Spaghetti Casserole

I made this yummy recipe tonight from Salad in a jar . The whole family loved it except for the one that doesn't like cream cheese. The frenchs fried onions on top were extra yummy too. I think next time I make this I want to try mixing the vegetables and cream cheese in with the meat sauce, just to make it a little more blended. The recipe was definitely a keeper and I'll be making it again.

Comfort food- Chicken Zucchini Casserole

I originally found this recipe on Allrecipes and I LOVE it! It tastes like thanksgiving and its a fabulous way to use up your zucchini!

Ingredients

• 1 (6 ounce) package stuffing mix
• 3/4 cup butter, melted
• 3 cups diced zucchini*
• 2 cups cubed cooked chicken breast
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
• 1 medium carrot, shredded
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup sour cream

*I usually use 2 C. shredded zucchini instead

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine stuffing mix and butter. Set aside 1/2 cup for topping. Add the zucchini, chicken, soup, carrot, onion and sour cream to the remaining stuffing mixture. Transfer to a greased 2-qt. baking dish. Sprinkle with reserved stuffing mixture. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

PW's Vegetable Lasagna with our changes.

We (aka my husband and I, Ava could care less and Katrena does care, a lot) like to eat at least one vegetarian meal a week. So when I came across Pioneer Woman's Vegetable Lasagna recipe on Monday morning I knew I had to make it. We made it last night, with a few changes and we LOVED it. Well one said nothing (Ava), some of us loved it (Brent and I) and the other said "why can't we just eat your regular lasagna with meat" (katrena). I think my sweet child really dislikes trying anything new unless its a sweet, and her mother likes to constantly make something new.

Anyways on to the lasagna:

Lasagna noodles, I use oven ready but you could use regular noodles as well.
2 T. olive oil
1/2 medium onion
4 cloves garlic ( I use 2tsp minced)
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 yellow squash, diced
2 zucchini squash, diced
1 small can sliced mushrooms
1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes, italian style
1/2 c. white cooking wine
1/2 T. dried parsley
1/2 tsp. salt
black pepper
1/2 t. crushed red pepper
about 30 oz of cottage cheese
2 eggs
1/2 c. grated parmesan
2 c. mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 c. parmesan cheese.


If needed cook noodles, and prepare vegetables.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook for a minute. Add bell peppers and saute for another minute. Add squash and mushrooms and cook for a few minutes more. Pour in wine, salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper and stir. Pour in tomatoes and parsley, stir to combine and let simmer for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile:preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

And in a separate bowl combine cottage cheese, eggs, parmesan cheese and a little black pepper.

When your 2o minutes are up, you are ready to assemble. Spread a little of your sauce mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 pan, layer your noodles on the bottom of the pan, spread a 1/3 of your cottage cheese mixture and a 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese, and then a little less than a 1/3 of the vegetable mixture.

Repeat the layering process two more times, finishing with the rest of the vegetable sauce mixture and sprinkle with 1/4 c. parmesan cheese.

If using oven ready noodles cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes, remove foil and bake another 15 minutes. Let stand about 10 minutes before cutting.

If you are using regular lasagna noodles, cover with foil and bake 20 minutes, remove foil and bake 5-10 minutes more. wait about 10 minutes before serving.

Easy Tuna Casserole

Easy, peasey and kids like it : )

This is a great stapple recipe at my house and you don't have to use tuna, we've used frozen shredded chicken and canned chicken too. This meal also freezes great too.

1 box macaroni cheese
1/4 c. butter/margarine
1/2 c. milk
dried onion
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can tuna fish
1 c. frozen vegetables (you can use any kind, mixed or peas) thawed
crushed crackers or potato chips (optional)

Prepare macaroni and cheese according to box directions. Then you are going to add soup, tuna, sprinkle in some dried onion, and vegetables (thaw first). Place casserole in baking dish and sprinkle with crushed crackers or potato chips. Bake at 350 degrees for 3o min.

If you are going to freeze this meal, leave off the crackers, cover with tinfoil and freeze before baking. Thaw over night, add topping before baking, and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Baked Tortelini

LOVE this Casserole style tortelini, its one of our family favorites. Quick, easy and yummy!

1 pkg (9oz) refrigerated cheese tortelini, uncooked
1/2 C. boiling water
1 green pepper, chopped
1 zucchini, sliced
1 3/4 C. marinara
1/2 c. mozzarella cheese, shredded.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, combine all ingredients except cheese in 13x9 baking dish and cover with foil. Bake 30 minutes.

Rremove foil and stir, sprinkle with cheese and bake uncovered an additional 10 minutes.

This recipe serves 4,
Calories: 310
Fat: 9 g.
Fiber: 4 g.

Apple Cranberry French Toast

Okay this will be my last meal from $5 dinners for awhile, promise, but oh my goodness this one is a keeper. I would not change a thing. This is a GREAT breakfast for dinner meal. The whole family enjoyed this, I will admit my oldest was not a huge fan, but she doesn't like french toast, which is a whole other story in itself. Our dinner conversation went something like do you like toast? yes. apples? yes. craisins? yes. sugar? yes. butter? yes. eggs? kind of. So why do you not like french toast? I don't know. So yes I am at a loss, but I will continue to feed it to her at least once a month anyways. So now back to the recipe.

AWESOME. You. Must. Try. It. Now.

Apple Cranberry French Toast:

Ingredients
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
3 apples – peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup dried cranberries
1 French Loaf, cut into 1 inch slices
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Favorite fruit: bananas, cantaloupe, berries or Fruit Salad
6-8 slices bacon

Directions
1. In a large bowl, mix together brown sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Mix in melted butter or margarine. Stir in chopped apples and dried cranberries until evenly coated. Pour into prepared pan.

2.Arrange french loaf slices in an even layer over apples.

3.In same bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Pour over bread, making sure every slice is fully soaked. Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate over night.

3. Preheat over to 375 degrees. Remove dish from refrigerator while the over is heating. Bake covered for 40 minutes. Remove cover, and bake 5 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

4. Prepare your favorite fruit or turkey bacon.

I did try another french toast casserole that rocked but was really sweet for Christmas morning. I will post that recipe sometime in the near future.

Happy Eating!

Tuna Casserole

Super easy tuna casserole, my kids don't even complain about it. We had this meal last night and will be having left overs tonight. We swiched things up this time and made it with canned chicken instead of tuna.

Tuna Casserole:

1 box Mac and cheese
1/4 c. butter
3/4 C. milk
1 can cream of celery soup
2 C. frozen mixed vegetables
2 cans tuna fish (or sometimes we mix it up and use 2 large cans of shredded chicken)
ritz crackers or potato chips (optional)


Directions:
1. Bring water for macaroni to a boil.
2. preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Pour in your noodles and mixed vegetables and boil for 8 minutes
4. Drain your noodles and vegetables and return to pan.
5. Add cheese sauce mix, butter, milk, cream of celery soup and tuna or chicken. Mix until combined.
6. Put mixture in a small 2 quart casserole dish and put in the oven for twenty minutes or until heated through.
7. As an option before placing casserole in the oven your can crumble ritz crackers or potato chips on top. You can also heat and serve from the stove too.

I usually serve this meal with a green salad as well.

Happy Eating.

Sweet Potato Casserole, its not just for the Holidays!!!

I often think we get in a rut certain foods on weeknights, certain foods on the weekend, certain foods we only make for holiday's or special occasions. I am trying to break out of this mold, I love sweet potatoes and I really love the not so healthy sweet potato casserole, but we eat it twice a year, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Why? Why only eat something you enjoy twice a year, so I decided if I want to make it once a month I'll make it once a month! Who knows maybe I won't want it as much once I am eating it more than twice a year :)

The great thing about sweet potato casserole recipes is that a lot of people that don't really enjoy sweet potatoes enjoy these.

Grandma's Sweet Potato Casserole:
1/2 C. sugar
2 beaten eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 C. melted margarine
1/2 C. evaporated milk
1 t. Vanilla
3 C. mashed sweet potatoes or yams (you can use 1 large can)

Topping:
1/3C. flour
1 T. brown sugar
1/4 C. melted margarine
1 C. chopped pecans

Combine all sweet potato ingredients together and place in a small 8x8 glass baking dish.

Combine all of the topping in ingredients and sprinkle over the top of the casserole

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

Go on and give it a try!

Happy Eating!!!

Chicken Zucchini Casserole

We have so much zucchini from our garden that I am having to search for many yummy new recipes, and this one is a keeper.

This is one of those great comfort casserole's for a cold winter day.

Chicken Zucchini Casserole

1 (6 oz) pkg of stuffing
3/4 C. butter, melted
3 C. diced zucchini (this amount is probably okay when shredded, but is quite a bit when diced)
2 C. cubed chicken breast

1 (10.75 ounce) can cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 medium carrot, shredded
1/2 C. chopped onion

1/2 C. sour cream

In a large bowl, combine stuffing mix and butter. Set aside 1/2 cup for topping. Add the zucchini, chicken, soup, carrot, onion and sour cream to the remaining stuffing mixture. Transfer to a greased 2-qt. baking dish. Sprinkle with reserved stuffing mixture. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

Western Meal in One

This is a great casserole style dish. This is often my go to meal when I need to take a meal to someone. Everyone likes it and I've been known to switch it up a little too (I'll put my switch ups at the end of the post).

1 lb extra lean ground beef or turkey
1 clove garlic
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 bell pepper diced
1 t. salt
1 t. chili powder
16 oz can kidney beans
2 1/2 c. canned tomatoes with juice, diced
3/4 c. instant rice, uncooked
3/4 c. shredded cheddar cheese

Brown beef and garlic in pan with cooking spray. Add onions and green pepper, cook until onion is transparent and drain off fat. In 2 quart casserole dish combine meat mixture, salt, chili powder, beans and tomatoes and rice. Bake covered at 350 for 30 minutes, uncover sprinkle with cheese and bake another 15 minutes.

Serves 6-8.

So last time I made this I decided to spice it up a little, instead of the tomatoes I used 2 1/2 cups salsa, and black beans instead of kidney. I then used Mexican blend cheese instead of cheddar, and added some cilantro. It was slightly spicy so if I made it this way again I would probably omit the chili powder.

Enchilada Lasagna

I have tried many "mexican" lasagna's and this one was by far my favorite. Brent and I both really enjoyed it and I definitely will make it again. Trena wasn't a fan, but this is not surprising, she hasn't liked much of anything I've cooked lately. She said it was spicy, and it did have a little spice to it, but nothing that required needing a drink of water. And after the first few bites you hardly noticed the spice. I made it using mild everything, and will probably make it with medium enchilada sauce next time (and when Trena is not home).

ENCHILADA LASAGNA

1 (16 oz) can refried beans
1 (4 oz) can diced green chiles
1 (15 oz) container ricotta cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tsp. mexican seasoning
1/2 tsp. salt
2 (10 oz) cans enchilada sauce
18 corn tortillas
1 (11 oz) can mexicorn, drained
2 (6 oz) pkgs. grilled chicken strips, cut into pieces
3 c. shredded mexican-blend cheese

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Blend refried beans and chiles. Cover; and microwave on high 1 minute.
3. Stir together ricotta, egg, mexican seasoning and salt; set aside.
4. Spread 1/2 C. of the enchilada sauce evenly in a 9x13 pan.
5. Overlap 6 corn tortillas to create a layer.
6. Spread 1/2 each of the bean mixture and ricotta mixture evenly over tortillas.
7. Top with 1/2 the drained mexicorn, 1/2 the chicken, and 1 c. shredded cheese.
8. Top with 1/2 c. enchilada sauce.
9. Add 6 more tortillas and top with a 1/4 c. enchilada sauce.
10. Repeat layering the bean mixture, ricotta mixture, mexicorn, chicken, and 1 c. shredded cheese.
11. Top with 1/2 c. enchilada sauce and last 6 tortillas.
12. Spread with remaining enchilada sauce; and sprinkle with remaining 1 c. shredded cheese.
13. Cover with foil; bake at 400 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until bubbly.
14. Let stand 5 minutes, and dig in.

Weight watchers points for 1/12th of the lasagna: 6 points ( I did use fat free ricotta cheese, but regular mexican blend and points are based on that).