Chicken & Parmesan Manicotti

So I've had these manicotti shells in my pantry for a while trying to decide what I wanted to do with them, and the time finally came! I've definitely got some tips for you after my first-time manicotti try, but they turned out delicious anyway, it was just aesthetics ;)

Ingredients
10-14 pieces of manicotti (depends on package size)
2 cups ricotta cheese
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
2 cups mozzarella cheese
2 chicken breasts
1 egg
1 teaspoon oregano
salt & pepper to taste
1 bottle of your favorite pasta sauce

In a pot bring water to a boil with chicken breasts. Boil for 15 minutes or until breasts are cooked through. Strain chicken and let cool, then shred. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add manicotti shells to boiling water. Tip #1 - only let manicotti cook for 5 minutes or until just al dente. This is essential to ensure the manicotti retains its shape when you fill them later. Set manicotti aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl combine shredded chicken, ricotta cheese, parmesean cheese, egg, oregano, and salt and pepper. Stir well until mixed thoroughly. Tip #2 - add chicken mixture to a plastic bag and cut the very tip off to make cleanup & filling manicotti shells easier. Fill manicotti shells generously and place in a pre-greased 9x12 pan. Cover with selected pasta sauce and cook in oven for 35 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Optional to sprinkle with parmesean cheese for serving. Enjoy!

Banana Split Cake

This delicious recipe comes right from the pages of a summer edition of the Family Circle magazine, and when my hunny asked me to make him something sweet this recipe caught my eye. Its kind of a banana bread cake, and filled with all your favorite sundae toppings. Serve with a scoop of vanilla bean or just top with whipped cream.

Ingredients: 
3 1/2 cups flour (I used wheat)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter - softened
4 eggs
4 medium, very-rip bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk

12 oz semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/4 cups heavy cream

2/3 cups strawberry preserves
2/3 cups pineapple preserves
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Optional toppings - whipped topping or ice cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 8-inch cake pans & line with parchment paper if desired.

Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl (I did my bowl sizes backwards, so learn from my mistakes here!). In large bowl beat sugar and softened butter until fluffy about 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs to butter mixture one at a time, beating well after each.

Stir in mashed bananas and vanilla.

Beat in half of the flour mixture, followed by the buttermilk, and then the remaining flour mixing well.

EEK! This is becoming a lot of batter!! My mixer was working overtime trying to get everything mixed thoroughly.

Pour batter into cake pans evenly, and bake for 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (Ok so I need to invest in another 8 inch round lol but pie pans work in a pinch!). Let cakes cool in pans for 15 minutes and then transfer to wire racks and place in freezer or fridge to cool. (freezer is faster if you have the space) Takes about 30-60m depending on where you put them.

While cake cools place chopped chocolate in medium bowl (I used the morsels so I didnt bother chopping them). Bring heavy cream to a boil, which should take 2-3 minutes, and then pour over chocolate. This boil comes on quick, whew! it surprised me! Probably does help that I had it on medium-high heat ;)

Hand mix until combined and then beat on medium 5-7 minutes or until fluffy. Trust me, it takes forever to just stand there and mix forever, but mmmmm its deliciously worth it! Let stand 10 minutes before adding to cake.

Trim cooled cakes lightly to flatten tops (I've yet to do that here.. oops!). Carefully slice each cake in half horizontally creating 4 layers.

On first layer add strawberry preserves and spread evenly.

Top with second cake layer and add half of the chocolate ganache, spreading evenly. You could actally use less than half I think for this part, just enough to cover, because I ended up having it smushing out the sides when I put the next layer on.

Top with third cake layer and spread pineapple preserves evenly. Is your mouth watering yet?!

Top with the last layer of cake and ice with remaining chocolate ganache. Makes for quite a mess! :)

Sprinkle walnuts over the top of the finished cake. 

Top with desired additional toppings when serving. Store in the refrigerator.

HOLY WOW that is a piece of cake!