Broccolli Alfredo Pasta

I made this for the first time a few weeks ago when my sister Holly came to my house to visit. I didn't have chicken, but I had alfredo and pasta and a bag of frozen broccolli. Tonight I made it again, but I used fresh broccolli because I had a bundle in the fridge that I needed to use before it went bad since it has been there for a week. So, here is a fantastic, very fast, very easy, delicious meal for any night of the week.

1/2 box of any kind of pasta (I used Rotini)

1 jar of alfredo sauce

1/2 bag frozen broccolli, or a bundle of fresh broccolli

Bring some water to a boil in a sauce pot. Add pasta and boil for about 8-10 minutes. Meanwhile in another pot put broccolli and just enough water to cover about half of it. Boil till the broccolli is tender. (It took me about 8 minutes with the fresh broccolli and some salt) Drain whatever water remains, add alfredo sauce and heat to desired temperature to serve over pasta. When pasta is finished, just drain, rinse and serve with the broccolli alfredo sauce.

I also sprinkled mozerella and parmesan cheeses on top. It was delicious.

The 2 Step Breadsticks:

1. I take 4-12 Rhodes frozen dough rolls, out of the freezer and put them on a plate sprayed with cooking spray. Then I cover them with plastic wrap, also sprayed. Then I let them thaw and rise for about 4-5 hours on the plate.

2. When they are done rising, I roll them till they are about 9 inches long, move them to a cookie sheet, spread melted butter with parmesan and garlic salt, and if you want, parsley, and or italian seasoning on them and bake them for 8-10 minutes at 350.

Summer Meals

I am looking forward so much to eating summer foods now that it is getting warmer. Tonight I made some hamburgers. They were very good with all the toppings. I didn't take a picture, but they were pretty for the few seconds they lasted. Hamburgers are one of my favorite summer foods. I also love BLT's, sloppy joes, bbq beef/pork/chicken sandwiches, all kinds of salads, and things. If you have any good recipies for yummy summer dishes, feel free to share. I will share my favorites too.

Sweet and Sour Barbeque Shish Kabobs

For dinner tonight we had these. They were SO good. I started yesterday by making the marinade and cutting all the veggies and meat. I took a recipe that I got from my sister Jill for teriyaki flavored shishkabobs and adapted it to sweet and sour BBQ flavored. Even though it takes some planning and preparing a head of time, let me tell you it is soooo worth it. Will gave it a 10 out of 10. That is hard to do. Okay here is the recipe.

1/2 c. oil
1/4 c. vinegar
2 cloves garlic
2/3 c. brown sugar
1/2 bottle BBQ sauce (about 9 oz.)
1 can of chunk pineapple
1/2 green pepper
1/2 red onion
1 lb. mushrooms
3-4 cups raw chicken thawed and cubed
20 ish skewers
2 or 4 large ziplock baggies (depending on the quality. You don't want them to leak)

combine the oil, vinegar, garlic, brown sugar, BBQ sauce, and the juice from the can of pineapple in a bowl or pitcher. Chop the mushrooms, onions, and peppers into the shape and size you want. (Easy enough right?) Put the chicken in one ziplock and all the chopped onions, mushrooms, peppers, and pineapple in another. Add enough sauce to the chicken to cover it and the rest of the sauce to the veggies, (and fruit). Remove as much air from both bags as possible and seal. Double bag each so they don't leak if neccessary. Marinate in fridge for atleast 24 hours. Then put together the kabobs however you would like place on cookie sheets and bake in oven at 375 degrees F until edges are golden. Or on the grill if you prefer and have one. I don't, so I don't know what temperature or how long to cook them that way. If you try them on the grill let me know. Enjoy!

Creamy Italian Crockpot Chicken

I made this for dinner last night. I didn't know if it would turn out good or not, because I just threw a few things that I had together without a recipe. It turned out really good I thought. I made some instant rice and put in a couple tsp. of parsley. Okay here's the recipe for the chicken:
1/3 bottle of Italian dressing
3/4 c. sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
4-5 chicken breasts
Throw everything in the crockpot on high for 4 hours serve and enjoy

Pretty easy right? Well, it was pretty good. Will even liked it a lot. Enough to eat it as leftovers for lunch. It was pretty good.

Mrs. Fields Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

I've been in a baking mood a lot today.

I found this recipe here:

2 c. flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/4 c. packed brown sugar

1 1/4 c. granulated sugar

1 c. butter or margarine, softened

3 large eggs

1 c. creamy peanut butter

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Mix dry ingredients and set aside.
3. On medium speed, in large bowl, blend sugars; add butter, mix till grainy consistency. Add eggs, peanut butter and vanilla extract; beat till fluffy. On low speed, add flour mixture until barely mixed into butter mixture.
4. Drop by rounded tablespoonsful, 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Use a wet or flour coated fork to gently press a criscross pattern on top of each cookie.
5. Bake till the edges of the cookies are lightly browned, approximately 18 to 20 minutes. Remove to cool on a flat surface

This is how they turned out. They really are soft and chewy too. Very very yummy!

Cheesy Baked Lasagna

Last night for dinner we had lasagna. I have never made lasagna before and it surprised me how easy it is to make. It turned out so well. I was very proud of the finished product. Here is the recipe I used.

1 box lasagna pasta
1 30 oz. container of ricotta cheese
2 c. mozerella cheese separated into two 1 cup portions
1/4 c. parmesan
2 partially beaten eggs
1 tsp. dried basil
1 Tbs. dried parsley
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
1 jar of spaghetti sauce

In a large pot bring to boil about 6-8 cups of water. Add pasta and boil for 8-10 minutes stirring gently every so often so the pasta doesn't stick together or to the pot. While the pasta cooks, mix the ricotta, 1 cup mozerella, parmesan, eggs, basil, parsley, garlic salt, salt, and pepper in a medium mixing bowl. When pasta is done boiling drain in a collander. In a 9x13 casserole dish pour a thin layer of the spaghetti sauce, just enough to cover the bottom. Then cover with a layer of the pasta, then cheese mixture on top of that, then repeat beginning with another layer of sauce, pasta, cheese, sauce, pasta, then sauce again, and sprinkle top with the remaining one cup of mozerella and sprinkle slightly with parmesan cheese. Bake in oven for 60 minutes at 450 degrees F. The whole process only took me about an hour and a half from start to finish. Easy and worth every second. Enjoy and let me know what you think. I'd love some feedback.

Menu Planning

I try to plan my menus weekly, but sometimes it helps to plan a couple weeks or a month at time tentatively especially if you know it is going to be a busy week/month. I have a list of main dishes that I choose from when planning my meals. When I think of something new I want to try, I add it to the list. Once I come up with my menu plan, I make a shopping list of the ingredients I will need for each meal. Most of the time during the school year I only plan a dinner meal, and just make sure I have food in the house for quick breakfasts and lunches. Here is an example of a menu plan that I made a while back.

Thurs: Taco Soup and Breadsticks
Fri: BLTs on homemade bread
Sat: Chicken noodle stir fry
Sun: Pot Roast and potatoes and rolls and jello
Mon: Biscuit Pot Pie
Tues: Spaghetti and Breadsticks
Wed: Chicken enchiladas
Thurs: Clam Chowder
Fri: chilli dogs
Sat: chicken alfredo
Sun: Pork Chops
Mon: Broccoli Cheese soup and soup bowls.

Welcome!!

I wanted to start this blog since I have always struggled with meal planning. I figured other people may need as much help as me and I wanted to share my ideas and allow others to do the same. I try to come up with a weekly menu of some kind and I will share that as well as pictures and recipes. Tell your friends, and family about my blog. I would love to share with them too. Feel free to comment and share recipes and ideas and comment on the recipes and ideas I share. Until next time, thanks for reading.