Salsa Cream Cheese Pasta Bake

When I saw this recipe it looked yummy, and I just happened to have all of the ingredients already so I gave it a try. I know I make a lot of casserole type food and it may not be for some, but I love having leftovers for my husband and I love anything easy. This was way good.

I saw this recipe on Good Things Utah
by: Freshmarketstores.com

1 (8 oz.) pkg. egg noodles
1½ lb. lean ground beef
16 oz. salsa
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cottage cheese
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 (16 oz.) pkg. sour cream
1 (8 oz.) pkg. shredded sharp cheddar

Brown beef, add salsa and seasoning mix. In separate bowl, mix cottage cheese, cream cheese and sour cream together. In greased 9x13 casserole dish, place half of the cooked noodles, then ½ of beef mixture, then ½ of sour cream mixture. Repeat all 3 layers. Top with grated cheddar. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes

Twix Ice Cream Cake

Another recipe from HERE! I don't eat ice cream much, hardly ever. It actually makes me incredibly sick. But, this was very tempting. I'm not very good with temptation. I kept looking at her blog thinking how delightful this looked and kept trying to talk myself out of it. I finally decided I'd make it and just eat a small portion...This picture was taken before it was frozen.

TWIX ICE CREAM CAKE
Recipe By: Holly Lofthouse

1 (1.5 quart) Vanilla Ice cream, slightly softened
1 (16 oz) jar of Caramel Sauce
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions: In a 9x13 glass dish spread out the ice cream evenly. Cover and place in freezer. Freeze to set for 2 hours.
While the ice cream is setting start making the cookie topping. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars in a medium bowl. Stir in vanilla and flour until well mixed. Spread dough into a foil-lined 8x8 baking dish. Bake for 15 minutes or slightly golden. Remove from heat and let stand until completely cooled.
Once Ice cream is all set and cookie topping is completely cooled, take ice cream out of freezer. Pour the caramel sauce evenly over ice cream. Break apart the cookie topping into big chunks and sprinkle evenly over caramel.
Melt chocolate chips in a microwavable bowl. Heat at 30 second intervals until melted. Stir and then drizzle over the cookie topping. Re-cover and place back into freezer for 6 hours or overnight to completely re-freeze. Slice into squares and serve! : )

***edited to add the next time I make this I won't put the chocolate chips on top. It was hard to cut through once they were frozen. Next time I will just use choclate fudge sauce and pour it over the top each time I dish it out***

Easy Rice & Bean Wraps

I guess one good thing of laying on the couch feeling super sick is I've been able to post several recipes in my stack. But it's also making me hungry and I can't eat anything. This is another recipe I've been making for at least 10 years, probably more. It seems like my original recipe came from Albertsons way back when they used to have recipe cards by certain ingredients. These are easy and yummy.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp margarine or butter

1 package (6.8 oz.) Rice A Roni Spanish Rice (the last time I made these I used Uncle Bens Spanish rice and it was actually easier. I always had hard rice in my burritos when I used the Rice A Roni because I could never cook it just right)

1 jar (16 oz.) salsa

1 can (15 oz.) black or red kidney beans, drained, rinsed

1 cup Green Giant Mexicorn, drained (I use the small can, I'm not sure how many ounces it is, but I don't measure a cup out, I use the whole can.)

8 flour tortillas, warmed (I of course only use the tortillas you have to brown on the stove)

shredded cheddar cheese, optional

sour cream, optional

Directions:
In large skillet over medium-high heat, saute rice-vermicelli mix with margarine until vermicelli is golden brown (I used microwavable Uncle Ben's Spanish rice then just put in the pan)

Add 2 cups water, salsa and special seasonings (again if you use the Uncle Ben's you won't have special seasonings to ad and you probably don't need to add water either) bring to a boil and reduce heat to low.

Cover; simmer 15 to 20 minutes or until rice is tender (probably only about 5 minutes if you use the Uncle Ben's

Stir in beans and corn; cook just a few minutes; let stand 5 minutes before serving

Serve in tortillas with cheese and sour cream

Cheesy Chicken Pizza

This is a super fast and easy chicken pizza. If you like barbecue sauce then you could use that instead of pizza sauce. I however don't like BBQ sauce but I'm sure my husband would prefer it. I have no idea where this recipe came from. I've made it for probably 10 years. I think it was probably a Kraft Foods magazine or something like that.
Ingredients:
1/2 package Chicken Breast (probably 2 chicken breasts
1 prepared pizza crust (12 inch)
1/2 cup pizza sauce (or BBQ sauce)
1/2 cup sliced green peppers (I like it with peppers but I know my son won't eat it with peppers so I've been leaving them off.)
1 pkg (8 oz)shredded Mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Cook chicken in 1 Tbsp. hot oil on medium-high heat until cooked through.
Spread crust with sauce. Top with chicken, peppers, mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese.
Bake at 400 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown.

Baked Macaroni & Cheese

My sister n law made this macaroni and cheese and it was the best I'd ever had. I made it and didn't think it turned out good at all. I'm not sure what I did wrong. So, even though I made it and thought it didn't turn out, I'm posting it and hopefully the next time I try it it will be as good as when my sister in law made it. I found the recipe on Food Network. You can google Alton Brown baked macaroni and cheese and it should pull up a video link where he shows you step by step how to make it.

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, Food Network

Ingredients
1/2 lb elbow macaroni (I don't know exactly how much this is. I googled it, but I didn't write down how much I used. I'm thinking about 2 cups, non cooked)
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon mustard powder
3 cups milk
1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 large egg
12 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 teaspoon kosher salt
fresh black pepper

Topping
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup panko bread crumbs (At the time I made this I only had regular bread crumbs, next time I'll use Panko bread crumbs for sure.)

Directions:
Prep Time: 15 mins

Total Time: 45 mins
1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta according to package directions.
2 While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes making sure it's free of lumps.
3 Stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf.
4 Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. (watch the video if you don't know what temper means. Basically you can't pour a cold egg into the hot mixture or it will turn to scrambled eggs so you have to slowly mix a little of the warm mixture with the egg to get it warm before pouring it in the pan.)
5 Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.
6 For the topping, melt the butter in a sauté pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes.
7 Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving

Mozzarella Sticks

I saw this recipe on the Pioneer Woman Cooks and wanted to try them but actually forgot about them. Then recently I saw this recipe posted HERE. And of course you can click HERE for a great step by step by the Pioneer Woman and of course better pictures. I finally made these and they were way better than I was expecting them to be. I have been craving them since.

8 sticks mozzarella string cheese
1/4 cup flour
1 egg
1 1/2 TBSP milk
1 cup Panko Japanese bread crumbs
1/2 TBSP parsley
salt
canola oil (I only had Olive Oil so I used that instead of canoloa)
marinara sauce

Prep:
Unwrap string cheese. Cut in half.
Put flour in small bowl/plate.
Mix egg and milk in a small bowl, stirring with fork.
Add a few shakes of salt (from the salt shaker) to a small bowl or plate holding the Panko crumbs.

How to:
Roll cheese through flour to coat.
Dip flour-coated cheese in egg/milk mixture so that egg/milk is absorbed into flour coating.
Roll through Panko crumbs to coat.
When finished coating, place prepped cheese sticks in freezer for 20-30 min (to flash freeze).
Fry in 1-2" canola oil until golden brown. Allow to dry on paper-towel.

Serve with marinara sauce.

Makes 16 mozzarella sticks