Creamy White Chicken and Artichoke Rigatoni bake

This recipe uses a bit of a lighter alredo creamy sauce using cream cheese and milk. I came across the original lasagna recipe from Tasty Tidbits blog and since me and lasagna are still not friends since my pork lasagna roll up trial, I decided to make a casserole dish with this using rigatoni. I made this the night before so it made for a quick dinner to pop in the oven after work last night. Pretty simple and great for leftovers to snack on for next few days...

Ingredients

2 cups shredded cooked chicken breasts

1 can (8 oz.) artichoke hearts, drained, chopped

1 pkg. (8 oz.) KRAFT Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, divided

1/2 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

1 can of diced tomatoes

1 pkg. (8 oz. each) Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup milk (I used 1%)

1 tablespoon. garlic powder

1/4 cup tightly packed fresh basil, chopped, divided

1 lb. Rigatoni pasta

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F.
2. Combine chicken, artichokes, 1 cup mozzarella, Parmesan and tomatoes.
3. Beat cream cheese, milk and garlic powder with mixer until well blended; stir in 2 Tbsp. basil. Mix half with the chicken mixture.
4. Meanwhile, boil pot of water, cook the pasta, drain, and set aside.
5. Spread half cream cheese mixture onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish
6. Mix remaining cream cheese mixture with chicken mixture and pasta,cover with mozzarella; and cover with foil.
7. Bake25 min. or until heated through. Sprinkle with remaining basil. Let stand 5 min. before cutting to serve.

Venetian Rolled Pizza

This past Saturday was made up of house hold chores, gym, playing with Hailey, and then meeting our friends at Creamy Acres in Mullica Hill, NJ for some Haunted Hayride adventures. I had seen Giada make this dish on Everyday Italian on her recent episode for Kids Camping and thought I would test it out before unveiling it as an appetizer for Thanksgiving. Helpful tip-I went to our favorite pizza shop and asked for a pound of dough in which most restaurants will sell it, and its typically less expensive than buying dough at the store and not so chaotic as making your own-1 pound cost me $2!! Plus, if you get it at your favorite pizza place, you already know
it’s going to be good!

Ingredients

·         Flour, for dusting

·         1 pound pizza dough

·         2 cups (8 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese

·         7 ounces prosciutto, thinly sliced

·         1 cup (about 1 1/2 ounces) torn baby spinach

·         1 table spoon EVOO

·         Kosher salt, for seasoning

Directions

·         Position an oven rack in the lower 1/3 of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees F.

·         On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the pizza dough to a 12 to 14-inch diameter circle, about 1/4-inch thick.

·         Sprinkle 1/2 of the mozzarella over the dough.

·        Arrange the prosciutto over the cheese in a single layer. Sprinkle with the spinach. Top with the remaining cheese.

·         Take 1 end of the circle and roll the dough up into a thin cylinder, gently folding in the ends.

·         Brush the dough with the olive oil and season with the salt (I also added some oregano to the top of it, your choice!)

·         Place the dough, seam side down, on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 23-25 minutes (pending on your oven) until the top is golden brown.

·         Allow the pizza to cool for 10 minutes. Using a serrated knife, cut the pizza into 3/4-inch pieces and serve.


Total Time: 36 minutes

Prep: 6 minutes

Cook: 30 min

Level: Easy

Yield: 18-20 slices

Gnocchi Al Forno (and the Broiler virgin)

Kellie from Pansies Posies Sweet Tea shared with me her Gnocchi Al Forno with Spinach & Italian Turkey - Kellie Style recipe and since my hubby is a gnocchi fan, I decided to try it out myself, especially since it contains ground turkey and Neufchatel cheese! Yum-o! I changed some of the ingredients around but not much. I didn't have Italian seasoning per say, so I used some oregano, basil, and onion and garlic seasonings. And I also topped it off with a sprinkle of shredded mozzarella cheese as well. Hey, I love cheese, what can I say!


I have to say I was a bit nervous about using the broiler. I've never used it before and have heard horrifying rumors that it can blow up, don't walk away from it, can burn your face, leave it open an inch- hence my anxiety with even pressing the broiler button! I asked Kellie for some help and if you could have seen our text messages going back and forth yesterday about her calming me down about the silly broiler. Alas, I used it, and succeeded without a burn mark, house blowing up, or burnt food! 


The starting line up is:

• 1 Pkg Gnocchi ( I used Bellino, only $1.99)
  
• 1 Pkg ground turkey (approx. 1 - 1.5 lbs.)
• 1 Jar of choice Marinara (I actually made my first marinara using Giada De Laurentis recipe)
• 4 oz. Fresh Spinach, roughly torn
• 8 oz. Neufchatel Cheese (1/3 less fat cream cheese), Room Temp.
• 3/4 cup shredded Parmesan Cheese (I used BelGioioso )
• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• Garlic Salt to taste
• Oregano to taste
• Basil to taste
• onion and garlic seasoning to taste
• Drizzle of  Olive Oil
• Salt/Pepper to taste

Add a drizzle of olive oil to frying pan on Med. High Heat. Add Turkey Meat and seasonings/spices to taste (ie. Garlic Salt/Oregano, Basil, OnionGarlic seasoning/Salt & Pepper), cook all the way through, drain the fat, then turn down to low heat and add jar of marinara, cover and let simmer. 

In a seperate pot, boil well salted water and add Gnocchi. Boil Gnocchi for approx. 2 minutes until Gnocchi floats to the top, drain and set aside. 

Add torn spinach to your turkey & marinara then cover for approx 2-3 min until spinach is slightly wilted.

Preheat your oven on the High Broil setting. (Make sure oven rack is 6-8 in from heating element)

Combine Gnocchi with your Turkey, Spinach and Marinara mixture, mix well. Empty contents of this mixture into a 10 - 12 in. pie plate or baking dish. (I used a a baking dish)

Take a spoon and add "blobs" of Neufchatel cheese all over the top of your baking dish mixture. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over top of everything and then sprinkle the mozzarella on top for another layer of deliciousness. Place into the broiler for approx 3-5 min or until top is golden brown and bubbly! Serve with some garlic bread and a glass of wine, and you have dish that is absolute Italian divine!

*I did leave my oven open an inch with my eyes on it for those 4 minutes it was in there, it browns quickly!

Lozza Mozza Italian Casserole

I'm full steam ahead still with my cooking a "week in a day" on Sundays...As you know, I get somewhat nervous when cooking anything italian since Anthony grew up in an Italianmakeyourowngravy household and I grew up in a Ragu casa...Hence my anxiety! At any rate, I found a few different manicotti casserole recipes online at allrecipes.com and decided to embark on my own creation using turkey meat instead of ground beef. Since I made this for the next day, I put everything together and put in the fridge-you can make this the night of though...Let the starting line up reveal itself...

• 1 pound rigatoni pasta
• 1 pound ground turkey meat
• 1 jar (16 oz) of spaghetti sauce your choice 
• (I was out of my red sauce, so I used Renaldi Tomato and Basil)
• 1 bag of shredded mozzarella cheese
• half cup of parmesan reggiano grated cheese
• thinly sliced pepperonis
• salt & pepper
• oregano
• half of an onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 13x9 lightly greased casserole dish

What to do next...

• Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil and pour the rigatoni and cook until al dente, about 8-10 minutes. Drain and set aside
• Meanwhile, brown the onions and garlic for 3 minutes, then add the turkey meat, salt and pepper, and oregano.With a slotted spoon, remove turkey and onions to your baking dish. Stir in jar of sauce, parmesan reggiano cheese, cup of mozzarella cheese, and cooked pasta into baking dish and stir together well.
• If your making this to eat a day or so later, let casserole cool, and cover with saran wrap and put in refrigerator.
• When you're ready to make, preheat oven to 350, take out of fridge and remove saran wrap. Top with some pepperoni slices on top and sprinkle the rest of the bag of cheese on top of the casserole.
• Bake in a preheated oven until the cheese is golden brown and bubbly, about 30 minutes
• Serve with some yummy crusty garlic bread and bon appetito!

*If your making this to eat after preparation, preheat oven to 350 and bake for 20 minutes waiting for cheese to bubble. You can also add italian sausage or mushrooms if you would like. If you do add mushrooms,sausage, etc...be sure to add another jar of tomato sauce then (and a deeper casserole dish!)

Rachel Ray's recipe for Spanish Burgers with Manchego

Tuesday night I made the Spanish burgers minus the chorizo hash browns (since I forgot to get those ingredients, hehe) but I substituted roasted potato wedges instead with chopped up cucumber from my garden and made a peanut butter dipping sauce.

Rachel Ray's spanish-burgers-with-manchego Recipe

Not only have I never made burgers before but I don't have a grill either. Turns out you really don't need one! You can either make them on a skillet on your stove or use an electric griddle like I did. The Manchego cheese really kicks these bad boys up a notch and were so good. Ant even said it was the best burger he's had and that seasoning that the recipe calls for is perfect! They would make great apps as sliders too!