Three Cheese Chicken Penne

Cheese. Chicken. Pasta. Spinach.
 This pasta dish was beautiful. Both in taste and in, well, looks.

First post in awhile, sorry about that. I've started school up again and that's been taking up most of my time. Still lots of cooking going on, but haven't taken many pictures.

That will change, pinky promise.

You'll want more after you see this, anyways. It's simple and fabulous.

First, here's what you need.

 Cut the chicken into small pieces and cook on medium-high heat for about 3 minutes.

 Cook pasta according to package, add in spinach for last minute.

 Add sauce and neufchatel cheese to chicken, simmer for 5 more minutes, or until chicken is done.

 Drain pasta and spinach, then add back to pot, stir in mozzarella cheese and sauce mixture.

 Stir and spread into a casserole dish, bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

 Best served with some garlic bread sticks!

So, really. Make this for dinner tonight. You won't regret it. It was so fabulous

Recipe

2 1/2 cups uncooked penne pasta

1 jar spaghetti sauce

1 cup mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup neufchatel cheese

2 tbsp parmesan cheese

9 oz spinach 

3 chicken breasts

Preheat oven to 375

Cook chicken breasts on medium-high heat for about 3 minutes, add in sauce and continue to cook for another 3 minutes, or until cooked through. Add in neufchatel cheese and let simmer for 5 more minutes. 

Cook pasta according to package, adding in spinach for the last minute. 

Drain pasta and spinach, add back to pot, stir in chicken mixture, mozzarella cheese, and parmesan cheese. 

Spread into a 2qt casserole. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. 

Enjoy! 

Pepperoni Pizza Grilled Cheese

This recipe came about of my being extremely lazy to actually cook anything, and really wanting both pizza and grilled cheese.
Isn't that the way all great recipes are born?

Although I wish it were, this recipe probably isn't groundbreaking. It's super easy and quick and, as long as you pay attention and don't burn one side, almost impossible to mess up.

I did mine with pepperoni, but it would be lovely to try it with chicken and some spinach, or with Italian sausage, or really any pizza toppings you can imagine.

So here you have it, a step by step guide to making the most awesome grilled cheese you'll ever taste.

Have these things

 Butter one side of the bread and put it down on a skillet. Top that with about 2 tbsp of pizza sauce. You can certainly do more if you like pizza more saucy.

Spread that out and put a piece of thin provolone cheese over it, and a small handful of shredded pizza cheese.

Add some pepperonis to the top of that

Top with another piece of thin provolone cheese

Butter the other half of the bread and put it on top

COOK IT WITH FIRE! 

Now, seriously, pay attention. Don't be so busy trying to take a picture of the fire and forget to make sure the first side isn't burnt.
Flip when things look a little melty, and let the other side cook for about 1 or 2 minutes

THEN if you're feeling really awesome, chop up some fruit for fruit salad

Finally, enjoy your awesome creation.

Tell me, readers, what would you put on this sandwich. Pineapple and ham? Chicken and tomatoes?

Pizza Pasta

Hey everybody!
I must first apologize for my absence. I've been so busy with work, and sleeping, I forget to take pictures when I cook. And a food blog without pictures of the food is NO FUN.
So while on a break at work one day I was flipping through the paper, and there was a flier for Fazolis.
The picture was of their baked pizza pasta. Just looking at it, I knew I could make it. Easy.

So I did!

It was awesome. Really filling, and it made a ton, so it would be great for a party.

Here are the ingredients:

Fry up the italian sausage. I always use hot, it's really not that hot.

Mix up the sauce, cheese, and a handful of pepperoni. Mix in the italian sausage.

Then mix in the spaghetti, and put it all into a casserole dish.

Bake it for about 20 minutes, take it out and place some more cheese and pepperoni on top, bake until the cheese has melted, about another 10 minutes.

And then voila! A beautiful dinner paired with some garlic bread!

Recipe

1 1/2 jars of pasta sauce, any kind you like
1 package of italian sausage
1 package of spaghetti or fettuccine noodles
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp Parmesan cheese
15 pepperoni pieces


Preheat oven to 350

Make the pasta per the directions on the box, set aside.
Fry the italian sausage into little bits, drain and set aside.
Mix the spaghetti sauce, mozzarella, parmesan and 10 pepperonis in a bowl. Mix in italian sausage and then spaghetti.
Pour into a well greased casserole dish.
Bake for 20 minutes, remove from oven and cover with more cheese and remaining pepperoni. Return to oven and bake for 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted.


Enjoy!

Chicken "Nuggets"

When my brother and I were kids, my mom made awesome food. (well, she still does!)
One of my favorites, was when she made chicken nuggets.  I think I remember how she made them. Something with Parmesan cheese and chicken... and then they were fried. I think that was all the ingredients she used, but I can't really remember. This was a long time ago!

For the past few nights, my brother has been staying over. His roommate was gone, and he gets lonely (awww..) so he stayed with Jon and I. He played a lot of video games with Jon, I played with them occasionally. Friday night, we needed dinner, but didn't know what we wanted.
Then I thought of moms chicken nuggets.

So Jesse and I set off to cook together. Lots of fun was had by all.
The recipe is simple, these are the ingredients

So we mixed up the breadcrumbs, the Parmesan, and the cayenne.

And I dunked them in eggs, rolled them in the breadcrumb mix, and Jesse fried them. Jon snuck this picture. I thought it was cute.

Fryin'

And done!

We had stuffing and corn with them. It was a fabulous dinner.


So recipe!

2 eggs
2 large chicken breasts
1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
2 tbsp cayenne pepper (optional)

Crack the eggs, scramble them up
Mix the breadcrumbs, parmesan and cayenne pepper on a plate. 
Cut the chicken into slightly bigger than bitesize chunks, dip into eggs and then roll in breadcrumb mix. Fry on stove, until cooked through.

There you go. Simple as that.

Tomorrow is Jon and my 2 year wedding anniversary! We had a little party with family and friends today. Sarah and I made something AMAZING with these ingredients, any guesses what it is?

Baked Oven Fries

Well, here we are, folks. My very first recipe that isn't a dessert!
Granted, it's only my second post, but it's still neat.

So on Sunday I was at Jon's parents house. He and his dad were doing something or another on the computer. I could have fallen asleep on the chair, but Julie said, "Hey, lets look at cookbooks!"
So we did.
She has 2 very large binders filled, and 2 stacks of other cookbooks. I was excited.
I have quite a few new recipes to try... this one looked fabulous though.

This is what we started with

That picture shows 3 potatoes. This is good if you want to feed a bunch of people. I cut up 1 1/2, and that was plenty. But I didn't re-take a picture. Sorry.
So I cut them into pretty thin strips. Like this

And then I added a bunch of seasoning and it looked like this!

And then I baked them in the oven, along with some chicken, and they looked like this!

They were fantastic. Could have been a bit thicker, but I love crispy fries, so it was a win to me!

So the ingredients:
1-2 potatoes
2 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp Garlic salt
1 tbsp Rosemary leaves
1 tbsp Oregano leaves
1 tbsp ground thyme
2 tbsp Red pepper flakes
just a pinch of sugar, adds crispyness and stuff

And how to do it:
Preheat Oven to 450, and also put the baking sheet in to be preheated
Cut the potatoes in half, then in half again, and again, until you get your desired thickness
drizzle in the olive oil and mix it around to coat all potatoes
dump on all the seasonings, and mix again
Put on preheated baking sheet, bake for 20 minutes, flip, and bake for an addition 15 minutes.

Enjoy them, just like Jon did