In the Kitchen

This week I’d love to share with you a favorite family recipe of mine, for Manicotti. This version however may not be preferred by true Italians, because instead of a traditional cheese filling with Ricotta, and maybe an egg to hold it together, my family’s version has a meat filling with ground beef, cottage cheese, and the “zip” of Miracle Whip.

This version would make for a full package of Manicotti noodles, enough to feed 8 people. You could freeze half for a tasty meal without the work.

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg Manicotti noodles
• 1 ½ # ground beef
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup Miracle Whip
• 1 ½ cups shredded mozzerella
• 1 jar spaghetti sauce (my favorite is tomato & basil)

Easy peazy directions:

Brown ground beef with garlic powder. While that’s going on, boil noodles on med-high for 7 minutes to al dente, then drain. Drain ground beef. Mix ground beef with cottage cheese, Miracle Whip and mozzerella. Using teaspoon, stuff mixture into noodles until full, place in greased 9″x13″ baking dish. Top with spaghetti sauce. Cook at 350° for 20 minutes.

Step 1: Brown ground beef with garlic powder.

Step 2: Boil noodles on med-high for 7 minutes to al dente. Loosely translated, this means “not-so-squishy”.

Step 3: After draining ground beef, mix with cottage cheese, Miracle Whip and mozzerella. May not look so pretty, but boy will it be delish!

Step 4: After draining noodles, stuff mixture into noodles with teaspoon until full.

Step 5: Place in greased 9″x13″ baking dish. Top with spaghetti sauce (and oregano if you like). Cook at 350° for 20 minutes.

Be sure to check out more of my kid-friendly and family favorite recipes!

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You may know that I contribute a weekly “Saturdays at Home” article for my friend Beth’s blog, In Good Cents. This was last week’s post, and I fully intended to publish it on Chaos Is Bliss as well, but completely forgot!  Oh well, I still wish you a Happy Easter even though I’m a week late.

As a side note … I did prepare this recipe, however I made a COMPLETE error and only put in ½ a can of the evaporated milk. It ended up cooking almost twice as fast. We got home from church and it had cooked about 2½ hrs, and should have cooked 4. I smelled something burning, and sure enough there was an outer rim of the mac & cheese that was starting to burn. I had extra time so I scooped out the good stuff, made a ½ batch more using cooked pasta, mixed it all together and warmed it in the oven. It turned out perfect, and it was sooo tasty. The red pepper gave it a nice kick, though it could be taken down to maybe 1/8 tsp. But definitely try it out for yourself … and remember to use a full can of evap unlike me!!

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Happy Easter! Our family will celebrate by attending the early service at church, followed by the annual Easter Egg Hunt, then head home where we’ll welcome my family over for a feast!  I’m bringing out the china, cloth napkins, the works!  I hope you all enjoy this day and are able to relax with loved ones.

Since we’ll be up early at church, I needed to make a few side dishes that would either cook quickly when we get home, or slowly while we’re away. One I chose is a crock pot Macaroni & Cheese, from Southern Living: Slow-Cooker Cookbook. I’ve never tried cooking pasta in a slow cooker, I’m a little worried about the shells being overcooked or pasty, but we’ll see. I like that this recipe uses uncooked pasta, so you really can get everything together in the crock pot, and let it be for a few hours.

I’ll share the recipe in case you might like to try it Easter Sunday as well, and next week I’ll post over at Chaos Is Bliss my results with photos! Wish me luck!

Extra-Cheesy Macaroni and Cheese

• 1 (8-oz) package shredded Italian three-cheese blend
• 1 (8-oz) package shredded Sharp Cheddar cheese
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 (12-oz) can evaporated milk
• 1 ½ cups milk
• 1 tsp salt
• ¾ tsp dry mustard
• ¼ tsp ground red pepper
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 8 oz small shell pasta (about 2¼ cups), uncooked

Combine the cheeses in a bowl and set aside.  In a large bowl, whisk eggs, then add next 6 ingredients and whisk until combined.  Stir in pasta and 3 cups of the cheese mixture.  Lightly grease your slow cooker.  Pour in mixture and stop with 3/4 cup cheese mixture.  Cook on low for 4 hours.  Serve sprinked with remaining cheese.  Makes 6-8 servings.

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