Slow Cooked Italian Chicken

Before our house burned, I had a wonderful cookbook. Actually, I had many, but this one was one of the best slow cooker books I had ever used. To be honest, I am not sure if it was Betty Crocker or Better Homes and Gardens. Maybe it was neither.

Anyway, there was a recipe in there that changed my life forever. It used Italian diced tomatoes. I have never been a fan of cooked tomatoes. They are too mushy for me, so even trying these was a big step. But the picture looked sooooo good. Did you hear that cookbook people? Put pictures next to your recipes!

I have been trying to recreate that recipe for awhile now, with no success. I don't remember the exact name (it was long) or all the ingredients. I miss that supper.

This is not it.

But, it is pretty good.

Add 4 chicken breasts, 1 can of Italian diced tomatoes and 1 can whole kernal corn to your slow cooker.
Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Mine took about 6 1/2 hours. That's it. Don't you LOVE your slow cooker?
Actually, I added in another step. I added about a tablespoon of cornstarch to thicken it up. Cook on low...
...for about the time it takes you to boil some of your favorite pasta. I didn't measure how much, but probably about 2 cups.
Spoon over the pasta and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
While not quite what I was going for, it was really good. The kids both had seconds. Jeff was not home, so I don't have a manly opinion available. I think you could substitute beef or pork in there and it would be just as delicious.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Slow Cooked Italian Chicken
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 can Italian diced tomatoes
1 can whole kernel corn
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 cups cooked pasta

Add chicken, tomatoes and corn to slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Stir in cornstarch and cook additional 20 minutes. Serve over pasta.

Three Cheese-Stuffed Shells with Meaty Tomato Sauce

Sorry about the long name, all I can say is it wasn't me who named it, it is another one of Ree's. I was accused of getting all fancy when I made this. I have been kind of bored with my canned spaghetti sauce and was looking for a new one that didn't sound to difficult. I think I may have found it.

Start your water boiling for the pasta shells.

Brown a half a pound of Italian sausage with a half a chopped onion and a few cloves of minced garlic. Then add in a half a cup of red wine. You can use cooking wine or any red you may have sitting around. Should you be required to open a new bottle, all the better.

Add in your crushed (or diced) tomatoes, a little sugar and a bit of salt. Cover this and simmer for about half an hour.
About now, your water should be boiling, so add in your pasta shells. It is important that you only cook them for half the time. You want them firm enough that you can get them stuffed.

Mix a large container of ricotta, half your parmesan and some romano (or in my case, the Italian blend) cheeses with an egg, salt, pepper and basil.
By this time, your sauce has simmered to perfection, so add about half of it to the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan.

Once your shells have cooled a little bit, stuff them with a heaping tablespoon of the cheese mixture.
Place each shell open side down on top of the sauce. I easily fit 20 shells into my pan.
Cover those with the remaining sauce.
And sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese.
Bake at 350 for about half an hour.

This sauce is insanely delicious. I am so using more wine in my cooking from now on.

I ended up with a few extra shells and a little bit of extra filling. I think this would freeze well, so I am trying that and I will try to remember to let you know how it all worked out.

While this is not really something you can throw together on a weeknight, it is perfect for a lazy Saturday afternoon (or in my case, yet another Snow Day).

Everyone loved this. I barely had any leftovers to take for lunch the next day.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Three Cheese-Stuffed Shells with Meaty Tomato Sauce

20 Jumbo Pasta Shells

30 ounces, Whole Milk Ricotta Cheese

8 ounces, Parmesan Cheese, Grated, Divided

½ cups Grated Romano Cheese

1 whole Egg

1 teaspoon chopped Basil

Salt And Pepper, to taste

½ whole Medium Onion, Chopped

2 cloves Garlic, Minced

½ pounds Italian Sausage

½ cups Red Wine

2 cans Diced Tomatoes

2 Tablespoons Sugar

½ teaspoons Salt

Cook pasta shells for half the cooking time; make sure not to overcook. Drain and rinse in cool water. Set aside.

Brown Italian sausage with onions and garlic. Break the sausage into small pieces as it cooks. Pour in red wine and let it cook for a minute or two.

Add in cans of crushed tomatoes and stir. Add sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and cook 30 to 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In a separate bowl, mix ricotta, half the Parmesan, Romano, egg, salt and pepper and basil. Stir until combined.

Coat the bottom of a baking dish with about half the sauce. Fill each half-cooked shell with the cheese mixture. Place face down on the sauce. Top shells with remaining sauce. Sprinkle on remaining Parmesan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.

My Grandma's Goulash

If you are one of the hundreds of people who have ever stopped by my Grandma's house at noon, you know that she will feed you. It doesn't matter how many people walk through that door, they will not go hungry.

We ate dinner at Grandma's house a LOT, especially in the summer. This dish is one of my favorites. And my brother's favorites. And my sister's.

Ask pretty much anyone and they will say, "oh, yeah, your grandma's goulash is incredible." Yes, that is a direct quote.

When I called her and asked her for the recipe, she was incredibly flattered. She always is when I ask her how to make something. I told her I needed to know what her secret ingredient was. She just laughed and said it wasn't really a secret. That's how it is with a lot of things she makes. There's really no secret to it, it's just that she will use one ingredient different than anyone else, and that makes all the difference.

Add a can of tomatoes (diced, whole, chopped, it doesn't matter) and a can of tomato sauce to a pound of browned ground beef. Then add in "a little bit of brown sugar." This is what makes it special. I used about 2 tablespoons.

Mix all that together and add in cooked macaroni. Grandma always uses the large macaroni, and she said I could use any kind I wanted. Really, though, if you are going to make your grandma's recipe, go with what she uses. I used a half a package of the large macaroni.
Stir it all up.
That's it.
So comforting. So wonderful.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Grandma's Goulash

1 pound ground beef, browned

1 can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 can tomato sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

3 cups large macaroni, cooked

Mix it all together. Enjoy.

Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce

It's Sunday. The Girl isn't feeling well. Jeff is at a friend's Chief's Playoff Party. (If you are unfortunate enough to be a Chief's fan, you know how incredible that is this year!) It's cold outside and I'm hungry. I have a roast slow-cooking for supper, so I don't want anything too big for lunch. I have had Ree's recipe sitting in my Reader for quite awhile and this just seemed like the perfect time to try it.

Get your noodles cooking. One package of fettuccine in boiling water. While that is going, saute a finely diced onion and a few cloves of garlic in a couple tablespoons of butter and olive oil. Just for a minute or so where the pieces just start to turn golden.

Add in two cans of tomato sauce.

Stir this up and do a taste test. Add in some salt, pepper and/or sugar to suit your taste.

Cover and simmer this for about 20 minutes on low heat. Then add in a cup of cream.
And a little bit of Parmesan cheese.
Pour this over your cooked noodles.
Sprinkle with a little bit more Parmesan.
This is incredible. Each of the kids had seconds. You could add in chicken or mushrooms, but it is delicious as it is. And so, so simple to make.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

2 Tablespoons Butter

1 whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced

4 cloves Garlic, Minced

2 cans (15 Ounce Each) Tomato Sauce Or Marinara Sauce

Salt And Pepper, to taste

Dash Of Sugar (more To Taste)

1 cup Heavy Cream

Grated Parmesan Or Romano Cheese, To Taste

Fresh Basil, Chopped

1-½ pound Fettuccine

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water.

Heat butter and oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and saute for a minute or so. Pour in tomato sauce and add salt, pepper, and sugar to taste. Stir and cook over low heat for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and stir in cream. Add cheese to taste, then check seasonings. Stir in pasta and chopped basil and serve immediately. (Thin with pasta water before adding basil if needed.)

Creamy Chicken Penne

Spring Break this year was awesome. I did nothing. Really. I even went to Kansas City to go bridesmaid dress shopping (no bride) and came back empty handed. My plan was to go into my classroom at least one day and clean up some residual lab equipment, but even that didn't happen.

I feel so refreshed.

So much so, that I am back on track with supper plans. I have a menu for the week, something I have not had for several months now. I have been so overwhelmed, that even sitting down to plan menus threw me into a high anxiety state.

Oddly, I had my grocery list made out yesterday when the new Taste of Home arrived. I changed today's supper plans based on an advertisement on page 24. And I wonder why I am so stressed.

Cook two cups of penne pasta according to directions. You know, boil water, add pasta. One thing I cannot figure out about recipes is the insistence on listing "2 cups penne pasta, uncooked" as an ingredient. Then the first step is to "cook pasta as directed on package." Why don't they just list cooked pasta as an ingredient? Anyone else ever wonder about that??

Hello?

Anyway, while your pasta is cooking, cook the chicken and onions in some olive oil until the chicken is done.
Add in the snow peas, red pepper and garlic. You might notice that there is more going on here than just snow peas. My little grocery store did not have just a package of snow peas, but they had snow pea stir fry mix. Close enough. They were also out of red pepper, so I used green.
Cook this for a couple minutes and then turn off the heat, cover the pan and let it simmer.
In a saucepan, melt two tablespoons of butter.
Add in one tablespoon flour. I did not have regular white flour, so I used whole wheat instead.
Slowly add in the milk and whisk away.
Bring this to a boil. If you just got the milk out of the fridge now, it will take a couple minutes.
BE VERY CAREFUL! Milk will suddenly erupt when you have stopped stirring and your back is turned. Simmer for two minutes.
Mix in 4 ounces (half package) cream cheese and half a cup of shredded Romano cheese. Again, I couldn't find Romano by itself, so I used an Italian blend.
Heat until it is all mixed and add to the pasta. My mixture had kind of a grainy texture to it, but I think it was because of the whole wheat flour. You might also notice that I did not use penne, but large macaroni. You might also have been under the impression that my grocery list actually made it to the grocery store.
Stir all this in with the chicken mixture.
Sprinkle with fresh ground pepper.
This was a perfect spring supper. The sauce is really light, much lighter than I thought it would be. Even with all my improvisations, it turned out wonderful. It took about thirty minutes to put together and I ended up using quite a few extra dishes, so it might take some practice to make it more doable for a weeknight supper, but overall, this comes highly recommended.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Creamy Chicken Penne
2 cups penne pasta, uncooked
3/4 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 pkg. (6 oz.) snow peas
1 small red pepper, chopped
2 tsp. minced garlic
2 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. flour
1-1/2 cups milk
4 oz. Cream Cheese, cubed
1/2 cup Grated Romano Cheese
1 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh parsley
Cook pasta as directed on package. Meanwhile, cook chicken and onions in hot oil in large skillet for 6-8 min. or until chicken is done, stirring frequently. Add snow peas, red peppers and garlic; cook and stir 1 min. Remove from heat; cover to keep warm.
Melt butter in medium saucepan. Stir in flour until well blended. Gradually stir in milk. Bring to boil; cook on medium heat 2 min. or until thickened, stirring constantly. Add cream cheese, grated cheese, salt and black pepper; cook 1-2 min. or until cream cheese is completely melted and sauce is well blended, stirring constantly.
Drain pasta; place in large bowl. Add chicken mixture and sauce; toss to coat. Top with parsley. Yield: 4 servings, 1-1/2 cups each.

Special Extra: Add 2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms halfway through cooking the chicken and onion.

Slow Cooker Tortellini and Sausage Soup

For some reason, I haven't had my slow cooker out for awhile. I have been so sick lately, even the thought of getting dinner ready in the crock pot has seemed overwhelming. This recipe came to me in a Google group called Just Crockpot. It's not an overly active group, but once a week, I get a few new recipes delivered to my inbox. There are no pictures, but some of them sound so good I just have to try them.

This was one of them.

And it is soooooo easy. The only chopping you have to do is the sausage. Everything else is frozen or from a can. For no other reason than the simplicity, I highly recommend it. Especially this time of year when you start to feel stressed for no apparent reason.

Add to your slow cooker one can of Italian chopped tomatoes, one can of condensed French onion soup, half a package of frozen green beans and one pound sliced turkey sausage. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. (Note: I halved this recipe from the original.)

Fifteen minutes before supper, add in half a package of frozen cheese tortelli and one cup of coleslaw mix. Switch the setting to high. I actually left mine on low and cooked for about 45 minutes more.

Serve sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.

This was incredible. Definitely the best supper I have tried in quite awhile. In the words of Mantis..."I wish my mouth was bigger." Go watch Kung Fu Panda. Really, it's a good movie. And this was the soup that inspired that line.


Click here for Printable Recipe

Crock Pot Tortellini and Sausage Soup
1 can (14-1/2 oz) Italian style stewed tomatoes
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup loose pack frozen cut green beans or Italian style green beans
1 can (10-1/2 oz.) condensed French onion soup, undiluted
8 oz. fully cooked smoked turkey sausage, halved lengthwise and cut
into 1/2" slices
1 cup packaged shredded cabbage with carrot (coleslaw mix)
1/2 pkg. (9 oz.) refrigerated cheese filled tortellini
Shaved or shredded Parmesan cheese, for garnish

In a 4 or 5 quart crock pot/slow cooker combine undrained tomatoes, water, frozen green beans, onion soup, and turkey sausage. Cover; cook on LOW heat setting for 8 to 10 hours or on HIGH heat setting for 4 to 5 hours. 
If using LOW heat setting, turn crock pot/low cooker to HIGH heat setting. Stir cabbage and tortellini into soup. Cover; cook for 15 minutes more.

Garnish soup with shavings or shredded Parmesan cheese.

Spinach Pasta Toss

So we went back to school. And it's been rough. One of our May graduates died suddenly, giving us our third student death since May. Pray for us.

If it's not one thing, it's another. My computer crashed yesterday and I had to reformat. Feeling pretty secure that 99% of my school files were backed up on the server, I didn't panic too much. However, apparently 17 seconds after my computer crashed, our server followed suit. So everything I have done since May is gone. Since I have created two new classes since then, I am struggling to catch back up.

And, for some reason, I agreed to take back the head coach position for our cross country team. I gave it up a couple years ago when The Boy came, but they couldn't find anyone to do it.

Whew.

I need a nap :) Or a drink.

So, needless to say, I haven't been doing much in the way of cooking, cleaning or in general, anything not school related. Well, I take that back. The Girl and I have been obsessively playing Wizard 101. Have you tried that?!?

But thanks to Kraft, I am back on track for Try It Tuesday! Have you signed up for their magazine yet? Go there now.

Boil 1 cup water with 2 cups pasta and an undrained can of Italian tomatoes. Cover and let that simmer for about 10 minutes. You can use this time to start a load of laundry, empty the dishwasher AND mix a drink. I'll post that one later...
The recipe calls for 9 ounces of spinach. My package was only 6, and I only used about 2/3 of it. Too much and my kids won't eat it. But add in half of what you are going to and recover.
Put it back on the burner on low until the spinach is wilted.
Stir it up, add the rest of your spinach and wilt that down.
Although the recipe did not call for it, I added in about a cup of leftover baked chicken. Because we don't eat meatless dishes in my house.
Sprinkle with Italian blend cheese and serve.
This was yummy, and except for a couple procedural problems, I will definitely put this on my rotation. I really liked the pasta cooked IN the tomatoes, it gave it an extra flavor boost.

The only problems were minor ones. Make sure you stir as the spinach wilts, or your pasta and tomatoes will become part of your pan. Also, next time, I will probably tear up the spinach a bit. It all wanted to form a ball as I stirred it in.

Other than that, this was one of my favorite recipes of late. And it was sooooo quick and easy. Definitely give this one a try.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Spinach Pasta toss
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cups multi-grain penne pasta, uncooked
1 cup water
1 pkg. (9 oz.) baby spinach leaves (7 cups)
1 cup KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Italian* Three Cheese Blend
Bring tomatoes, pasta and water to boil in large saucepan; stir. Cover; simmer on medium-low heat 10 min. or just until pasta is tender. Add 1/2 of spinach; simmer, covered, 2 min. or until wilted. Stir. Repeat with remaining spinach. Serve topped with cheese.