Dear Family,
I love you all and although my wallet is grateful for the lack of family gift exchange, my heart is sad. So here is my gift to you.
Months ago, Heather posted on her blog a recipe for spaghetti pie. I tried it, and we all LOVE it! That has been a great blessing to me. Many days, my most difficult question to answer is, “What’s for dinner?” I’d like to share some of my answers with you!
My lasagna recipe (Remember how much I liked Garfield so long ago?)
I got this recipe off the back of a pkg of lasagna noodles, tweaked it, and the whole family loves it. It takes a while, but is totally worth it. Enjoy!
Ingredients
1 package of lasagna noodles
1 jar of Barilla tomato basil spaghetti sauce
1 lb Johnsonville Mild Italian sausage
1 16oz tub of cottage cheese
4 cups of Kraft Mozzerella Cheese (already grated)
1 cup fresh spinach
1 egg
Garlic powder
Italian seasoning
Fresh parmesan or romano cheese (optional)
Lightly oil a 9 X 13 casserole dish. Boil 12 lasagna noodles as directed on package. Brown the Italian sausage. Add whole jar of spaghetti sauce and leave to simmer. Rinse the fresh spinach well. Remove stems and chop finely (especially if you have family members who say they don’t like spinach!). Mix chopped spinach, cottage cheese, egg, and 1 tsp of garlic powder in a bowl. Set aside.
Everything ready? Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Start layering. Put one large spoonful of sauce in the bottom of the dish. This will keep the noodles from sticking to the bottom. Then layer 3 noodles, cottage cheese mixture, sauce, and a handful of mozzarella cheese. Repeat until you run out of noodles. Finish with mozzarella cheese, a sprinkling of Italian seasoning, and some freshly grated parmesan or romano. Bake uncovered at 350 for 40 minutes, or until cheese is starting to brown. Let it set for 5 minutes after removing from oven before serving. Enjoy!
Tuna Noodle Casserole (at Ben’s request)
This is an easy recipe because almost everything comes out of the pantry and nothing has to be defrosted!
Ingredients
1 bag of noodles (You can use any hearty noodle, but we like TrioItaliano or farfalle best)
Frozen peas (you could use canned)
1 can cream of chicken or cream of mushroom
2 cans tuna in water
milk
Cheddar cheese
Breadcrumbs or crushed corn flakes
Lightly grease a 9 X 13 casserole dish. Boil noodles as directed on package. Before draining noodles, put 1 ½ cups of frozen peas in the strainer – the hot water will start cooking the peas. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In the pot you had noodles in, mix 1 can of soup, ½ can of milk, and 2 cans of drained tuna. Stir well. Return noodles and peas to pot and stir to thoroughly coat all the noodles. Put mixture into casserole dish and spread out evenly. Cover with a handful of cheddar cheese, and then breadcrumbs. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes to melt cheese.
Tamale Pie
Sometimes we use ground beef as the base, sometimes I use chicken in the crockpot. The kids like and eat it either way – primarily because of the cornbread.
Ingredients
1 lb of cooked ground beef or chicken (when I do chicken, I put it in the crockpot with a can of enchilada sauce for 6 hours, then shred it)
1 can corn
1 cup salsa (we like chunky salsas – especially Good Values black bean and corn salsa from Walmart)
A handful of cheddar cheese
1 box of Jiffy cornbread mix
1 egg
1/3 cup of milk
1 small can diced green chiles (optional)
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a small casserole dish. Brown the ground beef. Drain if necessary. Add cup of salsa to the meat and half the can of corn. (And half of the green chiles – if desired). Mix up cornbread as directed on package – with egg and 1/3 cup of milk. Mix in the other half of the can corn and the green chiles into the cornbread mixture. Add meat to casserole dish, add a thin layer of cheddar cheese, and top with cornbread mixture. Spread the cornbread mixture out all the way to the edges of the pan. Bake for 25 minutes or until the cornbread tests done in the middle.
Merry Christmas to all of you!
Love,
Sarah
0 comments:
Post a Comment