Chicken Cheese Spinach Manicotti with Bacon

Chicken Spinach Manicotti with Bacon

  

Completed Manicotti deliciousness

• 1 1/4 cup spinach
• 14 fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 15 oz cup of ricotta
• 1/2 cup of cottage cheese
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 egg white
• 2 chicken breast, cooked then chopped finely
• 4 strips of bacon, cooked, drained, patted dry and finely chopped
• 14 manicotti noodles cooked until al dente
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan
• Jar of sauce

Cook that bacon up, you only need a few strips. Pat it dry to remove all of the greasiness  Chop it up. Use that bacon oil in the pan to cook that chicken. Spice the chicken with some salt and pepper. Once cooked to deliciousness, chop it up into small bits and put into a bowl with the bacon. 

I have a delicious beverage here, nothing too fancy, just some vodka with cranberry/raspberry. Very important to this process. 

Cook up the onion until translucent and just when they are about done add in those garlic cloves. Cook up for a few minutes and remove from heat. Add to the bowl of chicken and bacon. Set all this aside. 

In another bowl mix the ricotta, the cottage cheese, oregano, that fresh basil, pepper, salt, egg white, Parmesan cheese freshly grated. 

I grated this cheese here. It is quite amazing. It is a bit expensive but it really is yummy. You can take any type that you want though. 

Add this right into your bowl. 

It definitely helped to have a kitchen helper. My husband was chopping up the bacon and chicken for me while I made my cheese bowl. He is so super awesome. 

Oh no! My glass is empty, time for a refill. 

Mix the two bowls together. 

Cook your manicotti right up until they are al dente. Just a little bit hard. They will cook when it is in the oven. 

While that is boiling, scoop up all your ingredients in the bowl into a piping bag. 

Put a layer of tomato sauce down into the pan, pipe your ingredients in and place on the sauce. 

Once you get them all in there, put another layer of sauce into the map then top with cheese. 

I used this cheese and sprinkled generously on top. 

Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 5 until that cheese on top is a nice golden brown. Let cool for 15 minutes. 

Oh this was soo good! I loved it just the way it is, my husband however had to add some salt. He always adds salt to every thing!

Hastings stole county seat from Juniata 

On my adventures out last week I had asked several home grown Hastinites to tell me something about this place. Hastings was founded in 1872. Only one person happened to know this exact year but at least three people told me that Hastings is on the county seat because they stole it from Juniata, a nearby already established town. I've tried looking this up on the web and could not quickly come up with the information. At Central Community College I was referred to a book on the History of Hastings that describes they stole a physical piece of something, probably a gavel, and this meant that they were in business in the county seat!

Seems kind of silly really and you would think that this might be all over the web, but it is not! I confirmed this story with someone who knows all about the History of Hastings. 

As of 2010 Hastings, Nebraska is home to 24,907 people according to the census. This town is tiny as hell. Everyone seems to know everyone, and every time I go out the bartenders and regulars have already learned my name. While that certainly is flattering and honestly kind of sweet, it sure is different from back home in Springfield, Massachusetts home of 153, 552 as of 2012. My hometown also holds the county seat but there is no interesting story around that, and up until I looked up the population number on Wikipedia  I had absolutely no idea.