Layered Tuna Bake

Originally when I planned our dinner menu this week, I had tuna patties on the list for tonight. As I was looking for recipes for cookies yesterday, I ran across a couple recipe cards from General Mills using Bisquick mix. This recipe was included on one.


2 cans (6 1/2 ounces each) tuna, drained
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup toasted almonds
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 cups Bisquick baking mix
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing
1 egg yolk, beaten
Dill Sauce (below)

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease baking dish, 8x8x2. Mix tuna, cheese, onion, celery, almonds, lemon juice, egg, salt, and pepper. Mix baking mix, milk and mayonnaise; beat vigorously 20 strokes. Spread half the dough in dish; top with tuna mixture. Spread remaining dough over tuna mixture. Brush with egg yolk. Bake until deep golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve with Dill Sauce. 6 to 8 servings.

Dill Sauce: Heat 2 tablespoons margarine or butter in 1-qt saucepan over low heat until melted. Stir in 2 tablespoons Bisquick baking mix, 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in 1 cup milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly, Boil and stir one minute.

The verdict: not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I didn't have almonds, so I omitted them, but I don't think they would have added anything to the dish. I made my own baking mix because I am not going to buy any when I have all the ingredients in my cupboard. It turned out really well, probably better than the real stuff would have. And, the dill sauce is a white sauce with some dill added to it. It was taking incredibly long to melt the dang butter so I turned the heat up. Way up.

Big Chubb, of course, loved it, especially the dill sauce, though he felt it could have used a little more flavor to enhance the taste. Baby Chubb scarfed most of hers down and then started pretending to drop it on the floor. It is her way of saving some for later. Little Chubb ate about half of what I gave him, which was more than I expected.

Cranberry Oat Cookies

I needed something sweet yesterday afternoon so I looked through all the cookie recipes I have and this one stood out because I happen to have dried cranberries.

Ingredients

3/4 cup Lactantia  butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp water
2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup Robin Hood all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3 cups Robin Hood or Old Mill oats
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cups copped pecans, optional

Preparations

Cream butter, sugars, egg, water and vanilla together on medium speed of electric mixer until light and creamy.

COmbne flour, baking soda and cinnamon. Add to creamed mixture, beating on low speed until blended. Stir in oats, cranberries and nuts.

Drop dough by heaping spoonfuls onto greased baking sheets.

Press flat for crisp cookies; leave mounded for chewy cookies.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes, or until edgeds are golden brown. Don't overbake.

Makes about 4 dozen.


I halved the recipe so mine turned out a little bit wetter than they should have because I didn't halve the egg. And, I must have used a large spoon because I only got about 15 cookies from the dough. I also opted not to use the pecans. We didn't have any.

We all loved them. Little Chubb asked for more cookies even though he told us he only had one more room in his tummy for any food to go into BEFORE he ate his cookie. Big Chubb said it was a keeper! Baby CHubb was sad that she only got to have chocolate chips for her treat instead of a cookie. She had one earlier and I didn't want to go over board on the oatmeal since we had it for breakfast, too.

Mom's Stew

The scouts went camping last weekend and had a dutch oven cook off. Big Chubb was assigned to make some stew, so I decided this would be a good chance to use this recipe. I ended up making it because Big Chubb had less than an hour between when he got home from school and when he had to leave to go meet at the church. We don't eat stew often because we never have beef. I used some of the venison Dad gave us at Thanksgiving. Plus, if it turned out gross the scouts would be eating it.

I'm not sure which Mom this belongs to, but I don't feel like we ever had stew like this.

Mom's Stew

2 pkg. stew meat
1 green pepper
1 onion
celery
potatoes-4 big
carrots-6 good size
tomato sauce (big) 29 oz.
1 can water
salt
pepper
6 TBLS tapioca
2 bay leaves

Put in lg. casserole. Stir to mix. Cook 5 hours without opening lid. 350 degree oven. Makes a lot!

So it would have been fairly easy to assemble, but we don't have a huge casserole. And, I wasn't about to clean out the dutch oven Big Chubb got from church. So I used our huge stock pot. It seemed to work fine. It started getting stuck to the bottom of the pan, but it was right when Big Chubb was moving over to the Dutch oven to take it, so it didn't get burned. I also had to cut up the venison, which took for ever. Plus, Baby Chubb was screaming at me the whole time, and Little Chubb had been sent to take a nap for being naughty. It was a pleasant afternoon.

Anyway, it was well received by the campers. The leaders all enjoyed it, and some of the scouts (all deacons) who poorly planned their meals were very happy to have some. Big Chubb said it had a very tomato-y base, not like a regular stew that has a much more beefy base. I had forgotten that we were out of celery because Big Chubb ate it all, but he said it wouldn't have changed the flavor profile much.

I forgot to snap a picture before Big Chubb took it away, but just imagine all those veggies in a red broth. It did look pretty with the green and orange and white in the red.

Black Bean and Cheese Enchiladas

Mom actually did make these several times. I remember she had some waiting once when I came home for a weekend. I'm pretty sure it was the weekend right before Big Chubb and I went on our first date.

photo courtesy of Betty Crocker

1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon cumin
1 can black beans, drained, rinsed
1 package flour tortillas (8 inch), heated
2 cups monterey jack cheese
1 can enchilada sauce
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Salsa if desired

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray 11x7 inch glass baking dish with cooking spray. heat oil in 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cumin, cook and stir until onion is tender. Stir in beans.

Place about 3 tablespoons bean mixture in center of each warm tortilla. Top each with 1/4 cup Monterey Jack cheese. Roll up tightly; place, seam side down, in baking dish. Spoon enchilada sauce over tortillas. Spray sheet of foil with cooking spray; cover baking dish with foil. sprayed side down.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Sprinkle with Cheddar cheese. Serve enchiladas with salsa.

We love these! I usually put more than just three tablespoons of beans in each, so we only get about 5 enchiladas from the recipe, but that is more than enough for our family. Since everyone in this house LOVES beans, it is also a go to meal that will always be eaten. We like to have it with salad and tomatoes, avocados, olives, sour cream, etc.

Graham Cracker Bars

There was one way Mom would eat coconut, and this is it. I remember this as an Allred classic. I noticed Mom had me change the recipe in the Allred cookbook, but those must have been her own changes. This seems to be the original that's in the book.

1 c butter

1/2 c milk

1 c brown sugar

1 egg, slightly beaten

Cover bottom of cookie sheet w/ graham crackers. Melt butter, add sugar, milk, and egg. Cook, stirring constantly and let boil 5 minutes. Add 1 cup coconut, 1 cup nuts, and 1 cup crushed graham cracker crumbs. Spread over whole crackers. Put another layer of whole grahams on top.

First, this is the only time I've seen nuts in the recipe. I omitted. Second, it doesn't talk about frosting on top. I made a very thin frosting, using all the powdered sugar I had because it seems necessary according to my memory of the recipe. I remember these being completely soggy every time I had them, but we didn't wait that long to dig in. I liked it with the crackers still a little crispy. FYI, you need 2 boxes of graham crackers. I halved it and put it in a 9x13.

These were a big hit. I tried the gnocchi zucchini stuff for dinner (homemade gnocchi even), and it was a huge success. C and O both ate it, and C ate everything on her plate including the spinach salad. Then we all polished off plenty of these bars. Happy tummies tonight in this house.

Veggie Pizza

Veggie Pizza

1 can crescent rolls
4 oz soft cream cheese
1/3 packet Hidden Valley Ranch
1 T mayonnaise
Raw veggies (broccoli, green pepper, radishes, cucumbers, mushrooms, celery, carrots, olives, purple cabbage, etc.)
4 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 c crushed pineapple

1) Unroll can of rolls onto cookie sheet.
2) Bake for 1/2 of package time.
3) While baking mix cream cheese, ranch dressing and mayo. Chop veggies into small pieces.
4) Remove rolls, spread cheese mixture over on top of hot crust. Sprinkle on veggies, pineapple, and cheese.
5) Return to oven for remainder of baking time or until veggies are done and cheese melts.
6) Cut into pieces while hot.

I've made normal veggie pizza before, but I wanted to try this because you cook the pizza after you put the toppings on, and it calls for pineapple. It was good, but baking it with the toppings on didn't really do much since it only ended up being about 5 minutes. They were still pretty much raw, but I was afraid the crust would get overdone if I left it in there longer. The pineapple was a good addition. The mozzarella just kind of disappeared. When I make it again, I'll just make it the normal way, maybe with pineapple.

Zucchini Bars

I had some zucchini I needed to use up, so I made these.

From Allrecipes

Zucchini Bars 

    These bars are so delicious that my family can eat the entire batch in one day!!! They are very easy and moist. Prep time: approx. 15 minutes Cook time: approx. 25 minutes Ready in: approx. 40 minutes Makes 1 9x13 pan (24 servings).

3 eggs

1 c. vegetable  oil

2 c. sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/3 c. all purpose flour

1/4 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 c. grated zucchini

1/2 c. margarine

1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese

2 1/2 c. confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla until well blended. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Mix in the zucchini. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.

3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow bars to cool completely before frosting. To make the frosting, blend together the margarine, cream cheese and confectioners' sugar until well blended. Spread over cooled bars before cutting.

This recipes was very similar to Mom's carrot cake recipe. You could barely tell there was any zucchini in it. Big Chubb said it tasted like buttered popcorn (?) the Little Chubb and Baby Chubb gobbled it up, so I'd say it was a success. I liked it enough to eat too much of it. 

My only problem with this recipe is that it took about twice as long to bake as the recipe said. If I would have taken it out at 25 minutes we would have still been eating batter.