Fiesta Chicken Tater Tot Hotdish

 

• 1 lb chicken breast (or hamburger, ground turkey, etc.)
• Envelope of taco seasoning OR , 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper, 1 tsp each of cumin, dried cilantro, onion powder, 2 tsp chili powder
• 1 can corn drained
• 1 can black beans drained and rinsed
• 1 can Rotel Diced Tomatoes & Green Chiles not drained
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar Cheese
• Tater Tots or Crispy Crowns

Cook meat, add spices, canned stuff, sour cream and 1 cup of cheese. Mix it all together in a cast iron skillet or other baking dish, cover with remaining cheese and then tater tots.

Bake at 400 for 30 minutes or until tots are browned. (Mine took longer.)

NOTES:

Use whatever taco stuff your kids like. I added a couple cups of leftover rice and it was good. It’s a one-dish, comfort food. 

Stuffed Bell Peppers

 Quick and easy comfort food.

• 1 tbsp canola oil 
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce, divided
• 1 1/4 cups water, divided
• 1 pkg (0.75 oz) powdered Italian salad dressing mix
• 1 cup Minute® White Rice
• 4 bell peppers
• 
  
• Preheat oven to 400˚F.
• Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown meat with onion until almost cooked through, about 5 minutes. Stir in 1 cup of tomato sauce, 1 cup of water and salad dressing mix. Bring to a boil.
• Stir in rice; cover. Remove from heat. Let stand for 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile, cut tops off peppers. Scoop out seeds and discard. Mix remaining tomato sauce and remaining water in bottom of a 9-inch baking dish.
• Place peppers in baking dish. Spoon meat mixture into peppers; cover with foil.
• Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until peppers are tender. Spoon sauce from the bottom of the dish over peppers just before serving. 

Notes:

Mine baked for 30 minutes on the convection setting.

I used my cookie scoop to get the stuff into the peppers.

Minute Rice is pretty perfect for this use. 

Creamy Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

1 (8 ounce) package wide egg noodles

• 2 cups chopped cooked chicken breast

• 8 ounces cooked ham, cubed

• 8 ounces Swiss cheese, cubed

• 1 (10.75 ounce) can reduced-fat, reduced-sodium cream of chicken soup (such as Campbell's® Healthy Request)

• ½ cup 2% milk 

• ½ cup light sour cream

• 2 tablespoons butter

• ⅓ cup seasoned bread crumbs

• ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13-inch casserole dish.

2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook egg noodles in the boiling water, stirring occasionally until cooked through but firm to the bite, about 5 minutes. Drain and transfer noodles to the prepared casserole dish; top with chicken, ham, and Swiss cheese.

3. Mix cream of chicken soup, milk, and sour cream together in a bowl; spoon soup mixture over noodle mixture.

4. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat; cook and stir bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese in the melted butter until crumbs are coated with butter and cheese, 2 to 3 minutes. Sprinkle bread crumb mixture over casserole.

5. Bake in the preheated oven until casserole is bubbling and lightly browned, about 30 minutes. Allow casserole to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

   
   

   Notes:

   A little salty so perhaps I’d try a low sodium can of soup next time. (I wonder if that’s even a thing?)

   I added a diced red pepper for color.

   Tasty and nice looking. Definitely worth making again.

   Source: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/231154/creamy-chicken-cordon-bleu-casserole/?print

Very Easy Tortellini Bake

2 lbs. italian sausage, cooked, crumbled, and cooled

4 lbs. frozen cheese tortellini

3 jars marinara sauce(or an equivalent of nice homemade sauce)

6 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

In a very large bowl, stir together sausage, tortellini, sauce, and half of the cheese.  Divide into 3 disposable 1/3 steam table pans or 4 - 8"x8" pans and top with remaining cheese.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until warm and bubble.  Freezes well unbaked.

*Hardly a recipe, mostly just proportions for future reference.

Tater Tot Hotdish

Serves 6 to 8

Be sure to buy the cylinder-shaped frozen tater tots (not crispy crowns or coins). Do not thaw the tots or the vegetables; they go into the hotdish frozen. For the best browned and crunchy tater tots, bake in a 13 by 9-inch Pyrex dish (deeper dishes inhibit browning). Don’t be tempted to turn on your broiler; Pyrex cannot withstand the broiler’s direct heat. Depending on the dish, you may have about 1 cup of tater tots leftover. Serve with ketchup.


1½ pounds 85 percent lean ground beef
1 pound white mushrooms, trimmed and sliced thin
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1½ cups whole milk
1½ cups chicken broth
3 ounces grated Parmesan cheese (1½ cups)
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn
1 (2-pound) bag frozen tater tots

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Cook beef, mushrooms, onion, garlic, thyme, 1½ teaspoons salt, and 1½ teaspoons pepper in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until nearly all liquid has evaporated, 25 to 28 minutes, breaking up beef with spoon.

2. Stir in flour until no dry spots remain and cook for 1 minute. Stir in milk and broth, scraping up any browned bits, and bring to simmer. Cook until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Off heat, stir in Parmesan. Transfer to 13 by 9-inch baking dish.

3. Sprinkle peas and corn evenly over beef mixture. Lightly place tater tots in even layer over top, but do not press into mixture (you may have extra). Bake until tater tots are deep golden brown and filling is bubbling, 35 to 38 minutes, rotating dish halfway through baking. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.

To Make Ahead

Hotdish can be prepared through step 2: Let cool completely, cover, and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. When ready to cook, cover with aluminum foil and bake until hot in center, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove foil, stir, sprinkle evenly with peas and corn, place tater tots on top, and bake as directed in step 3.

NOTES: This is a test recipe.

• I made a half batch with a pound of hamburger.
• Used dried thyme instead of fresh
• Missed the direction to layer the veggies (and I mixed them into the meat mixture).
• We all liked it a lot!  The sauce is much better than canned soup and there are none of those nasty little carrot cubes.  I'd make it again.

One-Pot Creamy French Onion Pasta Bake

Ingredients
4 tablespoons butter
2-3 sweet onions
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce (omit if vegetarian)
1 cup red wine
8 ounces button mushrooms, sliced
salt + pepper, to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced or grated
3 cups low sodium chicken broth + 3/4 cups water
1 pound of your favorite short cut pasta (use gluten free if needed)
2 bay leaves
2-3 fresh thyme sprigs
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
pinch of cayenne pepper
6 ounces gruyere cheese, shredded
1/3 cup gorgonzola cheese, crumbled (optional)

Instructions"

Heat a large high-sided dutch oven over medium-high heat and add the butter. Add the onions + brown sugar and cook about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until softened. At this point you want to slowly add the Worcestershire sauce and the wine, let them cook into the onions, add more and continue to cook. Do this until the the wine is gone or the onions are caramelized to your liking. Make sure the wine has evaporated.

Preheat the the broiler to high.

Toss the mushroom and garlic in with the caramelized onions, season with salt + pepper, cook another 3-4 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft.

Pour in the chicken broth + water and bring to a boil. Add your pasta, bay leaves and thyme, cook, stirring often until most of the liquid has been soaked up by the pasta and the pasta is al dente. If you feel your pasta needs more water to continue cooking, add around 1/2 cup.

Stir in the cream and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Stir in half the gruyere cheese and the gorgonzola cheese. Cook 2 minutes and then remove from the heat. Top with the remaining cheese and place under the broiler for 1-2 minutes until the cheese is melted.

Serve warm, top with fresh thyme and parsley if desired.

Notes:

• Nice flavor profiles
• I skipped the broiling step, but put it in the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese.
• There's a slight kick, depending on how much cayenne you use. (I probably used a little more than a pinch.)
• Serves ~6
• Source

Skillet Taco Mac Hotdish

8 ounces of macaroni, cooked
1 lb. ground beef
1 chopped onion
1 can black beans
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 can corn
1 cup salsa
1 pkg taco seasoning mix
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
1/2 c sour cream

• Prepare pasta according to package directions.
• Meanwhile, in large skillet, cook ground beef and onion
• stir in black beans, tomatoes, corn, salsa and taco seasoning.  Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes
• Stir in 1 cup cheese, sour cream and pasta. Top with remaining cheese, serve.

NOTES: 

• I cooked everything in one pot after the macaroni was done.
• I didn't have taco seasoning, so just added a little cumin and chili powder.  Really, the salsa covered it pretty well anyway.

Source:

Back of the pasta box.

Mexican Biscuit Casserole

1 1/2 lb. hamburger
1 pkg taco seasoning mix
3/4 c water
1 16 ounce can kidney beans, undrained
1 11 ounce can corn w/ sweet peppers, drained

3 1/4 cups bisquick
1 c milk

3 c shredded cheese

• Brown the hamburger, add water, seasoning mix, beans and corn.  Bring to boil.
• Meanwhile, mix milk and bisquick and form biscuits.
• Put meat mixture into a sprayed 9 x 13 dish.
• top with at least half of the cheese and then place the biscuits on top of the hot meat mixture.
• Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until the biscuits are lightly browned.  
• Take out of the oven, top with remaining cheese and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

NOTES:

• Very easy and we all liked it.
• Next time, change the meat to 1 pound, put it in a 9x9 baking dish and use half a batch of biscuits.  (We thought the meat to biscuit ratio was pretty low.)
• Regarding the biscuits - this recipe could be made easier with a can of refrigerator biscuits.  It could be made tastier with a home made biscuit recipe.  Really, any would work.
• This could be a freezer meal.  Just package the cooked meat mixture in a ziploc and package it with the right amount of cheese and a pack of frozen biscuits.  Assemble before serving, but it's probably worth noting that the meat would need to be reheated before assembly.  (Not sure if that's important or not, but the original recipe specifically says "hot."
• Source.

Delicious Hot Dish

Brown in 2 tbls of butter:

• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
• 3 c celery
• 2 c chopped onions

Mix with:

• 1 c uncooked rice (not minute rice)
• 1 10-ounce can of cream of mushroom soup
• 1 10-ounce can of chicken noodle soup
• 2 soup cans of water
• 3 tbls soy sauce

Cover and bake at 350 for one hour or more, until rice is fully cooked.

I've been trying to come up with some different recipes, and lately "different" = "retro."  In short, I pulled a bunch of things from my old recipe box that I haven't made in years.

This one is pure Minnesota comfort food, probably copied from something my Mom used to make.  Everyone was pleased with the "new" recipe and ate a ridiculous amount.  If I had a regular rotation (which I  don't, but probably should), this would be on it.

It's probably worth noting that I only used 1 pound of hamburger, and this would probably be classed up a bit if it used cooked chicken or turkey instead of the beef.

Crock Pot Lasagna

I used a 3 cup package of my own sauce plus a 15 ounce can of Hunts tomato sauce to make this recipe.

It's good and easy, and I'd definitely make it again.  The only difference I'd make (besides the sauce) is to add an extra layer of noodles.  Even after sitting with the lid off for 10 minutes, it's still a little soupy.

Crock Pot Lasagna 

1 pound Lean Ground Beef

1 jar Spaghetti Sauce

2 cups Cottage Cheese

2 cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

½ cups Parmesan Cheese, Shredded

6 whole Lasagna Noodles, Regular, Uncooked

¼ cups Water

 

• In frying pan, brown ground beef and drain fat.
• Add water and pasta sauce, reserving a small amount of sauce to line bottom of crock pot. Stir until well blended.
• Line bottom of crock pot with very thin layer of sauce, then top with 2-3 uncooked lasagna noodles that are broken to fit shape (some overlap is fine).
• Cover noodles with half the cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, and Parmesan cheese, then top cheeses with half of the meat mixture.
• Repeat layers with the other half of the ingredients. Cook on low for 4 hours.

Macaroni and Cheese 2

8 oz. elbow macaroni
4 Tbsp. butter, divided
2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dry mustard (I omitted this because I didn’t have any)
2 cups milk
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, divided
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, divided
1/2 cup swiss cheese, divided
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs

1) Cook macaroni according to package directions; drain.

2) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

3) Melt 2 T. butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and salt and stir until mixture is smooth. Stir in dry mustard. Add milk gradually, stirring constantly.

4) Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 5 minutes.

5) Stir in 1/4 cup of the cheddar, 1/4 cup of the mozzarella, and 1/4 cup of the swiss. Mix cheese sauce and macaroni in a large bowl. Spoon into a 9 x 7 inch baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheddar, mozzarella and swiss.

6) Melt remaining butter in saucepan over medium heat. Combine bread crumbs and melted butter in a small bowl and mix well. Sprinkle on top of the cheese. Bake until hot and bubbly, about 15 minutes.

MY NOTES:

• This is almost identical to my go-to recipe, but the variety of cheeses makes it a lot better.
• I added a small amount of ham - a good choice.  (Bacon would also be pretty outstanding, but I didn't have any thawed.)
• Instead of bread crumbs, I just sprinkled garlic croutons on top of it all.  Very good!
• Recipe source.

Chicken and Rice Pilaf

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

salt, pepper, paprika to taste

1 1/4 cups water or chicken broth

1 cup regular uncooked rice

1/2 envelope dry onion soup mix (1/4 c)

1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup

2 tbls. pimentos (1/2 of a 2 ounce jar)

Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and paprika. Mix chicken broth, uncooked rice, onion soup mix, cream soup, and pimentos together; put in an 11x7 baking dish. Place chicken breasts on top of rice mixture. Cover dish and freeze.

To prepare for serving, thaw and bake uncovered* in a preheated 375 degree oven 1-1/4 hours or until chicken and rice are tender. Makes 4 servings.

NOTES* We really liked this and it was super easy to prepare. The only change I'd make is to cover it with foil as it's cooking. Our rice got too dry. (Maybe it just needed more liquid though.) I'd definitely try this recipe again, but watch the moisture content.

Source: Once A Month Cooking

Hamburger Heaven

1 lb. hamburger

1 medium onion, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

1 can mushrooms

1 can black olives

1 (16 oz) pkg medium noodles

8 ounces cheddar or American cheese, cubed or shredded

1 large can diced tomatoes

1 c water

Brown hamburger, onions, and celery. Combine the other ingredients except cheese. Bring to boil. Simmer until noodles are tender and liquid is absorbed.

NOTES: The name of this recipe may be a little optimistic, but it did get thumbs up from both Dad and Nick even with the tomato chunks. I made a half batch and it was more than enough for the three of us. I did have to add a little extra water.

Source: Pine to Prairie Cookbook

My Taco Hotdish

Brown 1 lb. hamburger with a chopped onion.
Drain and add:
2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
dash of pepper
½ cup water

Simmer about 10 minutes and add:
1 15 oz. can of refried beans
8 ozs. tomato sauce,
1 ½ cups of cooked rice (white or brown).
Mix and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Layer in a casserole dish:
1 ½ cups of crushed tortilla chips,
Hamburger mixture
1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup crushed chips
sliced black olives
¾ cup cheddar

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes till warm.
Top with lettuce, tomato, picante sauce, sour cream.

Notes: If you use Doritos, you may want to decrease the spices a little.
It's best the first day because the chips get pretty soggy as leftovers.
Would also work with shredded chicken or beef.

Source: Not exactly rocket science, but I made it up myself.

Yield: About 8 servings. (should be pretty easy to decrease)

Cheesy Chicken and Salsa Skillet

2 c uncooked penne
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 1/4 c chunky salsa
1 c frozen corn, thawed
1 green pepper, cut into thing strips
1 c shredded cheddar

Cook pasta as directed on package. Meanwhile, cook chicken for 2 minutes in a little oil. Stir in salsa, corn, and peppers. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Drain pasta, and stir into chicken mixture. Move to a serving dish, sprinkle with cheese and serve.

Yield: 4 generous servings

Source: Kraft Food and Family Magazine

Notes: This was good and super easy to make.