Tag: weeknight

Boat Baked Ziti

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Ello Bloggies!

This next recipe is really special to me. The first thing the hubby ever made me was baked ziti. We were on his boat and he started off the meal with wheat thins, cheddar and brie cheese and a homemade Mai-Tai. Let me tell you it was definitely a great way to start a relationship! Fast forward 5 1/2 years and although I’ve added some magic to the recipe it still remains one of our weeknight boat or land favorites. Make it for someone special on your first date and see if it still has the same charming effects. Then again, it may have been the mai-tais. But hey, it all worked together perfectly right?!?! Alright, enough with the match-making. Go grab a mai-tai and let’s make some baked ziti!

The Goods

  • 1 lb lean ground beef
  • 1/2 large onion, diced
  • 1 box rigatoni or ziti pasta
  • 1 large jar Vodka pasta sauce (this is me not making my own sauce. Ironically, I did recently make sauce and freeze it but then we ate it. Because that’s what you do with food. You eat it. So store bought it is. Remind yourself, it’s a weeknight, and you worked <fill in the blank> hours today and just the fact that you are making dinner makes you awesome. Pats self on back.)
  • 8 oz sour cream
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (a little more if you want to top it with some at the end)
  • 1/2 c Italian breadcrumbs
  • 1 c parmesan (1/2c for sauce, 1/2c for breadcrumb topping)
  • 2 Tbls butter, melted
  • Seasonings: Garlic Powder, dried Oregano, S&P

Ziiiiiiiiiiiti Time

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F

In a pot, boil heavily salted water (it should taste like the ocean). Add your pasta and boil for about 10 min. When done drain and add back to the pot.

I know, I know. This is rigatoni. Which is not ziti. Which is totally fine because rigatoni works just as well for baked pasta dishes. I don’t know why we just always all it baked ziti but we are all special so go with it.

In a pan, swirl olive oil over Med/Hi heat and cook your onions. You only need a minute or two as they’ll continue to cook with the meat.


Add in your ground beef, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp oregano and S&P. Cook until the ground beef is no longer pink in the middle.


Add in your jar of tomato sauce and 1/2 c parmesan. Simmer for about 10 min until all the flavors come together. Note: I did not drain the meat before adding the sauce. The meat I had really didn’t have much fat. If yours has a lot, drain the meat, then add the tomato sauce. You may need to adjust seasonings again once you do that to ensure salt level is still legit.


Now, add the meat/tomato sauce mixture to the pasta and stir to combine.

Add in the sour cream and 1 cup mozzarella cheese and stir one more time.

Spray a baking dish with cooking spray and put your delicious looking pasta mixture into the baking dish.

Next, let’s make the amazing topping. In a small bowl combine the melted butter, rest of the parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs. Mix with a fork for best results.

You may be tempted to try this to see how it tastes. Don’t do it. It’s like unicorns wrapped up in hugs topped with ice cream and sprinkles. It’s amazing. Don’t eat it or you may not have any left for the pasta.

Top your pasta dish with the breadcrumb topping and bake for 25 min or until bubbly and the topping just starts to get brown. Then eat it. Yum!


This is a super easy dish that is full of flavor. We make this sometimes with sausage pieces or turkey ground sausage or even cut leftover meatballs! Just make it, eat it and then go nap. Because, who doesn’t love a good nap.

xoxo Shawna

Baked Frank’s Red Hot Drumsticks

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Hello blog-land,

Oh man is it getting toasty in Southern California and like most natives I do enjoy not only the hot summer day but also the occasional hot & spicy dish – some of our favs are spicy crunchy sushi, the amazing kimchi based spicy cream that goes with buttery Hawaiian style ahi poke, and of course spicy Mexican food! But today, we are going to do a twist on a traditionally fried dish. We’re making Hot Wings…but baked…and technically drumsticks…..and they are so good! This appetizer (or main) is so easy and really a crowd pleaser. You could always dunk these bad boys in some oil and fry them up but I generally don’t fry during summer…I mean come on…it’s hot enough already. But the world is your Hot Wing oyster….so to speak…so feel free to do what you like.

The Goods

  • 6 drumsticks (bone in, skin on)
  • 4 tablespoons Olive Oil
  • Seasonings: 2 tsp Garlic Powder, 2 tsp Tumeric, 2 tsp Seasoned Salt (we used Goya Adobo but anything will do), and ground pepper
  • 1 tsp Lemon (juice and rind to make sure your lemon is well scrubbed and rinsed)
  • Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (or your fav hot sauce)
  • 2 tablespoons Butter

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Note: I forgot the tumeric in the picture. Don’t be like me, don’t forget your tumeric.

Let’s get baking!

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees F.

Time for the marinade. Mix olive oil, garlic powder, tumeric, seasoned salt, a couple of twists of ground pepper, lemon and a touch of rind. Let the chicken sit (20 min to about 2 hours makes the best combo).

When the chicken is done marinating lay them on a baking sheet and bake for 30 min. Turn over and bake another 20-30 min until internal temp gets to 165 degrees. If you want to get a bit more color feel free to put them under the “High” broiler – but watch them! They can burn very quickly.

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Hello Pollo. Feel free to drizzle with a tab of olive oil here to help it get brown and delicious.

Next melt 2 tablespoons of butter (I did this in a tiny glass bowl in the microwave for 20 seconds) and put into a larger bowl. Add in a couple of shakes of garlic powder and S&P as well as 20-30 shakes of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (The bottle had the shaker top. You can’t really overdue the sauce so get at it).

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Let the chicken go for a hot sauce swim.

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Serve up with blue cheese and lemonade spiked with tequila and fresh lime.

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Enjoy!

xoxo Shawna

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

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Hello Bloggies! 

As it heats up in the South West the dinners start getting later in desperate hopes that the kitchen you’re cooking in starts to cool off a bit. This dish is awesome because you can prepare it in advance and bake it later or make it and bake it right away. Either way it’s so delicious and quite inexpensive. That’s a win-win in my book! 

The Goods 

  • 3 cups water
  • 1 1/2 cups long grain rice
  • 1 bouillon cube (chicken)
  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • 2 large chicken breasts, diced 
  • Seasonings: S&P, garlic powder, paprika
  • 1 bag frozen broccoli 
  • 1 cup + some for topping Shredded cheddar 
  • 2 cans cream of chicken soup
  • Optional: fried onion bits for topping 

Sassy Casserole Time!

First put the water and bouillon cube in a sauce pot and bring to a boil. Add the rice, put a lid on it then let simmer for about 15 minutes until almost done. 

  

Heat up another sauce pan over med-hi heat with 2 tablespoons water and add in the broccoli. Heat to a boil and put a lid on so it steams. Stir it around a bit and cook until the broccoli are no longer frozen. About 10 min. 

 

Now in a pan over Med-Hi heat swirl in some olive oil and start sautéing the diced onion. Now add in S&P, 2 tsp paprika and 2 tsp garlic powder. When the onions are translucent add in the chicken and cook until 165 degree internal temp.

  

When cooked it should look awesome like this! Feel free to add more olive oil if it gets too dry during the cooking process.

 

Now let’s assemble the goods. In a large bowl combine the rice, broccoli, chicken/onion mixture, 2 cans of cream of chicken soup and 1 cup shredded cheddar. 

Spray a casserole dish of your choosing with cooking spray and load it up with your amazing casserole. 

 

Since everything is cooked you can taste it at this point. Just try not to eat it all. 🙂

  
Bake for 25 min until the casserole is bubbly and the top starts to brown. 

Add the fried onion topping and shredded cheese (we ran out of cheddar so switched to jack) and bake for 5 more min.

 

Holy. Bananas. This is a good dish. 

We served it with a side salad and some wine. Not a bad recipe for the middle of the week! Hope you enjoy it!

  
xoxo Shawna