011 13 Comments

Hope you guys got some quality football viewing in this Sunday! The Browns were VICTORIOUS as was my first ever attempt at making chili!

Any time I’m trying out a new dish, I like to find a fairly basic recipe to help guide me through the process. After some googling, I decided to go with this recipe for “easy chili” because it had a high rating and because any recipe that has “easy” in the title gets extra brownie points in my book. And I think we all know how I feel about brownies by now.

Even with this “easy” recipe in hand, there were a couple of obstacles I needed to overcome: I happen to LOATHE kidney beans and the BF happens to LOATHE red meat. Yet, we both claim to LOVE chili. ??? I’m not sure how that works exactly, but it reminds me of being a picky eater as a kid and refusing to try guacamole just because it was green. Kermit said it best. It ain’t easy being green.

Recipes

I say frittata, you say… ?

July 24, 2011 8 Comments

If I ever volunteer to come to your house and make you breakfast, you should consider yourself very lucky. You should also consider yourself forewarned:

For no dish, no matter how simple, will the kitchen be left unscathed. What can I say? I like to become one with my food Winking smile

And yes, that IS a bottle of wine next to the eggs.

I’ve always wanted to make a frittata, and this Sunday morning I was in the mood to get my cook on so I decided to give it a shot. Once I started googling frittata recipes, I realized I was lacking a major piece of equipment: a skillet that could go from stove top to oven without causing a fire. Dangit. That’s going on the T.J. Maxx list.

Since I had my heart set on eggy bliss, I decided to just use a standard glass pie pan. Does that mean it’s not a frittata anymore? Hmmmm what would its proper classification be? I say frittata, you say….. frrrrreggcasserole?

Something to ponder as the man pours your mimosa.

This frittata consisted of:

6 egg whites
3 eggs
2 Hot Chicken sausages (casings removed, cooked and crumbled)
1 large handful chiffonade spinach
S&P, to taste
Frank’s Red Hot, to taste (plus more for garnish )
1/4 cup diced tomato
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
2 tsp minced garlic

While I cooked up the sausage, and sautéed the onion, mushroom, and garlic, I got to egg crackalacking. Once the sausage was cooked and the veggies were soft, I stirred all the goodies into the eggs then poured into a pie pan that I’d coated with cooking spray.

Into the oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, and you’ll end up with this beauty:

The frittata set up PERFECTLY. Perfect temperature, perfect cook time:

I started off with just a slice:

But ended up eating precisely half of the frittata…

Good news is the stats on half the frittata: 318 calories, 11g carbs, 11g fat, 41g protein, 3g fiber

Molto bene Red lips

My Favs, Ramblings, Recipes

Recipe: Jambalaya {bad things happen when I don’t eat}

July 19, 2011 11 Comments

Somehow in the past few months I seemed to have forgotten my passion for cooking. Let’s take a moment to ponder how the heck this is even possible. Somewhere between leaving a job of over four years, attempting to sell a house, subsequently becoming a landlord, selling off and donating an insane amount of my possessions, a crazy condo hunt, leaving my family and home state of 26 years, a HORRIBLE moving experience, starting a new job, and immersing myself in the culinary delights of a new city I forgot how much fun and just how darn rewarding a home cooked meal can be.

Blasphemy!

Through these past few whirlwind months I’ve been a little *ahem* emotional. Ok, not just emotional. Let’s also throw in irrational, brash, and downright scary at times. This Saturday I actually cried over burnt pizza. I CRIED, PEOPLE. And then I sat on the living room floor with my knees clenched up to my chest and just stared off into nothingness as my body seethed in furry searching for some sort of carbohydrate to peak my bottomed out blood sugar.

I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again: bad things happen when I don’t eat.

While I was in the midst of nuclear shutdown, the BF came over, sat down beside me, and put his arm around his little sugar feigning zombie. And we sat. And then he did what any good man would do: he didn’t talk, didn’t ask questions, he just got up from the floor sauntered over to the kitchen and made me a snack.

I know, right?

Why can’t I see things so simply? Is it really just a man thing? Are women really just crazy complex, overanalyzing, (often) emotional basket cases? Whatever the case may be (lord knows I don’t have the answers) the BF does a pretty darn good job of reeling me back from Mary’s Land of Anxious Gloom by trying to insert some of the simple things into my life. Sunday morning he convinced me to simply sit on the porch and drink mimosas, and Sunday night we simply made jambalaya for dinner.

This was simply stick to your ribs delicious, guys. I’m serious. It gave the jambalaya we had in New Orleans a run for the money!

Jambalaya

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light’s Jambalaya.

2 links hot chicken or turkey sausage (cooked and sliced)
1 cup white onion (chopped)
1/2 cup celery (chopped)
1/2 cup green pepper (chopped)
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1.5 cups uncooked long grain brown rice
3 cups fat-free low-sodium chicken broth
1 tbsp paprika (smoked, if you have it)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground thyme
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepepr
16oz cooked chicken breast (cubed)
14.5oz can diced tomatoes with green peppers and onions (undrained)
4oz shrimp (uncooked)
1/2 cup green onions (thinly sliced)

Note: I recommend Uncle Ben’s Fast & Natural Whole Grain Brown Rice and Harris Teeter hot chicken sausage or Jennie-O Turkey Sausage.

Step 1: Coat a large pot with cooking spray then heat over medium-high heat. Add sausage, onion, green pepper, celery, and garlic. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook 12 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.

Step 2: Stir in uncooked rice and cook for two minutes, stirring constantly. Add broth and all the spices and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.

Step 3: Add chicken and tomatoes, half of the green onions, and shrimp. Stir, then cover and cook 8 minutes or until shrimp are done.

Step 4: Remove from heat, sprinkle with remaining green onions, and eat your face off.

Stats on 1 serving: 344 calories, 45g carbs, 6g fat, 33g protein, 4g fiber

Looking for a Jambalaya-for-one recipe? Check out this post.

Looking for a crazy, borderline incoherent, slightly volatile woman? Catch me on a day when I miss my midmorning snack.

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