Sausage & Spinach Stuffed Manicotti

What You Will Need: Sausage, ricotta cheese, shredded mozzarella cheese, sauce of your choice, manicotti, onions, garlic, parsley, frozen spinach (thawed & rung out to remove the extra liquid). 

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

Preheat your oven to 375.

In a large skillet, start cooking the sausage. A potato masher works great to break the meat up into small pieces. Cook 2-3 minutes.

Add in an entire sliced onion. Cook 3-5 minutes until the sausage is fully cooked & the onions are wilted.

Add the sausage/onion mixture to a large bowl. 

Thawed spinach goes in next. 

Next, add in the whole container of ricotta cheese & 2 cloves of chopped garlic. Mix.

Partially cook your manicotti, about 4-5 minutes. You want it to be flexible but still firm. It will finish cooking in the oven. 

Reserve a mug of the starchy liquid. 

Drain & place your noodles on a baking sheet that has been coated with cooking spray. This helps so they don't stick together. Let cool till you can handle them. 

In a large baking dish, cover the bottom with your sauce of choice. 

Take a noodle & using a small spoon, fill with the sausage mixture.

Repeat the process till the baking dish is filled. 

Cover with more sauce & a few tablespoons of the reserved starchy, liquid.

Top with plenty of shredded cheese.

Cover with foil & bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Uncover & bake for another 10-15 minutes.

If you want the extra, bubbly top, place the baking dish under the broiler for a couple minutes but keep a close eye on it. It can burn very quickly. 

Time to dish up & dig in! 

Garnish with chopped, fresh parsley & a sprinkle of parmesan cheese. 

Enjoy & Always Cook with Love! 

Quiche

What You Will Need: Frozen pie crust, 7 eggs, 2c. half & half, then any toppings you'd like. I chose cooked bacon, cheese, potato, spinach & broccoli. 

These are always nice to make on Sundays by utilizing leftovers in the fridge and its such an easy way to prep your breakfast for the coming week. 

Preheat your oven to 350. 

Place your pie tins on a large baking sheet.

This helps save your oven incase some of the egg mixture bubbles over during the baking process.

Fill the crust with chopped up pieces of your ingredients. 

I have one with bacon, broccoli, cheese & the other is potato, spinach, cheese. 

Whisk together 3 whole eggs & 4 egg yolks. 

Then add the eggs to the 2c. of half & half. Stir

Season with salt & pepper.

This egg mixture should fill up two pie tins, especially if you have them really full of goodies!

Pour the eggs into the pie shells. Use your fingers to move around the filling so the mixture gets evenly distributed. 

Bake in the oven for 40 mins. Rotate the baking sheet at the half way mark (20mins).

After the 40 minutes, turn the oven off & leave the quiche in there to settle completely, about 10-15 more minutes. 

Now you have breakfast ready to go for a crazy work week or a weekend full of activities. 

What I love most about Quiche is how creative you can get with your fillings/flavors. 

Make it your own by adding ingredients like;

Pesto

Ham

Sausage

Peppers

Onions

Quinoa 

Zucchini

Sun dried tomatoes

Steak

Cilantro

Butternut Squash

Kale

You get the idea....

When your ready to serve up a slice, add some fun garnish with things like avocado, hot sauce, sour cream or if your like my 7 year old niece, ketchup. 

Enjoy & Always Cook with Love!

Salmon Wellington

What You Will Need: Salmon filets-thawed, puff pastry-thawed, zucchini, honey mustard, butter, parchment paper.

Preheat oven to 400

Lay your salmon on some paper towels & pat dry.

Season with salt & pepper. Heat a large skillet with some olive oil & add the fish.

You just want to cook for 1-2 minutes per side & have the middle still raw. 

Place the salmon on a plate & refrigerate till its completely cooled. 

Brush the chilled salmon with the honey mustard. 

Slice the zucchini into thin disc's, season with salt & pepper. Set aside. 

Dust your counter top with a little flour and roll out the puffed pastry. 

Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut four squares. 

On one of the squares, lay a couple zucchini slices down. 

Place your salmon on top of the zucchini.

Bring up the edges & cover all parts of the fish. 

Place onto a parchment lined baking sheet. 

If you have extra puffed pastry, cut fun shapes or strips to make a braid for some presentation fun.

Melt some butter & brush the tops of each wellington. 

Bake for 40 minutes till the puffed pastry is golden brown.

Serve up this shower stopper with your choice of vegetables, starch or fresh-crisp greens.

Flaky pastry, tender salmon & the zucchini keeps the fish so moist. 

Enjoy & Always Cook with Love!

Garlic Sesame Cauliflower

What You Will Need: Whole head of Cauliflower, butter, garlic, sesame seeds & scallions.

Preheat the oven to 400.

Cut the cauliflower into large pieces. Drizzle with olive oil, salt & pepper. 

Roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes till they get some good color on them.

Melt about half the stick of butter & grate or mince in some garlic. The amount of garlic used depends on your personal love for that flavor. 1 clove for a subtle garlic note, 2 for a little more pop & if your like me, use 3 for a super garlicy finish.   

Place the cauliflower in a large bowl.

Pour the garlic, butter mixture all over. Mix.

Add in the sesame seeds & combine.

Serve & garnish with fresh scallions! 

Enjoy & Always Cook with Love! 

Pizza Stuffed Shells

This recipe is a great way to sneak in those greens! You can also use kale instead of spinach or a mixture of both. 

What You Will Need: Shells, 1 lb bag of frozen spinach-thawed, onion, garlic, pepperoni, shredded mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese & your choice of sauce. Im using my canned tomato sauce. 

Preheat the oven to 350 & get a large pot of water boiling on the stove.

Place your spinach in a dish towel & ring out all the extra liquid. 

In a large mixing bowl, combine the spinach, minced onion, minced garlic & diced pepperoni.

Add in all the ricotta cheese. Season with salt & pepper.

Stir in the shredded mozzarella.

Cook your shells just till they are pliable. You want them under cooked because they will cook through when they bake in the oven.  

Drain & reserve some of the starchy cooking liquid. 

In a large baking sheet, spread out some of your sauce. 

Fill the shells with your cheese/spinach mixture.

**Any extra mixture is great over baked chicken, spread over pizza dough, used in a grilled cheese or with scrambled eggs**

Place in the baking dish.

Add in about half of the reserved cooking liquid. 

Top with some more of your sauce & a little extra shredded cheese. 

Cover & bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil & bake another 5-10.

Garnish with some parmesan cheese & some fresh basil or parsley. 

Serve as a side or main dish. 

Enjoy & Always Cook with Love!