Tomato Sauce with Meat

It's the second day of "spring" and what do you know? It's snowing! On days like today, I feel like something hearty so I decided to make pasta for dinner. I have a gazillion cans of tomato paste in my cupboard (thanks Sam's Club) that I hardly ever use so I decided to make some pasta sauce.

Here is what you will need.

First chop up your onion and bell pepper. Then saute them with a little olive oil and garlic. I love this smell!

In a separate pan on medium heat, put in a tablespoon of olive oil and add your can of tomato paste. Next, fill your empty tomato paste can up with chicken broth and dump it into your pan. Do this twice. Add salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and basil. Stir it together. If you want a spicy or "arrabbiata" sauce, go ahead and and about a teaspoon of red pepper flakes as well.

Once the onion, bell pepper, and garlic are softened, add about half them to your tomato sauce. Leave the rest in your pan and add ground beef and cook until no longer pink.

Once meat is browned, add this to your tomato sauce. Stir and taste. You may need to add a few spices depending on your taste. If not, you are ready to eat! I let mine simmer for about an hour so you can do that as well if you aren't in a hurry to eat. Letting it simmer brings all the flavors together.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 green bell pepper
1/4 medium onion
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 6 oz can tomato paste
12 oz chicken broth
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons of Trader Joe's frozen chopped basil cubes
1/2 lb ground beef

Summary:
Put 1 tablespoon of olive oil in pan on medium heat. Add tomato paste, chicken broth, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and basil and mix together. In another pan on medium-high heat put 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and saute bell pepper, onion, and garlic. Once they are soft, add half of them to your tomato sauce mix and stir in. In the pan with the bell peppers, add your ground beef and cook until no longer pink then add to tomato sauce. Let simmer for about an hour. Enjoy!

With love!

Roasted Red Potatoes

Roasted red potatoes are the perfect side dish to steaks, chicken, and pork.

Here is what you will need

Its shocking, but this recipe does not call for any hot sauce.  Dont worry, there is still lime. 

First preheat oven to 350 degrees. Next, wash and cut up your potatoes and put them into a baking dish.  Make sure they aren't piled too high on top of each other.

Now you will want to melt you butter and mix in a bowl with garlic and lemon juice.

Then pour the mixture over your potatoes and stir with a spoon for total coverage.

Sprinkle the potatoes with Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Cover with foil and bake in oven for 55 minutes. 

Let cool for 5 minutes and enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 lb small red potatoes

2 tablespoons of butter melted (you can substitute olive oil)

1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons garlic

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Summary:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash and cut red potatoes and put into baking dish. Melt butter and mix with lemon juice and garlic. Pour butter mix over potatoes and mix. Sprinkle potatoes with Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Bake for 55 minutes. Take out of over and let cool for 5 minutes and enjoy.

With love!

Chicken Tortilla Casserole

My husband is not feeling well and asked me to make some comfort food. With summer being right around the corner, I wanted to make a somewhat healthy dish that would be nice and hearty for him. You may notice all the melted gooey cheese on the above picture, but don't worry...it is easy to scrape off or you can put less on if you are trying to eat healthy.

Here is what you will need:

I forgot to include a can of diced tomatoes in the picture.  You can use one or cup up a fresh tomato if you'd like.

First you will need to cook your chicken if you haven't already. You can cook it however you want. I prefer to poach mine and then shred it in my mixer. 

For those of you who don't know what poaching is, all you have to do is put your chicken breast into a pan with enough water to fully cover it and bring to a boil and let boil for about 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. 

While my chicken breasts were cooking, I decided to chop my bell pepper and onions. If you are using a fresh tomato, go ahead and chop that as well.

My chicken is still cooking so I went ahead and mixed the cream of chicken soup, milk, sour cream, green chilies, garlic, chili powder, cumin, and salt together in a bowl.

Next I cut up my tortilla strips into about 1 inch cubes.

Now throw your tortillas, chicken, bell pepper, onion, tomatoes, and cheese into the bowl with the cream mixture.

Mix until everything is combined.

Put your mix into a baking dish and cover with foil. Cook at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. 

Once it has been cooked, take the casserole out of the oven and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Put back into oven for 5 minutes or until the cheese has melted.

Let the casserole cool for about 10 minutes and serve.

Enjoy!

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons garlic

1 4 oz can diced green chilies

1/2 cup 1% milk

1 10.5 oz can of fat free condensed cream of chicken soup

8 oz fat free sour cream

1/2 medium diced bell pepper

1/2 medium diced onion

10 oz can diced tomato's or 1 medium diced tomato

8 6 inch corn tortillas

1 lb cooked chopped or shredded chicken breast

1 1/2 cups shredded colby jack cheese

Summary:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray 2 quart baking dish with cooking spray. Mix chili powder, cumin, salt, garlic, green chilies, milk, cream of chicken soup, and sour cream in large bowl. Cut tortilla strips into 1 inch pieces. Add bell pepper, onion, tomatoes, tortillas, cooked chicken, and 3/4 cup shredded cheese into bowl and mix with wet ingredients. Put into 2 quart baking dish and cover with foil. Cook at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, take casserole out of oven and uncover. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and put back into over for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Let cool for 10 minutes.

With love!

Garlic Herb Butter

Garlic Herb butter, so simple, yet so delicious! This butter is out of this world and you only need three ingredients. You can put it on anything... Garlic bread, steak, potatoes, veggies, chicken, you get the point!

Here is what you will need

If you have a Trader Joe's near you, I highly recommend getting their frozen crushed garlic cubes. I tried minced garlic from a jar and a garlic paste, but the Trader Joe's crushed garlic is what put this butter over the edge for me. I am sure fresh garlic crushed or zested would be just as good, but as you guys have probably figured out by now...I like to use what I have! I usually try to keep fresh garlic in my cupboard, but I love it so much that I usually use it up pretty quickly, which is why I find the Trader Joe's frozen cubes of crushed garlic so convenient! They are so much better than jarred or garlic powder. Trader Joe's also has frozen cubes of basil, parsley ect...they are awesome! I love TJ's!

The first thing you will need to do is leave your butter on the counter to soften until its about room temperature. Depending on the temperature of your house, you can probably leave it out for about an hour and a half and get the right softness...don't let it melt, just let it soften up a bit.

Once your butter is soft then put it in your food processor or mixer and add your garlic and parsley flakes. If you have fresh parsley you can use that instead, but I didn't have any and to be honest this butter is so good you can just use your dried parsley flakes from the spice jar.

Now mix it until the parsley and garlic are fully mixed in. You may need to take a spatula and wipe down the sides a few times until it is mixed in. Next just scoop out your butter onto foil your plastic wrap with foil on the outside.

Then roll it up.

Once it is rolled push it in..

Now put it in your refrigerator to harden

That's it! Now you are ready to use it! I used it on french bread and it was some of the best garlic bread I have ever had! I also put a little slice of it on my husband and my steaks and let it melt all over....mmmmmm!

Ingredients:
1 stick of butter
3 cubes of Trader Joe's garlic (or more if you like it garlicky) or 3 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons parsley flakes

Summary:
Let butter soften to room temperature. Put all ingredients into food processor or mixer and process until fully mixed. Roll butter up into saran wrap or foil and let harden in your refrigerator until you are ready to use. Enjoy!

With love!