Baked Ziti (Sort of)

Baked Ziti is an Italian comfort food.  Just about everyone has their on way of making it, with their favorite ingredients.  This recipe is a baked "Ziti" recipe, but tweaked as I am in the middle of a VERY BUSY stretch, without a lot of time to cook. As a result, most of what is used in this recipe comes from a jar.

First of all, maybe it should be called "Baked Pasta", as I seldom use Ziti.  Click here for an explanation of Ziti. I usually use Penne Pasta, and that is what I used in this recipe. You can use Ziti, Penne, Mostaccioli, Rigatoni, in a pinch you could even use Spaghetti noodles.  Whatever you like, or what you have on hand.


This will make one 9X13 pan or two 8X8 pans.

On to cooking! You'll need:
1 pound of ground beef
1 small onion, chopped up
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 15oz jar of Alfredo Sauce (I used Classico Creamy Alfredo)
1 24oz jar of Pasta Sauce (I used Classico Cabernet Marinara)
1 - 1# package of Penne pasta
Parmesan Cheese

Place about 4 to 6 quarts of water in a large pot and start it to boiling.

Brown the ground beef in a medium skillet.  When it is about halfway browned, add the onion and allow it to cook with the beef. When it is almost done add the garlic and mix it in well for the last minute or two of browning. Drain well and set aside.

By now the water should be boiling. Add the pasta and cook according to the directions on the package.

Drain the pasta and put it in a large bowl.  Pour the Alfredo Sauce over it and mix it in well. Place a tiny bit of the red sauce in the bottom of your baking pan(s) and use it to cover the bottom of the pan(s).  Mix the rest in with the pasta. Add the meat mixture and mix well.  Spoon the mixture into the pan(s) and level the top.  Sprinkle Parmesan Cheese over the top.

Place in a cold oven, turn it to 350*F and cook for 25 minutes, including the warm up time.

Let it cool for about 10 minutes before serving.  The whole recipe will serve 8 - 10.

It goes well with a loaf of Sourdough or Faux Sourdough bread.

This is one 8 X 8 pan, the other is in the freezer for another day!

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Applesauce-Pumpkin Bread

If you made a loaf (or 2) of my Pumpkin Bread you'll notice this recipe is almost the same.  I use vegetable oil instead of butter, cut the amount of oil in half and add some applesauce.  In the Pumpkin Bread recipe I said you could use 1 cup sugar (or more, to taste).  In this recipe stick to 1 cup, no more, due to the sweetness of the applesauce.

 Try it, I think you'll like it!


1/2 of a 15oz can of Pumpkin (Approx 1 Cup)
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup apple juice (use water if you don't have juice)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice mix

You can add a half teaspoon of salt.  I don't add salt to many things, but you decide for yourself.

Preheat oven to 350*F.  Grease a loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine the first 6 ingredients (the wet ones).  Mix together with your mixer until well blended.

In another bowl, Add the remaining ingredients (the dry ones) and mix well with a wire whisk.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing as you go.  Continue mixing until blended.

Cook for 60 mins at 350*F or until a toothpick or sharp knife inserted comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for 10 - 15 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

Fall is here.  In my part of CA that means 80*F days and 50*F nights.  LOL!  Believe it or not, we do get fall colors and such, the leaves should start turning any week now.  You know it;s fall when the stores are putting out Christmas items before Halloween and the grocery has displays of pumpkins.

I'm not going to go into cooking your pumpkin so you can use the meat to make bread, but I am going to share a good recipe for pumpkin bread.  This recipe will make one loaf, I know a lot of recipes make 2 (or more) loaves, but why make more then one until you've tried it?  You may want to make adjustments so make it one loaf at a time until the recipe is unique to you and your tastes, then double (or triple or quadruple) it for more loaves at once.

Here we go! You'll need:

1/2 of a 15oz can of Pumpkin (Approx 1 Cup)
2 eggs
1/2 cup softened butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sugar (a little more is ok to suit your tastes)
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice mix

You can add a half teaspoon of salt.  I don't add salt to many things, but you decide for yourself.

First, get your oven preheating to 350*F.  Also get out your loaf pan, either an 8.5 X 4 or 9X5.

Take a large bowl and add the softened butter to it.  A neat trick I got from TheRedheadRiter is to use the paper from the cube of butter to grease the pan.  Rub the paper over the inside of the pan and the butter left on it will grease your loaf pan.  Great tip, Red!

To the  large bowl add the pumpkin, eggs, water and vanilla.  Mix well with your mixer.

In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, flour, baking soda and spice mix. Also the salt, if used.

Use a whisk to mix them until well mixed.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones, mixing as you go.

When totally blended, pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake in the oven for about 60 minutes, until a sharp knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool.

At this point you can sprinkle a little powdered sugar over the top if you like.

Let it cool for another 10 to 20 minutes, then slice if you want to try it warm with a little melted butter.

As you can see, I was too anxious and didn't let it cool enough before slicing so it crumbled a bit at the edges.  It still tasted great!

Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix

Today I'm going to give you an easy way to make your on Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix. I'm going to give you an easy to mix batch that I and my family like.  It's cheaper to mix your own, and you can tailor it to your tastes!
There are several variations of this on the internet, obviously I like mine the best.
On a final note, the next few posts will tell you why I'm posting this today!  ;-)

This is easy to remember, 3-2-2-1-1 and the acronym CANGC. (Cangood).  It deciphers as
3 Parts Cinnamon
2 Parts Allspice
2 Parts Nutmeg
1 Part Ginger
1 Part Cloves

The spices are all ground, of course.

So now you don't have to buy the overpriced pre-mixed little jar in the store, you can make your own with items you probably already have on hand.

If you're itching to try it out, make up a cake using my Basic Cake Recipe and add 2 tablespoons of the Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix.  :-)

Easy Applesauce Cake

Want something a little different? Not sure what you have to make a good dessert?  Here's a simple cake you can throw together quickly if you have some applesauce and a couple basic spices.

Start with the Basic Cake Recipe

To the dry ingredients:
Substitute brown sugar for the plain sugar in the recipe.
(if you already added plain sugar, don't sweat it)
Add 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Add 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

To the wet ingredients:
Omit the vanilla
(again if you already added, don't sweat it)
Cut oil to 1/4 cup
Add 1 cup applesauce.

That's it!  Follow the mixing and baking instructions in the
Basic Cake Recipe and enjoy!

Southwestern Tater Tot Casserole

It feels somewhat strange to post a recipe like this after one about the veggies, but comfort food has a place too!  Also, this is a great recipe for tailgating, picnics, anytime you're on the go.  Make it up ahead and heat it at your destination.  All together it takes about 45 - 50 minutes.

You need:

1# Ground Beef
16oz jar of  Salsa
14oz bag of Southwestern Veggie Blend
8oz  Velveeta Cheese cut in small pieces
30oz bag of tater Tots
2 medium size flour tortillas

Grease two 8" square pans with butter
Arrange tortillas on bottom of pan and about 1 inch up the sides
(Cut to fit)
Brown the ground beef in a large skillet, drain off the fat
Add the salsa and the veggies, mix well
Place the Velveeta on the top of the meat mixture
As the mixture warms, stir in the cheese
Stir often until the cheese is totally melted and mixed in
Pour over tortillas into the pans and level with spatula
Arrange tater tots 1 deep over top of mixture
Cook in 350*F oven for 30 mins
Let set for 10 mins before serving

This is a recipe that is great for tailoring to how you like it.
Line the bottom with tortilla strips instead of tortillas
Use turkey or pork instead of beef
Choose your poison of salsa: mild, medium, hot or "OH NO!" LOL
Use whichever veggies (or none) that you like
EXPERIMENT!  HAVE FUN!

To Cook or Not To Cook (The Veggies, that is)

In a Google+ post by Michelle Mangen yesterday about cauliflower, we kicked back and forth a bit about eating this particular veggie.  In her post she linked to an article about the benefits of raw cauliflower. She had commented about not liking raw cauliflower at all, and that led me to look up a few things about cooking, particularly steaming, veggies versus eating them raw.

Livestrong, the blog partner of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, had this interesting article on the nutritional content of steamed vs raw vegitables.

Basal Science Clarified had this article asking "Are Raw Vegetables Healthier Than Cooked Ones?"

After reading them both, I'm of the opinion that while both ways are good for you, I'm going to stick with steaming things like broccoli and cauliflower.  And pouring a little queso on them too!  ;-)

BTW, you can also follow Michelle on Twitter @mmangen