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.

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.

Chicken Cups

And so it begins. The Girl is now in the third grade and is starting to get involved into different activities. I don't really know how it happened, but suddenly, I am shuttling from Girl Scouts to piano to gymnastics. On Mondays.

The other morning I forgot to get out hamburger to thaw for supper. I had 37 minutes to get kids fed and get back out the door. I had 14 bite size pieces of leftover Rubber Chicken and refrigerated biscuits. And this is what happened...

Spray a regular sized muffin pan and press a biscuit into each one. Flatten it down and a little bit up the sides.
Fill those up about half way with the leftover chicken
Add about a tablespoon of barbecue sauce. Or, if your children are vehemently opposed to barbecue sauce, you can use ketchup. I am thinking pizza sauce would be a good substitute as well. With some pepperoni...
Top with a half tablespoon of cheese. I used colby-jack, but you could use any kind you like.
Bake in a 350 oven for about 15 minutes.
As someone with small children, these were wonderful. Easy to handle, extremely yummy. While my kids aren't really picky eaters, they inhaled these. Versatile as all get out. Leftover roast beef with cheddar? Chicken and pizza sauce? Chicken with alfredo? The possibilities are endless here.

Although, I'm not sure Jeff would really go along with it. These aren't really what he would consider an actual meal, so I probably wouldn't try to pass them off to him as one. I'll just save them for a night when he isn't here.

I'm thinking these would be great to take to a potluck. Or picnic. Or as a side with soup.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Chicken Cups
1 Cup Chopped Chicken
1 pkg Refrigerated Biscuits
1/2 Cup Shredded Cheese
1/4 Cup BBQ Sauce
Press biscuits into greased muffin tins. Fill each biscuit about half way with chicken pieces. Top each with about 1 teaspoon BBQ sauce and 1 teaspoon shredded cheese. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.

Spinach Pasta Toss

So we went back to school. And it's been rough. One of our May graduates died suddenly, giving us our third student death since May. Pray for us.

If it's not one thing, it's another. My computer crashed yesterday and I had to reformat. Feeling pretty secure that 99% of my school files were backed up on the server, I didn't panic too much. However, apparently 17 seconds after my computer crashed, our server followed suit. So everything I have done since May is gone. Since I have created two new classes since then, I am struggling to catch back up.

And, for some reason, I agreed to take back the head coach position for our cross country team. I gave it up a couple years ago when The Boy came, but they couldn't find anyone to do it.

Whew.

I need a nap :) Or a drink.

So, needless to say, I haven't been doing much in the way of cooking, cleaning or in general, anything not school related. Well, I take that back. The Girl and I have been obsessively playing Wizard 101. Have you tried that?!?

But thanks to Kraft, I am back on track for Try It Tuesday! Have you signed up for their magazine yet? Go there now.

Boil 1 cup water with 2 cups pasta and an undrained can of Italian tomatoes. Cover and let that simmer for about 10 minutes. You can use this time to start a load of laundry, empty the dishwasher AND mix a drink. I'll post that one later...
The recipe calls for 9 ounces of spinach. My package was only 6, and I only used about 2/3 of it. Too much and my kids won't eat it. But add in half of what you are going to and recover.
Put it back on the burner on low until the spinach is wilted.
Stir it up, add the rest of your spinach and wilt that down.
Although the recipe did not call for it, I added in about a cup of leftover baked chicken. Because we don't eat meatless dishes in my house.
Sprinkle with Italian blend cheese and serve.
This was yummy, and except for a couple procedural problems, I will definitely put this on my rotation. I really liked the pasta cooked IN the tomatoes, it gave it an extra flavor boost.

The only problems were minor ones. Make sure you stir as the spinach wilts, or your pasta and tomatoes will become part of your pan. Also, next time, I will probably tear up the spinach a bit. It all wanted to form a ball as I stirred it in.

Other than that, this was one of my favorite recipes of late. And it was sooooo quick and easy. Definitely give this one a try.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Spinach Pasta toss
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cups multi-grain penne pasta, uncooked
1 cup water
1 pkg. (9 oz.) baby spinach leaves (7 cups)
1 cup KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Italian* Three Cheese Blend
Bring tomatoes, pasta and water to boil in large saucepan; stir. Cover; simmer on medium-low heat 10 min. or just until pasta is tender. Add 1/2 of spinach; simmer, covered, 2 min. or until wilted. Stir. Repeat with remaining spinach. Serve topped with cheese.