Ham & Cheese Casserole

So last night was the final day I could take my FINAL final exam.  I am now officially done with school FOREVER!  And believe me I have the student loans to show it!  Ugh.. that will be the death of me.  But I now will have my BS, MBA and a PMP certificate.  Can’t ask for much more then that to help further my career, atleast that is what I tell myself.  J  Especially not knowing what is going to happen with my company come Nov/Dec. when they are splitting the company into two separate companies.  Shall be interesting that’s for sure, never know with these Fortune500 companies.  Anyways…….  What I did for dinner was a simple, quick and easy meal that can be interpreted many different ways. 

I didn’t do a ham for Easter, I have one just didn’t cook it.  I know bad mom, but my family is not your typical, Sunday Church people either so (with all due respect), we all went to lunch instead. 

So, what I did have for this recipe was some ham frozen from Christmas, I used to buy the expensive cubed ham at the store, until it dawned on me, Doh! (light going off here)  I can use my leftover ham, from making a ham.  I normally gave that stuff away!  Yep I’m that lazy.  Still had ham from Christmas to use, go figure.  Well I have been only a little busy (kids, work, school, housework, garden, etc.) you get the picture I’m sure.  Last night knowing I needed a quick and easy meal so I had time for my final and still to watch AI and Survivor (poor Colton!)  I pulled out my frozen ham, pasta, mushroom soup, Velveeta and canned tomatoes. What I really like about this recipe is the versatility.  You can make as much or as little, add veggies or whatever else you want!  Here’s what I put together: 

Ham and Cheese Casserole:

I made this in a skillet but it can easily be made in a casserole pan as well.

Ingredients:

Chopped or cubed ham

4 oz Velveeta cheese

Pasta shells (or other noodles) (I used ½ box)

1 Can canned tomatoes – any flavor

1 can cream of mushroom soup

½ cup Milk

Shredded cheese.

Salt

Pepper

Italian seasoning

Garlic powder

1. Boil pasta as per directions. Drain and mix into either casserole dish or skillet
2. Pour in soup and ½ can milk, mix good.
3. Mix in chunks of ham
4. Cut in chunks of Velveeta (easier for melting if they are small)
5. Mix in canned tomatoes & all seasonings
6. If cooking in oven, cover and heat 20 min, uncover and top with cheese.  If cooking in skillet, cover and let simmer about 10-15 min.  Stirring occasionally to mix in cheese.
7. Top with shredded cheese and let melt.

I topped mine with mozzarella cheese, it’s all I had, and some additional pepper to the top.  I used Hunt’s spicy red pepper tomatoes this time.  They gave it a little kick but nothing too much.  Did I mention I hate spicy?

See quick and easy and so yummy!  I served with brown n serve dinner rolls.

And as always checkout many more wonderful recipes over at Dishing It Up.

Beefy Baked Ravioli

Beefy Baked Ravioli!
This recipe is awesome, so quick, easy & everything I have in the stockpile already.

1lb. ground beef
1 pkg frozen ravioli
1 Jar pasta sauce
1 pkg. shredded mozzarella cheese (or cheese of choice)

Brown ground beef (can add garlic or onion if you'd like) mix in half pasta sauce.
Pour remaining pasta sauce in 13x9 baking dish
Layer frozen ravioli on bottom of pan in sauce, layer next with 1/2 the ground beef, 1/2 cup cheese, layer with 2nd layer of ravioli, rest of ground beef and top with cheese.
Cover with foil and bake at 425 for 20 minute or until bubbly and done.

For mine I used Target brand ravioli, it's only $2.87 a pkg. And
I used Colby Jack cheese as that is all I had on hand, normally I use mozzarella.

Voila.. there's dinner! Serve with garlic bread or breadsticks. Cheap and easy meal. We usually have enough leftover for someone's lunch the next day. This feeds my entire family of 5 with leftovers as well. :)

Be sure to check out http://dishingituprecipehop.blogspot.com/ for more great casserole recipes!

~Quick & Easy Chicken Enchiladas~

The following recipe was my tweaking/concoction from one I found on allrecipes.com.  My 3 yr old asks for this everynight and it’s so simple, quick and easy!  I usually have a stash of chicken in the freezer just for these type of purposes.  A month ago I made a whole chicken and for the 1^st time I actually sat there and picked all the chicken pieces off!  I then froze what I had.  What I had leftover has now made 2 meals, last nights I beefed it up some with a little bit of turkey and nobody knew the difference!

You could also make this with Beef, Turkey or beans even!  The possibilities are endless…

Ingredients

• 3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
• 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 2 cups chopped cooked chicken (more if you prefer)
• 2 cups sour cream
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
• 2 tbsp of taco seasoning recipe Here…
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 6 medium size tortilla shells

Directions

1.                      Combine soup and 1 cup sour cream in a bowl until well blended, set aside.

2.                      Cook Chicken in olive oil until no longer pink, add taco seasoning or chili powder (your preference) and mix/heat well.  Add about 3 tbsp of soup mixture to chicken and cook for about 5 minutes.

3.                      Scoop about half the soup mixture into the bottom of the baking dish and spread evenly.

4.                      Spoon about 1/2 cup of chicken down the center on each tortilla; sprinkle with about ¼ cup of cheese, roll up. Place seam side down in 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Continue until no chicken left.

5.                      Top dish with remaining soup mixture and sprinkle with shredded cheese & tomatoes

6.                      Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. Uncover, switch oven to broil and broil for about 5 minutes.  You don’t have to broil it if you don’t want, you can just let it cook another 5 minutes, I broil it so the top has that brown crispy texture to it.

7.                      Serve with sour cream and any other desired toppings such as jalapenos, hot sauce, green chiles, onions etc. 

I have also made this and topped it with a "10 minute" enchilada sauce that I got from allrecipes.com as well. 

Enjoy!

Now of course I forgot to take a picture, so I have borrowed the one from allrecipes.com:

(photo credit: allrecipes.com)

Make sure and check out alot more chicken recipes at Dishingitup

What do you do with your browning bananas???????

What do you do with your ‘extra’ bananas?

So I totally don’t like bananas.. Actually I despise them.  I think they are gross, the taste, texture everything there is about them.  BUT my family loves them so.. I buy them.  And there they sit.. going brown as usual.. So years ago I dug around until I found a recipe for the bread that I actually liked and better yet had my husband’s approval.  So be it.. whoever eats bananas great, if they go brown, I’ll either make bread or freeze them. 

So here’s what I did.. and yes I will eat banana bread, if it’s nice warm and slathered in butter.. ;)  I’m a little wreckless what can I say!

My husband loves when I make this bread.. I become his new best friend.. as well as the guys at his shop.. You'd think I'm the wife to them all!  Men I tell ya..

And I suppose it would be nice if I gave you the recipe eh?  Well I'll have to find it again and post it up, I of course forgot it at home today. :)

The 2012 Garden plan!

This is the 3^rd year of having my own garden and each year it evolves and I try new things.  I’ve learned various methods different ideas, etc.   So as of now I have officially decided on my garden!! I think…… J  It is going to take a little work this year but I have a design to start and I’ve already done my mapping out and measurements for space. 

Based on my Uncle’s suggestion last summer when he was here I decided to try raised beds this year.  Course this will be a lot of work as I don’t have any currently but that’s ok I’ll survive.  Just got to bribe my hubby to help me with it! 

I checked my strawberry patch the other day; the leaves are starting to green!  YAY...  We are toward the end of February and still have not had any major snow.  Our largest snowfall this winter was like 6 inches... I think we’ve totaled maybe 10 inches which is unusual for us.  And it has been relatively warm.  So I’m hoping to get a head start on getting the garden prepped.  I’ll need more dirt, I’m sure, plus some fertilizer to spread and mix in. 

I’ve bought some seeds to start indoors, which I’m trying 3 methods this year.  1. The Burpee’s self watering system.  2.  The regular traditional with a heat mat.  3. Egg shells in egg carton.  Figure if I start these relatively soon, I will know how they do and whether or not I need to buy plants if mine don’t work.  So here’s my plan to start indoors:

-         Tomatoes

-         Green Peppers

-         Hot peppers

-         Cucumbers

I also may start some watermelon and cantaloupe indoors as well depending on how my above start out. 

So now the key thing will be to get the beds set up and filled with the appropriate dirt, move my berry bushes over to my ‘berry patch’.  And hope that I can get some good yields out of this garden this year!  Last year I had lettuce, good tomatoes, green peppers and cucumbers.  Peas died (too hot), the beans did so-so, carrots washed away and I didn’t plant the melons. 

So what do you all think of my ‘plan’:

2011 Garden

*New* berry patch

Chicken Italiano from my stockpile!

Needed a quick and easy dinner the other day.. So to my stockpile I went.. and recipe searching based on that.  Worked out perfect!

Cheesy Chicken Italiano (adapted from Kraft.com)

Photo Credit: Kraft.com

3 cups pasta

4 boneless chicken breast halves

1 Jar spaghetti sauce (I used chunky garden variety)

6 oz. velveeta cheese – cutup

1 cup mozzarella cheese

Italian dressing

½ diced Onion

Salt

Pepper

1 diced Garlic glove

1 tbsp Olive Oil

*you can marinate the chicken in Italian dressing or marinade prior for more flavor*

1. Make pasta as per package. 
2. Heat 1 tbsp. oil, sauté onion and garlic and about 2 tablespoon Italian dressing
3. Add chicken and cook about 3-4 min each side (depending on thickness)
4. Add spaghetti sauce, salt/pepper, cover and simmer for about 10 min.
5. Check to ensure chicken cooked thoroughly. 
6. Add velveeta cheese, stirring until melted.
7. Drain pasta and stir into sauce/chicken mix, add additional seasonings/veggies as desired
8. Top with Mozzarella cheese and any additional seasonings, you may want

You can play with this.. add veggies or chop the chicken up, add additional seasonings, etc..  I didn’t marinate the chicken, though I think next time I will as it will add more flavor to the chicken.  Everyone scarfed this down (including my 3 yr old) and loved it!   It was YUMMY!!!!!!!  Nice comfort food!

This post is being linked up to the Dishing It Up recipe hop!

The gift of giving during the holidays - Long post~

It's December, it's holiday time, and yes I am one who has been out buying my family gifts, I hit the black Friday sales and Cyber Monday sales, I admit it!  But it's those that are far away that most people forget about.. and it's not on purpose it's just not right here or in your line of sight, you tend to forget. 

So.  I work for a wonderful world wide pharmaceutical company in the Chicago area, benefits like you can't believe, profit sharing, pension, 401K stock, etc.  I am fortunate, I know and all my 12+ years I've been there I value all of it and am so thankful for that.  So we do various charity events, we volunteer for various groups, we have a giving campaign, food drives, etc.  I've always done the giving campgain to various organizations, I've donated time to build a deck at a development center for adults, I've packaged food in boxes at the Northern Illinois Food Bank, Ive participated in school supply drives and many more.  This was the first year that I actually have seen a drive for our men and women overseas who are fighting for our country.

  Alot of what they were asking for I already had in my cabinets due to my couponing and CVS black Friday.  So I started to really think and ponder what all do I have I can donate. .  But.. I felt this was important becuase these brave women and men are fighting for our country and they are willing to sacrifice their own lives.  My dad was in the army, my uncle a Marine for 20+years, my brother in the Army reserves.  My mom and I used to love packing boxes full of goodies for my brother when he was away at bootcamp or advanced training, we sent everything from candy to books to new contacts for him even!   So I felt this was my way of giving back, it's not alot, I'm no way financially able to just buy eveything and send it as much as I'd like to, I know it's just not possible.

So I scrounged through my cabinets and found various items I knew that I had gotten while couponing and thought what a better way to share my savings then to donate it!  I also found various magazines, Sports Illustrated that my husband had, a snowmobile magazine and a couple of All You, just so they have something to read.  I've included items like toothpaste, toothbrushes, body wash, feminine needs, deodorant, sample size shampoos, soaps etc.  A nice variety of things..

Then the other I night I had a wonderful thought, I could get my boys, ages 8, 6 and 3 to help me bag up some of their halloween candy, we had a huge bowl and they have no need for it all.  So after my 8 year old said no I want my candy!  I knew something had to be done to explain and show them the gift of giving to others.  So last night we sat down and sorted through their candy, I explained to the older two that the soldiers don't have the ability to just go to the store and buy candy.  We can, they can't.  Simple as that.  It will mean alot to them that you are donating your candy for them and it will make you feel good about it.  Of course trying to rationalize this with my 3 yr old was impossible, but hey I tried.  I also proceeded to explain that these brave soldiers were moms, dads, grandpas, sons, brothers and uncles who would not be spending the holiday time at home with their own families. I said "you know there's some moms and dads over there that won't be with their kids on christmas morning to see what Santa brought them or there is young soldier's that are scared and spending their first Christmas away from their mom and dad."  That made them think and then they said "we want to make sure we are with you on Christmas mommy!"  I thought that was so sweet, I went through alot to have my boys and they mean the world to me.  So I just said "it may not be much but they will appreciate all we are sending them".  So when we were finished my 8 year old said "they will be so proud of me giving up my halloween candy for them".  I'm sure they will.

Thankyou for listening as I know this was long.. but it was felt that I needed to get it all out there and hopefully it will help people realize and open their own hearts!


So I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and stay tuned, as I have the 24 days of Christmas Cookies to post and share with you..as I have some yummy recipes coming your way!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is what I have so far, I'm still hoping to get a few more things or find a few people willing to donate stuff as well:

Have a wonderful weekend!