Char's Orginal "No Ricotta" Cheese Stuffed Shells
Yes, you read that right this is an original made by me. I was looking around for what to make for dinner and remembered I found these jumbo shells at the store. I've wanted to make stuffed shells for a while but couldn't find the shells. So now that I've got the shells, what do I put in them?! I've always seen recipes for ricotta cheese in shells, just like in raviolis and while I'm not one to keep a lot of cheese on hand, on account I'm lactose intolerant, I looked to see what I did have. I had bought a small chunk of parmesean cheese for making Josh's cheese-garlic bread and have some cream cheese for bagels. Why not make my own?!
About 2-3 big hand fulls of shells (uncooked). Depends how much "stuffing" you make
1/2 block or whole block of cream cheese (again, depends how many shells you want to make or how much stuffing you make)
1/2-3/4 cup shredded parmesean cheese
1/4 cup soy milk (use regular milk if you like)
1 cup chopped leaf spinach (I used fresh spinach)
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1 small green onion, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
About 1 cup of your favorite tomato sauce (bottled or homemade)
In a large pot cook the shells just like any other noodle. Make sure not to over cook the noodles. Set aside.
In another small pot add butter and turn on low heat. Melt butter and add spinach, garlic and onion. Saute until spinach is wilted, 2-3 minutes. Add cream cheese and milk. Heat until mostly melted. Add in shredded parmesean cheese. Heat for a few minutes until mixture becomes thick and all melted. Add more parmesean or cream cheese to your liking, or more spinach of course. I made this on the fly so what I had and the amounts worked out great. It would be easy to double if you wanted or make less for single serving.
Put shells in a casserole dish and top with tomato sauce and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Wow-ie my house smells like Italy!
Lemon Bread1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk (I used soy milk and couldn't taste the difference)
Topping: to be made while bread is in oven
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar (aka powdered sugar)
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice (I've used small lemons and used the juice from 2 lemons)
In a large bowl, cream together shortening and sugar with a mixer. Add in eggs one at a time mixing very well. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add the dry mix to the shortening-sugar-egg mixture, alternating with adding the milk. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and add the mixture to a greased 9x5 loaf pan or 8x8 square dish or mini loaf pan, whatever you choose. Baking time may differ depending on the pan used, but bake for 40-45 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
As soon as the bread comes out of the oven, pour the mixture over the top of it so the flavor soaks into the warm bread. The first time I made this I didnt' have powdered sugar so I used regular sugar and it seemed to turn out the same. Might be a little more "sugary" on the top, but basically the same. If using regular sugar, use a bit more lemon juice.
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| Made in my 8x8 pan |
Zucchini-Chocolate-Chip Bread
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil**
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups shredded zucchini (about 2 medium)
optional: 1/2 cup chopped nuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake in 2 loaf pans for 55-65 minutes.
I added extra: 1 teaspoon nutmeg, 1 cup of chocolate chips, 1 tablespoon flaxseed (more on this in a second)
**I substituted 1 cup vegetable oil for 1/2 cup vegetable oil and 1/2 cup unsweet applesauce. So much better for you!
For some reason I just am not a huge fan of adding nuts into my breads, I like it but when I make it on my own I just don't add it in. I think the nutmeg added a great deal of flavor.
In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and sift together. Here I added the flaxseed. In another bowl add eggs, vegetable oil, applesauce, vanilla, and cinnamon. Beat eggs well and mix in with the dry ingredients. Mix well. Add in the zucchini and mix, add in chocolate chips and mix. Pour into a greased and floured loaf pans and put in the oven. Be sure to test for doneness, I usually put too much into one pan. I think the chocolate chips were a great addition! Enjoy!
Grilled Chicken Burgers - Date Night
2 large chicken breasts, butterflied
2 small cans chopped green chilies
about 2 cups of Tomato-Basil Italian dressing marinade, or however much you choose
salt and pepper to taste
After slicing the chicken breasts in half to make thinner I cut them into sizes that would most likely fit onto a hamburger bun. Place into a casserole dish to marinade. Season with salt and pepper. Pour Italian dressing over the chicken to marinade. Any marinade of your choice would work, this went really well with the rest of the meal though. Then I put the green chilies on top of the chicken breasts. However, when grilling and flipping over, the chilies fell off but the marinade and grilling gave a lot of flavor to the chicken. I let this marinade for about 2 hours. Longer the better!
I wanted to roast a red bell pepper to put on the grilled chicken sandwich. I took 2 medium red bell peppers and put them directly on the grill. Turning after a few minutes on each side letting them get blackend but not chard. Then take them off the grill and I wrapped in foil for about 10 minutes. This allows the steam to really soften up the pepper. Then carefully remove some of the blackened outer layer, remove stem and seeds and slice to desired size. What a flavor from just the bell pepper!
Deep fried potato skins, at least its what I call it. My dad used to make this for my brother and I when we were younger. I think I probably should have kept them in the oil longer, because they turned out softer than crispy but either way, the potatoes were good!
I used 3-4 medium potatoes and sliced pretty thin, about 1/8". Heat vegetable oil in a pan about 1 inch deep. Tip: I'm not sure if its better for you, vegetable oil or olive oil, but I ran out of vegetable oil in the middle of this so I used half olive half vegetable. Still tasted the same. Once oil is hot, put enough potatoes in the oil to cover the surface and let "fry" for about 5 minutes, checking frequently. Take out carefully with tongs and put on a plate with papertowl to soak up the oil. Top with salt. Yum!
Homemade ranch dressing, as adapted from Rachael Ray. This is pretty good, and pretty close to the real Ranch dressing.
3/4 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup sour cream, I substituted regular Greek yogurt and wasn't much different
2 tablespoons hot sauce, depending how hot/spicy you want it. Recommended to use at least 1 teaspoon
Dill, Parsley & Chives herbs of equal amounts, but to taste
Combine all ingredients into a bowl and mix. This recipe really is a taste test, as you can add more of this and that according to how you want it to taste. I'm still trying to find a dairy-friendly way to make this. I think I've found a way to make dairy-free buttermilk with soy milk, but still trying.
Added the Ranch to my grilled chicken burger with the roasted bell pepper and had some potatoes, what a great date night.
This was a very delicious and inexpensive date night dinner, and for us it was and is still GORGEOUS weather outdoors!
Cranberry-Apple Casserole
This is the recipe for my mom's Cranberry-Apple Casserole which is a Thanksgiving "must-have". My mom has made this recipe for the last 8-10 years, at least if not longer, that I can remember. This recipe initially came from my Aunt Linda whom I've been fortunate to spend many Thanksgiving's with as well. I've had many people ask for this recipe, as it is fairly easy, is a great way to impress new family members, a new comer to the dinner table and a great way to introduce a new twist on cranberries to the whole Thanksgiving holiday - in my opinion anyway!Ingredients:3 medium peeled, chopped apples (I like red ones to go along with the red theme)
2 cups fresh (thawed if you bought them and froze them) cranberries
2 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup sugar
3 packages instant Oatmeal, cinnamon spice flavor
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup flour (separate from other flour)
1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
1/3 cup brown sugar
In a large bowl combine apples, cranberries and 2 tablespoons flour tossing to coat it all. Add in 3/4 cup sugar and mix well. Transfer into a 2 quart (8x8) casserole dish. In another bowl, or the one you just emptied, combine oatmeal, pecans, 1/2 cup flour and brown sugar. Add butter and stir well. Spoon this mixture over the fruit mixture. Garnish with pecan halves and cranberries on top. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. It makes 6-8 servings and is EXCELLENT as a left over!
3 Layer Cheese Dip (Dairy Free)
I found this recipe on another blog over here and was pretty excited to try it. While I was shopping for other items to make Thanksgiving last weekend I was looking really hard to find dairy free items that I could use in my cooking. I was pretty stoked when I came across dairy-free butter! I didn't use that in this recipe but was still excited to find it!
I thought this cheese dip would be a great idea for an appetizer at a party or holiday, I just made too much in my case!
Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese ( I used dairy free kind and didn't taste any different)
8 oz goat cheese (same thing)
1-2 garlic cloves smashed and made into a paste (I pressed the garlic clove through a garlic press and added a dab of olive oil)
1/2 cup basil pesto (also found dairy free kind in the store, or you can make your own)
1/3 cup sun dried tomato paste ( I used sun dried tomato pesto that I found!)
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| image found from other blog |
In a large bowl combine goat cheese and cream cheese and mix together. FYI: Don't use a mixer, it will get stuck in the mixers and be useless. I used a spatula. Divide mixture evenly into 3 separate bowls. To one bowl add garlic paste and mix. To another add pesto and mix. To another add tomato paste/pesto and mix. In a taller, narrower bowl line with a damp cheese cloth towel and put in the tomato paste cheese mix, followed by the garlic cheese mix and top it off with the pesto cheese mix making sure to smooth out each layer before adding the next. Top with the rest/extra cloth and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 2 hours, I did mine over night to get it ready early. Take it out and plop it onto a plate with some crackers! Yum!!
For mine I used a wider bowl so my layers weren't as pretty and my garlic layer was kind of lost in the appearance but tasted just as wonderful! Also my tomato pesto, instead of paste, was a bit darker and the basil pesto I used was a bit darker, otherwise mine looked like the picture. The goat cheese really give it some nice creamy flavor. Sweetness!!! It's dairy free!!
Christmas Chili
This is called Christmas Chili just because of a Cowboy Christmas party we've attended the last few years and there has always been a chili cooking contest. Oddly enough the one year I entered, 2009, I won 2nd place. I love that Christmas party! This recipe was taken from 4 different recipes and I smashed them together to make depending on what I had on hand. This will get revised the next time I make it. Enjoy!
1 lb ground italian sausage (use ground beef for less spice)
1 onion chopped
1-2 cloves garlic chopped
1 green or rell bell pepper chopped (add another for more veggie if you like)
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
1 can corn, drained
1-2 cans diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
Add onions, garlic, bell peppers and a small bit of olive oil to a pan/skillet and cook for a few mintues until soft and onions are translucent. Cook the italian sausage (the secret ingredient!) in the same pan/skillet until cooked through. Now bring out the crock pot. Turn on medium heat, or low if you're going to cook it all day. Add the meat mixture and add beans, corn and tomatoes. **Here you can add more tomaotes if you like. I'm trying to remember if I added more, since I obviously did this on the fly and didn't write it down. Of course you can alter this and make it all tomatoes and no beans, all beans and not tomatoes, etc. Add the spices to your tasting and let it cook on medium for about 1 hour or low for 3-4 hours. I've been known to add more spice (fire) to my meals so here I think I added some hot sauce. Feel free to make this however you want. Like I said, I used many different recipes and ka-booshed them together to make my own.
Char's Original - "No Ricotta" Cheese Stuffed Shells
Yes, you read that right this is an original made by me. I was looking around for what to make for dinner and remembered I found these jumbo shells at the store the other day. I've wanted to make stuffed shells for a while but couldn't find the shells. So now that I've got the shells, what do I put in them?! I've always seen recipes for ricotta cheese in shells, just like in raviolis and while I'm not one to keep a lot of cheese on hand, on account I'm lactose intolerant, I looked to see what I did have. I had bought a small chunk of parmesean cheese for making Josh's cheese-garlic bread and have some cream cheese for bagels. Why not make my own?!
About 2-3 big hand fulls of shells (uncooked). Depends how much "stuffing" you make
1/2 block or whole block of cream cheese (again, depends how many shells you want to make or how much stuffing you make)
1/2-3/4 cup shredded parmesean cheese
1/4 cup soy milk (use regular milk if you like)
1 cup chopped leaf spinach (I used fresh spinach)
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1 small green onion, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
About 1 cup of your favorite tomato sauce (bottled or homemade)
In a large pot cook the shells just like any other noodle. Make sure not to over cook the noodles. Set aside.
In another small pot add butter and turn on low heat. Melt butter and add spinach, garlic and onion. Saute until spinach is wilted, 2-3 minutes. Add cream cheese and milk. Heat until mostly melted. Add in shredded parmesean cheese. Heat for a few minutes until mixture becomes thick and all melted. Add more parmesean or cream cheese to your liking, or more spinach of course. I made this on the fly so what I had and the amounts worked out great. It would be easy to double if you wanted or make less for single serving.
Put shells in a casserole dish and top with tomato sauce and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Wow-ie my house smells like Italy!
Veggie & Meat Stew w/Dairy-Friendly Cornbread
Since I'm such a veggie freak there are a lot more veggies in this stew than meat, more veggie to meat ratio, plus I didn't have enough meat on hand so I just went with it. The stew was all made up by me and thrown together. The cornbread was followed along with a recipe in Taste of Home cookbook with the dairy substitutions and an added secret ingredient that I'll share with you!
6 small yellow potatoes, cut in large chunks (smaller than russet potatoes, probably4-5 cups worth)
1 small green bell pepper, cut in large chunks
1 medium white onion, sliced and chopped in larger chunks (smaller peices if you don't want big chunks)
1 medium zucchini, sliced in 1/4" slices
1 small bag of bite size carrots, cut in half (next time I would use regular size carrots and more of them)
3 garlic cloves, smashed
Put all veggies in a large zip lock bag and drizzle about 1/8 or 1/4 cup EVOO over to coat veggies. I added some spices to this: salt, pepper, garlic salt, red pepper flakes....you can add whatever you want. Some pre-mixed spices may offer great flavor. Especially some you would season beef or steak with, since we'll be using beef. I let these marinade overnight in the fridge.
I had 1.5 lbs of beef for stew, chunked beef. I threw this in the bottom of the crock pot first. I always spray non-stick spray on the bottom of the crock pot, makes clean up SO much easier!
To the crock pot I added 2 cans of beef broth and 1 can of chicken broth. I would have liked to have used all 3 cans beef broth, but this is what I had. You couldn't even tell I used chicken broth, it just helped moisten and flavor the veggies and meat while cooking. After adding the meat, I seasoned with garlic salt, then added the bag of veggies and then the cans of broth. Turned the crock pot on high and it cooked for about 9.5 - 10 hours then I turned it on low/warm when I got home until we ate. WOW!!
Now on to the cornbread!
1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 cup (8 oz) sour cream (However...I substituted dairy-free greek yougurt)
1/3 cup milk (I used soy milk)
1/4 cup butter, melted (I used dairy free margarine)
In a separate bowl mix all wet ingredients. Add the wet to the dry. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Secret Ingredient: Honey/Agave Nectar. This wasn't in the recipe and I thought it would be good. Everyone I know eats their cornbread with honey, so I added light agave nectar, very similar basically the same as honey but an organic-better for you type of honey. Tastes exactly the same. I added about 3-4 tablespoons worth, and tasting it after it was cooked, I would have added more. It was very light and just added that extra sweet, moistness. Add mix to a greased 8 inch square dish and bake for 25-28 minutes until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.
Tator Tot Casserole
Found this recipe in a cookbook I have, was given to me by Josh's mom and has so many wonderful recipes in it including recipes from his Mom, Aunts and Grandma. This recipe is a favorite of ours, and so easy to make!
Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef (turkey or chicken would be great also)
1 can cream of mushroom soup (cream of chicken soup would work also)
About 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (as much or little as you like!)
1 package tator tots
Brown the meat until cooked, drain the grease and put in a 9x13 inch casserole dish. You could also use a smaller pan and make deeper layers. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Next add in your can of soup and mix with the meat. Add a layer of cheese and then a layer of tator tots and then another layer of cheese. As much or as little cheese as you want. I also thought about doing pepper jack cheese, so that is an option. Then stick it in the oven for 30 minutes and you've got dinner!
These make excellent left overs and are great eaten cold too.
Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes
Ever since I found this recipe I've been craving Oreos and cheesecake. Found this recipe posted on another blog (www.heygorg.com) and also it is out of the Martha Stewart Cookbook. Couldn't wait to make them! As a side note from experience, don't attempt to make these at 12:30am. I did and it wasn't a total bust but it was way to late to be baking! They turned out great.
Ingredients:
2 pounds of cream cheese at room temp (16 oz so 4 packages) *Make sure these are at room temperature!
30 Oreo cookies + plus 12 extra crushed
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
4 eggs at room temp
1 cup of sour cream
Tip:I found that the cream cheese NEEDS to be at room temperature in order to make it easy-er to handle. I may have had a bad experience with an electric mixer trying to mix the cream cheese so I used a plastic spoon. What an arm workout! It got easier with the more ingredients you add.
Preheat your oven to 275 degrees and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.I found that it made more than 30 cups, so I just put cupcake liners in a cake pan and that worked well, in case you don't have a muffin pan. In a large bowl blend together the cream cheese and vanilla until fluffy and smooth, remembering to scrape down the sides. Pour in the sugar and blend well. Add in each egg one at a time beating until blended. By this time it is MUCH easier to mix! Pour in the sour cream and continue to mix. Stir in the crushed Oreo bits and blend well. At this point I would have added more crused Oreos, 12 just didn't seem like enough :) Place an Oreo cookie in the bottom of each liner and spoon the cheesecake mixture over each Oreo almost all the way to the top of each well.
Bake in the preheated over for 12 minutes then rotate and bake for 12 more or until set. IMPORTANT: Let completely cool in the fridge for atleast 4 hours; best if cooled overnight. Don't try to eat after 15-20 min of cooling. It will be too gooey. It was WORTH it to wait until morning. SOOO Yummy!
I will post pictures. These are the perfect little treat for get togethers, after work, school, bad-day pleasures. If you like Oreos and cheesecake, this is such a great combination!!
Easy to make, simple ingredients. Like I said, I didn't have luck using an electric mixer with creamcheese so I did it all by hand. Good luck!
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Italian Enchiladas
1 lb ground beef (or turkey as I used)
1 can (10 oz) red enchilada sauce
1/4 teaspoon oregano (I eye balled most of the spices to taste)
1/4 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon dried minced onion (fresh chopped, sauted onion might have been better)
About 6-8 no-boil lasagna noodles
Brown the meat, then add the enchilada sauce. Heat for a few min; add spices. Layer in pan with meat sauce first, then noddles; repeat until you top with a layer of meat sauce. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes, check to make sure the noodles are cooked and soft. Take out and top with cheese; bake for another 5 minutes until cheese is melted. I must say, the no-cheese enchiladas are prett good as well! I also added some salsa. Enjoy!
Find the original post with the entire story right here.
Home made Ravioli's with home made spaghetii sauce:
Here is the link to my post that I published on June 12. Take a look. Yummy! Ravioli's & Sauce
Brown Rice with Stir Fry Veggies
- about 2 cups of brown rice (steamed in rice steamer)
- about 2 Tbsp Olive Oil in large skillet
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
Heat in skillet until oil is warm. Add:
- fresh asparagus, cut in 1/4 inch pieces
- half a yellow bell pepper, diced
- one whole small zucchini sliced 1/4-1/8 in slices
Stir fry until all veggies are soft. Either add to rice or eat seperately. I like to add soy sauce to the rice along with some siracha hot sauce. Wa-la!
Chipotle Chicken Bites with Chipotle Mayo Dip
I guess I should start off by saying having found these won ton wrappers back a few months ago I've used them for about any use I can think of. And they are perfect! I found a recipe that talked about making phyllo dough chicken wraps or something and it used an avocado dip of some sort....but I've been dying to make this chipotle mayo dip that my good friend Ari gave to me so I botched this recipe and made my own, sweetness!
1 1/2 lb ground chicken
1 package of won ton wrappers (30) though you may not need all of them
1/2 onion chopped pretty fine
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese **optional for those lactose intolerant people :)
1 garlic clove, chopped
2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped and seeded (for more spice & fire leave some seeds in)
salt & pepper to taste
The chipotle peppers in adobo sauce can be found in the international cooking asile with pasta and mexican food, small can.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl combine chicken, onion, cheese (if using it), garlic, salt & pepper, and chipotle peppers using some of the sauce in the can. Mix all together. Using the won ton wrappers add a small spoonful to the middle and fold up sides. I make it so it kind of looks like an envelope or a 4 sided pyramid?! Depending on how full you stuff them, make sure they close all the way, will depend how many wrappers you use. You can always get more wrappers or use more meat. This would probably work great using ground turkey as well. Put the bites on a greased cookie sheet and in the oven for about 15 minutes. Enjoy!
Chipotle Mayo Dip
You can add a dab of this inside the chicken bites or just use to dip with. This also goes great dipping fries, tator totes, etc. in!
Equal parts Mayo & Sour Cream (about 1/2 cup each)
2-3 chipotle peppers seeded and chopped (leave seeds in for more spice & fire)
garlic salt, about 1 tsp depending how much you like garlic
lemon juice, about 2 tablespoons worth
Combine all ingredients into a food processor and blend. Wa-la! It is kind of a make-it-as-you-go type of recipe but I absolutely love it!
This snack can be made for a game day treat, an appetizer before a big meal with friends and family or eaten as a meal itself as we've done before. It's great, not bad for you (maybe a little but you can't tell), and fills you up without filling you out!
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk (I used soy milk and couldn't taste the difference)
Topping: to be made while bread is in oven
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar (aka powdered sugar)
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice (I've used small lemons and used the juice from 2 lemons)
In a large bowl, cream together shortening and sugar with a mixer. Add in eggs one at a time mixing very well. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add the dry mix to the shortening-sugar-egg mixture, alternating with adding the milk. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and add the mixture to a greased 9x5 loaf pan or 8x8 square dish or mini loaf pan, whatever you choose. Baking time may differ depending on the pan used, but bake for 40-45 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
As soon as the bread comes out of the oven, pour the mixture over the top of it so the flavor soaks into the warm bread. The first time I made this I didnt' have powdered sugar so I used regular sugar and it seemed to turn out the same. Might be a little more "sugary" on the top, but basically the same. If using regular sugar, use a bit more lemon juice.
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| Made in my 8x8 pan |