John Mazetti - Maternal Family Recipe

Since I have received requests from people for frozen dinners before baby arrivals, I thought this one was perfect. And can easily be made gluten free.

John Mazetti
1 lb. Ground Beef (Have thought about using ground turkey, but have not tried it yet.)
1/3 lb. bacon – i have switched to Turkey Bacon before and it tastes fine.
2 med chopped onions
28 oz diced tomatoes (Nick prefers petite diced)
8 oz med noodles
dash of salt and pepper
1/3 lb. cheddar cheese (I never measure it…just enough to cover the entire top layer of the pan you are using)

Begin boiling water for noodles. Brown bacon and drain. Cut up bacon into small pieces and set aside. Add noodles to boiling water. Brown beef in bacon fat (I don’t always do this due to health reasons) and add onions. Add seasoning, tomatoes, and bacon. Stir. Drain noodles and add to mixture. Place in dish and add grated cheese. (You can do one 9 by 13 pan or 2 smaller ones. If you do the smaller ones you can freeze one for later and have one for dinner tonight!)
Bake uncovered at 350 for 45 minutes.

Feta Chicken

I tend to have lots of chicken breast in the house. I found this recipe at allrecipes.com...

Feta Chicken Recipe

I did a horrible job of "pounding"...but it still rolled up ok. Plus i only had a rolling pin. I only used regular feta cheese and added some garlic salt and basil to the breast before I put the feta cheese on it. During the last 10 min I added mozzarella cheese and a tomato. Oh and I only used regular bread crumbs.

Nick and I enjoyed it! Hope you will too!!!

Pistachio crusted chicken tenders

This was an amazing recipie and so super quick and easy! the honey mustard gave it a hint of sweet. My family loved it, and it's definetly going on my monthly menu rotation.

-Preheat oven to 500 degrees
- Mix 1 C. chopped pistachios and 1/2 C. bread crumbs
- In separate bowl mix: 2 tbsp dijon, 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp honey, salt and pepper to taste

Dip raw chicken into honey dijon mixture to coat then coat with dry mixture. Turn oven down to 375 and put chicken on greased cookie sheet. Cook 20 minutes or until golden brown.

I thought this would be an especially great recipie for you, Melissa, because you always seem to have an abundance of Pistachios...which is where we get ours from!! Enjoy, everyone!

Update: Last night I (finally) tried Cassidy's Apricot Glazed chicken recipie (and french dressing) over stir fry veggies and rice, and it was AMAZING! Almost like a sweet and sour type of sauce. Ya'll should definetly try it!

Freezer meals for after baby's arrival!

Yay for babies! I love babies! But they keep us busy that's for sure. Especially after baby number two arrives (or more), who has time to make gourmet meals? So, here are some simple, delicious recipes to cook ahead of time before that little peanut rocks your world!

Meatloaf

1 lb. ground pork

1 lb. ground beef

1 egg

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 small onion (chopped)

1/4 cup ketchup

Salt and pepper

Mix all of the above ingredients together with your hands. Yeah that's right, get them in that cool, slimy mixture and blend all of the ingredients together. Make sure you take your wedding ring off! Place in a loaf pan and top with more ketchup or Barbecue Sauce.

Bake at 325 for about 60 minutes.

You can either cook this ahead of time, let it cool, and then freeze it. Or shape it into a meatloaf shape, freeze it, and cook as usual.

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Sweet and Sour Meatballs

1 egg

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 lb. ground beef

salt and pepper

1 1/4 cups water

2 Tbs. cornstarch

1/2 cup Teriyaki sauce

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup ketchup

1 Tbsp. minced garlic

1/4 crushed pineapple

1/2 brown sugar

2 Tbsp. olive oil

In a large bowl combine eggs, bread crumbs, ground beef, and salt and pepper. Form into meatballs.

Whisk together water and cornstarch. Add the Teriyaki sauce, vinegar, ketchup, garlic, pineapple, and brown sugar. Heat on stove top over medium-high heat.

Heat olive oil in pan, add meatballs. Brown on all sides. Then add to sauce, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve with rice or egg noodles.

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Blueberry muffins

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups frozen blueberries, unthawed
• TOPPING:
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 
  

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. I like to sift these ingredients, but for time purposes it's not necessary.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, milk and vanilla.

Stir in dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in frozen blueberries. You may not need to use all of the blueberries. Add as much as you want. Do not overmix.

Fill a muffin tin with the batter. Combine sugar and nutmeg; sprinkle over muffins.

Bake at 375 for about 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes

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Cranberry-Orange Loaf

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 Tbs. grated orange zest

1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

1/2 cup pecans

1/4 butter

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

3/4 cup orange juice

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease and flour a loaf pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir in orange zest, cranberries nand pecans. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar, and egg. Stir in orange juice. Beat in flour mixture until just moistened. Pour into pan.

Bake for 1 hour, or until the bread springs back when touched.

Let stand for 10 minutes in the pan, and turn onto a wire rack.

Optional: I mix up an orange juice and powdered sugar glaze on the stove top and drizzle it over the loaf before removing it from the pan.

The Baby Train's A Comin'!!

A few of us are due to have babies in the next couple of months, and I was wondering if anyone has any good recipie ideas for freezable foods? Rachael Cornelsen and I are wanting to stock our freezer ahead of time to make the transition a bit easier, but i'm having a hard time coming up with ideas other than spaghetti sauce and lasagna. Let me know if any of you have any good ideas, and prefereably the recipies would not contain copious amounts of dairy, broccoli and other foods that give newborns gas:) Thanks guys!!