New Recipe: Baked Three Cheese Gnocchi Mac & Cheese

This is the last of my new recipes from last week. I've always been intrigued by gnocchi and a little intimidated by it. Plus, most of the gnocchi dishes I've seen have either been served with a tomato based sauce (doesn't excite me) or a pesto (can't stand pesto). When I found this recipe for Baked Three Cheese Gnocchi Mac & Cheese it seemed very first-time-gnocchi-cooker-and-eater friendly. 

I was right! I love that the cheeses in it aren't crazy specialty cheeses, that always makes me more likely to make something. I got this dish ready to go the night before so I could just pop it in the oven when I got home and it could bake while Husband grilled some pork tenderloin and my beans cooked. We ate it as a side dish but I'm thinking it could totally hold it's own as a main dish.

Looking at this picture makes me sad because I know there
are no more leftovers in my fridge. (Also, I doubled the recipe...
that's why it's in the 9x13 casserole dish.)

Baked Three Cheese Gnocchi Mac & Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1 pound Potato Gnocchi (found in the pasta aisle)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons flour
• 3/4 cup milk (I used skim)
• 1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, divided
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley (or chopped fresh, if you want)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and spray your casserole dish with cooking spray (If you're not doubling the above recipe, like I did, an 8x8 casserole dish should work. If doubling, use a 9x13 dish.) 
2. Cook your gnocchi according to the package directions. Drain and transfer to your casserole dish. 
3. Original recipe says to do this in a skillet but I used a sauce pan. In a medium sauce pan, melt butter then add your garlic and onion powder. Let that cook a few minutes to soften your garlic then add the flour and whisk until it's bubbly.
4. Add the milk, salt, and pepper. Stir until its thickened (2-3 minutes?).
5. Add the cheddar, mozzarella, and 1/3 cup Parmesan and remove from the heat. Continue to whisk until the cheese is melted. 
6. Pour the cheese sauce over the gnocchi (you may have to mix it some). Top with the remaining Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, and sprinkle with parsley. 
7. Bake for 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Let stand a few minutes before serving...try not to attack the casserole pan with your fork while try to be patient.

Recipe Source: Living Better Together

Notes/Suggestions:

• Like I said, I love that this recipe uses "normal" cheeses. It's what made me pick it. I did shred the cheddar cheese & Parmesan cheese myself (I used a sharp white cheddar and fresh Parmesan) but my mozzarella was the pre-shredded in the bag kind. 
• I love leftovers, that's why I doubled this. It reheated pretty well, a little greasy but that's normal with mac & cheese.
• Grant didn't want to try this, he said "I don't like it". I ended up telling him that it was mac & cheese with special noodles (Is that a lie? I'm not sure). He ended up trying it and ate at least half of what I put on his plate and told me "Mmmm. That is good. Mama. You...are the best cooker." I think he got a popsicle that night.
• I served this with THIS pork tenderloin recipe and some green beans (Grant's current favorite vegetable - he had two huge helpings that night). Awesome flavor and you can grill it or cook it in the oven (we've always grilled it but I like that the oven can be my back-up plan in case of rain).

Enjoy!

New Recipe: Million Dollar Spaghetti

Comfort Food Week continues! Much like Monday night's Chicken & Dumplings Casserole, I wasn't thinking "healthy" when I picked this meal...I was thinking "How much of that can I cram in my face before I hate myself?" 

Spaghetti is pretty basic, right? I mean, who doesn't love spaghetti? 

Me. 

I don't love it. I eat it, I don't hate it or anything. But it's not one of those meals that makes me excited to sit down to the dinner table. But I live with two spaghetti lovers so I make spaghetti (Grant did a serious happy dance in the kitchen when he found me making spaghetti). But that's why I love recipes like this Million Dollar Spaghetti. We can all get excited about it. It's sort of like deconstructed lasagna. Spaghetti casserole. Fancy spaghetti. Spaghetti that got dressed up for a really important job interview. Whatever. It was loved in my house.

Million Dollar Spaghetti
(this is the recipe as I found it; I'll add my notes, as usual, at the end)

Look at those layers...and the cheesy goodness.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 can of spaghetti sauce (I used Hunts)
• 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/2 lb. cottage cheese (I prefer small curd, not low-fat)
• 1 stick of butter
• 8 ounces of spaghetti noodles
• 1 bag of cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350. Boil your noodles according to the package directions (if you haven't already skipped ahead and done this.
2. While your noodles boil, mix together the cream cheese, sour cream, and cottage cheese. Make sure they are mixed well.
3. Cook your ground beef, drain it, add your can of spaghetti sauce to it.
4. Now for layering: put a few slices of your stick of butter on the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish; on top of that layer half your noodles; pour the cream cheese mixture (all of it) on top of the noodles and spread it around so it's even; add the rest of your noodles on top of that and put a few more slices of butter on top of those noodles; pour your meat sauce on the top of all that and spread it around so it's even. Bake for 30 minutes.
5. When it's baked for 30 minutes, add your cheese to the top. The whole bag...there's really no point in cutting calories now. Bake for 15 more minutes or until it's a little brown on top.
6. Unless you're starving, I'd let it sit for 5-10 minutes before serving (use that time, like I did, to pop some frozen garlic bread in the oven - its Fall, your body needs the extra carbs).

Recipe Source: being grown up

Notes/Suggestions:

• I omitted the butter entirely from this dish. I guess that makes the above recipe a bit of a lie. I sprayed my pan with non-stick cooking spray and everywhere where it says to put slices of butter...I did not. I've never used butter in spaghetti and it just seemed unnecessary here. I didn't miss it.
• I felt like the cream cheese/sour cream/cottage cheese mixture was a large amount for only 8 ounces of noodles. I cooked a whole 16 ounce package and ended up using almost all of it.
• If - like me - you go with extra noodles, you'll want to up your sauce to. My meat sauce had about 1 1/2 cans of sauce and I ended up heating the extra 1/2 can for us to spoon on top if needed (Husband always likes extra sauce).
• I added some parmesan cheese to my cream cheese mixture and I used and italian cheese blend on top in place of cheddar. It was really good but cheddar would have been too.
• BIG hit in my house! Husband had two servings and Grant couldn't get his into his face fast enough. At one point Grant leaned back, looked down and rubbed his stomach saying "Mmm mmmm. This is good. This is yummy in my tummy."

Enjoy!

New Recipe: Bacon Cheese Burger Casserole

I actually tried this recipe a while back but am only now getting around to posting about it. I had been combing through my old issues of Kraft Food & Family and stumbled across this recipe for Bacon Cheese Burger Casserole. It's a bit outside the box for me as far as casseroles. Almost all the casseroles I make have chicken in them. I just don't cook with beef with that much. I guess that's what made me want to try this. Well, that and I live with two burger lovers who I thought might enjoy something like this (and they did).

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 2 Tbsp. yellow mustard
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 8 slices bacon, cooked & crumbled
• 4 cups (1/2 of a 32 oz. pkg) frozen tater tots

Directions:

1. Heat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Brown the meat with onions in a skillet and drain. Stir in ketchup and mustard; spoon into 9-inch square casserole dish (that you've sprayed with cooking spray).
3. Top with cheese, bacon, and tater tots.
4. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until casserole is heated through and the tater tots are golden brown.

Recipe Source: Kraft Recipes

Notes/Suggestions:

• I'm not a fan of chunky onions in my food so when I can help it - such as in this recipe - I use onion powder.
• Shocker: I used more than one cup of cheese. I also used a few extra slices of bacon. Sue me.
• I was initially put off by mixing the ketchup & mustard into the meat. I have no idea why since that's pretty normal on a burger but it weirded me out. But you know what? It was good. And not an overwhelming ketchup/mustard flavor either.
• The recipe says to use frozen tater tots and that worked out fine. I didn't come across any uncooked potatoes (a turn-off for sure) but in the future I think I'll thaw them. I like my tater tots crispy and I would have overcooked the casserole to get them up to my crispy standards.
• Dishes like this make me think "What do we have with it?!" because I don't feel like its enough all by itself. So I served it with salad but some veggies would be good too.
• Easy weeknight or any night meal. It could even be made the night before so you can just pop it in the oven when you get home. Good stuff.

Enjoy!

New Recipe: Monterey Chicken Pasta Bake

I have been a new recipe fool lately. I was going to say "new recipe whore", but my mother-in-law reads this so I'm thinking I shouldn't use the word "whore" in posts my mother-in-law reads. So I'm going with new recipe fool. Anyway, I was going to through some past issues of Kraft Food & Family one weekend and came across several yummy recipes to try. I've been very lazy about cooking lately and I think it's mostly because I'm bored with all my usual dinner suspects.

Enter Monterey Chicken Pasta Bake. It's sort of like macaroni & cheese on steroids. Not the kind of steroids that spark a federal investigation and get you suspended from baseball games. Good steroids. The kind of steroids that your macaroni & cheese would take to make you love it more. So...it's really good.

Monterey Chicken Pasta Bake

Ingredients:

• 3 cups rigatoni pasta, uncooked
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 can (14.5 oz) fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1 pkg. (7 oz) shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided
• 3 cups chopped cooked chicken
• 6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook pasta as directed on package (omitting salt).
3. Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet on medium heat. Add onions; cook and stir 6 minutes or until crisp-tender. Blend in flour; cook and stir 1 minute. Gradually stir in broth; cook 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring constantly. Add 1 cup shredded cheese; cook and stir 1 minute or until melted.
4. Drain pasta. Add to ingredients in skillet along with the chicken and bacon; mix well. Transfer to a 13x9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray; top with remaining shredded cheese. Cover.
5. Bake 40 minute, uncovering and topping with Parmesan for the last 10 minutes. Top with tomatoes and cilantro.

Recipe Source: Kraft Foods Recipes

Notes/Suggestions:

• If you've ever read one of my new recipe posts, this will come as no surprise but...I added twice the amount of cheese called for in the above original recipe. And it was fantastic.
• I also used 9 instead of of 6 pieces of bacon. I like to live dangerously. The use of extra bacon was very much Husband-approved.
• I think cilantro is yucky so I omitted that and just sprinkled some dry parsley on top for pretty.
• This is a bit of a time consuming dish, or at least it was for me. And I even cut corners by using rotisserie chicken and onion powder in place of chopped onions. It's not a really quick weeknight meal but I'm definitely keeping it in my recipe arsenal.

Enjoy!

New Recipe: Meatball Sub Casserole

Here is another new recipe from another new cook book! Husband is beginning to wish he hadn't gotten me so many cook books because, he says, he's been eating like crazy. And he did eat this recipe like crazy...two helpings and then picked more out of the casserole dish until I yelled at him. I can't blame him, I loved it too and I've never been a big fan of meatball subs.

Yum.

Meatball Sub Casserole

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf Italian bread, cut into 1-inch thick slices
• 1 - 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
• 1 - 1lb package frozen meatballs, thawed
• 28 oz. jar pasta sauce
• 1 cup water

Directions:

1. Arrange bread slices in a single layer in an ungreased 13"x9" baking pan; set aside.
2. In a bowl, combine cream cheese, mayonnaise, and seasonings; spread over bread slices. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup cheese; set aside.
3. Gently mix together meatballs, spaghetti sauce, and water; spoon over cheese. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
4. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Recipe Source: Gooseberry Patch

Notes/Suggestions:

• This may come as a shock, but I didn't follow this recipe exactly. I added more mozzarella cheese. I also added some grated Parmesan cheese in the cream cheese/mayonnaise layer. Making an "Italian" dish without Parmesan cheese just seemed wrong.
• I left out the Italian seasonings. I can't stand oregano.
• I couldn't find a 1 lb bag of meatballs. The store where I was shopping only had a 2 lb bag. So I just used one of my bigger casserole pans and upped the amount of sauce to 2 jars.
• Since I made a bigger casserole, I baked it at 375 instead of 350.
• I left out the water...that seemed like a weird ingredient.
• After all my modifications...it turned out great! Great meal for any night of the week served with a good salad.

ENJOY!

New Recipe: Louis Osteen's Pimiento Cheese

I knew nothing of pimiento cheese before my move south. And even then I kept away from it for years because...well, it just didn't sound good. My first taste of pimiento cheese came by way of a sandwich from The Square Rabbit and I was hooked. And since they are located in downtown Raleigh and I happen to work in downtown Raleigh...I have enjoyed many a yummy lunch from there! And after Husband informed me that he had never had homemade pimiento cheese, I had to bring him home the good stuff (which they sell by the 1/2 or whole pint). He reminds me every so often that I can bring some home any time.

So, having planted southern roots (ish) I have subscribed to Southern Living - which is usually a rather depressing magazine. More depressing than Martha Stewart Living. They're both like "Hey, look at how pretty your house could be and how yummy your meals could be if you'd stop being lazy!" But anyway, one issue of Southern Living came that made the whole subscription worth it. It was loaded with a bunch of pimiento cheese recipes! So I decided to try this one over the weekend.

Here's what you need:

Mix up everything in an electric mixer EXCEPT the pimientos:

Mix until blended but not smooth. Then add the pimientos:

Then mix in the pimientos until the mixture is blended and somewhat smooth.

Then smear it on top of anything edible and enjoy!

Louis Osteen's Pimiento Cheese

• 6 cups freshly grated sharp Cheddar cheese (1 1/2 lb.)
• 1/2 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon grated yellow onion
• 1 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 (7 oz.) jar whole peeled pimiento, drained and cut into fourths

Garnish: freshly ground pepper, if desired

Directions:

Beat Cheddar cheese, cream cheese, mayonnaise, yellow onion, and ground red pepper with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer at medium speed 1 to 2 minutes or until blended but not smooth. Add pimiento; beat 1 to 2 minutes or until pimiento is shredded and mixture is blended and somewhat smooth. Garnish, if desired.

Recipe Source: Southern Living Magazine

Notes/Suggestions:

• I only used a 1/2 teaspoon of the ground red pepper and then added another little sprinkle. That was more than enough "kick" for me and even Husband agreed that it had an over-all strong flavor. I would maybe cut back some on the onion next time too.
• Instead of the 7 oz. jar of whole peeled pimiento, I used a 4 oz. jar of diced pimientos. I blame that on my decision to "skim" the directions instead of reading them thoroughly before heading into the store. But what I bought ended up working out great and seemed like enough pimiento in my cheese.
• This recipe makes a LOT. Be prepared to eat pimiento cheese for days. Which, in our house, will never be a problem.
• Grant didn't like it. But he did like that he was in the kitchen while I was grating the cheese. He kept gesturing wildy saying "sheese? sheese? SHEESE!" until I hacked off a chunk and gave it to him. He is so his mother's son :)

Enjoy!

New Recipe: White Chicken Enchiladas

Another new recipe? Hooray for me! It seems that I'm working my way out of the recipe rut that I had said I'd gotten into. Although, taking medicine that makes me feel like I've pounded three pots of coffee in a very short period of time is probably helping me in the motivation department. Who cares. I'll take it. After weeks of feeling like doing nothing more than anchoring myself to the couch it feels good to have some ambition.

This new recipe comes, once again, by way of Pinterest. If that's not a site you're familiar with then you should get familiar with it in a hurry! There are so many great things there. I saw this recipe just this past week and with the small ingredient list and very basic instructions, I knew it would work itself into our menu soon. So I made it last night.





White Chicken Enchiladas

with green chili sour cream sauce

• 10 soft taco shells
• 2 cups cooked, shredded chicken (I used a rotisserie chicken)
• 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 3 Tbsp. flour
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 (4 oz) can diced green chilies

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Mix chicken and 1 cup cheese. Evenly distribute the chicken/cheese mixture and roll it up in the tortillas. Place them in the prepared pan.
3. In a sauce pan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add broth and whisk until smooth. Heat until thick and bubbly.
4. Stir in sour cream and chilies. Do not bring to a boil, you don't want curdled sour cream.
5. Pour over enchiladas and top with remaining cheese.
6. Bake 20-22 minutes and then broil on high for 2-3 minutes to brown the cheese. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting into it.

Recipe Source: Joyful Momma's Kitchen

Notes/Suggestions:

• I don't really "do" spicy so I was kind of a wuss about the green chilies. I didn't use a full 4 ounces and I also drained them considerably. Next time I'll be a little braver because I really couldn't tell they were there. So little heat from them, in fact, that I would have let Grant have it instead of the lasagna that he did have.
• My sauce never got "thick and bubbly" while I was cooking it but after it cooked in the casserole pan and sat for a few minutes after I took it out of the oven I felt like it was the perfect consistency.
• This is a fairly "naked" dish so it's got a lot of room for creativity if you feel like getting crazy. You could add all sorts of stuff in with the chicken & cheese mixture. Husband's first suggestion was bacon...men and bacon.
• The only adjustments I made were to the sauce. I added a little bit of salt because I use a very low sodium chicken broth and I like that I can control the amount of salt that goes into the sauce. I also added a little bit of onion powder. However, I did not use any extra cheese! I'm kinda proud of that.
• Great dish for picky eaters! I can say that with confidence because I'm pretty picky. Also a good weeknight dish because it goes together very easily. Especially if you use a rotisserie chicken. I cooked a little bit of white rice to go with them but you could skip the rice and go for a side salad or vegetable too.

I'd love to know if anyone tries it. Enjoy!

Stay tuned in the next couple days for another new recipe! My kitchen is a busy place these days!