Creamy Meat Sauce

The other night, I realized that I had a partial carton of cream left in the fridge from making whipped cream. I wasn't exactly sure what I could do with it, but I did not want it to go to waste.

Looking around in my freezer and pantry, I was able to come up with some ingredients for a creamy meaty pasta sauce. The end result was delectable....even if it wasn't very healthy.....but I won't tell anyone if you won't!

First, I started off by boiling an entire box of pasta. Then, I cooked 2 small onions that had been chopped and 4 minced garlic cloves in some olive oil in a large skillet. Next, I added in a pound of ground beef and cooked it thoroughly, until it was no longer pink.

Next, I added a large can on crushed tomatoes to the meat mixture. I allowed the mixture to come up to a boil and then reduced the heat as low as it could go.  By this time, the pasta was finished, so I drained the water and returned the pasta to the pot. I went back to the sauce and with the heat still on very low, I slowly stirred in a cup of cream. I then poured the sauce on top of the pasta and stirred in about a cup of mozzarella cheese.

This easy and quick meal comes together in less than 30 minutes and makes a rich and tasty meal!

Recipe Recap

1 Tsp olive oil

2 small onions/1 medium onion chopped

4 cloves of garlic minced

1 pound ground beef

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1 cup cream

1 pound pasta cooked

1 cup mozzarella cheese

Cook the onions and garlic in the oil until translucent. Then add the beef to the pan and cook until no longer pink. Add the tomatoes and bring to a boil, reduce the heat to its lowest setting and stir in the cream. Pour the sauce over the cooked pasta, stir in the cheese and serve.

Creative Ways to use up Leftovers

Looking inside my fridge on Tuesday, I realized that I had a lot of Superbowl leftovers. Most of a veggie tray, half a jar of pasta sauce, pepperoni slices and half block of cheese. I hate wasting food, so I decided to figure out a way to use all of this.

The simple first fix was to roast the veggies in a 350 degree oven for about an hour. I just drizzled olive oil over the veggies and tossed on some salt.

 Since the rest of the ingredients had me halfway to pepperoni pizza I decided to pull out some chicken tenders and bread crumbs and make some Pizza Chicken Roll Ups. 

To start I pounded out the chicken tenders and rolled pepperoni and mozzarella into each one.

I rolled each one in bread crumbs, egg wash (one egg and a little water) and then back in the bread crumbs.

The rolls went into a baking dish:

and then I topped the rolls with the rest of the cheese and the pasta sauce.

These went into the 350 degree oven for 35 minutes alongside the carrots. When they came out, they looked like this:

Served with the carrots, this made a pretty tasty dinner and used up the rest of the Superbowl leftovers!

Recap of Recipe:
1/2 block of mozzarella, shredded
6 chicken tenders
1/2 jar of pasta sauce
24 slices of pepperoni
1 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
Leftover veggies
Salt/Olive oil

Pound out the chicken and roll with pepperoni and cheese. Roll in bread crumbs and egg wash, top with more cheese and pasta sauce. Bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees. At the same time, toss the veggies in oil and salt and cook for 60 minutes at 350 degrees.

Pantry and Freezer Leftovers: Rolled Up Lasagna

I love simple recipies that I can build from items that I already have in my freezer and pantry. I also love putting together dishes that use up lots of items that are just sitting around taking up space (thank you Type A personality!!). Today's recipie was the perfect way to use up the half box of lasagna noodles in my pantry and several containers of pasta sauce in my freezer.

Make a batch of these roll ups, you will not be sorry....perfect for a cold winter day, or any day really!

I started off boiling the lasagna noodles in salty water (I always boil noodles in heavily salted water...it should taste like ocean water!!...the pasta will taste better, trust me). I had about half a box left from another recipie that I had tried a few months ago and I had been looking for a way to use them up.



In a large skillet, I cooked an onion until it was translucent. I added two large garlic cloves towards the end of cooking so that they would not get burned (burned garlic does not taste good!).

To this I added a pound of ground beef and cooked it until it wasn't pink anymore and some pasta sauce. I can't tell you exactly how much pasta sauce that I added......I added the entire contents of the container on the right. This is what I do with leftover pasta sauce. When I make sauce from scratch or when I open a jar of pasta sauce I never seem to use it all; so a few months ago I started freezing the leftovers. I seems to find ways to work the sauce into other meals later on.....again a great way to use up leftovers and preventing food from going to waste!

Here is what the mixture looked like when I was done, very thick and yummy. 

While this mixture was cooking I combined the dairy products in a medium mixing bowl. I mixed together a small container of ricotta cheese, 2 eggs, mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese and then added good assortment of spices that I had in my cabinet. 

The mixture looked something like this:

Then the fun part began, here you can see how I assembled each of the roll ups:

After about 5 rolls, I realized that it would be much faster if I made an assembly line, learn from my mistake, save yourself some time!

It was about this time that I realized I had forgotten to add the package of frozen spinach to the meat mixture. So I added it on top of the rolls:

You can add it to the meat mixture or on top of the rolls, whatever makes you happy....

At this point I topped the rolls with more of my leftover pasta sauce, the rest of the mozzeralla and Parmesan cheese and some bread crumbs.

Then they went into the oven for about 30 minutes at 375 (covered in foil....I forgot to take a picture of this), but this was really just to heat and melt the cheese mixture. When they came out they looked like this:

and I served them up like this:

Delicious!!

Here is a wrap up of the ingredients:
8-10 lasagna noodles
1 medium onion diced
2 cloves of garlic diced
1 lb ground beef
4 cups pasta sauce
2 cups ricotta
2 cups shreded mozzerella cheese
2 cups parmesean cheese
2 Tbs basil
1 Tbs oregano
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic power
1 package frozen spinach
Salt and Pepper to taste