Tag Archives: Diesel

Three Cheese Chicken Pasta Bake

Posted in Entrees, Pasta by

Tonight for dinner I made this three cheese pasta bake.  I’ve been eyeing this recipe for awhile and I finally got the chance to make it.  It was cheesy, delicious and fairly simple to make!

I got the original recipe from allrecipes.com, but after reading several reviews, I made a few changes.

Diesel stood with begging puppy eyes the entire time I was in the kitchen cooking... How can you say no to these eyes?

Ingredients:

  • 2 1/2 cups multigrain rotini pasta
  • 1 large handful spinach leaves
  • 1 1/2 cups broccoli florets (I added this because I needed to use it before it went bad!)
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 large tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil
  • 2 cups of your favorite pasta sauce
  • 1 1/2 cup diced tomatoes, drained
  • 1/4 cup light cream cheese
  • 1 cup mozzarella shredded cheese
  • 2 tablespoons grated light parmesan cheese
Instructions:
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Cook pasta as directed on package. Add spinach and broccoli to the boiling water for the last 1 minute.
2. Heat a large skillet and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add chicken, garlic and basil; cook diced chicken.
3. Add 2 cups of pasta sauce and 1 1/2 cups of diced tomatoes; bring to boil. Stir in 1/4 cup of cream cheese spread until melted.
4. Drain pasta, spinach, and broccoli. Add chicken, broccoli, and spinach to the sauce mixture; mix lightly. Stir in 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese. Spoon into 13 x 9 inch baking dish.
4.  Cover with foil and bake in oven on 375 degrees for 20 minutes.  Remove foil and add other 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese and 2 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese. Put back in the oven for 3 minutes or until cheese is completely melted.
 Enjoy!

 

Happy Birthday Diesel!!!

Posted in Recipes by

Today is Diesel’s third birthday!! Happy birthday pumpkin!!! (My mom says I need to stop calling him that in public because all the neighbor dogs are making fun of him…. I think he likes it…)

Anyways, I love love love celebrating birthday’s.  Including his, why should he be left out??  Did you know that there are dog-friendly cake recipes?  Yes indeedy. Rachel Ray even has a page devoted to pet friendly recipes! I will proudly admit that I spoil him and bake him doggie cupcakes.

Because of final exams creeping up, I haven’t had the chance to make him his special birthday cupcakes.  But, here’s the recipe I used last year and will probably use again this year.  I think he really enjoyed himself at last years birthday party.

Let the tradition continue!

Banana Honey Dog Cupcakes

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups of water
  • 2 bannans
  • 1/8 tsp vanilla
  • 3 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 tbs baking powder
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp honey
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350.  In mixing bowl combine water, bananas, vanilla, egg, honey.  Add whole wheat flour and baking powder.
  2. Spray or line muffin tray.  Fill muffin cups 3/4 of the way.
  3. Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean.

So, he wasn't a big fan of the birthday hat. But I promise he was having a good time.

Ps – For those of you wondering, I tasted them! They weren’t bad, just super bland.

 

Chicken Noodle Casserole

Posted in Casseroles, Recipes by

I made this for dinner last night and it turned out delicious!! So so yummy. At first when I was reading the ingredients, I thought that it would turn out to be a really heavy casserole, but it wasn’t! However, it’s probably  because I used reduced fat ingredients, (the initial instructions called for full fat soups, sour cream, and milk).

You know who even enjoyed it?? Diesel (meet diesel our lab mix!)!!  He jumped on the counter and put his nose in a corner of the casserole.  Bad, bad dog!! I had to throw out half of it because of him. No worries, he had his tail between his legs and ears tucked down once he saw that mama wasn’t happy.


Enjoy!! And let me know how it turns out 🙂

Ingredients:

  • 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
  • 6 ounces cooked egg noodles
  • 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed fat-free cream of mushroom soup
  • 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed fat-free cream of chicken soup
  • 3/4 cup light sour cream
  • 1/2 cup of skim milk
  • salt to taste
  • ground black pepper to taste
  • 1.5 cups crumbled buttery round crackers ( I used Ritz crackers)
  • 1.5 tablespoons margarine
  • Vegetables of your choice (I used what I had in my fridge – carrots and mushrooms!)
  1. Poach chicken in a large pot of simmering water. Cook until no longer pink in center, about 12 minutes. Remove from pot and set aside. Bring chicken cooking water to a boil and cook pasta in it. Drain. Cut chicken into small pieces, and mix with cooked noodles.
  2. In a separate bowl, mix together mushroom soup, chicken soup, sour cream, and milk. Add vegetables of your choice.  Season with salt and pepper. Gently stir together cream soup mixture with the chicken and pasta mixture. Place in a 2 quart baking dish.
  3. Melt margarin in a small saucepan, and remove from heat. Stir in crumbled crackers. Top casserole with the buttery crackers.
  4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 30 -45 minutes, until heated through and browned on top.