Plain ol’ pasta doesn’t have to be plain at all
I really don’t know what to call this dish. After all, it *is* simply rigatoni with sauce and cheese.
Then again, for whatever reason, turning all the noodles upright after cooking and then baking them this way made this dish way more fun….both to make and eat.
It didn’t take very long, but it did take longer than I thought it would. I figured I could do more than one noodle at a time, laying them in bulk, but not a chance. Each one had to be stacked individually.
Doesn’t it look cool when they’re ready, though? And then comes the sauce and cheese. And then more sauce, ‘cause hey, why not?
And then hey, why not some more cheese to melt on top of that?
Yum. Now the tricky part was actually serving it. You see, with all that sauce, the pasta couldn’t exactly stick together, could it?
Notice it going everywhere? (Oh, and those cheese biscuits in the lower left? Also really, really good)
Yeah…. So it might’ve been a little messy….
But it still looked cool in the pan and tasted so much better than just “plain ol’ pasta.”
Hello Kitty tortilla pizzas
You know Hello Kitty, right? If not, you should probably leave the internet now and never come back. :P 
Pretty close, yeah? I used olives for the eyes and whiskers, sesame seeds for the nose, and pepperoni for the bow. Oh right, and a mozzarella cheese base, of course.
The girls had been watching me carefully cut the tortillas and once they finally guessed what I was making, they were so excited. It’s not even that I have any Hello Kitty fans, so much as it was that they loved being able to recognize what I was creating.
They were each slightly different, too. The bows weren’t quite right, so I kept fiddling. Some were fatter, some had higher whispers, etc. Some had funky ears.
Because they’re used to having tomato sauce with pizza-esque items, we had some red Hello Kitties, too, hehe.
I thought it was really funny how they each ate theirs, too. Instead of starting at one point and eating straight through to another (or requesting I cut it into pizza sliced triangles like they usually want), they each eat around the face in one way or another:
When I’d been cutting the tortillas, a couple of them were too kitty like and not cartoon Hello Kitty enough, so I pushed them to the side. With a little altering, though, they were still usable. My little sister came through and turned them into Pretty Kitties instead:
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Hawaiian haystacks – Pile it on and enjoy
The girls always love when I make haystacks, or rather, they get to make them, because the ingredients are rarely the same twice, and they each get to customize their “chicken sundae.”
Hawaiian haystacks aren’t even from Hawaii, by the way. It’s just that pineapple is a common ingredient and that’s connected to the Hawaii name.
Anyway, if you’ve never made them before, you should. Haystacks are a great way to finish off a bunch of ingredients that you only have a handful of, and if you have picky eaters, no problem…..only add the items each person wants.
Hawaiian Haystacks Recipe:
- Rice
- Chicken, chunked or shredded (leftover chicken works great)
- Chicken sauce/gravy (recipes below)
- Any number of diced/sliced/chopped ingredients including pineapple, olives, green onions, green peppers, chow mein noodles, mandarin oranges, cheese, avocado
Pile on in order and enjoy. Yep, it’s that simple.
Chicken Sauce Recipe Ideas:
(The links are to recipes that don’t use canned condensed soup, if you’re like me and try to avoid it….but the canned soup version is tasty and fine if you’re okay using it)
- 1 cup chicken, 1 can cream of chicken soup, 1 cup water, salt and pepper (you could also add sour cream, cream cheese, chicken broth, or milk in addition to or in place of various ingredients….really, it’s not an exact science….work with what you have)
- Mel’s Kitchen Café
- Real Mom Kitchen
- Your Sacred Calling (this one uses coconut milk
Here’s some of the ingredients from another time I made them:
So colorful. The second item on the top row is chopped almonds, by the way….they give a nice crunch.
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