Italian Sausage Pasta

https://wordpress.com/post/chasenchanceranch.wordpress.com/6094

This is another easy, hearty delicious meal.

This is a dish I created a while back trying to come up with a different use for Italian Sausage instead of the usual meals.

4 Italian Sausage Links
16 oz box of pasta (I use large shells) cooked
1/2 onion
1/4 slice of pepper (2 colors or 1/2 of one color)
1 medium clove of garlic
3 TBSP butter
4 TBSP olive oil
2 cups beef bouillon with 1 heaping TBSP cornstarch stirred in until dissolved
Fresh grated Parmesan Cheese (optional)

Par-boil the sausage for 25 minutes and then finish cooking in micro (about 3 minutes) or pan fry until cooked through. Set aside to cool a bit to slice

Dice the onion and peppers (I like to use 2 colors to keep it colorful)

Mince the garlic clove or dice very small

Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the onions and peppers. Cook until soft (about 5 minutes).

Add the oil and garlic and stir gently heating it on medium heat for 2 minutes.

Turn the heat up and pour in the bouillon and cornstarch mixture stirring frequently until starting to thicken and turn down heat.

Add in the sliced Italian Sausage and heat it through.

Serve over pasta and sprinkle with grated cheese!

Rolled Braciole

This is a family favorite and so quick and easy!!  You can see how I make our Rolled Braciole in a red wine reduction sauce on my Facebook page here:  Rolled Braciole

Spaghetti Nest Cupcakes

I’m still here and very busy lately!!  Tonight we had spaghetti nest cupcakes for dinner.  Always a fun dinner for the kids even the teen queen who does not like sauce.

You can find the recipe on my Facebook page tonight here:  Spaghetti Nest Cupcakes

Shared on The Chicken Chick Blog Hop

Creamy Basil Tomato Sauce

Creamy Basil Tomato Sauce

2014 and 2015 First Place winners spoons

Saturday was the Annual Pasta-Sauce Off Competition hosted by the Cooking for Cancer Club in our area.  This club was created by two young girls in my daughter’s class to raise funds for children with cancer.  It benefits Carly’s Club of Roswell Park.

The event consists of volunteers making a pasta sauce and entering a competition.  Visitors purchase sample tickets and can sample all of the sauces and vote for their favorite sauce.  There is a huge basket raffle (94 baskets), a silent auction with some very unique treasures, a bake sale, 50/50 raffle, and all of the proceeds raised are donated to help make sick children’s lives a little bit better!  This event raised $5,000.00!!!!  Such a huge accomplishment for these girls!

Now on to the Creamy Basil Tomato Sauce—-last year I entered the event with a Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce and won 1st place!! (Recipe here: Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce)

This year I wanted to make a different sauce and decided on a Creamy Basil Tomato Sauce.  And guess what…I won again!!

Back to back victories 🙂

It is a lot of fun but even more so knowing you are doing something that will hopefully brighten someones day who may so desperately need it.

Here is the link to my Facebook page which has the recipe for you to try and a few pictures from the event!  The sauce is delicious and helped me top 13 other entries 🙂

CREAMY BASIL TOMATO SAUCE RECIPE

Goat Cheese and Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta

I think goat cheese makes all things better.  I could probably eat it in my breakfast cereal and like it.  This dish is SUPER simple and so fantastically delicious.  The creamy goat cheese blends so well with the tartness of the sun-dried tomatoes.  You will be impressed!

The ingredients are simple.

Preparations could not be much easier.

Once cooked and goat cheese added it becomes a creamy taste of heaven!

I feel like I always say this but for as simple as this dish is, it’s so impressive you will amaze your family and friends.  This mixture is served in a lot of our local restaurants for triple the price it will cost you to make it for a family of 4.  Give it a try!

Goat Cheese and Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta

4 thin chicken breasts cut into cubes (approximately 2 cups)

½ jar sun-dried tomatoes chopped finely (and ½ the oil and seasonings from in the jar)

Goat cheese crumbles (measure to your taste per dish)

5 Tbsp garlic flavored oil or olive oil

3 cloves minced garlic (approximately 2 Tbsp)

1 cup chicken stock or broth

16 oz box of pasta (penne is great for this dish)

Salt/Pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to directions

Heat 3 Tbsp oil and brown and cook the chicken until done

Once cooked add the chicken stock and garlic and bring to a boil

Turn heat off and add the sundried tomatoes with ½ jar of the oil and seasoning and 2 Tbsp garlic/olive oil stirring immediately to heat through

Serve over pasta and top with crumbled goat cheese

TIPS:

Stir the goat cheese immediately after putting on the pasta and it will melt and make the pasta creamy

You can also add chopped kale or spinach to this dish wilting it with the chicken stock.

Chicken Picatta

This is another one of those easy impressive dishes done in less than 30 minutes.  It’s fool proof meaning you can change or add things and it always turns out great.

Capers are key in Picatta.  If you are not familiar with capers they are a pickled flower bud before it flowers.  It is then brined and stored.  They taste very close to a green olive but a bit saltier.  I LOVE them in this dish as they add just enough salty sourness to the buttery sauce.

Here are the super easy directions with pictures and the recipe will be at the end.

Assemble the ingredients.  Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the thin chicken breasts.

Brown them until cooked through. Remove and stack on top of each other and cover tightly with foil to keep them warm.

Cook the pasta according to the directions.  I like to use a thin pasta like Angel Hair but tonight I only had Fettucine noodles and they work just as well.

The frying pan will look like this after you remove the chicken.  Pour in the chicken stock and scrape all those yummy bits from the pan as they help flavor your sauce.

Add the butter and melt it into the sauce stirring.  Add the rest of the ingredients and capers.  Let simmer for about 3 minutes.

Drain pasta and serve a chicken breast on top with the sauce spooned over the pasta.

Serve with some homemade cranberry sauce and a few steamed vegetables.

Dinner is served!  There won’t be a scrap left on the plate!!

Here are the EASY directions:

5-6 thin boneless chicken breasts (or regular pounded thin)

Approx. 5 tablespoons garlic flavored olive oil (or regular)

4 Tablespoons butter

1 cup chicken broth

2-3 tablespoon lemon juice (one lemon juiced)

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

sprinkle salt/pepper

2 Tablespoons capers (more or less to your taste or add them separately on each dish)

1 box angel hair pasta (or any pasta of choice)

Heat oil in skillet

Place chicken in and cook through (about 4 minutes per side if thin)

Remove and cover with tin foil when done

Add broth to skillet and use spatula to scrap all the browned bits from skillet

Heat through and add butter stirring until melted

Add the remaining ingredients

Add capers and simmer about 3 minutes and add chicken broth and remaining ingredients.

Cook approximately 5 minutes while cooking angel hair pasta (you can add more broth if it cooks down too much)

Immediately serve pasta with chicken on top and spoonful of sauce from skillet

Season with salt/pepper (you can add parmesan cheese also)

Julie’s Pasta Fagioli (Crockpot Cooking)

How incredible is a friend who brings you a batch of this for dinner???

My friend brought this over as she made a batch and it makes quite a large amount.  It was enough for 5 nice size bowls.  I grated a little fresh parmesan cheese and added a tiny basil leaf to each bowl which just enhanced the dish even more.

This is the perfect dinner for a cold night, family dinner, dinner party, or even pot luck as it makes a huge amount.  It is also something you can freeze in batches for those busy nights you don’t have enough time to cook.

This is only a portion of the amount she made:

Here is Julie’s recipe:

Julie’s Pasta Fagioli

2 lbs ground beef
1 onion chopped
3 carrots chopped
4 stalks celery chopped
2 cans (28oz) diced tomatoes – undrained
1 can (16oz) red kidney beans
1 can (16oz) white kidney beans
3 cans (10oz) beef stock
3 teaspoons oregano
2 teaspoons pepper
5 teaspoons parsley
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce (optional)
1 jar (20 oz) spaghetti sauce
8oz. Pasta
Brown the ground beef and drain.
Add all ingredients to crock pot except pasta.
Cook on low 7-8 hours or high 4-5 hours.
During last hour on low or 30 minutes on high, add pasta.

This is the original recipe. Julie has changed it some for her family. – using half the amount of beans and double or almost double the ground beef and pasta.

When I make this (which will be soon) I will probably add 3 cloves of minced garlic as we love garlic in this house!!

Italian Chocolate Cookies

These are my absolute favorite cookie.  I love the hint of cloves sweetened with the cocoa and light powdered sugar icing.  You can add chocolate chips (truly my favorite way), raisins, or nuts to these as well.

Growing up this was a staple Christmas cookie in our family.  I remember watching my mom make them and waiting until they were cool enough to grab a few off the tray!

I alternate between our family recipe and an Italian friend of mine who has a slightly different version.  Her’s contain less clove and uses Crisco in place of the lard our family recipe calls for.

They are easy to make and look pretty when displayed with other cookies.  The taste is fabulous and even better with a cup of coffee or tea!

Here is the recipe I used for these cookies

4 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup cocoa

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp cinnamon

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 TBSP Crisco (shortening)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

1/2 cup plus 2 TBSP milk

3/4 cup chocolate chips (or raisins or chopped nuts)

Mix flour, salt, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, cloves, cinnamon, sugar, chips and Crisco with a pastry blender until pea size balls form.

Mix vanilla, egg and milk together in a separate bowl.  Add to flour mixture and stir by hand until all dry ingredients are blended.

Roll into walnut size balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet 2 inches apart.

Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes.  Dip in icing or frosting when cool and decorate

Goulash

Goulash is a meat sauce served on either rigatoni pasta or elbow pasta in our house.  Tonight I made beef goulash.  I will say…it hit the spot!!

Here is how I make our goulash.  (Recipe at bottom)

I use a pound of ground beef and a 16 oz box of pasta.  You can add as many onions and peppers as you like!!

Boil the ground beef in water until no longer pink

Strain and add onion and peppers (these are our frozen peppers and onion from the garden)

Cover with sauce to the thickness you want to serve over your pasta

In the mean time boil your pasta

Once pasta is cooked, scoop some of the meat sauce onto the pasta to mix it up

Serve immediately so it’s nice and hot!!  A green salad goes well with this and some fresh homemade bread!

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef

1 16 oz box pasta

1 jar spaghetti sauce (or your homemade sauce)

1 small onion

1 small any color pepper

2 garlic cloves minced

Boil the ground beef until no longer pink (ground venison, turkey, or pork work great in this also)

Strain and rinse the beef and return to pan

Add the onions, pepper and garlic to the pan with beef and brown the beef

Cover and spaghetti sauce and keep it warm

Prepare the cooked pasta

Scoop a big spoonful onto pasta and mix

Serve the pasta with extra meat sauce on top

 

Easy and delicious

 

Meatballs and Pasta

Remember my post wayyyy back on August 10 (Sunday Food and Fun) where I made meatballs and froze them??  Well yesterday was a busy day and the perfect time to pull them out of the freezer, throw them in the crockpot and heat them with sauce for dinner.

I freeze meatballs in batches of 15 so I always have a couple bags going in the freezer for busy nights and sometimes even for a quick meatball hoagie for lunch.

I think of this dish as the ultimate comfort food and luckily there was enough left over for tonight’s dinner 🙂

My Meatball recipe: (there are pictures in the link above to the Sunday post)

1 lb ground beef, 1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs, 1 Tablespoon minced garlic, 1 egg, 1/4 cup milk.  Combine all and roll into balls.  Brown in a frying pan and bake for about 25 minutes in the oven until cooked through.  Let cool and freeze until ready to use.