Easy Italian Casserole

Big Chubb claims that we can never call things that aren't real Italian food Italian. Especially since they never eat casseroles there. And especially since this one has American cheese in it.

It is another one from the Bisquick cards.

1 pound ground beef (turkey because we are poor)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 can (16 ounces) tomato sauce
1 can (4 ounces) mushroom stems and pieces,               drained
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 cups Bisquick baking mix (made my own)
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
8 slicces process American cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Cook and stir beef, onion and garlic until brown; drain. Stir in sauce, mushrooms, sugar, oregano, basil, salt and pepper. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly; reduce heat. Simmer, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease baking dish, 8x8x2 inches. Mix baking mix, milk, and egg; spread half in pan. Top with 4 cheese slices. Spoon beef over cheese. Top with remaining cheese slices; sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Drop remaining dough by spoonfuls onto cheese. Sprinkle with paprika if desired. Bake until light brown, about 20 minutes. 6-8 servings.

Well, Big Chubb and I liked it. Baby Chubb liked it, but pulled all the mushrooms out. Little Chubb was in a mood and wouldn't eat it because is was too hot. The only issue I had with it was that the biscuit mix was pretty dry so I didn't get nice looking biscuits on top. This will probably also be added into the rotation in the cooler months when we need a good comfort meal to warm us up.

Peach Muffins

I really like muffins. I had been waiting around for fresh peaches to make these, but I realized I could use canned just as well. I whipped them pretty quickly after that.

Peach Muffins

400 degrees--20-25 min.
1 dozen

1/2 c butter
3/4 c sugar
 1 egg
 1/2 c sour cream
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1 c chopped peaches
1 c chopped pecans

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, sour cream and vanilla. Mix well. Add dry ingredients til just moistened. Fold in peaches and pecans. Fill (greased) muffin tins 3/4 full.

They were fine--very much like coffee cake. I think I would have liked them better as coffee cake because they fell apart so badly when I tried getting them out of the muffin tin. Also, they would have been good with something else on top like a little sugar, or maybe the nuts (that I omitted).

Tommy's Ham Casserole

Here is yet another leftover ham recipe.  I found something incredibly similar on pinterest, but it called for a roux instead of cream of mushroom soup.  Personally, I would have made the pinterest recipe instead because of that, but didn't for the sake of the blog. Once again, sorry, no picture.

Tommy's Ham Casserole
from allrecipes

2 c cubed or shredded ham
3 c cooked macaroni
3/4 c shredded cheddar cheese
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 can milk
1/4 c dried bread crumbs

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Ina  casserole, combine the ham, macaroni, cheese, soup, and milk.  Mix together well.
3. Bake, covered, at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.  Uncover, top with bread crumbs, and bake, uncovered, for ten more minutes.

It was better than I thought it would be.  It didn't looked very appetizing and I know I would have preferred a homemade sauce more, but it was okay.

Upside Down Pizza

We have pizza every Friday night to make life easy for me when it comes to menu planning. I decided to make this to switch up the routine slightly. Big Chubb told me to never switch it again without giving him warning. He was disappointed that we weren't having actual pizza.

Upside Down Pizza

1 lb. ground beef
1 c. onions, chopped
1 c. green bell pepper, chopped
1 cn. pizza sauce 15 oz.
1/4 lb. pepperoni, coarsely chopped
1/2 ts Italian seasoning, dried
1 jar sliced mushrooms, drained, 2.5 oz
6 oz mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
    Topping
1 c. milk
1 tb oil
2 eggs
1 c. all purpose flour
1/4 ts salt
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese grated

Heat oven to 400F. In lrg. skillet over med.-high heat, brown ground beef, onions, and bell pepper. Drain. Stir in pizza sauce, pepperoni, Italian seasoning and mushrooms (I added olives because if we were to ever have any sort of pizza anything without olives there would be a major uprising in our house). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; simmer uncovered 10 minutes., stirring occasionally. meanwhile, in sm. bowl combine milk, oil and eggs; beat one minute. at med. speed. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off. Add flour and salt; beat 2 mins. at med. speed or until smooth. Spoon meat mixture evenly into ungreased 13x9" baking dish. Place cheese slices over hot mixture. Pour topping evenly over cheese, covering complete; sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 400F for 20-30 mins. or until puffed and deep golden brown. Makes 6-8 servings. "

"It's fun to watch the 'crust' rise while this unique casserole is baking. The secret to the tender crust is following the recipe directions carefully and using the pan size called for."

I liked it enough. Our frozen green peppers are getting to taste like freezer, so it detracted from the flavor slightly. I also used ground turkey because beef is not priced right to be in our food budget. It got good enough reviews to be considered for future meals. Big Chubb said it was ok, but they would never have anything like this in Italy. Baby Chubb loved it like she loves most food these days. Little Chubbs didn't want to eat it because he saw steam coming from it.

Yam Delight

This recipe came from the Wozniaks, I am assuming the recipes collected for Mom when we moved from Ohio. I'm pretty sure she never made it.  sorry, no picture, it was pretty gross looking.

Yam Delight

16 oz canned yams cut into bite sized pieces
16 oz chunky style applesauce
1 t cinnamon
1/3 c butter/margarine
3/4 c brown sugar
4 T flour
3/4 c instant rolled oats
1 c chopped walnuts (I replaced with more oats)

Spread half of applesauce in casserole dish.  Sprinkle with 1/2 t cinnamon.  In bowl, mix together brown sugar, flour, nuts, and oats with butter to make topping.  Spoon 3 tablespoons mixture over applesauce.  Evenly arrange yams on top.  Spread applesauce over yams.  Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 t cinnamon.  Sprinkle remaining oat mixture evenly over top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Serve as side dish or with ice cream.

I definitely recommend serving as a dessert, not a side dish like I did; it was a dessert in every sense of the word.  We all liked it and it was even well enough masked in applesauce and sugar to get the little tike to eat sweet potatoes, which she has recently been avoiding like the plague.   I don't know if we'll have it ever again, but it was worth making.

Next Best Thing to Robert Redford

A delicious family recipe.  I was happy to find the original hand-written recipe in my pile of recipes.  I needed a picture to blog, so naturally I had a piece for lunch, but totally ruined my nice piece getting it onto the plate, so didn't get a picture.  But I still ate it for lunch.  You will have to imagine the layers of light and dark.

Next Best Thing to Robert Redford

1/2 c butter
1 c flour
1 c ground walnuts (I never use the nuts)
8 oz cream cheese
1 c powdered sugar
1 c cool whip
1 pkg instant chocolate pudding
1 pkg instant vanilla pudding
3 c milk
1 t vanilla
1 c cool whip

Combine flour, butter, and nuts.  Pat firmly into 9"x13" pan and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool.  With electric mixer, beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar, and one cup cool whip.  Spread over the cooled crust.  Whip together the chocolate and vanilla pudding, milk, and vanilla.  Spread over the cream cheese layer.  Top with cool whip and sprinkle with nuts.  Refrigerate.

I really like this dessert I like the perfect combination of flavors and the fact that it is a nice, cool dessert.  Definitely worth making.

Broccoli-Cheddar Potatoes

4 med. baking potatoes
margarine
sour cream
1 c small broccoli flowerets, cooked and drained
4-5 medium mushrooms, chopped
1 c shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 c bacon bits

Bake potato 'til tender. Cut in half length-wise. Make slits in potatoe surface w/ knife. Spread w/ butter; top w/ sour cream. Top each w/ broccoli, mushroom, cheese, bacon bits. Bake at 400 degrees til cheese is melted. 4 servings.

I'm guessing this is a pretty old recipe judging by Mom's spelling mistakes. It was only okay. The toppings were all good, but not enough got into the potato, so the actual potato was pretty dry. It would be much better like a twice-baked potato with the extra stuff on top.