Creamy Shrimp and Mushroom Pasta

I guess you could say that today was All New Recipes day in the Nielsen house.

I found this recipe here and that's also where the picture came from. I have a house of seafood lovers so this was a giant hit here. I imagine it takes a lot like a shrimp Alfredo would, but I wouldn't exactly know because I'm not a fan of Alfredo. This is so yummy! It's easy to cook but paired with garlic bread and a green salad you could serve it at your fanciest of dinner parties. As I was cooking it I thought it would make a great anniversary or valentine's dinner. (Why was I thinking that? Who knows?!?!?!)

4-8 oz. fettuccine or linguine. (I used fettuccine. The author says she prefers less noodles but I had a family to feed. I used about 12 oz. of fettuccine.)

10 TBS butter (The author says, I know, but I've tried it with less and it's just not the same.)

8 oz. fresh, sliced mushrooms

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 oz. cream cheese, cut into small pieces

2 TBS fresh parsley, chopped

1 TBS fresh basil, chopped. (The author says you can use dried herbs if that's all you have, but I(Kristen) know dried and fresh measurements are not the same and I don't think the flavor is as good with dried.

2/3 cup boiling water (from your noodle pot)
1 lb. cooked shrimp (feel free to buy frozen)

1. Boil and salt a large pot of water and cook your pasta.

2. While your pasta is cooking, cook your shrimp if necessary and reserve. If your shrimp are pre-cooked and frozen, quickly thaw them under running water.

3. In a large skillet melt 2 TBS butter over medium heat and saute mushrooms until soft and brown. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Reserve cooked mushrooms and melt remaining butter in the skillet. Add minced garlic, cream cheese and herbs. At this point, I generally fell like something has gone terribly wrong. The cream cheese doesn't really melt and starts to look almost curdled, don't worry about it It will all smooth out and be wonderful when we add the water, I promise.

5. Simmer cream cheese mixture until well blended. Get a scoop of boiling pasta water from your noodle pot and mix it in, stirring quickly to smooth out the sauce.

6. Keep sauce hot and add shrimp and mushrooms. Mix well and simmer (stirring often) until everything is hot and thickened, about 10 minutes. You won't ruin this sauce by accidentally boiling it so don't worry.

7. Toss sauce with cooked noodles and serve.

Easy Lasagna Cups

1 pkg wonton wrappers
1 jar spaghetti sauce (add your meat of choice if you like it in lasagna)
2+ cups of cheese (any kind you like in lasagna: italian mix, mozarella mixed with ricotta, etc.)

Spray muffin tins with a little cooking spray, put down one wonton wrapper at the bottom of each muffin spot, then layer sauce, cheese, another wonton wrapper cut in a circle about the size of the muffin tin by a cookie cutter or a rounded edge glass, then keep layering in that order until it is to the top of the muffin tin and you end with cheese.

Bake at 375 for 15-20 min.  So easy, not a huge mess, the kids prefer these to regular lasagna.  You could also mix it up and use chicken and alfredo sauce.  The possibilities are endless.  I made 18 with about 2 1/2 cups of cheese.

I have a picture but blogger won't let me put it on.  So I will do it as soon as it will let me.

Super Easy Manicotti

Ingredients:

About 12 string cheese

Your favorite Spaghetti sauce

Manicotti noodles

Grated mozzarella Cheese

Directions:

Boil the noodles according to package directions.  Drain and cool enough to handle.  Spoon some sauce over the bottom of a casserole dish.  Stuff each noodle with 1 string cheese.  If the Manicotti has fallen apart just wrap around the cheese and tuck under the edges.  Spoon more sauce on top and cover with the mozzarella.  

Bake at 350 just until the top cheese is about melted. 

Red and White Mostaccioli

This is a Food Nanny recipe that she made on Good Things Utah last week. It's SO easy, and really yummy.

•1 pound uncooked mostaccioli or other tubular pasta
•Alfredo Sauce
•1 (26-ounce) jar meatless spaghetti sauce
•or 3 cups homemade sauce, divided
•3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided


1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook the pasta according to package directions; drain
3. Spread a thin layer of spaghetti sauce in a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Layer
half the pasta, half the Alfredo sauce, half the spaghetti sauce, and
11/2 cups of the cheese. Repeat the layering with the remaining pasta,
Alfredo sauce, spaghetti sauce, and cheese.
4. Cover with aluminum foil and bake about 30 minutes or until it is hot and
bubbly.

**I used Classico brand Light Alfredo sauce (in a jar). It was delish!

Spaghetti Carbonara

I have so many versions of this in my recipes and I've never tried it. It wasn't until reading "Garlic and Sapphires" by Ruth Reichl (a food critic) that I found an easy enticing recipe that I had all the ingredients for. I didn't get a picture because my family ate it up SO fast. Proof that it was so YUMMY!!

1 pound spaghetti

1/2 lb thickly sliced bacon

2 cloves garlic

2 large eggs

Black pepper

1/3 cup grated Parmigiano cheese, plus extra for the table (I used much more than this because I love cheese)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When it is boiling, throw the spaghetti in. Most dried takes 10 min. to cook, and you can make the sauce in that time.

Cut the bacon into pieces about 1/2 inch wide. Put them in a skillet and cook for 2 min., until fat begins to render. Add the whole cloves of garlic and cook another 5 min. until edges begin to crisp. Do not overcook.

Meanwhile, break the eggs into the bowl you will serve the pasta in, and beat them with a fork. Add some grindings of pepper.

Remove the garlic from the bacon pan. If it looks like too much fat to you, discard some, but you're going to toss the bacon with most of its fat into the pasta.

When it is cooked, drain the pasta and immediately throw it into the beaten eggs. Mix thoroughly. The heat of the spaghetti will cook the eggs and turn them into a sauce. Add the bacon with its fat, toss again, add cheese and serve.

I threw on fresh diced tomatoes on top because I just love them.

Pizza Crust

It's time for me to get back into this recipe blog. I've taken several pictures of my meals only to download the pictures and not put them on this blog. Sorry. I'll do better. :)
So for tonight, I'm sharing one of my favorite things. Pizza! No, it's not the healthy kind like Mindy's, but it's what pizza means to me. Cheese and pepperoni and grease. Only tonight, I'm only sharing the recipe I use for my pizza crust and you can decorate it as you like.

Pizza Crust

1 pkg yeast
1 C warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 TB oil
2-2 1/2 C flour (I use wheat flour)

Put yeast in a bowl. Add warm water. Stir until dissolved. Add sugar, salt and oil. Slowly add flour to liquid, stirring until mixture forms a ball. Pat ball until smooth. Rise 5 minutes. Bake at 450 degrees for 25 minutes.

I alter the cooking time on this a bit. I cook it on a pizza stone. I cook the crust for about 10 minutes before adding any toppings. Then put it back in the oven with all the toppings and watch for the cheese to melt and for it to appear done. It's usually done in less than 20 minutes.
On this particular night, we added spaghetti sauce (I'm lazy), cheese, pepperoni and olives.
YUM!

Farfalle Pasta with Tomato Cream

You can't really tell, but there is a pink sauce on the noodles besides just big pieces of tomato

1 lb farfalle pasta (bowtie)
4 tbsp butter
1/2 beef bouillon cube
2 tsp finely chopped fresh basil (or half this amount if dried)
1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary (half this amount if dried)
1 tsp finely chopped sage (half this amount if dried)
2 pounds fresh ripe plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and cut into dices (or two- 15 oz cans diced tomatoes*much easier)
1 tsp salt
dash pepper
1/2 cup heavy cream

Cook pasta according to directions. While cooking, melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add herbs and boullion. Stir until cube is dissolved. Add tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Cook until butter has separated from tomatoes (about 5-10 min). Raise heat to medium-high and pour in cream. Cook, stirring frequently, until it has reduced by about half. Remove from heat and combine with cooked, drained pasta.

Cheese-lover's Pasta Roll-ups

To follow the current theme of pasta, I'll add another recipe that we ate this past week. It will also count as my Vegetarian recipe for this month's recipe exchange since I won't be able to attend due to Tithing Settlement. :) If anyone wants to make and take this recipe, please do. I got this recipe from the Kraft Foods magazine. It's very similar to a stuffed shells or manicotti recipe. Yummy!

Prep: 25 min, Total: 1 hour 15 min
Makes: 8 servings, 2 roll-ups each.

What you need:
1 egg, beaten
1 container Ricotta Cheese
2 cups Shredded Italian Three Cheese Blend
4 green onions, chopped
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1 jar (26 oz) spaghetti sauce, divided
16 lasagna noodles, cooked
1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese

Make it:
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix first 5 ingredients until well blended.
Spread 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish.
Spread each noodle with 3 Tbsp cheese mixture; roll up.
Place, seam-sides down, in dish.
Top with remaining sauce and Parmesan; cover.
Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until heated through, uncovering the last 10 minutes.
All done!
We added a side salad and it was dinner. I wish I would have had Heidi's bread stick recipe before I made this. :) It would have made another great side.

Make ahead tip: Assemble as directed; cover with heavy-duty foil. Refrigerate up to 24 hours, then bake, covered, 1 hour 5 minutes or until heated through, uncovering the last 10 minutes. Or freeze up to 1 month. When ready to serve, thaw overnight in refrigerator. Bake, covered, 1 hour 5 minutes or until heated through, uncovering the last 10 minutes.

Veggie Lazagna

I posted this recently on my family blog, so my apologies if it's a repeat for some of you, but I thought maybe the others would like it, and I already had the pictures and recipe on my blog so it was easy to move it over!

This has become one of my favorite things to cook and serve. I made it up myself... and I've tried and tested it several times now and every time it comes out tasting delicious! You can add sausage if you don't like to go all vegetarian. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Fresh Veggies: squash, zucchini, onions, red and green bell pepper, fresh or jarred garlic. spinach Fresh or canned tomatoes... *important: if you don't have garden tomatoes use canned... don't try store bought, they are just nasty. They don't even taste like real tomatoes and you won't like it.* 1 can any spaghetti or marinara sauce, 1 small container of ricotta cheese or cottage cheese (I have used both, they both taste good. I always use the low fat variety.) Fresh grated Parmesan cheese, mozzarella or Italian blend shredded cheese, whole wheat lasagna noodles boiled, al dente.


Method:
Chop all veggies.

Start cooking, garlic and onions first, add squash, zucchini,pepper,etc. season with salt and pepper and a little dash of Mrs Dash original blend. I always start with just a tiny bit of olive oil and then pour a little bit of chicken stock to steam the veggies so they don't get all crispy and burned. They cook faster this way and it adds flavor.

When the veggies are still a bit firm, but mostly cooked (not soggy!) add spaghetti sauce.

Next I prepare the pan and the noodles. Starting with one layer of noodles, ricotta cheese on top, thin layer of spinach leaves, then sauce and a small amount of cheese. Reapeat. Top with spinach leaves and mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

Bake it at about 350 until it looks and smells done! Sorry, I'm so terrible with cooking times, it's really about 30 minutes. Cover it with foil for the first half of cooking so the cheese doesn't brown too early and burn. Let stand for a few minutes, serve and enjoy! Eat your veggies! :)