Three meals in one

With our crazy schedule and limited income, we are all about re-using leftovers in some creative way. Some of them don't work and end up being dumped. Others, like these three recipes, are definite repeats.


Day 1: Pork and Beans

• 1 pound ham hocks
• 1 16-oz bag pinto beans
• 6 cups water

1. Add all three ingredients to a very large crock pot. (Keep in mind the beans will more than double in size while they cook.)
2. Turn on high for 8-10 hours, until beans are soft.
3. Serve with warm cornbread... at least that's how we do it in our house.

Simple, right? Now, expect leftovers and use them in this recipe:

Day 2: Taco Soup

• 1-2 cup leftover pinto beans with ham pieces (be sure to remove any bone)
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 package Taco Bell taco seasoning
• 1 bag frozen corn
• 1 cup chopped bell pepper
• 2 cups shredded cheese
• sour cream
• tortilla chips, optional

1. Cook the ground beef thoroughly.
2. Mix together, in a large saucepan, the beef, beans/ham, taco seasoning, corn, and bell pepper. Cook on medium heat until the corn in cooked through, about 15 minutes.
3. Serve topped with shredded cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips.

Crockpot Breakfast Casserole

For years, I have looked for a breakfast that I could put in the crock pot the night before. It had to be something the kids would eat but not too loaded with sugar. And, I didn't want bread pudding. After many failed attempts, I found this one. It's simple and tasty.

Breakfast Casserole

12 eggs, beaten
14 slices bread
2 1/4 cups milk
2 1/2 cups Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
1 pound sausage, cooked and drained
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons prepared yellow mustard

1. Grease the sides of the crock pot with butter.
2. Spread mustard on one side of the bread and cut bread into fourths.
3. Make layers in the crock pot of bread, followed by sausage, followed by cheese, ending with a cheese layer.
4. Beat eggs, milk, salt and pepper together. Pour over crock pot mixture.
5. Cover and cook on LOW heat setting for 8 to 12 hours.

Pork Meatballs

It's 4:30 p.m. The kids are starting to ask what's for supper, even though we all had a big lunch. I have very little in the fridge (need to go grocery shopping) but plenty of meat to chose from. The answer: Meatballs and Rice

2-3 Tablespoons oil
1 pound ground pork
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 cup Stove Top
1 egg
2/3 cup Kraft Asian Sesame Dressing

1. Heat oil in a skillet at medium-high heat.
2. Combine first four ingredients and form into 1-inch meatballs.
3. Place sausage in skillet. Cook on medium-high heat with the cover on.
4. Turn after 3-5 minutes, once they start to brown. Cook 3-5 minutes more, until cooked through.
5. Add Asian Sesame dressing. Bring to a boil. Stirring constantly, let it boil for 3-5 minutes, until thickened.

Serve over rice.

Blogger Borrowing

Borrowing a recipe from a friend tonight. Yummy breakfast casserole, via Anne. Check it out and try it!

Sausage-Broccoli Puff

I got this recipe from a cookbook handed down to me by my grandmother-in-law. My grandmothers have both passed away, but Grandma Pete's memory lives on in my kitchen, thanks to her Broccoli-Cheese Soup. Not having my grandmas makes me that more appreciative of my grandmothers-in-law and their recipes!

Back to the recipe. It's super-easy, looks fancy, and makes a light, fluffy crust that the kids (and Jay) fight over.

Sausage-Broccoli Puff

• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms, or 1 small can of mushroom stems and pieces (optiona)
• 1 small onion, sliced into rings
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 pound bulk pork sausage
• 3 cups frozen chopped broccoli
• 1/3 cup uncooked instant rice, or 1 cup cooked white rice
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

1. Place butter in a glass 9-in. pie plate; place in a 400° oven for 2-3 minutes or until butter is melted. Remove from the oven.
2. In a bowl, whisk milk, flour, eggs and salt until smooth; pour into hot pie plate.
3. Bake at 400° for 25 minutes or until puffed and golden.
4. Meanwhile, in a skillet, saute mushrooms and onion in butter until tender; remove and set aside.
5. In the same skillet, cook sausage over medium heat until no longer pink; drain.
6. Stir in broccoli and rice. Cook until tender. (If using cooked rice, cook the broccoli tender before adding the rice.)
7. Stir in mushroom mixture and cheese. Cover and keep warm.
8. When pancake is removed from oven, immediately spoon filling into center and serve.

TV Dinner

Sometimes my cooking is Chopped meets Macgyver. "Your ingredients are: ground beef or pork, tortilla chips, fresh tomatoes, and eggs, and maybe some old Velveeta cheese. Invent something that five will eat." In fact, I'd like Dinner: Impossible to try to succeed at this challenge: "You have 30 minutes to prepare a meal for six while simultaneously caring for a 3-year-old and 8-month-old, finishing homework with an 6-year-old and 8-year-old, setting the table, and make it nutrition, delicious, and safe. GO!"

At least, that's how tomorrow's challenge feels. We used up (nearly) all our cheddar cheese tonight, and just about all the taco meat. What can I say? The tacos were delicious! So, now I'm improvising. I have two bags of tortilla chips and if I serve chips with dinner, the battle-of-clean-plates is non-existent, so I really want to use chips. I have lots of ground beef, pork, and sausage. So, I think I'll make a sausage con queso with velveeta and serve it with fresh chopped tomatoes, bell peppers, lettuce, sour cream, the remaining fresh cheddar, and (for the adults) jalapenos.

Take THAT, Chef Robert!

p.s. Gotta give credit where credit is due. Jay the Man made tacos tonight, serving the chopped vegetables he's growing in his high tunnels. He's a good man. He even threw together an apple dessert...mostly because he wanted to use his new apple peeler.

Bierocks Casserole

Growing up, I had the best lunch ladies EVER. They were four seemingly-old German ladies in our very German community. VERY German. In the middle of Kansas, probably 90 percent of my community was German and many had grandparents who still spoke German in the home. My high school offered Spanish and German as your language choices, and I'm just now realizing how odd that was. Anyway, back to lunch ladies. These fabulous women would make homemade bierocks for my school of 100 or so students. We are talking about fresh, made-from-scratch dough with beef, cabbage and cheese inside. YUM!

This is no where near as good, but is also thousands of times faster.

2 cans crescent roll dough
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 bag cole slaw mix
2 cups shredded cheese, cheddar or mozzarella

1. Brown the beef and pork in a large skillet. Drain.
2. Stir in the cole slaw mix. Cover and let steam until cabbage is softened.
3. Line a 13x9 dish with one of the crescent roll dough, pinching the seams to make a crust.
4. Spoon in the cabbage and meat mixture.
5. Sprinkle the cheese on top of the meat.
6. Top with the second crescent roll dough, again pinching the seams to make one big rectangle.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until dough turns golden brown.

Other variations of this recipe include adding a cream-of soup, but I stick to the basics, in honor of those great St. Mark's lunch ladies.

Loaded Rice

My menu called for spanish rice, but I ended up improvising and created a pretty tasty meal.

3 cups cooked rice (I used the bag rice; it's much cheaper!)
1 small onion, diced
4 tomatoes, diced (keep the juices) or 1 can Ro-Tel
2 bell peppers, diced
1 pound ground sausage
3-4 tablespoons taco seasoning
salt and pepper, to taste

Combine the sausage, onion, and pepper in a large skillet. Cook until the sausage in browned and the onion is translucent. Add the tomatoes and seasonings. Stir, and cook until warmed through. Add the rice. Stir, and let simmer for 5-10 minutes.

My husband and I added Tabasco sauce to our servings, but kept the dish mild so the kids would eat it.

Cherry ham and butternut squash

That whole menu thing? Totally out the window this week. I'm trying to make due with ingredients in our house and avoid going to the grocery store. So, tonight's supper is cherry ham and butternut squash.

For the cherry ham, just pour a can of cherry pie filling on top of a 1-2 pound cured ham. Bake at 325 until ham reaches 140 degrees, about an hour for a 2 pound ham, 90 minutes for a 3-4 pound ham.

For the butternut squash, wash the outside of the squash and cut it in half, lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and fibers from the middle of the squash. Place the halves, cut sides up, in a baking dish. Salt and pepper, if desired. Dot with margarine or butter; I use about 3 tablespoons for each half. Pour 1/4 inch of water into the baking dish. Cover and bake for about 45 minutes at 325 degrees.

So, if I manage to get the squash in the oven 45 minutes after the ham goes in, it should all be ready at about the same time. Here's hoping!

That was GREAT!

I think I underestimated the yumminess of tonight's menu.

Acorn squash

Bacon-spinach quiche, made with our own eggs, bacon, and spinach

Fresh spinach salad with boiled egg, cheese, and bacon bits

YUM!

Tamale casserole

Sometimes it's fun to just throw things together and see what you come up with. Last night's invention was tamale casserole

5 sweet banana peppers (or hot, if you like things spicy)
1 pound sausage
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 can cream-style corn
salt and pepper, to taste
1 box Jiffy mix cornbread (and the stuff to mix it)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Cut tops off of peppers and remove seeds. Cut in half lengthwise and boil in water for 5 minutes. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, brown sausage and onions together, until cooked through. Drain off any grease.
3. Add cream-style corn, salt, pepper, and stir. Pour into a casserole dish.
4. Sprinkle with half of the cheese.
5. Place banana peppers on top of sausage mixture.
6. Sprinkle remaining cheese.
7. Prepare cornbread mix according the instructions on the box. Spoon over the peppers.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until cornbread is baked through.

Not Hansel-and-Gretal-ish

There was/is a cooking show called Kids-a-Cookin' and I always thought it sounded like a tribute to the Hansel and Gretal story. But, I think it's no less harmless than today's recipe, referred to in our house as "Kid Kabobs". *no children were hurt in the making of this meal.

Kid Kabobs

3 cups (more or less) fully cooked ham, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 cups (more or less) cheese*, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 cups (more or less) fresh pineapple**, cut into (you guessed it) 1/2 cubes
a box of toothpicks***

When I serve this, I give each child 5-6 toothpicks, and an equal amount of ham, cheese, and pineapple. The girls love "making" their own supper, and we never have a battle about this meal.

*about the cheese: cheddar, monterrey jack, colby, any kind you like
**about the pineapple: you could use the canned slices of pineapple, but fresh is just SO much better, even in the middle of Kansas
***about the toothpicks: you can use bamboo skewers for older kids or forgo the stabbing utensils all together for toddlers

Ham, Sweet Ham

Growing up, I never liked ham. I thought ham just meant the lunchmeat you put on sandwiches and got in plastic, sealed bags.

Then I married into a pork-raising family.

Now, my favorite ham comes from the meat we have processed in Herrington, KS. Something you may not realize: every meat processor has a different recipe for their ham cure, and it does make a difference. The ham from Herrington doesn't need dressed up.

But, because I can, we dress it up anyway.

My husband makes and sells jams and jellies through Farmers Markets. Two of my favorites are his Peach Jalapeno Jelly and Confetti Jelly. To make ham in our house, I place a strip of aluminum foil in a dutch oven. Then, I place a thawed cured ham on the foil. Pour the peach jalapeno or confetti jelly on top of the ham. Tent the aluminum foil.

Bake the ham at 350 degrees for about 18 minutes per pound of meat, or until the internal temperature reads 160 degrees. If you like the ham edges a little crispy, remove the foil the last 20 minutes or so.

Then, let the ham set at least 10 minutes before carving it. That will allow the juices to soak back into the meat and make for a better tasting ham.

Enjoy!

BBQ Pork

You know that pork roast you made last night? Time to repackage it. After all, it IS the weekend and time to relax!

Shred the pork into chunks with a fork.
Pour your favorite barbeque sauce over it.
Either microwave for 2-3 minutes until warmed through, or put in a crock pot for about 4 hours on high or until warmed through. The meat is already cooked, so I don't worry as much about 160 degrees. (Feel free to correct me, food safety experts!)
Put on your favorite hamburger bun and serve with salad and/or chips.

Enjoy your Saturday!

Fair Week: Pizza Roll

This week is our county fair, so I needed to make something that 1) would last for a couple meals and 2) reheated well and 3) packed easily. So, pizza rolls it is! I'm not talking about the frozen little saucers you can get at the grocery store (although some days, those can suffice.) I'm talking about a bread loaf stuffed with pizza flavor. It's easy to make and a hit with everyone I know who has tried it.

Save money tip: price check the mozzarella. I might be cheaper to buy a chunk of cheese and shred it at home. Also, you can buy shredded mozzarella when it's on super-sale and freeze it until you need it.

3 loaves frozen bread dough, thawed
2 eggs
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp parsley
1/2 cup EVOO aka olive oil
4 oz pepperoni
1/2 pound ham, shredded
1 pound sausage, browned and drained
1/2 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded

1. Combine the meats and cheese in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, beat olive oil and spices into the eggs. Pour 3/4 of the egg mixture into the meats and cheese.
2. On parchment paper or a floured surface, roll out the bread dough into rectangles. Spread the meat/cheese mixture onto the bread dough.
3. Roll the dough into a jelly roll, pinching the edges and ends to seal.
4. Place on a cookie or baking sheet. Brush the remaining egg mixture on top. (I like to let my girls smear it on, being sure their hands are washed thoroughly before and after.)
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

You can freeze one or two of the loaves for later use. Just be sure to let it cool completely before you freeze it, to minimize ice crystals and maximize taste.