Day Six: Crockpot Lasagna!

All credit for this recipe goes HERE HERE HERE HERE HERE

My friend Kayla linked me to it on another blog site, and I've made it twice so far! I really like it, but I used half of the ricotta cheese the recipe suggests and I still thought it was a little much. I'm going to post the recipe to the way I did it but make sure you check out the link :)

Crock Pot Lasagna

1 pound ground beef
1 whole onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jar spaghetti sauce (THIS is really good, and cheap!)
1 small can tomato sauce
8 oz ricotta cheese
¼ cups milk
1 egg
16 oz shredded mozzarella cheese (we only had 8 oz but it was good)
½ cups shredded parmesan/romano cheese
1 package (8 oz.) no-boil lasagna noodles (we used homemade noodles!)

Brown the beef, onion, and garlic in a frying pan. Drain off any grease. Add the spaghetti & tomato sauce into the browned meat mixture. Mix well. In a separate bowl, mix the ricotta cheese, milk, and egg. Beat until thoroughly mixed and smooth. Then mix in the mozzarella cheese and the grated cheese, so that all the cheeses are combined. Grease the crock pot with some Pam or shortening.

Put about 1/4 of the meat and sauce mixture in the bottom of the crock pot. Put a layer of noodles on top of that (break or cut them if needed). Put about 1/3 of the cheese mixture on top of that. Then repeat with sauce, noodles, cheese for another 2 layers. Top with meat sauce. Cook on low for 4 to 6 hours or until noodles are tender. (Since our noodles were homemade yesterday, we cooked it for three hours and it was great!)

We had my fake-son Gary over for a belated birthday dinner (he turned 19 on Wednesday) and I also made him a CAKE! It wasn't homemade, unfortunately, but it was pretty danged delicious. Triple chocolate fudge cake with cream cheese frosting. Soooo delicious.

 (Yes, those are matches instead of candles...)

Enjoy some classy cake-eating pictures after the cut!

(Late) Day Five: Things you can make with Cream of Mushroom soup!

I'm not even kidding right now.

I looooove Cream of Mushroom soup. It's so good by itself, but the magic of this soup are the things you can do WITH it. This post is dedicated to my mom, who is the QUEEN of things made out of Cream of Mushroom soup. My parents have soooooo much of this soup in their basement, and they hardly ever make it as regular soup. I will preface the recipes by saying that the soup is NOT a pretty soup to look at. It's gray. All of the recipes I'm going to share are going to end up gray. They're not particularly aesthetically pleasing, but if you can get past the color palette, your taste buds will thank you. I have never been disappointed with any of the recipes I'm going to share.

I'll start with the weirdest recipe first, with the least appetizing name.

Tuna Sauce on Rice

1 can of Cream of Mushroom soup
1 can of tuna, drained
1/2 soup can of water
Cooked white (or brown, I guess) rice
Random seasonings... garlic powder, Mrs. Dash, black pepper, whatever

Dump the soup, tuna, and water in a saucepan. Stir it up until everything is uniform and the tuna chunks are all broken up. If you have a cat, leave the tuna can out for them to finish off. Turn the burner onto medium heat. Add some random seasonings. The ones I listed are the ones I prefer, although you can really go any which way. It's going to turn out good. When the sauce is bubbling, serve it on top of rice. SO good.


Really Really Really Good Roast Beef

This is probably the easiest recipe I've got for you today. You can make it in a crockpot or a regular roasting pan, and I'm not going to worry you with cooking times, since it all depends on the size of the roast, which method you use (oven or crockpot), and how well-done you like it. Google :)

1 envelope (Lipton) onion soup mix
1-2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup (depending on the size of the roast)
ROAST BEEF, unroasted
Vegetables that I like with roast beef: carrots, potatoes, and onions

If you're making this in the crockpot, put about a half cup of water in the bottom. If you're putting in carrots, put them on the bottom of the pot, since they take the longest to cook. Put the roast on top of the carrots (or on the bottom of the pot if no carrots are present) and assemble the potatoes and onion around it. Mix the onion soup mix with the Cream of Mushroom soup and spoon it on top of the roast as evenly as you can. You can season it with other stuff, but NOT SALT, since the onion soup mix is plenty salty. Figure out via the internet (or just... memory if you've been cooking roasts a lot) how long it needs to be in the crockpot! Here is a good chart of crockpot cooking times!

If you're making it in a roasting pan, there is no need to add water, but make sure the carrots are at the bottom of the pan, although they don't need to be underneath the roast this time. Same rules apply otherwise though! Cook it at 300 or 325 for however long... It's all really dependent on how big your roast is and how done you like it. Here is a good article about oven roasting.

If you have leftovers, you can chop them up and use them in the next recipe!


Beef Stroganoff

1 pound of ground beef
1 onion
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 soup can of water or milk
Extra sliced mushrooms, if you wish
Mrs. Dash (table blend is the best)
Sour cream

Cook the ground beef with the onion until both are fully cooked. Saute the mushrooms separately until they're soft. In a saucepan, combine the soup with the water and stir until fully mixed. Add the meat, onions, and mushrooms. Put it on over medium heat and season it according to your wishes. I would highly HIGHLY recommend Mrs. Dash for the stroganoff, but if you don't have it then salt, pepper, some onion powder, and just a BIT of garlic powder (I am quite liberal with it in the tuna sauce, but the stroganoff only needs a bit) will do you just fine. In the minute or so before you serve the stroganoff, add a healthy dollop of sour cream and mix in well. Serve it over noodles or rice.

Like I said, not that pretty, but mmmmmmm, delicious.

A note about noodles: it goes best, texture-wise, with something like penne, but I think that egg noodles like these ones are the BEST with stroganoff, although honestly, anything will do. Just don't do spaghetti, angel hair, linguine, fettucini or anything else along those long, skinny lines.


Day six will be up later this evening! We just have to make it first ;)

Day Four: Calzones!

Calzones are surprisingly easy, and very satisfying. Remember that the filling is just like a pizza, so anything that works as a pizza topping will also be delicious in a calzone, so be creative!

Calzone Dough

1 cup water
1 tbls oil
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp yeast

If you have a bread machine, just use the dough setting. If not, then just mix everything manually until it starts to seem like dough, then knead it with your bare hands for 5 to 10 minutes. Cover it in a bowl and allow it to rise for 45-60 minutes.

While the dough is rising, you can start working on the filling. For ours, we cooked and seasoned a pound of ground beef, although you can really use anything. Sausage would be good! We also used cheese, olives, and canned diced tomatoes.

Divide the dough into 6 to 8 pieces. Flatten one into a circle, and put all the prepared fillings on one half. Fold the empty over the everything, and seal the calzone shut by pressing the dough together with your fingers. You can season the top with Italian seasoning or parmesan cheese. Repeat this process until all are done.

Let them rise for about 10-20 minutes, depending on how hungry you are. Put them in the oven at 350 degrees for 10-15, or until light brown.

 

Check out that green koolaid! Blue raspberry lemonade + lemon lime! Sooooo good.

Day Three: Chicken Pot Pie

Last week, I signed up to make a meal for a family that had just had a baby and decided to do chicken pot pie! The family cookbook has a great (and easy) recipe for pot pie, but when I went to get the cans of chicken--I know, I'm a cheater, but canned chicken is GOOD--we only had one can of chicken. Disaster. There wasn't enough filling! So I came up with an idea to add some minute rice (and ran it past my mother-in-law, just in case) and went with it. Success! Here is the recipe I came up with:

Chicken Pot Pie

1 8oz bag frozen mixed vegetables (corn, peas, green beans, carrots)
2 pie crusts (store-bought or homemade)
1-10 3/4 oz can of Cream of Chicken soup
3/4 cup milk
1 can of cooked chicken (or 2)
1 cup of Minute rice, uncooked
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Mrs. Dash (the wonder spice! I prefer the "Table Blend")
1 tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 375. Roll out the pie crusts. Defrost vegetables in microwave for about 3 minutes. Spray the bottom of a 9x13 pan with nonstick spray and cover the bottom with one of the pie crusts. In large bowl, mix the soup and milk, and then add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Evenly spread the mix in the pan and cover it with the remaining pie crust. Cut vents on top, and put it in the oven for 35-45 minutes. SO GOOD.

Day Two: Oatmeal Cream Pies

Nathan LOOOOOOVES Little Debbie oatmeal cream pies, and he found a recipe! They're super super fattening (probably) but I think in cases like these, it's best to just ignore the nutritional facts and enjoy them.

Oatmeal Cream Pies

Cookies:
1 cup margarine
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbls molasses
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1.5 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1.5 cup quick oats

Cream filling:
 2 tsp Hot water
1/4 tsp Salt
7oz jar Marshmallow Cream
1/2 cup Shortening
1/3 cup Powdered sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla

-Directions-
1 Cream margarine, brown sugar, and sugar.
2 Add the molasses, vanilla, and eggs to the creamed mixture, stir until uniform.
3 Combine flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
4 Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture; mix in the oats.
5 Drop dough by tablespoon on ungreased sheets.
6 Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes , or until brown around the edges.

Filling
7 In small bowl, dissolve the salt in the hot water.
8 Combine marshmallow, shortening, powdered sugar, and vanilla in med bowl; mix until fluffy.
9 Add the cooled salt water and mix well.
10 Spread filling on flat side of one cookie, press 2nd cookie on top.

Day One: Mexican Lasagna

I know, I know, I've been MIA with this blog. I don't really have a good reason, but to make up for it, I am going to be posting a recipe every day this week, starting with this:

Mexican Lasagna

6-8 flour tortillas
1-16oz can of refried beans
1 lbs ground beef
1-16oz can of diced tomatoes
Taco seasoning
1 cup salsa
1 cup shredded cheese (colby jack, mexican blend, cheddar, etc)

 

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray the bottom and sides of a 9x13 pan with Pam or something. Put down 3 or 4 (depending on the size) tortillas on the pan. Spread refried beans evenly over the tortillas (you don't have to use the whole can). Cook the ground beef with the can of tomatoes (don't drain ALL of the juice away) and the taco seasoning--the kind we have says to use 1/4 cup for every pound of meat, but it varies between brands. When the beef is all cooked, spread the meat/tomatoes mixture evenly on top of the refried beans. Put 3 or 4 tortillas on top of that. Spread the salsa evenly on top of the new layer of tortillas. Put the shredded cheese on top. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until it's bubbly. Serve with sour cream.

SO GOOD.