It's not easy coming up with recipes that suit a variety of tastes every week. It's tough enough with my own family, but when I add in our college ministry on Sunday nights it gets really complicated! I think if I took a poll, the hands-down favorite would have to be Calzones. They also love spaghetti - and last night's dinner kind of combined the two.
I don't think it's any exaggeration to say that Pizza Pasta Casserole is in the running for new favorite! When they go back for seconds and thirds, and you hear words like "awesome" being tossed around, you know it's a winner. I adapted the original recipe quite a bit, but since this is a pretty adaptable recipe so it worked well. I used ground beef, pepperoni and ham, and I made my own marinara sauce instead of using store bought. There is NO way the recipe as written would fit in a 9x13x3 pan as the author suggests. I cut back on amounts and still had to use a 9x13 and an 8x8.
I often make a big batch of marinara sauce - some to use and some to freeze for later. It doesn't have to always be such a process, though. If I don't have any sauce in the freezer, I simply pour a couple of cans of diced tomatoes (usually Hunt's Basil, Garlic and Oregano along with Spicy Red Pepper) into the blender with a chunk of raw onion, a couple of cloves of garlic, rosemary, parsley, salt and pepper. This is pretty much my go-to for anytime I need sauce for casseroles or dipping, or whatever.
Anyway, for dessert last night I made Homemade Peanut Butter Cups. They were VERY easy to make, though I suspect if my toddler had been "helping" and not at Nannie's for the day they wouldn't have been quite so effortless! I highly recommend these. I made them in mini muffin cups and used two bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips - one for the bottom layer, one for the top, plus the peanut butter mixture from the recipe. I got 46 total mini cups from that recipe.
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