spaghetti pie

I remember my mom making this when I was a kid.  I loved the dry crunchy pasta crust edges.  Mmmm.  Nothing like taking decent Italian food and making it totally waspy.  I LOVE IT!

Here's my rendition of spaghetti pie.  It's super-easy and possibly less messy than traditional spaghetti.  Royall loved it because he said it had the great taste of spaghetti, but in a more convenient way to eat it.

Here's what you will need:

box of spaghetti
jar of spaghetti sauce
mozzarella cheese (just a sprinkle)
ricotta cheese (1/2 to 3/4 cup)
2 eggs
cooking spray
oregano

First things first:
Boil some water and cook a whole box of spaghetti.  Also, preheat the oven to 350.

Once the spaghetti has cooked, rinse it off with cool water and spray it lightly with cooking spray or olive oil.

In a bowl, combine the spaghetti, 2 well beaten eggs, a dollop of sauce (maybe more like a 1/2 cup), and some ricotta and mozzarella.  I didn't measure the cheese very well, just used what I thought looked good.  Sprinkle some oregano in there too!

Pour the spaghetti mixture into a pie pan.  Press it down so it is even and if you can, press some spaghetti up on the sides to form a pie crust.  Leave a shallow well in the middle and add more ricotta and mozzarella in the middle.

Pour spaghetti sauce on top and press/rub it into the pie.  Try and use the whole jar or else you risk a dry pie.  If you don't like dry crusty pasta on the edges, cover well with sauce.

Bake for 25 minutes and then add mozzarella on top.

Let it cool a little bit before cutting into the pie.


Here's the photo play-by-play:

YUM!!!

PS: You can spice this up by adding the following: veggies, ground beef, olives, or different cheeses!

Maple Pumpkin Pie

This pie has two great fall flavors- pumpkin and REAL maple syrup.  Plus, it is sugar-free!  (plain white granulated sugar-free, that is) Check it out.

Maple Pumpkin Pie:

pie crust
can of pumpkin (small)
1 1/4 cup half and half
2/3 cup of real maple syrup (none of that Aunt Jemima or Eggo BS)
3 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
splash, big dash, or mini-bam of flour (I guess 1 teaspoon-ish)
all those spices that smell like Thanksgiving:
     1 tsp each of: cinnamon, nutmeg
     1/2 tsp each of: ginger, salt
     itsy-bitsy pinch of: cloves

Mix all the ingredients well.  I added cream cheese, just because I had it.  It was cold, fat-free cream cheese which did not dissolve into the batter and left chunks of white goo in the pie.  It wasn't bad, but it didn't look pretty.  RH asked if it was marshmallow pieces..... which has got me thinking about a follow up pie recipe.

Anyway, bake at 350 for an hour.  I did not pre-bake the pie crust or anything fancy.

Here's how it looked:

Piping hot outta the oven!

The maple syrup gave the top a sugar syrup sheen.

Got a piece on a plate while it was still hot (hence the melting whipped cream).  It smelled too good to wait.

And next thing I know, about 24 hours later there is a 1/2 inch slice left.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

This was an attempt to make chicken wings healthier.  I'm guessing that it is healthier because: 1. I used white meat chicken instead of dark meat, 2. nothing is fried, 3. cream cheese was fat free, 4. it tastes great with celery!

Here's the ingredient list:

two cooked chicken breasts, shredded
1 package fat free cream cheese
1/2 cup of reduced fat ranch dressing
1/2 cup of Frank's Red Hot or similar hot sauce
dollop of mayonnaise
a couple sprinkles of low-fat mozzerella

 Step by step photos:

Two shredded chicken breasts

Liquid ingredients

Combine chicken with liquid ingredients until it looks like vomit.

Cook at 350 for about 20-30 minutes or until nice and bubbly.

Serve with celery and crackers.

YUM!

PS: Tastes really good as a cold chicken salad if you add chopped celery!