Tag: recipes

Tomato and Beef Casserole With Polenta Crust

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Photo: Beth Dreiling Hontzas; Styling: Caroline Murphey

Today’s special recipe is a feature from Kathy Gizzi, of Rotonda West, Florida. It looks so tasty I cannot wait to try it myself. This time, we’re all going to do it together, yall with me? Tonight’s dinner is: Tomato and Beef Casserole with Polenta Crust. We’ll need:

1 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain yellow cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon Montreal steak seasoning
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 pound ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
1 chopped bell pepper < or zucchini. I don’t care too much for it so I substituted with bell pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 (14 1/2-oz.) cans diced tomatoes, drained
1 (6-oz.) can tomato paste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Bring 3 cups water and 1 tsp. salt to a boil in a 2-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat. Whisk in cornmeal; reduce heat to low, and simmer, whisking constantly, 3 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat, and stir in steak seasoning and 1/4 cup Cheddar cheese. Spread cornmeal mixture into a lightly greased 11- x 7-inch baking dish.

 
2. Brown ground beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat until meat is well done; drain and transfer to a bowl.

 
3. Sauté onion and bell peppers in hot oil in skillet over medium heat until crisp-tender. Stir in beef, tomatoes, and tomato paste; simmer, stirring often, 10 minutes. Pour beef mixture over cornmeal crust. Sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup cheese.

 
4. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until bubbly. Sprinkle casserole with parsley just before serving.

Enjoy!

Do you have a tasty recipe you would like me to try? Send it in! I love recipes and will try it seriously, no joke. :). Just be sure to send a picture along with it so I can feature it on Recipe Sunday. 

Whopper Pie

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Today’s Sunday Recipe is a nice sweet treat for all of our sugar addicts out there and is super-duper easy to make. There is also so much more you can do with this. You can make a cake or fill your pie with whatever ingredients you like. For this basic recipe you’ll need:

1 Pt. Softened Vanilla Ice Cream
8 oz Cool Whip
8 oz Whoppers Crushed (or Malted Milk Balls)
1 Graham Cracker Crust

 
Mix all of these delicious ingredients together. Make sure the Whoppers are crushed and be sure to leave some for the final touch.

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Pour mixture into the Graham cracker crust and top with crushed or whole whoppers.
Freeze for 4 hours and top with whipped cream, more whoppers and anything else that tickles your taste buds.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Potato Casserole

If there is one meal most appropriate and easy to make during the winter, it’s casseroles. I especially like them for those days when you’ve either had a late night or the times are hard, and you need to throw together a quick meal. Either way casseroles are a great idea to compliment your time and your appetite.

So today we’re making a Chicken and Potato Casserole.

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You will need:

 
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
Medium Russet or Idaho Potatoes
Frozen Mixed Vegetables
Shredded Cheese
Olive Oil
Garlic Powder

 
This is gonna seem a little backwards compared to how most do it, but I’m an overtly paranoid “Must Be Well Done Or Else” kinda cook so I bake my chicken first actually before cutting them into pieces.
So set your ovens to 350 F and let your chicken cook. After it is done (make sure it’s not dried out though), slice the chicken into 1 inch pieces

 
*clearing throat* > in real life I don’t do much measuring. What I really wanna say is to just cut them into small pieces, but I don’t want the experts to get lost 🙂

 

Cut your potatoes into 1 inch pieces as well (for those of you who really don’t know how to cook or your on a low budget, just use frozen potato wedges. The world will never know).

 
Grease your roasting pan or baking pan of choice with some spray oil.

 
Spread the diced chicken, frozen veggies, and potatoes evenly on the baking pan.

 
In a large bowl, mix together the olive oil, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Pour mixture over the chicken, veggies, and potatoes; make sure to coat everything nice and evenly.

 
Bake uncovered for about 45 minutes. Since the chicken is already cooked it’s not going to take that long, but if your chicken is cooking with everything else, bake uncovered for about 50 minutes – 1 hour.

 
Remove from the oven and sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Bake again for another 5 minutes so the cheese can melt.

 
Remove from the oven and smash the game < code for devour.

Chocolate Chip Fudge Brownies

So if you’re a non-chef like me but you’re also married and enjoy serving your hubby delicious recipes, today’s Sunday Sweet Treat is definitely for you, it’s even all natural.

brownies-sliderToday we are cooking up Chocolate Fudge Brownies using Marie Callender’s Fudge Brownie Mix.

Directions:

You Will Need:

1/3 cup oil, 2 large eggs,   (2 Large eggs for chewy brownies. 3 Large eggs for cakey brownies) 1 Tbsp water, Chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. In a bowl combine 2 large eggs, 1 Tbsp water, 1/3 cup oil. Mix well.
2. Add dry mix and mix only until combined (about 30 strokes).

 

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3. Now, this recipe is for extra fudge, chocolate chip brownies. So at this point you are going to take your chocolate chips and place them into a greased baking pan. I like to use the muffin pan (as those of you who are familiar with this blog already know), but you can do the same thing for a regular one sheet baking pan as well. Grease the pan and place the chocolate chips down first. I used Hershey’s Baking Melts, round flat chocolates, and placed them at the bottom of the greased pan.

 
4. Pour brownie mix from step #2 into greased baking pan, spread evenly. (For chocolate layered brownies, pour some of the mix into the pan first, then the chocolate chips, and then pour the rest of the mix in last.)

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5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes. High Altitude Baking: Add 2 Tbsp of water. Yield: 12 (1.75 x 1.75) bars. To make 8 x 8 pan use (1 lb) of mix and bake for 30- 35 minutes at 325 degrees F. For richer brownies, substitute melted butter or margarine for oil.

 

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Step #6: Enjoy!

Save those Soap Scraps!

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Yall know the feeling, you get down to those tiny pieces of soap you can no longer use and you throw them away. After all, they can become unsightly to the eyes after while, not enough to cover your body anyway right? Wrong! Save those soap scraps!

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Today, we’re going to learn how to make new bars of soap from recycled soap scraps. It’s super easy and can save money on those rainy days (I suggest storing them away until you really need them). You will need:

 

Soap Scraps
Small Pan
Water
Olive Oil
Soap Mold
Knife

 

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The first thing you’ll want to do  is to start saving those tiny scraps in some kind of dish or container. Save them until you have at least enough to fill one cup.

 
When you’re ready, take your scraps and put them in the small pan, add water.

 
You’re going to let this soak for one complete day, stirring occasionally. Don’t panic when the soap melts down, that’s what it’s supposed to do.

 
After your soap has had its bath, bring the soap soup to a boil, watch and stir occasionally so that it does not burn.

 
When it comes to a boil remove from heat and stir in about a tablespoon of olive oil ( if there are any additional ingredients you want to add, such as food coloring or essential oil, do it now).

 
Pour this mixture into a greased (so it doesn’t stick) soap mold of choice, let harden. (If you’re using the soap mold pictured at the top, which I also happen to use, let it sit under a bowl or small pot for spills. I suggest securing a more secure soap mold otherwise. I intend to upgrade myself).

Cut into any size

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Mine aren’t exactly pretty, but so far I have accumulated 4 bars of soap from our old soap scraps. I would have had more but I was just being lazy. Don’t sleep on this because you have it right now, but soap and toilet paper are key necessities people never seem to have available during emergency’s. While Water and Food are the most important, wouldn’t it be great to pull out a new bar of soap too? Even if you don’t need it, it can be useful to trade for what you do need. I think I have enough to make at least two more bars today. Six bars of soap without spending a dime, imagine that.  🙂