Taco Soup

This hearty Taco Soup is so easy to make.  It comes together quickly with minimal effort!  My kind of recipe!

I consider this a 'crowd-pleaser', because you can easily adapt the recipe to feed as many people as needed.  It is great for potluck dinners or for making for a friend in need.  It freezes great! 

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground beef, cooked and drained
• 1 Taco Seasoning packet
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• 1 heaping Tablespoon chopped garlic
• 2 large cans kidney beans
• 1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies (mild)
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can black olives, diced or sliced
• 1-2 cups frozen corn
• 1 packet of Ranch Dressing mix - Optional (I did not use)
• Green olives - Optional (I did not use)

Directions:

1. Crumble ground beef into soup pot, cook and drain.  Return meat to pot.
2. Add diced onion, pepper, and celery.  Cook until vegetables are tender, and onions are translucent.
3. Add garlic and cook for just a minute or so, to cook out the raw garlic taste.  Be sure to not burn the garlic, as it will be bitter if you do.
4. Add beans, tomatoes, olives and frozen corn.
5. Cook until all ingredients are heated through.

You can top this soup with cilantro, crushed tortilla chips, sour cream, grated cheddar cheese, or any topping you would like!

Enjoy!

Lasagna

This is a delicious, easy to make recipe. I know you'll love it!

I consider this a 'crowd-pleaser', because you can easily adapt the recipe to feed as many people as needed.  It is great for potluck dinners or for making for a friend in need.  It freezes great (freeze before baking)!  

When I serve it on Sundays, I make it the night before and store it in the fridge overnight.  If your oven has a timer which will turn on the oven for you, you can pop the lasagna into the oven before leaving for church and set the timer to turn on 30-45 minutes before you will be returning home from from church.  This is what I do.  It is a fantastic Sunday meal with absolutely no Sunday prep!

Ingredients:

• 1-2 boxes lasagna noodles cooked (depending on size of pan)
• 1 lb. hamburger
• 1 lb. Italian sausage
• 1-2 large jars Prego, spaghetti sauce
• 1 large container Ricotta cheese
• Parmesian Cheese, grated
• Sugar to taste
• 3-6 eggs
• 1-2 lbs shredded Mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Fry hamburger and sausage together. Drain. Add spaghetti sauce (reserve enough sauce to cover the bottom of baking pan - to prevent noodles from sticking). Set aside.
3. In separate bowl, mix Ricotta cheese, eggs and sugar (to taste). It should have a slightly sweet flavor, but not too sweet. Set aside.
4. In bottom of pan, pour spaghetti sauce, to cover. Layer lasagna noodles, meat mixture, Ricotta cheese, and Mozzarella... form as many layers as possible. (Sprinkle a layer of Parmesian cheese ONLY ONCE in the middle of the lasagna layers)  My pan isn't very deep, so I only get 2-3 layers. (I haven't tried it yet, but I'm thinking it might be a good idea to try baking this in a turkey roasting pan!) The top layer should be Mozzarella cheese.
5. Cover pan with aluminum foil, keeping in mind that it will stick to the cheese if it touches ... so be sure to 'tent' the foil over the pan.  
6. Bake at 350 degrees until heated through. Remove foil and return to oven.  Continue to bake until cheese is lightly browned and bubbly.

NOTE: You may choose to make this beforehand and not bake it right away.  If this is the case, and you plan to keep it in the refrigerator or freezer before baking, you can put a layer of plastic wrap or wax paper UNDER the foil to keep the aluminum foil from dissolving into the lasagna. But DON'T FORGET to remove plastic wrap or wax paper before baking!  

After baking, let lasagna stand for 10-15 minutes before serving.

***Serving Suggestion:
Green salad and garlic bread.

Marvelous Meatloaf

This meatloaf is always a hit! It was one of the last meals I was able to cook for my dear Father 2 weeks before he passed away. After spending several days in the hospital, he was ready for a hearty home cooked meal.  He had suffered a severe stroke, and speaking was difficult for him, but he took one bite of the meatloaf and commented, "That's brag-a-licious!"  ... One of my all time favorite memories. 

I consider this a 'crowd-pleaser', because you can easily adapt the recipe to feed as many people as needed.  It is great for potluck dinners or for making for a friend in need.  It freezes great (freeze before baking)! 

When I serve it on Sundays, I make it the night before and store it in the fridge overnight.  If your oven has a timer which will turn on the oven for you, you can pop the lasagna into the oven before leaving for church and set the timer to turn on 30-45 minutes before you will be returning home from from church.  This is what I do.  It is a fantastic Sunday meal with absolutely no Sunday prep!

Ingredients:

• 3 slices white bread
• 1 large carrot, finely chopped
• 1 rib celery, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 large Tablespoon chopped garlic
• 1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 2 teaspoons dry mustard (can use prepared mustard)
• 1 ½ lbs ground beef (can use combination of beef, pork and veal if desired) 
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon Tabasco Sauce, or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

Glaze:

• Ketchup, to taste
• Brown sugar, to taste
• Mustard, to taste
• Chopped Rosemary, if desired (maybe ¼ tsp or so)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°. 

2. Remove crusts from bread, and place slices in the bowl of a food processor. Process until fine crumbs form, about 10 seconds. Transfer bread crumbs to a large mixing bowl. Do not substitute dried bread crumbs in this step, as they will make your meat loaf rubbery.

3. Chop carrot, celery, yellow onion, garlic, and parsley. You can chop them in a food processor until vegetables have been minced, about 30 seconds, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice. (Chopping vegetables this way saves time and ensures that vegetables will be small enough to cook through and not be crunchy). Transfer vegetables to bowl with the bread crumbs.

4. Add 1/2 cup ketchup, 2 teaspoons dry mustard, meat, eggs, salt, pepper, Tabasco, and rosemary. Using your hands, knead the ingredients until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute. The texture should be wet, but tight enough to hold a free-form shape. * Be careful not to over knead the meatloaf ingredients; doing so will result in a heavy and dense loaf.

5. Form meat loaf in an 11-by-17-inch baking pan. I usually form mini loaves by using the side of my hand to divide the large loaf into smaller ones. This will help to decrease the cooking time.

6. GLAZE: Place desired amount of ketchup, mustard and brown sugar in mixing bowl. (You can also add a little chopped Rosemary to the bowl if desired. Not too much, as a little goes a long way.) 

Starting out with about 1 cup of ketchup, 1 cup of brown sugar, and about 1 Tablespoon of mustard, mix together and taste. After tasting, add each of the same ingredients as desired to ‘tweak’ the glaze to your own taste. I like my glaze to be sweet, yet savory. And I actually make a LOT of glaze, because there is nothing worse than dry, tasteless meatloaf. Mix until smooth. Pour this mixture all over the top of the meatloaves. Cover them completely with the sauce and let the excess run over the sides into the pan.  

7. Lay strips of bacon over each of the loaves. If making mini loaves usually cut each strip of bacon into thirds to accommodate the size of the loaves. *You may choose to use only a few strips of bacon over each loaf, but I cover the loaves completely because my family loves the sweet caramelized bacon after it is cooked, and I want to make sure there is enough for everyone. NOTE:  As you can see, the pan is pretty full, so I ended up transferring some of it to another pan before baking to prevent spillover in the oven.

8. Bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf registers 160°, about 45 minutes or so. (A few times during baking time, I remove excess bacon grease from pan.) After removing pan from oven, let meat loaf cool for about 15 minutes before serving.

**This is wonderful with scalloped or buttered dill potatoes, glazed carrots and pea salad. (I’ll be posting recipes for these side dishes as well.) 

Enjoy!