Friday, July 30, 2010

Weekend Recipe: Baked Ziti

Friday Recipe: Easy Baked Ziti:

What you need:

1 16 oz box of Ziti ( Or Penne…I actually like Penne better) I like Barilla but use what you have.
1 jar of pasta sauce, I like any brand of four cheese sauce, but use what you have.
1 bag of Mozzarella Cheese
½ - 1lb of Turkey Italian sausage, I like this but you can use ground turkey or whatever you have. You can use ground chicken, beef or traditional Italian sausage.

Large mixing bowl
Casserole dish with a top (if yours does not have a top you can use aluminum foil)
Cooking spray

Prep:

Boil a pot of water

If you opt for the sausage remove the casings and brown in a skillet. If you use ground meat just lightly brown it in a skillet. I use a bit of canola oil in the skillet but use what you have. You can season the meat. I like to use Adobe (red top) garlic powder and onion powder.

While the meat is browning use about ½ of the 16 oz box of pasta, dump it in the boiling water and bring it to a boil. Read the instructions for prepping the pasta. Do not overcook the pasta.

Go preheat your oven to 350

When you pasta and meat are both done. Drain the grease from the meat and the water from the pasta. Add the meat and the pasta to a big bowl, mix in the pasta sauce and ¾ of the bag of cheese. Mix it well. The rest of the cheese will be used later.

Spray your casserole dish, dump in the meat, cheese, sauce and pasta mixture in the dish. Cover the dish with the top or aluminum foil. Put it in the preheated oven for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes has passed take out your pasta dish, add the remaining cheese on the top. Put it back in the oven for 10 or 15 minutes until the cheese is bubbly. Let it sit for a few minutes then serve that baby up!

I like to have a Caesar salad with this when I am being good. ☺
Yum..Yum..Yum!

Let me know how you make out! Take pictures and post them!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Anise Smith: Weekend Too busy to cook recipe 7/23/10


Weekend Recipe

Crockpot BB Chicken, mixed green salad and Corn on the Cob
This is what you need:
Chicken breast or thighs 6 -8 (boneless or not, whatever you like)
1 bottle of BBQ sauce (I like bulls eye but whatever you like)
1 Onion (I like Vidalia)
1 can of jellied cranberry sauce
Salad fixins

I like Romaine and or Spinach and bag of ready made salad, baby carrots, plum tomatoes
Frozen corn on the cob

Chicken:
Season the chicken; I use Adobo (Red Top on everything) garlic powder and poultry or chicken seasoning. But use whatever you like and have handy.
Brown the chicken in a large skillet for a couple of minutes on each side. I use Canola Oil in the pan but use whatever you have.
While the chicken is browning chop up the onion and toss on the bottom of the Crockpot then add the cranberry sauce. After the chicken is finished browning in the skillet add the chicken to the Crockpot. Then pour about 1-1/2 cup of BBQ Sauce. Turn the Crockpot on low, put the top on and leave it for about 6 hours.

Salad:
I like to use Spinach and or Romaine and a bag of mixed (usually iceberg mixture) but again, use what you have available. I like the combination of Spinach with iceberg mixture, carrots and plum tomatoes. Toss in whatever you like for your salad and use whatever dressing you have available. There is Raspberry vinaigrette that is really good but I like different kinds of dressings it depends on what my tastes are that day. A simple ranch could be good to compliment the BBQ chicken.

Frozen Corn:
It takes just a few minutes to fix this. Review the directions on the package. :-)

Leftovers:
What’s great about this recipe is that with the leftovers you can make “pulled “ chicken sandwiches. Pull the chicken from the bone if you used bone in chicken or just chop it up if you used boneless warm it up. Grab a few rolls or toast some bread, (I prefer multigrain) throw on some cheese, I like Swiss, sharp provolone or provolone. Add the cheese, warmed chicken to the rolls or toasted bread pop it in the oven for about 3 minutes. I would grab some of the leftover salad and you have dinner for the second day.
Let me know how you make out….I like to take pictures of my food so feel free to take pics and post them.