Easy Delicious Dinner: 4 Ingredients (flavors I stumbled upon during quarantine)

• Half pound of pasta (penne works well)
• half jar of Salsa Con Queso (medium)
• half jar of salsa (medium)
• half pound of ground beef (or 3 burger patties)

I discovered this awesome recipe during the Coronavirus lockdown.  It was in the beginning when I went to the grocery store and there was nothing on the shelves and the store looked like it was going out of business.  There were no canned vegetables, fresh fruits and vegetables and no meat. This was the time when our dinners were so unhealthy.  I hated thinking about what I was going to cook.

Late one night when my husband’s job shut down and we were on the “stay at home order” I suggested a snack in bed.  This is something we never do, eat in bed, but we were never on stay at home orders either so we got some tortilla chips and Salsa con queso (Salsa with cheese) dip and a jar of Pace salsa.  I mixed half of each in a seperate bowl and that was our dip.  We watched the Golden Girls and had chips and dip in bed.

A few days later I was trying to decide what to cook because we had nothing that matched and I couldn’t get the taste of the dip out of my mouth.  I looked through our freezer and found hanburger patties.  We couldn’t find ground beef at the grocery store so I got a huge box of hamburger patties.  I cooked about 3 patties and boiled a pasta (Penne).  I ground up the burgers (Cut them with kitchen scissors) and added half a jar of cheese dip, half a jar of salsa, half pound box of pasta and the cooked beef in a pot and stirred it up.  It was amazing.

It is that simple.  I don’t think I need to go over directions, you just put them together.  If you feel you need more salsa, just add it. The second time I made this, I added diced onion, 8 oz can of diced tomatoes, and some diced bell pepper to the pan of burgers. That was great too.

Try this recipe and let me know what you thought.  Is there a recipe you discovered during the stay at home order that you really liked?  Let me know in the comments below.

 

From Quiche to Frittata

If you have been here before, you know I posted a video on how to make a Quiche a few weeks ago.  You can find it HERE Easy Turkey Sausage Egg Quiche Recipe

I have family members who are diabetic, and some are borderline diabetic, so I decided to start making some recipes that would be easy for them to make and healthy too.

The first recipe is this Sausage Egg Cheese Frittata.  The difference between the frittata and the quiche is that the quiche is made with a crust and the frittata makes its own crust.

Here’s What You’ll Need:

6-8 eggs
½ cup heavy cream
¼ red bell pepper
¼ cup red onion
1 clove garlic
½ pound precooked turkey sausage
¼ tsp nutmeg
½ cup cheese for topping
½ cup cheese

don’t forget the parchment paper

Instructions:

Add a little olive oil to the pan and add the precooked turkey sausage.  I make my own and it is amazing, but I can’t take the credit for it.  I found this awesome recipe at Architecture of A Mom website and the only thing I do differently is I crush the fennel seed before adding it to the meat.  And you can find it here too.  

Add bell pepper, onion, garlic to precooked turkey sausage in the pan and cook until veggies are tender.  In a bowl, whisk eggs, cream, nutmeg and half of the cheese.  Place a sheet of parchment paper in the baking pan and pour the mixture in and put the rest of the cheese on top.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for 35-40 minutes.

 

You can view this recipe on YouTube

ENJOY!

Easy Turkey Sausage Egg Quiche Recipe

Turkey Sausage Egg Quiche

I have been thinking of something I could pack in my husband’s lunch, besides lunch.  We have coffee every morning before he leaves and if he eats breakfast he stops somewhere and gets a sandwich.  Now to me, that is unacceptable.  If I can make his lunch, I can most certainly make his breakfast.  I wanted to make him something that he didn’t need a fork, something that he could hold (that’s what he would like).  So I began looking on Pinterest for a recipe.  The recipes I found seemed to have too much milk and not enough eggs (1+ cups milk & 2 eggs) that just seems disproportionate.  Some had a long list of ingredients that I wouldn’t normally have in my kitchen like saffron.

Instead of copying someone else’s recipe I decided to make my own so I thought about the things my husband likes to eat for breakfast and I put them all together in this wonderful dish that I have fallen in love with as well.   You can use this recipe as a guide.  I encourage you to add your own veggies and seasonings and comment below what you changed to make it your own.

Download the Printed recipe Turkey Sausage Quiche Recipe

Or view on YouTube

Ingredients:

½ lb ground turkey sausage
6 eggs
6 oz cheese
½ cup heavy whipping cream
¼ cup red onion
¼ cup red bell pepper
1tbs minced garlic
2 green onions
1tbs oregano
1tbs Italian seasoning
1 9inch deep dish pie shell
Salt and pepper to taste

Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes. Test by inserting a knife. If it comes out clean it is done. If it is wet, bake for an additional 5 minutes.

Allow the quiche to cool a little before serving

 

Taco Casserole

I know what you’re thinking, how can you get the delicious taste of s taco in a casserole? Honestly, I avoided this recipe for months. I mean how can you get the same taste if a taco into a casserole? Well, you can!

Recipe:

• 2 pounds of ground beef
• 1 jar of salsa (I use Pace Chunky Salsa)
• Sour Cream
• 2 packages of taco seasoning (1per pound of ground beef)
• Diced tomatoes I like Roma they are meatier and less juicy
• 1 can of Rotel fire roasted tomatoes and chilies
• 1 can of black olives
• 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
• Lettuce

Brown the ground beef and drain the meat. Add the taco seasoning and instead of adding water I add chicken broth. I also added a can of Rotel drained from all the juice and stir. The can of Rotel is optional. Next transfer the taco meat to a 9×12 dish. I like to use parchment paper in my baking dishes. It makes for easier cleanup and I like it better than aluminum foil.

I accidentally put cheese on the meat before the salsa but I think that’s fine I added more after the salsa.

Pour a jar of salsa on top of the ground beef then add as much cheese as you want. I used almost 2 cups of cheese.

Next bake at 375 degrees until the cheese melts, about 20 minutes.

Next, dice the tomatoes and sprinkle them on top

When you are ready to plate your taco casserole add olives. Once you plate your dinner, add a dollop of sour cream to the top ( I added two) then covered with lettuce.

 I hope you enjoyed this recipe, please leave a message and let me know how it turned out or what you changed.

Enjoy!

Pizza Casserole

This was awesome!  When my husband and I got married a year ago and moved in together, we made Friday night our pizza night.  The pizza is from Giuseppe’s Pizza and Family Restaurant and it is amazing!  We each got our own.  My husband always gets the Buffalo Chicken Pizza and I get the pizza with ham, pepperoni. hot peppers, onion, tomatoes, mushrooms and black olives.  It’s a mouth full but it is amazing because they make their own crust.

Normally that was the only time we eat out, although we bring the pizzas home. (I prefer to cook and eat at home, I can make anything on a menu and I feel it’s better for us because it is prepared at home.)

So here is what you need:

• 9 X 12 pan
• tomato sauce
• as much pepperoni as you can stand (I get sandwich pepperoni from Wegman’s deli)
• turkey sausage ( I buy Wegman’s, you can use any meat you want)
• rotel fire roasted tomatoes and green chilies
• red onion
• bell pepper
• mushrooms
• banana peppers, mild or hot your choice
• shredded mozerella cheese or the kind you prefer
• black olives

Bake 375 degrees for about 20 minutes

Please remember this is my list and you can add or subtract what you want.  I didn’t add the amounts, because you can add the amounts yourself all to your liking.

First, cook all the raw meats.  Like ground beef and sausage, that is fine.  Drain the grease. Add your hard vegetables such as bell pepper, broccoli (for those of you who like this), onion and saute with the meat until no longer hard.  I do prefer to cook them until they are still firm so they are not soggy when all is said and done.

Next, I add the Rotel and cook for just a few minutes until it is hot.

Now it is time to layer it on.  I like to use parchment paper instead of aluminum foil or dirtying up my pan.  I layer the pan with pepperoni.

 Then I pour in the meat and veggies.  There is usually liquid in the bottom because of the tomatoes, omit the liquid trust me.  Then pour on the sauce.  I used almost an entire can (15oz) I love it saucy.

Then I lay on the cheese.  Add as much as you want.

Then I top it with more pepperoni, like I said, as much as you can stand.  Then add more cheese and olives and bake on 375 for about 20 minutes.  You cannot mess this up, totally foolproof.

ENJOY!!

 

Homemade Lasagna

I’ve been at it again. Pinterest is my love when it comes to recipes and that is where I found myself earlier this week.

I have always made my lasagna a certain way, but one day when I was making it I found myself breaking spaghetti noodles over a pot instead of lasagna noodles. I realized that my lasagna sauce was too similar to my spaghetti sauce and during the course of making it I thought I was making spaghetti.

I found this recipe:

Brown 2 lbs ground beef, add a diced onion and 2 cloves of garlic. (don’t worry, the potency cooks out of the garlic) Add salt, Italian seasoning (2 tablespoons) and stir. When the onions have softened add 2-6oz cans of tomato paste and a can of diced tomatoes. Instead of the diced tomatoes, you can add a large can of stewed tomatoes just crush them with your hand. (Lasagna sauce made with hand crushed tomatoes) Add a half cup of chicken or beef stock. (Chicken stock is tastier). Let the sauce simmer for at least 30 to 45 minutes. I know this is a lot of tomatoes and it at bee acidic for some, so what I do is add 3 to 4 Heresy’s kisses to the pot. The sweetness tames the acid. You can use a tablespoon of sugar if you like, my husband loves milk chocolate so I keep kisses around.

Optional: You can also change it up and use 1lb and a half of ground beef and half a pound of sausage, or a pound each of beef and sausage. Make it your own.

Next is the Cheese mixture

15oz container of ricotta cheese, 2 large eggs, 16oz whole milk mozzarella, half a cup of shredded parmesan, some sprinkles of parsley and black pepper.  Mix and place in the refrigerator until you are ready to spread it.

I took the picture before I added the parsley and pepper. When you are finished it will look like cheese dip.

Putting it together

 

I spoon some sauce on the bottom of the pan and then I spread the cheese mixture on the noodles with a knife as if they were crackers, I use the oven ready noodles. After laying the noodles on the meat I sprinkle some sharp cheddar (or whatever you prefer) and then start over.

Then I bake it on 375 for about 25-30 minutes then remove from the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes.

It will hold it’s form pretty well, but this picture is what happens when your husband attacks it with a fork when you are not looking.

Our lasagna was amazing all thanks to Laurie McNamara. You can find her awesome recipe here at Simply Scratch and she does an amazing job.