Chicken Ravioli Soup

I made this soup after a grueling week of exams for Brian. It was a long, hard week for me as well. Not having Brian around at all and having Logan wake up at the crack of dawn made for some pretty tough moments. This soup was a relatively quick and easy meal to throw together. If you haven't noticed, I like meals that are quick to throw together. I also like meals that are an easy clean up, and I can say that this one gets a checkmark in that category as well. I'd probably give this soup 3 stars. The ravioli in it was a fun little change from just normal noodles, but the ratio of noodles to chicken to vegetables wasn't quite right. I would either half the amount of broth and ravioli, or double the vegetables. I'm not sure what I'd do about the chicken. put in 1.5 times more? Also, maybe adding some other seasonings along with the salt and pepper wouldn't be so bad. With those changes it could easily be a 4 star recipe. But, not bad for a quick recipe to put on the table after a long, long week.

Chicken Ravioli Soup
Source: Disney Family

Ingredients:
8 cups chicken stock or broth
1/2 cup diced carrot
1/2 cup diced celery
2 cups refrigerated mini cheese-stuffed ravioli
1 cup cooked chicken - diced
salt and pepper to taste


Directions:
Heat chicken stock in a soup pot to boiling; reduce heat and add carrot and celery. Simmer until vegetables are soft - about 20 minutes.


Add ravioli and cook according to package directions -- usually about a 5 minute simmer.


Stir in cooked chicken, salt and pepper as desired and serve.

Kids' Pasta and Cheese

My husbands only comment on this meal: "not the best recipe." I'd have to agree with him. I was expecting to feel this way though. The name of it does have the word "kid" in it. And it is kid friendly. Logan's comments on it: "mmm, nummy. Hot dogs!" 

This recipe will be put in the "kids lunch" file. I'd probably put in 3 hot dogs instead of 2, we're a hot dog loving family. So this recipe is 3 stars for me, but probably a 4 star for Logan. It just depends on your audience.

Kids' Pasta and Cheese

Source: Disney Family

Ingredients:
1 cup acini di pepe pasta
1 cup frozen peas
2 turkey or chicken hot dogs - sliced thinly
4 ounces (about 1 cup) shredded melting cheese such as American, cheddar or gruyere
1/4 cup milk
salt and pepper as desired


Directions:
Cook pasta according to package directions until just before desired doneness is reached. Two minutes before pasta is done, add peas and hot dogs to cooking water and cook until heated through.


Drain water from pasta, hot dogs and peas. Put back into pot and add milk and cheese. Heat over a very low flame, stirring constantly until cheese is melted and pasta is coated well. Season with salt and pepper before serving.

Tortellini with Smoked Sausage

Red peppers and edamame. Two ingredients that make me excited about a recipe. Not only are they so good, but they are so good for you! For those of you that don't know ( I didn't until I started dating Brian) edamame are just boiled soy beans. You can find them in the frozen isle at the grocery store. Brian and I like to buy the big bags from Costco. Although this dish had big potential it fell a little short. And I'm certain the sauce was to blame. C'mon, just 1/2 cup of italian dressing? Pretty lame, and it tasted pretty lame. I will probably make this again, but I will serve it with an alfredo or a rose sauce. None of this "1/2 a cup of italian dressing" crap. So, because of the italian dressing, this dish only gets 3 stars. It could have been great, but it wasn't. But I really do like the combination of everything else. I'll be combining them again for sure.

Tortellini with Smoked Sausage

Source: Disney Family

Ingredients:

1 pound frozen cheese tortellini
1 cup shelled edamame
1 cup diced red pepper
1 pound smoked sausage
1/2 cup Italian dressing

Directions:

Set 6 quarts of salted water to boil in a large pot. Meanwhile, chop red pepper and slice the smoked sausage into 1/4 inch-thick rounds. Stir-fry red pepper and sausage together until heated through -- about 5 minutes.

Add tortellini to boiling water and cook for 5 minutes. Add edamame to water and boil for another 2 minutes. Drain tortellini and edamame well.

Toss everything together with the Italian dressing and heat through one final time.

Almost Lasagna

Day 1 of the 15 meals under $1.50 challenge. When I read the name of this dish I thought "Why Almost Lasagna? What's so hard about making real lasagna that we can't go all the way?" And I still feel that way. The only difference I guess was the macaroni noodles. But I'd still prefer to just use lasagna noodles. I love lasagna. I crave it all summer long when it's too hot to turn on the oven. But this dish was just OK. A 3 star dish. It was kind of bland. But I guess that could be easily remedied by choosing a yummier past sauce to use in it. The macaroni noodles were nice for little toddler hands to scoop them up and eat them. I used grated zucchini in it (leftover from my Quinoa Burritos) and you couldn't tell it was in there, so that is always a bonus. It makes a lot of food. I would definitely agree that it is $1.50 a serving. I froze half of it and will use it when we move next month. But with all that said, I probably wont make it again. I prefer my own Lasagna recipe better, which is no recipe. I just throw stuff in there until it tastes good.

Almost Lasagna

Source: Disney Family

Ingredients:

1 pound elbow macaroni, cooked, (or other similarly shaped pasta-like small shells)

1 pound Ground turkey, (or beef, chicken, sausage or tofu crumbles)
1 jar Pasta Sauce, (26 ounces)
 freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
1 pound Ricotta cheese
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 cups Veggies , (diced zucchini, matchstick carrots, etc.)
 salt and pepper

Instructions:

Brown meat and drain well, if necessary. While meat is cooking, stir together eggs, ricotta, grated Parmesan and salt and pepper.

Mix cooked meat, macaroni, sauce and veggies. Add ricotta mixture and blend well.

Coat a 9-by-13 baking pan with cooking spray or olive oil and spread half of macaroni mixture evenly over the bottom. Top with a cup of mozzarella and a healthy sprinkle of grated Parmesan. Add the remaining macaroni mixture and top with another cup of mozzarella and another sprinkle of Parmesan. Cover with foil.

Coat a 9-by-13 baking pan with cooking spray or olive oil and spread half of macaroni mixture evenly over the bottom. Top with a cup of mozzarella and a healthy sprinkle of grated Parmesan. Add the remaining macaroni mixture and top with another cup of mozzarella and another sprinkle of Parmesan. Cover with foil.

Heat your oven to 350 degrees F and bake the casserole for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 10 to 20 minutes until the cheese on top is lightly browned and bubbly.

Baked French Toast

I'm going to reluctantly give this one 3 stars. The reluctance is because this is from The Pioneer Woman and her recipes are always fantastic. I don't want to give her a bad review but I made this for breakfast on Christmas morning and was a little let down. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. I would rather just have regular French Toast. The amount of bread to topping ratio just wasn't enough. If I were to make this again I would probably half everything in the recipe except the topping. On the plus side it was a really quick and easy recipe and I was able to prepare it the night before so we had a no mess Christmas morning breakfast. After all the present opening and cleaning up wrapping paper boxes that was a nice treat.

Baked French Toast
Source: The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:
1 loaf sourdough bread (I used Pepperidge Farm, 1.5 pound loaf)
8 eggs
2 cups milk (I used 1%)
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. vanilla

Topping:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick cold butter, cut into pieces

Grease a 9x13 pan with butter.  Tear bread into bite-size chunks and place evenly in the pan.


Mix together the eggs, milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla.  Pour evenly over bread.  Cover tightly and store in the fridge for several hours (I put mine in overnight....it was about 12 hours).


In a medium bowl mix together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt.  Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until it all looks nice and crumbly (like small pebbles, according to P-Dub).  Place in a ziploc bag and put in fridge.


When ready to bake, take pan and bag out of fridge.  Remove wrap and evenly sprinkle the crumb mixture over the top.  Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees (or 45 minutes if you like it more soft and pudding-like).