Monday, November 7, 2011

A recipe share.

Lately I've been on a total baking and cooking mode. I think I'm feeling the excitement/stress of getting ready for Christmas, but I'm not quite ready to do anything about it yet.

So, time to share a few recipes. Here are our dinners from last week:

Crock pot lasagna. I didn't really use this recipe; I just layered it all in the crock pot with what I had. I use cottage cheese, not ricotta. And ground turkey for the meat. I was so happy with how great lasagna turns out in the crock pot! You still get the yummy, crispier edges that you do with traditional lasagna. This was a winner for everyone in the family; Faye and the boys loved it and Rick said it should be in the regular rotation.

Breakfast casserole with roasted sweet potatoes and peppers. I do a pretty boring breakfast casserole, but we all love it. Cube 5 or 6 pieces of bread and squish them all down in the bottom of a pan. Sprinkle some grated cheese on top. Then pour over that a mixture of about 5 eggs (beaten), 2 cups of milk, 1/2 t. ground mustard, and salt or whatever seasonings you like. Cut up ham or bacon on top. When you bake it (325 for 1 hour), it gets nice and poofy!

Chicken bakes (like from Costco). Although as much as I alter these, they don't taste at all like the Costco ones. I start with wheat pizza dough and roll it out to the rectangle. This time I wanted to use up some cottage cheese so I spread that in, then cubed chicken, a little caesar dressing, mozzarella and Permesan cheese, snuck some peas in, and some red onion and spinach for the adults. It's fun to roll them up and then let the kids put something fun on top like cheese to spell their names or something.

Sweet potato burritos. Read the reviews: black beans instead of kidney, and don't add all that water. Soo good with homemade tortillas.

Chicken and broccoli alfredo. I totally cheat and used canned cream soup to make the sauce. It's just too easy, and everyone likes it just as well. One can cream of chicken or mushroom soup plus half cup milk and half cup Parmesan cheese. Stir in cooked cubed chicken and steamed broccoli, and add it to your favorite pasta.

We made more than one batch of pumpkin bread last week. When I looked for a recipe I just couldn't make the ones that called for three cups of sugar. This one I linked to is perfect; it has yogurt and less sugar. I even cut the sugar to a half cup the last time I made it, and the kids still gobbled it up. Oh, and add a few chocolate chips of course!

And we have a fresh batch of granola at our house. Here's how I make it:

Mix in a BIG bowl:
12 cups old fashioned oats
2 cups chopped almonds
1 cup coconut
2 cups dried apples
sometimes flaxseed

Blend:
1 cup brown sugar
1 t salt
1 1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup oil
1/3 cup water
2 t cinnamon

Pour the syrup over the oats mixture and stir until evenly coated. Spread in a jelly roll pan and bake at 250 for at least an hour. (This amount should fill three pans.) Bake longer if you like it crispy; shorter if you like it chewy.

I don't take pictures of my food, so here's this crazy girl instead. She loves to dive off the couch, and I usually catch her with her head inches from the ground. She now can do the sign for "milk," and it is so cute, except for when she randomly asks to nurse in public places. I am going to miss her gummy smile with just those two little teeth; two more on the botton have broken through!


2 comments:

Melissa S. said...

Oooooo, your breakfast casserole sounds so yummy. I always love eating other people's but have never made one here. I think I'll try your's. Hey, do you put it in a 9 X 13 pan? And when you say "squish" the bread, are you really pushing it hard in the bottom?

hughesfamily said...

These sound awesome!! Thanks for sharing!