Month: April 2020

Baked Ziti

Baked ziti is a big dish that can feed a big family, or feed a small family for several days. Josh and I have been eating this ziti for almost a week, and it’s still just as good. For 2 adults, it was 8 meals and very tasty. Similarly to my lasagna recipe, I used cottage cheese instead of ricotta. I just like the availability, and the mildness of the flavor comparatively. I also made this dish early in the day, put it into the fridge, then baked it again, and it came out just as it would the first time, but if you want to put it in the fridge before baking, add 15 minutes to your cook time, and if you choose to make this then freeze it, just double the bake time when you bake it from frozen.

  1. Bake ziti noodles until al dente. Meanwhile, brown 1 lb of ground beef.
  2. Heat oven to 400 F.
  3. Open a jar of spaghetti sauce and season to taste. Place 4 Tbsp of sauce at the bottom of a 2 qt baking dish, and evenly distribute. Add the remainder of sauce to your meat mixture and bring to a simmer.
  4. Spread out 1/2 the cooked ziti noodles into a layer on top of the sauce. In a side bowl, mix together 1.5 cup cottage cheese/ricotta, 4 oz shredded mozzarella, and 2 Tbsp Italian seasoning.
  5. Place 1/3 of the meat sauce on top of your noodle layer. Place cheese mixture in a layer on top of your cheese layer. Top with the remainder of your noodles, then top with remainder sauce and an additional 4 oz shredded mozzarella.
  6. Bake for 30 minutes. Let sit for 10 minutes before eating.
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Buffalo Chicken Salad

Spicy foods are eaten in moderation at our house. Josh and I are pretty wimpy when it comes to spicy foods like hot wings, but we still love the flavor, so when we do get a craving for something buffalo, I just mix up this sauce and we enjoy some controlled spice. The chicken breasts I use in almost every post are a 1 lb chicken breast, that are usually about 1 1/2 inch thick. So, I usually bake my chicken for at least 40-45 minutes. I’ve used the electric beater before to shred my chicken and also forks to pull it apart. The mixer takes less effort, but the shreds aren’t as clean and there is fat evenly distributed into the mix that you would pull out with a fork otherwise.

  1. Heat your oven to 400 F. Place a chicken breast on a baking sheet and bake for 30-45 minutes (45 minutes if the chicken is thicker than an inch).
  2. In a ramekin, mix 4 Tbsp melted butter and 6 Tbsp hot sauce. This is a mild sauce. Also tear your lettuce for your salads, and add to dishes.
  3. Once the chicken has an internal temperature of 165 F, tear your chicken with 2 forks, or beat with an electric mixer. Place into a bowl, add the buffalo sauce, and mix until coated.
  4. Place you torn buffalo chicken over your lettuce, then top with blue cheese or ranch.
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Pretzels Using Sour Dough Starter

Salty snacks are my favorite kind of snacks. I love chips, pretzels, and nuts. My family also loves soft pretzels. It reminds me of baseball games as a child, getting a big hot pretzel and either a cup of cheese or making a cup of mustard. I know many people like the pretzel and cheese combo, but I love the tangy flavor that mustard with pretzels offers. I also am looking for creative uses for starter, and since I like pretzels, I thought this would be a great way to use it.

The dough is very sticky, so it will be harder to work with. I’m also learning to add the starter at the end of the mixing process, because it’s so sticky, it sticks to the bottom of my stand mixer bowl, and doesn’t want to separate even after the dough has come together. Josh and I had fun rolling out the pretzels, but we weren’t great at making consistent pretzels. Practice makes perfect! And before I baked, I didn’t add anything to the pretzels. That is why they came out so pale. I baked the pretzels for 25 minutes, saw how pale they were, pulled them out, added some butter on top of each and baked for another 5 minutes, and that is where the only color came from. Oil from the beginning would have helped with this, or you could get the malt mix so you could make classic pretzels with a dark, hard crust on them.

  1. In a bowl, add 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 Tbsp sugar, 1 cup warm water. Stir until combined. Add 1 cup of starter. Mix until it comes together. Add up to an extra 1/2 cup flour if the dough won’t come together, it should remain very sticky as a dough.
  2. Grease your bowl, turn your dough to be covered in oil, then let raise for 1 hour. It will only rise a little. Spray cookie sheets with non-stick spray.
  3. Heat oven to 350 F.
  4. Grease a clean counter top. Knead and deflate dough. Divide into 12 pieces. Roll out each ball into a long string about 18 inches long. On the counter, cross the ends, then lay the ends over the loop, shaping your pretzel. Transfer to cookie sheet.
  5. Brush tops of pretzels with oil and top with coarse salt (or mix equal sugar and water and brush over pretzels for darker coating).
  6. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before eating.
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Frozen Chicken Cordon Bleu Review

Walking through the frozen food aisle during this pandemic, we saw this fun little meal. We usually buy one frozen meal whenever we travel to the store because everyone has a day when they don’t want to cook. When we were split between frozen pizza, frozen burgers, and frozen chicken, Josh chose this and we ate it later that night.

The chicken did burst, however the cheese volcano far from emptied these stuffed chicken breasts. The chicken was deliciously juicy and the breading was very tasty. The cheese was a full sauce that wasn’t too thin or too thick. The ham was tasty, thick, and needing a knife to cut it. These chickens were very small though. These were small potatoes, and the chicken was nearly the same size. Each chicken was only about 4 inches long and 2 inches wide.

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French Toast With Homemade Bread

French toast is a filling and sticky breakfast. I used a third loaf of white bread to make this french toast, and I cut the slices to be about 1/4 inch thick. The mixture didn’t penetrate the bread very far, but the flavoring was fantastic. The vanilla extract was absolutely fantastic. I made another batch of this again and this week we’ll be doing that for breakfast. To reheat french toast, heat in a skillet for 1-2 minutes per side, or microwave for 1 -2 minutes.

  1. Heat a skillet to medium heat, of 250 F. In an open faced dish whisk together 2 eggs and 1/2 cup of milk. Add 1 tsp nutmeg, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 2 tsp cinnamon, and 1 Tbsp sugar.
  2. Cut your bread to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Butter your hot skillet. Dip each side of your bread for about 30 seconds for firmer breads, then immediately transfer into hot skillet. Cook each side for 2-3 minutes. Serve with butter and syrup. Makes 8-12 pieces.
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