Chicken-Stuffed Shells with Two Sauces

Sam, the nurse, told me of this recipe she made from Pillsbury.com that was stuffed shells and you use two different sauces. I was listening. I love stuffed pasta, Ravioli, Tortellini, Manicotti, Stuffed Shells and Cannelloni.   She then went on to say she stuffed the shells with cottage cheese and cubed chicken.  I was then appalled. Cottage cheese? Sam said it was very good. I wasn’t so convinced. I couldn’t come around eating a stuffed shell with solely cottage cheese even if there was chicken in it. Also cubed chicken?  I couldn’t get my taste buds grooving to that.  I told her I would make the recipe but I ‘m changing it to ricotta and ground up chicken breast. So, I did, and I liked it.

 I grilled the chicken while getting the shells ready and while everything was cooking I got the filling going. I used a Ziploc gallon bag and threw everything into it and mashed the ingredients together. Now snip a corner off, the bigger the hole the harder it is to handle. This makes piping and clean up easy. If you want, you can do it the old fashion way and lovingly spoon the filling into the shells. When I was following the recipe I only put in a cup of ricotta and needed a little more, so maybe a cup and ½ of ricotta. My barely surviving window basil plant wasn’t enough fresh basil so I add some dry basil to it.  I really like the combination of two sauces and didn’t think I was going to, even Barry liked it and he’s against alfredo sauce. I think this recipe is a keeper. Here is the recipe as is; the tips at the bottom came with it. This again, is one of those meals you could serve with  salad and bread-sticks and nice glass of milk (or wine).

Chicken-Stuffed Shells with Two Sauces

Prep Time: 20 Min

Total Time: 1 Hr 5 Min

Makes: 6 servings

INGREDIENTS

18 uncooked jumbo pasta shells

¾ cup lightly packed chopped fresh basil leaves

3 cups diced cooked chicken breast (about 1 lb)

1 cup small-curd cottage cheese

1 egg

2 cups tomato pasta sauce

1 container (10 oz) refrigerated Alfredo sauce

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

1    Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray. Cook the pasta to what it says on the box.

2    In medium bowl, mix 1/2 cup of the basil leaves, the chicken, cottage cheese and egg. Spoon about 1 good size tablespoon mixture into each cooked pasta shell.

3     Pour pasta sauce into baking dish; and tilt the dish to evenly coat bottom. Place filled shells over sauce, filled sides up. Drizzle Alfredo sauce over shells. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Cover tightly with foil.

4   Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until sauce is bubbly and shells are hot. Sprinkle with remaining basil.

Pillsbury.com site

Cooking with Philly

I bought some Philadelphia Cooking Crème Italian Cheese and Herb the other day because I had a coupon. I like coupons. I saw the commercials on TV and I thought I would give it a try. It has a peel off recipe idea list on the lid, but before I looked at the recipes I thought I would make Pasta Primavera with chicken and the crème. When I did look at them there was one that had bacon in it. I love bacon. It’s probably one of the reasons why I couldn’t become a vegetarian. It’s just soo tasty. 

 Creamy Bacon Fettuccine has bacon, red onions, milk, peas and fettuccine. I also included a bag of frozen veggies and some chicken. I pretty much just combined the two together since I had a chicken breast thawing and I was planning on buying frozen veggie blend. While the water was boiling for the noodles, I did my prep work on the onion, bacon and chicken.   I also added garlic because I need to use up my garlic supply.  The onion I had on hand was yellow and not red, so I used that instead and I put the veggies in after I cooked the onion for a little bit.

 Bacon is really a pain to cut up into pieces and I haven’t figured out a technique to cut it with a knife without wiggling around. The best way I found to break it up is to use kitchen shears. It also helps if the meat is still slightly frozen.  Barry and I can’t go through a whole package of bacon together without it going to waste. So what I usually do is freeze them in a single layer on a cookie and then put them in a Ziploc bag and then I can just pull out a couple slices at time. When I was cooking the bacon, I fried the chicken pieces with it. The chicken was darn tasty. Be careful not to burn yourself when drain the bacon fat. Bacon fat can get really hot when messing with it.

 They make the instructions easy to follow. There are only 3 steps really. Make sure you don’t fall behind or your pasta will get done too early or even worse overcooked. After draining, the pasta will start to cool and the starches will make the noodles start sticking to each other. Don’t add oil to the noodles or the sauce won’t stick to them. I finished the plate with a sprinkle of shredded parmesan. 

After trying this I didn’t think to myself, “WOW, Philly is onto something”.   I could see this as a quick come together meal for a family.  Since I added veggies to it you could serve breadsticks with it and a spinach salad.  Paired it with a nice tall glass of milk, it would make a good healthy meal. 

 You could also add the spinach to the pasta and it will just wilt in.  There are other flavors in the crème collection: Original, Savory Garlic and Santa Fe Blend.  I’m sure I will try it again, maybe the Santa Fe Blend, and create that WOW dish. 

Recipe Ingredients

6 slices Bacon cut into ½ inch thick slices

½ cup chopped red onion

1 tub Philadelphia Italian Cheese & Herb Cooking Crème

½ cup milk

1 cup frozen peas

½ lb fettuccine, cooked

Cook bacon in large skillet until crisp. Remove bacon from skillet with slotted spoon, reserving 2 tbsp. drippings in skillet.  Drain bacon on paper towels.

Stir onions into drippings; cook and stir 3 min. or until crisp –tender. Add cooking crème, milk and peas; cook and stir 3 min.

Add bacon and pasta; stir to coat

Recipes for this creme and other 3

Multi-functional Avocado

Avocados are another food that I have gotten to enjoy in the past couple of years. Linda made Guacamole with cream cheese for a party and we were hooked. The only thing is avocados are expensive around here; apparently they are cheaper on the west coast. Last week, they so happen to be on sale and I picked up a couple. Avocados are fruit grown on a tree and have a huge seed in it.  They are picked before ripened. You can ripen them at home by putting them in a brown paper bag and then put it in a dark place, like a cupboard. It can take a day or two for them to get soft. You cut them in half around the seed, twist and then pick out the seed; you then take a spoon scoop out the green flesh. What do you do with it now? Make guacamole. Actually you can do different things with it. I have grilled, leaving the skin on and brushing olive oil on the flesh part. I have cut them up and put it in salad. I have sliced them and put them in sandwiches. I have a recipe where you take soy sauce, garlic and ginger, mix it all up and pour it on the avocado or relish on soup. Health nuts brag about its nutritional value. Avocados provide nearly 20 essential nutrients, including fiber, potassium, Vitamin E, B-vitamins and folic acid. They also act as a "nutrient booster" by enabling the body to absorb more fat-soluble nutrients, such as alpha and beta-carotene and lutein, in foods that are eaten with the fruit. http://www.avocado.org/nutrition/ Avocados have a plain taste, it reminds me of potatoes. They don’t really taste good until you add flavor enhancements.  Mrs. Wages makes a seasoning packet that you just add two avocado, water or lime juice (I would go with lime juice), mix and let it sit in the fridge for 10 minutes.  I added tomatoes, onions and some red bell pepper. My mom also made it as is and like my version better. She thought it toned it down a bit.  When you add lemon or lime juice to the avocado it keeps it from turning brown, like apples or bananas. I was told that the seed inside the avocado keeps it from turning brown.  I’ve added the seeds before to guacamole when I had to travel with it just to see if it would work. I thought it did for the most part, but it could be the lemon juice. Do some research and come up with your own recipe. The link I provided on the nutrition is the California Avocado website and they have recipes and other information that pertains to the avocado.  So stop being afraid to try the green fruit and add some healthiness to your diet.  Oh, and invite me over if you’re making guacamole.  I’ll bring some tortilla chips.

Comfort Food

I don’t think I’ve made so many recipes from one EveryDay Food magazine before.  I thought I would do two recipes for this entry.  I had to buy heavy cream for the tomato soup recipe. I’m like ok, I’ll go to the dairy area and pick off the shelf, and I know right where they are. I get there, and I’m looking at the cooler, and I see Heavy Whipping Cream. Uh oh. I glance nervously around. Is that the same? Where’s the “heavy cream”?

My solution: Call Mother. So, I call mom and my little sister Chelsey answers, and of course, she’s no help. Mom’s at a jewelry party. So, I ask some random lady in the store, and she really didn’t know. I then see Mary Sarchet, and I’m like she’ll know, but she wasn’t real sure either but thought it might work in whatever I was making. I plunge ahead and buy the Heavy Whipping Cream.  I only needed a tablespoon anyway. What was I going to use the rest for? Mom said to make whipped topping. That would mean I would have to bake something, and I just over-baked the premade cookies.  No, I’ll just let it sit in the fridge.

Do you know what the difference is? Apparently it has to do with the fat content. It also seems like it goes by region if the store carries one cream or the other.  The tomato soup recipe was just for one person.  I was surprised when Barry asked if there was any for him when he got home. I didn’t think he would like it. It took me probably 26 years to like tomatoes. It started off small, by putting them on my hamburgers and then salads. Tomato soup was a big leap. What I did do was buy Mrs. Dash Italian Seasoning Blend. It made my simple can of tomato soup bistro.  When I made the recipe I used can whole tomatoes. I added all the ingredients and when it was done it tasted like the spaghetti sauce I freeze in the summer. I also got to use my hand blender again.  I thought I would look up the recipe in the Ramsey in the Kitchen cookbook to compare. It’s that big yellow cover cookbook your grandma or mom might have in the cupboard if you live in Kossuth County area.  They really didn’t have too many soup recipes but they did have a couple of cream of tomato. I thought I would combine them and added a little butter. I’ve decided you can’t go wrong with butter.  The heavy whipping cream was fine, too. It added a nice creaminess to it.  I just wasn’t impressed with the taste. I’ll probably have to keep working it.  In the recipe it calls for pesto and I love pesto. I make it in the summer when my basil patch is at full bloom. The little plant that I have in the window wouldn't cut it so I went without, can't wait till this summer.  I also made a Panini and just not the grilled bacon sandwich. I had garlic peppered turkey meat in the fridge that needed to get used. I like Paninis. It’s a grown-up grilled sandwich.   

Tomato Soup with Bacon Grilled Cheese

1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

½ small yellow onion, diced small (1/4 cup)

1 small garlic clove, minced

Coarse salt and ground pepper

1 can (14.5 ounces) whole peeled tomatoes, torn

1 tablespoon heavy cream

2 slices bacon

2 slices sandwich bread

1 ounce cheddar, grated (1/3 cup)

Fresh pesto or Salsa Verde

1.       In a small pot, heat oil over medium-high. Add onion and cook until translucent, 5 minutes.  Add garlic, season with salt and pepper, and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add tomatoes with juice and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cook until onions are soft, 15 minutes. Transfer to a blender with cream; puree until smooth. (Use caution when blending hot liquids: Remove cap from lid and cover opening with a dish towel.) Season to taste.

2.       In a skillet, cook bacon over medium-high heat until browned and crisp, 10 minutes; drain on paper towels. Remove pan with fat from hat. Layer 1 bread slice with half the cheese, bacon and rest of cheese; top with second bread slice. Return pan to heat. Cook sandwich until cheese is melted and bread is browned, 4 minutes, flipping once. Serve with soup, topped with pesto is desired. Serves 1

So, here’s the big question: What did I do with the rest of the heavy whipping cream? I was flipping through the rest of the magazine, and they had this section dedicated to pasta and the right sauce that goes with the right noodles.  They had a sauce that used heavy cream, onion, and garlic. It needed chicken. I had all this. I just didn’t have the fancy pappardelle noodles, widest ribbon. They have noodles broken down into groups and pappardelle belonged to Ribbon. Nests of flat, wide egg -pasta ribbons are served with creamy butter or hearty meat sauces. The wider the noodle, the thicker the sauce. That’s why fettuccine tastes so good with butter and Parmesan (Alfredo sauce) I’ve always made Alfredo sauce with the cream cheese because it look easy but it tasted off.  Heavy whipping cream is not healthy, go easy using this, but it’s absolutely tasty. I used whole wheat penne, though I do want to try this pappardelle. I’m doing this smart-fuel challenge at work and one of the tips is using whole grains into our diet. The penne did fine,  it held the sauce in its ridges and inside the tube. I finished it with some torn basil. Satisfying Italian comfort food, too bad I’m 100% German. 

Pappardelle with Creamy Chicken Sauce 

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

7 boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into 1-inch pieces (2 pounds total)

Coarse salt and ground pepper

1 medium  yellow onion, diced medium

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups heavy cream

1 pound pappardelle

1.       In a large heavy pot, heat oil over medium-high. Season chicken with salt and pepper and cook until it releases its juices and is almost cooked through, about 7 minutes Add onion and cook until translucent, stirring occasionally, about 6 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Add that cream and bring to a boil, Reduce heat to a rapid simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thick  enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. I happen to have a lemon in the fridge so I added that to the sauce to give it a bit of acidity.

2.       Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cooked pasta until al dente. Reserve 1 cup pasta water; drain pasta and add to sauce, tossing to combine and adding enough pasta water to create a creamy sauce that coats pasta. Remember that pasta water has all that carbs in it. Never rinse your pasta unless it says so otherwise you'll wash off those carbs that make the sauce stick to the noodle. Serve immediately. 
Adapted from Everyday Foods