Spaghetti Casserole

Ugh...I've been sick for the last few days and I don't want to do anything. But, with the TAKS test (Texas' standardized test) next week, I can't miss a day of work. I wasn't able to cook dinner tonight, because I was sleeping. So, its a good thing I made a huge casserole on Tuesday night to hold us over. I found this recipe awhile ago and my husband really likes it. Plus, it makes enough to freeze leftovers.

Spaghetti Casserole

1 - 16 oz. package angel hair pasta

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef

1 - 26 oz. jar spaghetti sauce

2 - 8oz cans tomato sauce

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 cup (8 oz) sour cream

2 cups shredded colby-monterey jack cheese

Cook pasta according to directions. In a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until done; drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce and tomato sauce. Remove from heat. Drain pasta. Combine soup and sour cream. In two, 8 inch square baking dishes, layer half of the meat sauce, pasta, soup mixture and cheese. Repeat layers. Cover and freeze one casserole for up to 3 months. Cover and bake the remaining casserole at 350 degrees for 55-65 minutes or until cheese is melted.

To use frozen casserole: Thaw in fridge overnight. Remove from fridge 30 minutes before baking, then bake as directed.

Notes: I think that I will use an extra 16 oz of spaghetti sauce vs. the 2 cans of tomato sauce next time. Also, instead of making 2 casseroles with this recipe, I just made one 9x13 casserole this time. I froze individual portions of the leftovers for my husband to take for lunches.

New House -- Meatball Pizza Subs

Spring break is here!!! Too bad I'm spending most of it working on the new house. The last three days have been spent painting and cleaning. Anyway, I said I would post some pics of the new house, so here are a few I took this morning.Here is the living room. Remember, we haven't moved most of the furniture, so foldable tables are all we have.

KitchenEntering the house.Part of the back yard.

View of part of the front yard from upstairs bedroom. You can see our tiny pond and the driveway.

Obviously, we have a lot of work to do outside, but we are focusing on the inside of the house for now. A lawnmower will be our next big purchase, and someday we hope to expand the pond.

In spending so much time at the new house, we've had to eat out a lot, which is getting to be very expensive. So, I cooked our first dinner at the new house last night. You need absolutely no dishes for this meal!

Meatball Pizza Subs

Hoagie Buns

1-15oz. jar of pizza sauce

2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese

20 slices of pepperoni

1 bag frozen cooked meatballs, thawed

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Open hoagie buns and sprinkle approx. 1/3 cup cheese into each bun. Place 4 slices of pepperoni on top of the cheese on each bun. Place 3 to 4 meatballs in each sandwich. Now, spoon about a 1/3 cup of pizza sauce on top of the meatballs for each sandwich. Wrap each sandwich with aluminum foil and bake for approx. 10-12 minutes.

Voila! How easy is that???

Spiral Pepperoni Pizza Bake

I've been pretty busy lately. We recently bought a new house, which happens to be about an hour away from where we currently live. So, we've been spending some of our weekends at the new place, and we'll move there permanently next June. Hopefully, I'll have some pics to post soon. Anyway, I haven't had much time for posting or cooking. This is a recipe I made on Monday.

Spiral Pepperoni Pizza Bake

1-16oz package spiral pasta
2 lbs ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2-15oz cans of pizza sauce
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp italian seasoning
2 eggs
2 cups milk
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1-3 1/2 oz package of sliced pepperoni

Cook pasta according to directions. Meanwhile, in a large pot, cook beef, onion, salt and pepper over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the pizza sauce, garlic salt, and italian seasoning; remove from heat and set aside. In a small bowl, combine the eggs, milk, and Parmesan. Drain pasta; toss with egg mixture. Transfer to a greased 3qt. casserole dish. Top with beef mixture, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni. Cover and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Uncover; bake 20-25 minutes longer or until golden brown.

Notes: You could use spaghetti sauce instead of pizza sauce. Definately salt the pasta while its boiling. I didn't do this, and the pasta layer in the casserole was bland. I used grated Parmesan instead of shredded and the dish came out fine. Lastly, I only used about 3 cups of mozzarella. Four cups just seemed overwhelming.

Sour Cream Beef and Beans

In my never-ending quest to find quick and easy recipes, I found this microwaveable recipe. I know, many of you out there despise the microwave, but oh well. I just can't pass up recipes like this. It was quick, easy, and better than a tv dinner. If you like Frito Pie, then you will like this. It's basically Frito Pie with a mexican twist.

Sour Cream Beef and Beans

1 lb ground beef
1-15oz can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1-15oz can enchilada sauce
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1-4oz can chopped green chilies
1 1/2 cups crushed corn chips
1 cup sour cream
additional corn chips, optional

Crumble beef into an ungreased 2qt. microwave save dish; cover with paper towel or waxed paper. Cook on high for 5 minutes or until meat is no longer pink, stirring twice; drain. Stir in the beans, enchilada sauce, 1 cup of cheese, chilies, and crushed corn chips; mix well. Cover and microwave on high for 3 minutes or until heated through, stirring once. Top with the sour cream and remaining cheese. Heat, uncovered, for 2-3 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve with corn chips.

Spaghetti Hot Dish

I've felt very uninspired lately when making my meal plans. I just can't find any recipes that interest me right now. I think I need to get a new cookbook. Anyway, I made this casserole today because I just couldn't find anything else I wanted to make.

Spaghetti Hot Dish

1 lb. lean ground beef

1 1/2 onions, diced

3 celery ribs, diced

1/4 cup butter

5 tbsp. all purpose flour
salt and pepper to taste

3 1/2 cups milk

2 tbsp. chopped pimientos

2 tbsp. soy sauce

1 1/4 cups cooked spaghetti

1 cup finely crushed butter flavor crackers (about 25 crackers)

In a large skillet, cook beef, onions, and celery in butter over medium heat until meat is no longer pink and vegetables are tender. Stir in the flour, salt and pepper until blended. Gradually add the milk, pimientos, and soy sauce. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in spaghetti; mix well. Transfer to a greased 11x7x2 inch baking dish. Sprinkle with cracker crumbs. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until heated through.

Mexican Casserole

Seems like I'm just not finding the time to blog much lately. I'm rushed for time right now to finish this so I can watch a movie with my husband. Hopefully, I'll get my Halloween stuff posted soon (just waiting on some pictures). I know I post a lot of mexican food, but I just can't help it. It's so good!!! So, here's another one.

Mexican Casserole

1 1/2 lbs ground beef

1 envelope of taco seasoning

3/4 cup water

1 - 16oz can refried beans

1/2 cup salsa

6 - 6inch- flour tortillas

2 cups frozen corn, thawed (or canned corn, drained)

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

In a large skillet, cook beef over med heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in taco seasonings and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a microwave safe bowl, combine the beans and salsa. Cover and microwave for 1-2 minutes or until spreadable. Place 3 tortillas in a greased round 2 1/2 qt baking dish. Layer with half of the beef, bean mixture, corn and cheese; repeat layers. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve with lettuce, tomatoes, olives, and sour cream if desired.

Notes: Enough Said!

Cheap and Easy

It's been awhile since I've blogged. I've been really busy with work. We are also in the process of looking for a house to buy. Needless to say, blogging has been on the back burner. We spent all day Sunday with a realtor looking at acreage homes in the Lake Conroe area near Houston. We found a couple of prospects, but we are just going to keep our eyes on those properties and keep looking for more. Anyway, since I've been so busy, I thought I'd devote this post to the cheap and easy meals I've been cooking lately. If you are looking to be economical during these times, then these are the meals for you!!

Ground Beef Stroganoff

1 lb ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 cup sour cream

3 cups cooked egg noodles

In a large skillet, cook the beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink. Stir in the soup and pepper. Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until heated through. Reduce heat; Stir in the noodles and sour cream. Cook until heated through.

Notes: This recipe originally called for ground turkey, so feel free to use it. I used turkey the first time I made it, but to minimize costs, I decided to go with ground beef. You can add so much to this recipe or just make simple like this. We always have a lot of leftovers too. Super budget friendly!!

Smothered Steaks and Bell Peppers

This recipe came to me from my sister in law, Meredith, via my mother in law. It is really tasty and easy. Cube steaks are usually more budget friendly than other cuts of meat, and I usually just buy some when they are on sale. I freeze the meat until bell peppers go on sale and then I can make this dish for a really great price.

4 beef cube steaks (~5oz each)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

2 tbsp. vegetable oil

1/2 cup green bell peppers, sliced

1/2 cup red bell pepper, sliced

1 small onion, sliced

2 tbsp. flour

1/3 cup soy sauce

Sprinkle steaks with salt and pepper. Brown steaks in hot oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat 3 minutes on each side; remove to 9x13 inch dish and put in oven to finish cooking at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. In the same skillet, saute onions and peppers. Blend together flour, soy sauce, and 1 cup water; pour over sauteed onions and bell peppers. Cook and stir unitl sauce boils and thickens. Spoon sauce mixture over steaks. Serve with rice or noodles.

Notes: I like to serve this with rice. Be careful not to overcook the steaks or they will become dry. If the steaks do turn out too dry, just cut them into slices before you pour the sauce over them.

Italian Beef Sandwiches

This sandwich sounded good when I read the recipe last weekend. One of my cooking goals right now is to find as many super easy recipes as possible before we have a family. Therefore, I sometimes choose recipes that are super simple, but just don't end up well in the end. As I got ready to make this dish the other night, I found myself wondering why I ever chose this recipe. It didn't even sound good anymore, but I got lucky. It turned out to be a good lunch menu item for the future.

Italian Beef Sandwiches

6 hoagie buns, split

1 - 14 1/2 oz. can beef broth

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp. dried oregano

1/8 tsp. pepper

1 medium green pepper, sliced into rings

1/2 medium onion, sliced

1 lb. thinly sliced deli roast beef

6 slices provolone cheese

2 tbsp. miracle whip

In a large skillet, add the broth, garlic, oregano, and pepper; bring to a boil. Add the green pepper and onion. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered for 5 minutes, or until veggies are tender. Remove green pepper and onion with a slotted spoon and keep warm. Return broth to a boil; add roast beef; cover and remove from heat. Let sit for 2 minutes, or until beef is heated through. Place roast beef, onion, and green peppers on the bottoms of the hoagie buns. Put one slice of provolone cheese on top of each. Place the bottom and top of each bun, side by side, on a baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for about 4 minutes, or until cheese is melted. Spread miracle whip on the top slice of each hoagie bun and place the top on the sandwich.

Notes: As I said, this one was a surprise. I normally don't like beef broth, but this came out well.

Left over Spaghetti Sauce?? Make Stromboli

My husband ate the leftover spaghetti until we ran out of noodles, but we still had leftover spaghetti sauce. I don't like to waste food, so I decided to come up with a dish to use the rest of it. I made Spaghetti/Pizza Stromboli.

Spaghetti/Pizza Stromboli

1 tube Pillsbury refrigerated French Loaf Bread
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded mexican cheese blend
1 cup leftover spaghetti sauce (with the meat already added)
25 slices pepperoni
Unroll french loaf on a greased baking sheet. Spread the spaghetti sauce evenly over the dough to within 1/2 inch of the edges. Place a layer of pepperoni over the sauce. Cover evenly with the shredded cheese. Roll up the loaf, jelly roll style, and lay seam side down on baking sheet. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until crust is just browned and cooked through.

Notes: I used mozzarella and mexican cheese because that's what I had on hand. Feel free to use what you like. Yummy!!!

So Simple,yet So Delicious: Spaghetti

My husband loves spaghetti so much, but I don't make it very often because I really like it also, and I tend to eat too much of it. I know there are so many fancy ways of making spaghetti, but my homemade sauces don't really taste any better than Ragu. I like to keep it simple and delicious, and serve it with a side of garlic bread.

I debated whether or not to blog our spaghetti dinner, but I decided that I should. Did you know that there are people out there who don't know how to make spaghetti? For example, when I moved into my first apartment with my husband, I didn't know how to cook ANYTHING. The first time my husband asked me to saute an onion, I didn't know that you had to peel it first. I sauted the onion, peel and all. Oh well, I have learned so much since then, but I still have a long way to go....which leads me to a question about spaghetti. My spaghetti often turns out very watery. It still tastes great, but there is just too much water. Do you ever have this problem??? If you do, how do you fix it??? I tried to make sure my noodles were extra dry this time, but it didn't help much. A tip I found in a magazine said to add bread crumbs to the sauce to soak up the extra water (apparently, according to the tip, it doesn't change the texture or taste). I'm going to try this next time, unless someone can give me advice that sounds better. So again, I'm asking for all advice to fix my watery spaghetti.

Spaghetti

1-12 oz package spaghetti noodles

1 to 1 1/2 lbs of hamburger meat

1 large bottle/jar Ragu spaghetti sauce (oringal flavor for us)

Grated Parmesan (optional)

Cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions. Meanwhile, brown hamburger meat in a large pan; drain. Add Ragu to hamburger meat in the same pan and turn heat to low. Simmer until sauce is warm. Drain noodles when done. Pour sauce over noodles and add as much grated Parmesan as you want.

Notes: We only eat Ragu, but I guess you could try Prego or any other brand of spaghetti sauce if you really want to.

Success!!: Sloppy Joe Casserole

Thank you Taste of Home Casserole Cookbook!!!! I know I can always come to you to make a good dish with leftovers.

Lately, I've had a series of bad experiences in the kitchen. Well, actually, they weren't bad experiences in the kitchen, so much as bad experiences after my husband tasted them. To make a long story (and many arguments) short, my husband has not been fond of the dishes I've made lately. Anyway, after this dish, I asked him how it was, and he said "It was ok," which for me, means SUCCESS!!!!! He even took leftovers for lunch the next day. I know it may seem odd to get excited about a simple "it was ok," but my husband is a picky eater, and anything that he doesn't have a bad opinion about means it was good. I also made a side dish for this recipe. It was very small, and not really worth it. It was called "In a Flash Beans", and while they were done pretty quickly, they weren't much different than if they had come straight from the can.

Sloppy Joe Casserole

(sorry, no picture)

1 lb ground beef

3 cups cooked rice

1-15 1/2 oz can sloppy joe sauce

1 can whole kernel corn, drained

1 tsp. seasoned salt

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

In a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in the rice, sloppy joe sauce, corn, and seasoned salt. Transfer to a greased 2 qt. baking dish. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with cheese. Bake 5-10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

Notes: I used 1 1/2 lbs of ground beef and a little more than 3 cups of rice, so I used a slightly larger casserole dish. That's how I got so much left over. Also, the original recipe also calls for 1-4oz can of mushroom stems and pieces, drained to be added along with the rice, sloppy joe sauce and corn. We left that out.

In a Flash Beans

1-15 3/4 oz can of pork and beans

1/2 cup barbecue sauce

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped green pepper, optional

In a large saucepan, combine the beans, bbq sauce, onion, and green pepper. Cook and stir over medium heat until heated through.

Meaty Cornbread Casserole

Fridays are usually Girls night, so I wasn't expecting to cook tonight. I had planned this recipe for tomorrow, but it had to be used tonight. My sister Lindsey came up to stay with us for the weekend, and we have a big day of fishing planned for tomorrow. This was a good meal for the three of us and we had leftovers. The recipe is from Taste of Home. Everything tastes good with country gravy!!

Meaty Cornbread Casserole

1/2 lb ground beef

1/2 lb bulk pork sausage

2 cans whole kernel corn, drained

1 cup water

1 envelope brown gravy mix

1 box Jiffy corn bread mix

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

1 1/2 tsp pepper

1/8 tsp garlic powder

1 envelope country gravy mix

In a large skillet, cook beef and sausage over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in corn, water, and brown gravy mix. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1 minute until thickened. Spoon into a greased 8inch baking dish. Prepare corn bread batter according to package directions; stir in the pepper and garlic powder. Spread over meat mixture. Bake, uncovered, at 400 for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into corn bread layer comes out clean. Meanwhile, prepare country gravy mix according to package directions; serve over casserole.

Notes: Don't be scared of using both brown and white gravy. The finished product is delicious. You can easily double this recipe. Double all ingredients, except only use 3 cans of corn. Place in a 9x13inch dish and the baking times are the same.