Whip It Up Wednesday: Stuffed Shells

Stuffed Shells (recipe makes 6 servings)

1 egg

12 oz Ricotta Cheese or 2 C cottage cheese (I use a 20 oz? cottage cheese)

16 oz Ziti Pasta, slightly undercooked (I use a box of Large Shells)

1 1/2 C Spaghetti sauce

10 oz spinach (optional but delicious)

 Combine egg, cottage/ricotta cheese and spinach. Recipe calls to food process but I simply mashed it all together with a whisk. Boil your Ziti or Shells until they are a few minutes undercooked. Drain and cool to handle. Fill shell or ziti with the cheese mixture. Place in containers for freezing or into a casserole pan for cooking (or split it up for both). Some recipes call to freeze just the mixture but I like to freeze with it in the shell for even easier meals. Cover with spaghetti sauce (I add a little to the bottom of the pan as well) and cook at 350* for 30 minutes. Additional cheese mixture or mozzarella cheese can be used to top the dish.

 forgive my poor pictures...

...and plate presentation

Rating:  5 stars

-super easy to prepare (and freeze).  Tastes delicious (my father-in-law had three servings and I consider him a little hard to please).  

-this recipe comes from the 30 Gourmet's Big Book of Freezer Cooking book.  It is one we've made before and love. It freezes well and tastes great either fresh or post-frozen.

Whip It Up Wednesday: Minestrone Fix-Up

I am being lazy.  I even made something new for my Whip It Up Wednesday.  It was even a hit with everyone (my father-in-law had three servings!).  But it can wait.  Today was rainy and cool.  What a relief after all the heat.  So I made minestrone soup.  The lazy way too...go figure.  I like Bear Creek soups for quick meals on cold (or cool) days.  But the sodium in them kills me (literally and figuratively I'm sure).  My solution:

Double the water!  You can't tell the difference...I think it tastes better.  I cook mine with sausage usually (yeah I know...adding sodium right back in).  But I double or nearly double the water from 8 cups to 14 cups or more.  I also like to add extra noodles and a can of diced tomatoes or corn or beans or whatever extra good thing I have in the freezer or on the shelf.  Bonus:  it stretches even further in addition to hopefully lowering the sodium per serving.  Just passing on.  I'm sure there are healthier soups out there but like I said...this is my lazy day meal. 

Whip It Up Wednesday: Tusan Pasta With Tomato-Basil Sauce

Like many of my friends I am newly (or not so newly anymore) addicted to Pinterest.  I love to pin recipes that I want to try, home decor that I swear I will use once we're on our own again and crafts that interest me.  But I figure lots of people never even try their pins out...what a waste of time to pin and not use.  My in-laws have recently fallen victim and grateful recipients of my interest to weed out good recipes from the hum-drum stuff.

Tuscan Pasta with Tomato-Basil Cream Sauce (original found here)

1 (20-oz.) package refrigerated four-cheese ravioli* (I used spaghetti or fettucine noodles also)

1 (16-oz.) jar sun-dried tomato Alfredo sauce

2 tablespoons white wine (optional; I put milk in instead)

2 medium-size fresh tomatoes

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Garnish: fresh basil strips

Preparation:

1. Prepare pasta according to package directions.

2. Meanwhile, pour Alfredo sauce into a medium saucepan. Pour wine into sauce jar; cover tightly, and shake well. Stir wine mixture into saucepan. Stir in chopped tomatoes and 1/2 cup chopped basil, and cook over medium-low heat 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Toss with pasta, and top evenly with 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese. Garnish, if desired.
*1 (13-oz.) package three-cheese tortellini may be substituted.
**1 (14.5-oz.) can petite diced tomatoes, fully drained, may be substituted.
Note: For testing purposes only, we used Buitoni Four Cheese Ravioli and Classico Sun-dried Tomato Alfredo Pasta Sauce.

My Star Rating: 4.5
** I LOVED this the first time but it was simply just delicious the second...still would make it repeatedly though; my in-laws and husband also raved about it.  Major plus...it is so easy to prepare.

Whip It Up Wednesday -- Banana Zucchini Bread

I love banana bread and I love zucchini bread.  I had purchased bananas for my girls and then some zucchini to make bread.  Seeing as how the bananas were becoming overripe and I still hadn't made my zucchini bread I decided to combine the two.  So here is my first minor experiment in recipe adjusting.

Banana Zucchini Bread

1/2 C shortening

1 C sugar

2 eggs

2 ripe bananas

1 small to medium zucchini grated

1 C all purpose white flour

1 C wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C nuts (optional)

Cream shortening, sugar, eggs, bananas, grated zucchini and vanilla together.  Sift in flour, soda, cinnamon and salt.  Blend all of your ingredients together, mixing in nuts at the end if you desire.  Pour batter evenly into  two greased/floured loaf pans.  Bake for 45 minutes at 350* F.  If making muffins cook at 350* for 35 minutes. 

Notes:  You can do this recipe with three bananas instead of the zucchini.  My original recipe called for 2 cups white flour but I have become of fan of putting in at least half wheat flour.  I also decided to add some cinnamon.  My loafs both stuck to the pan using spray so I would recommend the grease and flour method for this one.

Rating:  5 stars 

-I really enjoyed this one.  It was easy to throw together and cook despite the disaster in my kitchen (more on that later).  I like the mixture of flavors.  Also my girls definitely enjoyed this bread and were begging for more (you know the open mouth and "ah ah ah" type begging).