Light Tuna Pasta

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Last week we shared our love for our latest discovery – Soy n’ Sesame Tuna! One way we used it was topping a light pasta dish that is a little more high brow than we usually serve.

This ain’t your mama’s tuna noodle casserole!

It’s easy to toss together, super customizable, and our little four year old loved it! He even dared try the “new olives”, though he didn’t like the capers. I am so proud of him and his adventurous eating habits !

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Light Tuna Pasta

Dinner, Fish, Fish, Italian, Meals for a Crowd, Pasta, Seafood, Splurge

Ingredients

2 lbs wheat angle hair noodles, prepared*
Olive oil, to taste
2 lbs Soy n’ Sesame Tuna, flaked
1 lb symphony cherry tomatoes, diced
Manzanilla olives, sliced, to taste
Capers, to taste

Instructions

Toss prepared pasta and olive oil in a large mixing bowl, coating to taste.
Top pasta with flaked tuna, cherry tomatoes, olives, and capers.
Can be served hot or cold.

Notes

*For a more pasta salad feel, use a shorter form of pasta.

What is your favorite way to use tuna? Let us know in the comments below!

October 28, 2019October 19, 2019

Blueberry Topped Lemon Cheesecake

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Ah cheesecake – it can be so right, or go so wrong! This was our first foray into homemade cheesecake, and I think it was a great success!

I had a coworker moving departments, so we decided to throw him a farewell potluck. This is the dessert I brought. I had to make sure to bring home a piece for my wife, because she said she’d kill me if I didn’t. Luckily I was able to bring back a slice for her to try.

Everyone loved this flavor combination! You can’t go wrong with blueberries and lemon, and this cheesecake is proof! The crust also contains a surprising ingredient that shows this desserts deep Southern roots – corn meal. I’ve been seeing blueberry and sweet corn dessert recipes pop up here and there, and this is a tasty trend I can definitely get behind!

Blueberry Topped Lemon Cheesecake

Comfort Foods, Dessert, Fruit, Meals for a Crowd, Southern, Splurge, Summer

Blueberry Topped Lemon Cheesecake

Ingredients

1/3 cup butter
32 oz cream cheese
8 oz mascarpone cheese
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/8 tsp salt
Zest of 2 medium lemons
6 tbs lemon juice, divided *
3 cups blueberries, divided
1 tbs water

Instructions

Place butter, cream cheese, mascarpone cheese, and eggs on counter at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Wrap a double layer of tin foil around the bottom and outer sides of a 9 inch springform pan to form a watertight seal. Lightly grease the bottom of the pan. Set pan aside.
To make the crust, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds in a medium bowl. Add 1/4 cup sugar and beat until fully combined. Add flour, cornmeal, and salt. Beat together ingredients until crumbly. Press the mixture into the bottom of the springform pan, making as even and flat as possible. Bake for 20 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
While crust is baking, in a large mixing bowl combine cream cheese, mascarpone cheese, and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Beat on medium-high speed until smooth. Add beaten eggs, lemon zest, and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice to the cheese mixture, beating on low speed until just combined.
Pour cheese mixture over baked crust, spreading evenly. Place the foil-wrapped springform pan into a roasting pan. Pour hot water into the roasting pan until water reaches about halfway up the side of the springform pan.
Bake for 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours or until 2 inch area around the outside edge appears set and the center appears nearly set when shaken.
Remove springform pan from water. Cook in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Using a small sharp knife, loosen edges of cheesecake from sides of pan.
Allow cheesecake to cool completely on the rack. Once cooled, remove foil from pan, cover, and place in refrigerator. Chill for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.
For blueberry topping, combine 2 cups of blueberries, 1/2 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, and water in a medium saucepan. Cook and stir until mixture begins boiling. Boil gently, uncovered, for 15 – 20 minutes or until slightly thickened. Stir in remaining blueberries. Cook for 2 more minutes. Remove pan from heat and allow mixture to cool. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
To serve, remove sides from springform pan. Slice cheesecake, and spoon blueberry topping over each slice.

Notes

*3 tablespoons of lemon juice is about 1 medium lemon, juiced. Yield will vary by lemon.

Need a dessert, but you’re looking something a little less intense? Check out these sweet recipes!

October 24, 2019October 19, 2019

Meat Lovers Pizza

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Halloween parties are coming! When I was younger, my favorite part of Halloween parties (besides dressing up and getting TONS of candy that is) was eating some delicious greasy pizza paired with root beer someone’s mom had added dry ice to.

Of course as an adult, most of the time I’ll pass on the extra cheap, extra greasy pizza, and go for home made! Its easier than it seems, way cheaper, and you get a better quality product you can feel satisfied about.

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One of our favorite pizzas in the Cason household is the extra hearty, much beloved Meat Lovers pizza! The best part about Meat Lovers is you can smother it in your favorite kinds of meat and make it completely your own! We go towards a more traditional approach to it, but you can add whatever meat tickles your fancy!

Meat Lovers Pizza

Cheese, Comfort Foods, Dinner, Meals for a Crowd, Meat, Pizza, Splurge

Meat Lovers Pizza

Ingredients

Pizza Dough

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
3 1/4 cups flour
1 TBS + 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 TBS salt

Toppings

14 oz can of Pizza sauce
3/4 lb mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 lb cheddar cheese, shredded
8 oz Pepperoni
7 oz salami
7 oz Canadian bacon
1 lb Italian sausage, cooked and crumbled

Instructions

Make the Dough

Dissolve the yeast completely in a large bowl by stirring it into 1/4 cup of the lukewarm water. Dissolve in 10 minutes or less. Once fully dissolved, add in 1 cup of the flour and mix thoroughly.
Continuing to stir, gradually add 1 TBS of olive oil, salt, 1/4 cup of lukewarm water, and 1 additional cup of flour. As you add the last of the lukewarm water (up to 1/2 cup) and flour (up to 1 1/4 cups), add them in small amounts, working them in gradually to get the right consistency – soft, but not sticky. *
Take the dough out of the bowl and place onto a clean work surface. Pick up and slap down on the counter several times until it has stretched out to be about 10 inches long. Fold the dough over itself towards you, and then push away using the heel of your palm. Fold again and push again. Rotate the dough one quarter turn and repeat, slapping it down on the work surface and kneading. Repeat this procedure for up to 10 minutes or until the dough feels soft and silky. Pat the dough into a rounded shape.
Coat the inside of a large mixing bowl with 1 tsp olive oil. Place the dough in the bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rest in a warm spot in the kitchen about 3 hours or until it has doubled in size.
Lightly coat pizza pan with olive oil. Divide the dough by 2. Wrap extra dough in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator if not using immediately. Using a rolling pin, roll dough out into a 14″ circle. Place dough onto pizza pan and pinch any holes in dough closed.

Make the Pizza

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
Spread pizza sauce over prepped dough evenly to taste, leaving about 1 inch of dough exposed around edge. Top with mozzarella cheese and cheddar cheese, sprinkling evenly over sauce. Top with the meats, spreading it all out as evenly as possible over the pizza.
Place pizza in preheated oven. Bake for 15 minutes, then rotate the pan. Check again after another 10-15 minutes. Cheese should be melted and the dough should be crisp and all lift up with lifted by the edge.
Allow to cool for at least 5 minutes before slicing.

Love this pizza, but need another flavor for your big pizza bash?! Check out our other pizzas here!

October 7, 2019October 7, 2019

Creamy Oyster Stew

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Hey all! This week’s post doesn’t contain any pictures. We ate this stew so fast we didn’t get a chance to snag a pic!

Seriously, it is so good! We LOVE oysters in this house, but living where we do we don’t get them very often. Here they cost an arm and a leg and are canned. Though there’s nothing wrong with canned, you can’t beat fresh oysters.

We stock up on fresh seafood when we visit family in Oregon and freeze most of it for use during the next year. These oysters were the last of the ones from our last trip (yay for another trip in a few weeks!), and boy was it worth it to use them!

With soup season finally being here, this soup goes together fast and easy and is great paired with some fresh bread!

Creamy Oyster Stew

Comfort Foods, Dinner, Meals for a Crowd, Seafood, Soup, Splurge, Uncategorized

Ingredients

1 pint oysters in their liquid
2 1/2 tablespoons butter
1/2 sweet onion, minced
1 stalk of celery, minced
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
Garnishes (see below)

Instructions

Prepare the Oysters

Set a colander over a small bowl. Add the oysters into the colander, allowing the liquid to flow into the bowl.
Place a fine mesh sieve over another bowl and pass the liquid through it, filtering out sand, grit, and small pieces of broken shell from the liquid. Discard solids and set liquid aside for later.

Make the stew

In a stock pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the minced onion and celery, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until the vegetables are softened and translucent.
Turn the heat down to medium low. Add the oyster liquid, milk, cream, and thyme. Heat slowly, stirring occasionally, until the broth just reaches a simmer. Do not boil! Taste the broth and adjust the seasoning, adding salt and pepper to taste.
Add the oysters to the broth and simmer for 2-3 minutes. The oysters are done once the edges start to curl.
Serve hot with desired garnishes.

Notes

We didn’t garnish ours, but some garnishes we would suggest would be celery leaves, Old Bay seasoning, a dash of hot sauce, and/or slivers of butter.

Do you love oysters as much as we do?! Let us know in the comments if you want more oyster recipes!

July 22, 2019

Loaded Italian Pasta Salad

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When I think of summer, I think of barbecue, fresh produce, and delicious sides! Pasta salads can be a good way to balance rich flavors and taste with a tight budget.

This one is loaded with savory zest and classic Italian flavors. Its also super easy to throw together! If you use the olive oil listed in the recipe, this definitely falls into our “Splurge” category, but you can substitute other oils – though the flavor won’t be as rich.

Great to keep on hand or bring to your next potluck, we can’t rave about this pasta salad enough!

Loaded Italian Pasta Salad

Appetizer, Comfort Foods, Dinner, Italian, Meals for a Crowd, Pasta, Salad, Sides, Splurge, Summer

Ingredients

36 oz rotini pasta
1 1/2 cups olive oil**
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
4 tsp dried parsley leaves
5 tsp minced onion
5 tsp fresh lemon juice
3 tsp dried basil
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp white sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 lb mozzarella cheese
1/2 lb salami
1 can black olives
1/2 red onion
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper

Instructions

Boil pasta until cooked thoroughly. Drain and cool.
In a medium bowl, combine oil, vinegar, parsley, minced onion, lemon juice, basil, oregano, garlic powder, salt, sugar, and pepper. Mix well and set aside.
Chop mozzarella and salami into very small pieces. Drain the olives and quarter. Finely chop the red onion and bell peppers.
Place pasta into a large bowl. Add in half of the dressing and mix well. Add cheese, salami, olives, onion, and peppers. Stir thoroughly. Add in remaining dressing and mix once more.
Allow to rest in refrigerator for at least 1 hour for flavors to meld. Serve cold.

Notes

**Other oils can be substituted, but olive oil gives the best flavor.

What is your favorite summer pasta salad? Let us know in the comments!

Dying to know how to make something? Send in a recipe suggestion and we’d love to make it for you!

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July 18, 2019

Seafood Salad

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As summer wears on and the days get hotter, we were looking for more ways to keep full without having to heat too many things up in the kitchen. Not to mention for the latest family party the theme my mother-in-law picked salads. So we found this delicious pasta salad chock full of savory silky sauce, krab, and shrimp!

This is a great salad to keep on hand. You can keep it in the fridge and eat it as a side or on its own. You only need to boil pasta – the rest is just mixing! Easy and you don’t have to heat up the house!

Seafood Salad

Comfort, Dinner, Meals for a Crowd, Pasta, Salad, Seafood, Sides, Southern, Splurge, Summer

Seafood Salad

Ingredients

1 lb shell pasta
3 stalks celery
1 lb imitation crab (krab) meat
1/4 lb shrimp meat
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
2 TBS white sugar
2 TBS white vinegar
1 TBS lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp Old Bay Seasoning
1 TBS creole seasoning

Instructions

In a large pot, boil shell pasta until thoroughly cooked. Drain.
Place pasta in a large mixing bowl. Finely chop celery and add to bowl along with the crab and shrimp meat.
Mix in mayonnaise, sugar, vinegar, and lemon juice. Follow with salt, pepper, onion powder, Old Bay seasoning, and creole.
Mix well and cover bowl. Chill for at least 2 hours. Serve cold.

Tried this recipe? Let us know in the comments!

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April 22, 2019April 22, 2019

Pork & Veggie Stir Fry

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The few times we get carry out, we have a favorite Chinese place we go to. Their family combos are to die for, and we always add on an extra order of their crispy cream cheese wontons.

Since we can’t get out as often as we would like, we’ve found its cheaper to make our favorite Asian inspired dishes ourselves. This pork stir fry gives you all the umami you’d expect from your favorite place with the ease of staying in home while you whip it up hot in your own wok!

We cook up our rice in our pressure cooker to make it fast and fluffy! No need to get a single function rice cooker!

We used a bag of frozen veggies from Costco to make ours. You can always substitute fresh produce in, but we find it is often cheaper to grab these veggies frozen – especially when they aren’t in season.

Pork & Veggie Stir Fry

Chinese, Comfort Foods, Dinner, Meat, Pork, Splurge

Pork & Veggie Stir Fry

Ingredients

3 TBS olive oil, divided
3 lbs pork, cut into bite sized pieces
2 1/2 lbs frozen stir fry vegetables**
1 TBS garlic powder
2 tsp powdered ginger

For the Sauce

3 TBS corn starch
6 TBS cold water
1 tsp chicken base
3/4 cup water
6 TBS soy sauce
3/4 cup honey
3 TBS toasted sesame oil
2 tsp or to taste crushed red pepper flakes

Instructions

Make the Sauce:

In a medium bowl, whisk corn starch and cold water. Add remaining sauce ingredients, mixing as you go. Set aside

Start the Stir fry:

Add 1 1/2 TBS olive oil to deep skillet or wok and heat over medium high heat. Add pork, cook in batches if necessary, and add salt and pepper to taste as cooking. Cook for 5 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from pan.
Add remaining oil and reduce heat to medium. Add frozen vegetables to pan, stirring occasionally until heated through but not soggy.
Add garlic powder and powdered ginger and cook for a minute. Add pork back into pan, stirring to combine.
Mix sauce again in case of separation. Our over meat and vegetables, stirring gently to coat.
Increase heat and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Let boil for a minute.
Remove from heat. Serve hot over rice.

Notes

**The frozen bag of vegetables we use includes: broccoli, sugar snap peas, green beans, carrots, mushrooms, red bell peppers, water chestnuts and yellow onions. You can use 2 1/2 lbs of whatever fresh vegetables you like. When cooking, cook vegetables until cooked through but still a little crisp.

March 5, 2019March 8, 2019

New England Clam Chowder

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Soup is our go to when the weather gets cold. Its usually pretty budget friendly, filling, and its nice to wrap your hands around a big mug of soup while you sit on the couch and watch the snow fall outside your window.

This soup is more of a splurge. We love it, but only have it on rare occasion. Why?

Its spendy.
Its labor intensive.
We don’t want to spoil ourselves because its soooooooooooo delicious!

I cut the cost a bit by harnessing the inner Hunter-Gatherer in myself whenever I make a trip out to Oregon to visit my family. My dad and I hit the coast and go clamming every morning. A little effort, some time, and I come home with pounds and pounds of frozen clams that my family and I eat throughout the years.

We doubled this recipe recently and brought it to my wife’s sides monthly Family Home Evening dinner. It was a huge hit! Not to mention we had plenty for everyone plus leftovers – that’s 9 adults, 1 tween, 2 toddlers AND leftovers. You’ll need a pretty big pot to fit all that delicious flavor in – might I suggest this one?

I would also suggest reading the WHOLE RECIPE before preparing. Like everything good in this world, this soup does not come easy. It can be messed up pretty easily, and we wouldn’t want that!

New England Clam Chowder

Dinner, Meals for a Crowd, Old Fashioned, Soup, Splurge

New England Clam Chowder

Ingredients

1/2 lb of bacon, chopped
2 lbs of raw clams, chopped* OR 8 6.5oz cans of chopped cans, liquid reserved**
48oz clam juice OR chicken stock***
1/2 large sweet onion, diced
6 stalks of celery, thinly sliced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2/3 cup of flour
3lbs of red potatoes, diced into 1/2″ pieces
1/2 tsp dried thyme
4 bay leaves
16oz heavy cream
2 TBS fresh parsley, well minced
Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

In a large stock pot, cook the bacon until crisp over medium heat. *If using raw clams, cook them during this step along with the bacon.
Add the diced celery and onions, cooking until they are very soft and translucent. Add the minced garlic and cook until fragrant, only about 30 seconds.
Stir in the flour to coat all the veggies and meat. Cook until the flour is turning brown.
Very, very gradually begin adding the clam juice/chicken stock/reserved can juice. Add a small amount – about 2 TBS at a time – of liquid and stir it in until there is no more visible liquid. Then add a little more, completely combining each batch with the veggie flour mixture. Continue this way until you use up all the liquid.
Add the potatoes, thyme, and bay leaves. Raise the temperature to high and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce the temperature to low and simmer for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.
Stir in the cream. **If you are using canned clams, add them during this step. Heat through. Remove from heat and stir in the parsley, seasoning with salt and pepper.

Notes

***You can use half clam juice and half chicken stock. If you are using fresh clams use the clam juice because you will not have any liquid to reserve from the cans.

March 3, 2019September 16, 2019

Extreme Cheese Lasagna

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Now, I don’t throw the word “extreme” around lightly. So when I tell you this lasagna is extremely cheesy, you can take that to the bank! You may need to go to the bank, actually, and get a loan to afford all this cheese!

We don’t indulge in this lasagna very often. We look all year long for major deals and then we buy in major bulk. A local restaurant supply liquidation store we frequent recently had huge 6lb blocks of mozzarella on sale for $8 a piece! So we grabbed a couple. The next week we came back and they still had a ton, and because the sell by dates were getting close they had them for…

…wait for it…

2 for $8! We grabbed as many as we could, cut them into 1 lb blocks, and bagged them up for the freezer. We’ve been slowly working through the cheese. This lasagna made a dent in our stash, but it was sooooo worth it!

Its got 4 pounds of cheese. Four pounds! It was almost hard to take out of the pan.

This traditional Italian dish is perfect for your next family get together. Big enough to feed a crowd and please them all!

Extreme Cheese Lasagna

Cheese, Dinner, Italian, Meals for a Crowd, Splurge

Extreme Cheese Lasagna

Ingredients

For the Pasta

3 eggs
1 1/2 cups of flour
If you are not making your own pasta 1 box of lasagna noodles

For the Sauce

64 oz tomato sauce
2/3 cups of Italian seasoning
1/8 cup of garlic powder
1/8 cup of onion powder

Layering ingredients

2 lbs of ricotta cheese
2 lbs of mozzarella cheese
1 lb Italian sausage links
1 lb ground Italian sausage

Instructions

Homemade Noodles –

Put the flour into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour.
Crack eggs into the flour, pop yolks and mix flour into the eggs in the well using a fork. Then thoroughly combine mixture until you have formed a dough. If it sticky, add small amounts of flour until the desired consistency. If dry and cracking, add small amounts of water until the desired consistency.
Use an adjustable pasta roller to finish the dough. Place the dough through the roller at the largest size setting. Adjust the roller down a size and roll pasta sheet through again. If holes form in the sheet fold in half and place back into roller at the same thickness you just used. Continue rolling pasta, adjusting to next lowest setting until desired thickness. Cut noodles to desired width and about 1” longer than the pan you are going to use to make the lasagna.
Dry flat – pasta will shrink slightly as it dries. Store in an air tight container until ready to use. Do not pre-cook noodles before adding to the lasagna.

Make the Lasagna

In two separate pans, fry ground sausage and sliced link sausage. Once fully cooked, remove from heat and set aside.
If cooking immediately, preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
It’s time to layer! Begin with a light layer of sauce on the bottom of the pan. Place first layer of noodles, covering bottom. Do not worry if there is space between noodles as long as it is less than half an inch between each one. Add half of the remaining sauce. Layer on 1lb of ricotta cheese in 1TBS sized dollops, then spread evenly. Layer on 1lb of mozzarella cheese. Layer on half of the ground sausage and half of the sausage links, spread out evenly.
Repeat layers with remaining ingredients except for mozzarella. Place remaining mozzarella on top, making sure to cover completely.
Place loose layer of aluminum foil over pan.
If freezing – tightly wrap entire pan in plastic wrap. Freeze flat. Before cooking, thaw in refrigerator overnight. Once thawed bake as normal.
When ready to bake, place lasagna pan on cookie sheet to prevent dripping messes in the bottom of your oven.
Bake covered for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 25 minutes.