Chicken and Spinach Stuffed Shells

HAHAH The monkey's face really just cracks me up every time I see this picture. I am not really sure why I find this so funny, but I do! My sister and I get a kick out of it every single time we see it! I thought it may bring some others a laugh and thought I would share! How do they capture moments like these?! Priceless!

Now down to business-onto the recipe from last night... I made this for everyone and they all seemed to really enjoy it! I would of liked it to be a little more chunky and taste the pieces of chicken more, so if you want go ahead and increase the amount of chicken! I kind of advise it :) Unless you aren't a fan of meat.

Chicken and Spinach Stuffed Shells:

• 1 box of Jumbo shells
• 1 lb of Chicken breast, shredded
• 2 cups Mozzarella
• 2 cups Italian Cheese
• 4 cups Ricotta cheese (I used fat free)
• 1/2 cup Cream Cheese (I used 1/3 fat)
• 2 Tbs Sour Cream (take it or leave it. Its just for a tangy taste)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup Spinach (I wish I would of added more so maybe do a cup)
• 1 small onion, minced
• salt/pepper (to taste)
• powdered garlic/oregano/basil (to taste)
• 1 jar of marinara sauce

To start, I boiled my chicken in salt and pepper water while I also boiled the box of shells. (Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.) While these were cooking, I combined the cream cheese, ricotta, and sour cream until it was blended well. Then I put in 1 and 3/4 cups of the Mozzarella and 1 and 3/4 cups Italian Cheese (give or take- the extra is for the top so do however much you want). I then incorporated one egg and the whole onion into the mixture. I hand shredded the spinach into just various different sizes, they cook down so a little big is ok, and then threw them in and stirred. I added the salt, pepper, garlic, oregano, and basil- I was heavy handed and put a lot, but I love a lot of flavor too! After that is all combined I sat it aside and checked the chicken, once it is cooked fully, I let it cool for just a minute or two so that I wouldn't burn my fingers when i went to shred it! I took two forks and just started tearing into each piece! After it was shredded completely, I sat it aside for another minute or two; you don't want it too hot or it could heat the egg in the mixture. Drain your shells and run a little cool water over them so you can hold them, again without burning your fingertips! Go ahead and throw the chicken into the cheese mixture and stir it up well. Now it is finally time to assemble!! This is the fun part! With a 13x9 inch pan (I actually had a few extra shells and used a small pan on the side, so play it by ear and use any size you think works best for you!) put a few spoonfuls of marinara on the bottom of the pan to prevent the shells from sticking. Then take a shell and stuff the mixture on into it. I probably had anywhere from 1-2 Tbs of mix in each, it may of even been more. (Remember I am not a measuring type of person ha!) Line them all up in the pan, top it off with the Marinara sauce and sprinkle the remaining shredded cheese over it. Then pop that sucker into the oven for 30 or so minutes, or until the cheese starts to crisp up! Finally, they are ready to eat! Enjoy :)

Banana Somethings

Why is this so true? Hahahah. I mean of course it is great to find your perfect guy, but come on... eating whatever you want and not gaining weight? Awesome! Unfortunately that is not true for us all though... So tonight I decided to make a tasty, and somewhat healthy, dessert for the fam and I. I am not sure what to call them so I am going with Banana Somethings.

Banana Somethings:

Total time: 15 minutes

Serves 6

• Keebler Mini Graham Cracker crusts (6 pack)
• 1 pack of Jello Banana Cream Pudding mix
• 2 cups of milk (I used 1%)
• Light cool whip
• 2 Bananas
• Chocolate syrup (Caramel would taste pretty good too!)

These things are so easy and quick to make, they were also gone fast too! I first made the banana pudding by simply following the instructions on the box (whisk 2 cups cold milk with packet) then I let it sit for about 10 minutes. In the meantime I cut up the banana into slices, unwrapped the mini crusts (I just found them for the first time today and they are the perfect size! I was gonna try pie crust in mini dishes, but these were so much easier!), and started to assemble. I put one layer of banana slices at the bottom of the crusts, then I layered in some pudding, topped it with cool whip (or if you like regular whip cream, go ahead!), stuck a few more banana slices on there, drizzled a little chocolate syrup and bam there ya have it! Easiest dessert to make and it tastes something like a banana cream pie.  My picture didn't turn out as well as I thought, but you get the gist of it :)

P.S. Thanks again to Fitness Pal for providing nutritional facts-- We have a total of 265 calories per serving! 

Pot Roast and Snickers Cookies

Good morning!! 

I like to start the day with a quote and get the day going on a positive note! Here is the one I chose for today:) 


p.s. I get almost all of my quote pics from Pinterest! I love that website!!


Now onto the recipes I have been cooking up lately! 


First, I made a pot roast last night for dinner. It was quite tasty and it was my first time doing a real one. I had made roasted chicken and veggies before, but never one with an actual chuck roast! So needless to say, I was pretty excited :)


Pot Roast And Veggies:
Estimated Time: 3.5 hours (only 30 minutes are dedicated to actually doing something with it!)

• 3 1/2 pound chuck roast
• 3 medium sweet potatoes
• 5 small onions
• 12 large carrots
• olive oil
• salt/pepper
• garlic
• thyme 
• rosemary

(I don't give measurements for seasonings because I think it is totally a personal preference and I never actually measure mine out.)

For starters, preheat your oven to 325!! Then I chopped all of the veggies up; with the onions I cut them in half then just did big chunks from the halves. Carrots I scrubbed well, left the skins on, and chopped into roughly one inch pieces, but really it's whatever size you like. Then sweet potatoes were scrubbed, I also left the skins on for the nutrient value (ha), and cubed them up. 

After the veggies are chopped up, it was time to turn to the meat. With the chuck roast in the pan I covered it with salt and pepper, very generously. I am a salt lover. I also sprinkled a little powder garlic on to it too. Make sure to get  all sides of the meat! After you have seasoned it heat up some olive oil (3 Tbs or so) and allow it to sizzle, then put the pice of meat back on to sear each side. I prefer to do the top and bottom of the meat then I sear the sides as well so all the juices, fats, and flavors stay inside and it doesn't lose its great taste or dry out in the oven. After this step your meat should look something like this (pic on right).

Once the meat has been seared and all the flavors are sealed in- go ahead and put it in a roasting pan, or any large dish that goes in the oven and can fit all the ingredients. I sit the meat in the middle of the pan, then I drizzle olive oil around the pan and throw my veggies around the meat. I had fresh rosemary and thyme so I just tucked the sticks of herbs randomly throughout the mounds of veggies. I sprinkled salt, pepper, and powdered garlic (fresh would be even better) all over the pan-oh wait! I also did dried oregano too! enough so that I thought there was enough without over doing it. Then I drizzled more olive oil to prevent it from drying out. (One thing I found was that the veggies were beginning to get too dry so I added a cup and a half of just plain tap water into the bottom an hour into cooking, but you probably could before it even enters the oven.) Then finally- it is time to throw this bad boy into the oven for the next two and a half to three hours.

Mine cooked for a total of 2 hours and 45 min and it was just right! So it is dependent upon the size of meat you get (mine was 3.4 pounds total). And that was my end result! The veggies were nice and soft, caramelized just enough, with some crispy edges! The meat had a nice crunch on the outside along with a juicy, flavorful center. I was very pleased (and so was my boyfriend)!


Now the next recipe... I was bored while the meat was cooking endlessly, so I made a batch of snickers cookies. I got the idea because my boyfriend loves snickers and then I looked online for a good peanut butter cookie recipe, then I altered it.


Snickers Cookies:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 3 cup flour
• 24 fun size Snickers
• almonds or peanuts (whatever your preference)

So to begin...

Ideally, the oven should probably be 350 degrees, but since I had the roast I had to bake at 325. So preheat first then start by creaming the butter, peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar together until blended well (I use a hand mixer because I don't have one of those awesome fancy kitchen aide mixers! I would love one!! Haha). After you cream them together, add the two eggs and vanilla extract and start mixing again! After you get your wet ingredients together, go ahead and measure out 1 cup of the flour and throw it in, blend. Then i added another 1 cup of flour, the baking soda and powder, and blend. Then add the last 1 cup of flour. The dough is pretty stiff by this point and that is good! The cookies were surprisingly not overly sweet, which was also good because the snickers are so sweet! 

Next I lined a pan with some parchment paper (because I hate doing dishes haha). I cut each snickers into thirds, you could just cut into halves if you want to. Then the assembly began! You roll a ball of dough in your hands, flatten it into a pancake, stuff two 'thirds' of the snickers into the middle and form the dough around the candy. Repeat til your pan is full (they spread a good bit so I would say two inches a part maybe a little more depending on the size of the cookie ball) Once the pan is full, I threw on chopped almonds onto the top of each cookie ball (you can add peanuts if you want, but I only had almonds in the pantry). Now it is time for the oven. I would say they took 14-16 min, but just watch til they get golden brown on the top.

I was really happy with these! They get the good caramel middle with a little chocolate mixed with the salty peanut butter and the crunch of the almonds. Mmmmm. I had to stop myself from eating too many! (Made about 3.5 dozen-again depending on size)

Well that's all I have today! I hope these recipes are as good for you as they were for me! :) 

Have a great weekend and remember to laugh a little (or a lot:D)!

This is ALL new to me!

This whole blogging thing is completely new to me. For some reason I woke up today and decided I want to start sharing my recipes, things I cook, and random other things that come up! Plus it helps me keep track of foods that I have made and liked enough to share with others!:) 

Tonight's dinner was a 'look in the pantry and come up with something' kind of night. So that's what I did and here it is:

Shrimp Fried Rice
Total Time: 30 min (give or take)
Serves 8 (1 cup serving sizes)

• 1 box of brown rice (Mine made 8 cups cooked)
• 5 large carrots- peeled and chopped
• 1 small vidalia onion- diced
• 1 bunch of spring onions- chopped
• 4 eggs scrambled
• 1 pack of frozen, deveined, peeled shrimp (26-30 count)
• 2 Tbs. of Thousand Island dressing
• 1 Tbs. of light Mayo
• soy sauce, salt and pepper- all to taste

I started by cooking my rice, thawing and boiling my shrimp, scrambling the eggs, and chopping all the ingredients up. This led to an easy assembly of the actual dish and having it all right there to dump into the wok or whatever pan you want to use (pic on the left)!


I also mixed the two tablespoons of Thousand Island dressing with the one tablespoon of mayo together- this came out to be similar to those Japanese steak house "yummy yummy" sauces! 


To begin compiling the fried rice together I heated up the wok and threw some olive oil down, probably about 2-3 tablespoons, just enough to cover the bottom and allow a good sizzle. I poured the carrots, onion, and spring onions in the hot oil and allowed it to sauté for about 5 minutes (I didn't want the onions to become translucent though). Remove that mixture from heat, then throw the rice in there and allow it to sizzle on its own for another 5 or so minutes. Then, throw the veggies back in along with the egg and shrimp, mix it all up. Once those are evenly mixed together, add soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste ( I also added a splash of teriyaki sauce just because I had it in the fridge). Lastly throw in the 'yummy yummy' or whatever it is mix in there and stir it all up. Allow it to heat up some more and serve! 

There are a lot of variations to do with the recipe and it was so easy-everything was already in the house! Take out whatever you may not like, add in other veggies if you want, but this was a hit with the fam tonight! 

I hope you enjoy!

Thanks to the iPhone app MyFitnessPal I am able to give the calories and all for the meal as well!

Cals: 327  Total Fat: 7.3 g