Cheese Stuffed Pasta Shells

by madaise on Jan 3, 2009

While this may seem like a time consuming meal to prepare (for some reason it always does to me), it really isn’t bad at all.

Periodically, I’ll buy ground beef in bulk. I’ll brown and drain it all, then separate it into baggies marked with the date made. Either freeze or plan to use in the next couple of days. Doing this makes this recipe run much smoother during preparations… while the pasta shells are cooking on the stove, I prepare the meat and cheese stuffing.. it takes me almost as long to make the stuffing mix, while cleaning up after myself as it does for the shells to cook.

1 package of jumbo pasta shells
1 jar of favorite spaghetti sauce (I actually use tomato sauce usually)
1 lb browned ground beef, drained
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
3/4 cup shredded cheese (mixed or mozzarella)
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbs parsley (I used dried, but fresh would be best)
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook pasta shells as package directs.

While pasta is cooking, add together all ingredients EXCEPT the spaghetti sauce and a little extra shredded cheese to use for a topper.

In a large casserole dish, spread some of your pasta sauce on the bottom of the dish.

Once the pasta shells are done cooking, I drain and rinse under cold water so handling the shells is easy to do - not hot.

Using a large spoon, scoop the cheese and meet mixture into each shell, then placing it into the casserole dish.

Pour more sauce on top of the stuffed shells and place in over for about 45 minutes. In the last 10 minutes or so, top with the remaining shredded cheese. Once melted, remove from oven and enjoy!

Serve with salad and bread.

Simple Egg Salad Sandwich

by madaise on Jan 3, 2009

I love egg salad sandwiches.  Egg salad is such a simple thing to make, so easy with quick and easy ingredients.

How much I make depends on who is eating lunch with me.  I prefer to make enough to eat at the time and maybe enough for extra sandwich or two later.

Ingredients:

Eggs
Miracle Whip (Real Mayo works, but I prefer the sweetness of the Miracle Whip)
Salt
Pepper
Bread

Boil the eggs for about 5 minutes to get hard boiled eggs.  Once done, rinse under cold water to cool the eggs enough to handle.  Crack the egg shells all over and gentle peel the shell and inner membrane off (dry out the shells and use in the garden later).

Put the de-shelled eggs in a bowl and using a fork, mash the eggs.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Use miracle whip to taste.  Some days I like it a little more creamy, while other days I prefer it to be tad on the drier side.  Standard, I probably use about 3 TBS Miracle Whip to 4 eggs.

You could also add in some sweet relish.. again, to taste.

Toast your bread lightly, spread on some egg salad with a fork and much with a sweet pickle.  Enjoy!

Outback Ranch Dressing - Crave On

by madaise on Dec 16, 2008

Ranch dressing is my favorite dressing.  But I don’t care for the ‘out of the bottle’ dressings.

My daughter gave me this recipe and I’m sure credit must go to Outback directly as it tastes exactly like their yummy ranch dressing.  I made it, and immediately had to have a salad - it was yummmy!

1 cup of real mayo
1/2 cup of milk
1 TBSP Buttermilk Ranch Dressing Mix (powdered)
1/4 tsp cracked pepper (I used fresh)
1/8 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp garlic powder

Mix it all together and top on your favorite salad fixings.

I happened to have 1/2 of a petit filet from Outback (dinner the other night.. we splurged!).. so I sliced off a few slices, heated it in the microwave and put my salad greens right on top of it.  I wish I’d had a few grape tomatoes to add to it, but as it was, with the dressing, I ate it up.

Typically, I like my salads diced up really neat.  Chop the greens into easy to manage bite-size bits, diced tomatoes, diced cucumbers, shredded cheese, and chopped bacon.  I also like fried chicken fingers on top.

One place we like to get salads use to put oriental crunchy noodles on the salad instead of croutons.  We loved this.  Now that I have a good ranch dressing recipe, I may have to stock up on some of the simple salads fixings - like maybe some homemade croutons… oh yum!

Don’t feel like a salad? Chop up some veggies and use it as a dip.. it’s just as tasty.

Cranberry Sauce

by madaise on Nov 24, 2008

Every year during Thanksgiving and Christmas, I have known cranberry sauce to be round and oblong in shape, with little ridges. Unless it is sliced, then I may not notice the ridges - the ridges being from the can it slid out of, of course.

I see bags of cranberries in the store and wonder to myself… what are those for? I searched through so many recipes.. mostly the same thing over and over. Most recipes contained cranberries, water and sugar. Simple enough… but I wondered about the flavor.

Then I found a recipe posted on allrecipes.com again with just 3 ingredients.. rather than water, it calls for orange juice.

Ingredients for Cranberry Sauce
12 oz package cranberries
1 cup white sugar (or, add another ingredient and do 1/2 white sugar, 1/2 brown sugar)
1 cup orange juice

Combine sugar and juice in pot over medium-high heat, stirring sugar until dissolved.

Stir in the cranberries, cooking about 10 minutes until the berries begin popping.

Remove from heat. The sauce will thicken as it cools.

Corn Casserole or Corn Pudding?

by madaise on Nov 24, 2008

My girls love corn casserole. My mom always makes it for our gathering holidays - Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas and any other time it’s requested. I thought I’d buy the ingredients and give it a go for home this year. In searching for recipe, I came across both corn pudding and corn casserole.

Rather than try to decipher the two… I found a recipe for each that was basically the same. It only has 5 ingredients and sounds easy enough.

Ingredients:
1 can cream corn
1 can corn
8 oz container sour cream
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 8.5 oz package corn bread mix (Jiffy brand works well)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly grease a casserole dish.
Mix all ingredients together and pour into baking dish.
Bake 40-45 minutes.
Remove from oven when a knife slides out mostly clean.
Let stand 5-10 minutes before serving.

We will be serving with turkey (but would also go well with pork, chicken, etc), stuffing, potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls and lots of good cheer and appetites!