D ~ Week 25 ~ Make Ahead Unstuffed Shells

Found this recipe online here... http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/make-ahead-unstuffed-shells-128138.aspx

Sorry I haven't uploaded many recipes lately. My oven has been on the fritz - which is a good excuse not to cook (something I really don't like). Anyway, my temperamental oven started working again so... back at it! Recipe at the bottom!

Ingredients:

4

cups  medium pasta shells, uncooked

1

lb.  extra-lean ground beef

1

jar  (24 oz.) marinara sauce

1

tub  (10 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Original Cooking Creme

1/3

cup  chopped fresh basil

1/4

cup  KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese

1-1/2

cups  KRAFT Shredded Mozzarella Cheese with a TOUCH OF PHILADELPHIA

Directions:

COOK pasta as directed on package, omitting salt. Meanwhile, brown meat in large skillet; drain. Stir in marinara sauce; simmer on medium heat 2 min. Remove from heat.

DRAIN pasta. Mix cooking creme, basil and Parmesan in large bowl; stir in pasta. Spread half the meat sauce onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray; cover with layers of pasta mixture and remaining meat sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella; cover with foil. Refrigerate up to 24 hours.

HEAT oven to 375ºF. Bake casserole, covered, 40 to 45 min. or until heated through, uncovering after 30 min.

D ~ Week 24 ~ Dinner in the CrockPot

Pork chops & baked potatoes in the crock pot.

Ingredients:
4-6 Pork chops
Potatoes, washed
Corn on the Cob
Aluminum Foil
Garlic
Mushroom Soup
Mushrooms
Onion powder
Your preferred Spices

First, spray the crockpot/slow cooker with non-stick spray. You can then sear the pork chops, if you want. I'm lazy and didn't.

Then I put the pork chops in the bottom of the crockpot. Add your soup and spices. Because I was worried about how this would cook, I added water to the soup mix. Apparantely I'm more nervous than I thought, because after pouring the soup mix over the chops, I covered them in Aluminum foil.

After I washed the potatoes, I speared them with a fork a few times and then wrapped them in foil. Then I placed them on the foil covering the chops.

Wrap the corn in foil and put that on top of the potatoes...or you can put the corn in before the potatoes. However works for you.

Turn on low and cook for 4-6 hours. I was starving and impatient so as soon as the chops were done, I pulled them out and ate them, however... they could have cooked a bit longer.

Confession Time:
I didn't sear the meat. 
I didn't use mushrooms (ew gross!) like the recipe called for.
I'm not entirely sure where I found this recipe, but the lady that did this is a genius! I'll keep looking to find it though to give her all the credit for this amazing idea! Update: I found it! http://hickeryhollerfarm.blogspot.com/2012/03/crock-pot-cooking.html
Final confession...I left my camera in my bag and was too lazy to walk into the other room to get it, so pictures are going to be slow coming since I must get them off my phone! 

C :: Week 13 :: A different way to make Macaroni & Cheese

So, I don't think I've ever really made homemade mac & cheese.  My grandma makes the best.  But I can't get some of the ingredients here in Mexico, so I needed to find something with more natural ingredients. :)  And this is the one that I found and tried.

Recipe found at: http://www.macaroniandcheesecake.com/2011/09/revolutionary-mac-cheese.html 

Ingredients:

2 cups dried pasta
2 1/2 cups skim milk
1 cup loosely packed cheddar cheese, shredded by hand
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dijon mustard, can omit and substitute nutmeg instead (for either, start with a little and add more to taste)

Directions:

In a small saucepan, add pasta and milk.  Bring to simmer, then reduce heat to low and cook for 20 to 25 minutes, until pasta is soft, stirring frequently and ensuring milk does not boil

Turn heat off, add cheese & salt & and stir to combine.  Stir in the mustard or nutmeg & cayenne a little at a time, to taste. Cover and let stand for a couple of minutes, then stir again and serve. If not creamy enough, add milk a little at a time, and gently stir.

If you would like to bake it at this point, place in a baking dish and top with a generous sprinkling of cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 10 minutes until cheese has melted.

As a side dish this makes enough for 4 people with no leftovers (can easily be doubled).

The green specs in the picture is chopped up jalapeño.
Review:
I really enjoyed the recipe.  It was super yummy and creamy.  I will definitely work on figuring out which cheese are the best for this recipe.  And the jalapeño added a nice flavor. :)  It's a keeper.

C :: week 14 :: Key Lime Pie

Well, here is the pie I made a few weeks ago.  But I forgot to bookmark the recipe or write the recipe down.  My bad.  Sorry about that.  But it was super yummy. :)

D ~ Week 23 ~ Crock Pot Lasagna

So... I've been a bit um... lazy the last few weeks and haven't been cooking much of anything... at all. Anyway, my mom gave me the brilliant idea to make lasagna in the crock pot. We kinda made up the recipe as we went. 

Ingredients:
Spaghetti sauce (we used leftover sauce from spaghetti the night before)
extra spices for sauce - garlic, oregano, basil, etc.
cottage cheese
egg
basil
Parmesan cheese
mozzarella cheese
lasagna noodles


Add spices to sauce (sooo yummy) and mix well. Spray the crock pot with cooking spray, then add some sauce to cover the bottom of the crock pot.

Now is the fun part! Puzzle piece the lasagna noodles in a layer across the bottom of the pot.  Mix cottage cheese, basil, egg & paremsan cheese together then layer on top of the noodles. Layer sauce, noodles, cheese, sauce, etc. Top with mozzarella.

Put in crock pot & cook on low for 4 hours or so. check and then cook more if needed. We enjoyed it... but it definitely needs to cook down to about half its size. We were starving and ate it early - after about 4 hours - it could have used a few more hours cooking.