Do Ahead Strawberry Danish Bake

Okay so this was supposed to be an easy meal and it once was but I ended up creating my own thing and totally changing the recipe I started out with it. It was originally called "Blueberry Breakfast Bake". So bear with me I seem to complicate recipes as I make them my own. But honestly so dang good!!! An instant family favorite.

Casserole

8 slices white bread, cut into 1-inch pieces (I think I used 10 slices)
1 package cream cheese, chilled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 cups diced fresh strawberries
1/4 cup sugar
8 eggs
1/2 cup water
1 small container of vanilla yogurt (6 oz.)

1.) Dice strawberries and put in a bowl and add the sugar and stir to coat. Set aside. Grease a 9 x 13 pan. Spread half of the bread pieces evenly in baking dish. Top with cream cheese and then sprinkle with strawberries. Top with the remaining bread. Beat eggs, water, and yogurt together. Pour over bread.

2.) Covered with aluminum foil and refrigerate at least 8 hours but no longer then 24 hours.

3.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake in covered pan for 30 minutes. Then uncover it and bake for another 30 minutes. Serves slices drizzled with the special syrup.

Syrup

1 cube butter
1/2 buttermilk (if you don't have any on hand use milk with a few drops of vinegar instead)
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla

Melt butter add sugar, baking soda, buttermilk and heat to a boil stirring regularly. It becomes pretty foamy. Let it boil for one minute. Then remove from heat and add vanilla.

Do Ahead Chicken Manicotti

In my search for easy meals that would be good to use post baby I tried this one out. I thought this would be gross but we actually liked it; the kids more then Stew and I but for an easy do ahead meal this was pretty darn good. Of course I have changed it like I seem to always do to recipes, so feel free to do the same when you try it out. My kids thought it was great. They kept calling it pizza. Yeah, it was just that good. :)

1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 and 1/2 pound chicken tenders - I chopped my chicken in small pieces so my kids wouldn't be as scared off by it; they have meat aversions. And I am pretty sure I used less thena pound
14 uncooked manicotti shells
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese ( I used Italian blend pre-shreeded cheese)
*I added parmesean cheese

1.) Spread about one-third of sauce in ungreased 9 x 13 pan

2.) Sprinkle garlic salt and parmesean cheese on chicken. Insert chiken into uncooked manicotti shells. ( I didn't worry about putting a lot of chiken in mine and I used a knife to help me push the chicken in wihtout gettign my figners all gross with chicken juice and garlic salt) Palce shells in pan.

3.) Pour remaining sauce evenlt over shells, covering completely. Sprinkle with cheese.

4.) You can then either put it in the freezer for up to a month or put it in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Cover with aluminum foil with both oppsions.

5.) If frozzen heat oven to 350 degrees and bake covered for about 1 1/2 hours until shells are tender. If refrigerated heat oven to 350 degrees and bake for 1 hour covered.

Easy Meatball Subs

I made this one up today and we really enjoyed it. I am trying to increase my collection of easy meals to make post baby. I hope some of you try this and like it as much us. Seriously so good and about as easy as any meal can be.

1 pound frozen Italian Style Meatballs
1 or 1/2 finely diced bell pepper
1 jar marinara sauce (I really like Ragu's "Traditional" sauce)
fresh baked rolls or sub length bread
Shredded Cheddar Cheeses (or whatever you prefer)

Add meatballs, sauce, and bell pepper to a large pot. Cook on low heat letting it simmer for an hour or until meatballs are warmed through and flavors totally melded- putting a lid on will save you some serious stove top clean up. You can also cook it in a crock pot - cook on low until ready to eat at least two hours I would guess. Spoon meatballs and sauce on bread and top with cheese and then bite into a little bit of heaven! So easy and so yummy!!!