Chocolate Oat Squares

1 cup plus 2 TB butter, softened, divided
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
4 tsp vanilla, divided
3 cups quick-cooking oats
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt, divided
1 tsp baking soda
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
2 cups (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In mixing bowl, cream 1 cup butter and brown sugar. Beat in eggs and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Combine oats, flour, 1 tsp salt, and baking soda. Stir into creamed mixture. Press 2/3 of the oat mixture into a greased 15 x 10 x 1 inch pan.
In sauce pan, combine s.c. milk, chocolate chips, remaining 2 tsp butter and 1/2 tsp salt. Cook and stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and add 2 tsp vanilla.
Spread over the oat crust. Sprinkle w/ remaining oat mixture. Bake 22 minutes or until golden brown. Cool and cut into squares.
Original recipe came from Taste of Home magazine November 2000 and contained 1 cup chopped walnuts.

Terriyaki Sauce

1/4 C Soy sauce
1 C water
1/4 tsp garlic salt
5 T brown sugar
2 T honey
2 T cornstarch
1/4 C cold water

In a sauce pan combine all but cornstarch and 1/4 c water. Mix cornstarch and cold water in a cup and disolve. Add to sauce in pan. Heat over medium heat stirring often until thickened.

I serve this with stir fry veggies and spaghetti noodles. YUMMY! It's a good dipping sauce too!
Makes about 1 1/2 C.

La Minestra (Minestrone Soup)

1/2 lb bacon

1 whole onion, chopped

1 cup celery, chopped

2 cans (14.5oz) stewed tomatoes

2 cans beef broth (14 oz)

1 can (11.5 oz) tomato juice (or 2 small 6 oz cans)

1 can (150z) Northern (white) beans, Drained

1 can cut green beans, Undrained

3 whole carrots, sliced

2 cups shredded fresh cabbage, not the bagged kind, it gets too stringy.

2 cups water

1/2 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp basil

1/4 tsp oregano

1 cup pasta (shells, farfalle, macaroni, etc)

Cook up the bacon, saving a little grease. Cut it up.

Saute the celery and onion in bacon grease. Add everything to a soup pot, except for the pasta. Bring to a boil, then simmer until veggies are tender. Add pasta and cook until done.

Serve with grated parmesan.

This recipe is from Tasty Kitchen website.

Cheese and Spinach Manicotti

This is a combination of mom's recipe and one on the back of the American Beauty pasta.

1 box Manicotti (the box I bought had 14 pieces)
3/4 C low fat Cottage Cheese
3/4 C low fat Ricotta
2 C Grated Mozzarella (separated)
1/4 C shredded Parmesan
1 10 oz. box frozen Spinach
Tomato Sauce (I used a bottle of Ragu)

Boil the Manicotti noodles about 7 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool. Defrost the spinach and drain of any water. Mix together all the cheeses (leave 1 cup of the mozzarella out) and the spinach.
Fill the manicotti with the cheese mixture put in a 13x9 glass baking dish with a little sauce on the bottom. After you have all the pasta filled and in the pan, pour more tomato sauce on the top and sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of mozzarella on top. Bake 350 for 40-50 minutes until bubbly.


Can't remember where I heard this tip:
It takes a little bit of time to stuff the manicotti, if you are in a hurry just cut the pasta down the side and fill it then roll it back up and put it in the pan with the cut side down to keep it closed. It looks the same you just have to be a little more careful when you dish it up so you don't lose all your filling.


You can freeze this recipe before you bake it. It will keep for 2 months. When you want to cook it just take it out of the freezer put it in at 350 and double the cooking time.

Veggie Lasagna

9 Whole wheat lasagne *

1-2 TB oil (to stir fry the veggies)

2 garlic cloves chopped or pressed

1 crown of broccoli chopped

14 baby carrots chopped

4 medium mushrooms chopped

1/2 onion chopped

1 26.5 oz can spaghetti sauce. We like Hunt's

16 oz cottage cheese

4 oz cheese (mozarella, monterey jack or cheddar)

grated parmesan cheese

1 egg (or 2 egg whites) beaten

salt and pepper to taste

Chop the veggies pretty fine while you're cooking the lasagne. I've noticed the Ronzoni whole wheat noodles taste better. I usually use 9 of them.

Heat oil in large skillet. Add garlic and stir fry for a minute. Add all veggies and stir fry until they're cooked. Add spaghetti sauce and heat through.

Mix cottage cheese with egg, salt and pepper.

Spray 13x9 with cooking spray. Spread a little sauce around in the bottom of the pan. Layer noodles, 1/3 of sauce, 1/3 of cottage cheese, parmesan and 1/3 of grated cheese. Repeat layers 2 more times. Cover with foil. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes. (take off foil for last 5 minutes)

If you assemble this ahead of time and refrigerate, you'll need to bake it at least 45 minutes.

*FYI: Lasagne is the plural of lasagna- as in, the noodle is called a lasagna. More than one is lasagne. But the dish itself is Lasagna.

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers (Mexican Style)

SERVES: 4
2 whole large peppers
2 cups cooked rice
2 TB olive oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
2-3 garlic cloves, diced or pressed
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can sweet corn, drained (or used frozen)
1/2 tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp Chili powder
1 heaping TBS freeze dried cilantro
5 oz Monterey Jack cheese, grated
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 375.
Wash and cut peppers in half. Set aside in greased baking dish.
Mix cooked rice w/ cilantro and most of the cheese.

Heat olive oil and saute onions for 6 minutes, add garlic and stir for 1 more minute. Add beans, corn, cumin, chili powder and tomato sauce. Heat to combine flavors. Stir in rice. Taste and add salt if desired. Fill peppers really full with the mixture. Sprinkle grated cheese on top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes uncovered. (I added a little water in the bottom of the pan.)

I double this recipe for my family. They also like to scoop the filling onto tortilla chips.

Original recipe came from Tasty Kitchen website. I changed some of the seasonings and added tomato sauce. They recommend serving with sour cream, hot sauce and pico de gallo, but I thought it was tastier this way.

Cowboy Caviar

1 can corn, drained

1 can black beans, drained

1 can black-eyed peas, drained

3/4 of an onion, chopped

3-4 medium tomatoes, diced

2 avocados, cubed

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

handful of freeze dried cilantro (or 1/2 - 1 bunch chopped fresh)

1/2 - 3/4 cup Zesty Italian dressing or **

Mix together. Marinate at least 2 hours, better overnight.

Eat with tortilla chips.

**alternative dressing:  2TB lime juice, 1 TB Red Wine Vinegar

Terriyaki Chicken

Terriyaki sauce  ( I use Veri Veri Terriyaki or Kikoman's Terriyaki sauce)
6 chicken breasts.

Line a cookie sheet with foil. Spray it with cooking spray. Pour about 1/2 cup of sauce onto foil and spread it to cover entire pan. Place chicken on pan and drizzle more sauce on top. Wrap tightly with foil and bake at 375 for about 45 min or until chicken is no longer pink.
-Last night I used really thick chicken breasts and it took about an hour.-

Kettle Korn

1/2 cup (unpopped) popcorn
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt

Pop 1/2 cup popcorn in air popper. Set aside in large bowl.
Heat next 3 ingredients in small sauce pan, stirring constantly until boiling.
Boil and stir for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Pour over popcorn. Stir and sprinkle on the salt.

This recipe tastes like kettle corn, but has the consistency of caramel popcorn (just a little gooey). It's the perfect balance of sweet and salty, which is bad, because I can eat the whole bowl.

Lasagna Soup

1 lb ground beef
6 C beef broth
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 C Parmesan cheese
2 1/2 C spiral noodles

In soup pot, brown beef, drain. Add beef broth, garlic clove, diced tomatoes and Italian seasoning. bring to boil and add noodles. Boil for ten minutes. Remove from heat and stir in Parmesan cheese.