Need A Use For Leftover Pasta? Try Baked Ziti

Baked Rigatoni

I think I might be becoming semi-obsessive with my tomato plants and their well being. This all started with my oldest insistent that we plant heirlooms this year. I agreed, it would be fun. Fun, hmmm. It has been fun, it also can drive a person crazy. See I tend to lean towards slightly overboard with most projects. I like things to be perfect and right. My son was at my in-laws for the last two weeks so I was excited that his tomatoes would be almost ripe by the time he got back. Then we had a nasty streak of hot and humid weather. I watered the tomatoes like I always do, but one of the plants just wasn't happy. After reading information online, a call to an extension agent and many conversations with friends that grow tomatoes I'm happy to say that his tomatoes are beautiful once again. As for me I think the tomatoes are becoming like another pet, a lot of work with an occasional reward. I hope it will be worth it the end, tomatoes and summer just seem to go hand in hand. This week to welcome my oldest back home I made comfort food. I tried a new recipe for Baked Ziti from the Food Network.

This recipe has 7 ingredients in the ziti and 9 ingredients in the sauce. It takes 50 minutes of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 6 to 8 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First I used leftover frozen rigatoni pasta that I had made previously. I allowed it to defrost and then followed the rest of the recipe. Instead of Italian sausage I used ground roast chuck that I ground myself. I substituted the exact same amounts as in the original recipe. Since ground beef can be more watery than Italian sausage I allowed the sauce to cook down longer until it was nice and thick. After I put the baked ziti together in a casserole dish I allowed it to sit in the fridge for 4 hours to allow the flavors to soak into the pasta.

I served this recipe when my in-laws were over for dinner. Since I couldn't try the recipe myself I relied on everyone else to voice their opinions. My youngest son fell in love with this dish and told me it was his favorite pasta dish. The opinions expressed by my in-laws were similar. Overall, it was a nice way to use leftover pasta and a recipe I would make again. 

For the recipe go to Baked Ziti.

Recipe for Tuscan Turkey Burgers with Fresh Basil

Tuscan Turkey Burgers with Fresh Basil and Tomatoes

I was so happy that tonight I was able to use fresh herbs from my herb garden for my dinner recipe. My herbs are doing better than I expected and will save me so much money this summer. Growing my own basil is one way that I know that I will save money since I use basil at least once a week for dinner. The herbs available at the grocery store are over priced and start to brown by the time I am able to use them. Being able to just go out and cut the amount that I need is so nice. Plus the flavor is noticeably better than store bought. One food I love adding fresh basil to is burgers. It can take a regular burger from ordinary to something memorable. Last week I tried a new recipe for Tuscan Turkey Burgers from Redbook magazine.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, 10 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First since I eat gluten free I made gluten free biscuits and then made bread crumbs in my food processor. I also used my indoor grill to cook the burgers, which helped to reduce the fat without reducing the flavor. For my serving I ate the burger between two gluten free biscuits, for the rest of my family I made homemade hamburger buns.

These burgers have a tendency to crumble when you try to flip them over so be careful. I actually waited until the next day to take the photo. After sitting in the fridge the burgers were much firmer and easier to deal with. It might be a good idea to place the burgers in the fridge to firm before cooking them. I thought these burgers were great without lettuce so if you are unable to find Boston lettuce you can leave it out. Overall these burgers turned out very moist and were enjoyed by my whole family.

For the recipe go to Tuscan Turkey Burgers.

Recipe for Spicy Chipotle Burgers with Chipotle Sour Cream

Spicy Chipotle Burgers with Chipotle Sour Cream

I am happy to report that my herb garden has taken off. This year I finally gave in and decided that I would grow my own herbs instead of relying on store bought. I tried a herb garden once before I had kids and it didn't go well. Our yard didn't have enough sun light during the day and I was horrible about remembering to water. Luckily now that I am older I love gardening and have had great success. This year my oldest son and I decided that we would grow tomatoes and four types of herbs. They are doing very well so far and I am excited to be able to use foods from my garden in my cooking. Until my tomatoes are ready to eat I have still been using store bought, especially since we eat a lot of burgers. Last week I tried a new recipe for Spicy Chipotle Burgers from the June 2013 issue of Family Circle magazine.

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 25 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 8 servings. I only made a few changes to the original recipe. First I made my own hamburger buns. Homemade buns have much better flavor and they are easier to make than you would think. Here are two links to the hamburger buns that I make 40 Minute Hamburger Buns and Homemade Sesame Buns. I used an indoor electric grill to make the burgers so my total grilling time was slightly longer than the recipe suggested. Finally I chose not to grill the buns. Since I use homemade buns and they are always baked the same day I don't see the need to grill my buns.

My husband and I really enjoyed these burgers. They were one of the best burgers that I have eaten or made in a while. I really liked the chipotle sour cream, it was a great addition to the burger recipe and cooled down the spiciness of the burger. If you want to cut down on the amount of fat you could try using ground beef with a lower fat content. With 25 grams of protein this is a filling recipe that is also easy to prepare making it a perfect summer grilling option.

For the recipe go to Spicy Chipotle Burgers. (registration required)

Bucatini with Olive Caper Sauce Recipe

Bucatini with Olive Caper Sauce

My oldest has two weeks of school left. To say that he is ready to be done would be understatement. Getting him to be motivated to actually go to the bus in the morning has not been easy. He has also been very food picky. It might have a lot to do with the fact that he lost his first tooth this week and the new tooth coming in his been causing him discomfort. Due to all the activity in our household I have been trying to make quick and easy meals. Earlier this week I tried a new recipe for Bucatini with Olive Caper Sauce from the May 2013 issue of the Food Network Magazine.

Gluten Free Bucatini with Olive Caper Sauce

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes 25 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. Since I eat gluten free, but the rest of my family does not, I made two versions of this recipe. For the tomato mixture I used kalamata olives, unrinsed capers (we prefer the taste of the salt) and roma tomatoes. I divided the mixture between the regular spaghetti for my family and gluten free spiral pasta for me. Make sure to serve the dish soon after you add the mozzarella, if you wait it will melt and turn into a big cheese clump.

The flavors in this recipe are great. My two boys loved the olives and capers and dividing the tomato mixture worked out well. Not rinsing the capers gave the pasta a nice salty flavor, which I really liked. The sauce would work with variety of pasta types in case you aren't a fan of spaghetti or bucatini.

For the recipe go to Bucatini with Olive Caper Sauce.

Recipe for Chicken Burgers with Mozzarella and Homemade Hamburger Buns

Chicken Burgers with Mozzarella and Homemade Hamburger Buns

Next week is a freezer week for my household. Once a month we eat out of our freezer. Many of the meals that I make during the week make more leftovers than we can eat for lunches the next day so I freeze them for meals later in the month. I normally wait at least three weeks in between leftover meals. That way my kids have forgotten the first meal and it doesn't feel like we are always eating the same recipes. My taste buds get bored easily according to my husband. I literally make a meal once and then rarely make it every again. Without leftovers we would have very few repeat meals. I know some of my boredom with repeat meals comes from being very poor growing up and literally eating the same meal every week. My mother was a great cook, but there were only so many things that can be done with food bank items. Luckily my kids have never had to have the experience of bare shelves and if anything they have my bored taste buds. However, I also have my mother's frugal ways so we clear out our pantry and freezer once a month to ensure that food isn't wasted. Last week I had a number of packages of frozen meat to utilize. Since I had a bunch of frozen ground chicken I tried a new recipe for Chicken Burgers from the March issue of All You magazine.

Gluten Free Chicken Burgers with Mozzarella

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 40 minutes of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. I only made a few modifications to this recipe. I made two versions as I normally do, one gluten free and one regular. For the regular version of the recipe I made homemade hamburger buns. My onion and pepper mixture only took 5 minutes to fully soften, any longer and they would have gotten overly browned. For the gluten free version I used gluten free bread instead of a bun. I made my own BBQ sauce since many BBQ sauces have wheat, plus homemade tastes better.

My two boys really enjoyed these chicken burgers. I would suggest a few changes. I found that the burgers were a little greasy being cooked in the oven. Instead of cooking them in the oven I would grill them on an indoor or outdoor grill. Additionally, I would just use BBQ sauce instead of the mayo BBQ sauce combination. Finally, the cheese on the inside made the burgers too greasy, I would suggest using real mozzarella sliced on top of the burger. This would cut down on the grease and still retain the flavors.

For the recipe go to Chicken Burgers.

Easy Baked Ziti with Pumpkin, Spinach and Chicken Sausage

I absolutely love pumpkin. There is something so comforting and relaxing about baking and cooking with winter squash, especially pumpkin. While I make pumpkin dishes year round I make a large number of pumpkin recipes during the fall and winter. The cooler months seem to just cry out for pumpkin. Everyone always thinks of pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie, but I love savory dishes that utilize the squash. As I have stated before my family loves pasta. Growing up my mother made pasta multiple times a week and it has been an ingredient that I have loved ever since. My two boys are huge pasta eaters and will eat spaghetti tossed with olive oil as a snack. Combining pasta and pumpkin is something I love to do. A couple of weeks back I tried a new recipe for Baked Ziti with Pumpkin and Sausage from Libby's Pumpkin.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 45 minutes of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 12 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and I made no ingredient modifications. Since I eat gluten free I used gluten free penne and gluten free all-purpose flour. I am not a huge fan of reduced fat mozzarella and always buy fresh mozzarella so I used full fat fresh mozzarella instead of the shredded suggest by the recipe. I prefer fresh mozzarella, the taste is superior to shredded. I found that it was hard to have enough pasta to spread across the pan when layering. Don't worry though once it is baked it works fine. I actually added the mozzarella cheese at the beginning of the cooking time and then the Parmesan cheese the last five minutes. I preferred this method since it allowed the fresh mozzarella to fully melt.

If you like your pasta with a kick I would suggest adding more cayenne. I only added a pinch as suggested and I felt that it needed a little more flavor. I would add 1/8 of a teaspoon of cayenne or 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper if you like spicy foods. My husband was pleased that the recipe made the gluten free pasta not noticeable. He eats gluten free at dinner with me, but gluten free pasta he often finds lack luster. This dish was nice since it masked the taste of the gluten free pasta and the flavor from the pumpkin came out nicely.

For the recipe go to Baked Ziti with Pumpkin and Sausage.

Speedy Baked Ziti

I never realized how hard it can be to raise two boys. When one is happy the other is upset, I clean up a mess and they re-do it worse than it was before. The worst of our battles is always around food. My oldest loves cheese and would be happy to eat it with every meal. On the other hand my youngest has decided he won't eat cheese at all unless it's in a recipe. Recently, I have cut out baked good as snacks and my kids have been less than happy. In the last week they have told me that they hate me numerous times due to not having cookies, bread and cake. However, my youngest has discovered that he loves food that he has never tried before such as quinoa and brown rice flour pancakes. If they still were eating all the snacks they would never have discovered all the new healthy foods that they love. One thing that I have not cut out of their diet is pasta. They absolutely love pasta and will eat their whole plates clean when I serve it for a meal. A couple of weeks back I tried a new recipe for Speedy Baked Ziti from the February issue of Food and Wine Magazine, which looked easy and perfect for my picky children.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 45 minutes of total time and makes 8 serving. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and made no ingredient modifications. I chose to use Rao's brand tomato sauce for the marinara. It really is a high quality tomato sauce and now that it is available at Wal-mart the price is reasonable and it is easy to find. As I normally do I ground my own beef chuck. The flavor really is better and the texture has no comparison to store bought. Plus I can chose to have large or small sized grounds. Make sure to let the ziti rest before serving. Otherwise it will fall apart and not come out of the dish completely.

My two boys really enjoyed this recipe. It was mild enough to be child friendly, while still having enough flavor for my husband and I. Since the recipe uses jarred pasta sauce you can change the taste to suit your needs, which makes the dish very versatile. Overall, this is a very easy and child friendly recipe which I will make again in the future.

For the recipe go to Speedy Baked Ziti.

Tomato, Basil, and Mozzarella Tart

Thanks to a number of generous friends this summer I have received pounds and pounds of fresh vegetables. I have made a number of dishes using squash and cucumbers and now it was time to make a recipe with fresh tomatoes. Recently, I have seen a number of food programs making tomato tarts, so I figured I would make my own version,

This recipe went together very quickly. I sliced about 10 Roma tomatoes, tore 8 ounces of fresh mozzarella into pieces, and diced about two cloves of garlic. I added the garlic to a small bowl of olive oil and proceeded to brush 7 pieces of phyllo dough, which I then stacked on top of one another. I should note that the phyllo dough that I used was thin sheets, if you use the traditional thick sheet puff pastry dough (such as Pepperidge Farm) you would need 1/2 of a package (one sleeve) or the amount that satisfies your needs. Then I scattered about 6 ounces of the cheese and laid the sliced tomatoes on top. Finally, I added the last 2 ounces of cheese and a couple of tablespoons of fresh chopped basil. I put the tart into the oven for around 20 minutes at 400 degrees*.

Everyone in my house was impressed with this tart. I served this dish for breakfast and it was a great, fresh way to start the day. My two boys liked it enough that they ate the leftovers for lunch the next day. This tart is a great way to use fresh tomatoes and has a great, light taste.

*I originally posted the temp as 350, but going back over my notes it was 400, sorry for the confusion!