Cheese Pasta Bake

• 1 pkg (16 oz) bow ties (penne, rottini, etc)
• 2 cans diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups mozzarella - shredded
• 1 1/3 cups grated Romano cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup minced parsley.

Cook pasta and drain the pasta.

Drain tomatoes but keep separate about 1 1/4 cups of the juice.

In saucepan melt butter, stir in the flour, salt and pepper until smooth; add - slowly - the milk and the tomato juice. Boil - stirring - for about 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat.

Add the sauce and tomatoes to the drained pasta.

Stir in cheeses and parsley.

Transfer to a greased baking dish and bake - uncovered - at 375 for 30-35 minutes.


To make it a full blown casserole, we can add cooked pieces of chicken to the pasta before baking it.
YUMMY!!!!

Creamed chicken

• about 3 lbs of chicken pieces (not too big not too small)
• 2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine
• 2 tablespoons dry Italian salad dressing (1 pkg.)
• 1 can condensed chicken soup
• 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese - cut in chunks
• 1/4 cup chopped onion (at times I use 1/2 an envelope of dry onion soup)

Place the chicken in the crockpot, pour butter on, mix. Mix the soup, onion, dry italian dressing and the chunks of cream cheese.
Put on top of chiken and cook on low for about 7 – 8 hours (if cooked in the oven, cover the pan and cook until chicken is ready).

Sopapilla cheesecake

The first time I made this recipe, Jason - my recently married son, said "mom, how come you never told me you knew how to cook!" so it's yummy and super easy.

• 2 cans of Pillsbury crescent rolls (I tried the supermarket brand but somehow they didn't come out the same)
• 2 packages of cream cheese
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 1/2 cup butter melted
• 3/4 cup of sugar (yep, more sugar)
• 1 tsp of cinnamon (I don't measure it, it could be a bit more or less - according to taste)

Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray
Unroll and spread one of the cans of crescent rolls on the baking dish - try to patch the holes so the cream is on a solid base.
Beat the cream cheese with the sugar and vanilla.
Spread the cream on the dough
Unroll and place the other crescent roll can over the cream.
Pour the melted butter on top of the whole thing.
Spread the cinnamon sugar on top of the melted butter.
Bake at 350˚ for about 1/2 hr.