Baked Ziti

I'll be honest, this dish requires more work than my previous posts. It's still easy to make, it just requires more of your time. It is well worth it though. If you're ever trying to impress someone with a good homemmade italian dinner, this will do the trick.


Baked Ziti
1- 16 ounce package of ziti
1 pound ground beef* (or 1/2 pound ground beef and half pound sausage)
1 cup onions, diced
1- 26 ounce jar tomato and basil pasta sauce
1- 14.5 ounce can stewed tomatoes, undrained
1/2 tablespoon basil pesto (I omitted this)
2 cups Italian cheese blend
1- 15 ounce container Ricotta cheese

Cook and drain ziti.

Brown the meat and onions.

                                     

Stir in pasta sauce, tomatoes and basil presto. Simmer 5-10 minutes

Combine ricotta and 1 cup cheese and toss with pasta.

Pour pasta into a greased 9x13 dish. Put the meat mixture over the pasta and top with the remaining cheese.

Bake 12-15 minutes at 375 degrees

I paired the baked ziti with some garlic bread. Absolutely delicious :)

Pork Chops and Scalloped Potatoes

I've been a little under the weather lately and every time I get sick I get homesick. Seeing as how I am not able to go home for a couple weeks, I decided to make one of my childhood favorites and bring a little bit of home to me. 

Tonight's dinner is Pork Chops and Scalloped Potatoes. The pork chops are a classic that my mom always makes and the scalloped potatoes was something new I wanted to try. I also made more Green Giant green beans with almonds that aren't pictured until the last photo. Refer to my other posts for information on Green Giant veggies!

As always, this is all easy, inexpensive and doesn't take very long to make!

Pork Chops

-Shake 'N Bake Original Pork (comes with coating mix and a shaker bags)

-Pork chops (bone-in or boneless...I used bone-in)

Scalloped Potatoes

-Betty Crocker Scalloped Potatoes (comes with potatoes and sauce mix)

-3 tablespoons margarine or butter

-2 2/3 cups of BOILING water

1 1/2 cups milk

The potatoes can be cooked in the oven or over the stove but I used the oven.

Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Stir sauce mix, boiling water, milk and margarine with a whisk in a 2-quart casserole. Stir in potatoes.

Bake uncovered about 32 minutes or until top is golden brown and potatoes are tender (sauce will thicken as it stands). Stir before serving.

Heat oven to 425. Moisten pork chops with water.

Shake the chops, 1 or 2 at a time, in the shaker bag with 1 package of the coating mix.

Bake in ungreased for foil-lined pan for 15 minutes or until done (minimum internal temperature of 160 degrees with the meat thermometer).

So. Good. :)

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Spider Cupcakes

I LOVE to bake and I LOVE cupcakes so in the spirit of Halloween I decided to bake Halloween Spider Cupcakes. :)

There are several ways to do this but I choose to use funfetti cake mix Halloween edition and twizzlers (the fruity kind). Make your favorite cupcakes complete with your favorite icing. If you don't want Twizzlers you can use black licorice for the legs.


Spider Cupcakes
-Funfetti cake mix (Halloween edition)
        *1 cup water
        * 1/3 cup oil
        *3 eggs
-icing
-oreos
-twizzlers
-sprinkles


Make you're favorite cupcakes as normal



 When cool, frost the cupcakes. Use the grape flavored twizzlers for the spider legs.

Cut the twizzler into fourths with scissors. Then cut into thin strips. Top additional cupcakes with sprinkles.

 Put the legs on a frosted cupcakes. Place an oreo on top of the twizzlers (you might want to spread additional icing on the oreo to ensure it sticks).

Mummy Dogs

In the spirit of Halloween I wanted a halloweeny meal so "halloweeny wieners" it was (Ha Ha corny I know..)! Thank you Mrs. Martin for providing the recipes/ideas! Y'all should check out Pillsbury.com for this and other great inspiring recipes! They have a lot of wonderful holiday food ideas. This is a great Holiday meal that will easily impress family/friends


Mummy Dogs
-1 can (8oz) Pillsbury refrigerated crescent dinner rolls (8 count)
-10 large hot dogs
-2 1/2 slices (2.5oz) American cheese slices, quartered
-cooking spray
-mustard and/or ketchup, if desired

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Open the can of crescents and unroll the dough. 

Seperate at perforations creating 4 rectangles; press perforations to seal. 

With a knife or kitchen scissors, cut each rectangle lengthwise into 10 pieces, making a total of 40 pieces of dough. Slice cheese into quarters. (I cut 4 squares but it would turn out better if 4 long rectangles were cut)

Wrap 4 pieces of dough around each hot dog and 1/4 slice of cheese to resemble "bandages" stretching dough slightly to completely cover the hot dog. About 1/2 inch from one end of each hot dog, separate "bandages" so hot dogs show through for the "face". Place wrapped hot dogs (cheese side down) on ungreased large cookie sheet; spray dough lightly with cooking spray.

Bake 13 to 17 minutes or until dough is light golden brown and hot dogs are hot.

Draw features on the "face". Mustard works the best, however I used ketchup because I do not like Mustard.

The "mummy dogs" turned out very well and wonderfully delicious. It was a good holiday meal however it did take a little time to do thanks to the tedious details. From start to finish this took me about 45 minutes (including cook time).