Cheesy Baked Pasta Casserole

This was really easy to throw together and used things I keep on hand--perfect for a last-minute meal option. It's originally from Woman's Day magazine.

Ingredients:
12 oz. bowtie pasta
1 bag (12 oz.) broccoli florets

1 T. butter
2 shallots, chopped (I used green onions)
1 pkg. (8 oz) sliced mushrooms
4 c. whole milk (I used 2% and it came out fine)
1/4 c. all-purpose flour
ground pepper
salt
1 bag (5 oz.) baby spinach (I just threw in two or three big handfuls since I don't buy 5 oz. bags)
1 1/4 c. grated white cheese of your choice
1/2 c. grated Parmesan

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 425* F. Grease a 3-qt. baking dish.
2. Cook pasta according to package. Add broccoli the last 3 minutes of cooking. Drain and return to pot.
3. Meanwhile, melt butter in large deep skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and mushrooms and saute until tender (about 5 minutes).
4. In medium bowl, whisk together milk, flour, salt and pepper. Pour into skillet and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened (about 5 minutes); stir in spinach. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup of white cheese and the Parmesan.
5. Pour sauce into pasta and broccoli. Toss to coat. Transfer to prepared baking dish and sprinkle with remaining cheese.
6. Bake until the cheese melts and is beginning to brown (about 10 minutes).

Note: As is typical with casseroles, this was better the second day. WD gives these instructions for making it ahead: 
1. After completing step 5, let casserole cool for 10 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
2. On the night you plan to serve it, remove casserole from refrigerator and replace plastic wrap with nonstick aluminum foil. Bake at 425* F. oven for 30 minutes; uncover and bake until beginning to brown (about 10 minutes). 

Tatertot Casserole

I decided that I'm going to only be posting when I have something to share that I want to share. I don't really like the pressure of posting frequently just to have posts up. It makes me feel like I have to post whatever I make, even if I don't completely love the recipe. Plus I'm only cooking 50% of the time since I'm living with my in-laws. So sorry if posts are a bit more sparatic.

Anyways, this recipe comes from my MIL Schenk Family cookbook. I never had tatertot casserole before I lived with my inlaws, but when my MIL cooked it for dinner one night, I fell in love! (In fact I had a craving for it during the last couple of weeks, so I finally made it for dinner last night!) In the cookbook it was titled "Finicky Kids Casserole", so obviously this was someone's solution to getting their kids to actually eat their dinner. It can be a little on the saltier side (but not super bad) so I would use low sodium soup to help cut the salt. Something that I'll try next time is instead of layering the ground beef, tatertots and soups, I am going to mix them up together and then add the cheese on top. The reason being just that when I made it, the cream of chicken soup didn't go all the way to the meat and so the meat didn't really "stick" to the rest of the casserole (Plus it would make it less noticeable if I were to reduce the ground beef to 1 lb.). Also, you could probably use whatever cream soups you have on hand. I was thinking it might be fun to try a cream of celery with a cream of mushroom. However you make it, I hope you enjoy this too!

Tatertot Casserole

1-1/2 pounds ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped

1 large pkg. tatertots (My package was 32 oz.)

2 cans cream of chicken soup, undiluted

1-1/2 c. cheddar cheese, grated

1 pkg. Lipton Onion Soup

Brown beef and chopped onion; drain well. Spread in a 9X13" pan. Sprinkle onion soup mix over beef. Evenly distribute tatertots over onion. Spoon soup over potatoes. Sprinkle cheese over top and bake for 35-45 minutes at 350* F (I baked mine for a little more than 45 minutes and it was perfect. Just make sure the casserole is warm all the way through and that the tatertots aren't raw.)

Teriyaki Chicken Casserole

I know this dish looks rather unassuming, but it was delicious! The recipe came from the book 101 Things To Do With A Casserole by Stephanie Ashcraft and Janet Eyring. I added some sliced red onion to the mixture before I cooked it (just a few slices- I was using up some that I had in the fridge already). This was easy and very appealing to our family. I will be making this again!

Teriyaki Chicken Casserole

2 raw boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed (I used 3)
1 can (15 oz) chicken broth (I used 2 cups water and 2 tsp chicken bouillon granules)
2 Tbl brown sugar
2 Tbl soy sauce
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup uncooked white rice
1 can (8 oz) pineapple chunks, drained

Preheat oven to 350*F. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Transfer mixture to a greased 9" x 13" baking pan. Cover and bake 1 hour, or until rice is done (I didn't cover mine and it turned out fine). Makes 4 servings.

Lovely Lasagna

Lasagna takes some prep work, but really, it's the easiest thing in the world to make. And it's SO GOOD!

This makes 1 9-by-13 pan of thick lasagna.

Boil water in a medium to large pot. Cook 9 lasagna noodles until still slightly firm.

In a separate pan, cook 1 lb. ground beef until brown. Add whatever kind of sauce you'll be using until there is plenty of sauce to cover the meat. (I usually just use tomato sauce, but technically you could do any kind of pasta sauce.)

(I'm putting measurements on this next part, but really I just eye it until it's the right consistency. Besides, the first couple times I made this, I ended up needing to make a little more part way through. You'll just have to adapt it to how much filling you like.)

1 or 2 eggs

1 pint (15 oz) Ricotta cheese

dash of salt

parmesan cheese

Italian dressing

Mix this in a bowl until it's a medium thickness. I like to use quite a bit of Italian dressing, and it also is an easy way to thin it out a little if you need to.

In a 9-by-13 inch casserole pan put a little bit of non-meat filled sauce on the bottom, this will act like grease, so you don't need to spray the pan. Layer three noodles, and don't worry about them touching some, that's a good thing. Then put a layer of cheese mixture followed by a layer of meat sauce. If you're putting anything else like olives, artichokes, peppers, whatever, this is a good place to put them. Continue the pattern until you're out, and cover the top with some sauce (even plain is fine) and parmesan and mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour. Let sit for at least five minutes before eating.

Of course, you can also make vegetarian lasagna, which is also very good.

Mexican Rice Casserole

I found this recipe at For the Love of Cooking and decided to try it because the ingredients were very economical and it looked yummy. This recipe is also very forgiving, as it allows you a lot of room to play with it. For example, I can't make anything too spicy or else my husband won't eat very much leaving me with lots of leftovers to eat all by myself. So I added half of the red pepper flakes, and instead of using spicy tomato sauce, I used mild salsa. If you wanted to make it even more economical, you could omit the ground beef. (Honestly, I couldn't really even tell it was in the recipe. If you do this, just season the beans with the seasoning instead.) This was really good, however, and I served it with cornbread and salad. It was also filling. I made a whole batch this time around, and my husband and I only ate 1/4 of it. Next time I'll probably do a half recipe to have some for dinner and then a little left over instead of most of a pan.

Mexican Rice Casserole

1 1/2 cups of white rice, prepared per instructions

1 tsp of olive oil

1 lb lean ground beef

1/2 sweet yellow onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp paprika***

1 tsp chili powder***

1 tsp dried cumin***

1 tsp garlic powder***

1 tsp dried oregano***

1/2-1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes***

salt and pepper, to taste

1 15 oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed (I made my own)

1 8 oz can of tomato sauce

1 8 oz can of spicy tomato sauce (such as El Pato- or you could use 1 cup of salsa)

3-4 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped (divided) (I didn't use this)

1-2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese

3-4 tomatoes, sliced thickly (I didn't use these either. I'm not a huge fan of large tomato chunks)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare rice per instructions. While the rice is cooking heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once the skillet is hot, add the ground beef, making sure to break it up into crumbles. Cook the beef for 3-4 minutes then add the diced onion and all of the seasonings. Stir until well combined and cook for an additional 10 minutes or until the beef is cooked through and the onion is tender. Add the minced garlic and cook, stirring constantly for an additional 60 seconds. Add the cooked rice, drained and rinsed black beans, tomato sauce and a bit of cilantro (reserving some for garnishing) to the beef and onion mixture. Mix the ingredients thoroughly, taste and re-season if needed.

Coat a large baking dish with cooking spray and pour the rice mixture into the dish, spreading it evenly. Place the tomato slices on top of the rice mixture then top with cheddar cheese.

Spray a piece of tin foil with cooking spray (so the cheese won't stick) and cover the baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes (at 350 F) then remove the tin foil. Bake for an additional 5-7 minutes or until the cheese is melted and golden brown. Remove from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes before slicing. Top with a dollop of sour cream and the remaining chopped cilantro. Enjoy.

***Or you can use 1 packet of taco seasoning instead of individual spices.

Cheesy Ranch Chicken Casserole

For this recipe, I started out by collecting the ingredients for this recipe at Lynn's Kitchen Adventures. However, as I started to assemble the casserole, I looked in my refrigerator and made some substitutions and omitted a lot as well. It was pretty tasty- we just needed to add some salt and pepper to it in order to bring out some of the taste of the casserole (probably because I made white sauce instead of using canned soups). Next time, I'll probably double the ranch (mostly because you couldn't taste it at all, and it'll add a little more salt to the dish to help with the flavor) and double the cheese I sprinkled on the top (my husband is a cheese fanatic, and while he was glad it made it into the dish, he was disappointed there wasn't more), as well as add some more salt and pepper.

Cheesy Ranch Chicken Casserole

1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup diced carrots, cooked until fork tender
1-1/2 to 2 cups diced cooked chicken
2 cups dried macaroni noodles (or any other pasta you want)
2 batches of white sauce (or 2 cans of your favorite cream soup)
1/2 cup ranch dressing
1/2 cup cheese (I like cheddar)
1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs (or you can use crushed crackers or even just regular bread crumbs- you'll just want to add some spices/herbs to help with the flavor)

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Combine everything except cheese and bread crumbs, then place in a greased 9"x13" casserole dish. Bake at 350 F for about 40 minutes, or until bubbly. Sprinkle cheese on top of casserole and bread crumbs on top of cheese. Bake for another 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

Shepherd's Pie

Shepherd's Pie is an old standby at our house and is one of those recipes I remember my mom making a lot when I was growing up. It's a nice comfort-food meal that's easy to make and it's not too bad for you.

Shepherd's Pie

4 medium potatoes made into mashed potatoes (we boil the potatoes until fork tender, add 1/2 to 1 cup melted butter and some milk, and then use a hand mixer until smooth)
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese (you could also use sliced cheese)
1 pound ground beef
1 can corn (you can use any vegetable you have, and if you're using frozen veggies, use 1-2 cups)
1 can cream of mushroom soup (or make the equivalent of white sauce)

Brown ground beef and drain. Combine browned beef, corn and cream of mushroom soup. Place in the bottom of an 8" x 8" casserole dish. Spread potatoes on top of beef mixture. Finish by sprinkling cheddar cheese over the top of the potatoes. Bake at 375 F for about 30 minutes, or until cheese is melted and warmed all the way through.