Dinner Time!

We made this for dinner the other night and it was a big hit. I got the recipe from an old Taste of Home Magazine that my sister gave me. Add a salad and Wahlaaaa! It's Dinner Time :)

Enchilada Dip

Ingred;
2 lbs of hamburger
1 can of chili with beans
2 cans of pinto beans, drained
1 can of enchilada sauce
1 16 oz can tomato sauce
1c. corn chips
2c. shredded cheddar cheese
olives
sour cream
tortilla chips


Oven 375
Brown up the hamburger, add in the chili, beans, enchilada sauce, tomato sauce. Cook till bubbly, stir in the corn chips, pour into an 9x13 pan, top with the shredded cheese and olives.
Bake for 15-20 minutes. Serve with sour cream and chips for dipping.

I don't have any pictures of this, is was really yummy, but not very pretty and I was lazy that day :)

Beef, it's what's for Dinner

We have been having some pretty cold weather here so it seemed like a stew day yesterday, I saw a stew recipe a while back that had red potatoes in it. They looked so pretty, and they were totally my inspiration for this simple stew.
Also when I went to get the meat for this I had an interesting talk with one of the butchers, apparently if you buy your stew meat already all cut up instead of a piece of steak and doing it yourself it's a least a dollar extra. I never really thought about it before to wonder if I was paying more, sometimes I grab them all ready cut, usually I just buy what's on sale or in bulk and divide it and cut it myself. I don't think I will ever buy it pre-sliced again, while 1$ isn't a huge amount it is 1$ spent on nothing.

Beautifully Simple Beef Stew
Ingred;
1 lb beef stew meat
2T.olive oil
2T. onion powder
1/2t. pepper
1t. salt
2 qts of water
4c. quartered red potatoes
2c. sliced carrots
1 can corn, drained
1T. dried parsley
1/2t. celery salt
1pkt onion gravy mix
1pkt brown gravy mix

Heat the oil in a large pot, add and brown the beef seasoning with the salt, pepper and onion powder. Add in the water, then the vegetables. Sprinkle in the parsley and celery salt. Cook until the vegies are tender. Mix the gravy mixes together with 1/2c. cold water, then stir into the soup. Simmer, stirring often for about 10 minutes. (If you want it thicker add another gravy pkt).

I would have liked this to be a tiny bit thicker, but when I mess with that too much I always end up with it too thick and this was darn near close to perfect. Hubby and the kids gobbled it down and declared it delicious.

Veggie Beef Lentil Soup

Veggie Beef Lentil Soup
Ingred;
1-14oz pkg lean smoked beef kielbasa
1-1/2c. dry lentils
1c. chopped carrots
1c. chopped onions
1/2c. chopped celery
4c. beef broth
2c. water
1 29 oz can tomato sauce
1c. quartered mushrooms
1 can corn
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
1t. each dried parsley and basil

In a large pot bring the broth, water and tomato sauce to a boil.
Stir in the lentils.
Add in the remaining ingredients and and simmer for 1 to 1-1/2 hours, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are tender.

I have been looking for lentil recipes and this is a version of one I found on AR, the recipe I started with is here. I ended up changing it quite a bit so I posted what I did and am giving you the link if you want to check out the original. This was really good, I am looking forward to eating the leftovers that's for sure :)

Ghostly "Ghoul"losh

The kiddos really got a kick out of this one, Miss B thought her ghost was so cute I almost couldn't get her to eat it. I had to threaten to put him in the garbage disposal before she reluctantly ate her little friend.
Remember when I told you she made me a list of Halloween foods to make?? Well here is a picture of it-


111 things!!!!!
It would take me 3 or 4 months at least! Little stinker :)

Ghostly Ghoulash
Ingred;
1 lb extra lean ground beef
5c. mashed potatoes
1 can each corn, peas and green beans
1 lg can cream of chicken
1t. onions powder
salt and pepper
1c. shredded cheese

Cook the beef, add in the onion powder and salt & pepper. Add in the corn, beans and peas- reserve a few peas for eyes, and the soup. Mix well. Heat oven to 350. Spread a layer of potatoes in the bottom of a 9x13 pan, top with the beef mixture.Sprinkle with the cheese. Using a zip baggie pipe potatoes around the edges and pipe on your Ghosts. Press in their pea eyes. Bake for about 20-25 minutes.

Spaghetti & Eyeballs

Come on now, who wouldn't want a big plate of Spaghetti topped with eyeballs-
See they're even looking at you!

Another one of our Halloween favorites :) :) :)

Eyeballs
Ingred;
1 lb extra lean ground beef
1/2c. bread crumbs
1 egg
1/2t. sage
1/2t. oregano
1/2t. salt
1t. onion powder

Mix all ingred. together and form into 1 inch balls,
Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 20-30 minutes.
Add to your pasta and enjoy!

Beef Stroganoff

This is one of my favorite dinners, the family- not so much, so I don't make it very often. They like tomato based things more I think.




But every once in a while I start to get a craving for this and they just have to deal, poor little family :)



Beef Stroganoff

Ingred;
1lb Steak Sliced into strips
1 T. Olive Oil
1T. Minced Garlic
1/4c. Finely Chopped Onion
1/2c. Quartered Mushrooms
1/2c. Butter
1T. Worcestershire Sauce
Salt & Pepper
1/2c. Flour
4c. Beef Broth
2t. Minced Fresh Basil
1c. Sour Cream

Heat oil in a large pan, add the steak. When the meat is half cooked stir in the garlic, onions, & mushrooms. Season with salt & pepper, stir in the worch. sauce. Add in the butter, gently stir until melted. Sprinkle the flour over top and stir until its all mixed together, slowly pour in the broth stirring until it's well mixed. Bring to boil, stir in the sour cream then remove from heat. Sprinkle the top with fresh basil & serve over rice or noodles.

In the Mood for some Bakin'

There are SO many cooking/baking/food blogs out there, it's too much fun :) I have googled several things like baking blogspot and cooking blogspot ect..... I'm sure you get the picture, and now have a pile of recipes tagged to try- It's almost worst than my All Recipes recipe box, Almost ;)
Anyway one that I have come across a couple times and always catches my eye is called
The Sisters' Cafe

Part of my fascination with this blog is the wish that I could get all my sisters to do a cooking blog with me, how fun would that be!!! I love the idea & will begin asking/begging them right away :) The other part would be, of course, the FOOD! They have tons of great recipes and pictures, Yum, Yumm, Yummy!! I actually made 2 of theirs today, I have been going through cooking/baking withdrawal. And my poor family is having a hard time remembering what a home-made treat/dinner tastes like! While I have been down my Hubby has mostly done instant or fast food- although one night he did make a pretty good Goulash- Kudos to my Honey.

Anyway I thought I would surprise the Kiddos with some Pumpkin Bars as an after-school treat. Shepherds Pie for Dinner, and for Breakfast tomorrow- Home Made Cinnamon Rolls. That should hold them for awhile.


















So here we have the Link for the Pumpkin Bars Recipe. And here is the link to the
Cinnamon Rolls Recipe. The Shepherds Pie one is in my head, I will try to post it for you, although I'm pretty sure most of you probably already have your standard go to recipe for that :) :)

Shepherds Pie
Ingred;
1 lb extra lean ground beef
1 can each corn, peas, beans
1 can cream of mushroom soup-(shhhhh... this is a secret from my Family, they are not mushroom fans)
2 pkts brown gravy mix- equal to making 2 cups gravy
1-1/2c. cool water
3c. mashed potatoes
1c. shredded cheddar cheese

Brown your beef, when cooked through add vegies, & soup, whisk together the water & gravy mix & add to the rest. Cook until thick & bubbly. Pour into a 9x13 pan, spread the potatoes over top and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 for about 30 min.
This is my families favorite variation of Shepherds Pie, so there ya go.
Happy Wednesday All!!!

3 Recipes & a Picture

Leftover Beef Stew

Ingred-
Leftover Beef skewer ingred.
Leftover Vegie Tray remains
Water to cover

Cook on low all day, than enjoy :)



I had a lot of leftover vegies and beef chunks from our BBQ so I threw it all in the crockpot the next day for dinner. Yum :) Things were so busy that I didn't get to take any food pictures but I have a couple recipes for you.

Super easy crock pot shredded BBQ Chicken

Ingred.
5 frozen chicken breasts
1-2 bottles bbq sauce

(how easy is that huh? :)

Now I put my ingred. in the crock pot the night before, about 11pm, on low and left it overnight. At about 11am I opened it up, removed the meat, shredded it with a fork, then added it back in for a couple more hours on low. Because the chicken was frozen I didn't add water, I didn't want it to get too runny. It was perfect served on large kaiser buns. There was none left after the bbq.

Now for dessert my Hubby wanted Tiramisu, But I couldn't find ladyfingers when I went to the grocery store that usually has them & I didn't feel like driving all over looking for them so I concocted my own recipe that my sis named-

Black & White Trifle

Ingred.-
1 pkg chocolate wafer cookies
1pkg softened cream cheese
1 small pkg white chocolate instant pudding mix
1/2 cold milk
2 containers cool whip

Beat the cream cheese, slowly beat in the pudding mix, then the milk.
Beat until smooth, fold in 1 cont. of cool whip, whip it :)
Place a layer of cookies on the bottom your trifle bowl, add a layer of the cream cheese mixture, than a layer of cool whip, than a layer of cookies. Repeat until ingred. are gone.
Top with crumbled remaining cookies and keep overnight in the fridge.

This turned out really good, next time I make it I think I will double all my cream cheese ingred. except the cool whip. The way it was it only went about 3/4 the way up in my bowl. Because it sat overnight the cookies softened up, this reminded me of like a cookies & cream pudding or ice cream. Yummy :) Next time I will take pictures I promise!

Souper de Douper and a Shout Out

I have been wanting to get a soup made, with pictures, so I could enter it into the Souper Sundays. Which you can find out about here -> Kahakai Kitchen .

So today I made a yummy recipe I got from my Mommer :)

Italian Wedding Soup

1/2 Orzo
*1/2 lb extra lean Ground Burger
*1 egg, beaten
*2T. Bread Crumbs
*1T. Parmesan Cheese
*1/2t. each of dried Basil & Onion powder
6c. Chicken Broth
2c. thinly sliced Spinach
1/3c. finely chopped Carrots
Parmesan Cheese

Combine all the ingredients proceeded by a star, use this to make little mini meatballs. Heat the broth to a boil, add the other ingredients and the mini Meatballs.

Simmer for 10-20 min. Serve sprinkled with Parmesan Cheese.

Yummy, Yummy, this sure hit the spot for lunch on a chilly Montana day :) Miss M enjoyed sprinkling cheese on her own little bowl of soup.


I also wanted to give a shout out to Crystal over at Don't Try Her. She posted about how she added softened cream cheese to her brownie batter to make yummy Brownies. I have never, and I mean NEVER been able to make a good, not crunchy, Brownie. I had given up :(
I gave her suggestion a try, and my Family sends a huge THANK YOU to Crystal :) I have made perfectly moist Brownies 3 times now! Here is a picture of the dessert we made using Brownies to welcome home our Daddy last weekend.


If you haven't been to Crystal's blog you should check it out, she has some Wonderful Recipes over there!

Hurray!!!! It's Friday!!!!!!