King Ranch Casserole

As I approach my third straight week of "try something completely new" challenge, I am already finding myself gravitating towards recipes that are familiar - similar flavors and textures to those things I have in my arsenal. This King Ranch Casserole sounds really yummy, and I'm excited to try it out. Also, it will use up the rest of that package of corn tortillas I bought for the Mexican Lasagna from last week...

This recipe comes from "The Casserole Queens Cookbook". I love their recipes for the way they incorporate our favorite childhood dishes, but make them a bit healthier, classier, more grown-up.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of cream of chicken soup
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 C chicken broth
• 1 can Rotel (or whatever brand of diced tomatoes with green chiles you buy)
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• cooking spray (I use my Pampered Chef mister filled with EVOO)
• 12 8-inch corn tortillas, cut into quarters
• 1 3-pound roasted chicken, boned and shredded (I admit to having 3 lbs worth of pieces, that I baked up, skinned, boned and shredded and popped into the freezer sometime in the fall, not a freshly roasted chicken)
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 C grated Mexican-blend cheese (8 oz when weighed)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350
• In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, combine cream soups, broth, tomatoes and garlic salt. Stir until warm through - about 5 minutes. remove from heat and set aside
• Grease a 13x9 baking dish with cooking spray. Cover the bottom with half of the corn tortilla quarters.
• Layer in half EACH of the chicken, and onion, then sprinkle with 1/3 of the cheese.
• Pour half of the soup mixture over top, then repeat layers.
• Top the casserole with the remaining cheese.
• Bake for 45 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and lightly browned.

I'll let you know on Friday how this one turns out! We're having it Wednesday night, and we'll see how it goes over.

Mexican Lasagna

OK, so I'm TOTALLY behind in posting this recipe, but you'll get the recipe and review all in one post...

With last week being FULL of appointments, errands and birthday celebration plans (for Princess and my Dad), I was a little leery of trying a new recipe on my family, but here it is:

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 tsps ground cumin
• 2 tsps chili powder
• 1 tsp cracked black pepper
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 15 oz ricotta cheese
• 1 jalapeno chopped
• 3 8-inch corn tortillas
• 1 16 oz can refried beans
• 1 1/2 C shredded Cheddar
• 3/4 C sliced black olives
• 1/2 C salsa
• 6 TBSP sour cream

Directions:

• brown and drain ground beef. Add onion, cumin, chili powder and pepper. Cook until onion is tender (about 5 minutes).
• Preheat oven to 350.
• Combine egg, ricotta, and jalpeno in a small bowl and mix well.
• Layer 1 tortilla, refried beans, beef mixture, 2nd tortilla, cheese mixture, 3rd tortilla and shredded cheese in a round casserole.
• Cover tightly with foil, and bake for 15 minutes. Uncover, return to oven and bake another 10 minutes.
• Remove and sprinkle olives over top. Top each wedge serving with salsa and sour cream.

Review -

First off, do NOT use canned jalapenos - they are much too spicy and wet...although perhaps, drained they wouldn't be so bad. Same with the olives (although I should have realized it!!!). Second - finding 8 inch corn tortillas in my town was a bit difficult...I think that they add a great flavor, BUT, if you can't find the right size, double the recipe and use a 13 x 9 baking dish.

Other than that, I was a little unimpressed to be honest.

The textures and flavors together did not leave me desirous of making this again. The ricotta mix was too...crumbly.

Perhaps it is because I am used my family's secret recipe for "real" lasagna...it is nicely sauced and flavored, but the cheese mixture is firm.

You could maybe get away with using ground turkey instead of beef, or perhaps using a Cheddar/Jack blend to change the flavor a bit...

All in all, I don't think I'll be using this recipe again.

If you choose to, I wish you happy eating, and hopefully your family will enjoy it and you can make it again and again.

Challenge Results - January 13th

I'm a bit late posting these results, but we were very busy this weekend.

We made Inkling's Autumn Vegetable Patties (scroll down a few posts for the recipe). HOLY COW!!!



I may start cutting meat out of my diet more than once a week...I made these as a side dish to go along with some roasted chicken, and salad. I should have tripled the recipe. I opted not to eat the chicken, because I'd had copious amounts of meat at lunch that day, and my stomach was a bit wonky due to some overindulging in baked goods earlier in the week...

I ate 3 of them, BB ate 4, the kids devoured the remainder...

Heavenly! Captain already asked for the "great cakes" twice over the weekend, and Princess wanted some for breakfast today with syrup...

The texture was sublime - not too mushy, not too "lumpy" if you get my meaning...the flavor was a treat for certain. The combination of sweet potato and spinach was not one I'd have ever made on my own, but with the other herbs and spices in there...wow!

We did top ours with the spiced sour cream (only I used Plain Greek Yogurt...shhhh...don't tell BB!), and it was just enough decadence to make you feel like you were indulging in some uber-unhealthy fare like cheese-covered potato cakes or something like that...

YUUUUMMMMMMYYYYY!!!!!!

Needless to say, these are now in my rotation, and I might even find a way to make them a bit sweeter for breakfast fare...we'll see how that goes...

Cheesy Vegetable Chowder

I found this recipe for cheesy vegetable chowder on Pinterest... made it tonight.  My 3 year old ate a bowl and a half.  My 6 year old was not as impressed, but almost an hour ago we figured out that she caught a stomach bug at school (not that she would have liked it anyway, it's hard to tell with her these days.)  I will eat it for lunch again tomorrow.

I took pics, but I am going to just link to the original poster's, I need sleep and left my camera downstairs.

Inkling's Autumn Vegetable Patties

Last week, I posted a challenge for myself of trying one new recipe each week, posting it, and then posting a review. Even though it's no longer autumn, I will be enjoying these with my family tomorrow night! They look delicious, just based on the ingredients, and I CANNOT wait to get cooking on these! I bought my sweet potatoes and spinach this morning (I'm doubling the recipe, because even if no one else in my family likes them, I will!) To make these, I had all but those veggies on hand, and so my "grocery period" expenses was a whopping $5.29 because the spinach wasn't on sale (next time, I'll buy the spinach on sale and keep it in the deep freeze until I'm ready to make these again!).

Autumn Vegetable Patties

Ingredients:
8 T. unsalted butter (I use less)
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and grated (about 1.5 cups)
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 T. minced fresh sage (I used 1 tsp. ground and dried)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cayenne
1 package of frozen chopped spinach (or you can use fresh and cook it down)
1 15 oz. can cannellini beans, navy beans, any white bean, drained, rinsed, and mashed
1 egg white, lightly beaten (I used the whole egg)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup sour cream

Instructions:

Heat 6 T. butter in skillet over medium heat and add grated sweet potato, cooking until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Add 1/2 cup bread crumbs, sage, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cayenne. Cook, stirring for one minute. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in spinach, mashed beans, and egg white. Season with Salt and Pepper.

Using your hands (I use a cookie dough scoop to help me), shape veggie mixture into 8 - 4" long oblong patties about 1/2" thick and coat in remaining bread crumbs.

Heat 2 T. oil and 1 T. butter in skillet over medium high heat, add four patties and cook turning once until browned on both sides. About six minutes per batch. Transfer to a serving platter and repeat with remaining oil and butter and patties.

To serve, season sour cream with salt and pepper and top each patty with a dollop of it.

Inkling did state that they didn't top them with the sour cream. I will top mine with sour cream, and will let you know on Saturday what the reception was!

Farmwife - I bet that if you didn't read the part about beans, you'd never know they were in there!!! I'll let you for sure.

Weeknight Shepherd's Pie

This is a big hit in our house right now! I like it because it's fast and easy, the kids like it because it's all the "good things" mixed up. BB likes it because it has gravy.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground beef (can use 2 C cooked stew meat if you like, the ground beef makes it fast!)
• 1 C frozen mixed veggies, thawed
• 1 tsp dried thyme (I used fresh last summer, and it was too strong, even cut way back!)
• 1/4 C half-and-half (I use whatever milk is on hand)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 C mashed potatoes (great way to use up leftovers, or a reason to keep instant around)
• 1/4 C chopped parsley (I use dried, because I'm too impatient to chop fresh)
• 2 TBSP butter, melted
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 C hot prepared beef gravy

Directions:

• Preheat over to 400 degrees F
• Grease a medium casserole or deep quiche dish
• Brown and drain ground beef, or cut stew beef into bite-sized pieces and place in casserole
• Top with veggies and thyme
• Mix half-and-half with salt, pepper, egg, and mashed potatoes. Sprinkle with parsley and mix.
• Spread potato mixture over beef, drizzle butter over potatoes. Sprinkle with paprika.
• Bake until filling is hot and top is browned, about 20 minutes.
• Top each serving with gravy.

It is, in fact, what's for dinner tonight!

Not too spicy black bean dip

Finding a new recipe is easy, it's the follow through that is hard.  (That's the story of my life.)  Well, I was craving beans, and don't come in between a pregnant woman and her craving.  That craving led me to this:

I perused some recipes online and then made this warm dip, based on a recipe for black bean hummus.

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp roasted sesame seeds
1 tbsp cilantro (fresh would be even better, but had dried on hand)
3/4 tbsp chili powder
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small garlic clove
juice from 2 lemon wedges
Colby jack cheese (mozzarella works great, too)

Blend all ingredients together, pour into oven proof bowl.
Shred cheese (if it didn't come from the store that way) and sprinkle over top.
Sprinkle with black pepper.
Bake for 15-20 min at 350, until cheese is melted and dip is warm.
Serve with whatever you choose... tortilla chips, crackers, etc... and enjoy!