Chicken Alfredo Lasagna

 I'm posting this specifically for my dad who liked this lasagna a lot!  This recipe comes from the All Recipes cooking website where it was shared by a Sybil Gregory. . . Kudos to this chef.  She did an amazing job creating this recipe.  It's delicious!

Ingredients

1 (16 ounce) package lasagna noodles
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach
3 cooked, boneless chicken breast halves, diced or shredded
32 ounces Alfredo Sauce
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2 pints ricotta cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain. 
2. Cook spinach according to package directions; drain.
3. In a medium bowl, combine chicken and one jar of alfredo sauce, stir together. 
4. In a separate bowl, combine ricotta and drained, cooked spinach, and stir.
5. In a 9 x 13 baking dish, place one layer of lasagna noodles, edges overlapping. Pour chicken and alfredo sauce mixture over noodle layer and spread evenly. Sprinkle 1 cup of shredded mozzarella over chicken mixture. Top with another layer of noodles. Spread spinach mixture evenly over noodles. Pour 1/2 of remaining jar of alfredo sauce over spinach mixture, spread evenly. Sprinkle another cup of mozzarella over sauce, lay on the final noodle layer and top with remaining 2 cups of mozzarella and salt and pepper to taste. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, until top is brown and bubbly. 

 

Note: If I'm making a batch for a large crowd I'll make this in an even bigger pan and then do an extra layer or two of noodles and sauce and cheese which would mean you'd need an extra jar of sauce and more cheese!

Chocolate Creme Oreos Cheesecake

The first time I had this cheesecake was when my mom made it for my birthday when I turned 20, it's amazingly rich.  This is a cheesecake loaded with Oreos (on top of an Oreo crust) and is the perfect gift for an Oreo or chocolate lover!  I made this cheesecake as a reward for the man who won the pie-eating contest at our church carnival, the original prize was a pie of his choice whenever he wanted.  His wife connected with me and asked if I'd be willing to switch it out for a cheesecake.  Her sister was going to be home on leave from Afghanistan and would be visiting them.  I knew I had the perfect cheesecake because I had sent care packages that had cookies n' cream candy bars that were always a hit. 

Ingredients:
15 crushed Oreos
2 Tbs butter melted

4 (8oz) packages of cream cheese softened
1 c sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs

1 8oz semi-sweet baking squares melted

20 chopped oreos

Make the crust mixing the melted butter and crushed Oreos together.  Press into 9 in Springform pan.
Make the filling by mixing cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, eggs until well blended. 
Stir in chopped Oreos.
While mixer is running pour in melted chocolate.  Make sure to scrape bottom and sides.
Pour over crust.  Bake for 65 minutes at 325. 
Cool then refrigerate overnight before serving.
You may garnish with whipped cream, Oreos, or mint.

Finished product sans garnishing (whipped cream, oreos, or mint leaves)

Beef Stroganoff

I've got a love hate relationship with comfort food. I love it, I love to eat it even in summer but I hate to make it in the summer because it heats my house up!  Thankfully after living in 6 places in 8 years of marriage our current home has air condition (thank you God- today was 94 with high humidity)! This recipe is a winner since it's made in the crock pot so it saves time around dinner time and you don't have the oven on for long periods of time!  It is also amazingly delicious and only has a few ingredients.  In the past I've made Beef Stroganoff with ground beef but this recipe used stew beef, which literally fell apart when you ate it.  The other plus is that Fig loves egg noodles and though you can eat this with mashed potatoes or rice we normally eat it with egg noodles!

Ingredients
2 lbs stew beef
1 can cream of mushroom soup
3/4 c. water
1 pkg dry onion soup mix
1/2c.- 3/4 c. sour cream
6 c. hot cooked egg noodles

Combine all ingredients except sour cream in crock pot.
Heat on low for 7-8 hours.
Mix in sour cream right before serving.
Serve over egg noodles.

Candy Cereal Treats

This is the Wiik of Wii for the High School youth group.  Since this is officially Mario Brothers Monday students were invited to show up between 7-10 to hang out and play video games.  I am trying to make a variety of things so that by the end of the week we can just have the "leftovers" if there are any!  These sounded great and I liked that the oven only needed to be on for a brief time.  The cookie bottom and crispy, sweet, salty top just seemed too good to pass up!

Ingredients
1/2 c. butter softened
2/3 c. packed brown sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3 c. miniature marshmallows

Topping:
2/3 c. corn syrup
1/4c. butter
1 (10 oz) pkg peanut butter chips
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 c. Rice Krispies
1 c. salted peanuts
1 c. plain M&Ms

In mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar.
Beat in yolks and vanilla.
Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda; gradually add it to the mixture until it's coarse crumbs.  Don't overmix.
Press into a greased 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for 12- 14 minutes or until golden brown.
Sprinkle with the marshmallows and bake 2-3 minutes longer until puffed.
Cool on wire rack.
For topping, combine syrup, butter and chips in saucepan, cook and stir over medium heat until smooth.
Remove from heat and stir in vanilla, cereal, nuts and M&Ms.  Spread over crust.
Cool before serving.
Makes: 2 Dozen

Note: A few of my M&Ms cracked or broke in half because they were warm when I was spreading the topping so it doesn't look as nice as it could.  I think next time I'll do a better job pouring the topping evenly over the cookie crust so it doesn't need too much spreading.