Chef Boyardee is giving away groceries for a year through its recipe contest Make it Boyardeelicious. Each week from now until March 11, Chef Boyardee fans are invited to submit their own original recipe for a chance to win $500 plus $75 in Chef Boyardee coupons. At the end of the 10-week campaign, one of the weekly winners will be chosen as the grand prize winner to win a year’s worth of groceries (approx $5,200 in grocery store gift cards). How awesome would that be?!
To enter the contest, visit and like the Chef Boyardee Facebook page then upload a photo of your family creation (using Chef Boyardee products). There are only two weeks left in the submission phase to be eligible for the $500 prize and qualify as one of the 10 finalists for the grand prize, so it’s time to start cooking.
To inspire your Chef Boyardee recipe creation, I was asked to host a dinner party serving up a Chef Boyardee dish. Selecting from the five recipe ideas on Chef Boyadree’s website, I choose to make a ravioli lasagna.
When I invited friends over for a Chef Boyardee dinner, I heard an ever-so-slight chuckle in their response. It’s a well-known fact that I am not a master of the kitchen. My husband is the cook in our family, and my own attempts in the kitchen often go a bit awry. But I was going to try, so our friends were willing to taste test my culinary experiment.
Armed with a pair of matching aprons, a chef’s hat and a kid-friendly cooking set, my sous-chef and I were ready to begin cooking. If nothing else, we’d have fun in the kitchen.
Ravioli Lasagna recipe details here.
Because the reviews of the ravioli lasagna were mixed, I decided to change up the recipe a bit. (Plus my husband refuses to eat cottage cheese, even cooked into something, so I had to sub that out.) Instead of two cans of ravioli, I used three. But because people mentioned that the dish was already runny, for the third can I only used the ravioli draining off the liquid before adding it to the mix. I thought I was doing well at this point until it dawned on me that I forgot to drain the tomatoes, doh! So I decided to drain off most of the liquid – the tomato juice and ravioli sauce. So far so good.
Next I swapped out the cottage cheese for ricotta cheese. (Here is where I went a little overboard.) My dish was 8×11 instead of 8×8. This meant I was only able to get 2 layers of ravioli in my dish. As I spread out my 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese it took nearly the full amount to cover the ravioli. So I decided to add another cup. You really need a smaller dish to make this meal.
K and I had a great time making our meal together, although with her assistance it took much longer than the allotted 15 minutes prep time.
When it was time for my guests to sample my culinary experiment, everyone was pleasantly surprised. (Especially me.) The dish was quite tasty. (I hadn’t ruined it!) The flavors were quite good together, however, it was still very runny. I think this is in part to so much cheese. (Hence my suggestion of a smaller dish.) If you make it with cottage cheese, you will definitely want to drain the cheese. My friend (who is a great cook) also suggested that I should have let it sit longer before serving.
All in all, this culinary experiment was a success. Plus we had a great time in the kitchen and dinner with friends.
Disclosure – I wrote this review while participating in a In Home Party campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Chef Boyardee and received product samples to facilitate my party and review, and a promotional item to thank me for participating.