Homemade Manicotti

We have homemade manicotti each year at Christmas & I wanted to attempt to make it myself on New Year's Eve. It was a success! I also made Grandma's homemade gravy & meatballs, all was delicious.

Manicotti
2 cups flour
2 cups milk
6 eggs

This makes about 30-40 patties so I cut this in half.





Source: Grandma

Chicken Parm Pizza balls

This was an awesome recipe I found on another cooking blog that we decided to try last night. Dan ended up eating all of them minus 2, so you know they were good!



Ingredients
1 ball of fresh pizza dough
1-2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
1-2 cups of diced chicken (or any other meat)
2 tsp Italian seasoning (combine oregano, basil, and garlic)
1/4 cup olive oil
pizza or marinara sauce
Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease pie pan.

Grab a walnut-sized piece of dough and flatten. In each dough piece place a couple pieces of diced chicken and a tablespoon of cheese. Seal dough around meat and cheese and place seam side down in pie pan.

Repeat, placing approximately 16 dough balls in each pie plate.

Once assembled, drizzle oil over the balls and sprinkle with the herbs.

When ready to bake: bake at 400°F for 16-20 min. Serve with warm pizza or marinara sauce.

Source: Lauren's Kitchen Blog

Chicken Stuffed Shells

Chicken Stuffed Shells

-15 uncooked jumbo pasta shells
-2 teaspoons oil
-2-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
-8 ounces cooked chicken
-1(15 ounce) container fat free ricotta cheese
-1/3 cup dry breadcrumbs
-1 (28 ounce) can low fat marinara sauce
-Salt and pepper to taste
-1 tsp parsley
-Parmesan cheese for topping

1)Heat oven to 400 degrees
2)Spray large baking dish with nonstick cooking spray
3)Cook pasta shells according to directions and drain
4)Boil chicken and shred
5)Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat
6)Combine chicken and garlic, cook for 3-5 minutes
7)Remove from heat and stir in ricotta, breadcrumbs, parsley and salt and pepper to taste
8)Spread 1/2 cup sauce in the bottom of the baking dish
9)Fill cooked shells with chicken mixture and place filled sides up in baking dish
10)Pour remaining sauce over shells

Bake covered with foil for 15-20 minutes, remove foil and continue baking until filling is lightly browned

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve.

Source: This blog.

Cheesy Chicken Skillet

This recipe was surprisingly good & super easy! We made the entire thing in about 25 minutes!



Cheesy Chicken Skillet
Ingredients

-2 cups of pasta
-3/4 lbs chicken, cut into pieces
-1 can Healthy Request cream of chicken soup
-1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning
-1 cup of skim milk
-1 tsp black pepper
-1/4 cup shredded mozzarella

Cook the pasta as directed. Heat oil in 10 inch skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken & cook thoroughly. Reduce heat to medium; stir in soup, tomatoes, milk and seasonings. Stir in cooked pasta. Cook about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally until bubbly & heated through. Sprinkle with cheese. Reduce heat, cover & let stand about 5 minutes.

**Modified to use less milk, & Italian style tomatoes instead of adding seasoning separately

Source: Lauren's Kitchen Blog

Homemade gnocchi

This is a recipe I tried a while back & it was HARD to make. But I wanted to give it a shot. They totally fell apart, but I'd like to try them again sometime.





I have no idea what recipe I used, but I didn't have a ricer and I used a cheese grater instead. I definitely need to attempt this one more time!

Chicken Parm Meatball Subs

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds ground chicken
1 tablespoon various seasonings
1 large egg
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
EVOO
Salt
Pepper
Crusty sub rolls
Sliced Mozzarella

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Place chicken in a bowl and season. Add egg, grated cheese, bread crumbs, and a serious drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil to the bowl. Mix the meat and form 12 large meatballs. Squish the balls to flatten them a bit like mini oval meatloaves. Be careful not to form the balls wider than your bread. Bake the meatballs 15 minutes until golden and firm. Switch the broiler on.


Cut sub rolls making the bottom a little deeper than the top. Hollow out a little bread and lightly toast the sub rolls under broiler. Fill the bottoms of the breads with flattened balls and sauce. Cover the subs with cheese and return to broiler to melt the cheese until golden.

Adapted from Rachel Ray

Recipes to try in 2009

Here are some recipes I'd really like to try in 2009:

Chicken Parm Meatball Subs

Parmesan Orzo

Chicken Stuffed Shells

This will be good for Superbowl!
Buffalo Chicken Dip

Thai Style Chicken Fried Rice

Ricotta Gnocchi with Tomato Cream Sauce

Weight Watchers Penne Vodka

I hope I have a chance to try them all! So many cooking blogs out there & so many fun recipes :)

Creamy Tomato Soup with Meatballs & Orzo

I'm off from work today and wanted to do some cooking. Sooooo I decided to tackle soup, something I have never done! I tweaked the meatballs a bit to be more like my Grandma's, I was just missing the onion (only because I forgot and don't have a car to get some right now!) The soup was really delicious & hearty, and besides the meatballs was super easy. If you take out the meatballs, you can whip this up super quick. I'm very proud of myself!!



Creamy Tomato Soup with Meatballs and Orzo

Meatballs
1 lb ground sirloin
2 slices white bread, wet and shredded
1 medium onion, grated
salt, pepper
1/4 C. grated parmesan cheese (preferably locatelli)
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350
Mix all ingredients well and roll into mini meatballs. Cover cookie sheet with foil and place a cooking rack on top. Put meatballs on the cooling rack and put in oven. cook for 20-25 minutes. (I did not have a cooling rack, it would have worked better)
When finished, take out of oven and set aside.

Tomato Basil soup
2 cans petite diced tomatoes
1 8oz. can tomato sauce
2 cloves garlic minced
Basil
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup orzo (raw) cooked according to package directions
1 cup half and half (I use fat-free half & half)
1 stick unsalted butter (you can get away with much less)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese for garnish

Over med. high heat put tomato products, stock, and garlic in a large stock pot. Let come to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Add basil, butter and half and half and whisk until well blended.
Add meat balls and orzo and serve with parmesan cheese.

**After making this a few times, I have just used frozen mini-meatballs (Trader Joe's) and I have used MUCH less butter, I may even eliminate it next time.



Source: Culinary Infatuation Blog

Cooking with Mom - Part 3; Grandma's Meatballs & Gravy

Today is the day!! We decided to attempt Grandma's famous meatballs & gravy once again. And as always, it was amazing. No, its not EXACTLY Grandma's, but I think we do a pretty good job!!

All the ingredients:



Cooking the gravy



Making the meatballs



Gravy & meatballs, yum!



Here is Grandma's recipe:

Italian Gravy

2-3 or more canned tomatoes (We use 4, 2 crushed & 2 whole peeled tomatoes)

Drippings from fried meatballs

Open one of the tomato cans & pour into blender combined with 2 cloves garlic, 1 tsp. dry sweet basil, one small onion, and 2 bay leaves. Blend well.

Pour all cans of tomatoes, plus blended tomatoes, into sufficiently large pot, add meat drippings (and meat), also about 1 tsp. salt and ½ tsp. black pepper.

Cook over low flame, uncovered, about an hour, longer if you want meatballs to really absorb gravy. Stir frequently.

Grandma's Meatballs

2 pounds ground beef
Grated Romano cheese, 2x around or more
2-3 slices white bread, wet & shredded
2 eggs
1 medium onion, grated
Salt, 2x around
Pepper, 1x around
Basil, 2x around

Combine all ingredients together. Roll into balls, then roll in 4C seasoned bread crumbs.

Fry in oil until browned on all sides. Remove & drain on plate lined with paper towels.