Casserole Time

She Said:

I was looking for something to take to work for lunches last weekend. Casseroles are always wonderful and easy to prep for the week - make them on the weekend and dole them out to individual containers to stick in the fridge. Then each morning, grab 'n' go.

The problem is that we always default to tomato-based casseroles when we think of them, and I can't really eat tomatoes, so I was on the hunt for something that had nothing tomatoey about it and stumbled upon something on Allrecipes.com. It has seen us through this week and there are STILL more leftovers that now need to be frozen or tossed.

The best part of this casserole was the portion size. There is no nutritional information on it and I'm sure it's pretty hefty in the fat and calories, but I stuck to doling out the portions as the recipe stated. It was not a lot of food and I actually lost a few pounds this week. I was hungry, too, but the end result is better. A happy little side-effect!

You can't beat how easy this was to make and we'll be claiming this as one of our own and modifying it to our liking in the years ahead.

Mom's Ground Beef Casserole

2 pounds ground beef (I used one pound 80/20 and one pound 90/10)
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
9 cups cooked wide-egg noodles (I had to do some calculating at the store - the end result is that this is one regular large bag of noodles)
1 pound processed American cheese, cubed (well, we used about 4 ounces of Velveeta, a couple of slices of Muenster cheese, and a couple of slices of Swiss - it's what we had in the house)
1 (15.25 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed chicken and rice soup
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
½ cup milk (we used skim)
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper

(They never remind you to cook the noodles or pasta, so I'm adding it here.) Cook noodles according to package directions. Set aside but do not drain until you're ready to use them. (They'll become one big noodle clump if you drain them ahead of time.)

In a Dutch oven, cook beef, green pepper, and onion until meat is no longer pink and vegetables are tender; drain. Remove from heat, stir in remaining ingredients. Transfer to two greased 2-½ qt. baking dishes. (We used one 3-qt. and one 2-qt. and did not grease them.) Cover and bake at 350℉ for 45-50 minutes or until bubbly. (It took 45 minutes for us.)

Simple, simple, simple and really delicious. It gets better the longer it sits in the fridge. In my mind, this casserole could benefit nicely by adding some sauteéd mushrooms, some garlic, maybe some peas or some chopped up asparagus, and maybe throw some Parmesan cheese in there somewhere, too. I think it can stand up to mostly any additions. It's a casserole, after all, and isn't that where you should be using up all of your leftovers?

Ham Casserole

She Said:

He cooked up several things this past weekend but there was one clear winner amongst the crowd. We actually made it only to take with us this week for lunch and, let me tell you, this thing gets better and better as it sits in the fridge.

The recipe is largely based on this one but we made adjustments, as usual.

Ham Casserole

3 cups potatoes, cubed
3 cups cooked ham, cubed (we used a small canned ham)
2 11-oz. cans of white shoepeg corn
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup diced celery
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups skim milk
Freshly ground black pepper
8 oz. shredded Colby Jack cheese

Preheat oven to 350℉.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain and cool.

Combine potatoes, ham, corn and parsley; set aside.

In a saucepan, saute the onions, celery and garlic in butter for 2 minutes. Stir in flour until blended well. Add the pepper. Gradually add the milk; bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Pour over the ham mixture and stir to mix well.

Pour into greased 13x9 baking dish. Cover and bake for 25 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with cheese, and bake an additional 10 minutes until cheese melts. Place under the broiler for 2 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

I am so hungry thinking about this. There are leftovers in the fridge and that is exactly what I'm going to have for lunch. Yum!!

Holiday Shortcuts

We have had a very busy but nice holiday season so far.  It's still going on!
I wanted to share a couple of shortcut recipes that really worked out well for us.
The first is a breakfast casserole.  It has all of the standard breakfast casserole ingredients but it's not done overnight, like most of the ones I've seen.  This is a Pillsbury recipe.  They call it their Holiday Breakfast Bake. Here's the recipe:

12 oz. bulk pork sausage
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped green pepper
1/3 cup chopped red pepper
10 eggs
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 can Pillsbury Grands! Flaky Layers biscuits

1. Heat oven to 375℉. Spray 13x9-inch glass baking dish with cooking spray. In 10-inch skillet, brown the sausage, onion and bell peppers; drain well. (I actually did this the day before and refrigerated the meat mix until the next morning, when I microwaved it just for a minute to rewarm.)

2. In large bowl, beat eggs. Stir in cheese and sausage mixture. Separate dough into 8 biscuits. Press biscuits into bottom of baking dish. Pour sausage mixture over biscuit crust.

3. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until egg mixture is set and crust is deep golden brown. Cool 5 minutes before serving.

We had several of our kids stop by on Christmas morning and this was great to have available for whenever they showed up. It also reheats well in the microwave. And it's really delicious!

The second thing we made was also a Pillsbury recipe. It's their Maple-Cinnamon-Pecan Pull-Aparts. These are sinfully delicious as they start with Grands Cinnamon rolls. It only gets better! Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon maple flavoring or vanilla (I used vanilla)
1 can Pillsbury Grands! Flaky Supreme refrigerated cinnamon rolls with icing

1. Heat oven to 350℉. Spray 8x4-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. In large bown, mix all ingredients except cinnamon rolls with icing.

2. Separate dough into 5 rolls; set icing aside. Cut each roll into quarters; add to pecan mixture, tossing to coat. Spoon roll mixture into pan.

3. Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cool 10 minutes. Turn upside down onto serving platter. Spread with icing. Serve warm.

These were fabulous and fun! Again, they reheat well in the microwave (just enough to take the chill off).

So for our semi-homemade Christmas morning, I think we came up with two winners! And there was no stress to be found anywhere at all!

One Local Summer, Week 6

Quick post.  Here's the latest - spaghetti casserole.  Mmmm!

Tuna Noodle Casserole

She Said:

I'm going to have to file this one under comfort food, for sure. Our youngest was visiting this afternoon and I asked him to open the pantry and tell me what he would make for dinner with the things we had in there. Between what he suggested and what I suggested, we came up with a really yummy tuna noodle casserole. Here's the recipe.

8 oz. spaghetti noodles

Cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions.

1/4 cup chopped onion
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 stick butter

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium high heat, add the onion, salt and pepper and cook until onions are soft.

1/4 cup flour

Mix in flour and stir until smooth and bubbly.

1 3/4 cups skim milk

Slowly add in milk and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Once the mixture starts to boil, stir constantly for 1 minute. Then turn off heat.

8 oz. Velveeta, diced
1 cup shredded cheese (most any kind will do - I use reduced fat 4-cheese Mexican or reduced fat 4-cheese Italian)

Add the cheese to the milk mixture and stir until the cheese is melted.

2 6-oz. cans chunk light tuna in water, drained
1 12-oz. can sweet baby peas, drained

Mix together cooked spaghetti, cheese sauce, tuna and peas. Place into 1-1/2 quart casserole.

1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
1/4 cup shredded cheese

Top casserole with bread crumbs and shredded cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes until golden brown and bubbly. Makes 4 hearty servings.

I totally loved this meal tonight! A winner if you're looking for something quick, easy, cheap and satisfying. Yum!

P.S. No one ever got fired for adding mushrooms to a casserole like this. Just sayin'...

____________________________

He Said:

Going out to restaurants or whipping up some award winning recipe are both great things to do but let's face it, more often than not we spend our evenings thinking "Hmmmm...I wonder what we should have for dinner." It's often from that moment of wondering-ment-ness that the best ideas spring forth. Last night, for example. She and our youngest banged their heads together for a minute or two and came up with this wonderfully comforting tuna noodle casserole with stuff that was just lying around waiting to be ett up. Healthy? Nope. Nutritious? Maybe a little bit still...not so much.

Delicious and all happy-making? You betcha!

Ham, Broccoli and Potato Casserole

11/27/07

Tonight's dinner was something that used up the very last bit of ham from Thanksgiving, and a few other leftovers as well.

She Said:
Whenever I look for a recipe, chances are good that I'm going to read through a bunch of similar recipes and then settle on something that is a combination of all of them plus a little bit of my own flair. That's sort of what happened tonight.

4-5 Russet potatoes, thinly slices
1/2 cup butter, divided
3/4 tsp. salt, divided
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. pepper, divided
1 pkg. (10-oz) frozen broccoli cuts
1/4 cup flour
1/2 small onion, diced
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1 3/4 cups skim milk
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
1 oz. shredded smoked Colby cheese
2 cups cooked ham, chopped
Paprika

Preheat oven to 425º. Spray the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Arrange the potato slices in the baking dish. Melt 1/4 cup of the butter; stir in 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. paprika, and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Drizzle the melted butter mixture over the potato slices. Bake, uncovered, at 425º for 35 minutes, or until the potatoes are browned and tender.

While the potatoes are baking, cook the broccoli according to package directions; drain and set aside.

About 15 minutes before the potatoes are done, start the cheese sauce. Melt 1/4 cup of butter and add the onion. Cook for about 5 minutes until the onion starts to get tender. Mix in 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper, the flour and the dry mustard. Stir until smooth and cook over medium heat for a couple of minutes until smooth and bubbly. Slowly stir in the milk until smooth. Heat until boiling, stirring often. Boil and stir continuously for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Add the cheeses and stir until the cheese is completely melted.

When the potatoes are done, remove from the oven. Layer the cooked broccoli, followed by the ham on top of the potato slices. Pour the cheese mixture over the whole thing and sprinkle with paprika. Return to 425º oven and bake for 15 minutes. Broil for 3-4 minutes until the top just starts to brown.

Now - this recipe is supposedly going to feed 6 people. I guess if you had a salad to go along with it, it might. But I like the concept of one-dish meals on a weeknight, so this really is 4 servings at the most.

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He Said:
I have been a really busy bee lately so I was quite pleased when Pat showed up with a steaming hot plate of this potato, broccoli, cheese and ham conglomeration. I took my first bite and

OH.
MY.
GOD!!

This is one of the best things I have ever eaten (and believe me, I've eaten a LOT!). Cheesy! Smoky! Creamy! and oh so Cheesy! That's right. Cheesy squared.

I would strongly suggest that you go make this. No, not later, right now. Seriously!

And when you're done, please bring me some. No, not later, right now. Seriously!