Rollin'

It's safe to say that my family loves pasta.  We have pasta at least once a week and I have leftovers for lunch...that's how much I love pasta.  One of my husband's favorite pasta dishes is stuffed shells.  I've mentioned the stuffed shells recipe before and I have it thanks to a dear friend of mine who now lives on the west coast and I miss her terribly :(

There are tons of recipes for the pasta stuffing out there and you may have a favorite that you use, so I'm not going to share my recipe with you (it's now become a secret family recipe!).  I've seen several meal ideas for lasagna rolls which are supposed to make the idea of lasagna a little less overwhelming due to the small amount of work involved in the process.

Get rollin'...what you'll need
 - lasagna noodles
 - ingredients for pasta stuffing
 - pasta sauce

Get rollin'...what you do
1. Prep your pasta stuffing.  I mixed mine up and then let it chill in the fridge until the pasta was ready.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
3. Cook lasagna noodles.  I cooked mine just long enough to be able to roll them.  You'll want them just over al dente because you're going to bake them once they're rolled.  Drain them and rinse them with cold water.  (Rinsing goes against all great pasta recipes, and normally I don't rinse my pasta, but if you want to be able to handle the noodles to make the rolls, you'll need to cool them down, which is the only purpose for the cold water rinse.)
4. Prep your rollin' station...cooled lasagna noodles, pasta sauce, stuffing mixture, paper towels, baking dish.  (See above picture)
5. Pour enough sauce to just cover the bottom of the baking dish.
6. Lay out your paper towels and pat both sides of the noodles dry.  They will still be sticky, but you don't want them soaking wet or the stuffing mixture won't stick.
7. Spread a small amount of the stuffing mixture on the noodle and then start rollin' em up!  Lay them with them seam down in the sauce.  Continue the drying, spreading, and rollin' until you've used all the noodles and stuffing mixture.
8. Bake for 20-30 minutes.  Sprinkle on some mozzarella the last 5 minutes for some added cheesiness!

Don't they look yummy?!

Happy cooking!

How sweet...

I love bananas, especially when they are overly ripe, mashed up, and baked in banana bread.  I have several bags of overly ripe bananas, pre-mashed and frozen for that intended purpose.  I've never been a fan of banana pudding, but when I came across this recipe I knew I had to give the sweet dessert another try.

I've had this recipe saved on one of my Pinterest boards for awhile now, but I can't seem to make everything I pin....anyone else having that issue?!  Pinterest needs to come up with a way to create a grocery list from the recipes that you pin.

This isn't the simple recipe you're used to...it's rich and decadent.  It takes banana pudding to a whole new level.

The original recipe (Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding) is from Paula Deen, but I found this recipe on a fun little blog, Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour.  (I'll link both recipes so you can access the original.)  I'm not a fan of the name, so maybe I'll rename it with my modifications ;)

1st Class Banana Pudding

   5 bananas, sliced

   Nilla wafers

   2 small boxes instant vanilla pudding

   3 cups of milk

   1- 8oz pkg of cream cheese, softened

   1- 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk

   1- 12oz container of whipped topping

1. Line bottom of 9x13 baking dish with Nilla wafers.

2. Mix 3 cups of milk and the 2 boxes of instant pudding.  (I let mine set in the fridge while I prepped the other ingredients.)

3. Use hand mixer to combine cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Then fold in whipped topping.

4.  Finish cream cheese mixture by stirring in the pudding until well combined.

5.  Slice bananas and layer them over the wafers (they don't have to be perfect, no one is going to see them).  Then pour on pudding mixture, finish by topping pudding with some of the remaining wafers.

6. Cover and refrigerate.

What I did differently...I have to watch the amount of carbs that I eat and was a little shocked at the number of carbs in just one serving of the vanilla instant pudding.  So...I used sugar free pudding, 1/3 less fat cream cheese, and lite whipped topping.  I can't take out all the carbs, but a girl has to indulge a little, right?!

Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour made the suggestion to use the 3 cups of milk for the pudding and I would have to agree with her...3 cups will get you the perfect consistency on the pudding.  Click here for the link to the blog post.

Paula Deen used Pepperidge Farm Chessman cookies instead of Nilla wafers...I most likely won't be trying this considering how much more expensive they are compared to a box of Nilla wafers.  Click here for Paula's recipe.

I'm excited to try the pudding after it's been able to chill over night.

Happy baking!

Cookie Pie

Growing up with a bakery in your backyard meant there was a good chance that there was cookie dough chillin' in the fridge.  I was never a big fan of cookie dough like others I know, but when the chocolate chips are crying out to you from the cold batter it's a hard temptation to resist.  One of my other favorite baked treats is pie....#1 favorite would have to be cherry, but I'm open to pretty much any pie, as long as it doesn't have meringue piled on it - I know...I'm weird.  Just don't get me started on pie crust.  And if you were to ask my dad what kind of pie he liked he would say, "there are only two kinds....hot and cold."

So, when I found this recipe combining two of my favorite sweets it was love at first sight...well, okay this isn't the prettiest pie you will ever see, but after cutting into it and lifting a slice out you'll see the beauty that will capture your heart and soul.

See, not so pretty.

And cue the angels....aaaahhhh!

Click here for the link to the Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie....the only thing I did differently was the pecans.  I didn't have any pecans, so I substituted chopped walnuts instead.  Thank you Bakerella for this amazing recipe!

Happy baking!

Dinner's ready!

Don't let my husband fool you...he can cook.  When he makes dinner, it always turns out really good and even better that I didn't have to come home and make it.  I had saved a recipe on Pinterest awhile back for stuffed peppers and it was my plan to make them this week.  Well, tonight happened to be a much later night for me than usual so I asked my husband to make the peppers.  He found his own recipe and as always, they turned out amazing!

take a look at these little beauties!

The recipe I found called for ground turkey, I was just going to crumble up some turkey burgers, which means that I didn't have any ground beef like the recipe calls for.  Paul seasoned up the turkey with some steak seasoning, garlic salt, Worcestershire sauce, and some onion powder.

So, like me, Paul didn't follow the recipe to a T, but I'm sure this recipe will get you a great meal.

A little something I like to do before testing a new dish is to compare recipes.  It allows me to see what some of the other recipes are using for seasoning or substitutes for various ingredients.  AND, if the recipe is online, it has most likely been reviewed by those who have previously tested it and you can use that to your advantage.  If multiple people are saying that it's too salty, you'll know to cut back on the salt or use ingredients that are low in sodium.  Some of the reviews also give great substitutions for things like sugar or cream of ... soups.

Click here for the link to the recipe.

Happy Cooking!