Tag Archives: Pasta

Layered Zucchini Parmesan

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I have to say, zucchini has shocked me. I never fully appreciated zucchini until recently.

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Zucchini is an awesome and super beneficial vegetable that is low in calories, aids in digestion, maintains low blood sugar, curbs overeating, provides fiber for your diet, has plenty of vitamins A and C which act as powerful antioxidants, and provides you with loads of potassium. Zucchini can be easily “sneaked” into baked breads and whatnot, aaaand it also tastes great in savory dishes like the one I’m sharing with you all today.

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You will fall in love with this zucchini parmesan. You’re going to want to make a big dish of this if you are serving it for your family. It is a good idea to double the recipe if you are planning on serving this as a meal with a salad and bread. We ate this as a side with ravioli and bread, but I will for sure enjoy it again in the future as the main dish, doubling the recipe.

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Remember, when you double the recipe, you need to double the baking time!

Layered Zucchini Parmesan

(as a side, serves 3)

1 1/2 medium zucchinis

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1/2 cup colby jack cheese

1/4 cup italian seasoned bread crumbs

3/4 cup pasta sauce

olive oil

cooking spray

salt

pepper

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Spray a cooking sheet with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
  2. Slice zucchinis into about 1/3 inch slices, try your best to make them uniform size. Place slices in a medium size bowl and lightly coat with about 1 Tablespoon olive oil. Set aside
  3. In a medium-small bowl, mix together bread crumbs and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste (about 1 teaspoon each is good)
  4. Coat zucchini slices in breadcrumb mixtures, then lay flat on sprayed cooking sheet. Coat all zucchini slices, and once all of them are placed on cooking sheet, bake in preheated oven for about 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Watch carefully and be sure they don’t burn!
  5. Remove zucchini slices from oven, and set aside to cool for a few minutes. Meanwhile, coat the bottom of a baking dish, I used a round casserole dish (about 8 inches in diameter) with a layer of pasta sauce. Next, lay a layer of the baked zucchini slices on top of the pasta sauce, use about half of them. Then layer a mixture of the colby jack and parmesan cheese on top of the zucchini slices. Layer again with pasta sauce, then zucchini, then cheese, until everything is used up. You should end with a layer of cheese on top. At this point, you may cover the dish and place it in the fridge to bake the next day, or you may bake it now if you plan on eating it right away.
  6. Heat oven to 400 degrees F and bake uncovered dish for about 8-10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling. Let sit for about 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

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Random Fact of the Day: 7-11 sells 10,000 pots of coffee an hour, every hour, every day.

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Healthy Start to the New Year

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So many people always make that “I’m gonna be healthier this year” New Year’s resolution, so I thought I’d give y’all a little push in the right direction, because we all know I will be posting many cookie, cupcakes, and brownie recipes soon. So here are some recipes on more of the health[ier] side.

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1. Lighter Cajun Chicken Pasta

2. BL(S)T Pasta Salad

3. Spinach Lasagna Roll-Ups

4. Veggie Lasagna

5. Healthy Pumpkin Streusel Bread

6. Healthy Baby Pumpkin Breads

7. Super Secret Cookie Dough

8. Fiesta Quinoa Salad

9. Low-Fat Banana Bread

10. One-Ingredient Creamy Dreamy Ice Cream

11. High Protein Energy Balls

12. Mexican Flair Wraps

13. Broccoli Cheddar Soup

14. Triple Chocolate Black Bean Brownies

15. Southwest Chicken Salad

Random Fact of the Day: Israel’s Dead Sea is 1,312 feet below sea level.

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Popeye’s Pasta

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I’ve realized it has been quite a while since I shared a non-dessert recipe! I’m not sure if I even want to know what you guys think of my eating habits. I swear I’m not addicted to sugar and butter! (at least that I know of)

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So to give you a break from all the sweets, I’m sharing with you all one of my absolute favorite pasta dinner dishes. I have used many different types of noodles for this. Penne, fusilli, farfelle, are all great, basically whatever floats your boat.

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One of my favorite combinations in savory dishes is parmesan cheese, spinach, and bacon and this pasta dish combines all of those!

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This is one of those easy and quick to prepare dinners that really satisfies and is comforting and warming in this winter season. So when you want to take a break from all the cookies and cupcakes, fix up yourself a nice dish of popeye’s pasta.

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Wondering why it’s called Popeye‘s Pasta? Click here! :)

Popeye’s Pasta

1 box pasta

1/4 cup unsalted butte or margarine

2/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 (9 oz.) bag of spinach

1/4 cup bacon bits

  1. Prepare pasta as directed on box, drain, place pasta back into large pot. Add butter (or margarine), cheese, spinach, and bacon bits to pasta. Mix and stir over the lowest heat until cheese is melted, spinach is wilted, and everything is thoroughly combined. Serve and enjoy!

Random Fact of the Day: There are 92 known cases of nuclear bombs lost at sea.

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And the winner is…

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After using a random number generator that I have heard good things about from other blogs, the lucky winner was the 5th comment…

The  lucky winner is Cathy from the Reinvented Lass! Congratulations Cathy!! I hope you enjoy your new cutting board, apron, eco-friendly kitchen towel, and coupons for free Buitoni pasta! I have already e-mailed you, letting you know about your lucky day :-)

Thank you all for your entries, this was super fun hosting my first giveaway and I can’t wait to do another!

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National Men Make Dinner Day and my first GIVEAWAY!!

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So I’ve got something pretty fun to share with you all..!

I think all you women out there will like this one.

I was recently contacted by the lovely Faith from MSLGROUP about a holiday, “National Men Make Dinner Day“, which day [shockingly] dedicated to the fact that men should make dinner. Now in my house when my dad is assigned to dinner duty, it usually consists of one of the following three options: cereal, scrambled eggs prepared microwave style (ew, just don’t even ask…maybe for another post), or something on the grill. He has been known to grill in the dead middle of winter, which is not exactly the most mild of times around here in Chicagoland.

Today (November 1st) is the big special day! Now I know that this post is being posted a bit later than what I normally do (ahem…give or take 14 hours later..) BUT it is a Thursday and I don’t normally post on Thursdays..so that is my excuse. And I am sticking with that. Glad we had this chat.

Moving forward, there is a Facebook page that is running a contest for National Men Make Dinner Day that will be going on through November 4th, so get your booty on over to the Facebook page (Click HERE!). The contest is being run through Buitoni, which if you haven’t heard of them, they make fabulous pastas and sauces (my family buys their stuff all the time), and to enter the Facebook contest you need to visit the Contest Entry Page and upload a video (I know..slightly intimidating, but just wait till you see the grand prize!) showcasing a guy’s ability to turn an ordinary meal into an extraordinary one with Buitoni pastas and sauces. After the contest has ended (November 5), fans can vote for their favorite videos! The Grand Prize winner receives $10,000 and a year’s supply of Buitoni pastas and sauces!!! 

Now on to the giveaway just from me! :-) I’m so excited about this, you guys seriously have no idea. I LOVE being able to give stuff away!! Especially because I have always wanted to come up with some way to thank all of you readers for your sweet comments and love but somehow sending boxes of cookies to each and everyone of you seems a little too tricky. So here we go! Buitoni has provided me with an apron, cutting board, towel, and a bunch of Buitoni coupons to send along to the lucky winner! I know that we go through kitchen towels very quickly in our house, so I’m sure all of these handy tools will be of good use in any/all of your homes, as well!

To enter, I’m going to keep it very simple! NOTE: this does NOT enter you into the $10,000 giveaway, you must post a video on the page for that. The contest on my blog will be closing in one from today, so the last day to enter is November 8. Winner will be announced on November 10th.

  • Post a comment (anything you like, what you would like a man to make you for dinner (lasagna puh-lease!), what man you like to make you dinner- um Ryan Gosling please?, your favorite color, the current temperature, whatever floats your boat sailors!) and you are officially entered into MY giveaway!

For additional entries you may leave additional comments that you have:

I hope you all enter and are a big part of my first giveaway! Make sure if you post a video, you comment so that you can get and extra entry into the contest AND you will get more votes to help you win the BIG MONEY MONEY MONEY from Buitoni!!!!

Random Facts of the Day (Courtesy of Buitoni): 92% of girls say they like guys who can cook and 61% say they wish their guy cooked more often.

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