One-Pot Sour Cream Lasagna

Italian food. Need I say more? It's filling, cheap and absolutely divine. My heart loves it; my thighs rebel. I once worked with a woman who had 8 kids, and she told me something that stuck with me from that day on. She said, "I serve potatoes, bread or pasta at every single meal — sometimes all three together. It's cheap, and it fills ya' up." Tim has been begging me to come up with some new recipes, and I threw this together on a whim. It took a total of 15 minutes and I had all but one ingredient in my very own pantry.

Ingredients:

• 1 box of bowtie pasta
• 1/2 lb. ground beef
• Olive oil
• 1 can pasta sauce
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup sour cream

Directions:

• Throw the pasta into a pot of boiling water. Let it sit until cooked.
• Brown ground beef in large pan over high heat. Once cooked, add garlic powder and Italian seasoning
• Drain ground beef when it's thoroughly cooked. Put back in skillet.
• Add cooked pasta
• Add about 1/4 cup olive oil and mix
• Pour in entire can of pasta sauce and combine well
• Add shredded mozzarella cheese and sour cream
• For the record, you can get a block of fresh mozzarella cheese for about the same price as a large bag of it shredded. I find the block tastes so much better. Go for it.
• Keep heat on medium, stirring constantly. Let it warm all the way through.
• Serve with salad and some fresh sourdough bread. 

I feel confident in saying that this will become a new staple for your family dinners. I also feel confident that if I can type all this out in less than 5 minutes, you can cook it in less than 15 minutes.

Love and simplicity,
Rachael

Simply perfect chicken pasta

This isn't the most masculine meal I've ever made, but my man loves it, and he's anything but dainty. My other obstacle is that he's definitely not one to request a dish with spinach. But this meal is creamy, filling, and has so many different flavors all packed into one dish. And he absolutely loved it.

Ingredients:

• 1 box of your favorite pasta
• 3 chicken breasts
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 2 tbs. butter
• 1/4 tsp garlic salt
• 2 tbs. flour
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup frozen spinach
• Shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 can drained chick peas (optional)

Directions:

• Cook pasta in a large pot according to directions on the box
• Drain when finished and return to pot
• Pour olive oil into large pan over medium heat
• Add minced garlic and stir continually for 1-2 minutes
• Place chicken breasts into pan and cook over medium high heat until thoroughly cooked
• Once the chicken is fully cooked, use 2 forks and tear the chicken apart 
• Keep chicken over low heat while we work on the sauce
• In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter over medium high heat
• Add the flour and whisk until smooth. Turn the heat to low.
• Add the garlic salt and stir continually for 4-5 minutes. Letting it cook that long helps eliminate the flour taste.
• Slowly add the milk while continuing to stir
• Continue to stir until smooth and thick
• Add the chicken and sauce to the pot of cooked noodles
• Microwave the spinach for about 2 minutes, or until completely thawed and hot. 
• It's important to drain the spinach. My mom always taught me to do so by placing thawed spinach into a clean dish rag and squeezing over the sink. If you use a paper towel, it will break, and you'll burn your hands.
• Once the spinach is thawed, chop it up and add to the chicken/sauce/pasta mixture.
• Turn the stove heat on low and stir until well-combined.
• Serve with french bread and soup.

Maybe I just go into way too much detail, but don't be intimidated by the length of this post; this pasta dish took less than 20 minutes to make, start to finish. It's one of my "go-to" recipes when I'm in a rush.

Love and convincing-your-husband-to-eat-spinach,
Rachael

Whole wheat pancakes

Nothing makes me feel guiltier than starting my day off with an overflow of carbs and syrup ...

... yet on the other side of things, nothing makes me feel better in the morning than indulging in an overflow of carbs and syrup. It's a vicious cycle.

I have to find some sort of compromise. I am not going to top my pancakes with any type of fruit (something I consider to be pure blasphemy), so that only leaves me one option: to revise the actual pancake recipe. Since my husband won't eat anything white, I decided to take a shot and make some whole wheat pancakes. I've played with a few different variations, but this is it.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups of milk
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Directions:

• Stir together all the dry ingredients
• Add the oil, milk and beaten eggs
• Whisk until all ingredients are mixed
• Cook on a pan or a preheated griddle until the side facing up starts to produce bubbles, then flip and let the other side cook
• Top with butter, syrup or ... fruit (she adds begrudgingly)

It's as simple as any other pancake recipe, just with one or two simple substitutions. So for heaven's sake, stop feeling guilty and eat the pancakes.


Love and syrup,
Rachael

Good ol' classic spaghetti

I've shunned spaghetti for the past few years of my life.

It's too easy.

Too simple.

Too quick.

Too many leftovers, leaving me less opportunities to cook.

Too easy to please my husband.

Then it occurred to me this afternoon...

...this is freaking genius

Why I haven't cooked this classic in so long is beyond comprehension. And before you judge me for posting something so simple...

...well, I had a middle-aged woman come up to me at church and say that my recipes have saved her marriage. I don't believe her...because that would worry me.

That's way too much pressure for a part-time blogger.

So let's just do this for fun, shall we?

What you'll need:
Ground beef or turkey (1lb)
1 large jar of your choice of spaghetti sauce
Milk (yes, you read that correctly)
Garlic
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Butter (yes, you need butter, too)
1 package of spaghetti noodles
Salt/pepper
Italian seasoning

Throw a little bit of olive oil over medium/high heat and toss the pound of beef/turkey into the pan.

Let's do some seasoning. Add some salt, pepper, and italian seasoning.

Smash it all up with a wooden spoon.

Aren't you loving all these closeups of raw meat?

Now, we of course have to add some garlic. Normally I would say put two or three minced garlic cloves in with the meat; however...

Is that not the largest clove of garlic you've ever seen? I like my veggies on steroids.


Just like my men.

Moving on.

Add the minced garlic and continue to stir it over medium high heat. It should take about 10 minutes to cook thoroughly.

Throw the noodles into boiling water.

Toss the sauce into a pan over medium heat. We're going to do some doctoring.

Throw in a handful of mozzarella.

Add more minced garlic...

...about half a cup of milk.

...and 2 tbsp. of butter.

The reason we do this is to add some creaminess to the sauce. You could just eat the sauce straight up, but I like more of a vodka sauce coloring. Just without the vodka.

Amen.

While the sauce is simmering, check out your meat. Now, obviously mine's done, and if you have anything except super lean meat, you need to drain it. I won't be doing that because I have seriously lean meat and it had virtually no fat.

Well, hardly any.

Drain your noodles.

Pour the sauce in with the meat.

Mmmmmmmm.

Aren't you glad you added in the milk and butter?

Now a tip for any sauce that has meat in it, the longer it can sit on low heat and simmer, the richer it'll taste. That's just the way it is. I let mine sit for about 20 minutes, but I know people who let it sit all day.

If you have that kind of time, God bless you.

Another thing my husband is completely opposed to is combining the meat sauce with the noodles in one pan. He claims it makes the noodles soggy.

So there you are, folks. A funky twist to an old favorite.

Enjoy, all!

Love,
Rachael