Creamy Baked Ziti

This is another recipe from the Kraft Food & Family Holiday 2010 magazine. It was so yummy. It's similar to a few other recipes I have but each one is slightly different and I thought this was so good.

Ingredients:
4 cups Zita pasta, uncooked
1 jar marinara sauce (The recipe calls for 26 oz but the jar I used was only something like 16 oz and was plenty)
1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained (I drained mine slightly)
6 oz Cream Cheese cubed (I used the entire 8 oz brick because I didn't want to waste it)
3/4 cup Sour Cream
1 pkg (8 oz) Mozzarella Cheese
1/3 cup Parmesan Cheese

Directions:
Heat oven to 375.
Cook pasta in large saucepan as directed on package, omitting salt. Remove from pan; drain. Meanwhile, add marinara sauce, tomatoes and cream cheese to same pan; cook on medium heat 5 minutes or until cream cheese is melted and mixture is well blended, stirring frequently. Return pasta to pan and mix well.
Layer half the pasta mixture in 13X9 inch baking dish; cover with layers of sour cream, 1 cup mozzarella and remaining pasta mixture. Top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.
Bake 20 minutes or until heated through.

I made my Magelbys rolls to have with this. Would also be good with salad.

Cheesy Scrambled Eggs

this is not a fancy recipe or anything. Ever since Karson was little, we knew he was going to be small in size. At four he's finally on the charts at .24 percentile. We had been told early on to calorie pack all of his food. I came up with this for scrambled eggs and he loves them. Now I need to search for the Magelby's syrup recipe and we'll have a yummy breakfast.

I mix the eggs, a little bit of milk and salt in a bowl then pour it in the pan. I cook the eggs for a bit before adding cream cheese. You can add as much or as little as you like. After the cream cheese is all melted I add regular cheese. They are super cheesy but so good. I like them with little ham pieces added in also.

Five Mexican Dip

I got this recipe from the Kraft Foods Food & Family Holiday 2010 issue. We had it for lunch today and it was super.

Ingredients
1/2 lb (8 oz) Velveeta cheese, cut into pieces
4 oz cream cheese
1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tomato, chopped (I didn't have any tomatoes so I just used canned, diced tomatoes)

Directions
Combine all ingredients except tomatoes in microwaveable bowl (I actually made it on the stove)
Microwave on high 4 minutes or until Velveeta and cream cheese are melted and mixture is well blended, stirring every 2 minutes.
Stir in tomatoes. Serve warm with tortilla chips.
Tip: keep tortilla chips in a slow cooker set on low for warm chips
Also, I'm sure this could be made in a crock pot if you were to take it to a party or something.

Turtle Tassies

Another recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything blog. Click HERE for a link to her pictures because hers look amazing. My three favorite things are sugar cookies, chocolate and caramel so what could be better than these. Instead of bringing gifts to everyone at work, we all just bring treats through out the month of December. I saw these and wanted to bring them but I wanted to try them first. They are so good! Mine look horrible compared to hers but I could eat the whole pan. I promise you'll love these too.

Turtle Tassies
Source: Betty Crocker

1 Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix (I only had refrigerated sugar cookie dough so that's what I used. I'm sure it doesn't matter either way)
butter and egg called for on the pouch
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate instead)
2 (14 ounce) bags caramels, unwrapped (I'm thinking of trying my 6 minute microwavable caramel next time)
1/3 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup chopped pecans (I didn't have pecans but I don't like them anyway so I just left them off)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Make dough according to package directions. Make 36 (1-inch) balls. Press each ball into a the bottom of each mini muffin cup and press up the sides.

Bake 8-9 minutes or until edges just start to brown. Meanwhile in a small saucepan place unwrapped caramels and cream and heat until melted. Reduce heat to low.

Remove pans from oven. Using the back of wooden spoon press down the sides and bottom of each cup to flatten being careful not to make holes. (I accidentally skipped this step, not on purpose, maybe that's why mine look so funny.)

Bake for 2 minutes more. Remove from oven and immediately place 4-5 chocolate chips in each cup. (and oops I missed this too. Man I must have been in a hurry)

Spoon about 1 Tablespoon of caramel into each cup and immediately top with pecans and slightly press them down. Cool for five minutes then remove with narrow spatula or a knife.

Makes 36 turtle tassies.

Colorful Chicken Alfredo

This recipe came from HERE. I've always loved Alfredo sauce. Usually though I think of it with chicken and broccoli. Not green and red peppers. But, her picture, which is much better looking than mine, enticed me to try this. I loved it! I swear recipe blogs are making me lose sleep at night. I have a million things I want to try, but not enough days in the week. I have discovered a new love for cooking. Really, I love cooking. So I just copied her recipe but I added a few notes to the side of things I did differently. This took more time, and dishes, than most things I cook since I prefer simple. But, it was easy and so worth it. Karson told me the peppers were stinky. Not surprising. I dished his up with no peppers and he ate every thing I put on his plate.

Colorful Chicken Alfredo

2-3 chicken breasts, baked and then chopped into bite size pieces (I actually only used 1 large one and it was plenty)

1 quart water
1/2 pound of bowtie or farfalle noodles (or whatever else)
1 tbs salt

1/2 cup canned chicken broth
3 tbs butter
1 cup half and half (I didn't have this so I used 3/4 cup milk and 1/4 cup whipping cream)
1 clove garlic, minced (I used granulated garlic. I didn't measure if I had to guess maybe 1/2 teaspoon)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I used what was left of my bag, probably closer to 1 cup)
1 tsp salt and pepper each

1 tbs butter
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1/4 cup chicken broth

Heat oven to 375 degrees. On a foil lined baking sheet, place your chicken breasts on top and bake for 35 minutes. When done baking, set aside and when cool enough to handle, chop into bite size pieces. (I also boiled my chicken instead of baking it. I've never mastered baking chicken. It always comes out way to dry so I boil instead.)

Boil bowtie noodles in a large pot with the 1 quart water and 1 tbs salt. Boil for 11 minutes (or according to their package directions) When noodles are done boiling, drain and place back in pot and cover with a lid to keep noodles from drying out until their ready to be added to sauce.

(While the noodles are boiling start on the sauce). In a small saucepan, heat the 1/2 cup chicken broth and 3 tbs butter over medium heat until butter is melted. Add 1 cup half and half, 1 clove garlic and 1/2 tsp salt and pepper each. Stir to combine, then slowly whisk in the 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese. Let simmer on low heat and whisk occasionally.

Slice both bell peppers into small pieces. Pour 1/4 cup chicken broth and 1 tbs butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Then saute bell peppers in butter and broth for about 6-8 minutes. Add in the chopped chicken pieces. Season with salt and pepper and stir to mix well. Turn heat down to low and now add your Alfredo mixture. Stir to combine and let simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the noodles to sauce and mix well! Place on plates and enjoy every heavenly bite with some garlic bread (or try my recipe for Magelbys rolls) or a side salad :) YUM!!

Chocolate Dipped Oreos

Yes that is a picture of a half eaten Oreo. Beautiful, not. Don't be surprised, or disappointed, if this is what you receive from us for Christmas this year. They look horrible, but trust me they taste delightful. I was excited to find Oreo's with red cream inside. My first few batches looked pretty good, but the more I did, the worse they looked. I don't know if my chocolate got to hot or the house was to cold so they went from hot to cold to fast. Who knows but they still taste good. I was actually going to add sucker sticks and make a cute little bouquet, but I got lazy so I just threw them in a tin or a bag. I also bought different colors of chocolate pieces to drizzle on top, but again, to lazy.

Directions

I bought the baking pieces that you can find at any craft or candy store. I also used my double broiler, which was nice because it kept the chocolate melted. If you don't have a double broiler, you can just melt the pieces in the microwave. It just takes longer that way. Just cover with chocolate then let dry on wax paper.