Sketti Saturday

So what that I made this recipe Wednesday night, ate it Thursday night for dinner, and am calling it Sketti Saturday. I'm scheduling this blog to post on Saturday, so it works.

So what that I am writing this blog when I only had one bite to taste test so that I could write the blog.

So what that maybe I should have called the blog "So What" instead of Sketti Saturday.

So what.

Moving on...

I posted earlier about how I am making lots of casseroles and one of my loyal readers, aka good friend LisaBella, gave me lots of links to recipes. One of them being Baked Cream Cheese Spaghetti Casserole from the blog "Plain Chicken". Then my friend Ms. Rink from Bows and Leopard pinned it. I felt like the food gods were giving me a sign that it should be my next cheffing adventure. And so it was.

Ingredients:

•  12 oz spaghetti - I used linguini because it's what we had... which is odd because I have never even cooked linguini in my life!
• 1 (28 ounce) jar prepared spaghetti sauce - Seriously? This annoyed me to no end. Pasta comes in 16 oz packages, recipes always call for 12 oz. Pasta sauce? The most I found in a jar was 24 oz. It's a conspiracy, I tell you. I ended up buying the mondo jar of Ragu and literally measured 28 oz.
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1 clove garlic, minced - I use frozen garlic cubes (see photo on right) and I used 3 of them. I like garlic. A lot.
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated - I eyeballed. Is 1/2 a cup really enough cheese to cover a 9x13 dish? I think not. 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.

In a skillet, brown the ground beef until cooked through; drain fat and stir in spaghetti sauce.  Set aside.

Cook spaghetti according to directions on packet.  Drain and place cooked spaghetti in bowl.  Add cream cheese, Italian Seasoning and minced garlic.  Stir until cream cheese is melted and the spaghetti is thoroughly coated.

Lightly grease a 9x13" pan.  Spread a small amount of meat sauce in the bottom of the dish.  Put spaghetti on top of sauce and top with remaining meat sauce.  Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.

Bake for 30 minutes, until bubbly.

Review:  From the one bite I had, this bad boy is delicious! I will definitely have this be a regular in our recipe rotation!

 

Baseball Game Goody Bag

So my recent posts about my love for the SF Giants was mainly because I made this really cute goody (or is it goodie) bag that I had seen on Pinterest and I totally forgot to share it in my other blog.

I just wanted to give K-Squared a little token of our appreciation for taking us to the game so I made them a baseball game goody bag:

Simple, fun, inexpensive, and took no time at all to throw together! (I could have spent a little more time on the tags, but that's what I get for being the Queen of Procrastination.)

Contents:

• Sunflower seeds
• Cracker Jacks
• Big League Chew
• Peanuts
• Werther's Originals Candy
• Squishy Baseball

They seem to have enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed making them and giving them!

Carmelita Melt Down

A couple of weekends ago, the SIL and I got into a serious baking kick. I think we baked four different sweet recipes. Ridiculous.

She made these things called Carmelitas. They are delicious, but a little on the rich side. Of course, K loved them. At first I was just like, "of course she does". It wasn't until the SIL said that the Carmelitas reminded them of something their grandma made that I decided I would make them for K sometime in the future.

The SIL got the recipe from Lulu the Baker. She doubled her recipe and I was debating doubling mine. K loves a sweet after dinner and the SIL said it freezes well so I figured, what the heck... I would go ahead and double the recipe.

The Recipe
32 caramel squares, unwrapped
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Combine caramels and cream in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until completely smooth; set aside.
In a separate bowl, combine melted butter, brown sugar, flour, oats, and baking soda.
Pat half of the oatmeal mixture into the bottom of an 8x8" pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
Remove pan from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over crust.
Pour caramel mixture over chocolate chips. Crumble remaining oatmeal mixture over caramel.
Return to oven and bake an additional 15-20 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned.
Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting.

*A stint in the fridge will help them cool off if you're pinched for time. They shouldn't be served cold, but all of that molten caramel takes a long time to cool down. They should be stored and served at room temperature.

**To make a 9x13" version, simply double the amounts. 

The key word there? "Simply". Apparently in the world of me, doubling a recipe isn't so simple.

I didn't double the flour. I thought I doubled the butter but in hind sight, my math brain was taking the day off and what I thought was a cup and a half of butter was really just the 3/4 cup it called for. And in reviewing this recipe for the blog, I am pretty sure I didn't put the full amount of brown sugar in.

Hence, the "Carmelita Melt Down".

The SIL "Melt Down"

Despite the melt down, and it being more caramel than anything else, they were still a hit. K devoured them, the SIL had an even bigger meltdown when she attempted to warm it to put over ice cream (above), and my boss nearly put himself into a sugar induced coma because he ate so many of them.

So, I guess even with major mistakes, it was still a hit and comes highly recommended. I think from now on I will stick with the recipe and stay away from doubling.

Popcorn Surprise

Popcorn Surprise!

 My good friend Teenah at do it my way, or else  turned me on to this recipe over Easter weekend. She called it "Easter Bunny Snack Mix". Obviously, that name wont work year round.

Teenah asked her family that had tried it for name suggestions and they said it was so good, it was like Bunny Crack. Hmmm... not so kid appropriate. Not to mention the fact that I posted that I was making Bunny Crack on Facebook on Sunday and my mom turned it into some traumatizing demented thing I was making with real bunnies. So, that name went out the door.

Since this recipe has many variations and you can change the ingredients to your liking, I decided to call it Popcorn Surprise since what you get could always be a surprise.

Old Fashioned Whirley Pop

Teenah's recipe, and all the variations I am seeing all over Pinterest, call for microwave popcorn. However, I love - do you hear me LOVE - popcorn popped on the stove in my old fashioned Whirley Pop. Sure, it took a little longer than throwing a bag in the microwave would have, but for me it was worth the extra step(s).

The Recipe

The Popcorn
1/3  cup popcorn kernals
1 Tbsp Orville Redenbacher's Popping & Topping Buttery Flavor Popcorn Oil (I'm pretty sure any oil would work.)
2 Tbsp butter
Lightly salt

Put all the ingredients into the Whirley Pop, turn on the stove to meduim-high heat (we have electric stove so I turned mine on about 6), and slowly crank the handle until popping slows/ceases. Immediately remove from heat and put into large mixing bowl.

OR, just throw a bag of popcorn in the microwave and pop according to the directions.

The Surprise
1 heaping cup of pretzels
1 cup M&Ms
Anything else you may like - Peanuts, Reece's Pieces, almonds, dried fruit - whatever you fancy.
1 cup White Chocolate Chips (melt for coating)

After popping the popcorn, add all your surprise ingredients to the popcorn. In a perfect world, I would own a double boiler and that would be how I would have melted the white chocolate chips, but I don't have a double boiler so I read about how to melt white chocolate and it went in the microwave.

Melting the white chocolate
Put no more than 1 cup into a glass bowl. Change your microwave power to 5 and microwave for 30-seconds. Stirring after each 30-second interval until the white chocolate chips are melted.

Pour the melted white chocolate over the popcorn and surprise ingredients and gently stir so the white chocolate coats the ingredients. Spread over a wax lined cookie sheet and put it in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes to allow it to harden.  

Since I had just made my Cinnamon Chocolate Banana Cake recipe on Saturday (not to mention the SIL baked two sweet goodies too), I decided we didn't need all this yummy goodness in the house. So, I bagged it up and took it to work with me. It's been a hit as far as I can tell. No one has brought it back and complained yet, so that's a good sign, right? ;o)

Roasted Chicken and Vegetable Pasta Primavera

I have made this recipe three times now. I liked it the first time, loved it the second time, and was disappointed the third time. I'm not sure why... maybe because I didn't use chicken? I can't remember if I used it the other times. I'm not really sure. Even though I wasn't happy with it this last time, I still recommend the recipe. For a Weight Watchers meal it really is pretty good.

The Recipe

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs of think asparagus
1 cup matchstick-cut carrots (I didn't use these)
Medium sized sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced (I didn't use these either - instead I cut up some bell peppers and threw them in for flavoring.)
1 tsp bottled minced garlic (I used Dorot Frozen Garlic cubes)
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 pint grape tomatoes (Watch these closely, they start exploding!)
2 cups sliced rotisserie chicken breast
3/4 cup whipping cream
2/3 cup shaved fresh Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 450.

Snap off tough ends of asparagus and cut asparagus into 2-inch pieces. Combine asparagus, and next three ingredients in a large roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper; toss gently to coat. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes or until veggies begin to brown. Stir veggies, add tomatoes, and cook 5 minutes.

While the vegetables roast, cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain well. reserving 1/3 cup pasta water. Keep pasta and reserved water warm.

Combine Chicken, veggies, pasta. reserved pasta water, and whipping cream; toss gently to coat. Sprinkle with cheese. Serve immediately.


Points: 7
Yields: 8 servings
Serving size: 1 1/4 cups
Per serving: CAL 318 (39% from fat); FAT 13.7g (sat fat 7.2g); PRO 20.9g; CARB 27.8g; CHOL 67mg; IRON 2.6mg; SOD 434 mg; CALC 181mg

The Review

Even though I wasn't in love with it this time, I am sure I will make it again. It's not the best as leftovers so I recommend having it when you are feeding guests so you can eat as much as possible in the first sitting.