Spinach Sauce Fettuccine

Recently I've wanted to incorporate different foods into my family's diet. My husband agreed with adding a little variety into our meals, specifically eating more vegetables. As for our infant son he eats pretty much everything I give him, but lately he's mostly just asking for fruit. I know that it's normal because children prefer sweet flavored foods, but I want him to eat more veggies. Veggies tend to taste a little bitter, especially when cooked, so I went with the old trick of adding some cheese to make it more appealing. However, that doesn't mean just dumping a bunch of melted imitation cheddar on a few broccoli bits like a lot of our parents did when we were kids!

I wanted to make something healthy with real vegetables and real flavor so I took a look in the fridge. I had some leftover cream cheese and a bunch of fresh spinach so I thought, "yeah, I can work with this." Since my son loves pasta so much it was a no brainer, I'd make a spinach cheese sauce with fettuccine. It's easy to do and so creamy!

Ingredients:

Cream cheese 8 oz
Parmesan Cheese (to taste)
Fresh Spinach 2 - 3 cups
Half and half 1-2 Tablespoons
Salt (to taste)
Fresh Ground Pepper (to taste)



Procedure:

Blanch the spinach. 

Put the cream cheese in a saucepan on a low temperature. 

(You can use the same saucepan you used to blanch the spinach to cut down on dishes.)

Toss in the spinach and start stirring. 

At first it's gonna be a little difficult but with the heat the cheese will slowly start to melt.

(Make sure to keep stirring continuously to avoid burning!)

You'll know the cheese has fully melted when you can stir without feeling any resistance. 

Season with salt and pepper and mix until it's fully incorporated.

Add the parmesan cheese and (surprise!) keep mixing.

You may notice that there are still a few lumps in the sauce, don't worry that's normal.

Add the half and half and keep stirring until you have reached the desired consistency. 

Taste and enjoy!

PS: You can just pour the sauce on top of your plate of pasta, or toss the pasta onto the saucepan combine it before serving. It also works great as a stuffing for pastas like ravioli, lasagna or cannelloni. You could even make the sauce extra thick and serve it as a party dip! 

Pasta after being tossed with the sauce in the pan.

A tasty spinach dip!

Mozzarella and Marinara Spaghetti

Yesterday I gave you the Basic Marinara Sauce recipe and today I’m going to use it to make Mozzarella and Marinara Spaghettis. This recipe is one of those inventions you have when you really don’t want to cook, but you have to and suddenly you remember the homemade batch of Marinara Sauce and Voila you are saved by the sauce and quickly you have a dish in mind… yep just like that. I saw my fridge and the only things I had left were fresh mozzarella, parmesan cheese and the sauce.  What better than those ingredients to make this dish? Sometimes less is so much more! Most of the time those are the best recipes! Just saying, don't you guys think this is one of my best photos? I think I'm getting better. What do you guys think? I really hope you guys enjoy my inventions!

Ingredients:

½ cup of basic marinara sauce

1 cup of cooked angel hair spaghettis

1/2 mozzarella ball

Parmesan cheese (to taste)

Procedure:

Cook the pasta.

Cut the mozzarella cheese.

Drain the pasta.

Heat pan on low and add the sauce.

Add the spaghettis.

Mix well until combined.

Add the mozzarella cheese and let it melt.

Serve and add the parmesan cheese to taste.

Enjoy!

Stuffed Potatoes (Sour Cream and Green Onions)

Remember when, not that long ago my hubby wanted to eat potatoes? Well he loved the caramelized stuffed onions, so I decided that tonight I’d try another version.  This recipe is very simple but also extremely tasty! Hope You guys enjoy it, and thanks for reading!

Ingredients:

1 big russet potato

¼ cup of green onions

¼ cup of sour cream

1 tablespoon of unsalted butter

Salt to taste

Parmesan cheese

Procedure:

Put the potato in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour.

When you see that there are 15 minutes left for the potato to be done, start making the filling. Cut the green onions.

Once out of the oven cut the potato in half.

Use a spoon to scoop the insides out, but don’t remove all of the potato; remember to leave some in because you want it to hold up the potato while you make the filling.

Mix the insides with the green onions and the sour cream. Add salt (to taste) and the butter. 

Mix it until combined.

Put the mix inside the potatoes. Add a little bit of parmesan cheese on top.

Now enjoy!

Carbonara Pasta

Yesterday I gave you guys the recipe for Crème Fraiche. This crème is used in the Carbonara recipe I’m gonna post today. This recipe is delicious. Today I made this pasta for Allen’s Birthday (a family friend). I must say everyone loved it. It’s very important to serve the pasta right when you finish making it. Hope you guys enjoy it!

Ingredients:

½ cup of chopped bacon

2 cups of Crème Fraiche

2 egg yolks

1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper

Fine sea salt

8 ounces of pasta (I used fettuccini pasta)

1 ½ cups freshly grated parmesan cheese plus more for garnish

¼ cup thinly sliced fresh green onions

Procedure:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium–low, heat cook the bacon until crisp. It takes about 10 minutes.

Take the bacon out of the skillet and strain in a paper towel.

Put the crème fraiche into the skillet and bring to a simmer while whisking in the egg yolks and season with the pepper and salt.

When the water begins to boil put in the pasta and let it cook. 

Once it’s cooked drain the pasta and add it to the skillet with the sauce. Add the cheese and green onions and let it stand for 1 minute. 

Enjoy it!!

Chicken Lasagna Rolls

Remember those amazing looking chicken lasagna rolls sitting next to the sweet dinner rolls? Well, today I’ll give you guys the recipe. That night I wanted to do something different for my husband and what goes better with those rolls than lasagna? It was late and I really didn’t want to do all the work required for lasagna… so I decided to make lasagna rolls instead. It’s the first time I attempted it, but I think it went pretty good. My husband loved it. Hope you guys enjoy them too! Let me know if you try it!

Ingredients:

For the chicken:

4 chicken breasts (cut in to cubes)

1 onion

1 sweet green pepper

½ teaspoon of salt

1 clove of garlic

4 whole tomatoes

Olive oil (to taste)

1 Tablespoon of unsalted butter

½ teaspoon of fresh oregano

½ teaspoon of fresh basil

½ teaspoon of green onions

½ cup of grated Romano cheese

For the rolls:

6 lasagna sheets

1 cup of mozzarella cheese

½ cup Parmesan cheese

½ cup of Romano

Tomato sauce (to taste)

 Procedure:

Put olive oil on the pan and wait until it's hot. Add the onion, green peppers and garlic.

Add the unsalted butter.

 

Let it cook until you see the onion is translucent.

Add the chicken.

 

Cut the whole tomatoes.

Add the tomatoes to the chicken.

 Meanwhile shred the Romano cheese.

Add the herbs to the chicken.

 Add the cheese. Mix everything and let it cook.

Tear the chicken until it's fine. (My husband did it for me and he used a potato masher, instead of tearing it.)

 The end result should look like this.

This is what I used to fill the rolls.

Lasagna "sheet"

Chicken filling

Add the mozzarella

Add the Romano cheese.

Roll the lasagna with the filling. Put it in the pan sheet.

 You should have 6 rolls.

 

 Add your favorite tomato sauce to taste.

Add cheese on top of the rolls and put it in the oven @ 350 degrees until you see that the cheese has melted.

ENJOY!!!