Stuffed Peppers

These are fun, colorful and a healthy way to do dinner!

Ingredients:

Bell Peppers (any color)

Ground Beef (browned)

1 Can Pinto Beans or Black Beans

1 Can Corn

Shredded Cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Cut the tops off the bell peppers and then slice into halves and scoop out seeds. Fill with browned beef first, add the beans and corn, top with shredded cheese. Place on baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Serve with salsa and sour cream.

Baked Pizza Casserole

This recipe is fabulous. A little pasta, a little pizza flavor. You can’t beat that!

Serving size: 6

 

Ingredients:

1 Package Spiral Noodles

1 lb. Ground Beef

2 Cans Tomato Sauce

Oregano

1 Cup Mushrooms (optional)

1-2 Cups Pepperoni

2 Cups Shredded Cheese (Mozzarella, or Italian Cheese Blend)

 

Directions:

Preparation: Boil noodles until tender. Brown ground beef. Grease baking dish and preheat oven to 375.

Layering: Layer pasta in baking dish using half of the ingredients in the first layer and the other half in the second layer: Pasta, tomato sauce, oregano, ground beef, mushrooms, pepperoni, cheese. Repeat for second layer leaving cheese off top layer while baking. (*Tip: Make sure tomato sauce coats noodles well to prevent drying out while baking.)

Baking: Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Take out of the oven and add second layer of cheese to the top. Place back in oven and bake an additional 5 minutes until cheese is melted.

Serving: Allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Spoon into bowls or onto plates. Add some Ranch dressing and Parmesan cheese for extra flavor! Serve with salad or another green vegetable of your choice, and of course, with garlic bread.

Save the leftovers!

Sweet & Tasty Meatloaf

This meatloaf is super easy to make and has a sweet flavor that compliments the meat very nicely.

Ingredients:

1 lb. Ground Beef

1 Egg

1/2 Cup Milk

1 Cup Crushed Saltine Crackers

Onion Powder

Pepper

1 Cup Brown Sugar

Ketchup

 

Directions:

Place meat in large mixing bowl. Add egg, milk and crushed crackers and mix with wooden spoon (or clean hands). Add pepper and onion powder. Grease baking dish and spread ketchup on bottom of pan followed by a layer of brown sugar. Place prepared meatloaf on top of the ketchup/brown sugar mixture. Add a little more ketchup and sprinkle brown sugar on top. Bake at 400 for 1 hour.

 

 

Banana Bread Bars

These are a sweet treat and a great way to use those very ripe bananas! This recipe came from: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/

Ingredients:

Banana Bread Bars:

1-1/2 c. sugar

1 c. sour cream

1/2 c. butter, softened

2 eggs

1-3/4 (3 or 4) ripe bananas, mashed

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 c. all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

Brown Butter Frosting:

1/2 c. butter

4 c. powdered sugar

1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

3 tbsp. milk

Directions:

1.  Heat oven to 375F.  Grease and flour 15×10-inch jelly roll pan.  For the bars, in a large bowl, beat together sugar, sour cream, butter, and eggs until creamy.  Blend in bananas andvanilla extract.  Add flour, baking soda, salt, and blend for 1 minute.  Stir in walnuts.

2.  Spread batter evenly into pan.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

3.  Meanwhile, for frosting, heat butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until boiling.  Let the butter turn a delicate brown and remove from heat immediately.

4.  Add powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk.  Whisk together until smooth (it should be thicker than a glaze but thinner than frosting).  Using a spatula, spread the brown butter frosting over the warm bars (the frosting will be easier to spread while the bars are still warm).

Yield: 2 dozen large bars

Goulash

Everyone will love this! It is part lasagna/part goulash. Most importantly, it is wonderful. Easy to make, very tasty and it makes great leftovers.

 

1 lb. hamburger

1 package macaroni noodles

1 large container cottage cheese

1 jar pasta sauce

1 package mozzarella cheese

 

Preheat oven to 375. Brown hamburger meat in skillet. Drain meat and add in cottage cheese and pasta sauce. Sprinkle in some seasonings (garlic salt, oregano, basil). Boil macaroni noodles in a separate pan until tender. Mix all these together and place in casserole dish. Bake for 30 minutes. Add cheese to the top and bake an additional 5 minutes. Broil for 1-2 more minutes to brown the cheese a bit.

Top with Parmesan cheese. Enjoy with garlic bread and a side salad!

Like I said, this also makes great leftovers for the next day or two. (Add a little Ranch dressing and Parmesan cheese if it is dry.)

THE BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe! I won the cookie bake-off at work with this recipe.

 

Ingredients:

1 cup Crisco

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

¾ cup brown sugar

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

Chocolate chips

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Mix Crisco, sugar and eggs with a spoon. Add brown sugar and mix again. Add flour and remaining ingredients and mix well (no blender, just a wooden spoon). Add in chocolate chips generously and give the dough a final stir. Roll dough into balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 8-9 minutes. Do not over bake (this is the key)! Enjoy with milk.

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins
Yield: about 18 muffins

Ingredients:
1½ cups wheat flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. applesauce
¾ cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed banana (about 3 bananas)
6 tbsp. creamy peanut butter
1 cup milk

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners.  In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Stir together with a fork to blend.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the applesauce, brown sugar, eggs, banana, peanut butter and milk until smooth.  Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix just until incorporated and fully blended.  Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups.  Bake 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pan5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Spread peanut butter on muffins for topping. Garnish with sliced bananas if desired.

Homemade Meatballs

I made homemade meatballs for spaghetti and they were delicious. The hubby said it was the “best spaghetti he had ever had”. Wow! He knows how to make his wife feel good.

The meatballs are easy to make and really make a basic spaghetti dish even better!

 

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef

1 egg

1/2 cup chopped onions

Dried oregano

Dried basil

Garlic salt

Pepper

 

Directions

Place beef in large bowl. Add egg and mix well. Add chopped onions, oregano, basil, garlic salt and pepper generously and mix well. Roll beef into balls and place on baking sheet. Sprinkle oregano, basil, garlic salt and pepper on top of each ball. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Add meatballs to pasta sauce and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve over spaghetti noodles.

Broccoli and Chicken Casserole

After soup, casseroles are my favorite thing to make! They are usually simple to make and always good for dinner and leftovers! I found a variation of this recipe on one of my new favorite cooking websites, tastykitchen.com. There are so many recipes to choose from on that site! I had a lot of broccoli in the freezer so I needed to make something where I could use a bag. This casserole is easy to make and very tasty.

Ingredients

1 bag frozen broccoli

2 cups chicken

1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup

1/2 cup milk

5 slices American cheese

Fresh mushrooms (sliced)

1 cup crushed Ritz crackers

Directions

Cook broccoli (boil or steam). Cook chicken breasts and then shred. In small saucepan add can of Cream of Mushroom Soup, milk and cheese. Stir continuously to prevent burning. Cook on low-medium heat until cheese is melted and sauce is well-combined. In a 8×11 pan, place broccoli as the first layer, add shredded chicken and sliced mushrooms on top, pour sauce mixture on the top of all this and spread to cover dish. Finely crush the crackers and add as the final layer. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Ta-da!

Enchilada Soup

So, I have gone a little “soup crazy” this winter. It’s easy and so tasty on a cold night. I found another soup that we really enjoyed. Here it is:

Ingredients

1/4 cup chopped onions

Tbs. minced garlic

1 can chicken broth

1 can crushed tomatoes

1 can diced tomatoes

1 cooked chicken breast

1 can corn

1 can black beans

oregano

 

Toppings

Sour cream

shredded cheese

tortilla chips

 

Saute onion and minced garlic in pan. Add the chicken broth, crushed tomatoes and diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Add the chicken (cut into pieces or shredded), corn (drained) and black beans (drained). Sprinkle in some oregano and set to medium. Let simmer for 15 minutes. Spoon into bowls, top with sour cream, shredded cheese and tortilla chips.

Easy and very good!