"Homemade" Pasta Sauce

Ok, to be honest, it's not quite so much homemade as jazzed up.  This is the sauce that my Mother-In-Law uses in her lasagna recipe.  It's nice and hearty and you can add what you like to it!

"Homemade" Pasta Sauce

• 2 T butter
• 1/2 to 1 onion (more or less to your taste. I usually only use half)
• 1/2 to 1 green pepper (more or less to your taste.)
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can/jar your choice of pasta sauce (We decided we like Hunt's Zesty & Spicy)
• 1 to 2 c. water (optional)
• 1 lb ground beef or sausage
• salt
• pepper
• Italian seasoning to taste

Instructions
Start by preparing your onion and pepper.  Because I'm not a huge pepper fan, I usually leave the pepper out (see! customizable!).  I try to get them consistent sizes (try being the key work) and keep them relatively small.  Put the chopped onion and pepper into a big soup pot with the butter on medium heat until they are tender or mostly tender.

While waiting on the onion and pepper, pull out your meat and put it in a skillet on medium to high heat and cook it up.  Add salt and pepper if you'd like. (This is a step that could be done before-hand if multi-tasking while cooking is as hard for you as it is for me.)

Back to the soup pot:  When the veggies in your pot are tender, pour in your canned tomatoes and your pasta sauce and mix it all up.  Add your salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning to your tastebuds' liking. This is where you can get more creative as well.  Instead of Italian seasoning, maybe you'd like to add something else.  I sometimes like to throw in some garlic.  

(I'm not exactly sure what all is in Italian seasoning.  I got mine in a spice rack and it's just labeled 'Italian Seasoning' so I'm assuming you could probably find something like it at Wal-Mart).

When your meat is good and brown all over, drain the grease and then add the meat to your sauce. 

Tadaa!  You could be done at this point and add it to your noodles or your lasagna.  If you'd like it a little thinner, or if you're going to let it simmer for a while (yay flavor!), add some water. 


I use this sauce in my Mother-In-Law's lasagna recipe which she makes in the microwave with super Tupperware dishes! I know sometimes she makes it in the oven.  When I get that info from her, maybe I'll post that recipe on here as well! 

Here are a few pictures of the process:

The recipe uses pepperoni!

I like lots of cheese.

One of my puppies wanted to help (eat the pepperoni, that is).

Cooking!

All done!  MMMmmm!

Stuffed Shells

I made this yesterday on a whim, and its been taking all my willpower to not eat the leftovers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner today. (Just breakfast. Ha!) Feel free to modify this in any way to fit your family's preferences! I split the recipe and only used the onion and garlic in half the shell filling because my husband doesn't like onions.

What I used:
A box of jumbo shells noodles
Salt (optional)
1 Tbsp olive oil (optional)
16 oz of ricotta (I used whole milk ricotta)
2 eggs
45 oz of Prego pasta sauce
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped (optional)
2 cloves of garlic, minced (optional)
1 Tbsp salted butter
1 lb ground beef
Italian seasonings of your choice to taste (I used the McCormick Italian Herb Seasonings Grinder)
Shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheeses (optional)



1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Bring a large pot of water on the stove to a boil. Throw in that 1 Tbsp salt and olive oil, then pour in the box of jumbo shells noodles. Cook until soft, then drain and set aside.
3. Grab a frying pan and brown the 1lb ground beef. Season to taste with salt/pepper/whatever if desired.
4. Saute garlic and onion in the butter.
5. Mix the 16oz of ricotta, the 2 eggs, the Italian seasonings, and the garlic and onion in a bowl, then add the cooked ground beef and mix well.
6. Pour half the jar of pasta sauce into a casserole dish.
7.Spoon the cheese/beef mixture into the shell noodles one by one and place into the casserole dish.
8. Spoon or pour the rest of the pasta sauce over the shells.
9. Sprinkle with the mozzarella and parmesan cheese.
10. Bake for 30 minutes or until warm.
11. Try to refrain from eating them all in one sitting. Or don't. :D

Chocolate Caramel!

Ok, I've decided to start posting things I'm making in school on here because some of the recipes are to DIE for! And I'm tired of keeping all these yummy recipes cooped up! Today (Valentine's Day <3) we made chocolate caramels. I wasn't sure if I was going to like them, but after they were finished, and I had a to-go box fill to the top with them, I couldn't stop eating them! They were really easy to make and something about them makes me think "Oreos.". So here's the recipe and hopefully you like them just as much as I do!

Chef Rob Hudson's Granny's recipe- Chocolate Caramels (Apparently at our school the head chef's grandma is one heck of a candy maker! Haha!)

3 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 light corn syrup
2 Tbsp cocoa
2 cups cream
1 cup butter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

1. Cook sugar, syrup, cream, salt, and cocoa together until it forms a soft ball in cold water (or until soft ball stage-240°F). They are supposed to be pretty chewy in the end so don't over cook them!
2. Remove from heat and add vanilla and butter.
3. Place in a well buttered pan to cool.
4. Once cool, cut into squares. We put our caramels in the freezer to cool faster, but they were impossible to cut after that because they froze ha! So we just broke it into pieces.

TA-DA! Yummy chocolate caramels :) There's just something so irresistible about chewy, buttery, and Oreo like caramels!

Introduction

This is a place for us, The Four Sisters, to share our favorite recipes, meals, snacks, desserts, tips, tricks, and experiments in the kitchen.

Stay tuned for plenty of YUM.