Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

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Spaghetti Bake

Posted by terrepruitt on May 29, 2023

I had an open jar of spaghetti sauce in the fridge I wanted to use, but I didn’t have any Parmesan or ricotta so I couldn’t make my regular spaghetti pie so I thought I would make a spaghetti bake. I went back and forth with just mixing the chicken and pasta, but the thought of melted cheese on top was too strong to resist.

Even though I wanted to use the spaghetti sauce I am not a big fan. I went back and forth on mixing it in or pouring it on top. Then I decided I will serve the casserole on a puddle of it. That way I can give my husband more than me. I can have a taste of it, but not have it overpower the other flavors.

As usual I was making this up as I went a long and using what we had so I forgot two things I wanted to put it in. I wanted to add shallots and nutritional yeast. Oh well. Next time.

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Spaghetti Bake

1 can of garbanzo beans
Olive oil
Season All

Tomato sauce (2 cups? or as much as you want)

salt (for boiling pasta)
1 box / 1 lb. of spaghetti

1 C crumbled feta

3 eggs
3/4 C milk
2 cans of chicken
1 cup of shredded cheese
oregano (to taste)
garlic powder (to taste)

olive oil
2 cups of mozzarella

Drain the garbanzo beans. You can use them as is or roast them. I roasted them using Season All (my Roasted Chickpeas post uses garlic powder).

If you are not roasting the chickpeas you may want to turn on your oven to 400°F to preheat it.

Spoon a thin layer of spaghetti sauce on the bottom of a 9X13 baking dish. Cook and drain the spaghetti. (I boil pasta with salted water.) Put half of the cooked pasta on the sauce in the baking dish.

Sprinkle some crumbled feta on top. Then put the beans on top and spread them out.

Scramble/mix the eggs in a bowl add the milk. Drain the chicken, add to bowl. Add the 1 cup of shredded cheese. (I used a triple cheddar blend.) Add the oregano and garlic powder. I also added some salt. Mix it all together than spread over the pasta in the dish.

Put the rest of the cooked spaghetti on top. Sprinkle with olive oil then top with cheese. Put the dish in the preheated (to 400°F) oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Then slice . . . and as I said I served it on a puddle of sauce.

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It is just another way of eating pasta. I love cheese melted in the oven until it is golden brown. This was gorgeous and delicious. There are so many ways you can do it. What would you add?

 

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Pinkness

Posted by terrepruitt on May 26, 2023

Oh the bright pinkness of these!  These make me think of daisies so I am guessing they are a variation of daisy.  I know there are a lot of different kinds of daisies.  Here is some super PINKNESS for my Friday Photo.

I don’t think these are the same as the first pink ones I posted from my walk, but they MAY be.

Who knows what these are?

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YELLOW

Posted by terrepruitt on May 19, 2023

Awwww.  Sweet little yellow daisies.  I think of daisies as sweet.  Here is a yellow front yard flower for today’s Friday Photo.

Do you think of certain flowers as sweet?

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Fire Flowers

Posted by terrepruitt on May 12, 2023

These are such a beautiful color.  I am thinking of them as Fire Flowers.  I love flowers.  As I am sure you can guess since they are a prominent feature of Friday Photo!

Do you know what these flowers are?

 

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Complicated Spaghetti Pie

Posted by terrepruitt on May 8, 2023

In May of 2021 I made Spaghetti Pie. I loved it. I love pasta, but I don’t necessarily like tomato sauce, so I loved that this allowed for a hint of it, but it didn’t saturate all of the pasta. But I also am interested in getting more protein so of course I had to complicate it with meat. But it is good.

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Spaghetti Pie

Olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 lb of ground beef
salt
pepper

16 ounces of dried spaghetti
Salt
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese – divided
2 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1 cup ricotta
1 1/2 cup mozzarella – divided
1 1/2 cup sauce

aluminum foil
parchment paper
springform pan

Heat some olive oil then add the onion. Cook onion for a bit, then add the ground beef. Cook the ground beef – chopping it up as necessary. Season with salt and pepper if you’d like.  Remember the meat is going to be in the oven for at least 45 minutes.

Cook the spaghetti (with salt if that is how you regularly cook your pasta).

While the pasta is cooking, beat the eggs.

Drain the spaghetti. Mix the cooked, drained spaghetti with the beaten eggs, 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese, the Italian seasoning, and the chopped garlic.

Line the springform pan (bottom and sides) with aluminum foil then with parchment paper. (I use both because the pie tends to leak out of my pan.) Brush the parchment paper with oil.  Put about half of the spaghetti mixture in a baking dish/pan. Layer the cooked meat over the spaghetti, leaving a blank circle in the middle. Then add the rest of the spaghetti and make a well in the middle. Put the ricotta cheese in the middle. Sprinkle the ricotta with 3/4 cup of the mozzarella. Put the sauce on top of the ricotta. Sprinkle the sauce with the rest of the mozzarella and Parmesan.

Bake at 375° F for 45 minutes or until done. Then broil for 2 minutes.

Slice like a pie and serve.

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I really like this. I don’t like spaghetti with sauce the regular way, but I like it in pie form.  And it really isn’t difficult or complicated, but I just laugh because I always seem to take a really quick easy recipe and add a step or two to make it “complicated”.

What about you – how do you like your spaghetti?

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Neighborhood Flowers

Posted by terrepruitt on May 5, 2023

My husband probably regretted going on a walk with me because I kept stopping to take pictures of the pretty flowers in the neighborhood.  So, yeah, I am going to be posting flowers for my Friday Photo for a bit.  But that is what my Friday Photos are flowers and cats!

What are these?

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Chicken Finger Update – Already

Posted by terrepruitt on May 3, 2023

Oh, I already have an update on my Chicken Fingers post. I made them again and I doubled the recipe. So two cans of chicken, two eggs, and a little over a cup of shredded cheese. And more garlic, salt, and I added onion powder.

Then instead of trying to roll them like I did last time I just grabbed some and made it long then put it on the baking sheet and formed it there. I made them longer. So I actually only got two more – sixteen, instead of fourteen – out of the doubled ingredients.

Even though they were longer I still baked them at 400° F for 30 minutes.

Maybe the first ones should have been called Chicken Toes because they were so short.

We dipped them in ranch, pasta sauce, and a spicy lime sauce. I had made a salad and had some balsamic vinegar left in my bowl and I dipped mine in that and I actually think that is the route I will take from now on.

To me, while they turn out very crispy they are on the dry side so they need to be dipped in something. But I seriously like them a lot so I will be making them again soon!

Anyone else?

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Chicken Fingers

2 cans (24 oz) of chicken
2 eggs
A little over 1 cup of shredded cheese
a lot of garlic granules
salt
onion powder

Mix all ingredients. Shape into “fingers” as best you can. Place on parchment paper lined baking sheet and do more “shaping” if necessary then bake at 400° F for 30 minutes.

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Fries Or Fingers?

Posted by terrepruitt on May 1, 2023

I have a few things on here I call fries, but this is not one of them.

I spend a lot of time going through Instagram. I know they do it on purpose, just reel after reel and I have spent hours looking and absorbing nothing. I save so many things it is ridiculous. I save a lot of recipes. Well, last week I was looking for one and I came across another one that made more sense for dinner that night. I was looking for something to go with some leftovers. When I saved it I didn’t really read what it was saying it was. And I am still not sure . . . I think I may have seen a commercial. Anyway . . . I made them and they were pretty good. Mine looked NOTHING like Ketosnackz but they did the job.

I liked them so much I am going to make them often.

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Chicken Fingers

1 can (12 oz) of chicken
1 egg
1/2 cup of shredded cheese
a lot of garlic granules
salt

Mix all ingredients. Shape into “fingers”. Place on parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake at 400° F for 30 minutes.

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His recipe didn’t have any seasoning and he baked it for 20 minutes. I wanted more flavors and mine were not ready at 20 minutes. I served them with ranch dressing. Since I am thinking I will make them often I am going to serve them with different things: tomato sauce, chutney, hummus . . . who knows, the possibilities are endless! Oh, I was able to get 14 short little fingers.

What do you think – “fries” or “fingers”?

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WOW!

Posted by terrepruitt on April 28, 2023

That is what I said when I saw this – WOW!  This is someone’s front yard.  I was walking the neighborhood recently and this is one of the beautiful things I came across.  I am posting this as today’s Friday Photo and there will be more to come.

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Lap Cat

Posted by terrepruitt on March 31, 2023

This one lives to sit on a lap. She will ask several times a day and then come evening when we normally sit on the couch she will sit close so she can hop on a lap as soon as one of us sits down. She is happiest on a lap.

She is not that keen on my taking pictures of her even for my Friday Photo.

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