Cheesy Chilada Bake

This one has been a huge hit. I have made it many times and it perfect if you are making multiple meals. The most time consuming is chopping the produce and browning the meat. I made enough veggies and meat for 6 meals in an hour. It will probably take me about 30 more minutes to assemble the meals and I have 6 meals done in 90 minutes. I used yellow and orange peppers instead of green. Please note the serving sizes for this recipe.

Makes 4(9x13 pan)entrees,8 servings each

6 lbs. ground beef
4 green peppers, diced
4 medium onions, diced
2 tsp. minced garlic (about 6 cloves)
4 c. Picante sauce
4 (15 oz) cans tomato sauce
4 (14.5 oz) cans pinto beans
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. salt
48 corn tortillas
8 c. Mexican cheese, shredded

1. Brown beef, peppers, onions, and garlic in large stockpot over medium heat until beef is no longer pink, about 30 minutes. Drain and discard fat. Stir in picante sauce, tomato sauce, beans, cumin, and salt.
2. Spread 4 cups of the mixture over the bottom of each baking dish. Cover the mixture with 6 corn tortillas, overlapping the edges as necessary to fit in a single layer. Spread 1 cup of cheese over the tortillas. Repeat each layer, finishing with cheese topping.
3. Wrap each dish entirely in plastic. Top with foil, label and freeze.

To cook:
1. Completely thaw one dish in fridge.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
3. Remove plastic wrap and foil from baking dish and replace foil. Bake for 40 minutes, or until center is hot and edges are bubbly.

Comforting Cube Steaks

So my parents bought part of a cow a few months ago and they were kind enough to share with my sister and I, but here is the dilemma... what is a cube steak????  Of course busted out Google (the computer nerd I am) and found out that a cube steak is used to refer to a cut of meat that has been run through a mechanical tenderizer. The resulting steak is called a cube steak because of the cube-shaped indentations made by the tenderizer.  Now that explains what it is but my burning questions is how do I prepare it?  So I continued with my research and found this information: Cube steak can be braised, sautéed or pan-fried. Cube steak can even be baked in a casserole. Examples of cube steak recipes include chicken-fried steak and Swiss steak.  Well, I went in search of some recipes because I was determined to use my cube steaks for dinner... and this is the recipe I choose.

I varied the spices because I didn't have dry onion soup mix at home.  Did you know that you can make a homemade onion soup mix (probably less sodium too)?  That recipe will have to wait for another day...  

I also thinly sliced onions and baked them too.  I would have added mushrooms but I didn't have any.  The soup and soda make a thin gravy mix so you could make mashed potatoes, thicken up the gravy and you have dinner done. Bonus: the house smells amazing.

I was also reading some of the reviews for this recipe and many people used the slow cooker to make this recipe.  The website link is at the bottom of the recipe if you want to read the reviews too.

Ingredients:
4 (4 ounce) cube steaks
1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle lemon-lime flavored carbonated beverage
2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 (1 ounce) envelope dry onion soup mix

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
Season the steaks on both sides with Cajun seasoning and black pepper. Place the steaks into the prepared baking dish. Pour the lemon-lime beverage over them. Combine the cream of mushroom soup and dry onion soup mix, and pour over the steaks.
Bake, uncovered, for about 1 hour, or until meat reaches desired doneness. Do not open the oven door during the first hour of cooking. Serve steaks with gravy spooned over. 

Allrecipes.com - Comforting Cube Steaks

To die for crock pot roast

I was looking for a new and exciting Crock pot Roast recipes and I stumbled across this one.  It has been added to my favorite recipe collection... YUM YUM YUM!

Ingredients
1 beef roast, any cut, to fit size of crock pot.
1 pkg. hidden valley ranch dressing mix
1 pkg. brown gravy mix
1 pkg. Italian dressing mix
1 Cup water
small red potatoes, scrubbed and quartered. (optional)
1 Cup celery , chopped (optional)
1 pkg baby carrots (optional) 

Directions:Mix together packets and water in a bowl. Put roast in crock pot and pour mixture over the top of the roast. Cook on low for 8 hours.  Add veggies during the last three hours.

Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff

I don't think this recipe could have gotten any easier.  The hardest part was cutting up onions or maybe buying the groceries.  Who doesn't love a recipe that takes 10 minutes to assemble... 8 hours later dinner is done.  I tried it because of the cream cheese variation.  Most stroganoff's use sour cream so I thought I would give this one a try.  I also added thick cut mushrooms to bulk it up a little.  I made egg noodles to serve it over and made a salad as a side.  It was the perfect amount for 4 adults.

Ingredients

• 1 pound cubed beef stew meat
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed golden mushroom soup
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• 4 ounces cream cheese

Directions

1. In a slow cooker, combine the meat, soup, onion, Worcestershire sauce and water.
2. Cook on Low setting for 8 hours, or on High setting for about 5 hours. Stir in cream cheese just before serving.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooker-beef-stroganoff-i/detail.aspx

Beef Stew Bake

This is one of my favorite recipes my mom makes.  It is great because you can use leftover stew or buy stew in a can.  This recipe would be easy to cut in half as well.  You would use a 8x8 pan and reduce the cooking time.

Beef Stew Bake

1/2 cup butter
3 cups flour
4 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. salt
3 cups milk
2 cups shredded cheese
2 tbls. sugar
1 large can dinty moore beef stew
(3 cups of left over stew can be
used in place of canned stew)

Preheat oven to 350. Melt butter in a 9x13 pan in the oven.  Combine all ingredients, except the beef stew.  Pour batter over melted butter. Spoon the beef stew over batter, leave some of the batter exsosed.
DO NOT STIR.
Bake for 6o to 65 minutes. 

Flavorful Swedish Meatballs

This recipes makes lots of meatballs.  I cut it in half and still had enough for two or three meals.  The name says it all... these are flavorful meatballs.  I cooked my for a little too long but they still tasted yummy.


Ingredients:
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 c. ketchup
3/4 c. dry bread crumbs
2 tbsp dried parsley flakes
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1.2 tsp chili powder
2 lbs ground beef
1 lbs ground pork


Additional ingredients (per batch):
1 envelope brown gravy mix
1/2 c. sour cream
Dash each nutmeg and pepper
Hot cooked noodles


Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the eggs, ketchup, bread crumbs, parsley, Worcestershire sauce and seasonings.  Crumble meat over mixture and mix well.  Shape into 1-inch balls, about 6 dozen.


Place meatballs on greased racks in a shallow baking pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until no longer pink, turning often; drain.  Cool. Place about 35 meatballs into a freezer container.  May be frozen for up to 3 months.


To prepare Swedish meatballs: In a large skillet, prepare gravy according to package directions.  Add the remaining meatballs; cover and cook for 10 minutes or until heated through.  Remove from the heat; stir in the sour cream, nutmeg and pepper.  Serve over noodles.


To use frozen meatballs: Completely thaw in the refrigerator.  Prepare as directed.


Recipe yields 2 batches (35 meatballs per batch)

Lazy Man's Lasagna

This is a classic recipe from our scrapbooking weekends.  Our fearless leader made this for us once, and it has been requested several times since. 


1 lb hamburger, browned
8 oz curly noodles, cooked
8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
32 oz jar spaghetti sauce
16 oz cottage cheese
Parmesan cheese


1.Combine hamburger and sauce.
2. Combine noodles, cottage cheese and mozzarella cheese.
3. Layer 1/3 beef mixture on bottom of crock pot, then 1/2 noodle mixture. Repeat and end with beef mixture on top. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Cover and cook on low for 3 hrs. Serve with bread and your meal is complete.