Red and White Tortellini

Easy Red and White Tortellini
**  note you can add a one pound bag of frozen fully cooked meatballs to the casserole; just bake as directed Or you could saute some onion, garlic, and bell peppers in a bit of olive oil before mixing with the tortellini and sauces **
Yield: Serves 8
Ingredients:
2 (10 oz.) pkgs. refrigerated or frozen cheese tortellini, uncooked
28 oz. jar spaghetti sauce
1 cup water
12 oz. jar Alfredo four cheese sauce
1-1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In 3 quart glass baking dish, mix tortellini, spaghetti sauce, and water. Make sure all tortellini is coated with sauce. Drop Alfredo cheese sauce by spoonfuls over casserole. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Uncover and bake 10 minutes longer, until tortellini is tender

Chipotle Chicken Taco

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chilies in adobo sauce
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
salt and pepper
flour or corn tortillas

1. Poach Chicken.  Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add garlic and chipotle and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Stir in orange juice, Worcestershire, and 1/2 cup cilantro and bring to boil.  Add chicken and simmer, covered, over medium-low heat until cooked through, about 10-15 minutes, flipping chicken halfway through cooking.  Transfer to plate and tent with foil. 

2. Shred and Sauce.  Increase heat to medium-high and cook until liquid is reduced to 1/4 cup, about 5 minutes.  Off heat, whisk in mustard.  Using 2 forks, shred chicken into bite-size pieces and return to skillet.  Add remaining cilantro to skillet and toss until well combined.  Season with salt and pepper.  Serve with tortillas. 

FROM FROZEN:
Thaw.  Heat on stovetop until heated through.  Serve with tortillas and favorite taco toppings like cheese, shredded lettuce, grated cheese, diced avocado, diced tomatoes and sour cream.

Quesadilla Casserole

1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (14 1/2 oz) whole kernel corn, undrained
1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies, undrained
6-8 flour tortillas (8 inch)
1 1/2-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I use mild)
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp oregano leaves
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

1. Brown beef and onion in large skillet on medium-high heat; drain. Add tomato sauce, beans, corn, and green chilies; mix well. Stir in all of the spices except red pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; simmer 5 minutes. Add red pepper to taste, if desired.
2. Spread 1/2 cup of the beef mixture on bottom of 13X9 pan (or 1/4 cup if splitting into 2 8X8's) sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Top with 3 of the tortillas (or 2 if doing 8X8 pan) overlapping or stacking as needed. Layer with 1/2 of remaining beef mixture, and 1/2 of the cheese. Repeat with remaining tortillas, beef mixture and cheese.
3. Bake in preheated 350 oven 15-20 min (if frozen and thawed 20-30 min) or until heated through. Let stand 5 min before serving.

Pirate Ships- Char copy cat

This isn't a specific amount recipe, so I apologize for that.  Each 8 X 8 pan has 12 shells in it.

Jumbo shells
Meatballs
Spaghetti sauce
Mozzarella

Cook shells according to package directions so they're flexible, but not all the way done.

Simmer meatballs in sauce until they're warmed through.

Put one meatball in each shell.  (That's the pirate in the ship, yo!)

Place in dish.  Dump the sauce left in the pan on top and top with cheese.

Freeze now or bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  If frozen, thaw and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Cranberry Meatballs

1 1/2 pound of meatballs (you can use any recipe you like for meatballs)
9 ou. can chili sauce
can of whole berry cranberry sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar

Brown meatballs, add remainder of ingredients (FREEZE)
to serve once frozen- put in crock pot and heat thoroughly.
Serve over rice

Taco Soup

1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1- 16 oz. can chili beans
1- 15oz. can kidney beans
1- 4oz. can diced green chilies
1- 15 oz. can whole kernal corn
1- 8 oz. can tomato sauce
2 cups water
2- 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
1- 2.25 oz. envelope taco seasoning

Brown ground beef with onion over medium heat until meat is done. Drain and set aside.  Add rest of ingredients to crock pot.  Do not drain anything.  Add beef and mix well.  Cook on low for 8 hours.  Allow to cool. Place in freezer bag.
Already been cooked just need to heat and serve this month but in the future you can make with above directions.
To serve:  Thaw. Heat and serve with tortilla chips if you'd like.

Cream Cheese Chicken

1- 0.7 oz. Italian dressing envelope mix
1/2 cup butter
2 lbs. bonesless skinkess chicken breasts
1- 10.75 oz. can COC soup
1- 8oz. package cream cheese

Turn slow cooker on high.  Melt butter in botom of slow cooker.  Stir Italian dressing mix into butter until well mixed.  Cut chicken into 1-inch strips.  Place in slow cooker and stir to coat with butter and dressing mix.  Cover and cook on high for 2 hours.  Remove chicken to plate to cool.  Add cream of chicken soup and cream cheese to liquid in slow cooker.  Stir to melt and mix until smooth and creamy.  Remove sauce from slow cooker and allow to cool.  Place chicken and sauce in freezer bag.

To serve: Thaw.  Heat and stir until smooth, hot and bubbly.  Serve over mashed potatoes, rice or noodles.