Broiled Pizza Burgers

Spring Break is here. It's amazing how easily we slip into vacation mode, especially when the weather has finally started warming up. We haven't gotten to bed at a decent time since last Thursday. Ice cream cones for supper, any one???

I felt pretty guilty about not feeding my children the other day, so I went looking for something simple. This one came from Allrecipes. They have a new set of recipes on their home page every day, so I went through a period where I checked that site every day.

Brown a pound of hamburger. Add in half a chopped onion and cook until the onions are translucent.

Add in a can of diced tomatoes. You can use plain or they also have Italian style which has a little more kick to it.
Spoon a heaping 1/4 cup of the meat mixture onto an open bun.
Add a slice of cheese and broil for a few minutes until the cheese melts.

Serve open faced.

I think next time I will only use half a piece of cheese. A whole slice kind of detracted from the rest of the filling. While I didn't really get the taste of pizza, these are really good.

And easy. Good supper for spring.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Broiled Pizza Burgers

1 pound ground beef

1/2 medium onion, chopped

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon onion salt

8 slices American processed cheese

4 hamburger buns, split

In a large skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat; drain. Sprinkle with cornstarch. Stir in the tomatoes, salt and onion salt. Cook, uncovered, for 5 minutes or until slightly thickened. Place hamburger buns cut side up on a baking sheet; spoon about 1/4 cup meat mixture onto each bun half. Place cheese slices over meat mixture. Broil for 4 minutes or until cheese is melted.

White Castle Sliders

I've never been to White Castle. I had never actually heard about it until that movie came out, and even then I didn't realize it was a real place. I have apparently been deprived in this department.

There are lots of places on the internet with recipes for these adorable little hamburgers. Want to know the really funny thing? I was hard pressed to find any variation at all. Everyone pretty much sticks to the same version. So this must be the right one, right?

Sprinkle a half a cup of dried onions onto the bottom of an 8x8 square pan.

Press a pound of ground beef into a layer on top of the onions.
Sprinkle with seasoning of your choice.
Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes. Then you will need a paper towel to blot some of the extra grease.
Top with American cheese. Pop this back in the oven for a couple minutes so the cheese gets nice and melted.
Cut into tiny little burgers. I made nine.
You can buy mini buns at the grocery store, I think they are called party buns and they come in a couple varieties. I ended up with Hawaiian, which was just a bit sweeter than a regular bun.
These were really good. We eat a lot of hamburgers in this house and it's nice to have a way to change it up. The Boy was delighted to have "hamburger made just for me" and ate several of them (I'm pretty sure he's going through another growth spurt!). The Girl picked off her onions, but still gave a thumbs up. This will go in my book as a great Saturday lunch for when Jeff is gone.

Click here for Printable Recipe

White Castle Sliders

1/2 cup dried onion flakes

2 pounds ground beef

1/2 t. seasoned salt

6 slices cheese

12- small party rolls

dill pickle slices

Evenly spread the onions on the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Gently press the ground beef on top of the onion flakes. Press evenly making one giant pattie. Sprinkle with seasoned salt. At this point you can use a drinking straw and poke holes throughout the meat. That is what they do with the original white castle sliders. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Using a paper towel, pat the excess grease from the top of the pattie. Top with cheese, return to oven for 2 more minutes. Remove from oven, let set 5 minutes then cut into patties. Slice open and separate each party roll. Place bottom of rolls on a large platter. Using a spatula lift pattie with onion layer onto each bun bottom. Top each slider with a pickle slice then the bun lid. Serve immediately.

My Grandma's Goulash

If you are one of the hundreds of people who have ever stopped by my Grandma's house at noon, you know that she will feed you. It doesn't matter how many people walk through that door, they will not go hungry.

We ate dinner at Grandma's house a LOT, especially in the summer. This dish is one of my favorites. And my brother's favorites. And my sister's.

Ask pretty much anyone and they will say, "oh, yeah, your grandma's goulash is incredible." Yes, that is a direct quote.

When I called her and asked her for the recipe, she was incredibly flattered. She always is when I ask her how to make something. I told her I needed to know what her secret ingredient was. She just laughed and said it wasn't really a secret. That's how it is with a lot of things she makes. There's really no secret to it, it's just that she will use one ingredient different than anyone else, and that makes all the difference.

Add a can of tomatoes (diced, whole, chopped, it doesn't matter) and a can of tomato sauce to a pound of browned ground beef. Then add in "a little bit of brown sugar." This is what makes it special. I used about 2 tablespoons.

Mix all that together and add in cooked macaroni. Grandma always uses the large macaroni, and she said I could use any kind I wanted. Really, though, if you are going to make your grandma's recipe, go with what she uses. I used a half a package of the large macaroni.
Stir it all up.
That's it.
So comforting. So wonderful.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Grandma's Goulash

1 pound ground beef, browned

1 can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 can tomato sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

3 cups large macaroni, cooked

Mix it all together. Enjoy.

Beef Noodle Bowl

Kraft used to send out a free recipe magazine once every couple months. They don't anymore. I'm sure we can blame the economy for that cut back, but I sure do miss it. I get an email newsletter, but that just isn't the same as leafing through the pages.

This recipe is one of the last ones I cut out. I found it while digging through my fairly large pile of printed and cut out recipes. I showed it to The Girl and she turned up her nose. Lucky for her I had already bought the ingredients.

Cut a pound of sirloin steak into strips and brown this in a little bit of oil.

Meanwhile, cook half a package of fettucine noodles in six cups of boiling water for 8 minutes.
For the last 2 minutes of boiling the pasta, add in 2 cups of broccoli flowers and 2 cups of sliced carrots. I bought these pre-sliced. It was slightly more expensive, but on a Tuesday night, the convenience is totally worth it. Plus they are much prettier than I would have been able to do.
Add in 1/4 cup each of zesty Italian dressing and teriyaki sauce along with 1 teaspoon ground ginger. Stir well and cook this down until the sauce thickens.
Drain the noodles and vegetables and transfer to a (very) large mixing bowl.
Add in the meat mixture and toss together until well blended.
Serve in bowls with or without chopsticks. My kids are really big on the chopsticks right now. This is really, really good. It also serves a lot. The recipe says it makes four servings, but we didn't seem to make a dent in it, even with everyone going back for seconds. We had plenty left over, which was fine because The Girl wanted it for supper the next night. We have also made this two more times.

This is really simple to make, but it does dirty up quite a few dishes. Even if you have a dishwasher, it is a good idea to have someone handy to clean up the pots as you are cooking.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Beef Noodle Bowl

8 oz Fettuccine

2 Cups Broccoli Florets

2 Cups Sliced Carrots

2 tsp Vegetable Oil

1 lb Beef Sirloin Steak, cut into strips

1/4 Cup Zesty Italian Dressing

1/4 Cup Teriyaki Sauce

1 tsp Ground Ginger

Cook pasta as directed on the package, adding broccoli and carrots to the cooking water for the last 2 minutes of the pasta cooking time. Drain pasta mixture. Meanwhile, heat oil in large nonstick skillet. Add meat; cook until browned on all sides, stirring occasionally. Stir in dressing, teriyaki sauce and ginger; cook until sauce thickens, stirring occasionally. Toss pasta and meat mixtures in large serving bowl.

Taco Cups

Awhile back, someone brought these amazing sausage ranch won-ton appetizer things. I got the recipe and promptly lost it. So when it came time to make them for our Super Bowl get together, the only ingredient I really had was the won-tons. I thought I had sausage and I thought I had ranch mix. Turns out I didn't have either.

I had sent Jeff to the grocery store to get the won-ton wrappers and that was such an ordeal that I felt like I was obligated to make something with them. Apparently no one in our little hometown grocery store knew where they were stocked. Their place in the store is up on the top shelf of a refrigerator in the produce section. It's a good thing Jeff is so tall or he never would have located them.

I had hamburger and taco seasoning. So taco flavored it is.

Press a won-ton wrapper into a greased muffin cup.

Brown a pound of hamburger and add an envelope of taco seasoning. I also added in about a quarter cup of salsa. Add a spoonful of this mixture to the bottom of the muffin cup.

Top with about a tablespoon of shredded cheese.

Bake at 425 for about 5 minutes. It doesn't take much at all to cook won-tons.

Add a dollop of sour cream and a bit of chopped tomato and shredded lettuce.

I waited until I had all the filling in to remove them from the muffin pans. Just so the bottoms didn't fall out.

I ate three of these before I even called anyone in to try them. They nearly didn't make it until the company got here. Even The Girl ate these and she claims to hate tacos.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Mini Tacos

24 wonton wrappers
1 pound lean ground beef
1 package taco seasoning mix
2 tablespoons Salsa
4 ounces shredded Mexican cheese blend
Sour cream
Chopped Tomato
Shredded Lettuce
Heat the oven to 425 degrees F. Press the wonton wrappers into 24 muffin-pan cups.
Cook the beef in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until it's well browned, stirring often to break up the meat. Pour off any fat. Stir in the taco seasoning mix and salsa. Spoon the beef mixture into the wonton cups. Top with cheese. Bake for 5 minutes or until the wontons are golden brown and the cheese is melted. Top with sour cream, tomatoes and lettuce.

Meatball Bake

Okay. I haven't been writing. Mostly this is because I haven't been cooking. Jeff has been laid off for awhile and has been home. This means that I come home to a running washing machine and dinner on the table. I do not apologize.

I cleaned out the pantry the other day. It was scary. I had an unbelievable amount of barbecue sauce, enough to last us through next summer I dare say. My freezer is also starting to burst at the seams, so that is next on my list.

In an effort to actually use some of the food I have on hand, I have been making stuff up. I have had a bit of success with this, as this Meatball Bake proves.

Add 2 cups of frozen hashbrowns to the bottom of a baking pan and top with 1 cup of frozen corn. You could use canned corn if you had it on hand, just be sure to drain it.
Top with your leftover meatballs (about half a package) and a can of (undrained) diced tomatoes. These come in a variety of seasonings. I really like the Italian flavored.
Stir this all up.
And top with mozzarella cheese. Actually, I think this is an Italian blend. Go with what works for you. You really can't go wrong with cheese.
Cover with foil and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.

This was yummy. I think it would be pretty good with Rotel tomatoes and cheddar cheese, too.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Meatball Bake
2 Cups Frozen Hashbrowns
1 Cup Frozen Corn
2 Cups Frozen Meatballs
1 Can Diced Tomatoes
1/2 Cup Shredded Cheese
Mix all ingredients into a baking dish, cover and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.

Kansas Baked Potatoes

So my dear mother in law took her entire family to San Antonio this spring. The main purpose behind this trip was to celebrate her retirement by glimpsing George Strait at his annual roping festival. Of course, when I take a vacation to the southern part of the country, the weather turns dismal. Something like 50 degrees and rainy. Everyone under the age of eleven wanted to leave the roping (even our Roper) after about an hour. So I gathered them all up to go back to the motel to go swimming.

But not before spotting the baked potatoes being offered at the concession stand. You thought I was going to say George Strait, didn't you! (Yeah, no such luck for me) I could not get them out of my head. McDonald's drive through just didn't quite satisfy me after that. Texas does know how to do some things :)

So now that school is out, my mind has time to wander, it wandered back to the baked potatoes. So here goes the quest for the best baked potato I never got to try.

Mix a bottle of your favorite barbeque sauce with about 1/2 a cup of Italian dressing and a couple tablespoons of Worchestershire sauce. If need be, empty out all the miscellaneous leftover bottles in your fridge.

NOTE: One of my leftover bottles was called "Devil's Spit." In retrospect, I would have added a little bit less...I am still sweating from this one.
Whisk this together.
Sample, realize something is missing and add in 1/4 cup brown sugar.
Whisk again and pour this over a pound of sirloin steak. Pork or chicken would be wonderful, too. Put all of this into your crock pot and cook on high for 3-4 hours.

With about an hour before supper time, scrub your potatoes, wrap them in foil and stick them into the oven. 400 degrees will take about an hour.

NOTE: This is the perfect time to check to make sure you have actually turned on the crock pot. If, for some inexplicable reason, you have not turned it on, this is the time to transfer the above mixture into a baking pan.
Once everything is in the oven, actually cooking, now is a good time to stop the toddler from "hewping oo matke sooop, mom." with the Worchestershire sauce that you forgot to put away.
Do this before the DH comes in from his welding project and mistakes it for a horrible tomato slicing accident.

Slice up the steak and add it to the potato. I added sour cream to tone down the heat of my chosen barbeque sauce and topped it with some cheddar cheese.
This was yummy. You could add butter and sour cream along with a little cheese. I think chicken would be delicious and it would probably shred really easy.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Kansas Baked Potatoes
1 Bottle Barbeque Sauce
1/2 Cup Italian Dressing
2 Tablespoons Worchestershire Sauce
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Pound Sirloin Steak
4 Baking Potatoes

Mix all sauces and brown sugar together. Pour over steak in crock pot. Cook on high for 3-4 hours.
Cook potatoes in 400 oven for 1 hour.
Slice up the steak. Top potatoes with sauce and steak.

Enchilada Casserole

Enchilada Casserole
This recipe comes from my mom. Originally, it called for chicken instead of beef, and while this is really good, too, we prefer the beef version. This is one of my husband's very favorite suppers. If I want lunch the next day, I have to get it out before he sits down, or he will eat the entire thing.

OK, OK, so this isn't new. I have had it before. Many times. But it's May. And in teacher-world, that means chaos coupled with low motivation (both me and my students). At this point, I am just glad that we aren't eating at Sonic again tonight.


Brown hamburger and remove excess grease. Add chiles, soup and enchilada sauce; heat through.
Add half of the beef mixture to a 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the shredded cheese. Add a layer of tortillas to cover.

Spread the refried beans to the edge of the tortillas. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the shredded cheese.

Add another layer of tortillas. Spoon the remaining beef mixture on top and sprinkle with remaining cheese.
Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly.
Click here for Printable Recipe

Enchilada Casserole
1 pound ground beef
1 can chopped green chiles
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can red enchilada sauce
1 can refried beans
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
flour tortillas

Brown hamburger and remove excess grease. Add chiles, soup and enchilada sauce; heat through. Add half of the beef mixture to a 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the shredded cheese. Add a layer of tortillas to cover. Spread the refried beans to the edge of the tortillas. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the shredded cheese. Add another layer of tortillas. Spoon the remaining beef mixture on top and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly.