Overnight Sausage Casserole

Overnight Sausage Casserole
Recipe from Our Best Bites

Ingredients:

6-8 slices white bread
Softened butter for bread
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
12 oz. pork sausage browned
1 (4 oz.) can green chiles
6 eggs
2 cups milk
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. dry mustard

Directions:

Remove crusts from bread and butter on one side.  Place bread, buttered side down, in a 9 X 13 baking dish.  Sprinkle cheese over bread.  Sprinkle sausage over cheese, then top with green chiles.
Whisk the eggs, add milk and seasonings and combine.
Slowly keep stirring while pouring over casserole.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake 50 to 60 minutes.  Let stand 10 minutes, then serve.

Three Cheese Beef and Ziti

I can't believe I haven't posted this recipe yet, I make it ALL THE TIME.  I found the recipe in a random cookbook my Grandpa gave me right after I got married, so, that was pretty much just a few years ago.  No?  Almost 20 years ago?  What the?  Anyway, I started calling it Fake Lasagna after awhile, because that usually got a more favorable response than the actual recipe name.  Please feel free to call it ANY NAME YOU WANT!!!  I was super nice to my kids with no taste (you know who you are!), and only put ricotta cheese on half of it.  You two are spoiled.

There is a reason why this is on my regular recipe rotation, this is fast and yummy!!


Three Cheese Beef and Ziti
Recipe from some old Reader's Digest Cookbook from five, twenty years ago.

Ingredients:

8 oz. ziti, macaroni, or other small pasta
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 medium yellow onion, chopped (of course I don't add this, are you kidding?)
1 jar spaghetti sauce
10 oz. frozen french style green beans, or whatever kind you like, partially thawed
1 cup part skim ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded low fat mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Boil the pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, saute the beef and onion(bleh) in a large skillet over moderate heat, stirring frequently to break up any clumps, until the beef is browned - about 5 minutes.  Drain off the excess fat.  Stir in the tomato sauce and bring to a simmer.  Add the green beans, reduce the heat to low, and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

*** Let me just take a second to confess that I don't ALWAYS add the green beans.  I would love for them to be in it, but I get a lot of complaints when I do, and sometimes, I just don't want to deal with that.

Stir in the cooked ziti, then place large spoonfuls of the ricotta on top but not touching.  Sprinkle the mozzarella in between.  Cover and cook just until the mozzarella melts and the ziti and beans are heated through - about 10 minutes.  Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.

Sour Cream Noodle Bake

I saw this recipe on Pioneer Woman's blog a while back and put it on my 'To Try' list.  I am SO glad I did, I loved this.  I made one little change, because of my issues with cottage cheese, and I've also seen modifications where people have added corn and other things.  This is a keeper.


Sour Cream Noodle Bake
Recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Ingredients:

1 ¼ pound ground beef
1 can 15 oz. tomato sauce
½ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
8 oz., weight egg noodles
½ cup sour cream
1 ¼ cup small curd cottage cheese (I used a 15 oz. container of ricotta cheese)
½ cups sliced green onions (less To Taste)(I didn't add these because I forgot to buy them)
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Brown ground beef in a large skillet. Drain fat, then add tomato sauce. 1/2 teaspoon salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Stir, then simmer while you prepare the other ingredients.
Cook egg noodles until al dente. Drain and set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine sour cream and cottage cheese (ricotta cheese for me). Add plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Add to noodles and stir. Add green onions and stir.
To assemble, add half of the noodles to a baking dish. Top with half the meat mixture, then sprinkle on half the grated cheddar. Repeat with noodles, meat, then a final layer of cheese. Bake for 20 minutes, or until all cheese is melted.

Spagetti Chicken Casserole

Here's an easy dinner thats fast to put together, good for those last minute days!



Spagetti Chicken Casserole


Ingredients:

2 cups cooked, cubed chicken
2 cans cream of mushroom or chicken soup
1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
3 cups dry spagetti, broken into small pieces
2 cups chicken broth
2 tsp. seasoned salt
salt and pepper to taste
1 additional cup of grated sharp cheddar cheese
Directions:

Cook spagetti. When done, combine with remaining ingredients (except last cup of cheese). Place mixture in 9X13 pan and top with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Vicki's Hawaiian Casserole - Making the most of a bad situation

So my husband is out of town.  I hate it when he is out of town.  I miss him so much.  He's my best friend, you know.  We have so much fun together.  There is only ONE positive thing about him being gone and this is it - I get to make things for dinner that he doesn't like.  Now he's not a super picky guy, there aren't a lot of things he doesn't like, but it just so happens that he doesn't like a couple of things that I LOVE.  One of them is Vicki's Hawaiian Casserole, which he doesn't like because I made it once a week for a year when we were first married.  What's the big deal about that??!! 

Now Vicki, the lovely lady behind this recipe, lives across the street from my parents, and besides being the sweetest woman around is an AMAZING cook.  Is it horrible that I would look forward to one of my parents being sick, so Vicki would bring us over some lasagna, ravioli or this casserole?!  (I didn't really look forward to them being sick, I swear!!)  The combination might sound weird, but I'm telling you, it is delicious!!


Vicki's Hawaiian Casserole
Recipe courtesy of Vicki Kovalesky


Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
1 stick butter
1 bunch green onion, diced
8 carrots, cut into slivers
6 eggs, scrambled
1 package thin pasta noodles (angel hair, fettucinne, spagetti...) cooked and drained
Soy sauce, to taste

Directions:

Melt the butter in a saucepan.  Add the green onions and carrots.  Cook until tender.  Add chicken, scrambled eggs and butter mixture to the pasta.  Drizzle soy sauce over the top and stir it all together.  Taste it to see if you like the amount of soy sauce, if not, add some more.  If you think you added too much, sorry.  That's a bummer.

Macaroni and Cheese with Garlic Green Beans

Last night our family discussed our goals for the coming year.  I was happy to see my children embrace the opportunity to improve things.  As for me, I have so many things to improve it's overwhelming.  I do have some specific goals though that pertain to our family's meals.  One is to have more meatless meals.  This is hard for me, because for whatever reason I just draw a blank whenever I try to come up with a dinner without any meat!!  I've made a goal to at LEAST do it one day a week though, thus Meatless Monday has been born in my home!!  My other goal is to serve more fruits and vegetables to my family.  Honestly, my kids eat plenty of fruit, but the vegetable part is more....... challenging.  Since they don't like and won't eat them (except my daughter who adores salads and doesn't seem to mind that I fill them with carrots, broccoli, bell peppers)(and they will all eat bell peppers and carrots raw as snacks, but HATE THEM cooked)I've taken the easy route most of the time and just not served them with our meals. 

For dinner last night I made my most favorite macaroni and cheese recipe.  This is so good!!  I served it with green beans that turned out so yummy I ended up eating them like french fries!  Of course, the kids gagged on the ONE I forced them to eat.  Typical!!  Baby steps, Kathee, baby steps..........



Down Home Macaroni and Cheese


4 tbsp. butter, divided
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
2 cups milk
1/4 pound Velveeta
8 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded (sharp please, if you're boring mild will do.....)
2 cups elbow macaroni, cooked and drained (or any other small pasta)
2 tbsp. seasoned dry breadcrumbs

Directions:

Melt 4 tbsp. of the butter in a large saucepan on low heat.  Blend in flour and salt; cook and stir 1 minute.  Gradually add milk; cook, stirring contantly, until thickened.  Add Velveeta, (cut into cubes) and 1 and 1/2 cups of the cheddar cheese.  Stir in macaroni.  Pour into lightly greased 1 1/2 quart casserole dish.  Melt remaining tbsp. of butter and mix with the bread crumbs.  Sprinkle casserole with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese and bread crumbs.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Recipe from allrecipes.



Garlic Green Beans


I made this recipe up.  I melted 2 tbsp. of butter and about 2 tbsp. of olive oil in a skillet.  I added appox. 3/4 pound of fresh green beans and put a lid on top for about 5 minutes.  After the 5 minutes, I added 2 tsp. of minced garlic, salt, pepper and onion powder.  Then I decided it didn't look garlic-y enough so I gave them a good dousing with garlic powder.  I let them cook for a few more minutes and then they were done!!