Chocolate Chip Cookies

Will have to try this!

Ingredients - Makes 2 dozen

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1.5cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoons hot water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.
3. Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.

Gonna try making this ridiculous recipe this weekend!

Ingredients

* 1 pound sweet Italian sausage
* 3/4 pound lean ground beef
* 1/2 cup minced onion
* 2 cloves garlic, crushed
* 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
* 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
* 2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
* 1/2 cup water
* 2 tablespoons white sugar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
* 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
* 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
* 1 tablespoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
* 12 lasagna noodles
* 16 ounces ricotta cheese
* 1 egg
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
* 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. In a Dutch oven, cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
4. To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

For Carbo Loading: Pomodoro Sauce Recipe

1/4 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed
3 16-ounce cans of peeled, whole Italian plum tomatoes, such as San Marzano
1 teaspoon Sicilian oregano (optional)
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium. Add garlic and saute until golden brown, about three minutes. While garlic browns, pour tomatoes into a bowl. Squeeze with your hands to break them up. Add tomatoes and their juice to the saucepan. Add oregano (if using), salt, and pepper. Simmer on low for 45 minutes. Add a little water if needed to keep sauce from becoming too thick (it should be bright red; if it turns brick red, it's too thick). To make oreganata, simmer sauce with sprigs of fresh oregano. Make arrabiata by adding red pepper flakes to taste.

That's just for the sauce. Now, to actually make pasta pomodoro:

Simmer pomodoro on low. Add one pound of pasta to a pot of boiling, salted water. Two minutes before it's cooked, remove pasta from water and add to sauce. Cook until tender, allowing pasta to absorb sauce. Add a little pasta water if needed to keep sauce liquid. If you want to add anything such as eggplant, prosciutto, olives, mushrooms, mushrooms, peppers, onions, etc., saute them first with a little olive oil and then add them to pomodoro sauce along with pasta noodles.

Voila! Perfect carbo load!

French Toast: must try these soon!

Restaurant Style French Toast:

* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 cup milk
* 1 pinch salt
* 3 eggs
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 tablespoon white (or brown) sugar
* 12 thick slices bread

Directions

1. Measure flour into a large mixing bowl. Slowly whisk in the milk. Whisk in the salt, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla extract and sugar until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium heat.
3. Soak bread slices in mixture until saturated. Cook bread on each side until golden brown. Serve hot.

Sweet yams

Or as I like to call them: crack yams! Shout out to MA for the recipe!

-2 medium yams, diced
-1/2 stick of butter, sliced
-drizzle olive oil on top (probably about 2 tbsp)

Mix this together and bake at 375F for about 30 minutes. And if it looks like the yams aren't cooking fast enough add a little more butter.

Sprinkle/mix in 1/2 cup brown sugar. Bake for an additional 15 minutes (until yams are nice and soft).

Thank me later.

Quiche Recipe!

About 4 months ago, I discovered a love for quiche. So, I found a delicious brand at Costco and have been addicted. Last weekend, I noticed they switched brands and the new flavors are just wrong. As luck would have it, an Admin had some here on Monday so I asked her where she got it and she was like "Honey, i made it. It's super easy!" She brought me a fresh piece to try the next day, which was DELICIOUS, and now I have the recipe! I am one happy fat kid!

o Place pie crust in a pie plate
o In a separate bowl beat 4 eggs with 1 cup of milk, add your preference of cheese & seasoning, I used a pinch of salt, Johnny's seasoning salt, cayenne & black pepper, italian seasoning, and other things I find in the cabinet!
o Chop your preference of veggies, meat & I prefer green onions instead of white.
o Then add egg, veggie, meat & cheese mixture, top with grated cheese (at least 2 cups) and bake at 400 for about 30 minutes depending on your oven, you will know since it will become firm and brown on top.

*After trying it the first time, I made changes and updated the recipe! It is delicious!!

Spinach & Cheese Stuffed Pasta Shells

SC and I made this without a recipe! I had ricotta cheese leftover from the previous dinner and decided I had to make something out of it. So, here's what we did:

Ingredients:
-1 box of pasta shells
-12oz ricotta cheese
-1 box frozen spinach
-1 cup grated parmegian reggiano
-salt & pepper
-Cayenne pepper
-Italian seasoning
-oregano
-parsley
-0.75lb ground turkey (or beef)
-20oz can tomato sauce
-1 small can of tomatoe paste
-4 roma tomatoes
-1 onion
-6 garlic cloves

Prepare the pasta per packaged instructions but boil only for half the time. Remove and run cold water through it to prevent breakage.
Sauce: Cook the turkey (or beef) with onion & garlic. Add some italian seasoning, Cayenne pepper, salt & pepper. When done, mix in tomato sauce, paste and roma tomatoes.
Stuffing: Mix ricotta, spinach (defrosted & drained), salt & pepper, italian season, oregano, parsley.
Gently put stuffing into cooked shells. In a large baking dish, layer the bottom with sauce, place shells in one layer, pour remaining sauce onto shells. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes covered with foil. Sprinkle parmegian reggiano over the top and bake an additional 10-12 minutes uncovered.

Done! It was delicious! Rachel Ray ain't got nothin' on us!! =) Well, except maybe a few TV shows, cookbooks, and some millions & millions of dollars....

FLORENTINE PROSCIUTTO WRAPPED CHICKEN

Ingredients
• 1 box frozen spinach, defrosted
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 2 cloves garlic, grated or finely chopped
• ¼ cup onion
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• A few grates nutmeg
• 6 chicken breasts
• 6 slices prosciutto di Parma, 1/3 pound
• 3 to 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Italian seasoning

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Wring out defrosted spinach in clean kitchen towel.
combine spinach in a bowl, mix in cheeses, garlic, salt, pepper and nutmeg and Italian seasoning.
Cut into and across but not all the way through the chicken breasts, opening them up like a book with a sharp knife. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Fill each with a small mound of stuffing. Flap chicken breasts back over stuffing and wrap each breast with prosciutto to seal them, carefully covering the whole breast. Brush chicken all over with some extra-virgin olive oil & sprinkle on Italian seasoning and roast 30 minutes until cooked through.

Rather than using prosciutto, I wrapped the chicken in bacon. I don't know if I loved this. I may have cooked the chicken for too long (35 min total), but I also felt the stuffing wasn't very tasty. Considering I put two types of cheeses in there, I really couldn't taste much, or perhaps the bacon was too overpowering?? I don't know. In any case, this was my least favorite of the items I made tonight. If I try this again I may go for proscuitto and less bake time. I'm just scared of undercooking poultry.

Chicken and Rice Stuffed Bell Peppers

Chicken and Rice Stuffed Bell Peppers - I turned this into a vegetarian dish and substituted chicken with mushrooms.

ingredients
• 1 tablespoon margarine or butter
• 1/2 cup finely chopped celery
• 1 10-3/4-ounce can reduced-fat and reduced-sodium condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 cup water or chicken broth
• 1/2 cup onions
• 4 cups cubed cooked chicken (or mushrooms, about 6 cups)
• 3 cups hot cooked rice
• 5 large green sweet peppers (about 8 ounces each)
• 1 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning
• 1-1/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese (5 ounces)

directions
1. Melt margarine or butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add celery and cook about 5 minutes or until tender.
2. Stir in condensed mushroom soup, onions and water or broth. Heat until bubbly. Stir in chicken (or mushrooms), heat through. Stir in rice' remove from heat.
3. To assemble, halve peppers lengthwise; remove stems, seeds, and membranes. Place pepper halves, cut sides up, in a large shallow baking or roasting pan. Divide chicken mixture among the pepper halves. Sprinkle with lemon-pepper seasoning.
4. Bake peppers, loosely covered with foil, in a 350 degree F oven about 45 minutes or until heated through. Top with cheese and pimiento. Bake, uncovered, about 5 minutes more or until cheese is just melted. Makes 10 servings.

I only used 4 bell peppers so had some of the stuffing left, which was actually pretty yummy just on its own. I noticed some people just ate the stuffing and didn't really like the bell peppers anyway, so maybe make it as just a side next time?? Original recipe called for a packet of onion soup mix, but I took it out and added onions and some salt because I figured that's all the mix would be anyways. I also didn't have lemon pepper so squeezed some fresh lemon juice into it. I'm starting to get good at substituting and just winging the measurements. Pretty cool =)

Scalloped Potatoes

Ingredients
• 5 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• Paprika
• Bacon

Directions
1. In a 2-1/2-qt. baking dish, layer potatoes and onion.
2. In a saucepan, melt the butter; stir in flour until smooth. Gradually add broth, mayonnaise, salt and pepper; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thick and bubbly. Pour over potatoes. Sprinkle with paprika.
3. Cover and bake at 325 degrees for 2 hours or until tender.

The potatoes I bought were GINORMOUS, so I ended up making 1.5 servings of the mixture to fully coat the potatoes. Glad I did that because I think the consistency came out perfect. I liked it a lot. I made homemade bacon bits and threw about 1/4 cup between the first and second layer of potatoes as well as on top. Perfect dish for this carbo-holic! I think this and the brie tied for my favorite items made today.