Best Five: recipes I tried, and looooved.

Best FIVE (more or less) recipes you tried from Eat Your Veggies Peas and loooooved!

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five cheese ziti al forno.

i took really terrible pictures of the food, so i won't post them. this was the menu board for our olive garden dinner. my sister made the zuppa toscana which also turned out delicious!

{this recipe has a lot of cheeses... all of which can be found at smith's marketplace. it looks complicated, but it's really SUPER easy and very convenient that you can make two parts and put them in the fridge until you're ready to make dinner. it's great for a party or pot luck. says it serves 6-8, but it could serve 10 easily.}

for the ziti sauce
4 cups tomato sauce
2 cups alfredo sauce
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
3 tablespoons fontina cheese, shredded
1 teaspoon garlic pepper seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

for the ziti topping
3 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons romano cheese, grated
3 tablespoons parmesan cheese, grated
1 tablespoon fresh garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped

remaining ingredients
1 lb dry ziti pasta
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

directions
combining all ingredients for the ziti sauce in a large bowl; cover and refrigerate until ready to use. in a medium-size bowl, whisk together the first four ingredients for the ziti topping. add the garlic, oil, and parsley and mix until thoroughly blended. cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

when ready to prepare the whole dish: preheat oven to 375 degrees, spray a 13-by-9-inch baking dish or large casserole with non-stick spray. prepare the pasta according to package directions. Pour 1/2 cup of prepared ziti sauce into the prepared dish, and spread it evenly over the bottom using a spoon. when pasta has finished cooking, drain the water and pour the hot pasta into the bowl of remaining sauce. mix thoroughly; pour into the baking dish. spread 1 cup of shredded mozzarella over the pasta and sauce mixture. top the mozzarella with the prepared ziti topping, spreading evenly.

place pan on center oven rack and bake until top is golden brown and cheese is bubbling, about 30 to 40 minutes. remove and serve immediately.

Jambalaya

ingredients:

3 Italian turkey sausage links (cut and cooked thoroughly in a skillet before hand)
2 cups rice (uncooked)
1 can tomato soup and one can water
1 can diced Italian style tomatoes
1 can black beans (partially drained)
1 can kidney beans (drained)
1 can butter beans
2 TBS chilli powder
1 TBS garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Pour everything together in a crockpot on low for 8-10 hours.

It may not look appetizing, but it taste delicious!

Easy Mexican Casserole

Sorry, no picture here. We gobbled this down before I could take one, but I really wanted to post it. So here it is. It's super yummy and easy!

ingredients
1 pound lean ground beef
2 cups salsa
1 (16 oz) can chili beans, drained
3 cups crushed tortilla chips
2 cups sour cream
1 (2 oz) can sliced black olives, drained
1/2 cup chopped green onion
1/2 cup chopped fresh tomato
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. In a large skillet over med-high heat, cook beef until no longer pink. Stir in salsa, reduce heat, simmer 20 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed. Stir in beans, and heat through.

3. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with no-stick spray. Spread crushed tortilla chips in dish, and then spoon beef mixture over chips. Spread sour cream over beef, and sprinkle olives, green onions and tomato over sour cream. Top with cheddar cheese.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.

Chicken Noodle Soup...or casserole

In a semi-homemade kind of way I made up this recipe for chicken noodle soup. It turned out pretty good, I got the seal of approval from my three boys which speaks volumes to me about a recipe.

6 cups (48 ounces) low-sodium chicken broth (stock is better, but broth is all I had)
1/2 yellow onion - chopped
1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 or 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 or 4 stalks of celery, chopped
1/2 rotisserie chicken - removed from the bone and shredded (I also removed the skin)
1/2 of the drippings from the rotisserie chicken, sounds gross but it's where the flavor is at people!
1/2 package of egg noodles (I used a whole package and it was too much)
A few shakes of garlic powder (fresh chopped garlic if you have it)
Salt and Pepper - to taste

Add the olive oil to a large pot and saute the chopped onion until it softens. If you are using fresh garlic I would add it here and saute them both together. When the onions are soft, add the chicken broth and scrape up the bits on the pan, this is another place to get flavor. Add the chopped carrots, celery, chicken drippings, and salt and pepper to taste (also garlic powder if you didn't add the fresh garlic earlier). Cover the soup and let simmer for about 10 minutes or until the carrots start to soften a bit. Add the shredded chicken and let simmer for a few more minutes. Add the noodles and cook for about 7 minutes or until they are soft. Serve with hot rolls, or if you live in my house with cornbread.

Unfortunately I added the whole bag of noodles to our soup, so it was somewhere between a soup and a casserole, but it was still good. Just very noodley.

Delicious, easy, and very satisfying!