Variation on Spaghetti

When I was in college I ate spaghetti--a lot! One of my friends taught me an easy and yummy way to change up your spaghetti a little. Just add a little cream cheese (about 4 oz... just to your liking) and stir it up in your hot spaghetti with sauce until it's melted. It's so super easy and makes a good, creamy, spaghetti sauce!

Puppy Chow....

I would make a batch of these anytime I had bishopric meetings or district meetings as a missionary. Too good and always a hit!

1 package (6 ounce) semi sweet chocolate morsels
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup peanuts (optional)
6 cups kellogs crispix cereal
1 cup confectioners sugar

In a microwave safe bowl, melt chocolate chips at high for 1 minute. Stir and heat an additional 30 seconds at high or until melted. Stir in peanut butter and peanuts. Stir in crispix cereal into chocolate/peanut butter mixture until well coated. Place sugar in 2 gallon storage bag. Add coated cereal to sugar and close bag. Gently toss cereal mixture until well coated. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

RUNZA CASSEROLE

when I lived in Nebraska there was a food chain called "Runza"...their specialty was a sandwich of homeade dough stuffed with ground beef and spices. This is an easy casserole that plays off the sandwich chain!!

1 lb. ground beef
1/2 head of cabbage shredded or 1 bag of preshredded cabbage
2 cans of pilsbury crescent rolles
Salt and pepper to taste
2-3 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Brown ground beef. Do not drain. Add cabbage and salt and pepper. Cook over low heat until cabbage is soft and thinner pieces are translucent. Drain meat/cabbage mixture. In greased 9x13 pan, line bottom with crescent roll dough. Fill with meat mixture. Sprinkle with cheese. Top with 2nd can of crescent dough. Bake until top crust is brown and flakey. (Approx. 40 min.)

Southwestern Eggrolls

My friend, Kim, made these for a playgroup a few weeks ago. They were incredible! They tasted just like some I have had in restaurants, such as Chili's or Cheesecake factory. I made them tonight for the adults at my son's 5th birthday party and they ate them all gone! They are a bit spicy, so if you like spicy you will love them! The recipe is long, with lots of ingredients, but they are easy to put together- it really doesn't take much time. They do need to be frozen overnight. The recipe only makes 5 egg rolls (10 when cut in half) so it would be worth it to double or triple and keep in the freezer and take out a few at a time. (or make for a large group like I did-I tripled it and they were gone.) Also, if you do double or triple, you can still do a single recipe for the sauce- it doesn't take much dipping sauce.
Egg rolls:
1 chicken breast
1 Tbsp vegi oil
2 Tbsp minced parsley
2 Tbsp minced green onion
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/4 cup canned black beans- rinsed and drained
2 Tbsp minced red bell pepper
2 Tbsp diced/ canned jalapeño peppers
1/2 tsp. cumin
2 Tbsp. frozen spinach thawed/drained
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp salt
dash cayenne pepper
3/4 cup shredded mont jack cheese
5 7-in. flour tortillas

Avocado dipping sauce
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup smashed fresh avocado
1/4 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp buttermilk (see note below)**
1 1/2 tsp white vinegar
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp dried parsley
1/8 tsp onion powder
dash dried dill weed
dash garlic powder
dash pepper

1) dice chicken, coat in a small amount of vegi oil and cook in pan till no longer pink. Lightly salt & pepper while cooking. Set aside.
2) Heat 1 Tbsp oil in pan. Add red pepper and onion- saute a couple minutes until tender.
3) Add chicken back to pan and add the corn, black beans, spinach, jalapeno peppers, parsley, cumin, chili powder, salt and cayenne pepper to pan. Cook another 4 minutes. Stir well so that the spinach separates and is incorporated into the mixture. Remove from heat and add cheese- stir in until melted.
4) Wrap tortillas between two moist paper towels and microwave 45-60 sec. or until warm.
5) Spoon approx. 1/5 of mixture into tortillas. Fold ends in first and then wrap tightly. Secure with toothpicks to hold together ( I put on in each end.)
6) Arrange egg rolls on a plate (seam side down) and cover and freeze for at least 4 hours. Overnight is best.
7) Prepare dipping sauce by mixing all ingredients together in a small bowl.
8) Preheat 4-6 cups oil to 375 deg. Deep fry egg rolls in the hot oil for approx. 10 min. (more or less depending on oil temp.) Remove to a paper towel or rack to drain for a couple minutes. Remove toothpicks and slice diagonally lengthwise and arrange on a plate around a small bowl of the dipping sauce.

**a tip from Kim that I, too, found useful. If you are like me and don't use buttermilk for anything else, you can make your own by combining one cup regular milk with one TBSP vinegar and let it sit at least a few minutes. That way you are throwing away less than a cup of milk instead of the whole bottle of buttermilk that you aren't going to use.

Speedy Chicken Stir Fry.....

I got this recipe off of another recipe blog, but it is originally from the Kraft Food recipes website. I made it tonight and totally enjoyed it! I bought Cameron some California Rolls to eat with his. This is the kind of stir fry that is tasty both cold and hot! Enjoy!

• 8 oz. angel hair pasta (capellini),
• uncooked2 cups small broccoli florets
• 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
• 1/2 cup KRAFT Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing
• 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp. each: ground ginger, garlic powder, crushed red pepper
• 1/3 cup Dry Roasted Peanuts

Cook pasta as directed on package, adding broccoli to the boiling water for the last 3 min. of the pasta cooking time. Meanwhile, spray large nonstick skillet with cooking spray; heat on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 6 to 8 min. or until cooked through, stirring occasionally. Stir in dressing, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and crushed red pepper; cook 1 min., stirring occasionally. Drain pasta mixture; place in large bowl. Add chicken mixture; mix lightly. Spoon evenly into four serving bowls; sprinkle with the peanuts.

Snicker Raviolis

Ever had The Macaroni Grill's Snicker Raviolis? They are delicious! It's quite easy, just get won tons and cut up snickers. Put the snickers inside and to seal the won ton you put egg wash on the edges and throw it in bubbling hot canola oil and within 30 seconds it's ready! Sprinkle with powered sugar and serve with ice cream, it's one of my favorites. Try it. Eat it. Enjoy it. :)

Farfalle with Tomatoes and Basil

I finally tried this out last night. It was pretty simple and a huge success... even William "I-won't-try-anything-new-and-hardly-eat-a-thing" loved it. I snagged it from here.

The amounts I have here are for four adult servings:

Cook 1/2 lb. of farfalle (bowties) according to the package instructions. Make sure you generously salt the water. If the package says "10-12 minutes" cook them for 10. By the time everything's finished, they'll be perfect.

While the pasta is cooking,

in a large saucepan or dutch oven, heat enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan,

then add:

1/2 onion--chopped finely once the onion is soft and translucent, add

6 roma tomatoes, diced (I almost always cook with romas because they're easy to cut and usually the cheapest)

Cook the onions and tomatoes on medium-high heat until the tomato pieces have turned into sauce. You want to cook out a lot of the water.

Your pasta probably needs to be drained sometime in here, but scoop out a mug full of the pasta water before you drain it. I'll explain later.

Add about 1 tsp. of salt (make sure to taste it because seasoning is personal), 2 tsp. of sugar, some black pepper, and some red pepper flakes if you like a little spice.

Dump the pasta into the sauce and stir in 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese, 8-10 chopped basil leaves, and 1 chopped, grilled chicken breast or leftover chopped up chicken (if you want it).

Now is when you use the reserved pasta water to control the texture. I'm sure that sometimes you've cooked, or been served pasta that is dry and stuck together and just not perfect. Well, you can avoid that with the addition of a little pasta water. It works best because it's salted so it won't dilute the sauce, it's hot, so it won't make the dish cold, and it has some starch that the pasta abandoned during cooking so it won't make the sauce too thin.Add a little water and stir it in until the pasta is covered in perfectly textured, shiny sauce. Do it again when you come back for a second serving and the pasta looks all dried out. Also, whenever you're reheating pasta, add a little water before putting it into the microwave.

note from Jeanine: I didn't have fresh basil so I just used the dried flakes... they worked perfectly. Also, I think it would taste just as great without the chicken. I think I put slightly more Parmesan cheese as well because I like things extra cheesy.