Chicken and Summer Vegetable Pasta with Lemon Garlic Cream Sauce

Ingredients
2 Zuccini's Quartered and sliced
2 Yellow squash Quartered and Sliced
1/4 Onion, chopped
2 Boneless skinless Chicken breasts-cut into bite sized pieces
1 Bag Pasta
1/2 Stick Butter
3 Tbsp+ 2 Tbsp Canola Oil
1/2 Cup Sour Cream
1/2-3/4 Cup Milk
1/3 Cup Parmesan Cheese
2 Cloves Garlic- Minced
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste

MMMMMMmmmmmm this turned out wonderfully. It was just something I threw together after seeing The Pioneer Woman 's baked Lemon pasta dish. Mine isn't much like her's but I feel like I should say that seeing that inspired me to make my own.

Hubby absolutely loved this, he gave it the highest rating of anything so far. He couldn't stop commenting on how good it was. It makes a wife feel good for sure, I'm glad God paired the two of us together.

So first things first. Chop up your chicken into bite sized pieces. While you are doing that warm up a big skillet over medium high heat and put your 3 Tbsp canola oil in there.
Transfer your chicken pieces and salt and pepper generously. Cook for about 3-5 minutes each side or until cooked through and then remove and put in a bowl for later.

While your chicken is cooking cut up your zucc's and squash, I sliced and quartered them because I wanted them to be small-ish. I had some leftover onion chopped up from the other night so I used that too (but it was only about 1/4 cup).

Take your pan that is now over medium heat add your butter and 2 Tbsp canola oil. Once combined add everything you have chopped. Toss around so that it is coated and cook for 10 minutes or until they are tender.

Mince 2 cloves garlic and zest 1 lemon. Add this in at the end of the cooking of the zucchini and squash and cook together while you make the sauce.

In a pot combine sour cream, milk, parmesan cheese and the juice of one lemon. Add the chicken back in and cook over medium heat to warm.

Once it is warm combine the pan of veggies to the sauce.

Ladel over cooked pasta and enjoy! Yum!

Have a great Monday and God Bless!

Spinach Florentine Lasagna Rollups

My dear friend and her daughter came over the other day. She's a SAHM and I had the day off so we decided to get together. She brought her cutie daughter and we made this together. This is a recipe that she had. It was very good. It's a great vegetarian recipe if you need one for friends.

(This is my friend and her sweet, sweet daughter in a wrap that she made, so talented)

Ingredients
10 oz Frozen Spinach
8 oz Cream Cheese
1/4 Cup Onion Chopped (we used 1 tsp onion powder)
1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese
1/4 tsp Pepper
1 Garlic Clove Minced (we used 1/2 Tbsp)
1 egg slightly beaten
4 oz shredded Mozzarella Cheese
10 Lasagna Noodles
1 Jar Spaghetti Sauce
A few sprigs Flat Leaf Parsley

Boil your Lasagna noodles until they are Al Dente. You don't want to over cook them because you will put them in the oven later.

While they are boiling combine your Cream Cheese and Egg in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

Then add your Spinach (rinsed in warm water and squeezed out of all water),Onion, Parmesan Cheese, Garlic, Parsley and Pepper. Mix well.

When your noodles are done rinse them under cold water in a colander.

Put one noodle flat on a cutting board. Put one heaping tablespoon in the middle and smooth out over all of the noodle. Top with a little mozzarella cheese.

(yup, it's me, in the flesh, my friend thought it might be fun to actually see me in the blog)
(ok, I'm sure you are sick of seeing me now. Back to the food)

Now preheat your oven to 350* (by the time you are done rolling it will be ready!)

Then roll up the noodle into a cute little roll up.

In a 9 x 11" pan put 1/3 of your jar of sauce on the bottom.

Put the rollup in the pan and continue to roll until all 10 are done and in the pan.

Pour the rest of jar of sauce on top and top with more Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 30 min at 350*

This was a great meal, it had a nice creamy filling and it was much quicker than a regular lasagna.
Have a great day and God Bless!

White Bean Lasagna

Ingredients
12 Sheets of Barilla No Boil Ready to go Lasagna Sheets
1 Can Pasta sauce (20 oz)
1 Can Cannellini Beans
1/2 Package Frozen Spinach (thawed)
1/2 lb Cheese ( I used Monterey Jack)
Garlic Powder to taste
Oregano

Preheat oven to 375*

Hubby and I were baby sitting our friend's sweet baby girl who is 7 weeks old on friday night. So I threw this lasagna together with some things we had in the house. This was good since I only had one hand to eat with since the other was snuggling the darling girl.

Spray the bottom of a pan ( I used a 7 x 10 ish ) with cooking spray. Cover with Sauce and then 3 sheets of lasagna noodles (by the way these ready ones from Barilla are AWESOME, no boiling before required, they are sweet).

Then add 1/2 of your can of cannellini beans and 1/2 of your spinach. (I didn't take a picture of this, sorry!) Then add 1/3 of your remaining sauce and a generous amount of cheese.

Repeat one more time.

To finish add sauce and cheese, garlic powder and oregano to the top.

Cover with aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet (because some will bubble out). Cook for 50-60 min covered and 5 minutes uncovered to brown the cheese.

Allow to sit for 5 minutes and then enjoy!

Have a great day and God Bless!

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

I'll be the first one to tell you that I've never like homemade mac and cheese. I'd prefer the stuff in the blue box any day. Well until this day. This was great and was super easy. For the basic recipe I used this from the food network and then made my changes from there. It turned out great!

Truth be told I was a bit under the weather the day I planned to make this so my dear hubby told me I was not going to do the cooking (I've got a wonderful man I know!) So he was gracious enough to let me sit next to him in the kitchen and let him know the steps to making the mac and cheese!
He did great and it's nice to cook with him.

Ingredients
1 1/2 bags of pasta ( we used penne and tri colored noodles)
2 Tbsp Butter
2 Tbsp Flour
2 Cups Milk
2 Cups + 1/2 Cup Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1/3 Cup Parmesan Cheese
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Onion Powder
1/2 cup Sour Cream

Serves: 8-10 as a side, 6 as a meal.

Preheat oven to 350*

Boil your pasta for about 10 minutes so it is cooked just slightly less than Al Dente since you are going to put it into the oven later. Then drain it and toss it with a few tablespoons of butter in the pan so that it doens't stick together. You will thank me later.

In a medium sauce pan, melt your butter over medium heat. When melted add your flour to make a roux (see picture below). Once it is golden brown add your 2 cups of milk. Cook on medium until it starts to become thick, this will take a while (6+ minutes) but you have to keep stirring so yummy stuff doesn't get stuck to the bottom of your pan. This will not make you happy if this happens.
Now you are going to add your seasonings while it is thickening. Add your pepper, onion powder, salt and garlic powder (you can add whatever you like, this was what we decided to add). And keep stirring.

Yup, keep stirring I said. This is my dear hubby, still stirring, and stirring. He's looking like he's having fun huh? He was ;)

Ok now you aren't done stirring yet. Once it is starting to get thicker you are going to add your 2 cups of cheese, 1/2 Cup of Sour Cream and your 1/3 Cup of Parmesan. It's ok to drool, we were about there at this point. I'm saying to him that I think I'll actually like this homemade mac and cheese, sweet.

(hubby wanted his hand in the picture with the finished cheese sauce)

Now you are going to spray the bottom of a 13 x 9 glass pan and dump your buttered pasta in there. Now pour that beautiful sauce on top and toss so that it is coated with cheese. Now stick it in the oven, but really 5-10 min is all you need. No more or you will start to have a dry, sticky mac and cheese and who likes that?
Pull it out when it's done and top with your last 1/2 cup of Sharp Cheddar and voila. You're done!
We took this to a pot luck dinner and got lots of great comments on it and even I the blue box loving mac and cheese lady liked it. It's definitely a keeper and so easy that we will definitely make again.

Hope you are having a great weekend and God Bless!

Penne with Garlic Tomato Butter Sauce

Ingredients
1 Package Penne Pasta (I used bowties as well)
2 cloves garlic minced
3 Tomatoes chopped (I would have used about 5 but didn't have that many) or 2 cans
1 Can Cannellini Beans Drained
1 Bunch Asparagus- Chopped into pieces
1/3 Cup Parmesan Cheese
8 Tbsp Butter Melted
2 Tbsp Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Serves: 3 as a meal; 4-6 as a side dish

In a medium pot boil water and cook pasta to desired tenderness.

Chop all vegetables and set aside.

Boil water and blanche asparagus (1.5 minutes), drain.

In a sauce pan, add 2 Tbsp Oil on medium heat. Add tomatoes and garlic to pan, cook for 3 minutes and add cannellini beans. Heat for another 3 minutes. Add asparagus to the pot.


Melt 8 Tbsp Butter, add all vegetables, parmesan cheese and pasta and mix together.

This made me happy when it was cooking, it smelled like Tortellini Paloma from the Family owned Italian Restaurant that I used to work at. This turned out really well and the parmesan cheese had enough bite that it balanced out the sweetness in the butter and tomato garlic mixture. Yum.
Enjoy and God Bless!