Running Mama Cooks

Finn William was born this morning at 5:40 am! He was 8 lbs, 8 oz and 21.5 inches long. I had a super fast, unmedicated birth, which wasn't the plan, but it worked out great. His big sister is over the moon and we are all in love with this precious boy!

So, I have been the worst blogger ever, but I guess I have a pretty decent excuse! Baby boy is due any day now and even though I have been cooking here and there, I haven't been making anything too blog worthy. We have been eating a lot of repeat recipes (taco mac, spinach tortellini salad, Chicken spinach wraps, French's Fried Onion pork chops).

This morning, Zach picked several really nice green peppers from our garden, so I defrosted some turkey sausage we had in the freezer and made sausage and pepper sandwiches. They were really yummy.


Italian Sausage and Peppers Sammies
A Running Mama Cooks Original Recipe

Ingredients:

6 mild Italian turkey sausage links
2 tbs Olive oil
3 medium green peppers
2 medium onions
4 garlic cloves
1 large can crushed tomatoes
Basil
Italian seasoning
crushed red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
4 hoagie rolls

Directions:

Brown sausage on medium heat. Remove and set aside. Heat olive oil and saute garlic until lightly browned. Add peppers and onions and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.

Cut sausage into chunks and return to pan. Add crushed tomato and seasonings to taste. Simmer. Serve on lightly toasted hoagie rolls.

ZACH'S RATING - ****

Update - I ended up going into labor that night!!!

Our first veggies from the garden this year!! I can't take much credit at all, I have a black thumb, Zach is the gardener in the family. He grilled up these awesome zucchinis tonight, marinaded in the balsamic tomato dressing Ive blogged about a few times. SOOOO good!!!

Wow, I actually cooked 2 nights in a row!!

This recipe was recommended to me by Allison, and like all the other recipes she recommends to me, this was a really yummy meal!



Chicken Tortellini Casserole

Ingredients:

8 oz tortellini
8 oz monterey jack cheese, shredded
1 lb chicken, cubed
flour
EVOO
1 onion, chopped
4 oz can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 can chicken broth
1/2 c sour cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300F.

Cook tortellini 5 minutes less than done time and drain.

Place in a greased 2.5 quart casserole. Spread 1/2 of cheese over tortellini.

Flour chicken and cook in EVOO until lightly brown. Remove chicken and put on top of tortellini & cheese. Cook onions in same pan until soft. Add broth and mushrooms and bring to boil. Simmer 5 minutes. Add remaining cheese and cook until melted. Take off heat and stir in sour cream. Pour over casserole.

Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.

ZACH'S RATING - ****

Sorry I have been MIA for so long! I can't believe its been over a week since I've cooked anything (unless you count the box of Kraft Mac n Cheese I made the other night!). Life has been very busy, so we have been doing a lot of eating on the run.

Tonight we were finally all home for dinner so I prepared a rack of BBQ pork ribs that I've been meaning to make since last week. I defrosted the ribs and had them cooking in the crockpot all day so I could put this meal together quickly after a fun day at the beach! I got the idea for this method from our friend Jim. The ribs come out perfect every time. It may seem weird, but trust me on this one.

BBQ Ribs
A Running Mama Cooks Original Recipe

Ingredients:

1 rack center cut pork ribs
1 liter bottle pepsi
BBQ sauce

Directions:

Place ribs in crockpot and cover with pepsi. You may have to cut the rack in half. Cook on low for 8 hours.

Preheat the oven to 400. Remove ribs from crockpot carefully (they will be falling apart a bit) and place on a baking sheet. Coat both sides with BBQ sauce and place in the oven for 20 minutes.

I served them with mashed red potatoes and corn. Yummy!

ZACH'S RATING - ****

This recipe caught my eye while I was browsing through my friend Lauren's blog. I feel like I've been in a little bit of a food slump lately and was looking for ideas. I love basil and tomatoes (and pasta of course!) so this went on my agenda for this week.

I liked it, but there are definitely a few things I would do differently. I would make it in a smaller baking dish (I used 9x13) and stack the lasagna a little higher. I will also dice the tomatoes next time instead of slicing them. I think my family would enjoy them more that way.

I will post the recipe as is, but I did use regular lasagna noodles instead of oven ready, so I cut the baking time to a half hour, followed by 5 minutes of broiling.

Caprese Lasagna
Recipe from Rachael Ray by way of Lauren's Kitchen

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1 cup chicken stock
A few grates of fresh nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 box oven-ready lasagna noodles
4 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
Half a bunch basil, chopped (about 30 leaves)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Preparation:

Pre-heat the oven to 375ºF.

Place a large saucepot over medium-heat and melt the butter. Add the garlic to the pan and cook until aromatic, about 1 minute. Sprinkle the flour over the butter and garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Whisk the milk and chicken stock into the butter-flour mixture and bring up to a bubble. Add the nutmeg, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and simmer until thickened, 3-4 minutes.

Assemble the lasagna by ladling a small amount (about 1/4 cup, just eyeball it) of the sauce into the bottom of a 9-inch x 13-inch baking dish and laying three lasagna noodles over the sauce. Top the noodles with about a third of the sliced tomatoes, a third of the basil, 1/4 cup of sauce and about a third of the shredded cheese. Repeat until all ingredients are used up, topping the lasagna off with a final layer of sauce and shredded cheese.

Cover the pan with foil and bake the lasagna for 30 minutes. Remove the foil from the baking dish and bake another 15 minutes until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly. When ready to serve, top with the remaining chopped basil leaves

ZACH'S RATING - ***

Yes, my family definitely has a thing for French's Fried Onions. I posted awhile back when I made chicken fingers with them, and tonight I thought Id give pork a try. It did not disappoint!

French's Friend Onion Crusted Pork Chops
A Running Mama Cooks Original Recipe

Ingredients:

6 Boneless Pork Tenderloin Chops
1 large can French's Fried Onions
2 tbs flour
1/2 cup milk
paprika
salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat the over to 400

Place pork chops in between two pieces of parchment paper and pound thin. Place onions in a ziplock bag with flour and crush. Pour milk into a shallow bowl and season with salt, pepper and paprika. Put crushed onions into another shallow bowl.

Dip chops into milk and then coat with the onions. Bake for 30 mins.

I served the chops with Sauteed Garlic Zucchini
Sauteed Garlic Zucchini
A Running Mama Cooks Original Recipe

Ingredients:

4 zucchini, cut into half moons
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup shredded asiago cheese
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions:

Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add Zucchini and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Saute until tender. Approx 10 mins. Remove from heat and toss with asiago cheese.

ZACH'S RATING - ****