Make It Monday: Dinner Edition

Basil Lemon Butter Cheese Ravioli

Sometimes, you need a delicious, not-at-all-clean dinner.

Seriously. Sometimes, you just need comfort... and food. In the form of pasta. Everyone loves pasta. The boyfriend especially. The kid could live on cheese ravioli and not gain a pound. It's really annoying. This is by far his favorite meal. Since I found this recipe, he's requested it several times. I can't blame him, though. I always feel like it's really fancy when I make it! Except, it's really not. It's cheap, easy, and quick. Perfect for a Sunday night dinner!

Ingredients:

1 bag frozen cheese ravioli

1/2 c. butter (I use Land o' Lakes w/ olive oil)

1 shallot, minced

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. lemon zest

2 Tbsp. fresh chopped basil

Parmesan cheese, for garnish

Extra basil, for garnish, optional

How To:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Boil the ravioli until done, approximately 7 minutes. The ravioli will float when done. Toss those in a colander. To keep this a one-pot meal, using the same pot, melt the butter. Sauté the shallot and garlic until tender. Mix in the lemon juice, zest, and basil. Let that simmer for about 5 minutes. Just long enough to let the flavors combine. Return the ravioli to the pot, and toss to combine the ingredients.

Serve it up hot with Parmesan and a little extra basil!

That's it. See how simple that is? And don't you feel fancy?

Enjoy!

What's Cookin' Wednesday!

Roasted Tomato Basil Marinara

Warning: This is delicious, clean, and easy. So, I was reading up on some clean eating. The basis of it is that you don't eat any processed food. That basically means cutting out anything canned, jarred, or bagged. Now, there are exceptions, such as canned vegetables and beans. Just look at the label. If you don't know what something is, it's probably not clean. Now, I make a pretty good marinara with canned crushed tomatoes, but why not kick it up a notch on the health front, right? So, this recipe requires minimal work. And if you've read any of my other recipes, you know I'm all about that. On the week nights, at least. 

Ingredients:

7 cloves garlic, peeled

9 large tomatoes, halved

Handful of basil (I used about 10 leaves)

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Cooked pasta of choice

(I used whole wheat spaghetti noodles)

How To:

Preheat the oven to 400F. Go about cutting your tomatoes, cutting the basil off the stems, and peeling the garlic. Line a baking sheet with foil and spread the tomatoes out. Lightly drizzle with olive oil, and crack a bit of salt and pepper over the tomatoes. Now spread out the garlic and basil with the tomatoes. Pop this in the oven for about an hour, or until the tomatoes begin to brown. It'll smell marvelous. Once they've roasted, take them out and let them cool a bit. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse. Add a bit more salt and pepper, if you please. 

Pile this on top of your cooked pasta, and savor the healthy deliciousness. I will actually take this over the jarred sauce any day. I probably won't make marinara any other way, now. It was just so tasty and fresh.

Have you guys tried eating clean? What's your favorite recipe?

What's Cookin' Wednesday

Spinach Ricotta Stuffed Shells

Like I said, I swear we don't eat noodles every day. To be quite honest, I was going to post the Aloo Gobi (an Indian dish) I made the day after this, but... that took a little more effort. Also, boyfriend just loves Italian. I would totally just stuff it with a bunch of cheese, but I guess you gotta add a veggie in there. Plus, the spinach gives a bit of protein to the dish.

This is a meal that you can just toss all the things together and walk away. Super easy for a busy week night. At first, the stuffing of the shell can be a bit tedious, but once you get the hang of it, it goes quickly.

 

Ingredients:

25 jumbo shells

1 c. mozzarella cheese

15 oz. Ricotta

1/4 c. parmesan cheese

1 egg

12 oz. bag of spinach, thawed

1 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning

1/2 c. mozzarella cheese

Salt & Pepper to taste

Sauce:

28 oz. can crushed tomatoes

1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

2 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp. onion powder

How to:

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Bring water in a large sauce pan to a boil, and toss in the noodles. Cook until al dente and set aside. While those are boiling, start on the stuffing! In a bowl, combine the ricotta, parmesan cheese, egg, Italian seasoning, and mozzarella. Squeeze all the extra water out of the spinach and mix that into the cheese. After you've done this, if you choose, you can make the sauce by simply combining all the ingredients in a medium saucepan. If you don't want to do that, you can simply use your favorite red sauce. Spread about a 1/2 cup of this on the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan.

Once the noodles are done, drain them and rinse. Put a generous amount of stuffing in each shell, placing each in the 9x13. When they've all been stuffed, pour the rest of your sauce on top of the noodles. Spread the remaining cup of cheese on top and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Pop that in the oven for 30 minutes.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

Are there any recipes your curious about? Comment below!

As always, let me know if you try this and how it turns out! (:

What's Cookin' Wednesday?

Spinach Lasagna Pasta Bake

Sorry this is late, late, late! I was finishing my application to grad school. WOOOO, it's complete!

So, I swear we aren't the vegetarians that eat a bunch of noodle dishes all the time. Really.

Boyfriend isn't a fan of soggy spinach in a baked dish, and I can't really blame him. Even so, he likes the fresh taste spinach gives to a dish. So, instead of just laying the spinach between the noodles, I blended them up with the ricotta! It was delicious...

Ingredients:

1 lb. Pasta of choice (I used quinoa shells!)

1 (15 oz.) tub of ricotta cheese

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1 egg

2 cloves garlic

2 handfuls (about 3 oz.) baby spinach

Pinch of nutmeg

1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

Salt & Pepper to taste

2 cups mozzarella cheese

Sauce:

1 (29 oz) can crushed tomatoes

1 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper

1/2 tsp. onion powder

Salt & Pepper to taste

How to:
Preheat your oven to 350. Start pasta according to directions. While that's going, put your ricotta, parmesan, and egg in a blender or food processor and blend.

 Add the garlic, nutmeg, red pepper, and italian seasonings in and blend.

 Place your 2 handfuls (or more!) with your cheese mixture and blend away! You'll end up with a green spinach cheese puree.

Simply heat up you crushed tomatoes on the stove, mixing in all the spices to make a simple pasta sauce.

 Now you can start assembling! Place about half of your noodles in a greased 9x13, and add about half of the pasta sauce you just made. The next layer will be your spinach/cheese mixture, then about 1 cup of your mozzarella. You'll have another layer of each after this.

 This is what the masterpiece will look like!

Place that in the oven for about 25 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and golden!
Serve it up warm with garlic bread or a salad!

What's Cookin' Wednesday

Baked Vodka Sauce Penne

Vodka sauce is boyfriend's favorite. He loves it. He could probably eat it with a spoon. Alone. I've made this a few times, but decided to change it up a little. Instead of just plain old pasta in sauce, I dumped cheese on top and baked it... yum! It turned out amazing. We paired it with an Olive Garden style salad (lettuce, red onion, parmesan cheese, croutons, and Olive Garden Light Italian Dressing). It was a wonderful meal. Of course, as soon as he was done, boyfriend says, "I could go for a big bowl of gelato, now." He's an endless pit.

The recipe is ridiculously easy.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter

1/2 an onion, diced

1/2 cup vodka

1 (28oz) can crushed tomatoes

1/2 pint heavy cream

1 pound Noodles of choice

Mozzarella cheese (optional)

How to:

In a sauce pan, melt the butter and sauté the diced onion in it for about 5 minutes.

Next, stir in the vodka and simmer for 10 minutes.

Stir in the crushed tomatoes and continue to simmer for another 30 minutes, stirring periodically.

While you're waiting, start the noodles and cook until al dente!

Now we can add the heavy cream! Then let that simmer another 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

(I'm a little messy.)

While you're waiting for that to simmer, preheat your oven to 350 and spray a 9x13.

When you're finally done waiting for all that simmering, you can toss the pasta in the sauce, give it a good mix and dump it into your prepared dish. I sprinkled mine with mozzarella and parmesan.

Let that bake in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese is nice and bubbly.

Paired with the salad, this was amazing.

Let me know if you give this a try and how it turns out!