Baked Ziti with Eggplant & Ricotta

This recipe is delish! I am not a huge fan of eggplant myself, but my family really enjoys the dish so I've been trying to find new ways to make it more enjoyable for me. This dish was sooo good. And pretty easy. For all your health conscious followers this is a great dish to make for your family, maybe pair this with the baked parm tomatoes. Yum! If you want to prepare this dish ahead, roast the eggplant, make the sauce and refrigerated separately. When you're ready to bake cook the pasta and mix everything together as directed. Add about 10 minutes to the baking time to compensate for the chilled ingredients. And wallah! When have dinner guests over I always try to make dishes I can start ahead of time, so I'm not in the kitchen a lot while they are here. That wouldn't be much of a problem if my kitchen was larger and I had a breakfast bar but I am not that lucky, YET! ;)

Below is the picture of the dish, and the ingredients and directions! I hope you all have a chance to make this and enjoy it just as much as we did here at my home! Sending much love to everything! I will be posting a update on my school in the next few days so be on the look out! :)

Good night ya'll



Total time for this dish is about 1 hour.

Gather ingredients before beginning:

*1 medium eggplant cut into 1in pieces
*3 tblsp olive oil
*3/4 teasp salt
*1 small onion, diced
*2 garlic cloves, minced
*1 caan plum tomatoes, 28 oz.
*2 tblsp tomato paste
*1/4 teasp ground black pepper
*3 tblsp chopped fresh basil
*1 package ziti or penne, 16 oz.
*1/4c parm cheese
*1c ricotta cheese (honestly I used more than this because I made a huge casserole dish)

Preheat oven to 450. In a large bowl toss eggplant, 2 tblsp olive oil, and 1/4 teasp salt until evenly coated. Arrange eggplant in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake in the oven to roast the eggplant for about 30 minutes, or until golden and tender. When finished set the pan aside to cool. Turn oven to 400.
In a saucepan heat remaining tblsp olive oil over medium heat until hot. Add onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute longer, stirring frequently. Str in tomatoes with their juice, tomato paste, pepper, and remaining 1/2 teasp salt. Break up tomatoes with the side of a spoon. Heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer until sauce thickens slightly this takes about 10 minutes. Stir in 2 tblsp of basil.
In large saucepan prepare pasta as directed on the pasta box. Drain, return pasta to sauce pot. To the pasta in saucepot add roasted eggplant, tomato sauce, and parm cheese toss and mix everything evenly. Spoon mixture into casserole dish, top with dollops of ricotta. Cover casserole with foil and bake until hot and bubbly, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle the top with remaining basil!
ENJOY!

Broccoli Alfredo & Baked Parm Tomatoes

Yum yum yum! Last night we had guests over for dinner and to watch a movie. I made broccoli alfredo, had intentions to make garlic bread but instead made baked parm tomatoes on toasted french bread (I think this choice was better!), they brought a yummy salad, and I made my white chocolate creme brulee for dessert! Goodness that is probably my favorite dessert it is sooo smooth and rich. As any busy momma I cut corners to save time on dinner, so last night I had bought Emerils alfredo sauce to use with this recipe unfortunately when I baked it in the oven it just turned the pasta dry you couldn't really taste the sauce on it. I have made a very good alfredo sauce recipe, it is on here under the tab "Dinners" listed as shrimp alfredo. I will use that next time. I have learned as much as I like easy and time saving recipes, when it comes to sauces I enjoy mine a whole lot more than I do the store bought. This entire dinner over all is super easy to make, literally anyone can do it and people will be impressed!

For the broccoli alfredo I bought a box of rotini pasta. With this you boil the pasta as any pasta you would and time it for 8 minutes. Drain and put in a 9x13in baking dish. They can sit while you work on the broccoli. I bought two small broccoli heads rinsed them and cut them into small florets. The larger florets I cut down the middle. I boiled these for about 12 minutes until fork tender. Once they finished boiling I drained them and put them on top of the pasta in the baking dish. Mix well. Take alfredo sauce you would like to use and mix well in baking dish. I seasoned to my taste with garlic salt, a little onion powder, salt and pepper and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. I then baked the dish with foil on it for 20 minutes, removed foil after 20 minutes and baked 5 more minutes to allow cheese to melt. Bake in a 350 oven.

Baked parm tomatoes. For this dish you want to pick out good ripe firm tomatoes (I sliced two, slice these into 1/3in slices. Place them on a baking sheet and top with parm cheese, fresh oregano, salt, fresh ground pepper, and drizzle with a little olive oil. Bake until the cheese is melted and the tomatoes are firm, about 10-15 minutes. Bake in a 450 oven. After the tomatoes have finished take a loaf of french bread and slice as many pieces as it takes to pair with the tomatoes, I had 9 slices of tomatoes and 9 slices of bread. I then put the oven on broil placed the bread on a baking sheet and popped them in the oven. I did not time these I just kept my eye on them to make sure they did not burn. Top with the baked tomato and it is so good!

I have posted the creme brulee recipe before, but I will post it again! You have to make this! This recipe yields 4 remkins.
*4 large egg yolks, at room temp
*1 bar (4oz) Ghirardelli White Chocolate Baking Bar, chopped into small pieces
*1/3C plus 4 teasp sugar
*2c heavy whipping cream
*1/2 teasp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 300. Whisk egg yolks and 1/3c sugar together until smooth. Bring whipping cream to a simmer over medium-high heat. Add chocolate to simmering whipping cream, turn heat off and then whisk and then whisk until melted. Slowly add chocolate mixture to egg mixture, whisking constantly until smooth. Whisk in vanilla. Pour into four ramekins. Place cups in 9x13 baking pan or boiler pan. Add enough water so the ramekins sit in 1-1 1/2 inch of water. Bake until set, about 45 minutes. Sprinkle each cup with 1 teaspoon of sugar and broil until caramelized. I top my brulees with fresh strawberry slices. In my opinion fresh berries are a great garnish for this dessert!

Sautee & Grill Night

I had class last night and was very excited because I knew we were going to actually cook. We have practiced dicing, and they cooked in class last week but I was out of town so I missed it. I was a little nervous because I grill and saute things at home for my family but I hadn't ever done that in front of people besides family. But once I got in the kitchen figured out how I was going to do everything I made I was just fine! We cut chops out of a huge pork loin, sprinkled them with a good dry rub and put them on the grill! Then I chopped up a red and yellow pepper and onion seasoned them and sauteed them in a skillet. He taught us the flipping technique for sauteing. I got the hang of it, but I did make a mess haha. We have midterms coming up next week in place of a written test we have the chance to participate in helping chef out at his school help serve a senior event. I am totally excited for that and hoping it works out so we can go! Here are a few pictures from class last night!

Homemade Bread & Chicken Lasagna

Hello Hello! It's been a little bit since I have posted on here. This week was hectic settling back into the house from our Tennessee trip. I also had to work and go to school, but had to catch up on a lot of notes and homework too. I can say I am caught up now! And I tried a couple of new recipes this week!
Wednesday night I made a semi homemade chicken lasagna. When I started I didn't have intentions to add veggies to it but I looked in my fridge when I started putting the ingredients together and noticed Jaymie had bought a squash, egg plant, and onion. I didn't want them to just spoil so I diced them up and sauteed them for the lasagna. I used a store bought pasta sauce for this one, but next time I will use my own it is so much more flavorful. Below is the recipe for it!:

Chicken Veggie Lasagna


Gather ingredients before beginning.

*1lb ground chicken
*2.5c mozzarella cheese
*1 15oz container ricotta cheese
*1/2c parm cheese
*1 egg beaten
*1 jar pasta sauce of choice, or follow my recipe for a delicious homemade recipe
*1c water
*12 lasagna noodles, uncooked
*half eggplant peeled and diced
*1 yellow squash diced
*1c diced onion
*1 tblsp minced garlic
*1 tblsp olive oil

Heat oven to 350
Dice the onion, squash, and egg plant. Heat olive oil in a sautee pan once pan is heated saute the veggies until onion is transparent. Be sure to add garlic last it can burn if heated too long. Place to the side when finished.Brown chicken in large skillet on medium-high heat. Meanwhile, mix 1-1/4 cups mozzarella, ricotta, 1/4 cup Parmesan, parsley and egg until blended. Drain meat then return to skillet. Stir in spaghetti sauce and add 1 cup water to empty sauce jar cover with lid and shake well. Add to meat mixture stir well. Spread 1 cup meat sauce onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish; top with layers of 3 lasagna noodles, 1/3 of the ricotta cheese mixture and 1 cup meat sauce. Repeat layers twice. Top with remaining noodles, meat sauce and cheeses. Cover with foil sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 1 hour or until heated through, removing foil after 45 min.


I was going to make bread and homemade chocolate chip cookies the same night I made the lasagna, but our air conditioner went out and it registered 86 in our house so I couldn't stand it! We went out for ice cream haha. But I did make the bread today while I had country ribs going in the crock pot! I knew I wanted to make bread but wasn't sure what recipe to use. I remembered a bread my friend Krystal had made when she would have my family over for dinner, it was soooo good! So I asked her for the recipe, and made that one today! It is such a easy recipe anyone can do it and the bread comes out perfectly moist and delicious.

Homemade Bread


I put 1/2 cup warm water, 1 1/2 tbs Active Dry yeast and a little sugar (I used a little less than 1/4c) in the mixer for about 5 minutes. Then add 3 cups all purpose flour, 1 tbs salt, 1 tbs olive oil, 3 cups warm water. Let that mix then slowly add 3 more cups of flour (until its tacky). Then knead and put in pans to rise. Cook at 375 til golden on top. For me it took 30 minutes to fully cook. Enjoy!

Hawaiian Crock Pot Chicken

Easy peasy! This dish was good, and soo easy. I had come across this recipe on Incredible Recipes and decided to give it a shot. I love pineapple so I was interested in this. The only thing I want to try differently next time I make this is using fresh pineapple vs canned. This is for you busy moms on the go :)

Gather all ingredients before starting:
4 -6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 (16 1/2 ounce) can crushed pineapple
1 (16 1/2 ounce) bottle archer farms hawaiian style barbecue sauce (found at Target). this was noted to be a little spicy if you do not like spice you can use regular bbq sauce of your choice, I used sweet baby rays honey bbq sauce.

Place breasts in crock pot, pour pineapple on top of chicken and then pour sauce over all. Cook on low for 6 hours.
Serve over rice!

Rating this recipe:
It was good, easy to throw together, and easy clean up. It was fairly tasty, but like I said I am going to try fresh pineapple for a better taste next time. I give it a 6.5 out of 10.

Tennessee

Hello my favorites! I hope you are all having a great start to your week. My kids and I left yesterday to come back to my roots, East Tennessee, to visit family and take a little vacation. I love coming to visit it's nice to be a tourist even if you grew up in the area. Today I got a mommy day and got to see a friend of mine, Kimberly. She and I have been friends since high school. We took a girls day and went to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. Spent the day window shopping and going in all the neat little shops scattered throughout Gatlinburg, and grabbed dinner in Pigeon Forge! It was a nice relaxed day. A well needed mommy day! Of course when I am away from my little ones, even if only for a few hours they are still constantly on my mind. In one of the little shops we went into today I ended up getting the my older two a little box each that old a "dinosaur bone". By the time I got home they were all already tucked tightly in bed, but I'm sure they will be very excited to get them. Then I got all three new little activity pads by Melissa and Doug. I love that company, they always make the cutest, neatest little toys puzzles and coloring things. I'm saving those for our journey back home this weekend when we leave. Thankfully they did really well on the drive down here, but it did take 10.5 hours with the stops and all that had to be made. I'm sure it will take just as long to get back. Thank goodness for dvd players, red box, and patience. Tomorrow I am taking my older two back to pigeon forge to go to Dollywood. Mason, my youngest, is still too little to ride any of the rides or really enjoy it I think he would just be upset to be in a stroller and missing his nap time. He will have plenty of chances to go as he gets older though! :) I can't wait to go we have been to a Disney park, Sea World, carnivals, and last year was the first year we went to the fair so this will be fun! I love making memories with them like this.

I would like to reach out to my fellow foodies for new recipes! I am going to have a pretty good sized cook out this Thursday and I would like to get new recipe ideas for side dishes! If you have anything you would like to share, please feel free to share on Country Mom Chef's facebook page, or email them to CountryMomChefHeather@hotmail.com. :)

Have a fabulous week!! Sending much love from Tennessee!