Pesto Pasta with Veggies

Fry asparagas, yellow pepper, and any other veggies in oil and garlic, then add to angel hair pasta.

Cut up last night's grilled chicken and add that too.

Mix together about 1/2 cup each of Cotco's pesto sauce and alfredo sauce.

Toss and serve!

Italian Shepherd's Pie

This is a "use every dish in your kitchen" type of recipe, but I think it was worth it. Especially since Nathanael did all of the dishes!

1 unbaked 9" pasty shell - I made mine using the basic BH&G recipe
1 # bulk Italian sausage
1 cup cottage cheese
1 egg
1 1/2 cup warm mashed potatoes
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 tsp melted butter
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Line pastry shell with heavy duty foil. Bake at 450 for 7 minutes. Remove from oven and remove foil. Set aside. Reduce oven to 350.

In a skillet cook the sausage until no longer pink. Drain well on paper towels.

In a blender or food processor process the cottage cheese and egg until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl. Stir in potatoes, sour cream, oregano, salt and pepper.

In pie shell spread out the sausage, top with the potato mixture. Drizzle with melted butter. Bake 50-60 minutes at 350, or until set.

Sprinkle with cheese and let stand until cheese is melted. (This keeps its heat for a REALLY long time, so don't worry about leaving it out for a while before serving.)

Chinese Pizza

AKA what to do with the leftover chow mien noodles from the Asian Chicken and Noodle Casserole.

This is Mom's original recipe:

Microwave 2-3 minutes:
12 oz butterscotch chips
1 cup peanut butter

Stir thoroughly until chips melt.

In bowl mix together:
8 oz crunch chow mien noodles
1 cup cereal (rice crispies, wheaties, corn flakes, etc.)
1 cup mini marshmallows

Pour gooey mixture over dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
Spread onto pizza pan. Let cool to set, and then cut up with pizza cutter into wedges.

I was out of butterscotch, so used chocolate instead. And also went with cheerios for the cereal. Both the original and the chocolate version are very tasty!

Asian Chicken and Noodle Casserole

2 or 3 chicken breasts
2 packages of chicken top ramen
2/3 cup Thai peanut sauce
3 tbl peanut butter
1 bag (1 pound) frozen stir-fry vegetables
1/4 cup chow mein noodles
1/4 cup peanuts

• Slice and cook chicken into long strips.
• Cook ramen, without the seasoning packet, drain.
• Use the seasoning packets with one cup boiling water to make broth.
• Heat oven to 350, and spray a 2 quart casserole.
• Cook peanut sauce, broth, PB, frozen veggies and noodles in a large pan over med-high heat, until hot. Stir in chicken. Spoon into casserole.
• Sprinkle chow mein noodles and peanuts on top.
• Bake 30 minutes.
• Arrange into a funny face to make eating veggies more bearable.

BBQ Biscuits

This recipe originated from a Pillsbury cookbook, and I tweaked it a little.

1# ground beef or turkey
1/2 cup BBQ sauce
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tbl brown sugar
1 can crescent rolls (or the new "recipe creations" sheet of dough)
1/2 cup shredded cheese

• Brown the meat and the onion together. Add the BBQ sauce and brown sugar and heat through.
• Meanwhile, spray 10 standard sized muffin cups and preheat the oven to 400.
• Roll out the dough and then cut out squares that are about 3 inches big. Place one in each muffin cup, pressing firmly into the bottom and sides. It may come over the top a little, but not much. (I ended up only having enough to make 9.)
• Put a few spoonfuls of meat into each one, topped with cheese. I made three just cheesey ones for the kids.
• Bake 10-15 minutes, or until edges of the rolls are golden. Cool one minute before removing from the pan.

I made iced tea last night, too. I knew Zachary liked it, but I guess I didn't realize quite how much until I caught him like this:

Pollo Verde Casserole

I forgot to take a picture of this one, and it just looked like "casserole" anyways. But it was tasty!

Stir together:

2 cups or so of cooked and chopped up chicken (perfect for leftover chicken)
1 heaping scoop of sour cream
1 can of green enchilada sauce
4 or 5 tortillas cut into bite sized pieces

Put the mix into a casserole dish and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 until it gets bubbly.

Cripsy onion chicken

Dip thawed chicken pieces in egg, then coat both sides with French's fried onions (you know, the ones you always put on green bean casserole!) Bake at 350 for one hour.

I served it with cheesy potato bake and green salad.

Halibut!

This turned out to be one of the best meals I've ever made. I mixed together soy sauce, olive oil, and garlic and spread over the top of a large piece of halibut from Costco. Anton bbq'd it and it turned out delicious! We ate it with rice pilaf (from a box, nothing fancy) and steamed broccoli. Later, Monica helped me make rice crispie treats for dessert.