Wednesday Dinner and Dessert

I have been on a cooking kick for a few weeks now. Tonight I tried yet another new meal I have not done before and a new dessert.

Cheese Lover's Pasta Roll-Ups courtesy of Kraft Foods Food & Family Magazine



Ingredients:


1 egg, beaten

1 container (15 oz.) POLLY-O Original Ricotta Cheese

2 cups KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Italian* Three Cheese Blend

4 green onions, chopped

1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning

1 jar (26 oz.) spaghetti sauce, divided

16 lasagna noodles, cooked

1/4 cup KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese



Directions:



HEAT oven to 375ºF.

MIX first 5 ingredients until well blended.

SPREAD 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish. Spread each noodle with 3 Tbsp. cheese mixture; roll up. Place, seam-sides down, in dish. Top with remaining sauce and Parmesan; cover.

BAKE 40 to 50 min. or until heated through, uncovering the last 10 min.


Tips from Me:

1. I would recommend using only 2 green onions instead of 4 as it seemed to overpower a little bit.

2. The directions called for 16 lasagna noodles yet when I got done I still had 3 noodles left and no more mix... so either go very light on the spread or make a little more spread than it calls for.

Other than those two things it tasted absolutely delicious!!

NEXT up DESSERT!!!


Peanut Butter Cup Pie also Courtesy of Kraft Foods Food & Family Magazine:





Ingredients:


1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp. creamy peanut butter, divided

1 cup cold milk

1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding

2-1/2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, divided

1 OREO Pie Crust (6 oz.)

3 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate


Directions:

BEAT cream cheese and 1/2 cup peanut butter in medium bowl until well blended. Add milk and dry pudding mix; beat 2 min. Whisk in 1 cup COOL WHIP; spoon into crust. Refrigerate until ready to use.

MEANWHILE, microwave remaining COOL WHIP and chocolate in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 to 2 min. or until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring after each minute. Cool completely.

SPREAD chocolate mixture over pudding layer in crust. Microwave remaining peanut butter in small microwaveable bowl 30 sec.; stir. Drizzle over pie. Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm.

This one is amazing. Just enough peanut butter. It sort of reminded me of the Peanut Butter Fudge Shake you can get at Sonic : )

Hope these are enticing to you as they were for me, I enjoyed making them and hope that some of you will as well.

Cupcakes for Everyone, On A Stick, or Not

I was looking around yesterday at all of the blogs I am a subscriber of and as you know when you start blog hopping you can find lots of very cool and interesting things out there.

I found Bakerella's website!! Her site is just the coolest thing ever! She makes all sorts of beautiful colorful treats not to sell but for fun as lots of us do. I had read about her on another blogger's website- - She posted a picture of Cake Pops that she had made and explained they came from Bakerella's website. I just had to check them out.

I was amazed when I started looking at all of the treats and reading the comments. People are going crazy over these tiny little bites. Well that lit a fire. As a cake lover myself as well as having 3 children in my home I knew that if I made a go at these it would not be a waste, so off to the store I went : ).

I followed all the directions given by Bakerella, and it was so easy to do. Why has no one thought of this before?

They turned out great and the family loved them. If I had a digital camera I would post a picture but here is a picture from her website:



Click HERE to go to the instructions page. Or you can click HERE for another post with a little more instruction. : ) Hope these help!!

I have to say these little treats were DELICIOUS!! We absolutely loved them. The only thing I don't quite understand is how to make the chocolate a little bit thinner so that there is not so much pooling on the wax paper while hardening. Other than that they were awesome. They even looked great when I did them, just a little picky I guess about the thinner chocolate. Then again, maybe it was the brand of chocolate bark I used. I just got a basic brand at the local grocery store to 'practice' on this run. Next time I will use the Wilton's melting chocolates and that may make the difference.

Ok, what are you waiting for? You know you want some of these for yourself, get busy!!