As many of you know already, I am doing Christmas Eve dinner at my house.  Now, last time I did this, I catered it.  This year we are making dinner.  I have never ever ever made a turkey in my life.  I have never made real mashed potatoes either (I am great at instant though!  LOL).  Needless to say, I am a tad worried about Christmas Eve dinner especially now that my husband has informed me that he didn’t take off (if looks could kill . . .).  However, in this insanity I call my life, there is one thing I can count on.  Dessert.

I have to thank Pillsbury for making dessert so much easier for me.  I’m all about easy cooking, and once again, they have come through for me.  Did you know that Pillsbury has pie crusts?  All you need to do is roll them out in your pie pans!  How much easier does it get than that?  Now, they also save you when you are looking for an easy pie to make for dessert too.  By checking out Pillsbury’s website, you can find a ton more pie recipes.  How does this one sound?

Candy Bar Pie

Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Start to Finish: 3 Hours 40 Minutes

Crust
1 Pillsbury® refrigerated pie crust (from 15-oz box), softened as directed on box

Filling
5 bars (2.07 oz each) chocolate-covered peanut, caramel and nougat candy
4 packages (3 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup sour cream
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

Topping
3 tablespoons whipping cream
2/3 cup milk chocolate chips

Heat oven to 450°F. Place pie crust in 9-inch glass pie plate as directed on box for One-Crust Filled Pie. Bake 5 to 7 minutes or until very light golden brown. Cool while preparing filling. Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.

Cut candy bars in half lengthwise; cut into 1/4-inch pieces. Place candy bar pieces over bottom of partially baked crust. In small bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in 1 egg at a time until well blended. Add sour cream and peanut butter, beating until mixture is smooth. Pour over candy bar pieces. Bake at 325°F for 30 to 40 minutes or until center is set. Cool completely on cooling rack, about 2 hours.

In 1-quart saucepan, heat whipping cream until very warm. Remove from heat; stir in chocolate chips until melted and smooth. Spread over top of pie. Refrigerate 2 to 3 hours before serving. Cover and refrigerate any remaining pie.

Do you have any tricks that you use for your pies?  Any time saving tips like using Pillsbury Pie Crusts?

When it is just me and the kids, I tend not to take pictures.  I have a hard time getting everyone situated and that is just what happened with this recipe.  Now, this is a recipe you can definitely customize to what you want.  I am going to list this easy to make recipe the way I made it.  However, next time I will be adding some diced tomatoes to this and possibly some ricotta cheese too.

1 lb ground beef
3 garlic cloves
1 jar (26 oz) spaghetti sauce
1 2/3 cups of water
1/4 cup of Italian Dressing
12 lasagna noodles (broken into quarters)
1 cup shredded low moisture part skim mozzarella cheese

Brown ground beef and drain.

Add in garlic, spaghetti sauce, water, and dressing. Bring this to a boil and then stir in the noodles. Reduce the heat to medium low and cover. Cook 10 - 15 minutes or until your noodles are tender. Remove from heat and sprinkle with cheese. Cover again and let stand 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

This is an easy to make recipe.  However, it does need a couple of tweaks.  This was the first time for us to make this recipe, and I would definitely not add as much beef broth.  It was super good, but very soupy.  Besides that, this is an excellent recipe that I got from the Kraft Foods website.

1 jar (16 oz) spaghetti sauce
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (10 oz) beef broth
1/4 cup Zesty Italian Dressing
24 oz of frozen ravioli (you can use fresh also)
1 cup Part Skim Mozzarella cheese

Preheat over to 375 degrees. Combine spaghetti, tomatoes, broth, and dressing in a 13×9 backing dish. Add ravioli and toss to coat. Cover with foil.

Bake 50 minutes or until ravioli is tender.

Remove foil and stir. Sprinkle with cheese and let stand 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Image via Wikipedia

To bring out the nutty, whole grain flavor of oats, toast them before using.  Spread the oats on a baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 5 minutes.  Remove immediately so the oats do not burn.

This easy to make recipe is again from Prego. I made a few changes to it and made it my own. It also said to cook with a pizza pan. Unfortunately, pizza pan had holes in the bottom. I figured that wouldn’t work too well, so I talked to Elizabeth over at MomCooks, and she suggested a cookie sheet. That worked great. If you don’t have a pizza pan, definately use a cookie sheet instead. Like the last Prego recipe I did, this again will feed a family of 4 for under $20 (actually, I think the total for this recipe was $14.71). In this economy, we can all use recipes like this.

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onion chopped
3 oz mushrooms, sliced
Vegetable cooking spray
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup milk
3 1/2 cooked corkscrew pasta
1 1/2 cup shredded part skim mozzarella cheese
1 jar (26 oz) Prego Italian Traditional Sauce or Prego Tomato, Basil, and Garlic Italian Sauce.

Follow the directions on the pasta. While that is cooking, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Heat oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and mushrooms and cook until the onions are tender. Remove the skillet from the heat.

Spray a 12 inch pizza pan (or small cookie sheet) with the cooking spray. Stir the egg, milk, pasta and 1/2 cup of cheese in a large bowl. Spread the pasta mixture in an even layer on the pizza pan. Bake for 20 minutes.

Spread the sauce on the pasta crust. Top with the onion mixture and then sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake for 15 more minutes or until the cheese is melted. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.