Category: italian

Meatball-Stuffed Buns

Do you guys read Pintester? She cracks me up, and rarely does one of her experiments turn out. So when she made this recipe from Menu Musings of a Modern American Mom and said it was great, I knew I had to try it. It’s full of all sorts of processed food, but I’m sure you could tailor it to be more homemade. I just don’t have the energy for that madness.

It’s 3 ingredients and takes just minutes to put together and cook. To me, that’s a great weeknight meal. Serve it up with some pasta sauce on the side, and a salad or a veg, and you’re good to go.

meatball buns

Ingredients:

  • 1 can Pillsbury golden layers biscuits – each pulled into 2 layers
  • 10 frozen fully cooked turkey meatballs – thawed and cut in half
  • 2 sticks string cheese – cut each into 10 pieces
  • dried basil
  • dried oregano
  • garlic powder

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Cut string cheese sticks into 4 pieces each until you have 1/4 of a stick for each biscuit half (about 16).
  3. On a cookie sheet, place each biscuit half on parchment paper.  Place a 1/2 meatball with the flat side UP, and then put a piece of cheese on top.  Wrap the dough around it, being sure to pinch any openings closed. Place seam-side down.
  4. Sprinkle each bun with seasonings and bake until golden brown (about 8-10 minutes).

Chicken Alfredo

This weekend I featured a recipe from A Season for all Things on the Weekend Spotlight and said I was going to make it that night.  Well, I did make it and it turned out great!  The cream cheese gave it a nice tang, and the garlic powder was a perfect background flavor.  I was really happy with this recipe.

I don’t eat alfredo dishes when we go to restaurants because they usually do a number on my stomach.  But this one is a lot lighter without the tons of cream and butter these recipes typically call for.  No issues at all after having it twice already!

Here’s how I made it:

Chicken Alfredo
From A Season for all Things

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 package linguine, uncooked
  • 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
  • 1 1/3 cup chicken broth (canned or homemade, your choice)
  • 5 tsp all-purpose flour
  • 4 oz light cream cheese
  • 3 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese (no green can, please!)
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 1/4 tsp dried parsley
Directions:
  1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
  2. Meanwhile, heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray on medium-high heat.  Add the chicken and cook 5-7 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through, stirring occasionally.
  3. Remove chicken from skillet and set aside.  Pour the broth and flour in the same skillet you used for the chicken.  Stir in the cream cheese, Parmesan, garlic powder and pepper.  Cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally until the mixture boils and thickens.  Reduce heat.
  4. Stir in chicken.
  5. Drain pasta and put in a large bowl.  Pour the chicken mixture over the pasta and toss to coat.  Sprinkle with parsley.
Prep ahead tips:  Cut the chicken the night before.

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Whole Wheat Pizza

As we’re transitioning to more whole, healthful foods, I’ve been looking for a good whole wheat pizza dough recipe.  I’ve tried whole wheat before and it was fine, but no comparison to Pioneer Woman’s drowning-in-oil deliciousness.  This week, however, I finally found a great whole wheat pizza dough recipe that isn’t tough or crumbly.  It was delicate but still hearty and filling.  And so simple to make.

We split the recipe into three small pizzas.  It was perfect.  Carter loved rolling his out and putting the sauce and cheese on it.  He loved it so much that after every few bites he’d yell out to us from the other room, “I made a really good pizza, guys!”

Painting with sauce!

Cheesy sprinkling.

He had his with just shredded mozzarella, but us grown-ups made ours a little fancier.  Mine was mushroom and fresh mozzarella.  We’re completely out of all other respectable “pizza” veggies.  No onions to be found in this house right now.  It’s sad.

My husband split his pizza into two types.  One half was bbq sauce, turkey, ham, and cheddar cheese, and the other half was mushroom and pepperoni.  It was fun!

Pizza night is so great for busy weeknights, especially if you make everything ahead of time.  Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
From 100 Days of Real Food

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup warm water
  • 2 tsp yeast
  • 2 tsp kosher salt
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 3 cups white whole wheat flour
Directions:
  1. Pour the yeast into the water and let it sit for a few minutes, until it starts to foam a little.  Stir in the salt and olive oil.
  2. Pour the flour and yeast mixture into a food processor with a dough blade.  I only needed to process this for about 20 seconds before I had a ball of dough running around the bowl.
  3. Remove the ball from the processor and knead it into a smooth ball.  If you’re going to use it the same day, put it in a bowl coated with olive oil and cover with plastic wrap.  If you’re going to save it for another day, put a bit of olive oil in a storage bag and put the ball in there, leaving room for expansion.
  4. Put the dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour.  I left mine in there for almost 24 hours and it was still great.
  5. To make your pizza, roll out the dough to desired thickness.  We like ours pretty thin, but not quite paper-thin.  Preheat your oven to 450 degrees, and prebake the crust for 5-8 minutes.  Top with sauce and toppings of your choice and bake until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 5-8 more minutes.
Prep ahead tips:  Make the dough the night before you want to eat the pizza.  It will keep just fine overnight in the fridge.  Chop your veggies, defrost any frozen sauce, etc. so when you’re ready to make the pizza you have everything ready to go.


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Shells with Meat Sauce

**Don’t forget to enter my Crunchmaster giveaway!**

This isn’t a recipe so much as an idea for a seriously quick dinner that everyone seems to love.  My son, who never finishes what’s on his plate on a school night (it’s my theory that he gets a late snack at school), gobbled this up.  No questions about what it was, what kind of sauce, etc. that he normally asks.  Just stuffing his face.  To me, that’s a success.

Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. Cook noodles according to package directions.
  2. Brown ground turkey in a large skillet over medium heat until no pink remains.  Stir pasta sauce into ground turkey and simmer while your noodles are cooking.
  3. Drain noodles, and toss with meat sauce.  Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top.

That’s it.  Not fancy but delicious, filling, and cheap.  Serve with a side of broccoli or a large salad and you’re good to go.

In other news, I just found out about this Family Cookbook Project site. My mom made us cookbooks years ago, and recently she’s been working on ones for my nephew and niece. Family cookbooks are awesome…I’d love to have one from my husband’s family (hint hint).  Full disclosure: This is an affiliate link and I get a small cut of the proceeds.  But that doesn’t negate the fact that I think it’s a great gift to give for the holidays.

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Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore

I love crockpot cooking for the same reason most everyone does – it’s so easy!  This chicken cacciatore recipe is no different.  I didn’t even bother to thaw the chicken breasts first.  Just threw ‘em in the crock straight out of the freezer, tossed the veggies on top, and added the sauce.  And since I had some onions already diced up in the freezer, I didn’t have much prep to do either.



Crockpot Garden Chicken Cacciatore
Adapted from My Kitchen Adventures


Ingredients:

  • 5 large skinless, boneless chicken breasts

  • 1 cup green bell pepper, chopped (or the equivalent mixed sweet bell peppers)

  • 1 cup onion, chopped

  • 1 large rib of celery, diced

  • 2 large carrots, diced

  • 1 small can sliced mushrooms, drained

  • 3 cloves garlic, minced

  • 1 – 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes with basil, oregano and garlic, undrained

  • 1 – 6 oz. can tomato paste

  • 1/2 cup fat free, reduced sodium chicken stock

  • 1/4 cup dry red wine

  • 2 TBS. balsamic vinegar

  • 2 TBS cornstarch dissolved in a little water

  • additional salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

  1. Spray liner of a 6 quart crockpot with cooking spray.  Place chicken breasts inside the bottom.  Add in the green pepper, onion, celery, carrots, mushrooms, and garlic.  Open can of diced tomatoes and top the vegetables in the crock pot.  

  2. In a small bowl, combine the tomato paste, chicken stock, wine and balsamic vinegar.  Mix well.  Pour on top of chicken.  Cover and cook on HIGH for 4-5 hours or until the chicken is tender.  
  3. Add in the cornstarch dissolved in water.  Stir and allow to cook for another 20 minutes on HIGH or until the sauce has thickened.  Season with additional salt and pepper to taste.  

I served this over brown rice, but it would also be delicious over polenta or even egg noodles.

This recipe can be found at these linky parties, and Food Trip Friday and Today’s Creative Blog.

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