Easy Make Ahead Dinners

Last week I made two easy make-ahead dinners for nights where we both had stuff going on post-work. I thought I would share them with you all! You know me and planning :)

Turkey Spinach Meatballs
1/2 lb ground turkey
1 cup spinach (I tore it into smaller pieces and removed the stems)
1/2 cup ground flaxseed (or you can use bread crumbs)
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

In a medium bowl, combine the ground turkey, spinach, ground flaxseed, garlic powder and mozzarella well - get those hands dirty! Once well combined, shape into meatballs. I made mine about 1 to 1.5" in diameter. Once all of the meat has been rolled into meatballs, place all of the meatballs into a skillet and cook on medium-high heat, rotating the meatballs so all sides are evenly browned.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge. Meatballs will keep for up to 3 days OR freeze and use meatballs when needed up to 4 months.

I baked the meatballs for dinner - covered them in sauce and some more cheese and baked until they were heated.

Baked Gnocchi Bacon
1 package store bought gnocchi, cooked
6 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped
1 cup favorite tomato sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella

After cooking the gnocchi according to the package directions and cooking up the 6 slices of bacon and chopping it, grease a 9x9 baking dish and add the tomato sauce. Mix in about 3/4 of the chopped bacon. Then add the gnocchi to the baking dish with the sauce and bacon and mix to combine, making sure all of the pasta is coated in the tomato sauce. Sprinkle the mozzarella over all of the gnocchi and then sprinkle the remaining bacon on top of the mozzarella. Cover and refrigerate until ready to cook, up to 2 days.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the cheese and nice and bubbly. You will notice in the picture I forgot to sprinkle the bacon on top of the mozzarella. Oops! I used all of the bacon in the sauce mixture, so I quickly cooked up two slices and roughly chopped them up and sprinkled on after I pulled the bake out of the oven. Still delicious!

Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Pasta

Tried a new recipe last night for dinner using the remaining leftover chicken from the roaster I made late last week - a light pasta in a "cream" sauce. I thought I would share the recipe because it was scrumptious and Christopher gave his thumbs up to it! Note - I used unsweetened almond milk instead of a cream. You can substitute what you like here and with most of the other ingredients. 

Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Pasta

Serves 4

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 small jar sun-dried tomatoes, sliced into smaller pieces

1 lb cooked chicken, diced or shredded

salt

paprika

1 cup unsweetened almond milk

1 cup shredded mozzarella

8 oz penne pasta

1 tbsp dry basil

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

In a large pan on high heat, saute garlic and sun-dried tomatoes for about 1 minute. Add in the cooked chicken, lightly salted and add a little bit of paprika (or a lot depending on your taste). Add the almond milk and mozzarella and lower heat to a simmer. Stir the sauce to ensure all of the cheese and ingredients have melted and blended. 

Cook pasta according to the pasta instructions. (Side note: I reserve a little bit of the pasta water in the event the sauce becomes too thick and needs to be thinned). Add the cooked pasta to the skillet and stir to combine. Add 1 tbsp of basil and the red pepper flakes. Stir to combine. At this point, if the sauce is too thick, add a little bit of the reserved pasta water. Just a little at a time until you reach the desired consistency. Simmer for a couple of minutes to let the flavors combine and enjoy!

Spaghetti Carbonara - Quick & Easy

Last week for dinner I made a classic Italian dish - Spaghetti Carbonara. I forgot how delicious, yet quick and easy this dinner is to make. With only 5 ingredients taking 15 minutes, dinner was done in a flash.

Spaghetti Carbonara

8 oz spaghetti
2 large eggs
3/4 cup grated Parmesan
4 slices bacon, diced
4 cloves garlic, mined
salt & pepper to taste
Optional: garnish with parsley

Instructions:
In a large pot of boiling water, cook pasta according to package; reserve about 1/2 cup water and drain well. In a small bowl, which together eggs and Parmesan and set aside. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add bacon and cook until brown and crispy (should take about 6 minutes) and remove fat. Stir in garlic, about 1 minute. Stir in cooked pasta and egg mixture and gently toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. If the egg "sauce" is too thick, use some of the reserved pasta water to thin. Eat immediately with added parsley garnish (optional).

Voila! And you are done!

Super Easy Chicken Recipe - Christopher approved!

This past weekend at the Italian Festival we ran into one of our favorite chefs - Art Christy. He owns Frontier Catering, whom we hired to cater our wedding reception. He is fabulous and we still have people come up to us and rave about the food at our wedding. Anywho, we stopped to say hello and we talked about his cooking demonstration and how people prepare meals. One of the comments he made was that people today are looking for a variety of meals that are quick and easy to make. Well...I found a winner.

I pinned a week or so ago a recipe for a Chicken Dinner with Pepperoni-Marinara Sauce that I wanted to make. The recipe is pretty simple, but I made it even easier by using pre-made sauce and added some extra ingredients. The result: a delicious adaptation.

Pepperoni Chicken Parmesan
Serves 2

1 lb chicken breasts or cutlets (I had breasts already thawed, so I pounded them to make cutlets)
1 cup marinara sauce (I already had a jar open)
16 slices of pepperoni, quartered
Extra pepperoni to top chicken
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded, mozzarella cheese

Preheat the broiler to HIGH. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Add a little bit of olive oil to the pan, swirl to coat. While pan is heating, mix the pepperoni and ricotta cheese with the marinara sauce in a separate bowl. Sprinkle the chicken with a little bit of ground pepper to flavor and add chicken to skillet. Sear and cook the chicken, about 3 minutes per side. Remove from heat. Transfer the chicken to an oven & broiler safe dish (I used a Pyrex 9x9 dish). Cover chicken with additional slices of pepperoni and then top the pepperoni slices with the prepared sauce. Top the sauce with the shredded mozzarella cheese and then broil in high heat for about 5 minutes until the cheese melts and starts to brown a little. Enjoy!

Tip: when broiling, I have found it best to watch the dish. Once the cheese is melted and starts to brown, it can burn really quickly if you are not paying attention! You would not want to run supper, right?

Past Weekend Fun - Buffalo's Italian Festival

I love Buffalo in the summer; our city is blessed to host many festivals, carnivals, parades, etc in the summer time. Every weekend there is always something different going on. This past weekend was the Italian Festival, which is one of my favorites! Who cannot resist the pizza, sausage, cannolis, meatballs, pastas, gelato, etc. We are lucky enough to live fairly close by so we are able to walk to the festival. We went almost every day and was able to try a little bit each time. My favorites were:

Campi's Pizza - they offer this HUGE pizza slice and is always piping hot
Salvatore's Italian Garden - I LOVE the Mozzarella Stuffed Meatball and the Sausage Loaf
Gelato Gypsy - who doesn't love Gelato??? They offered 6 different flavors to try. My favorite was the Tiramisu, which had actual espresso soaked lady fingers in it
Lombardos - Arancine with Fontina Cheese; totally going to try to make these. Right now I am obsessing with Risotto...maybe swap out and use quinoa??? Who wants to test taste with me??

It was a great weekend to enjoy the festival too. The weather was perfect everyday.