Italian Sausage with Ravioli and Three Cheese Sauce

This is a one-pot meal that is simply delightful! Greg and I are meat eaters, hence the sausage, but you can substitute spinach, mushrooms, you name it! Make it your own :-)

Ingredients:

1 pkg (15 oz) cheese ravioli (or spinach if you want!)
3 red, yellow, and/or green peppers, seeded and sliced
3 tbs. olive oil
1 large sweet onion, peeled and chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
1 1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
2 cans (14.5 oz each) diced tomatoes with herbs
3 cups shredded Italian (three or five) cheese
2 links of Italian sausage

Preheat oven 400 degrees.
Cook ravioli as it says on package. Set it aside. Cook italian sausage. Set it aside. Over medium heat cook peppers in 1 tbs olive oil for 5 minutes. Set it aside. In same pot over medium heat, cook onions, garlic and Italian seasoning with remaining 2 tbs oil for about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and increase to high heat. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and let simmer 20 minutes (stir occasionally). Stir in cooked peppers and Italian sausage. Season with salt and pepper.

Spoon 1 cup of tomato mixture into bottom of greased casserole dish. Evenly layer 1/2 ravioli, 1 1/4 cups tomato mixture and 1 cup shredded cheese. Top with remaining ravioli and tomato mixture. Sprinkle remaining cheese over casserole. Cover with aluminum foil and bake 20 minutes (or heated thoroughly). YUM your DONE.

This one is my favorite... for now!

Doritos Casserole

I have to say that this recipe was one of my favorites growing up. Doritos, or any unhealthy snack for that matter, were never in the household. My mom would tell us not to touch them, but how tempting it was! It was definitely worth the wait, this recipe is deliciously bad for you. :-)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup chopped onions
2 garlic cloves (or 1 tsp powder)
1 tbs oil
1 lb ground beef
12 oz can of stewed tomatoes
1 pkg taco seasoning mix
1 4oz can of diced green chili peppers
1 bag of cheese flavor Doritos
1/2 lb mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 cups sour cream


Ready to cook? Here we go!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Saute 1/2 cup chopped onions, both garlic cloves, and oil.
Add 1 lb ground beef to mixture to onions. Cook fully.

Drain fat (ew, please do.)

Add stewed tomatoes, taco seasoning and diced green chili peppers. Simmer for 10 minutes. (Note: Did anyone notice the "new" grammar technique I used of not adding a comma before the and when listing? Weird rule. I'm working on it.)

While simmering... grease 9x13 dish. Sprinkle some Doritos on bottom of pan. Put meat mixture on top. Then layer with (in this order) mozzarella cheese, sour cream, and the rest of Doritos. Bake until hot (15-20 minutes). Remove from oven, top with cheddar cheese and bake until perfectly melted. YUM your DONE!

P.S. If you're going to be serving this dish as leftovers- don't add any Doritos to the casserole... instead make a dip. The Doritos will be soggy if not eaten when fresh out of the oven.

Candy Turkeys

What you need per turkey:

• 6 Candy Corn
• 2 Double Stuffed Oreo Cookies
• 1 whopper
• 1 Reese's Peanut Butter Cup

What you need to make the turkeys:

• 1 can of white frosting
• 3 plastic ziplock bags
• Food coloring (yellow, red, blue, green)
• 1 sharp knife
• 1 pair of scissors
• 1 bowl
• Some Powdered Sugar

Preperation:
Put your Peanut Butter Cups in the fridge to cool. If you have cold hard chocolate to work with it makes it a lot easier.

Add powdered sugar 1 tbs at a time to thicken icing to desired thickness. (This holds the turkey together better)

Squeeze some of the white icing into a bowl. This will be your orange. Mix red and yellow food coloring with the icing to create your desired orange. Then put that into a plastic bag and set it aside for later.

To make the Tail:

Use 1 Oreo cookie and 6 Candy Corns. Gently, with one candy corn pull apart just one side of the Oreo. Don't don't break about the entire thing. Put a good amount of icing in between the two sides. This will help the Candy Corn stay. Place 6 Candy Corn (white side down) in between the cookie.

To make the Base:

Take your white icing and squeeze a generous amount onto the top back of an Oreo cookie. Take the other Oreo and put the bottom into the icing to have it stand up. If it doesn't stand, add more icing!

To make the Body:

Remove your Peanut Butter Cup from the fridge. Take your knife and cut off the very bottom so you have a flat surface. Put icing on the bottom of it the bigger flat. Bump it up against the bottom and back of your Oreo cookies. See picture.

To make the Head:

Next take your Whopper and squeeze more icing on it on one side. Place the whopper on top of the Peanut Butter Cup to make your head.

Find a piece of Candy Corn that has a nice big white end. Using your sharp knife cut the color off leaving you with the white end. Place some icing on it and stick it on your whopper as the beak to your Oreo Turkey. Hold for a moment.

Take your icing and place two white dots as eyes. Mix together food dyes (blue, green, red) and icing to get black... put it in ziploc bag and place a black dot on each eye to make them come alive.

To make the feet:

Grab your bag of already created orange. Cut a very small hold in the corner of the bag. Now, pipe feet.

Grilled Salmon Salad with Orange-Basil Vinaigrette

Okay! So this is absolutely yummy in your tummy, and it's a really easy to make. I was watching TLC one day during my lunch break (yes, I get one sometimes!) and this was on one of the 30 minute meals. It looked good, so I tried it... and so should you!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed (I would used a little less... and more oil instead)

1 tbs and 1 tsp of cider vinegar (or white wine vinegar works)

1 tsp dried basil (or 1 tbs fresh)

1 1/2 tsp olive oil

1-2 salmon fillet

4 cups mixed greens

3/4 cup sliced strawberries

1/9 tsp ground black pepper

10 thin cucumber slices (I used it the first time... but I like it better without)

(and I added the following to the recipe...)

1/4 cup roasted and salted almond slices

1/3 cup feta cheese

Ready to cook!? Okay!

Mix the orange juice conc., vinegar, basil, pepper, and olive oil. This is your vinaigrette. Set asidde 2 tbls of mixture.

Get salmon... cook it for 5 minutes over medium heat on one side. Brush with the 2 tbls of vinaigrette. Flip the salmon and cook for another 5 minutes. Putting the rest of the 2 tbls vinaigrette.

Grill the almonds, put a little olive oil in it with a dash of salt. Let it crisp.

While that's happening... rinse the lettuce, cut it up, pour vinaigrette all over it (I only use 1/2 of it and leave the rest for people that like more dressing)

Put salad on plates and top with yummy strawberries, feta cheese, almonds, cucumbers (if you used it), and salmon. EAT! It's fabulous.

Apricot Chicken

So the apricot chicken, rice pilaf, and asparagus meal was fantastic! Thought I would share it with you. I tweaked the recipe to this.

Apricot chicken:

Ingredients:

3-4 chicken breasts

3 tbs dry onion soup mix

1/2 cup apricot or apricot-pinapple preserves (I used apricot-pineapple)

5 fluid ounces of russian style salad dressing (use the wishbone!)

I sliced the chicken breasts in half so it didn't have to cook as long. Plus, I just don't like "thick" chicken- doesn't have as much taste!

Mix all the ingredients and pour on top of chicken breasts.

Cover and cook ~30-40 minutes at 350 degrees. Depends on the thickness of the chicken.

You can serve toasted almonds on top if you want- yum!

Rice Pilaf:

Ingredients:

1 cup long grain brown rice

2 cup water

1 tbs butter

1/4 or 1/3 cup asparagus (cut finely)

1/4 or 1/3 cup carrots (cut finely)

1 1/2 tbs dry onion soup mix

Pour everything in except rice and boil. Add rice, cover, and cook for the time said on the rice package. (brown rice takes ~40-50 minutes. Perfect for the chicken!)

Asparagus:

Ingredients:

Asparagus

Parmesan cheese (powder kind you put on spaghetti)

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil

Spray sheet. Place asparagus on, pour olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper, sprinkle parmesan cheese, then it's cookin' time!

Put in oven 15 minutes before the chicken is done (keep oven at 350). And the meal will finally be finished when timer goes off in 15!

ENJOY! Greg said this is one of his favorite meals!