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! 

Simple Ice Cream Dessert

On the 4th of July, we had a potluck at work and one of my wonderful coworkers brought this amazing little dessert. He had made it previously at a bon fire at his house, but I didn't get any of it. Now I realize how sad that was. It's amazing. Chocolate, caramel, ice cream bars?! Who could honestly ask for more? This is incredibly customizeable. Don't like butterfinger? Use a plain chocolate bar, a kit kat, snickers.. whatever your favorite is. Could be made sugar free as well with all sugar free ingredients.

It's quite simple to make, as well.
You will need

1/2 tub of cool whip
1-2 Butterfinger bars
6 ice cream sandwiches
2-4 tbsp caramel syrup
2-4 tbsp chocolate syrup

I used a 9x9 pan, but if you're serving a larger group you could definitely use a 9x13 pan.

Start by laying ice cream bars in pan. They should fill the whole pan, but I didn't have enough to do that.

Cover that up with the cool whip!

Drizzle some caramel on top

Drizzle some chocolate over that

Finally, crush up that butterfinger bar and sprinkle it all over the top

Freeze overnight or until the cool whip is completely frozen.

Enjoy at your next bbq or family get together!

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?

Nutella and Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

I think I may need to change the title of my blog to Desserts in the Kitchen, or Things that will make you fat in the Kitchen. Seems to be all I'm making these days.
However, I think this is ok. Desserts are awesome, and this ice cream is spectacular.

First, this recipe is very simple. No ice cream maker is needed. Just a spoon and a hand mixer.

So first, here's what you need

First, whip up 2 cups of the whipping cream until it's stiff.

Then open the can of sweetened condensed milk and pour in your mixin's. For mine 1 cup of nutella and 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. You could do ANYTHING your heart desires, though.

Put in a Tupperware container and freeze for at least 6 hours.

 Enjoy!

Recipe

2 cups whipping cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup nutella
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Using an electric mixer, whip whipping cream on a high speed until stiff.
Pour sweetened condensed milk into a bowl and add nutella, melted butter and chocolate chips. Whisk until well blended. Fold in whipped cream.
Pour into freezer safe container and freeze for at least 6 hours.

Slutty Brownies

If you are on a New Year's diet, leave right now, if not, I hope you're hungry.

My bff Jenn came over and we made some things.
We made dinner, but we're too cool to post pictures of that, too.
Jenn is just the coooooolest. Man oh man, she rocks. Have you met her? Sucks to be you then, doesn't it.
(These are from here)

Anywhozille, these slutty brownies, we made them, because they looked good.

You need:
chocolate chip cookie batter
brownie mix
oreos
(whatever ingredients are needed for your chocolate chip cookies and brownies)
a friendship as stellar as ours

Step one: Preheat oven to 350. Put some wax paper in a baking sheet.
LIKE THIS:

Step two: Make the chocolate chip cookie dough, and brownie mix. (Bonus, if you have two people, like we did, you can do it at the SAME TIME!!)
See photographic evidence below:

 

Step three: Put  that cookie dough in that baking sheet, and start topping that baby with oreos.

(Now is not the time to eat this delicious treat...JENN)

Once done with the oreos, it should look exactly like this. If it looks different at all, you should probably just quit, because you can't arrange oreos.

Step four: Top this wonderful creation with your brownie mix.

Now, pop this bad boy in the oven and let him hang out in there for roughly a half hour.

Step final: Eat with ice cream, and watch a movie with your bff.

We couldn't wait to eat them, so they are a bit sloppy. After they sat for awhile they were solid. 

<3 Stef and Jenn

(Because thats basically what we're doing.)

**Please note this blog was typed by Jenn pretending to be Stef, but all baking steps are accurate. We love you.

Buttercream Frosting

It's nearly Christmas! My favorite time of the year.
It hasn't snowed yet, though, and it's really starting to weird me out. I honestly can't remember a Christmas without snow, and it's looking like that is going to happen.
Since there is no snow on the ground, and it's not even freezing cold, I'm not really sure I believe Christmas is only 6 days away.

I thought, to get myself in the Christmas spirit I would make some Christmas-y cupcakes for my awesome co-workers. They like when I bake, and I like when people tell me how awesome my treats are. ;-)

So I thought while showing off pictures of my creations, I'd throw in a recipe for the buttercream I always make. It's pretty stellar if I do say so myself.

Firstly, the picture I posted to Facebook entitled "My Saturday Night".

Looks fun, doesn't it?? I had an awful day at work, and working on these calmed me right down!

First I made some Christmas trees

Then I made a few santa's and added some swirled red and green.

Adorable!

So, to make buttercream.

2 sticks of butter
1 cup shortening
1 bag powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk (usually don't use all of it)
1 tsp vanilla or any other flavor you want to use
1 tsp salt

Cream together butter and shortening until mixed, add in powdered sugar a little at a time, cream until blended. Add in vanilla and salt. Slowly add milk until you get the desired consistency.

Voila. Simple as that.
Go bake something.

Hot Pockets

I really like hot pockets.
However, I've always wished I could change the ingredients to what I like, add more, or just customize them.
Then I had a brilliant idea.
Yes, this occasionally happens to even me.

Yesterday we had a little party with some friends. It wasn't really a party. It was a "Let's eat a bunch of food and attempt to play a game while Averna screams" (It's ok, Averna, we still love you)

I whipped these up as an appetizer. Which, honestly, kind of ruined the main course as we were mostly too full from snacks to eat the awesome burritos we had made.

So anyways. The ingredients involved were chicken, sauce, and dough sheets. That's all.

I boiled chicken for the first time... which was weird. Then I shred it up, placed it in 2 bowls, and poured sauce on top.

 Then I opened the dough sheets, and cut them into 4 long pieces. Place chicken in the middle (I really wish I had more) and fold it up. Place it seem side down on a GREASED pan.

Finally, bake them, and enjoy. These are SO customizable. Next I think I'll make pizza ones, or chicken cordon bleu ones, OR ANYTHING.

Recipe

2 tubes of Pillsbury dough sheets
3 chicken breasts
Barbeque sauce
Spicy wing sauce

 Preheat oven to 350.
If you don't have any leftover chicken laying around, poach chicken on the stove by placing chicken in the bottom of a large saucepan and covering with water or chicken broth. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down, cooking until white through, about 8 minutes.

Shred the cooked chicken and cover with the sauce in separate bowls. Open the tubes of dough sheets and cut each roll into 4 pieces. Place chicken in the center of each strip and fold the top and bottom over, press the edges to seal.

Place in the oven for about 20 minutes or until nice and golden brown.
Enjoy!