Ham Rotini Casserole

I found this recipe in "I Can't Believe It's Food Storage!" and it is super delicioso!

2 cups rotini pasta, cooked
1/2 cup salad dressing (Miracle Whip) or light mayonnaise
1/4 cup milk
1/2 bell pepper (green or red), chopped
2 cups broccoli florets
2 cups ham, cubed
1 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

Cook pasta according to directions on box.  Drain.

In a large bowl, combine salad dressing and milk.  Mix until smooth.  Add pasta, bell pepper, broccoli florets, ham, and 1 cup cheddar cheese.

Put contents of bowl into a greased casserole dish.  Top with remaining cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Feta Chicken

Okay, so I know that I just posted a feta chicken recipe, BUT we LOVE feta and this is another (and in my hubby's opinion) EVEN BETTER recipe for feta and chicken. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 6 ounces tomato basil feta cheese, crumbled
• 1/4 cup Italian-style dry bread crumbs, divided

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. Place chicken breasts between 2 pieces of waxed paper. Gently pound chicken with flat side of meat mallet or rolling pin until about 1/4 inch thick; remove wax paper. Place 1 ounce of feta cheese in the center of each chicken breast, and fold in half.
3. Spread 2 tablespoons bread crumbs in the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Arrange chicken in the dish, and top with remaining bread crumbs.
4. Bake 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.

Notes: I didn't have tomato basil feta. Instead, I sprinkled dried basil and red pepper flakes on the feta before folding over. You can also use chopped fresh basil and sun-dried tomatoes. I also used more than 1/4 bread crumbs and sprinkled the crumbs on both sides of the chicken before adding the feta. To secure the folded chicken I used a few toothpicks on each piece. So, so, so yummy and easy!!!

Serves: 6
Prep time: 15min. Cook time: 30min. Ready in: 45min.
Amount per serving: 224 calories, 7.8 grams fat

- Mindy

p.s. Almost all photos for my recipes are compliments of Allrecipes.com

Baked Ziti Supreme

I've been eye-ing this recipe in my cookbook since the beginning of my first semester and finally got to it! I really enjoyed it. Probably not the healthiest but it sure is comfort food.

1 pound ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup) (I didn't have onion so I used onion powder)

1 jar (24 ounces) Prego® Fresh Mushroom Italian Sauce

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (6 ounces)

5 cups medium tube-shaped pasta (ziti), cooked and drained

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

• Cook the beef and onion in a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat until the beef is well browned, stirring often to break up the meat. Pour off any fat.
• Stir the sauce, 1 cup mozzarella cheese and pasta in the saucepan. Spoon the mixture into a 3-quart shallow baking dish. Sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350°F. for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbling.

(Picture is compliments of Campbell's Kitchen.com)

Fast & Friendly Meatballs

In our attempts to eat healthy we have substituted much of our ground beef for ground turkey and surprisingly have loved the results. This is one of the hubby's favorites. We love our scrumptious meatballs! Note: I added the last five ingredients to make them especially good. This is a great recipe to experiment with.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 (20 ounce) package ground turkey
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/3 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• 1/2 tsp. sage or rosemary
• 2 Tb. grated parmesan cheese
• 1 Tb. garlic powder and/or onion powder
• 1 tsp. pepper
• 1/8 cup water

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish with the olive oil, and place it in the oven while preheating.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the ground turkey, egg, bread crumbs, sage or rosemary, parmesan cheese, garlic powder or onion powder, pepper and water using your hands. Using an ice cream scoop if possible, form the meat into golf ball sized meatballs. Place about 1 inch apart in the hot baking dish. Press down to flatten the bottom just slightly.
3. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, then turn them over, and continue baking for about 5 more minutes, or until somewhat crispy on the outside. Serve with pasta and sauce or however you'd like.

Serves: 18
Prep time: 10min. Cook time: 20min. Ready in: 30min.
Amount per serving: 72 calories, 4.4 grams fat

- Mindy

Sweet Potato Casserole

The weather today has been wet and gloomy... I guess that's why I'm posting tasty and warm comfort foods. This is the perfect holiday sweet potato dish. The hubby and I love it as dessert too! Just thinking of it makes my mouth water. So yummy!

Ingredients

• 4 cups sweet potato, cubed
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground clove
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  

Topping: (double, if desired)

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Put sweet potatoes in a medium saucepan with water to cover. Cook over medium high heat until tender; drain and mash.**I baked the sweet potatoes for an hour in a preheated oven at 400 degrees F. Before baking I poked each potato a few times with a fork. Do not wrap the potatoes in foil to bake. After baking I cut each potato in half and scooped out the yummy goodness. The taste is so much better when you BAKE the potatoes first.**
2. In a large bowl, mix together the sweet potatoes, sugar, eggs, salt, butter, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. Mix until smooth. Transfer to a 9x13 inch baking dish.
3. In medium bowl, mix the sugar and flour. Cut in the butter until the mixture is coarse. Stir in the pecans. Sprinkle the mixture over the sweet potato mixture.
4. Bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until the topping is lightly brown.

Serves: 12
Prep time: 30 min - 1 hour Cook time: 30 min. Ready in: 1 hour
Amount per serving: 195 cal. 7.8 grams fat

- Mindy

Swiss Chicken Casserole

This easy dish is comfort food to the max!! I remember someone from my mom's Relief Society bringing this dish to us for dinner one night when my mom was sick or just after having a baby. Anyway, I would make this dish in college every month! I sometimes substitute the Swiss cheese for pepper jack cheese. Yum! Serve with rice and veggies or whatever you want.

Ingredients

• 6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 6 slices Swiss cheese
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 cups herb-seasoned stuffing mix
• 1/4 cup butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Arrange chicken in a greased 12 x 8 x 2 baking dish. Top with Swiss cheese slices.
3. Combine soup and milk and stir well. Spoon mixture over chicken and sprinkle with stuffing mix. Drizzle butter or margarine over crumbs.
4. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 50 minutes. Enjoy!

Serves: 6
Prep time: 10 min. Cook time: 50 min. Ready in: 1 hour
Amount per serving: 430 cal. 20.8 grams fat

- Mindy

Wedding Cakes - Fondant

Mindy & Jon

Ivory fondant with pearl dust.  Elegant!

Sarah & Aaron

Very colorful inside.  I used blue and yellow Jimmies

to make a "funfetti" cake that matched the color scheme.

Shara & Shane

Each tier is decorated to look like an elegantly wrapped gift.  

Inside are swirls of blue, yellow and white cake. 

Shara helped design this fantastic cake.  She and her mother rolled the many edible fondant pearls. 

Sarah and I worked for several weeks on this project, but it was worth it!

Natalie & Josh

Edible pearls covered in gold pearl dust.

Jennifer & Ryan

A simple design, but so lovely.  I used Swarovski crystal beads

 on gently curved wires to add some sparkle.

Wedding Cakes - Buttercream

Alisha & Jared

Michelle & Sam

Melanie & Nick

 

Amber & Cameron

Christina & Kyle

A wedding on the Delta Queen, Sacramento River.

The Bishops

A Fall Wedding

A reception at the Allen home.

Sara

Kent & Kristina

This is the first wedding cake I helped Sarah with.  She was told she could choose any design.  The entire cake is piped in basket weave, very time consuming.  Sarah did a fantastic job.

Birthday Cakes

Kelly, born on St. Patrick's Day, gets a lovely green cake.

Primary colors for young Russell.

Every little boy loves baseabll!

Smoothly iced basketball cake.

Sarah tries her hand at decorating a basketball cake. 

This one is done using a star tip.

A deliciously large baseball.

A simple way to decorate a cake.  A paper character cut-out.

Mari's yellow puppy cake. 

Made of pound cake, Hostess Cupcakes & Twinkies. 

What a "sweet" little puppy.

           Now that Bradford is older he prefers brownies.  They are just as easy to decorate as a cake.             

A family favorite - Petit Fours. Yum!

Hilary celebrates her 18th birthday.

Sarah heads off with a tray of  birthday petit fours to share with her friends.

My friend Chrissi wanted a lesson in cake decorating. 

So we designed a postage stamp cake for her father's 70th birthday.

This was for Great-Grandma Hogge's birthday.  Mari decided to help decorate, which she did by smearing orange frosting on the white cake.  So I turned it into a marble frosted cake. 

It turned out quite well for a faux pas.

Hilary and Hailey wanted a chocolate cake that looked like fondant. . . but wasn't. 

They seem pleased with this rendition. 

My twins ten years apart, Sarah and Bradford, celebrate their half birthday

 by each decorating their half of a cake.  Kids love to decorate cakes.

Sarah helped decorate this cake for her friend Crystal. 

You can tell she is pleased.

Pink roses and pearls for Sarah's 9th birthday.

Hilary, Uncle Andy, and Grandma Stowers often celebrated their birthdays together. 

Here we have white cake and whipped frosting with

fresh strawberries on top and as a filling.  So refreshing!

Chocolate on chocolate. Always a great combination.

Here, the "twins" share a cake and make birthday wishes. 

Celebration Cakes

Blessing Day for my granddaughter Alice.

Sarah's graduation from high school. Chocolate, of course!

Celebrating an Eagle Scout award.

Fun on Groundhog Day. Almond Joy candy bars become Punksatony Phil - Cute!

2001 Galena Graduating Seniors get a cake too.

Polka-dot Fondant