It almost seems silly to even call this a recipe. It’s basically a “cook some noodles in spaghetti sauce, add meat, top with cheese” kind of idea. Goulash in a casserole dish. Spaghetti with different noodles and turned into a casserole. Ah, but instead of letting you know all of that, I’ll act like it’s a fancy dish called…Italian Pasta Bake.

You’re impressed, aren’t you?

Ah well…simple recipes are what I do best. They’re what my family likes best and they’re easy to make. This recipe also freezes well and is easy to make for company.

Italian Pasta BakeYum

1 pound ground beef or turkey
1/4 cup chopped onion or 3 Tablespoons dry minced onion
4 cups tomato sauce
2 cups water
2 Tablespoons basil
1 Tablespoon oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder or one clove fresh garlic
Sea salt to taste
10 ounces whole wheat pasta, any shape (we like bionature brand)
2 cups shredded cheese (we use white cheddar, but you can use mozzarella or any combination of your favorite cheeses)

Brown meat and onion together. Meanwhile, bring tomato sauce, water and herbs and spices to a boil. Stir in pasta and boil until tender. Do not drain. The pasta should have absorbed the liquid! Mix in cooked meat. Salt as desired. Spread mixture into a 9×13 casserole dish and top with cheese. Bake uncovered at 350° for 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and the casserole is heated through and through.

So, do you have a favorite pasta shape?  I think picking the shape of pasta for our dinner is kinda fun. Penne, Fusilli, Rotini, even good ol’ Elbow.

Ah the joy of picking pasta shapes. Am I the only one who thinks this is fun?

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You know how I sometimes almost forget to put the bananas in my banana bread? It probably goes without saying, but I think I may have issues, because sometimes I almost forget the chicken in my Chicken Noodle Soup. It’s an easy mistake, I think. (nod and smile)  I am usually so excited about the rich broth and the yummy homemade noodles that adding the cooked chicken sometimes slips my mind. Either that, or the Nerf bullets whizzing by my nose while I’m cooking temporarily distract me from the task at hand. At least the soup is still good without the chicken (as opposed to bananaless banana bread).

I love making Chicken Noodle Soup no matter what, but I really love the simplicity of it when I have both Chicken Broth and Whole Wheat Homemade Noodles already made…then all I have to do is put it all together into a quick soup. 

Chicken Noodle SoupYum

8 cups Chicken Broth
1 recipe of Whole Wheat Homemade Noodles
3 carrots
Sea salt
2 cups cooked chicken (optional, apparently)

Peel and chop carrots into bites. Place broth and carrots in a large cooking pot. Bring the broth and carrots to a boil. Boil for about five minutes, then add noodles and chicken (if you remember). Salt liberally. Place a lid on the pot and turn the burner down to simmer for about 15 minutes or until your noodles have cooked up fat and tender.

Chicken Noodle Soup tastes fantastic and comforting with a hot,
fresh Whole Wheat Soft Pretzel (on a drizzly fall evening as you sit around the table with your family…)

In a pinch, I have skipped making Whole Wheat Homemade Noodles and just added about three cups of purchased whole wheat pasta to make this soup. It works great and is an awesome quick meal to throw together. (Remember to add chicken.)

You’re welcome to throw other veggies into your soup…whichever veggies your family would enjoy (or the ones you would like to forcefully insist that they eat). You’re also welcome to add herbs and spices beyond sea salt.

Do you make homemade chicken and noodles? What herbs and veggies do you use? Do you ever forget to add the chicken?

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You know how some of your kids like some of your meals some of the time…and all of your kids like some of your meals some of the time and none of your kids like some of your meals some of the time?

And the ones some of them like…the others don’t…and the ones the other ones like the first ones don’t?

But you make them ALL eat it anyway because hello, we are not short-order chefs…but really it’s so much nicer when all of the kids like all of the meals all of the time.

I have discovered a meal that all of my kids like all of the time. 

We call it Sloppy Cornbread.

I came up with this recipe because you know how when you have hamburger buns for your sloppy joes in the house some of the time…but not all of the time when you need them…and you don’t have time some of the times to make homemade buns…and the ones from the store are still at the store? That’s what happened to me one time.

But I really wanted to make sloppy joes and while some of the time we eat them without buns, we don’t do that all of the time and I really needed to fill my family up before a soccer game this time. 

And that’s how we came up with Sloppy Cornbread.

To make Sloppy Cornbread you need:

• This Cornbread Recipe
• This Sloppy Joe Recipe

Spread the sloppy joes out into a 9×13 inch baking pan:

Spread the cornbread mixture over the top then bake for 2o minutes at 400°. (You can sprinkle cheese on top before baking if you want to!)

All of us like this all of the time and some of the time there is some leftover but not all of the time because most of the time we eat the entire pan.

You should try it sometime.

:)

Several of you have requested this Garlic Chicken Pasta recipe when you’ve seen it on my menu plans. I put off posting it because I was still tweaking it. I THINK I’ve got it the way I like it now!

I like this Creamy Mac and Cheese recipe so much that I finally tried using the same method of cooking the pasta in the milk for this new recipe too. Aha! Now I like it.

Garlic Chicken Pasta
Yum
2 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite sized pieces (great way to use up leftover chicken)
1 clove garlic or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (or more if you like lots of garlic)
1-2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 1/2 cups whole wheat pasta
3 cups whole milk
3 Tablespoons butter
1/2 t. sea salt
grated parmesan cheese

In a skillet, saute chicken and garlic in olive oil. Turn to low heat to keep warm. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a big pot with the milk, butter and salt. Stir almost constantly, especially as the pasta is becoming tender and the milk is beginning to boil. Cook and stir over medium heat until pasta is tender and the starch from the pasta has thickened the milk, creating a creamy sauce. Stir in the chicken and serve immediately…sprinkling parmesan cheese on each serving.

To make this recipe into Three Cheese Garlic Chicken Pasta:

Follow recipe as above, except before adding chicken to cooked pasta…remove from heat and add 1/2 cup shredded white cheddar and 3 oz. cream cheese. Stir until cheese has melted…add chicken and serve with parmesan cheese.

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