Italian Crockpot Chicken

Ho-ly deliciousness.  I can't really give credit to one place because my friend told me about this recipe - but whoever made it up in the first place is brilliant.  It is the easiest and most delicious dinner. 

4 Chicken Breasts (frozen or thawed)
2 cans Cream of Chicken soup
2 small packets Italian dressing powder
1 8 oz. cream cheese
1 pound spiral noodles

Put the first 4 ingredients in the crockpot on low and cook for at least 4 hours.  I had mine in all day for about 8 hours and it was magnificent.  Mix it all up and make sure the chicken is shredded and everything is mixed well.  Make the spiral noodles, drain, and mix the chicken mixture into the pasta.  Serve with a crusty loaf of bread.  Yuuummmmm.  Comfort food!

Creamy Caprese Pasta

This recipe allowed me to use some of the basil and tomatoes I have growing out of control in my garden, which is always nice.  I love baked pastas, they are delightful.  I used shredded asiago instead of parmesan and shredded mozzarella instead of rounds of fresh mozzarella because that's what I had at home.  It worked just fine!  I served mine with a crusty french bread.  Beside it being WAY too hot to have had my oven on last night, this was wonderful and easy.  Here is the original recipe.

a favorite.

I made this mozzarella, tomato, basil pasta al forno again.  I love it.  Use only 2 Ts of Italian seasoning, though. YUMMY!

Pioneer Woman's Lasagna

I made this lasagna again!  I don't usually make recipes twice but this one is too good not to.  I made it the day before when I had nothing to do and then baked it the next day.  Delicious and amazing.

Pioneer Woman's Chicken Parmesan

This recipe from Pioneer Woman is very easy to make and the sauce is from scratch, which always tastes better.  This was the closest to restaurant-style chicken parm as I've ever made.  I loved it, and so did my husband.  I highly recommend it for the chicken parm lover.  YUM!

Pizza Crust & Caprese Pizza

Last night I made homemade pizza. I started with Pioneer Woman's Pizza Crust.


CRUST
Ingredients:

FOR THE CRUST (MAKES TWO CRUSTS):
1 teaspoon Active Dry Or Instant Yeast
4 cups All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

TO MAKE THE CRUST:

Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm (not lukewarm) water.
In a mixer, combine flour and salt. With the mixer running on low speed (with paddle attachment), drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour. Next, pour in yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined.

Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, and form the dough into a ball. Toss to coat dough in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until you need it. ***It's best to make the dough at least 24 hours in advance, and 3 or 4 days is even better.

Then I put on:

Pizza sauce

Fresh mozzarella slices

tomatoes

fresh basil leaves

It was yummy!  I can't seem to make the crust bake in the middle though.  It was really dough-y.  If anyone reads this and knows a trick, will you let me know?  It happens every time I bake pizza.

Crockpot Italian Chicken

I guess I'm the last person ever to discover this recipe - everyone says they know it and make it all the time.  It is simple and fast!

Crockpot Italian Chicken (as found here)


4 chicken breasts
1.5 packets of dry Zesty Italian Dressing
1 8 oz. cream cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup

Throw it all in the crockpot and cook on low for at least 4 hours.  I put mine in for 8 hours and shredded it. Stir well to mix the soup and the cream cheese together once it's warm enough to mix easily.  The original recipe I found tells you to cook those two ingredients on the stove top to incorporate and then throw in to the crockpot - but I'm lazy and skipped that step and just stirred it all together when I was ready to eat it.  You can serve it any way you'd like - full breast, chopped, shredded, etc.  I cooked bowtie and penne pastas that I had on hand from previous meals and put this on top of it.  Some people like rice with it - but I hate white rice and refuse to make it.  I also threw some cherry tomatoes on top because we have a zillion of them and need to use them up!

My husband steamed yellow squash and zucchini to go with it.  Delicious!

Pioneer Woman's "The Bread"

To accompany our lasagna last night I made "The Bread".  Simplest recipe of all time - and so good. I put dried thyme on one half and left the other plain.  I didn't use quite as much butter as the recipe calls for and it still turned out delicious.

Pioneer Woman's Lasagna

I love pasta and almost every other Italian dish known to man.  But lasagna?  For some odd reason I don't love it.  I don't really like ricotta cheese and lasagnas usually seem to have it.  Bleh.  I saw that Pioneer Woman's lasagna doesn't have ricotta, though, and knew I had to try it.

It takes a while to make this because it says to simmer the meat for 45 minutes after browning it, so I decided I would make this over the weekend and freeze it.  I've never done this before so I was a little hesitant but it worked out just fine.  The only issue I had was it taking forever to bake - but if I had taken the advice I was given and covered the lasagna with tin foil from the get-go, it wouldn't have taken much longer than it normally does.  So, if you end up freezing this, bake it covered in tin foil.

Into the freezer it went...

And here is the baked, finished product.

And HERE is the recipe.  I used the noodles you don't have to cook to save a little time and they work just perfectly.

Now, we had friends over for dinner who are big lasagna lovers.  They loved it and thanked me repeatedly for it (so nice).  Also, my husband said it was "amazing" and "better than most restaurants".  I was quite pleased with the results and how much everyone loved this.  I thought the bites with basil were pretty amazing... I think I would add a little more basil because I love it so, so much.  But if you make this exactly as directed, you won't be disappointed.  Also, if you don't like the idea of cottage cheese, what the original post of the recipe says is true - you have no idea that there is cottage cheese in it, not in the least.

Finally, a lasagna I actually like!

Tomato Mozzarella Pasta al Forno

Pasta can be frustrating to make sometimes because it often comes out really bland or dry and just not outstanding in any way.  I have tried 3 handfuls of different pastas and loved only a handful.  Last night I made one of the best pastas and it was extremely easy.  Maybe I just loved it so much because of all the cheese, but at any rate... I highly recommend it.

I slightly adapted the recipe from www.annies-eats.net.  Here is the original recipe.

Tomato Mozzarella Pasta al Forno

2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced 

3 -14 oz. cans diced Italian plum tomatoes 

2-3 tbsp. Italian seasonings [I like a lot of flavor] 

Salt and pepper    

1 lb. penne pasta 

8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

2/3 c. parmesan [the green can powdery kind] [I think I probably used more than this but I didn't measure.]

Fresh basil, chopped [optional]

Heat oil in skillet. Add garlic and cook over medium high heat, 1 min. Add tomatoes and Italian seasonings and simmer rapidly, stirring occasionally until thickened, 15 min. Add salt and pepper. Meanwhile, cook pasta. Toss pasta with sauce. Place half of pasta in an oiled 9×13” dish. Cover with half parmesan and half mozzarella. Top with remaining pasta, then parmesan and mozzarella. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes.  Sprinkle with chopped fresh basil.

I served mine with toasted artisan bread covered with olive oil, basil and tomatoes.

This seriously didn't disappoint.  It was so delicious.  I can't wait to eat leftovers tonight for dinner!