Stuffed Shells in a Crock Pot

It's Wednesday..  

How about a really easy dinner to for the middle of the week?  

I'm sure you'll love it!

I have this obsession with Marinara sauce.  We have some kind of marinara dish once a week.  Sorry husband. :)  Stuffed shells is one of my favorites!  It's easy and only takes about an hour prep and cook time.  However, one afternoon (true story) I had to run all of these errands and I wouldn't be home until five.  Now by five o'clock, dinner needs to be practically on the table.  There is no way my children or my stomach would last if I started dinner at five.  So I tried "stuffed shells in a crock pot."  And it totally worked!  Here it is:

 

Stuffed Shells 

(in a crock pot - I'll post my stuffed shell recipe in the oven later!)

one 1 lb of pasta (bigger is better for this recipe - penne, bowtie, etc. I'm sure you can actually use the jumbo shells like you would if you baked it, but I didn't have them at the time.  But you try, and tell me how it goes!)

one jar of marinara sauce (Ragu Tomato Garlic and Onion!)

one 8 oz. container of cottage cheese

16 oz of shredded mozarella cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1 tsp. of oregano

1/2 tsp of garlic

one egg

salt and pepper to taste

1 1/2 cups of water

Crack an egg in a large bowl.  Beat.  Add three kinds of cheeses, and seasonings.  Mix together until well blended.  Cover the bottom of the crock pot with 1/2 cup of water.  Now layer!

1. 1/3 of the bag of pasta on the bottom

2. Top with 1/3 of the cheese mixture

3. Top with 1/3 of the sauce.

Repeat steps 1-3 until all ingredients are gone (should be three layers with sauce ontop.)  Sprinkle on more Parmesan cheese.  Take remaining 3/4 cup of water and pour in. 

Be sure to get the edges and middle. Cover.  Cook on high for 2-3 hours.  It cooks pretty fast so be sure to check it after two hours - and depending on how soft you like your pasta, you might want to cook it longer.

And then maybe add some yummy bread sticks to the meal.  Oooh, I have an awesome bread stick recipe.  That's coming too.

Follower Friday: Vegetable Soup

Dawnelle is someone I "know of" through my friend Caley.
I have heard amazing things about this girl!  I can't wait to make this soup recipe...
just take a look at the pictures! Yum!  Enjoy the recipe and be sure to check out her blog.

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My name is Dawnelle and I write over on Just Dawnelle about my life, my little loves, and my love for design. I'm super excited to be here with Tiffanie for Follower Friday!

I have a thing for food. I won't lie. Good food... you know the kind that just makes you wish you could start your meal all over gain? I also love cooking. My family cooks together often and it has got to be one of my very favorite things to do together!

So are you ready for the perfect cozy fall soup recipe??

I have a thing for vegetable soup... not the kind with noodles... or the kind with rice... or the kind with beans... but good old fashion hearty vegetable soup just like Campbells! The no fail, super easy, delicious kind! Are you ready for this goodness??

Ingredients

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

3 large carrots, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1 small onion, diced

6 medium potatoes, diced

1 can peas

1 can corn

1 can green beans

3 cups diced canned tomatoes

12 cups of chicken stock (or water with bullion cubes)

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 tsp thyme

1 Tbs salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

Begin by dicing up the carrots, celery, and onion and saute them in the olive oil. Now you don't have to use olive oil but if you have it, use it... it just makes everything better! Promise!

Once they're all cooked up nice and good (you know so the onion is translucent...) so it's all steamy and loud and smells absolutely amazing... like this (oh if only you could smell it!)

You add the broth. Now let me give you my two cents about the broth... I didn't use actual chicken broth. I usually don't. I used water and bullion cubes. But I won't use any bullion cubes, I only like to use the bullion cubes found in the international foods isle like the Knoll or Maggi cubes. The other thing, sometimes when I make it, I don't use chicken bullion. Maggi makes a tomato vegetable bullion that is fantastic!! Okay... soap box is being put away... 

you add the broth...

and then let it boil! Once it starts to boil, take those nicely diced potatoes (I used red potatoes because I was hungry and wanted the soup to cook faster... and they're a softer potato so they cook faster.)

Let those potatoes cook in there for about ten minutes or so and then add the rest of the beautiful vegetables.

and add those spices... the glorious spices!! Don't you dare forget the thyme... it totally makes the soup! Plus, if you thought it was smelling good before, it is going to be absolutely incredible now!!

Then just let that little... well now... big pot of soup cook away!! Sometimes it needs more broth than others... depends on how thick or thin you like your soup. I like it nice and brothy (is that a word?) so I always add a little extra sometimes.

Check those potatoes after a little while... if you can stick a fork in them... your soup is done!! Eat it up... enjoy it!!

See all those little specks of oil... that's the olive oil I was talking about... they're like little morsels of savory goodness!!

Now... wasn't that easy?! and isn't it delicious!!

I have lots more fun and super easy recipes over on Just Dawnelle like this delicious Blueberry Pie and kid friendly Apple Crisp. I would love to have you hop over and visit!!

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Ingredients

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

3 large carrots, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1 small onion, diced

6 medium potatoes, diced

1 can peas

1 can corn

1 can green beans

3 cups diced canned tomatoes

12 cups of chicken stock (or water with bullion cubes)

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 tsp thyme

1 Tbs salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

Saute carrot, celery, and onion in olive oil. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add diced potatoes and cook for 10 minutes or so. Add the remaining vegetables and seasonings. Simmer for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked (you can stick a fork in them). If you need to, add more chicken stock.

Thanks Dawnelle!

The Best Dang Potato Soup

I stole this recipe from my sister, Rachelle.
If I was a swearing kinda girl - I'd say a different word when referring to this dang potato soup.
It might have something to do with the bacon?
Whatever it is, it's delicious.  And it's perfect for a fall evening!

Potato Soup

2 cups chicken stock (1 14.5 can)

3 cups of diced potatoes

1/2 cup of diced onions

1 small carrot, grated

1/2 tsp of celery seed

1/2 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of pepper

1 T parsley

3 T flour

3 cups milk

8 oz of cubed cheddar cheese

6 strips of bacon

Cook bacon strips.  Set bacon aside and save bacon drippings.  Combine chicken stock, potatoes, onion, carrot, celery seed, salt, pepper, and parsley in a pot.  Bring to a boil and boil for 15 minutes. (until potatoes are soft)  In the pan with bacon drippings, add flour until smooth.  Add milk.  Pour the mixture into the pot with veggies and seasonings.  Bring to a boil.  Boil for 2 minutes.  Add cheese, remove from heat, and stir unti cheese is melted.  DONE!  Spoon into bowls and top with crumbled bacon.  Serves 8 (I doubt it...you're going to want to eat 2-3 bowls of this creamy deliciousness!)

**Oh...and you see that roll?  That recipe is coming.  You don't want to miss it.
They're the best things I make.  Promise.

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PS It's official! We have a FACEBOOK PAGE! You know you want to "like" us! ;)

Follower Friday: The Only Lasagna Recipe You'll Ever Need

TGIF!!  I am in love with Fridays.  The start of the weekend and another Follower Friday. 

Today I chose my friend, Kimberly to share a recipe.  She's kind of one of my favorite people.  We met when we were both single and teaching.  Instant friends.  We would have been roommates, if it hadn't been for the men we each fell in love with and decided to marry.  She is insanely talented - she's everything I wish I was.  She's an amazing cook, designer, and Mom.  Check out her blogs.
Personal blog: here.
 Design blog: here.
Food blog: here.

Kim - it's all yours!

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Thanks for having me today Tiffanie!!  I've been excited to share a recipe since you first asked me, I just didn't know what to share!  But then this post on Honest Toddler (if your a mom--or even if you aren't--you will love HT) caught my eye at a moment of extreme hunger (pregnancy + 3 hours without eating) and I remembered my awesome lasagna recipe.  Its an adaptation of my aunt Barbara's lasagna recipe that my mom has been making since I can remember.  I've changed a lot of it, but the same basic form and ingredients are the same.  What I love most about this recipe is that you don't have to cook the noodles before you bake it.  (I know, I know there are those "no cook lasagna noodles" but I've never tried them and with this recipe I'll never need to)

What I'm most excited about is that YOU can use this same format and make lasagna exactly how you want!  So this is more than just a recipe for my lasagna, its a "choose your own adventure lasagna dinner"!  Basically it consists of four layers.  I'll list the ingredients and put a star next to the ones you can change or omit.

All I need for great lasagna!

Noodles
Regular lasagna noodles (one 8oz box was not quite enough for me, so you might want to get a bigger box or get two!)

Sauce
24 oz. can marinara sauce * (When I'm feeling fancy I make my own sauce from scratch.  When I'm not I use Hunt's Traditional.  You can use any brand, any flavor, just make sure you use 24 oz.  I've never used a white sauce but I don't see why you can't!!)
1 onion*
1 zucchini, chopped very small*
8 oz mushrooms, chopped*
half of a 16 oz bag of frozen spinach*
(other ingredients that would be yummy: ground sausage, ground beef, ground turkey, chopped carrots, chopped tomatoes, corn, bell peppers. . . the list goes on and on)

Soft cheese
20 oz ricotta cheese * (my aunt's recipe called for 16 oz cottage cheese and 3oz of cream cheese combined)

Grated cheese
4 c grated mozzarella cheese* (mozzarella is traditional, but feel free to think outside of the box here!)
a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese*

Directions:
1. The first thing, the VERY FIRST THING, you must do is put a small amount of your sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 pan.  This is pretty much like greasing and flouring your cake pan.  Fail to do this and you will lose the bottom layer of noodles to the demons of cooked on food.  About 2-3 T will do, spread very thin.  If you can see your pan through the sauce, you've done it right.

This is what it should look like.  Unless you're using a metal pan, in which case seeing the counter top through the sauce is bad.

2.  Then prepare the layers.
Noodles: open the box

Sauce: Begin by putting the onion in a medium hot pan.

While the onion gets some one on one time with the heat, I finish chopping the other veggies, in this case zucchini and mushrooms.  If you're adding a ground meat, brown the meat with the onion to help the flavors really marry.  Cook all the veggies until a little soft.  Remember, they're going to get plenty of cooking time in the oven, but you want to make sure no one gets a crunchy onion so I like to give them a head start.

Add the sauce.

At this point you'll probably remember you had frozen spinach melting on the counter.  Don't worry, the freezing process has already wilted the spinach so it doesn't need any additional cooking, go ahead and add it now.

Soft cheese: Ricotta is not very creamy when you scoop it out of the container, so I like to add a few tablespoons of milk to help it spread better.  See the difference?

 
Grated cheese: I end up using about 1 1/2 c - 2 c of cheese for each of the two layers.  If you buy the cheese pre-grated this step is super easy.

3. Then layer away!!

I say, fit the noodles in how ever you can make it work.  Space too small for a whole noodle?  Shatter that sucker and put it together like a puzzle.

Spread about half your sauce mixture over the noodles.  No need to measure out half, this isn't baking!!

Even with the milk, that ricotta can be a beast to spread.  Putting small spoonfuls helps ensure you don't mix the sauce and cheese into a pink mess.  But if you do, it will still taste good!

And here it is spread out.

Sprinkle cheese.

And start over!

Once the layers have been repeated, cover this masterpiece in foil!

4.  Cook for 1 hr and 15 min with foil on at 350.  Remove foil (carefully so you don't remove the melty yummy cheesy goodness with it) and cook an additional 15 minutes.  Let sit for 15 minutes before serving.

5.  Serve with a green salad and garlic bread.  Or what ever you want to serve it with, I'm not giving out grades on this. . .

Pin me.  You know you want to. . .

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Like she said....pin it.  Happy weekend! :)