Refried Bean Casserole

This is one of my husband's favorite meals from childhood. I got the recipe from his mom when we were dating, and first made it in his college apartment kitchen. Since then, it has made a regular appearance at our table. One caveat: it doesn't re-heat very well, so cutting it in half to minimize leftovers is what we try to do. A half-recipe yields 2-3 servings, a full recipe feed about 6.

The story: Last night I was going to make a half-recipe of this dish, and proceeded to brown a whole pound of meat, with the expectation I would freeze half of it, having a handy taco meal later on. We got a call just as I started this from 3 friends wanting to hang out. Because I had everything on hand, I decided to make the full recipe & feed everyone.
(Warning: I'm writing this from memory, rather than actually having the recipe in front of me)

Refried Bean Casserole

Tortilla chips
1 lb ground meat (beef is traditional. I used ground turkey)
taco seasoning(I used a packet, though next time I want to try this recipe.)
14 oz (or 2 8-oz cans) tomato sauce
1 can refried beans
1 C shredded cheddar cheese

- Preheat oven to 350
- Brown ground meat. Mix with taco seasoning & 3/4 the tomato sauce.
- Cover the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish with chips.
- Layer the meat mixture on top of the chips.
- Spread the refried beans on top of the meat mixture.
- Spread the rest of the tomato sauce on top of the beans.
- Bake 20-25 minutes.
- Top with chips & more cheese, and put back in the oven to melt the cheese (just a few minutes)

Cost breakdown:

ground turkey: about 90 cents
taco seasoning: about 30 cents
tomato sauce: about 80 cents
tortilla chips: $1 per bag- I didn't use an entire bag.
refried beans: about 50 cents
cheese: about 70 cents

Total: about $4.20
Per serving (6 servings): 70 cents

Tips:
Cutting the recipe in half is easy, except for using half of a can of refried beans. I will save the other half of the can, and have bean-and-cheese rollups or quesadillas for lunches.

Tacos for friends

Our friends just welcomed a new baby into their home, and a group of us got together to bring them meals once every 3 or so days. The person who was scheduled to bring a meal last Friday wasn't feeling well, so at the last minute, I stepped up.

This was great- I was excited to serve my friends and provide relief for them as they care for their new little one. The catch: we had a meeting after work at 4:30. Starting to cook after the meeting wasn't an option- thanks to the Friday afternoon traffic between our place & theirs, even a quick meal wouldn't get there till after 7. I had to make a plan- and it sure wasn't going to be fancy, since I didn't have much time to plan. Also, I wanted to avoid the "casserole" route, since I've heard from others who have had new babies that casseroles brought by friends can get old quick. There's only so much pasta-based casserole you can eat.

So, what did I decide on? I took a quick inventory of what I had on hand, and decided on tacos and rice for our friends. I also tried to "package" the meal as nicely as possible- all the pieces in bowls rather than tupperware containers, to give the semblance of eating at home rather than take-out or leftovers.

Bowls:
- 1/3 lb ground beef, browned & mixed with taco seasoning & a little salsa (I made this the night before, and just had to heat it up after work)
- salsa
- 2 handfuls shredded cheddar
- chopped tomatoes (from my "garden"!)
- shredded lettuce
- mexican rice (this is where I really cheated- I bought a microwave-for-90-seconds pouch of rice, because, like I said, I was a bit strapped for time.)

I also included heated tortillas, though heated hard-taco shells were an option. I wasn't sure if this meal was a little bit more labor-intensive for the recipients than it should have been (having to assemble the tacos), but they said they didn't think so. I would have liked to include more salsa & tortilla chips, but didn't have them on hand.

The end of the story: I prepared all this before the 4:30 meeting and packaged it up. The meeting went shorter than expected, and they had dinner at home by 5:45! This is a quick meal we make for ourselves fairly often, too, when we need an early dinner.

Big Recipe: Pizza casserole

Easy Pizza Pasta Casserole
20 servings 1 1/4 hrs 20 min prep

2 lbs ground beef or ground venison (about $4 - if I use ground turkey, it's healthier & would be <$2)
1 large onion, chopped (about 30 cents)
1 clove garlic, minced (about 30 cents)
1 teaspoon italian seasoning (negligible)
2 tablespoons olive oil (negligible)
2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce (about $4)
16 ounces rotini pasta, cooked and drained (about 60 cents)
5 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (20 oz) (about $4)
4 ounces sliced pepperoni (about 80 cents)

1. Brown ground beef, onion, garlic and seasoning in oil.
2. Drain.
3. Stir in pasta, spaghetti sauce and 3 cups cheese.
4. Place mixture in 2 greased 9x13x2 inch baking pans or 4 square pans.
5. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella.
6. Top with pepperoni. (I'm not crazy about pepperoni. Without the pepperoni, this would be just as good, as a "baked pasta dish")
7. Cover and freeze up to 3 months.

To cook now: Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, until heated through.
To bake frozen casserole: Thaw in refrigerator overnight and bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes, till hot

The cost of the big casserole was $12 at Aldi. For 20 servings, that comes out to 60 cents a serving- and this is good! It was perfect for what we used the recipe for- cooking it in a big foil turkey-roaster pan and serving it to a large group, but I think it would be even better used as a once-a-month cooking recipe, divided into 4 square pans (the recipe's intended purpose). When I have a chest freezer, with room to store cooked-ahead meals, I definitely plan on including this one.

Shepherd's Pie

Originally posted at keeping feet on 3/18/07

For the first time, I'm participating in the Make It From Scratch carnival hosted by Stephanie at Stop the Ride. I'm excited! My very first carnival, too! Earlier this week, I mentioned I made St. Patrick's Day cookies, but those don't count as 'made from scratch' in my book- I used a mix that involves adding an egg, a stick of butter, mixing & sticking them in the oven.

Instead, I've been itching to make shepherd's pie all week. I hadn't ever even eaten shepherd's pie, but it seemed like a good idea, and looked yummy in pictures, so I thought I'd give it a try. I started with the recipe at Simply Recipes.
I was delighted to see that I had all the ingredients on hand. I'm of the school of thought that, when fixing dinner, I'll use what I have, and make it work. And that i did. I went to the freezer and discovered I was lower on ground beef than I had thought- I had only 1/2 lb. A full recipe would be too much for just the two of us anyway, so I cut the recipe in half and used 1/4 lb ground turkey to make up the difference. Also, we don't like onions, so I left those out.
After browning the meat, cooking the vegetables, and mashing the potatoes, the dish was ready to go in the oven. It looked delicious, and I was glad to sneak in veggies to our diet, of which we don't eat nearly enough.
Well, half an hour later, after a few minutes under the broiler, the casserole came out browned and yummy.
A discussion we had over the dinner table: Josh asked, "Why do they call it a pie? It doesn't use a pie crust." I surmised, "Well, we had chicken pot pie earlier this week, and it doesn't have a crust." He said, "Normally it does." (I didn't feel like making a crust from scratch Thursday, so I used refrigerator biscuits on the top.) So I had no answer. I figured that it must be a UK-English word for 'casserole' or something. in the end, the consensus was, we like the recipe from across the pond, and it's a keeper. I hope to be making shepherd's pie for years to come!

Sugar Cream Pie

Originally posted at keeping feet on 2/24/07

For some reason, Tuesday and Wednesday this week, I was really tense. I told Josh we were just going to stay in Thursday and have a quiet night. While I was at work Thursday, I got an email from Josh: "I'm taking care of dinner tonight...". I hadn't thought about dinner yet, and wasn't sure if "taking care of dinner" meant "we're ordering pizza", "we're having grilled cheese" or something else, but I didn't ask and waited to be surprised.
And was I surprised! Josh cooked up an amazing dinner (that, of course, I had to photograph...), including steak, green beans, and my favorite, home fries. Delicious, seriously. I felt spoiled, especially since I seriously slacked on the meal-cooking end this week.
Because I didn't have to cook the dinner, I made good on my promise to deliver sugar cream pie to work. I've only eaten this pie twice, and Josh had never had it. It appears to only exist in Indiana, so I couldn't find many recipes. Normally when I'm cooking something entirely new, I look at lots of recipes, and take the average of all of them, to end up with something in-the-middle. Well, there weren't many recipes to choose from, so I mostly followed the Food Geeks one, with a couple modifications for flavor. Here's about what I ended up with:

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 dash salt
5 tbsp. flour
Just under 1 pint whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
Dash cinnamon
1 unbaked pie shell
Directions:
Combine sugar, salt and flour. Heat whipping cream. Add a little cream to sugar-flour mixture, then mix in all the cream. Add the vanilla & cinnamon. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake at 450°F for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350°F and bake for 35-40 minutes. Cover edges of pie crust with foil if they look like they're beginning to burn.

I was worried when I poured the pie into the pie shell- it was liquid, like milk (well, heavy cream) I thought there was no way it would solidify. When I took it our of the oven, it still wasn't entirely solid. It solidified as it cooled. It was well received at work, and got a "perfect" rating by a certain sugar cream pie connoisseur.

And then yesterday, the most anticipated cooking event of the week, the Amish Friendship Bread. I followed the directions and decided it takes a LOT of ingredients to make this bread. I kind of felt like I was making stone soup, because I spent all week nursing this yeast, so I could make what seemed to be a quickbread. Kinda silly, but there must be science behind it, right? Anyway, the loaves came out of the oven and they were as delicious as promised. I used applesauce in place of half the oil, and they have an apple-cinnamon flavor to them. Yum.

That's all for now. With all the sweets-cooking lately, I had to replenish my eggs, flour, sugar and milk this week. Good thing too, because here comes an ice storm...

Valentine's Day dinner

Originally published at keeping feet on 2/14/07

And... it's Valentine's Day again.

Thanks to me being home almost all day yesterday (with time to think about a meal), I cheated and cooked a nice Valentine's dinner a day early, complete with sparkling grape juice, marinated chicken, broccoli, and mashed potatoes. These were probably the best mashed potatoes I've made- I left the skins on and added some cheese to the mix, and they turned out lumpier than usual, but more flavorful. The chicken, I marinated in Ken's Steakhouse Italian Dressing for 2-3 hours while I ventured to work for a little bit, then grilled on our handy-dandy George Foreman grill, and it turned out excellent as well. I usually overcook the food when I use the George Foreman grill, and therefore usually leave the grilling to my dear husband. Luckily all turned out well last night.

Easy Meatloaf

Originally published on 9/8/2006 at keeping feet

So, I was excited that I had accomplished the feat of baking bread last week. This week my next step was whipping up meatloaf after work, before Josh got home. I deviated from the recipe in front of me, and I wasn't so sure how it was going to turn out, but Josh's review was favorable. A quote from my husband: "This is probably the best meatloaf I've ever had, seriously." Hooray.
Before the Oven:

After the oven:

The Recipe:
Easy Meatloaf
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 C dry bread crumbs
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1/2 C onion, minced (I didn't use this. We don't have any, and I don't like it anyway.)
- 1/4 C green pepper, diced (same as the onion.)
- 1 t. salt
- 1/4 t. pepper
- 2 C tomato sauce (This was 1 can.)
- I found another recipe that suggested adding thyme, so I threw some in.

Combine ground beef, bread crumbs, eggs, green pepper, onion, salt, pepper, and 1 C tomato sauce. Use hands to knead the mixture unti lit is well combined (This is the fun part! You HAVE to use your hands.) Shape into loaf (Notice I used a small glass casserole dish, because we don't have loaf pans. The recipe doesn't say what pan to use.) and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Pour remaining 1 C tomato sauce over loaf (I probably poured 1/2 to 2/3 C, I didn't use the rest of the can. i was afraid my dish would overflow.) and bake 30 minutes longer. Slice and serve immediately.

Of course, we had mashed potatoes with meatloaf- there's no other way to eat it- and I've got making those down pat.