Chicken, Tortellini, & Spinach in a Balsamic Cream Sauce

When I made my shopping list for this months' dinners, my plan was to make this recipe from Kraft Foods. Unfortunately I couldn't find all of the ingredients that I needed so I just decided to wing it. I really didn't worry about it until this morning when I realized what was on the menu for tonight. My inspiration was the dressing so I started thinking about the dressings I have in the fridge and landed on my favorite balsamic vinegarette. I did a quick search and instead decided on just balsamic vinegar, which led me to this recipe. I kind of threw the first recipe out the window and did a little bit of my own take on the second. What resulted was amazing! I received another "this is the best food you've ever made" from Emi. I think this would go even better tied with steak for the meat, but it worked well with the chicken.

Chicken, Tortellini, & Spinach in a Balsamic Cream Sauce

3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut into cubes
1 pkg mixed cheese tortellini
2 T. olive oil
2 T. butter
1/4 onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. balsamic vinegar
1 c. heavy cream
2 T. dried rosemary leaves
1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese
1/2 bag baby spinach leaves

1. Cook pasta per package instructions.
2. Cook chicken over skillet in a little bit of oil. Season with salt and pepper. (I'm going to cook my chicken in the oven for 20-25 minutes.)
3. Heat olive oil and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in onion and garlic and cook until the onion has carmelized to a dark golden brown (approximately 15 minutes).
4. Stir in the balsamic vinegar and cook for 1 minute before adding the cream, dried rosemary, and parmesan cheese.
5. Once the cheese has melted, stir in the baby spinach leaves and cook until wilted, about 1-2 minutes.
6. Stir in chicken and tortellini.

Bruschetta 'n Cheese stuffed Chicken Breasts

This is what I like to call a cheater recipe. This is one of the reasons that I LOVE KraftFoods.com. They have quite a few "cheater recipes" on there. I love it. These are the recipes you make when you "just don't feel like cooking" and you "really don't have money to eat out" (a.k.a. the story of my life). Another great thing about this recipe and about KraftFoods.com is that they have videos that actually show you how to make some of their recipes! Talk about awesome!

I only made changes to this recipe because I couldn't find one of the ingredients at the store, and the other is a little bit too costly and it turned out great and still had a lot of flavor. Although, I'm sure it would have been tastier with the correct dressing. Instead of KRAFT Roasted Red Pepper Italian with Parmesan Dressing, I just used good ol' Zesty Italian and I sprinkled dried basil leaves over the top. I left the basil out of the filling completely because man, is it ever expensive!?!

Here is the unaltered recipe.

Bruschetta 'n Cheese-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

What You Need:
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained
1-1/4 cups KRAFT Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese, divided
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1 pkg. (6 oz.) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix for Chicken
8 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (2 lb.)
1/3 cup KRAFT Roasted Red Pepper Italian with Parmesan Dressing

DIRECTIONS
HEAT oven to 350°F. Mix tomatoes, 1/2 cup cheese and basil in medium bowl. Add stuffing mix; stir just until moistened.
PLACE 2 chicken breasts in large freezer-weight resealable plastic bag. Pound with meat mallet or side of heavy can until chicken is 1/4 inch thick. Remove from bag; place, top-sides down, on cutting board. Repeat with remaining chicken. Spread chicken with stuffing mixture. Starting at 1 narrow end, tightly roll up each breast. Place, seam-sides down, in 13x9-inch baking dish. Drizzle with dressing.
BAKE 40 min. or until chicken is done (165°F). Sprinkle with remaining cheese; bake 5 min. or until melted.

Kraft Kitchen Tips: For a south-of-the-border-style chicken dish, use diced tomatoes with bell or jalapeno peppers, KRAFT Mexican Style Shredded Cheese instead of the mozzarella cheese and chopped cilantro instead of the basil.

Chicken Carbonara

As a sneak peak to this recipe let me tell you what my husband's first reaction was. He takes a bite, turns to me with his eyes wide open and says, "Woman, this is the best-tasting food you have ever made."
This was an easy recipe and I went and made it a little bit more complicated, but still not too bad. The original recipe didn't call for any chicken, and well, we just can't do that here in our household. I also added green onions and garlic cloves to give the sauce more flavor and it certainly payed off.

Chicken Carbonara
Here is my edited recipe.

INSTRUCTIONS
1 pound dry fettuccine noodles
8 slices bacon
4 eggs
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
3 stalks chopped green onion
2 (big) chopped garlic cloves
ground black pepper to taste
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
3 T olive oil.

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Cut chicken into strips and coat with bread crumbs. Pour 1 T Olive oil over chicken. Let cook for 10 minutes. Flip chicken over and pour another 1 T Olive oil and continue the rest of the cooking time. Cook for a total of 20-25 minutes. (This will give the baked chicken that pan-seared texture. (Or you could just cook it over the stove, but where is the fun in that?)
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add fettuccine and cook for 11 to 12 minutes or until al dente; drain.
3. Fry bacon in skillet over medium heat until crispy, remove and drain on paper towel. Chop with knife into bits.
4. Chop up garlic and green onions and saute them in 1 T olive oil until soft.
5. Beat the eggs, cheese and cream in a bowl, then add the bacon, garlic, and green onions. Pour over the pasta in the pan and toss gently using tongs.
6. Return the pan to a very low heat and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Don't overheat or the eggs will scramble. Season well with black pepper and serve.

Creamy Pesto

Where I live there is a restaurant that Emi and I used to frequent that has a really awesome Creamy Pesto Pasta dish. We have been trying really hard not to eat out too much so I decided I'd try to recreate the dish at home. I think I did pretty good! It wasn't exactly right, but I think next time I'll know what to do to make it better. We had the pesto in a pasta dish with chicken seasoned with garlic, salt, and pepper and pan-fried in a little bit of Sunflower oil. I think next time I make pesto, I will try it on a Homemade Pizza with chicken. Another thing, I'm not a big fan of measuring, so I didn't follow the recipe exactly, but just kind of tasted it as I went and followed the recipe as a guideline. I would definitely use more garlic though.

Creamy Pesto

Ingredients:
2 T olive oil (I used E.V.O.O.)
2 c. fresh basil leaves (pressed) *
1/2 c. fresh parsley
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese. (I probably used closed to 1/2 c.)
2 garlic cloves
1/4 c. walnuts**

4 oz softened cream cheese (I used Fat Free. SHHH! Don't tell Emi!)

1/4 c. heavy cream or half & half
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. About a half hour to an hour before you're going to make the sauce, take the cream cheese out of the refrigerator to soften.

2. In food processor, puree basil, parsley, & garlic with oil until pasty.

3. Add grated cheese & nuts and blend more.

4. Add cream cheese until well blended.

5. Add cream or half/half a little at a time till desired consistency.

6. Pour into a sauce pan to heat, unless you are serving it cold.

* I think basil is hard to find and expensive when you find it. I was only able to find a small package of basil at Walmart and it was pretty pricy, so I asked my friend what I could do instead, but fortunately I was able to find a bigger package of basil at Smiths. Next time though, to save some money and some searching, I will substitute half of the basil with spinach and it will still have a very nice pesto taste.

** In this recipe walnuts and pine nuts are pretty much interchangeable. Infact, I used both walnuts and pinenuts because I didn't have enough of either.

Potato Salmon Patties

It is hard to put this meal on a grading scale because most of the meals I have made that are on this site are just so much more fabulous than this. Not to say that this wasn't a good meal because it definitely was. It was really quick and easy to put together and make and Emi loved them. We both agreed that it is a good alternative when there isn't much time to make dinner, or I don't feel like cooking. I think we will probably keep the ingredients on hand from now on for a VERY quick, very easy, and tasty dinner. Next time though, I'll grab some Tartar sauce and I might substitute scallions instead of the onion. I served it with Broccoli Au Gratin rice (courtesy of Rice-a-roni! Haha)

Potato Salmon Patties

INGREDIENTS
1 (14.75 ounce) can salmon, drained and flaked
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup garlic and herb seasoned dry bread crumbs (I used Italian Bread Crumbs)
1/4 cup dry potato flakes
1 medium onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon dried dill weed (I used dried dill seed because I couldn't find the dill weed)
1/4 teaspoon celery salt
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil

DIRECTIONS
In a medium bowl, mix salmon, eggs, garlic and herb seasoned dry bread crumbs, dry potato flakes, onion, garlic, dill weed, celery salt, salt, and pepper. Form the mixture into 2 inch balls, and flatten into patties about 1/2 inch thick.
Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. In batches, cook patties about 5 minutes on each side, until lightly browned.

"Slappy" Joes

I will be making this tonight. My husband, who grew up in Romania, had never heard of sloppy joes until I made them about a year ago. He never seems to get the name right, so to us they are "Slappy" Joes . Silly boy!

Apparently this recipe makes a ton so I am going to cut it in half, and hopefully we'll still have plenty for leftovers tomorrow.

Sloppy Joes

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 onions, roughly chopped
2 ½ pounds ground beef
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2/3 cup smoky BBQ sauce (or whatever BBQ sauce is in your fridge)
½ cup ketchup
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup soy sauce
Freshly ground black pepper
8 to 12 potato rolls

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until they start to turn translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the beef and cook, stirring and breaking up the meat, until it is finely crumbled, the liquid boils off and the meat begins to brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, and keep stirring until the meat is coated. Add the BBQ sauce, ketchup, Worcestershire, soy sauce, and pepper, and bring to a boil. Cook until the sauce is slightly thickened, 4 to 5 minutes. You can make the sloppy joe up to 2 days in advance and reheat it over low heat or in the microwave.

Wrap the rolls in aluminum foil and warm in the oven for about 10 minutes. Serve the sloppy joes hot with the warmed rolls.

Penne Rosa

This is on the menu to try sometime soon. I got this recipe from my brother who got it from here.

My brother is a big fan of the Noodles and Co. Penne Rosa, which I tried last night and as far as we can tell this is either a copycat recipe or very close. It is a very yummy dish and on first bite you think to yourself, "I can totally handle the red pepper." but as you keep eating your mouth slowly becomes inflamed! I would recommend less red pepper, but I'm going to give this a try to see if it tastes the same and then make a whole bunch of the sauce for my brother to keep frozen for an easy dinner for him that he will love.

I will be making it with chicken coated with Italian bread crumbs.

PENNE ROSA

1 1 lb box Penne pasta
1 tbsp cooking white wine
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp ground or crushed red pepper* (optional)
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup marinara/spaghetti sauce
1/4 cup sliced mushrooms (canned or fresh, drained)
1/4 cup baby spinach (packed)
1 14 oz. can italian-style diced tomatoes
Freshly grated parmesan (for garnish)
grilled chicken, sauteed shrimp, or asparagus** (for serving)

Boil pasta according to package directions; set aside.

In a large skillet, heat wine, oil, marinara, mushrooms, tomatoes and pepper over medium heat; stir liberally for 4-5 minutes.

Add pasta, mixing well. Add cream, continue stirring. Add spinach last, stirring until wilted.

Serve with fresh parmesan or feta cheese on top.

*For more spice, use white pepper.

**Best served with grilled chicken or sauteed shrimp. (Shrimp or chicken should be fully cooked before blending into pasta.) Also good with asparagus.

Crispy Chicken Parmesan

Crispy Chicken Parmesan
Grading scale: A
This is adapted from Campbell's Kitchen. I did a couple of things to make it easier and more tasteful to me. This is a good, easy meal and whenever people (including my husband) have tried it, I have gotten rave reviews.

2 cups Italian Bread Crumbs
4 boneless chicken breast halves
1 egg, beaten
1 jar Classico Traditional Sweet Basil (or your preferred spaghetti sauce)
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Sugar, Italian Seasoning, and Garlic powder to taste.

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray (or cover baking sheet with aluminum foil -makes for easy clean up!)
2. Dip chicken into egg. Coat with crumbs. Place chicken on prepared baking sheet.
3. Bake 20- 25 minutes or until chicken is done.
4. Meanwhile, pour spaghetti sauce into a small sauce pan. I usually add a pinch of sugar and then sprinkle in Italian Seasoning and garlic powder. It tastes much more flavorful this way to me... Heat through.
5. Spoon pasta suace over chicken and sprinkle with cheese.

Serve with spaghetti or your preferred type of noodle.

Back to School Sloppy Joes

I got this from Campbell's Kitchen. This is for one of those nights where you don't feel like cooking but you have to eat SOMETHING.

Back to School Sloppy Joes

1 lb ground beef
1 can (10 3/4 oz) Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup
2 T. ketchup
1 tsp. prepared mustard
6 hamburger rolls

Cooke beef in skillet until browned. Drain.
Add soup, ketchup, and mustard and heat throup. Serve on rolls.

I'm sure that you could add some onion powder and some worchestershire sauce and it would give it an even better flavor without adding much work!

Chicken Green Bean Casserole

I got this here.

This was pretty good, but I don't think I put enough chicken in it. Emi LOVED the sauce and said that it tasted like cavier. I think next time I might serve this over noodles or rice. I think because I didn't put enough chicken in it, it seemed like there wasn't enough to it, but the taste was awesome!!!

Chicken Green Bean Casserole

3-4 chicken breasts
1 c. mayonnaise
2 cans Cream of Chicken Soup
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 cans green beans
Grated cheese

Cook and cut up chicken. Mix together mayonnaise, soup, and lemon juice. Layer: chicken, beans, sauce, and cheese. Cook at 350 for 30 minutes.

Enchilada Casserole

I got this here.

ENCHILADA CASSEROLE

4-5 flour tortillas
1 lb. hamburger
Onion powder to taste
1 can enchilada sauce
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 can chopped green chilies
6 tsp. milk mixed with soup
1 can sliced black olives
Grated cheese
Sour cream, lettuce, and tomatoes as desired

Fry hamburger with onion powder until brown. Drain. Add enchilada sauce, soup with milk, and green chilies. Simmer while preparing the rest.

Tear tortillas into fourths. Put a thin layer of meat sauce on the bottom of a 9 X 13 pan (to avoid sticking). Layer ingredients: tortillas, grated cheese, chopped olives, sauce, then repeat until all the sauce is gone. (Usually 2 layers of each). Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Top as desired.