Healthy Italian Wonderpot

This recipe is a quick, super easy meal that is healthy and affordable.  I was leery of the recipe before making it because it seemed too healthy to actually taste good.  There was no reason to be leery -- this was delicious!  This is the first time I cooked with turkey sausage.  I have always thought healthy = lack of flavor.  While the turkey sausage did not have as much flavor as pork sausage, it was still very tasty and was a nice addition to the dish.  Also, you can see two different types of pasta noodles in the picture -- I had less fettuccine at home than I thought, so I added some angel hair pasta to make up the difference.  Next time I make this dish, I will make it with whole wheat pasta to make it even healthier. 

Adapted from: Budget Bytes


What you need:
1 lb Ground Turkey Sausage
4 cups Chicken Broth
2 tbsp Olive Oil
12 oz Fettuccine Noodles, broken in half 
8 oz Frozen Chopped Spinach
28 oz Diced Tomatoes (undrained)
1 Medium Onion, sliced
4 Cloves Garlic, sliced
1/2 tbsp Dried Basil
1/2 tbsp Dried Oregano
1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1/4 tsp Crushed Red Peper
Feta Cheese for topping

What you do:

1.  Brown the Turkey Sausage.  Set aside. 

2.  Place the Chicken Broth, Fettuccine, Canned Tomatoes, Olive Oil, Frozen Spinach, Sliced Onion, Sliced Garlic, Basil, Oregano, Red Pepper Flakes, and Crushed Red Pepper in a large pot.  Make sure everything is submerged under the liquid and place a lid on top of the pot.

3.  Bring the contents of the pot to boil on high heat.  Remove lid and reduce heat to medium.  Allow the pot to boil for 8 minutes.  Add turkey sausage.  Continue boiling for 2-7 more minutes, or until the pasta is cooked.  Stir the pot about once every 3 minutes while it is cooking.

4.  Serve with crumbled feta cheese on top.  

Lasagna Soup

I really like making lasagna from scratch, but it's so time consuming I rarely actually get to do it.  It finally got cold around here and it looks like it's going to stay that way, so I decided some soup was in order.  I've had this recipe pinned on Pinterest for quite a while now, so I decided to give it a go.  I was suspect though -- I thought that there was no way a soup could actually taste like lasagna.   I was wrong.  It really does taste like lasagna.  Don't believe me?  Give it a try.  You'll be surprise.  Bonus --  it is about a million times easier and faster to make than making a lasagna from scratch. 

Slightly adapted from: Mel's Kitchen Cafe

What you need to make the soup:
1 1/2 Pounds Sausage 
1 Medium Yellow Onion, chopped
2 Tbsp Garlic Powder
2 Tsp Dried Oregano
1/2 Tsp Crushed Red Pepper
6 Oz Tomato Paste
28 Oz Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes (undrained)
6 Cups Chicken Broth
2 Tbsp Dried Basil
1/2 Pound Rigatoni Noodles
2 Cups Mozzarella Cheese (for garnishing)

What you do to make the soup:
1.  In a large pot, cook the sausage for about 5 minutes on medium heat, breaking it up as you cook. 

2.  Add the onions to the sausage and continue cooking (stirring occasionally)  for about 5 minutes, or until the sausage is completely cooked.  Drain excess grease if necessary. 

3.  Add the garlic powder, oregano, red pepper, and tomato paste.  Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

4.  Add the fire roasted diced tomatoes (with the juices), chicken broth, and basil. 

5.  Bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

6.  While the soup is boiling/simmering, cook the rigatoni noodles according to direction and make the ricotta cheese mixture (below).  Drain and fully rinse the noodles.


What you need to make the ricotta cheese mixture:
1. 1 Cup Ricotta Cheese
2. 1/4 Cup shredded Asiago Cheese
3. 1/4 Cup shredded Romano Cheese
4. 1/4 Tsp Salt
5. 1/8 Tsp Black Pepper
6. 1 1/2 Tsp Dried Basil

What you do to make the ricotta cheese mixture:
1. Mix everything together. (Really. That's it.)


To Serve:

Place a couple of spoonfuls of rigatoni noodles in the bottom of a bowl. Top the noodles with a couple of ladlefuls of lasagna soup. Garnish with shredded mozzarella. Add a dollop of the ricotta cheese mixture on the very top. Serve immediately.

This is goes great with a crunchy piece of garlic bread.




Enjoy!

Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops

My sister, Brooke, gave me this recipe.  I may have changed it a bit because when she gave me the recipe she told me she used "some" bread crumbs, and "a lot" of Parmesan cheese.  I used to cook all carefree like that.  And then, I started a blog . . . 


So, I took her recipe and guessed about what "some" and "a lot" meant.  I think I must have been close, because the result was quite tasty.  It's also surprisingly simple to make.  And, I think it's pretty versatile. I served my chops with fettuccine alfredo and steamed broccoli, which were both a nice compliment.  Brooke says she usually serves hers with cheesy rice.  After having tried the chops, I'd guess that the cheesy rice would go well too. 


Here's what you need:
6 Thinly sliced Pork Chops
1 Cup Italian Bread Crumbs
1 Cup finely grated Parmesan Cheese
1 Tsp Garlic Powder
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 Eggs
Vegetable oil for browning the chops 


Here's what you do: 
1.  Combine the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a bowl.  


2.  In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs until well beaten. 


3.  Put a pan on the stove on medium to medium-high heat.  Add vegetable oil and allow the oil to get warm.


4.  While you're waiting for the vegetable oil to heat up, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and cover a cookie sheet in aluminum foil.


5.  Coat one pork chop in the bread crumb mixture.  Dip it in the beaten eggs.  Return it to the bread crumb mixture and coat again.  Immediately put the pork chop in the pan of warm oil.  Cook each side of the pork chop until it is golden brown and then remove from pan and place on cookie sheet. 


     Hint: While I had one pork chop in the pan cooking, I started step number 5 on 
      the next pork chop, paying close attention to the pork chop on the stove to 
      make sure it didn't burn. 


7.  Once all the pork chops have been browned and are on the cookie sheet, place the cookie sheet in the oven and bake for about 35 minutes, or until the chops are cooked all the way through. 

Enjoy!

Spicy Meatballs

I was asked to make spicy meatballs for a 4^th of July get together that I was attending.  This is what I came up with.  They were a hit!  But, when I say spicy, I mean Four-Alarm-Fire-in-Your-Mouth kinda spicy.  The heartburn was totally worth it.  I’ll make some suggestions below for making them a little less spicy in case you like your meatballs a little more on the mild side.

Here’s what I used:

½ Cup Green Onion, finely chopped

¼ Cup Italian Style Bread Crumbs

3 Heaping Tablespoons of Shredded Parmesan Cheese

1 Pound Ground Beef

1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder

2 Tablespoons Crushed Red Pepper (for a less spicy meatball use 1 Tablespoon – or less – Crushed Red Pepper)

1 Jar Spaghetti Sauce

Here’s what I did:

First, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees.  I mixed together the Green Onion, Bread Crumbs, Parmesan Cheese, Garlic Powder, and Crushed Red Pepper.  I crumbled the Ground Beef on top of the mixture of dry ingredients.  Then, using my hands, I mixed the ground beef with the dry ingredients.  I formed meatballs with the mixture, making each ball about 1 inch in diameter.  I placed the meatballs in a glass baking dish with about 1 inch in between each meatball. 

I baked the meatballs for about 25 minutes.  Remove them from the oven when the outsides are brown and the insides of the meatballs are cooked fully.  Here are what mine looked like straight from the oven:

I poured the Spaghetti Sauce into a crock pot and turned the crock pot on low.  Finally, I added the meatballs to the spaghetti sauce.  Be sure to keep an eye on your crock pot to make sure it isn’t getting too hot and to stir the meatballs occasionally.

Enjoy!