Broccoli chicken casseorle

This is the cheapest, easiest, most lazy meal ever, and somehow EVERYONE LOVED IT! It's one of those things where I was at the store, threw 6 things in the basket and prayed.

1 Store bought roasted chicken shredded
2 cups uncooked small shell pasta
2 cups mild shredded cheese shredded
1/2 cup frozen broccoli pieces
1 can cream of mushroom chicken
1 can cream of celery chicken

Preheat oven to 450. Boil pasta. While pasta is boiling mix everything else in a bowl reserving 1/2 cup of cheese. Combine pasta in with remaining ingredients and place in an oven safe baking dish. Cover with remaining cheese and bake for 20 minutes. Serve.

Literally that is it. I told you...cheap, easy LAZY. But really good.

Lemon Gnocchi with Spinach and Peas

Servings: 4

This is a great, flavorful dish that is so easy to make it's unbelievable! And it only takes about 20 minutes!

To give credit where credit is due, I got this from Gourmet's website but wanted to share it with you because even though I am not a fan of peas, they fit very well into this dish. The sweetness of the peas counteracts the tartness of the lemon and the saltiness of the sauce.

1 cup frozen baby peas (not thawed)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon dried hot red-pepper flakes, adjust for your level of heat.
1 garlic clove, smashed
3 cups packed baby spinach (3 oz)
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 1 /2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 lb dried gnocchi (preferably De Cecco)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

In a large pot, add gnocchi to boiling salted water (3 tablespoons salt for 6 quarts water) and cook until al dente (5-8 minutes). Reserve 1/2 cup pasta-cooking water, then drain gnocchi.

In a 12-in heavy skillet, simmer peas with cream, red-pepper flakes, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon salt until tender, about 5 minutes. 1/4 tsp of dried red pepper flakes gives a pretty decent amount of heat to this dish (not spicy, but just enough to leave your tongue tingling) so I would reduce it if you are not a fan of spicier foods.

Add spinach to the pea mixture and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until wilted. Remove from heat and stir in lemon zest and juice. The cream and lemon juice will react and form a thick sauce.

Add gnocchi and the cheese to the pan with the sauce, if needed add some of the reserved cooking water and stir to coat. Thin sauce with additional cooking water if necessary.

As a quick note, if you are making this for yourself or planning on having leftovers, I would add 1-2 tablespoons of the cooking liquid to the container with the leftovers. This dish reheats in a pan over medium heat (10 minutes) and the extra liquid keeps it from drying out while it is being reheated.

I haven't tried it yet (so don't hold me to it..unless it does actually taste good) but I could picture this dish tasting great with some cooked and sliced sweet Italian sausage thrown into the mix...next time!

Spicy stuffed bell peppers

1.5 pounds Hot Italian sausage
1/2 yellow onion diced
5 cloves garlic diced
1/4 green bell pepper fine diced
5 Cremini or baby portobello mushrooms diced
9 slices mozzarella cheese
3 large red bell peppers
Dash red pepper flakes
1 Tsp pepper
1 Tsp salt
1 Tsp grill seasoning
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
olive oil for drizzling

Preheat oven to 350. Cut very bottoms of bell peppers off, just enough to make them stand upright on their own. Cut tops off and de-seed. Drizzle with olive oil and put in the oven for 10 minutes. In sauté pan break up sausage and add, onions, garlic, diced bell pepper, mushrooms, salt, pepper, and grill seasoning. When meat is browned add bread crumbs and coat all the meat with them. When bell peppers are done remove them from the oven and allow them to cool to touch. Place one slice of cheese over the top of the bell pepper and then push it down inside to form a bowl shape and coating the entire inside of the pepper. Add enough of your meat to fill half the bell pepper and then add a second layer of cheese (placing the cheese in there in a cup/bowl shape will make it so that your bell pepper is lined with cheese and you get some in each bite, similar to an ice cream drumstick being lined with chocolate). Place remaining meat into pepper and then place last slice of cheese over the top so it hangs over the sides. Place the peppers uncovered in the oven for 10 minutes. The cheese should melt over the top of the pepper and form a cheese lid. Remove and enjoy.

* For the mozzarella you can use either fresh or deli mozzarella. For this recipe I had the deli slice me up exactly how much I wanted. I didn't buy fresh this week simply because I wasn't making anything that would use it, and I wouldn't have been able to finish it before it expired. If you use fresh double the amount you use because the slices will be smaller and you will need to cover the same amount of area as a deli slice would.

** I realize most stuffed bell peppers are made with rice and other stuff. These are my all man meat bell peppers though, with none of the yicky girly rice and froo froo things.

** I also prefer sausage to ground beef because you get far less fat and water in the pan and don't have to do any draining, plus it is already seasoned.