Tag Archives: Quick dinner

Creamy Spinach & Sausage Pasta

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Creamy Spinach & Sausage Pasta

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This picture could definitely use some better lighting but you get the idea 😉

Ingredients

  • 1 package smoked sausage of your liking
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 medium onion
  • 1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes w/chiles
  • 2.5 cups chicken broth
  • 1 lb pasta (any shape you want)
  • 1 package fresh spinach
  • 1 cup (4 oz.) shredded monterrey jack
  • 1 bunch green onions

Instructions

  1. Thinly slice the smoked sausage and add it to a large skillet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Saute the sausage over medium heat until it is nicely browned (about 5-7 minutes). Drain off the excess fat.
  2. Dice the onion and add it to the skillet. Continue to saute until the onion has softened (about 5 minutes). Add the can of diced tomatoes with chiles and the chicken broth. Stir to combine and dissolve any browned bits off of the bottom of the skillet.
  3. Add the uncooked pasta to the skillet and make sure it is all submerged under the liquid. Place a lid on the skillet and allow the mixture to come up to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for about ten minutes, or until the pasta is tender. Stir once or twice while the pasta cooks to keep it from sticking.
  4. Stir in the fresh spinach, one cup at a time, until wilted. If you add it all at once, the skillet will be too full to stir. Keep the heat on while adding the spinach, so the liquid will continue to simmer and thicken.
  5. Sprinkle the shredded cheese on top, replace the lid, and let it sit for a few minutes, or until the cheese is melted. Slice the green onions and sprinkle them over top. Serve hot!

Jake seriously loved this! He snuck a bit before I sat down and was like ” this is so good! What is in here? Seriously this is really delicious”. That always makes me super happy when he loves what I cook. Now you can share this with your loved ones 🙂 Enjoy!

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Easy Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

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Easy Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

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Hi All!!

With Thanksgiving coming up soon you will probably have a little extra turkey hanging out in your fridge 🙂  I love finding fun things to do with leftovers because we always seem to have so many each year. Last year we (my mom and I) made a turkey and pumpkin soup and it was delicious!!! Of course there is nothing wrong with cold turkey sandwiches also(personal fav). This recipe is very simple and takes almost no time at all to whip up, which is nice after slaving away for Thanksgiving. It’s also sort of refreshing that it’s a totally different taste combination than all of the traditional flavors we all will have just had! Hope you enjoy!!!

Ingredients

  • 1 can (19 oz) mild enchilada sauce
  • 4 cups shredded chicken(or leftover turkey)
  • 1 bag (8 oz) shredded Mexican cheese blend
  • 2/3 cup Neufchatel cheese (or 1/3-less-fat-cream cheese)
  • 10-15 small flour tortillas
  • Sliced fresh jalapeño peppers, fresh cilantro leaves and diced fresh tomato for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Coat one 4-quart or two 2-quart baking dishes with nonstick cooking spray. If using 1 dish, spread 1/3 cup of the enchilada sauce in bottom. If using 2 dishes, spread half of the 1/3 cup of the enchilada sauce in bottom of each dish.

2. In a bowl, combine chicken, 1 cup of the shredded cheese and 3/4 cup of the enchilada sauce.

3. Spread about 2 tsp of Neufchatel on a tortilla. Spoon 2 to 3 tbsp chicken mixture in a strip in center of tortilla. Roll up tightly to enclose filling; transfer to prepared dish(es). Repeat with remaining tortillas, cream cheese and chicken mixture to yield 16 enchiladas. I used toothpicks to secure each tortilla so that they stayed closed.

4. Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas, dividing evenly between dishes(if using two). Top with remaining cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Increase temperature to 400 degrees and bake an additional 5 minutes, until cheese begins to brown slightly. Garnish with whatever toppings you like: jalapeño slices, avocado, and cilantro. Enjoy!!!!

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Thanks for checking out my blog fellow foodies!

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Roasted Vegetable Stacked Enchiladas

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Roasted Vegetable Stacked Enchiladas

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Ingredients:

1 large red pepper, chopped, seeds removed
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 medium yellow squash, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 sweet potato chopped
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeño, minced
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 cups red enchilada sauce
9-10 small corn tortillas
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

*This is optional but I added the zest and juice of 1 lime to mine 🙂

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place red pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, sweet potato, and onion on a large baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and toss until vegetables are coated. Season with salt and pepper. Roast vegetables for 30-40 minutes, or until tender, stirring occasionally. Remove vegetables from oven and let cool to room temperature. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F.

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2. Grease an 8×8 square baking pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine roasted vegetables, black beans, cumin, chili powder, garlic, jalapeño, lime zest and juice(if using) and cilantro. Stir and season with salt and pepper.

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3. Spread 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce into the bottom of the baking pan. Add a layer of tortillas, to completely cover the bottom of the pan(See my picture before for a trick!). Top with 1/3 of the vegetable/bean mixture and 1/3 of the cheese. Make a second layer of tortilla, enchilada sauce, vegetables/beans, and cheese. Top with with a layer of tortillas, enchilada sauce, vegetables/beans, and cheese. Spray a sheet of aluminum foil with cooking spray and cover the pan.

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My mom taught my this trick to cut off two sides of the round tortillas. This makes them fit perfectly in the corners of pans with minimal overlap so you have a perfectly even layer. She’s a genius 🙂

4. Bake enchiladas for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and the enchiladas are bubbling. Remove enchiladas from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Cut into squares and serve warm.

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This is another beautiful meal. I served this with some Salsa and chips and we had a delicious light meal. Hope you enjoy and of course thanks for reading my blog. I’m blown away at how many views and comments I get in a day. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that so many people would visit my site when I started this. Seriously you all make me so happy! 🙂

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Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

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Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Hi everyone! Ok I’ve been a busy cooking bee- but a lazy blogger. (for real it’s embarrassing how little I’ve blogged lately- there is reason for it but I’ll save that for a later post!)Needless to say,  I can’t wait to share some of my creations with you 🙂 This particular recipe is one of my favorite recent ones! So tasty, easy, and healthy. The perfect trio for an awesome recipe. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

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Gorgeous right?!

Ingredients

  • 2 cups cooked quinoa
  • 1 (4-ounce) can green chiles
  • 1 cup corn kernels
  • 1 cup black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 cup diced tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
  • 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves (I love cilantro so I always add more)
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon onion or garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder, or more to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon smokey paprika, or more to taste
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • 6 bell peppers, tops cut, stemmed and seeded

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9×13 baking dish with tin foil.
  2. In a large bowl, combine quinoa, green chiles, corn, beans, tomatoes, cheeses, cilantro, cumin, garlic, onion and chili powder, paprika, salt and pepper, to taste.
  3. Spoon the filling each each bell pepper cavity. Place in prepared baking dish, cavity side up, and bake until the peppers are tender and the filling is heated through, about 25-30 minutes.
  4. Serve immediately and enjoy!  🙂
  5. PS. I only cooked 4 peppers since there fewer people I was feeding but then I put the extra quinoa mix in a baking dish, topped with a little more cheese and baked along with the peppers. This was great for lunch throughout the week 🙂 As you can see there was quite a bit of extra “stuffing” so I think you could do more than 6…but experiment! 🙂

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I just love how pretty this dish is! So colorful and fresh looking and not to mention out of this world delicious. This is a recipe you could seriously have so much fun with and experiment with different flavor combinations and ingredients. Also easily could be vegan with some small adjustments. Please stop back and share your own concoctions 🙂

As always, thanks for stopping by!

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Crunchy Asian Chicken Salad

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Crunchy Asian Chicken Salad

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INGREDIENTS

1 package (3 ounces) ramen noodle soup mix(any flavor you want)
1 bag (16 ounces) coleslaw mix
2 cups cut-up cooked chicken
1/2 cup  chopped dry-roasted peanuts
1/2-1 cup of chopped Cilantro
2 tablespoons sesame seed oil
1 Tbs sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Juice of 1 lime

DIRECTIONS

  • Open coleslaw mix into a large bowl. Break block of noodles into bite-size pieces over salad. 
  • Chop your cooked chicken, cilantro, and peanuts and add to the coleslaw mixture. 
  • In a smaller bowl combine the sesame oil, vinegar, sugar,veggie oil, pepper, and lime juice  and stir until well mixed and sugar is dissolved.
  • Pour over the coleslaw and  noodle mixture; toss until coated and enjoy! 🙂 

This was deeeelicious! I added Siracha sauce to mine because seriously I cannot get enough of that stuff!! Also if you don’t like sesame you may want to scale back a little bit, the flavor was quite strong but I enjoy it so I didn’t mind. I think this recipe also has great capability for versatility- please experiment and let me know what you create!!!!

Hope you all have an amazing week. I have had a lot of comments and new followers on my blog lately and I just want to say, I seriously appreciate each and everyone of you who spend the time to check out my blog- I appreciate and you guys make me feel so special!

xoxo

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