Cheesy Potato Ham Bake

pic credit

Ingredients:

2 cans           Cream of Chicken Soup

8 oz              Sour Cream

1                  Medium Onion, chopped

1.5 C           Cheddar cheese

1 bag           Southern Style Hash browns

1 pkg           Cubed Ham

Optional: 

Crushed Corn Flakes/Crackers/Wheaties/ Etc.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom of 9x13 pan. Combine cream of chicken soup, sour cream, onion and onion in a large mixing blow before mixing in the cheese and ham cubes. Add hash browns. Top with crumbled corn flakes or like medium if desired. Place potatoes in the pan and bake for 1 hour. 

Easy as that, Ya'll.


Will upload my own photo next time I make it :)

Chocolate Pudding Cookies

CHOCOLATE PUDDING COOKIES

1 3/4 C Brown Sugar
2 1/2 sticks butter
2 reg. boxes chocolate pudding (or about two cups)

3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3-4 cups flour
1 pkg (2 c) chocolate chips

Combine the first three ingredients. Add the remaining ingredients except chocolate chips. The dough will be a little bit thicker than traditional cookie dough, but not by too much. I find I use closer to 3 cups of flour than 4. But it depends on the day. Add chocolate chips.

Grease pan (or use a Silpat... I love mine!)
Bake at 325 for 8-12 minutes.

Cheesy Shell Lasagna

I received many cookbooks for my wedding but I haven't used them much. I decided to change that. Tonight I made a new family favorite. Cheesy Shell Lasagna. Here is the delicious recipe (with my suggestions for next time in blue.)

Prep: 25 min    Bake: 45 min

1.5 lbs ground beef Sausage would really spice this up!!!
2 medium onions
1 garlic clove, minced I just pressed mine... and used two cloves. I would do 3 next time
1 can (14oz) diced tomatoes
1 jar (14oz) meatless spaghetti sauce
1 can mushroom stems yeah, I didn't use these!
8 oz uncooked small pasta shells Any shaped pasta (ties, bows, etc.)
2 c (16oz) reduced-fat sour cream
11 slices (8oz) provolone cheese
1 c shredded mozzarella cheese

In a skillet, cook the hamburger, onions, and garlic. Drain. Stir in tomatoes, spaghetti sauce and mushrooms. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 min.

Meanwhile, boil water for pasta and cook according to directions. Drain.

Place half of the pasta on the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Next, layer on half of the sauce then half of the sour cream. Cover with half of provolone cheese. Repeat for next later. Top with mozzarella cheese.



Cover (I forgot this part) and bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. Or until the cheese begins to brown. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.

Source:
Everyday Light Meals

Quick and Easy Breadsticks

I was inspired by a friend's delicious dinner last night. I said to myself, "Self, you need to be better at cooking dinner." So, on top of trying a new main dish recipe (soon to come), I took a shot in the dark and Googled "Easy Breadsticks". I was taken to this wonderful website: here. But I will post it for you!

(oops... I ate a few pieces before dinner!)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine
1 tablespoon oil
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4-1 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 450. Place butter square on pan and put in oven. The butter will melt but don't let it burn!

2. Combine dry ingredients and oil. Stir in milk until the dough sticks together. (I used 1/1/4c tonight.)

3. Knead a few times just inside the bowl. Roll out on floured surface. Place on pan.

4. Cut in half and then in strips. I found using a pizza cutter to be helpful. Bake for 20 minutes.

5. I added my own spunk to the recipe by using the excess butter to coat the top of the breadsticks. I then put some garlic powder on top and sprinkled on parmesearn cheese. 

The are so yummy and take hardly any time to throw together!

Tater Tot Casserole

This is a quick and easy meal to throw together... and I love it!

1lb browned hamburger
1 small bag mixed veggies
2 small cans tomato soup
1 bag tater tots
cheese

 Add hamburger and veggies.

 Top with tomato sauce.

 Add tater tots. Bake according to tater tot instructions.

 Add shredded cheddar cheese after cooked. Bake for additional 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted.

 And just like that, in under an hour, dinner is served!

Pizza!

After making Bosch White Bread last night, I had some left over. And since I got such a good deal on pepperoni, I couldn't help but make pizza. But I didn't want just pizza. So, I decided to get creative.

First, I made pizza rolls:

 Roll out dough and put on toppings.

 Start form end closest to you and roll pizza up. It helps to pull back slightly on the dough before rolling it. (Pull, tuck, pull, tuck) Then, cut into two finger width rolls. I use my bench scraper. Others use unflavored floss to get a nice, clean cut. To do this, place floss underneath roll, cross it on top, and pull. 

 Place on pan.

 Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes.

 Enjoy!

 I then tried a few other designs....

 Only the deep dish one really turned out (top center). The burrito style (bottom left) was ok.

Mini deep dish: roll small amount of dough out. Set in muffin pan. Place a little bit of sauce, a few toppings, and top with cheese. But be smarter than me and spray the pan first! :)

Bosch White Bread

This is my favorite white bread recipe:

source

5-8 c. Flour
1 Tbs. SAF Yeast (I just use the self rising stuff from the store)
3 c. Hot water
1/2 c oil
1/2 c honey
1/2 c powdered milk
1/2 c mashed potato flakes
1 Tbs salt

Combine water and yeast. Add 3 cups flour. Use M Switch to mix. Add oil, honey, powdered milk and potato flakes. Turn to speed 2. Add salt. Add flour 1/2 c at a time until the the bread dough leaves the side of the mixer clean. It truly depends on the day and humidity. Once this happens, turn to speed 1 and let knead for 6 minutes.

If baking bread, allow loaf to rise.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

Mama's Meatloaf

Hamburger is on sale for $1.99/lb at Fred Meyer this week! That is a really low price now-a-days! That's why I'm blogging about it today!

I never understood growing up why meatloaf was always portrayed as the nasty meal no kid would want to eat. I love my mom's meatloaf! Best meal ever! I remember once going over to a friends house because they were having meatloaf. It was there that I learned that meatloaf is such a generic word. Everyone's meatloaf is the same. I have heard of so many things being put into meatloaf... oatmeal, olives, peppers... my recipe is simple.

So here it is, Mama's Meatloaf 

(Just know Mama isn't always know for measuring out everything!)

Serves 4, easily changeable for more

2 lb hamburger          
1 small onion
6-8 slices of bread
2 eggs
ketchup (2 big squirts)

Combine all ingredients in a mixer or mix by hand in a bowl. If the meat is not sticking together, add more bread. If it is super dense, add another egg and a bit more ketchup. Loaves should look like this:

Put ketchup on top of loaves, bake at 375 for 1hr 15 minutes. (I sometimes have to cook it for longer. I always cut it open at 1.15 to check.)

**I usually put two slices of bread under each loaf to collect the grease...
Only had frozen bread crumbs to work with tonight.**

Ingredients change based on lbs of hamburger:
onion (to your linking)
usually 3-4 slices of bread per lb.
1 egg per lb
1 big squirt ketchup per lb

Let me know if you tried and liked this!

Yummy Cookies!

These turned out picture perfect! And taste so good! This is my mother-in-laws recipe! Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

5 C flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp slat
1 C butter or margarine
1 C shortening
2 C packed brown sugar
1 C granulated sugar
4 eggs
3 tsp vanilla
1 12oz package chocolate chips

Stir together flour, soda and salt. In a mixer bowl beat butter and shortening on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add sugars and beat until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add dry ingredients to beaten mixture, beat until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop from a teaspoon two inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. Cool and store in air tight container.

Makes about five dozen.