Veggie Casserole

With several fresh vegetables in the fridge one week, I had to figure out some creative ways to eat them up before they went bad.  What resulted was a vegetable casserole that my husband loved!

First I boiled chopped broccoli, carrots and cauliflower until it was cooked.  After draining the water out of them, I mixed in 2 cups of crushed crackers, half to one can of cream of chicken and half to 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese.  You can add salt and pepper to taste as well.  After mixing everything together, I poured the mix into a casserole dish and cooked at 350 until the cheese was melted and the top started to look a little crunchy. 

This dish is a delicious side to baked chicken or pork chops!

Herbed Chicken Bites

I stumbled across this recipe for Herbed Chicken Bites from www.cooks.com.  First, I cut the three pieces of boneless, skinless chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces.   I then mixed together a 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese, 2 tbs of Italian seasoning (the recipe called for thyme and basil, but I didn't have thyme by itself, so I just used the Italian seasoning) and 1 cup of crushed stuffing.  (Instead of stuffing, the recipe called for crushed bread crumbs or crackers, which I didn't have either.)

I melted 1/2 cup of butter, and then dipped the pieces of chicken into the butter before coating them in the dressing mixture.  After laying the chicken on a cookie sheet (with foil in the bottom), I placed them in the oven at 400 degrees F for about 25 minutes.  It's important to watch that the chicken is cooked through, but it's also easy for them to get too dry. 

My end result was some rich tasting chicken bites, which I served with garlic potatoes.

Lemonade Pie

After seeing the recipe for lemonade pie, I just had to try it! 

 First blend a softened block of cream cheese until it is smooth.  Next, add a can of condensened milk, and mix until the two are well blended.  Add a defrosted can of frozen lemonade, and then lastly fold in a container of cool-whip. 

Pour the mixture into the graham cracker pie crust.  (This mixture is enough to make pies.)  Let the pie set in the fridge (it takes maybe 2 hours or so.)  If you want, add some sliced strawberries on top.  Enjoy this sweet and tangy pie any day, or maybe even to celebrate the 4th this weekend!

Lemon Cookies

Some of my favorite cookies are the easiest to make.  They are so good, you just have to make some on your own!




First you mix one box of lemon flavored cake mix with a tub of kool-whip.  This will make the mixture dough like.  Add two to three drops of lemon juice for some added flavor.








Roll the dough into small balls and then roll in powdered sugar to coat them.  Place them on a greased cookie sheet 1-2 inches apart and place in the oven at 350 degrees.  Cook for 10-15 minutes until the bottoms of the cookies are starting to brown.

Eat and enjoy!

Taco Casserole

In high school I decided I wanted to try a twist on tacos (one of the foods that everyone in my family likes).  Thus, my taco casserole was born.  You can try it too.

First, cook some taco meat according to the instructions on the package.  Set this aside.  Place soft taco shells in the bottom of a cake pan, so that they cover the bottom and sides.  (You may have to tear some of the shells to get them to fit.)  Place this pan in the oven at 350 until the shells begin to brown and get crispy. 

Next, mix 1-1.5 cups of salsa with 3/4 cup of cheese, a handfull of chopped onions, green peppers, and jalepenos.  Adjust all of these measurements to how spicy you want it to be.  Sometimes I also like to add 3/4 cup of frozen corn as well.

When the taco shells are beginning to brown, spread taco meat in the bottom of the pan.

Spread the salsa mixture on top of that.

Then, sprinkle crushed tortilla chips on next. 

Lastly, spread shredded cheese on top. 

Cook the casserole at 350 until the casserole is warm and the cheese is melting on top.  Enjoy!

Short Ribs

Last week I had the opportunity to cook something that I had never cooked before.  It was my husband's birthday, and I wanted to make something special, and I knew that we had some short ribs in the freezer, even though I had no idea how to cook them.  To top it off, my husband prides himself on knowing about ribs and BBQ and such (something about him being from the Kansas City area, I don't know.)  Anyway, I set out to find a recipe and see what I could do.

The best recipe that I found was to cook the ribs for 7-8 hours in the slow cooker with some spices, so that's what I did.

I put the thawed ribs into the slow cooker with a couple of cups of water.  Then I added BBQ sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, parsley, onion powder, and garlic powder.  I let them cook on low for the 7-8 hours, while flipping them every hour or so.

The end result was a tender meat that "had a great flavor" as my husband said.

 

Bread Bowl

A delicious addition to any soup is a bread bowl.  One of my favorite eateries is Panera, and the sourdough bread bowl with broccoli cheddar soup is my "usual".

While I can't reach the greatness of a bread from Panera, I do have my own bread bowl recipe, that is pretty good.

The first thing that you have to do is mix the bread dough together.  Mix 1 and 1/2 cups of flour, 1 package of yeast, 1 tbs of sugar and 1 tsp of salt together.  Next heat 1/2 cup of water, 1/3 cup of milk and 1 tbs of butter, until the butter is melted.  Stir this into the dry mixture, and then add 1 egg.  Mix well and add more flour as needed to make the dough easy to handle. Sprinkle a surface with flour, and knead the dough until it is smooth.  Cover and let the dough raise for 10-15 minutes.

This is enough dough for one bread bowl. Double the recipe for two bowls, triple for three, etc...

The hard part of the bread bowls is the dough maintaining it's bowl shape while cooking.  Putting the dough into a bowl into the freezer, and allowing it to partially freeze to maintain it's shape, helps in the cooking.

After the dough is shaped, place it on a cookie sheet and into the oven at 400 degrees and cook until the dough is cooked through.

 Cut out the top, like you would when you're cutting into a pumpkin.  Take out extra dough if needed, then add your favorite soup.  Enjoy!

Cheddar Broccoli Soup

Even though Spring is arriving, there are still a few chilly, rainy days to come, as I can see here today.  Those days are still good for soup, and that's just what we had a few days ago.  Without any meat in the kitchen, and few groceries, this cheddar broccoli soup caught my eye.  It's super quick and easy, and even extra special when served in a bread bowl!  (Watch for that recipe on Friday.)

First melt 2 tbs of butter, and add some onion powder to the bottom of a soup pot.  Next add two cans of cream of chicken soup and 2-3 cups of milk.  A package of frozen broccoli (thawed) needs to be added next.  As the soup continues to cook on a low heat,  lastly, you add 1-2 cups of cubed velveeta.  Continue to stir the soup occasionally, so the cheese doesn't stick.  Add salt, pepper, or other spices to taste.

When it's warm, you have a delicious cheddar broccoli soup.

Corn Rice Stirfry

When there aren't many groceries in the house, it makes cooking so much more...well...interesting.  Last week, when I needed to run to the grocery store, some of the meals here were a little more creative.  One of those was a corn and rice stirfry.

First I took some frozen corn, chopped red, green, and yellow peppers, as well as some chopped onions.

After heating up some oil in a skillet, I tossed in the mixture, and let the vegetables cook.  If the mixture becomes too oily, you can drain the dish.  When the vegetables were cooked through, I added half a can of diced tomatoes and a partial can of chicken broth.

I continued to cook and stir everything so it wouldn't stick.  I added different seasonings for flavor, like garlic power, southwest seasoning, crushed red peppers, cilantro and parsley.  Lastly, I added some cooked rice to the skillet.

I served spoonfuls of the meal on plates and sprinkled shredded cheese on top. 

My husband especially enjoyed the dish.  It would also be good wrapped in a flour tortilla.

Monkey Bread

It had been ages since I had eaten monkey bread, and one night I found myself thinking how good it sounded.  However, I had never made it before, so I didn't know how hard it would be.  It's a breeze!

First you cut biscuits (from a can) into quarters.  Roll the pieces into ball shapes. 

Next roll the dough into a mixture of 1/3 cup of sugar and 1/4 tsp of cinnamon.  Place them in a greased pan.  (I put foil on the bottom of my pan to help with clean up.  Also, the a round cake pan is the best to use. )

To make the topping, boil together 1/2 stick of oleo, 1/4 tsp of cinnamon, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, and one tbs of white syrup.  (I didn't have the syrup so it's ok to not use.  It's helpful in keeping the topping sticking to the dough.)

 

When the topping is all melted and mixed together, pour over the balls of dough.

Lastly, cook the monkey bread at 400 degrees F, until the dough is cooked through.  Enjoy!

Skillet Lasagna

Lasagna is one of my favorite foods, and my favorite way to make it is the same way that my mom always did.  However, a new recipe caught my eye and I just had to try it.  Lasagna?  From a skillet?  What?

First you put about 3/4 of a can of spaghetti sauce in a skillet, along with 3 cups of water, turn the burner on high, allowing the mixture to come to a boil.

As that begins to cook, break half a box of lasagna noodles into quarters.

 

When the sauce has begun to boil, turn down the heat to about medium and put the noodles into the skillet.  Stir occasionally as the noodles begin to cook.

 

While the noodles cook, brown some ground beef (either 1/2 lb to 1 lb) and drain.  When the lasagna noodles are cooked, add the ground beef.  Continue to stir as the sauce thickens.  Add 1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese into the dish, and mix it all together.  The cheese will probably melt so much that it dissolves, but don't worry, you can still taste it!  The longer you wait to add the cheese, the less likely it will be to dissolve.

 

When everything is cooked through, sprinkle more cheese on top, and add a little parsley if you would like.

 

We topped off our meal with some delicious garlic bread.  There was leftover homemade bread that my husband had made.  We buttered it, and added, garlic, salt, and parsley, cooking it in the oven at 325 for about 10-15 minutes.  It was scrumptious!

Skillet Enchilada

My friend, Ally, sent me some new recipes to try awhile back.  I was very excited to see how they would turn out.  I didn't have all of the ingredients, so I had to substitute some things, but the meal turned out tasty and very filling. You can make the skillet enchiladas yourself.

First brown some ground beef in a skillet.  You can also use ground turkey.  Since I only had 1/2 lb of beef, instead of 1 lb, I added some corn and later spanish rice.

 

After the beef is cooked and drained, add a 1/2 cup to 1 cup of salsa, 1 and a 1/4 cup of milk, and a can of tomato soup.  (I didn't have tomato soup, so I used tomato juice which turned out well also.)  I added rice which was not in the recipe, but I was trying to make the meat go farther.  Add the cooked rice to the skillet.  (You can add uncooked rice to the skillet, but it takes longer to cook.)  

  

With all of these ingredients in the skillet, add about 5-6 tortilla shells, cut into squares.

 

An easy way to do this is to lay the tortilla shells down, and use a pizza or pasta cutter to cut the squares.  Add the squares to the skillet, and continue to cook on medium/high heat.

 

Continue to cook until the shells are limp and a little mushy, stirring occasionally.  When everything is hot, add some shredded cheddar cheese and mix until the cheese is starting to melt. 
 

When everything is done you can garnish with lettuce, sour cream, more cheese, tomato, or whatever else you would enjoy.  We ate it plain and it tasted great.  Enjoy!

Helping Hamburger

One of my favorite boxed meals is hamburger helper.  So, one day, when it came to reworking a bunch of leftovers, I decided to see what I could do that would work.  I started out with some ground beef, and cooked and drained it.  Next I added some mushrooms.

 

Next I added a 1/3 bag of egg noodles, a half cup of milk, and a half can of cream of mushroom soup and a cup of water.

 

 I turned the heat to medium/high, in order for the dish to boil, while stirring occasionally.  When the noodles were cooked, I added peas, and turned the heat down, allowing the sauce to thicken.

 

The result was a delicious meal, that had the taste of my favorite boxed dinner!

Gourmet Hamburgers

Hamburgers are something that my husband and I never have.  Ground beef just does farther in other dishes.  However, one day we decided to splurge and patty out some burgers.  Of course, we didn't want any regular old burgers, so we decided to make them "gourmet."

Before we patted them out, we added several different ingredients to our ground beef.

First we added onion powder, garlic power, and parsley.

 

Then we added some shredded cheddar cheese.

We mixed everything together well, and then we added the liquid ingredients.  Worcestershire sauce and some mustard for a bit of a tangy taste went in.

Lastly, we patted them out and cooked them up.  

They were delicious!  So, the next time you want to fix some burgers, don't go with the same old thing.  Spice it up a little with your own gourmet burgers!

Ravioli Lasagna

The ravioli recipe that I shared here makes several of the large ravioli pieces, much more than my husband expected.  So, there we were with about six large raviolis left over.  Of course we could have eaten them later, but I like to mix things up a beat at times.  Remembering a recipe for a ravioli lasagna I decided to try something new.  It's really simple to do, either with your leftover homemade ravioli, or you can even use the frozen ravioli. 

Simply (after cooking the ravioli) spray a pan with cooking spray, and begin to place the ravioli in the bottom.  Cover the bottom with ravioli, and then cover that with sauce and shredded cheese.  Keep layering until you run out of ravioli, or reach the top of the pan. 

Cook the lasagna at 350 until the center is warm and the cheese is melted, then enjoy!

Chicken Ravioli

On Valentine's Day I was kicked out of my kitchen!  What kind of a person would do such a thing?  Well, my husband would.  However, he did so with some great intentions.  He decided to make me a surprise Valentine's meal.  I heard a lot of loud noises and soon some wonderful smells were coming out of there.  When I was finally allowed to see the end product, this was what it was.

 

He had made homemade ravioli for me!  What a guy!  So, I learned the secret of making this delicious dish, and just had to share it with you. 

First, you make the pasta dough (you can find the recipe here.)  Then you roll out the dough.

While this is being done, you can also start on the filling for the ravioli.  My husband decided to use chicken as the filler.  First he cooked then minced two boneless, skinless chicken breasts with a good chopper.  (A food processor would work great too!)  He then placed the chicken as well as a chopped garlic clove, chopped red and yellow peppers salt, pepper, and grated Parmesan cheese into a skillet.  You can cook this mixture on low, while stirring occasionally.  This mixture looks a lot like scrambled eggs when you are cooking it.

 

 

When the filling is done, place spoon fulls of it on the flat pasta dough, in a circle about 1-2 inches in diameter.  You can really make the ravioli whatever size that you want, but we enjoyed large raviolis.  When the filling is placed, lay the other rolled out pasta on top of the first that is now covered with filling.  My husband used a tart press to cut and seal the ravioli.  If you don't have one of these, you will want to coat the edges of the ravioli with some egg whites or butter, to make the edges stick together.  Then cut out the ravioli with a pasta cutter (or a pizza cutter if a pasta cutter is not available).  Make sure the edges of the pasta are pressed tight. (You can use a fork to help seal the edges as well.)  Cook the ravioli in a pot of boiling water for 8-9 minutes, until the pasta dough is limp.  Be gentle with each piece, as they are somewhat prone to breaking open.  Place the ravioli on a plate and top with some marinara sauce that has been warmed in a sauce pan.  Then enjoy this delicious meal!