Tag Archives: mozzarella cheese

Easy Appetizers

21 Jan

My sister and I made some yummy, easy appetizers for New Year’s Eve.  The nice thing about these is that one uses crescent rolls and the other uses biscuits, which tend to be on sale fairly often.

Bacon Cheese Pinwheels and Mozzarella Bites

Bacon-Cheddar Pinwheels

What you need:

1 can crescent rolls
4 slices bacon, crumbled
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Open can of dough, unroll, and press into a large rectangle.  Sprinkle bacon and cheddar evenly over the dough.  Roll the dough from one side, and pinch the edge to close.  Cut the roll into about 16 pieces, placing each piece on a baking sheet.

Bake in the preheated oven for 12-17 minutes, or until golden brown.

Mozzarella Bites

What you need:

1 can Grands biscuits
2-3 mozzarella cheese snack sticks
Olive oil
Garlic salt
Oregano
Grated Parmesan cheese

How to make them:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cut each Grands biscuit in half and cut each mozzarella cheese snack stick into 1-inch sections.  Press each biscuit piece into a circle, and place a section of cheese on each circle.  Pull up sides of the biscuit around the cheese, and press to close.  Place the sealed side of each biscuit down on a baking sheet.  Brush the tops with olive oil, and sprinkle with the seasonings and grated Parmesan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown.

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Baked Pesto Chicken

27 Jul

After Katie was born, my mom came and cooked for us and gave me some easy recipes.  One of the recipes was an Easy Parmesan Chicken; place chicken in a baking dish, cover with tomato sauce, cover with foil, bake, sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses, bake again until the cheese melts.  I had pesto in the refrigerator to use, so I followed the same instructions as my mom’s recipe, just using  pesto instead of tomato sauce.  It turned out really good, both my kids even liked it!  I served it over pasta.

Baked Pesto Chicken

 

Baked Pesto Chicken

What you need:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Spinach Basil Pesto or Kale Pesto or a 8oz jar of pesto
Shredded mozzarella Cheese
Cooked pasta or rice

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with non-stick spray.  Place chicken breasts in baking dish.  Spread pesto over all the chicken breasts.

Cover the baking dish with foil  Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.

Carefully remove foil.  Top the chicken breasts with the shredded mozzarella cheese.  Bake for 5-10  minutes, or until cheese it melted and chicken is cooked through.

Baked Pesto Chicken just out of the oven

Serve over cooked pasta or rice.  I poured the oil and pesto from the bottom of the pan over the pasta first, then served it with the chicken.

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Summer Squash, Sausage, and Egg Bake

26 Jun

This time of year, summer squash, like zucchini and yellow squash, seem to be in abundance.  One of my all time favorite dishes to make is Italian Zucchini Crescent Pie, either with just zucchini or a mix of zucchini and yellow squash.  However, my husband isn’t real fond of the crust.  So, I had experimented with a mashed potato crust, but still got mixed reviews from the family.  So, I decided to make it crust-less, using this recipe for inspiration.  I decided to use different cheese and not any additional seasoning since I added sausage.  We loved it!  Plus, I’m already working on other variations, no sausage, possibly ground beef, use oregano and basil to season, try out different cheeses.  It’s very versatile to be able to use what you have on hand!  I will hopefully update on my future combinations, but for now, here is the one I made last night.

Summer Squash, Sausage and Egg Bake

 

Summer Squash, Sausage, and Egg Bake

What you need:

1 pound sausage (I used Johnsonville Mild Italian Sausage)
1 small onion
1 medium size yellow squash, cut into thin slices
1 medium size zucchini, cut into thin slices
4 oz cream cheese, softened
3 large eggs, well beaten
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 400 F.

In a large skillet, brown sausage.  Do not drain fat.  Add onions, yellow squash, and zucchini, and cook until soft and translucent.  Stir in cream cheese until well blended.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together eggs, mozzarella cheese, and Parmesan cheese.

Spray a 2 quart casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray.  Pour the squash/sausage mixture into the dish.  Mix in the egg and cheese mixture.

Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until sides are bubbling and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

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