Easy Cajun Tilapia

I love this recipe!  It is so simple and quick for those hectic days and tastes great.  Another winner in my husband's book.


Easy Cajun Tilapia

Ingredients:

6 Tilapia fillets, thawed

1/2 stick of butter, melted

Cajun seasoning

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place fillets on foil covered baking sheet.

Pour melted butter over fillets and sprinkle with seasoning (the heavier the seasoning, the spicier).

Bake at 400 degrees 15-20 minutes or until you can flake the fillets with a fork.

Crescent Pepperoni Roll-Ups

I make this every so often for lunch and both my 2 year old daughter and husband enjoy it.  It's so easy and quick.


Crescent Pepperoni Roll-Ups


Ingredients:


1 can refrigerated crescent rolls

40 slices pepperoni (or turkey pepperoni)

4 pieces of mozzarella string cheese, cut in half

garlic powder

pizza sauce

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Unroll crescent rolls and separate into 8 triangles.  Place 5 slices of pepperoni on each roll and top with string cheese.  Roll up.  Sprinkle rolls with garlic powder and place on baking sheet.  Bake for 12-15 mins (until lightly browned).  Serve with warm pizza sauce for dipping.

Manicotti Marinara

I have been making this dish for a few years now and my husband always raves about it and even goes so far to say that it is better than most restaurants versions of the dish.  Since I cannot remember where I found this recipe, I do not have a link to it - sorry.  I also love this as it is a basic version, but you can add in extras (spinach, chicken, veggies, etc).

Manicotti Marinara

Ingredients:

Manicotti Shells (I usually use about 6-8 shells so there are leftovers for lunch the next day)

1 jar Emerils Home Style Marinara sauce or your favorite marinara sauce (about 24 oz)

2 large eggs

15 oz ricotta cheese

16 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 Tbsp parsley

Cooking spray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain.

Spray baking dish with cooking spray.  Spread half of sauce over bottom of dish.

Beat eggs in large bowl.  Stir in ricotta, 3 cups mozzarella, 3/4 cup Parmesan and parsley.  Fill each cooked shell with mixture (I tear the shell length-wise to get it flat so I can spread mixture evenly, then roll it up and place the shell seam-side down in baking dish).

Arrange filled shells in baking dish over sauce.  Top with remaining sauce, 1 cup mozzarella and 1/4 cup Parmesan.  Cover and bake 45 minutes.  Uncover and continue baking 5 minutes more.  Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Cake Batter Pancakes

Cake Batter Pancakes


Found this recipe on Pinterest just in time for my daughter's 2nd birthday and she loved them (and so did we)!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cups yellow cake mix

1 Tbsp sugar

3/4 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1  1/2 cups milk

assorted sprinkles (which is perfect for any holiday/theme)

Directions:

Combine flour, cake mix, baking powder, sugar and salt in bowl and mix.  Add milk, eggs and vanilla extract and stir until smooth.  Add more milk if batter is too thick or add more flour if batter is to thin.

Preheat skillet on medium heat or preheat griddle.  Fold desired amount of sprinkles into batter.  Pour batter in 1/4 cup measurements onto skillet/griddle and let cook (I added a pinch more sprinkles on the uncooked side to give it some more coloring).  Cook about 2-3 minutes or until slightly browned.  Flip and cook for 1 minute more.

Chicken and Cheese Lasagna Roll-Ups

Chicken and Cheese Lasagna Roll-Ups


Ingredients:

3 cups chopped cooked chicken

1 cup ricotta cheese

1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided

1/4 cup milk

8 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained

2 cups of your favorite spaghetti sause

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In medium bowl, combine chicken, ricotta cheese, feta cheese, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese and milk.  Spread 1 cup sauce in baking dish.  Spread mixture on each lasagna noodle, roll jelly-roll fashion.  Arrange lasagna rolls, seam-side down in sauce in baking dish.  Top with remaining sauce.  Cover.  Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.  Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (if desired).  

Baked Ziti, Summer Veggies and Sausage

So I have been really bad about not updating this thing.  So I am updating with a few new recipes (Sorry, don't have pictures for them, but will add links to where I found the original recipe).

Baked Ziti and Summer Veggies

Ingredients:

6 oz uncooked ziti

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 cups chopped yellow squash

1 cup chopped zucchini

1/2 cup chopped onion (I omitted this as we are not onion eaters)

2 cups chopped tomato

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil (I used 1 Tbsp dried basil)

2 tsp chopped fresh oregano (1 tsp dried oregano)

3/4 tsp salt, divided

1/8 tsp crushed red pepper (although I think you could use a little more if you like spice)

1/4 cup ricotta cheese

1 large egg, lightly beaten

5 oz mild to spicy (depending on how spicy you want the dish) turkey sausage or regular sausage (to save time I used Jimmy Dean fully cooked sausage crumbles)

Cooking Spray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Coat baking dish with cooking spray.

Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt.  Drain.

While pasta is cooking, heat large skillet over med-high heat and add oil.  Add squash, zucchini and onion and saute 5 mins.  Add tomato and garlic and saute for 3 mins.  Remove from heat, stir in cooked pasta, 1/2 cup mozzarella, herbs, 1/2 tsp salt, crushed red pepper and sausage.

Combine ricotta, 1/4 tsp salt and egg.  Stir into pasta mixture.  Spoon into baking dish coated with cooking spray and sprinkle with 1/2 cup mozzarella.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15 mins.

This was an excellent dish and one I will most definitely make again.

Crock Pot Lasagna

I'm pretty sure I found this recipe via pintrest. Thank you! For the past month, I have been cooking different versions of lasagna. This is by far the easiest and very tasty.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

29 oz can tomato sauce (although I would either had in a couple more ounces of water or maybe 32 oz can tomato sauce as the first time I made this it seemed a little dry).

8 oz lasagna noodles, uncooked (I used the noodles that are meant to be cooked through boiling water as the recipe originally said not to use the oven ready noodles)

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

4 cups Mozzarella cheese

15 oz ricotta cheese

Directions:

Spray inside of crock pot with cooking spray.

Brown ground beef.

Stir in tomato sauce with cooked beef.

Spread 1/4 meat mix into crock pot.

Arrange 1/2 uncooked noodles over sauce. I broke them up so they would fit nicely.

Combine cheeses in bowl.

Spoon 1/3 cheese mix over noodles.

Repeat layers with meat mix, noodles and cheese.

Top with remaining 1/4 meat mix.

Cover and cook on low for 4 hours.

Let lasagna stand in crock pot with lid off for about 10 mins before serving.

Buffalo Chicken Bites and Blue Cheese Dip

It has been a long time since my last post. But I have a new one for y'all. I ripped it out of my All You Feb 2012 magazine and it was a huge hit at the Super Bowl party last night. I doubled the recipe, thinking the original amount wasn't going to be enough and I'm glad I did. And for the dip, I also made Ranch as well and just bought a packet of dry mix and mixed it with 16 oz sour cream.

For the Blue Cheese Dip:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups reduced-fat sour cream

2/3 cup light mayo

8 oz blue cheese, crumbled

1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp red wine vinegar

Salt and Pepper

Directions:

In a medium bowl mix together sour cream, mayo, Worcestershire sauce, red wine vinegar. Mix well. Stir in blue cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. Cover and chill until ready to serve (can be refrigerated up to 2 days).

For the Buffalo Chicken Bites:

Ingredients:

1 stick (8 Tbsp) unsalted butter

1 cup hot wing sauce

2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp white vinegar

2 Tbsp cayenne

2 tsp pepper

4 tsp salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

3 lbs skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes

1/2 cup vegetable oil, divided

Directions:

Stir butter, hot wing sauce, sugar and vinegar in a pan over medium-low heat until butter has melted. Remove from heat. In a large plastic bag, mix cayenne, 2 tsp pepper, 4 tsp salt and flour. Had half of chicken and toss until well coated (about 1-2 minutes).

In a large skillet, warm half of oil over med-high heat. Remove chicken from bag and shake excess coating. Add half of coated chicken into skillet (if you have a huge skillet, you might be able to fit all of coated chicken into it) and cook, turning on all sides, until chicken is no longer pink in the middle, about 6-8 minutes. Cool on plate, then transfer into large bowl. Wipe out skillet. Toss remaining chicken into the large plastic bag and coat well. Add remaining oil to skillet and cook chicken until cooked through. Cool on plate then transfer to bowl.

Rewarm sauce mixture over med-low heat. Pour sauce over chicken. Mix well.

Serve with Blue Cheese Dip and Ranch Dip.

Wish I had taken a picture of the finished product, but since I was short on time I did not. However, a lot of friends were surprised I had made this from scratch. And it tasted amazing. :-)