Stuffed Pizza Rolls

from Our Best Bites

We had a RS activity about meal planning, and this one has been by far the favorite with my family above all the other recipes I've tried from that night.

1 roll refrigerated pizza dough (or make your own)

Marinara/pizza sauce

2 T grated Parmesan cheese

1 T olive oil or melted butter

1/2 t garlic powder
1 t dried Italian seasoning
Mozzarella cheese
Pizza toppings of your choice: ie, ham and pineapple, pepperoni slices, sausage, etc.

Preheat the oven to package directions. Roll out your dough to about 12x8". Cut dough with a pizza slicer to 24 squares. Place desired toppings on each square. (Note that you're not placing the sauce in the dough, it's for dipping afterward.)

Wrap the dough up around the toppings, sealing it so it is all enclosed. Place seam side down in a lightly sprayed pan. Brush the tops of the dough balls with olive oil or melted butter and then sprinkle with the garlic and Italian seasoning and top with Parmesan cheese.

Cook them in the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on top. Keep an eye on them! Doughs vary, so I'd check them after even 10 minutes.

Serve warm with warmed marinara sauce on the side for dipping.

These were sooo delicious!

Spinach-Mozzarella Stuffed Chicken

I volunteered to make dinner again tonight. I love cooking for my family, although sometimes we end up calling for take out! I guess that's part of the wonderful life of experimental cooking!
(I didn't take this picture but it gives you an idea of the final product. Except, my chicken was swimming in bright, delicious tomato sauce.)

Spinach-Mozzarella Stuffed Chicken
Servings: 8

Serve with rice, noodles, or, my personal favorite, sourdough bread!

Ingredients:
18 ounces packaged prewashed fresh spinach
2 1/2 cup part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt
Ground nutmeg
8 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 family-sized can garlic and herb spaghetti sauce
1 14-15 oz. can of diced tomatoes
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 450°.

To prepare chicken, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add spinach to pan; cook 5 minutes or until spinach begins to wilt, stirring frequently. Drain any excess liquid and finely chop spinach. Place spinach, 2 cups mozzarella cheese, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and a dash nutmeg; stir well to combine.

Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Place 1/4 cup mozzarella mixture in the center of each chicken breast, fold over, and secure with 1-2 toothpicks. Place rolls in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish (I used a slightly larger dish). Sprinkle salt and pepper evenly over rolls. Combine spaghetti sause, diced tomatoes, and onion. Pour sauce over chicken and sprinkle with 1/2 cup mozzarella and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese. Bake at 450° for 25-30 minutes, or until chicken is done (gage with meat thermometer. Poultry is thoroughly cooked once the meat reaches 180° F).

Don't forget to remove toothpicks before you dig in! That would be a nasty surprise..

Tomato and Spinach Pasta Toss

from Kraft Foods

This was really good and easy so I had to share! To make it a little healthier I used whole wheat pasta, and instead of italian sausage I used those Jimmy Deans turkey sausage links that are pre-cooked. I just heated them up on the skillet then chopped them up in little pieces.

2 cups rotini or penne pasta, uncooked
1/2 lb. hot or mild Italian sausage, casing removed
1 pkg. (6 oz.) baby spinach leaves (7 cups)
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup KRAFT Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese
2 Tbsp. KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese

COOK pasta as directed on package.

MEANWHILE, crumble meat into large deep skillet. Cook on medium-high heat 10 to 12 min. or until cooked through, stirring occasionally; drain. Add spinach and tomatoes; cook 2 min. or until spinach is wilted, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; cover to keep warm.

DRAIN pasta. Add to skillet along with the cheeses; toss lightly.

Sicilian Pizza

Tim makes fun of me a lot for having an authentic Sicilian family and never actually cooking Italian food, so for his last birthday I folded and made my dad's pizza. I'll do my best to give his cooking instructions, which often sound like, "Just a little of this, not too much" with never giving an exact amount.

Ingredients

• Refrigerated pizza dough (you can get this from any quality Italian market - it comes in a bag with just the right amount for one pizza, or you can use frozen bread dough, but you need to let the dough thaw out on your counter overnight after you rub it with some olive oil and cover it with saran wrap, one loaf = one pizza)
• 1 Italian sausage link (since you can use such a small amount, I recommend you go for the good stuff and get a link from the deli, or an Italian market)
• Pizza sauce (again, quality is key here, don't go cheap)
• Grated Romano cheese
• Grated Parmesan cheese
• mushrooms, bell peppers, olives, whatever else you like on your pizza
• sliced green onions, sounds weird, but it's good
• dried oregano

Directions

1. If you're using the refrigerated dough, you need to set the dough out and let it rise and get to room temperature. It won't rise a ton, but it will rise. As my dad says, "You want it to get warm, but not too warm." Basically, you want it at room temp. Leave it out for an hour or so.
2. I make pizza on the Silpat, which I highly recommend. Some people use the pizza stone. The nice thing about the Silpat is it's non-stick, so you'll have to figure out a way to make whatever you're using a non-stick surface. Some olive oil and cornstarch should do the trick on a cookie sheet.
3. Put about a teaspoon of olive oil on the dough to help work it out. I don't roll mine, I just push it out with my fingers. Dad says, "Not too thin, not too thick." If you're using a cookie sheet it will probably go to just about the edges of the sheet. You can make the crust as thick or thin as you want.
   
4. Sprinkle oregano on dough, then press it in. Dad says this is the most important part.
5. Spread a thin layer of pizza sauce over the dough.
   
6. Cut the skin off of the sausage and put very small pieces of sausage all over the dough. Make sure the pieces are small so they'll cook through.
7. Add your toppings however you want. The cheeses are probably the most important, you can just do parmesan but I like the Romano as well.
8. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

I probably made it sound more complicated then necessary, but once you get it down it's super quick and tasty. One pizza serves about 3 people, if we're being realistic.

Grilled Brushetta Chicken

1/4 Cup KRAFT Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing, divided 4 Small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (filleted)  1 Medium tomato, finely chopped 1/2 cup Mozzarella Cheese 1/4 chopped fresh basil or 1 tsp dried basil leaves PLACE large sheet of heavy-duty foil over half of grill grate; preheat grill to medium heat. Pour 2 tbsp. of the dressing over chicken in resealable plastic bag; seal bag.  Turn bag over several times to evenly coat chicken with the dressing.  Refrigerate 10 minutes to marinate.  Remove chicken from marinade; discard bag and marinade. GRILL chicken on uncovered side of grill 6 min.  Meanwhile, combine tomatoes, cheese, basil and remaining 2 tbsp dressing. TURN chicken over; place, cooked-side up, on foil on grill.  Top evenly with tomato mixture.  Close lid. Grill and additional 8 min. or until chicken is cooked through. **We don't have a grill right now, so I used the stove top grill pan. It worked great!** ***Serve with buttered egg noodles and grilled or steamed vegetables.***

Homemade Pizza Dough

Growing up my mom used to make homemade pizza a lot on Friday nights. The dough isn't that hard so every once in awhile I bust out the Friday night pizza. Last night we had friends over and had everyone make little personal pan pizzas. I bought 7 inch cake pans at the dollar store and had all the toppings out for people to choose what they wanted on their pizzas. I think everyone liked it. 

When you're doing the personal pizzas lower the temperature to 450 and cooked them for about 12-13 minutes. Test one or two to make sure they are cooked all the way through. This recipe only makes enough for about 2 or 3 people if you eat as much as we do so I usually double it. For 6 adults and a few kids i quadrupled it and that was perfect.

3/4 cup warm water
1/2 tsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. yeast
1 tbsp. oil
1 tsp. salt
flour

Pour sugar and yeast into warm water. Let set for 8 to 10 minutes.

Add oil and salt to mixture. With a mixer add flour 1/2 a cup at a time until mixture starts to get too thick to mix with a mixer. With a spatula or your hand add another cup or two of flour until it forms into a ball. Take dough out, ad a little oil to your bowl, Set dough back in bowl, cover with a dish cloth and let rise for at least two hours. (If you are in a hurry, put bowl in warm oven for 30 minutes or you can make the dough in the morning and let stay in the refrigerator until dinner).

Bake at 475 for 15 minutes.

Rigatoni with Grilled Peppers and Onions

(yes, this is a pic from the magazine)

I'm always looking for a recipe without meat, and this looks delicious! I haven't made it yet, but I'll be getting the ingredients next time I'm at the store.

2 medium red onions, sliced into 1/2inch-thick rings
2 large red bell peppers, cut into quarters
1 tbls olive oil
Kosher salt and pepper
12 ounces (4 to 5 cups) rigatoni
1 bunch spinach, stems trimmed or one 5-ounce package
1 cup (about 31/2 ounces) grated cheese
3/4 cup basil leaves, thinly sliced

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Heat a grill or girill pan to medium-high
2. In a large bowl, toss the onons, bell peppers, oil, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper. Grill, turning occasionally, until tender 8-10 mins. Transfer to cutting board and cut into bite size pieces
3. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water, drain the pasta, and return the pasta to the pot.
4. Add the grilled vegetables, spinach, the reserved pasta water, and 3/4 cup Parmesan to the pasta and toss to combine. Top with basil and the remaining Parmesan before serving.

hands on time:25 mins, serves 4 (according to the magazine!) p.s. I hate spinach, so I'll be leaving that out!

Deceptive Lasagna...

...with sweet potato and cauliflower.

Ok... here is another yummy healthy meal from that cookbook. Jenny, I will tell you my secret. I don't want to puree EVERYTHING. Somethings are too hard to puree like sweet potatoes and squash, so I buy some baby food. One Gerber baby food is exactly 1/2 a cup. For the cauliflower and everything else it is super easy, but baby food is a good alternative. :)

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 lb lean ground turkey 

1 tsp salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 tbsp flour

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tbsp fat free sour cream

1/2 C sweet potato puree

1/2 C grated Parmesan

1 (26 ounce) or 2 (15 ounce) cans whole, peeled tomatoes, wiht their juice

1 small onion, chopped

1 C lowfat cottage cheese

1 large egg white

1/2 C cauliflower puree

1 (8 ounce) box no-boil lasagna noodles 

2 C shredded part-skim mozzarella

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Coat an 8x12 inch baking dish with cooking spray.

2. For the meat filling, brown turkey springk with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the meat is no longer pink, 4-5 minutes. Sprinkle in the flour and half of the garlic, stir, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes longer. Off the heat, stir in the sour cream, sweet potato puree, and half (1/4 c) of the Parmesan cheese, set aside.

3. For the sauce, combine the tomatoes and juice. the onion, and the remaining garlic and Parmesan (1/4 c) in a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Transfer the sauce to a bowl or large measuring cup. Or use jarred sauce and just add Parmesan.

4. In the same blender or food processor, blend the cottage cheese, egg white, and cauliflower puree until smooth; set aside.

5. To assemble, spread 1 C of the tomato sauce over the bottom of the baking dish. Layer about one-third of the noodles on top, covering the sauce completely. Spread the meat filling over them. Cover with another one third of the noodles and then spread all of the cottage cheese mixture over them.  Make another layer with the rest of the noodles and spoon the remaining tomato sauce over the top. Sprinkle evenly with mozzarella.

6. Cover the lasagna with foil and bake until the cheese has melted and the noodles are cooked through, about 40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 10 minutes longer or until the top is bubble and browned.