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: Chicken & Dumplings Casserole

I've declared it Comfort Food Week at my house! Fall is HERE and I love it. I've been wanting to cook and eat some good comfort food. I enjoyed summer cooking, enjoyed finding good things to eat that didn't make me want to anchor myself to the couch. But comfort food season is here and this week I'm going a little crazy.

I've got three new recipes to try on my menu this week (four if you count the no-bake dessert I'm taking to my mother-in-law's on Saturday)...I'm feeling a little ambitious! Monday night I tried this Chicken & Dumplings Casserole from The Country Cook. I've seen several variations of this casserole but this one in particular I noticed last week and it looked like a good weeknight meal. I'm a big fan of chicken & dumplings but have never made them from scratch myself (though I enjoy eating it when others take the time). This casserole was a good substitute. SO yummy! I'm excited that I decided to try it.  

This picture really doesn't do it justice at all.

Chicken & Dumplings Casserole

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 2 ribs of celery, chopped
• 3 cups cooked chicken (shredded or cubed)
• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 1 cup milk (2% or higher)
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350. Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with cooking spray.
2. In a skillet over medium heat, melt your butter then add your chopped onion and celery. Cook until the veggies are soft (this took at least 10 minutes for me). You can season your veggies with salt & pepper if you like.
3. Pour the veggies and all that glorious butter into your casserole dish and spread it around so it covers the bottom. Layer your chicken on top of the veggie/butter mixture (season with salt & pepper if you so desire).
4. In a mixing bowl combine your self-rising flour and milk then pour it over the chicken layer. Do not stir!
5. In the same mixing bowl (you could use a new one but why?), mix your Cream of Chicken soup and chicken broth. At this point you can season this with salt & pepper too. Pour that mixture on top of everything in the casserole dish. Again - do not stir!
6. Pop your uncovered dish into the oven to bake for 40-45 minutes or until your casserole is set. (As Brandie - The Country Cook - notes, everyone's oven is different. This took about 45-50 minutes in my oven).
7. You could finish this with a sprinkle of parsley if you want to make it pretty. I was too hungry and too excited to eat this to remember parsley.

Recipe Source: The Country Cook (She has great step-by-step photos of this dish and some good suggestions along with a plug for the cookbook she got it from. Also, her site is loaded with great recipes.)

Notes/Suggestions:

• You can use a rotisserie chicken for the chicken in this dish, usually I would. But the store where I prefer to buy them was out so I bought a package of chicken breasts (I think there were 5 in there), boiled them in seasoned water, then trimmed & cubed them when they were cooled a little. Typically I'm not a fan of boiled chicken but it totally worked here. Next time, I'd maybe use Brandie's tip for shredding the chicken in my stand mixer.
• A stick of butter is a lot of butter to me. Usually I'd cut it down but I was worried it may affect the dumplings layer so I used the whole stick. This dish was super so I don't know that when I make it in the future if I'd mess with the butter. Plus, I love butter.
• See THIS POST about the lower sodium ingredients I use (says the girl who just admitted she loves butter). I did use the low-sodium chicken broth I have on hand but had to buy regular Cream of Chicken soup (the store was out of the healthy request stuff). It was delicious as is but I think next time I'll use the healthy request just to make myself feel a bit better about that stick of butter).
• I cooked & chopped my chicken the night before and also the celery & onions. Since this dish takes 40-45 minutes to bake, I wanted to be able to put it together as quick as possible. The early prep made it much more week-night friendly.
• Husband & I really enjoyed this dish (and it heated wonderfully the next day for my lunch!). Grant, not so much. But he's weird about casseroles. Husband isn't a fan of celery in things and I'm not a fan of onions but neither of us minded our less-than-favorite veggies in this dish. It had great flavor.

Enjoy!

New Recipe: Easy Baked Potato Soup {Crockpot}

My mother-in-law likes to share recipes she finds on facebook and  periodically emails me recipes too. That works out pretty well since I don't always remember to save all the yummy things I see on facebook to my Pinterest boards. A while back she had emailed me this recipe for baked potato soup in the crockpot. I kept it and mentally told myself I'd make it "soon".

"Soon" ended up being this past weekend and with real Fall weather getting closer every day (THANK GOD), soup sounded fantastic. I don't know where the recipe came from originally so I hate to post it without being able to give credit where its due but I also hate to not share something so easy and delicious (and really open for all kinds variations). My version is a lower sodium version. Husband is on blood pressure medicine so for years now I've been trying to find any way I can to cut down our sodium intake (because it's not good for any of us, but especially him) without cutting out flavor. It's not sodium-free and I don't know if I can even call it "low sodium" but it's definitely "lower"...so I tried, eh?

Crappy picture taken with my phone during my lunch break...
but I hate posting a recipe with a picture of the finished product!

Crockpot Potato Soup

• 1 30 oz. of frozen diced hash browns (do not thaw)
• 1 32 oz. box of chicken broth
• 1 can (10 oz) Cream of Chicken soup
• 1 pkg. (8 oz) cream cheese
• 3 oz. bacon bits
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• salt, pepper, and onion powder to taste

Directions:

1. Pour your chicken broth and can of Cream of Chicken soup into your crockpot, stir to combine. Add your frozen hash browns, half your bacon bits and the seasoning you want to use (salt, pepper, onion powder), stir. Cook on low about 6-8 hours.
2. About an hour before serving, cut the cream cheese into small cubes and add them to your crockpot. Mix a few times through the hour. The soup is done when the cream cheese is completely mixed in.
3. To serve, top with some shredded cheddar cheese and reserved bacon bits.

The recipe above is basically how it was emailed to me.

How I made it lower sodium: 

• Chicken broth is a staple in my kitchen. I find myself grabbing for it on recipes that don't even call for it. A co-worker turned me on to Pacific Low Sodium Chicken Broth. Its probably the only thing I buy that's "organic". You're not likely to find me jumping on the organic bandwagon trend, I don't buy the hype, but this is the lowest sodium I've ever found in chicken broth so this I buy (a whole box of this broth still has less sodium equivalent than a serving of most other brands - also, I'm not advertising for them, I just like the product). 
• I use the "Healthy Request" Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup in place of regular any time I can get away with it. It cuts the sodium content in half (along with fat and calories) and no one in my house has complained that the taste is different. 
• I'm not a fan of bacon bits at all. If I make a recipe that calls for bacon, I cook it. But I'm also not a fan of bacon in soup (chewy bacon makes me gaggy). I was actually going to omit the bacon entirely from this but I saw turkey bacon bits in the grocery store and since Husband is a lover of all things bacon, I figured that was a decent compromise. It also cut sodium there too because the turkey bacon is lower (it had to have cut fat as well because the regular bacon bits looked like nothing but nasty bits of fat).

So those are my "sodium cutting" tricks for this semi-homemade soup recipe. Using that broth and the "healthy request" canned soup, it was a little bland but that's ok because I can add my own salt (or try to pump up flavor with other seasonings). I think soon I'm going to try one of those homemade canned soup substitutes since I'm not really a canned soup lover. 

Notes/Suggestions:

• This only took about 6 hours in my crockpot.
• I used a 34 oz bag of hash browns so I upped my broth by a cup or two throughout the cooking process.
• Next time I plan to double the recipe (except the bacon) but will replace one bag of potatoes with a bag of frozen corn. I love potato and corn chowder!
• During last nights trip to the grocery store I checked out different brands of hash browns and noticed that the Ore-Ida brand had a much lower calorie/fat/sodium content than the store brand ones I used.

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!