Baked Cream Cheese Spaghetti Casserole

This is a great make-ahead meal.  I actually threw this together while I was making dinner one night and had dinner ready for another night!  A friend of mine pinned this on Pinterest.  (Starting to see a pattern in these recipes?!? HA!)

I didn't have the exact ingredients on hand.  I used penne noodles (but think I would preferand a spaghetti sauce with sausage, so I didn't use the ground meat.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Baked Cream Cheese Spaghetti Casserole

12 oz spaghetti
1 (28 ounce) jars prepared spaghetti sauce
1 lb lean ground beef
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 clove garlic, minced
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.

In a skillet, brown the ground beef until cooked through; drain fat and stir in spaghetti sauce. Set aside.

Cook spaghetti according to directions on packet. Drain and place cooked spaghetti in bowl. Add cream cheese, Italian Seasoning and minced garlic. Stir until cream cheese is melted and the spaghetti is thoroughly coated.

Lightly grease a 9x13" pan. Spread a small amount of meat sauce in the bottom of the dish. Put spaghetti on top of sauce and top with remaining meat sauce. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.

Bake for 30 minutes, until bubbly.

Photo taken from http://www.plainchicken.com/.

Baked Garlic Lemon Tilapia

Let me start this post by saying, I am NOT a seafood person.  Growing up, I occasionally ate fish sticks and walleye my grandfather would catch and fry up in some yummy breading. 

There are many good things for you in fish, so I'm trying to be more conscious about eating it.  I have found that I like tilapia because it's a mild fish.  Because I have to remind myself I have individually frozen tilapia in the freezer, I keep forgetting to buy spices (such as Old Bay or Lemon Pepper) when I'm at the store.  My brother's girlfriend pinned this recipe on Pinterest, and I really like it!

Baked Garlic Lemon Tilapia

6 (6 oz each) tilapia filets
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
4 tsp fresh parsley (I used dried)
salt and pepper
cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 400°.

2. Melt butter on a low flame in a small sauce pan. Add garlic and saute on low for about 1 minute. Add the lemon juice and shut off flame.

3. Spray the bottom of a baking dish lightly with cooking spray. Place the fish on top and season with salt and pepper. Pour the lemon butter mixture on the fish and top with fresh parsley. Bake at 400° until cooked, about 15 minutes.

Photo taken from http://www.skinnytaste.com/.

Servings: 6 servings • Total Time: 15 minutes • Old Points: 5 pts • Points+: 5 pts

Calories: 199.5 • Fat: 7.2 g • Carb: 1.0 g • Fiber: 0.1 g • Protein: 33.4 g • Sugar: 0 g
Sodium: 29.0 mg

Mama's Home Fries

Growing up, I loved home fries.  My dad and I would occasionally go out to a cheap, "greasy spoon" and get breakfast together.  We often requested to eat home fries at home, but it takes a lot of time and effort to make them.  Since then, my mom has found a short cut, so we both make them often in our homes now.

This is a great potato dish to make when . . . say . . . you didn't plan far enough in advance to make potatoes that take a long time! 

Mama's Home Fries

Baked potatoes

Oil

Butter

diced onions (opt.)
diced green peppers (opt.)

salt and pepper

1. Wash the potatoes then puncture them with a fork all over.  This will keep them from exploding from the buid-up of steam.

2. If your are going to bake them in the oven, wrap them in aluminum foil. If you have a wonderful "Potato" button on your microwave like I have, you can wrap them in a paper towel.  Potatoes bake in the oven for 1 hour at 350 degrees.  It usually takes about 7 minutes in the microwave.

3.  Add a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of oil to a NON-STICK pan.  When potatoes are done cooking, warm pan on medium high heat.  If you want to add fresh onions and peppers, saute them at this point.  If you don't add fresh onions, you may want to sprinkle potatoes with onion powder or minced onion after they are added to the pan.

3.  CAREFULLY cube up the potatoes leaving the skins on. You can wait for them to cool down until they are easier to handle.  (Don't let the pan get too hot.  You can wait to heat up your pan if you prefer.)  Add potatoes to hot pan as you cut them.

4. Brown potatoes to desired color, turning and adding more oil/butter as needed.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve & enjoy!