Crock Pot Chicken Marinara Sauce

Easy and tasty for Italian night. Just dump the ingredients in the slow cooker and come back to eat.

I started with my wife's marinara. It bursts with sweet tomato taste due to the paste that is used. Add some skinless boneless chicken breast and you have a healthy low fat Italian family feast.

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Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore

Another "dump and go" easy slow cooker recipe. A classic healthy Italian recipe that is low in fat.  The chicken comes out moist, fall apart tender and packed with taste.

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Olive Garden Pasta E Fagioli Copycat Soup

A really good hardy soup that is a copy cat of Olive Gardens Pasta E Fagioli. Now you can make this gem at home.

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Parmesan Mayonnaise Baked Skinless Chicken Breast

The new leader for recipe of the year. This chicken has everything. It's extremely moist, great taste, a little crunchiness and it is SIMPLE. My wife has changed the Christmas menu from my 5-star Chicken Parmesan to this recipe.

Start with some mayo. You could use lower fat if you wish here. Some recipes use zero fat Greek yogart as the base instead. Add some Parmesan and seasoning. Coat some well trimmed skinless boneless chicken breasts and  then sprinkle all sides with some Italian bread crumbs. Bake and you're in chicken heaven.
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Weeknight Baked Chicken Parmesan

A very easy weeknight chicken Parmesan. With a very moist and tender chicken and a tasty cruchy topping, this may be just what you're looking for.

I started with a very popular recipe from Food Wishes. The idea is to smoother skinless boneless chicken breasts in some marinara sauce then top with Parmesan, mozzarella and some garlic croutons. I cut the recipe in half... we are cooking for two here. I added a bit more cheese than "half" a recipe would call for but the recipe reflects the half. I love crusty cheese on my Italian.

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Easy Meatballs

A recipe for meatballs that are scrumptious with a great Parmesan Italian taste. Eat them on their own, in a marina sauce or a sub sandwich. Done in 30 minutes. This is not the little hard tasteless meatballs but a big soft tasty one.

I wanted a meatball good enough to eat on it's own and not need to be hidden inside of a sauce. It needed to use common ingredients that I always have on hand. And lastly, I wanted to bake them in the oven. Why??? I'm LAZY.

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Baked Chicken Spaghetti

Everybody loves chicken with pasta. Here is a great tasting recipe that is weeknight simple but tasty enough for company. Make it ahead and pop it in the oven when you need it.

I have tried baked spaghetti before but the recipes always had to much pasta that was mushy. They were just wrong. I started with my chicken marinara then added some tomato paste to deepen the taste. I then undercooked 8 oz of spaghetti by 2 minutes. Mixed in some grated Parmesan. I then mixed the sauce a little into the pasta and topped with some mozzarella and more grated parmesan until browned. About 25 minutes.

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Baked Ziti with Italian Sausage

A quick and easy pasta dish with spicy Italian Sausage. Made from scratch with a tasty home made marinara sauce.

I started by browning a good quality Italian Sausage with chopped onion. Then added a modified version of my 30 minute marinara sauce. Mixed with cook pasta some mozzarella and topped with more mozzarella.

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Chicken Parmesan - An Easy Company Feast

I always judge an Italian restaurant on their Chicken Parmesan and frequently find them lacking.  Usually dry and tasteless covered by a sauce to hide their sins. I'm very picky. But I really like mine. This is a modified version a CI recipe called Lighter Chicken Parmesan. It is excellent and not too hard to make at home.

It is a wonderful company recipe and I have used it several times as the evening meal before a major holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas. Great for casual dining and conversation with wine. 

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How to Make a Pizza

This is the one thing I always have to make when the kids are home or we are there. The call is always for "Daddy made pizza". They all have favorite toppings and my son is milk allergic so his version is made with a non cows milk cheese in a separate area of the kitchen and baked in a separate oven or it is epipen and ER time.

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Easy Everyday Pizza Dough

Why oh why do people do everything they can to not make their own pizza dough?  They buy for the local pizza place... just buy the pizza and get it over with. They buy refrigerated roll out dough. They flatten biscuits. They buy precooked pieces of bread labeled pizza crust. I'm sure I'm missing some of other dodges. If you think of some, put them in the comments.

This is a recipe that I have been using almost 40 years. (Did I just let my age slip a little?) It was on the side of a Gold Metal Flour bag and I'm sure I have modified it some over the years but the principles are the same. Start with warm water. Add twice as much flour. Add some yeast, oil, salt and sugar. Keep it warm and let it double in size. Spread it out and let it set about 10 minutes if you want thicker crust. If you want thinner crust (like my 4 cheese pizza) make a smaller amount and spread it thin and don't let it set.

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4 Cheese White Pizza

I have been recently reminded that the two pizza recipes I use most often do not appear on this site. This one is for daughter #1... a 4 cheese white pizza. This has a great taste with the mixture of cheeses.

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Spicy Parmesan Chicken Alfredo

All recipes have a story and this one starts at Red Lobster. We were out and about last week and needed dinner. We were close to a lot of restaurants but my wife loves sea food but I'm from Iowa and as a rule, if it doesn't moo, oink or cluck you don't eat or cook it. But I suggested Red Lobster since she is a good wife and should have sea food occasionally and I can eat sea food or find something else (thinking cheese cake maybe).

She had a sea food combo and I skipped the cheese cake and went with the Cajan Chicken Alfredo. Frankly, I had a good meal with great taste, her's had no taste. I mean really tasteless. I tried it. Maybe I have spoiled her (and me) with my cooking???  I wanted to make it up to her so the next day though I would give her some great spicy taste. It worked, she cleaned her plate. Good Girl.

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Healthy Deep Dish Sausage and Pepperoni Pizza

Is there really a healthy or at least healthier pizza that it worth the work. Yep there is. I won't call this "Chicago Deep Pan Pizza" since I eliminated that layer of cheese at the bottom of the pan that I associate with Chicago pizza. But with one third of the calories and 94% less fat, this is a non-guilty treat.

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Garlic Chicken Marinara Sauce in 30 Minutes

Yummers according to my wife. Somewhat inspired by an ATK recipe called Simple Red Sauce that is a quick flavorful marinara which they state will cook in about the time of cooking the pasta. The only trouble was no meat. We are meatasauruses at this house and chicken is the favorite. So instead of about 15 minutes, it took 30 minutes. Not bad, not bad at all.

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Almost Low Fat Chicken Alfredo Bake with Bite

Well, I had good intentions and if you took out the bacon, it would be less than 10 grams of fat per serving. I started just to make a simple low fat chicken Alfredo baked pasta dish. I got a little side tracked with adding a touch of Penne Rustica from Macaroni Grill. It's a favorite of my wife and daughter so I added some touches from that dish. The final dish is a baked chicken Alfredo with some bite... very nice.

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Kid Can Make Grilled Pizzas - A KISS Recipe

It's ideal for a kid pizza party. Kids love pizza but they're way picky about what is on them plus they like to help... if you call it that.  Well get the camera ready for pictures. Less than 30 minutes from start to eating. And oh so simple and good to boot.

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Grilled Stuffed Tomato - Italian Style

I'm "into" grilled sides for my grilled meat. After the very successful grill peaches the other night, I thought a veggie was in-order (yes, I do know a tomato is really a fruit).

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Italian Grilled Skinless Boneless Chicken Breasts

A nice Italian flair that was very moist and a nice change of pace from the usual BBQ on the grill.
I wanted Italian on the grill. I was going to fuss with cheese and tomato but really got lazy.

So I went Googling again and all I could find was multiple recipes with two ingredients... the chicken and a bottle of Italian dressing. I'm lazy but not that lazy. A few had dry Italian seasoning. So I substituted for that and went with it.

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Grilled 4 Cheese Chicken Pizza with Whole Wheat Crust

Ain't it beautiful. A modification of one of my oven recipes and a home run on the grill.

So I did my usual research and really didn't come up with any great inspiration. But I did learn a few pointer which I'll cover in a little while. But first what I wanted.

• Some whole wheat in the crust
• Not hard nor complicated (my instructions look a lot worse than it is)
• Adaptable to any topping so I could do our 4 cheese chicken thing.

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