Tag Archives: recipes

sloppy joe casserole and homemade macaroni and cheese an easy meal idea for a busy day

Posted on 09/17/2013 | 8 comments

Sloppy joe casserole and homemade macaroni and cheese is an easy meal for a busy day. Since we are busy making applesauce this was a great my top choice for dinner. Early in the morning I had this all prepared and sitting, waiting in the oven for the dinner hour. We were all famished and it tasted good with our homemade applesauce.

It is very simple and easy meal to make. It reminds me of tater tot casserole, a favorite of the Duggars, but not so creamy. The homemade macaroni and cheese is a favorite of everyone’s and is the most request food when it comes to special birthday dinners. Try it with it’s secret ingredient, ok not so secret, but it makes it taste so good.

Maryon homemade macaroni and cheese

1-16 oz pkg elbow macaroni noodles, cooked for about 7 minutes–you do not want them all the way cooked, otherwise when you goto bake them, they will be mushy. Less is best when cooking these.
milk–enough to cover about 1/3 of your baking pan
velveeta cheese–about 6 large slices
colby cheese about 2 cups of shredded or cubed
if I have any cheeses on hand like mozzarella, or cheddar we will throw these in as well, the more the better.
chicken bouillon about 2 Tablespoons, depending upon your tastes

I know I have said it before I don’t like to cook via the recipe, I usually always do a taste of things and see what I need more of. But I will do my best to describe what it is I do.

After you have partially cooked and drained your macaroni, you are going to place that in a greased baking dish. Pour milk over top of the macaroni, you want to see the milk in your noodles, about 1/3 of the bottom of the pan is milk. Next place your cheeses in the mixture. I like to shred or cube my colby cheese. If I have some leftover mozzarella or cheddar, I use that as well. I add about 6 thick slices of Velveeta to my pasta for its creaminess factor. I then add about 2 T of chicken bouillon. Give it a good stir. Cover it with tin foil and bake 350 for about 30-45 minutes.

Make it alongside of sloppy joe casserole

This dish is easy as you just throw in your ingredients and bake it.

How to make sloppy joe casserole

In a baking pan,place 2 lbs of cooked ground beef or turkey in the bottom. Pour 2 cans of sloppy joe on top and stir together. Place a bag of tater tots on top and cover with tin foil. Bake in 350 oven for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to bake for 15 more minutes until partially crispy. Sometimes if we are not serving it with macaroni and cheese, we will place some Velveeta cheese slices on top. It is also good with canned green beans.

Plain and simple cooking….

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Posted in casseroles, In my kitchen

Tagged kitchen, recipes

Making and freezing homemade applesauce

Posted on 09/17/2013 | 1 comment

When we had four little ones, I used to do a lot of preserving for our family and then the Lord blessed us with 6 children all in a row. I haven’t gotten to do as much canning as I would have liked to do over the past seven years, but we have slowly started enjoying doing things like strawberry picking and blueberry picking. We have been able to make our own freezer strawberry jam and have a supply of blueberries in the freezer for them to eat throughout the winter months. Making and freezing applesauce is something that we also try and do because of its ease.. We don’t usually pick the apples ourselves, we have a Mennonite store that we go to to purchase them fairly inexpensively. It is a great fruit that doesn’t have to be done all in one day either a bonus with having many little ones.

What a blessing we had received this past week, our neighbor had an apple tree in her yard that was abundantly flowing with apples. I had asked her if she did anything with them and she said she did not because they were too tart. Well my children had each taken a few to munch on and were liking them. We then decided it was time for us to start making and freezing homemade applesauce this year.

We had three pots cooking most all of the day on the stove. I just wash our apples and leave them the way that they are, no peeling or slicing required. We put about 1-2 inches of water in the pot and place the lid on it. Keep it on a high heat until it boils then turn it down to a medium to low heat to keep it simmering, until all of the apples are soft and the tops ones are splitting. Note….we do make sure to remove the leaves from the apples,if you do not,it tends to make a bitter taste in your sauce.

We then put it in our Victorio food strainer and let the machine do the separating. You pour your cooked apple mash into the top of the machine and turn the handle. Out one shoot come the clean applesauce and out the other is all the peeling, seeds, and stem. Could this get any easier??

This year was so great doing it because I had most of my children helping with the process. Even the little ones were enjoying taking a turn turning the handle.

I am not sure on the name of the apples that the tree produces but to us, they tasted like McIntosh apples. We only needed to add about 2 cups of sugar to this large black roaster pan. Last year we used Jonagold apples and did not use any sugar at all,but the year before we used McIntosh and had to add about the same amount of sugar.

Having to do this on a school day and with all of the demands that are placed upon us, we made sure to make an easy dinner early on so that we could focus our day on doing apples. While everyone was getting ready I made a pan of sloppy joe casserole and homemade macaroni and cheese. I placed it in the oven and left it there until dinner time. An easy meal and only 2 pans to clean up, we of course used paper plates as to not have to wash so many dishes. Oh and yes we had applesauce with it too.

When it was all said and done we came out with about 100 quarts of applesauce that we put in freezer bags. I then diced up about 25 bags of apples to use in baking foods like apple dapple cake, oatmeal apple bars, and crockpot apple oatmeal—a recommendation from our neighbor. I

This is the first year we didn’t make any applesauce for a baby, but if I would have, I would have made it with no sugar and then put it in my ice cube trays and froze them. When frozen, just pop them out into a ziploc baggie. You only have to remove the amount that you need.

I know that most people don’t enjoy making and freezing homemade applesauce, they prefer to can it. Our family enjoys it frozen. I like to get a bag out of the freezer in the morning and let it thaw for dinner time. When we serve it we like it partially slushy. It is very good, try it sometime.

Why do we freeze our foods that we harvest instead of canning them in jars???

The reason we started freezing it was for safety reasons. After I did all my canning years before, I started reading stories about babies being more susceptible to food borne illnesses. As a mom, I never would want to harm my children in that way. Well when we had so many little ones, it was pointless to serve a “safe frozen food” to some and then to others my canned items. After that I got rid of my canner and jars. We started freezing everything. I know that it is not the first choice for most foods especially for pears and peaches, but I choose to make the foods that are good frozen like applesauce and homemade freezer jam. Maybe one day I will go back to canning in jars, but for now,with many littles ones to worry about, I will stick to freezing them. I am thinking I might need to invest in another deep freezer.

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Posted in Household, preserving

Tagged freezing, household, kitchen, preserving, recipes

Autumns here!! How about some cornbread and chili??

Posted on 09/10/2013 | 3 comments

Nothing beats eating a warm bowl of chili with some buttered cornbread on a brisk cool autumn evening. Try this with your family. It is for a basic chili and cornbread. No frills just plain and simple.

Takes about 15 minutes to make and simmers for 30. Serves 6 people–adjust the amounts that you need to your families size.

You will need the following to make this:

1 pound hamburger
1 small onion, diced—remember your lesson on how to dice this
1- 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
1- 15 oz can of kidney beans, drained
1- 15 oz can of chilli beans
1- 15 oz can tomato sauce
1 cup of water
a dash of chilli powder
a dash of garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine the beef and onion and saute until meat is browned and onion is tender. Add all the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and let simmer for 20 minutes.

For your cornbread you will need the following:

1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1 1/2 cups flour
1 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 heaping tsp baking powder2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
3 T melted margarine

Mix all ingredients together with an electric mixer and pour into a greased 9×13 pan. Bake 30 minutes. Insert a toothpick into the center to know when it is done.

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Posted in breads, In my kitchen

Tagged breads, recipes

Poor boy subs recipe

Posted on 08/04/2013 | 15 comments

Nothing beats homemade subs for a nice family picnic. These are a great alternative to the traditional meat, cheese, and bread combination. Try some for your next picnic. Note you can also prepare these beforehand and then freeze them. They thaw nicely and then you bake them in the oven.

In a small mixing bowl combine 1 pkg cream cheese, 1/2 stick butter, 2 T minced garlic, and 2 squirts of mustard.

This is your sauce that will be spread on your bread For my sub buns, I use the italian loaves from Meijer, but you can use Hoagie buns, or even regular hot dog buns. Spread one half of the bread with your sauce mixture. Add your favorite meats to it. We do one with chicken breast, salami, and provolone cheese The other one we like ham, salami, and swiss cheese. Close up and then wrap it in tin foil. Place in 350 oven for about 30 minutes. You want your cheese to melt. To serve you can then add shredded lettuce, tomatoes, mild pepper rings, and pickles.

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Posted in In my kitchen, sandwiches

Tagged kitchen, recipes, sandwiches

Whipped potato salad recipe…a twist on a classic salad

Posted on 08/03/2013 | 3 comments

I have grown up eating potato salad and everyone has their own versions of this. But for the most part everyone chops up their potatoes into little chunks. Well when I married my husband and I made potato salad for the first time, he was like “what is this?” He was used to whipped potato salad. I have never heard of that, but I diligently found out how to make it. And I can honestly say, it has been my favorite way to make this staple picnic food. Try it for your next potluck, I am sure people will love it!

You will be needing the following ingredients.

potatoes
hard boiled eggs
chopped onion
chopped celery
miracle whip
sweet pickle relish
mustard

Depending upon how much you need to make, you may have to adjust your quantities. This recipes is what we make for our family of 12.

First you prepare a 10 lb bag of potatoes as you would for mashed potatoes. You peel, cut, and cook them until tender. Drain out as much water as possible and then beat them with your mixer. Add about as much milk as you would if you were making regular mashed potatoes. I add about 1-1 1/2 cups of milk. You don’t want them to be super thin, but you don’t want it to be really thick. You can always add more later. So do less instead of more.While your potatoes are still hot, add about half of a jar of miracle whip to your mashed potatoes. Add about 5 heaping Tablespoons of sweet pickle relish 6 whole hard boiled eggs, no need to chop them the mixer will do that. about 3 squirts of mustard or 3 Tablespoons of mustard for those that don’t “guesstimate” add salt and pepper. I add about 1 teaspoon of each Add 1 whole diced onion. You can add 2 stalks of diced celery, I just did not have any today.
Mix until combined. If it appears too thick, add some more milk. Taste it, if you want more relish flavor add some, if you want more mustard add that. You then refrigerate until serving time. Sometimes I do not add enough ingredients and then when I go to serve it, I just taste and then add them in. Today I did not add enough relish so I just stirred it in.