Baked Tortellini

I found this recipe on Pinterest and I'm sooo happy that I went with it.

A few things turned me on to this recipe....

1. CHEESE!!!

2. I had all of the ingredients and I think almost everyone probably will.

3. Cook and prep time about 30 minutes! 

and

 4. An Alfredo sauce that doesn't require a rue/rew/ru? (sticky, gooey, can be grainy, floury, messy and will burn if you don't watch it, temperamental base for most Alfredo sauces.) 

Ingredients

20 Ounce pack of tortellini

I used bertolli

2 chicken sausages (can leave out)

4 oz Mozzarella Cheese

Garlic Alfredo sauce (recipe below)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Get out a 2 quart baking dish and set aside.
2. Boil tortellini according to package directions, and set aside. Dice up chicken sausage and brown in pan until cooked. I like to freeze my links so that they are easier to cut. 
3. Spread a 1/4 cup of alfredo sauce on bottom of baking dish.
4. In a large bowl, mix your tortellini, sausage and the remaining alfredo sauce. Poor your pasta mixture into your baking dish. Top with mozzarella cheese, and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Turn your broiler on, and while watching, broil for a few minutes to get your cheese a little crispy.
5. Enjoy!

Garlic Alfredo Ingredients

• 4 T butter
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 cup milk (I used 1%))
• 3 oz. Parmesan cheese, grated (not the powdered kind!)
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 pinch Kosher salt

 

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook 2 minutes.
2. Add cream cheese and whisk until smooth. This part may look a little curd-ily but don't stress, somehow it all works out in the end. Slowly add in milk, whisking constantly until smooth.
3. Stir in parmesan and pepper. Season with kosher salt, if needed.
4. Remove from heat when desired consistency is reached.

 Linking up with for Taste of Tuesdays with Ashley and Jessica! 

Soop-dew-jer

"Excuse me Flo, What's the soup du jour?"

Flo: "It's the soup of the day"

"Mmmm. That's sounds good, I'll have that!"

Name that movie.....

I love homemade soups. Don't get me wrong, clam chowdah out of a can is pretty damn good too. But, homemade soups make the entire house smell yummy and you get left overs for days. Considering our heat doesn't go above 62 degrees in the winter because we are cheap thrifty, soups are a must in this house. With the cold weather coming, I figured I'd share this for fall.

Here is a souper easy recipe that you can't frig up.

1 1/2 lbs of stewed beef cubed (if you don't have stewed beef, 1 1/2 lbs of ground hamburger works too.
2 stalks of celery chopped
1 or 2 cans of diced tomatoes with juices
5 cans of beef stock or 2 large cans.
1 cup of rice
2 cups elbow macaroni
1-2 beef bouillon cubes
2 bay leaves
Garlic powder
Celery salt
Salt
Black Pepper
1 onion diced
And 1/4 of butter


First melt the butter in the bottom of the stock pot. Add onions, cubed beef and season meat with garlic powder. Brown the meat on all sides before adding the stock. Don't burn the onions! (if you are using ground beef, do not add any butter to the pan).

Add the beef broth. Then add equal parts water. Add your beef bouillon.

Get the water rumbling!

"Simmer down now!"

Add celery, tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste, bay leaves along with a tsp of celery salt.

Let this stay at on low temperature and boil for about 2 1/2- 3 hours.

Boil your rice and macaroni (in separate pots.) I shouldn't have to say that but sometimes when I read directions, I take them too literal. Rinse both starches with cold water and set aside.

The best way to check to see if the soup is done is to try the meat. Stewed beef is very tough but after you boil the hell out of it, it will fall apart in your mouth.

I also usually taste the broth while the soup is cooking, making sure to add more of the necessary spices to get the beef stock flavor.

This soup is totally freezeable too. I usually spoon a few ladle fills into a quart freezer bag and throw it in the freezer.
When your ready to eat it, throw the frozen quart bag in the sink in the morning and by lunch, it'll be thawed.

There's your Soup Doo-jer

Linking up with Ashley and Jessica for Taste of Tuesdays!!! 

Homemade Waffles with Strawberry Drizzle

Linking up today with Ashley and Jessica.
I'm pretty sure that after reading this post, this is what you are going to want today. Sorry not sorry.

 A few weeks ago I bought a waffle iron and I have been dying to use it. Ok, so maybe it was the Maple Pumpkin Butter, that I'd been dying to try. Sunday morning was the perfect time to try all of this deliciousness out.

I found this waffle recipe online and tweaked it myself. 

Instead of eggs, I used egg substitute. (1 egg=1/4 cup egg subs.)

Instead of whole milk, I used 1% and I substituted Truvia for the sugar.

 I also added cinnamon to my mix.

Pre heat waffle iron.

Pre heat oven to 300 degrees.

First, I got all of the dry ingredients together and set them aside. 

Then I added the eggs, milk, butter and vanilla extract to the blender.

Mix wet ingredients in blender on "Stir" setting. 

Once all of the wet ingredients are blended, you can add the dry mix.

Mix again on Stir.

Once you have this big blender of what looks like baby batter, your ready to go.

Spray the waffle iron with Pam before pouring the waffle mix on.
Pour in mix and shut the cover (don't peek, it will stick if you do).
My waffle iron has a little light to let me know when they are done.

I have a pizza stone in my oven at all times, and as these were finishing, I kept putting them in the oven on the pizza stone to keep them from getting soggy. I highly recommend this.

I also advise that you put your waffle iron on paper towels. Unless you are the waffle maker master, you will over pour and when you close the lid....spillage on the counter. 

Paper towels were removed for the purpose of this photo, believe you me it was a mess.

For the strawberry sauce I used 8 strawberries and cut them into halves.

Bring a cup of water, strawberries and 2 tablespoons of Truvia to a boil. Let simmer, slightly bubbling for 5 minutes, or until the strawberries blanch a little bit aka turn white.

Butter the waffles (we use olivio) and add your toppings!

Next, go wake up your man candy and bring him out to this. He will then offer to go shopping with you all day because of his bad ass breakfast that you slaved over. It was also "tax-free weekend". 

Sriracha Garlic Shrimp with T.O.T

Linking up with Ashley and Jess again for

 

Due to the weather slowwwwly getting warmer, I've been playing outside on the grill a little bit more.

 Last weekend I made Sriracha Garlic Grilled Shrimp and oh my G, DELISH and the heat from this dish is just the right amount.

  

Ingredients

1/3 cup of Sriracha (or as some of you say "cock sauce")

1/3 cup of Olive Oil

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 handful of cilantro, roughly chopped, plus more for garnish

1 tsp of sugar

salt

ground black pepper

2 lbs of large shrimp (16-20 count), peeled and deveined.

 

Mix together the Sriracha, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, cilantro and sugar.

Season aggressively with S&P

Put the sauce in a 1 gallon bag and add the shrimp.

Marinate for at least 2-4 hours 

Next, skewer up these bad boys and grill at medium heat until pink! 2-3 minute per side.

Garnish with the rest of cilantro and serve!!!

 I think that these would be good with a little lime squeezed over them at the end too, just to cool them off a little bit if the Sriracha is too spicy for you!

And for the girls that made the tomato, pesto, mozzarella ring...I'm glad that you enjoyed it!

Tomato, pesto and mozzarella ring with Taste Of Tuesdays

 

Tomato, pesto and mozzarella ring

Linking up with Ashley and Jessica for another recipe swap-a-thon

I've made this ring numerous times and it always gets eaten. It's super simple and somewhat healthy, but who's talking about health here? Fair enough?

What you will need...

   

2 packages of Pillsbury crescent rolls, I used reduced fat

2 tomatoes

1 ball of mozzarella 

1 container of reduced fat pesto, or make you own with Alexa's poor man's pesto 

Grab one large baking sheet and "pam" it.

  Take out both of your cresent rolls and make a cirlce with them. Pinch them where they meet to make the stay together.

     

Bake as directed.

Slice up tomatoes and mozzarella

Once your ring is baked, take it out of the oven and let it cool a bit. You are going to have to halve this, so have a bread knife handy so that you can slice it, (yes "have" was just used 3 times) You want to make this ring into a sandwich. So, there will end up being a top and a bottom piece.

 

After you have sliced it, place the top piece to the side and load the bottom piece with your pesto, tomatoes, mozzarella and a little salt 'n pepper.

 

Once you are done, put the top piece on and cut the ring into 2 inch

sections

 

We like to eat this warm or cold, it's good either but it won't last a minute! 

OH! And don't forget to enter my giveaway

An adorable camera strap from The Poppy Shoppe, with your choice of design!