Good Zucchini Casserole

This is a yummy way to use up extra zucchini during the summer. When I made this the other night I didn't have a surplus of zucchini, but I sadly was using up the last of our garden zucchini. So I am sorry for the lousy timing of this recipe, but it is just as good with store bought zucchini.

Good Zucchini Casserole

6 C Zucchini, diced into 1/2" pieces
1 C Carrots, same size dice

1 Onion diced

Combine and boil until carrots are tender, about 10 mins. Drain water and set aside.

1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup (I use the Healthy Request kind)
1 C Sour Cream (light)
2 - 3 Chicken breasts, cooked & diced

Add to boiled vegis. You can end up using a ton of bowls or you can just add it all to the same pot you used to cook the vegis in.

2 C Stuffing Mix (don't add the water)
1/2 C Butter Melted, or spray top with spray butter

Place 1/2 the stuffing mix on the bottom of a baking dish that has been sprayed with non stick stuff. Add the vegetable mixture on top and top with the remaining stuffing mix. Spray top with butter flavoring if not using melted butter.

Cook in a preheated 350 oven for 30 mins or until heated through.   ENJOY!

This recipe works great with fat free substitutes but if you're feeling indulgent go ahead and use the full fat versions. I can't say if it would taste better because I have never made it that way.

I got this recipe when I was first married from a kind lady I worked with named Jana. Apparently she was worried my new husband might starve if she didn't share her knowledge :) which I am glad she did!

Easy Fruit Cobbler

Tis the season for excess fruit. Hooray I've been waiting for this season all year, lol. Currently I've got buckets of pears and apples to go through.

I found this by searching for "easy apple cobbler" and it's fabulous! Top it with some vanilla sauce and you've just gone to heaven. The kiddos love it too!

The first night I did what the recipe said and used apples, but last night I used pears and since I ran out of white sugar I used brown sugar. Sierra said it was even better than the apple one. So, I am thinking that it would work with whatever fruit I had on hand.

EASY APPLE COBBLER

Apple Mixture:
5 c. Apples, sliced

1/2 c. Sugar

2 tbs Flour

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Salt

1/4 c Water

1 tsp Vanilla

1 tbs Butter, softened

Combine above ingredients; mix gently. Spoon into a lightly greased 9-inch square baking pan.

Batter:

1/2 c Flour

1/2 c Sugar

1/2 tsp Baking powder

1/4 tsp Salt

2 tbs Butter, softened

1 Egg

Combine batter ingredients; mix well. Spoon over apple mixture in 9 equal portions (batter will spread during baking). Bake in a preheated 375°F oven for 35 to 40 minutes.

Yield: 6 servings.

Here is the original recipe that I took this from.

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

This was originally a Sandra Lee recipe that I have tweeked to make my own. It is way easy and everyone always loves it when I make it. You can easily make a larger batch if you need to feed a crowd, or just want more left overs.

3 chicken breasts or a store bought roasted chicken

1 pack onion soup mix

2 cups diced carrots

2 leeks diced

1 box chicken stock

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

1 T fines herbs (mix of parsley, chives, chervil & tarragon)

salt and pepper

1 package Grandmas Egg Noodles

Put chicken breasts in crock pot and sprinkle onion soup mix over top and add a couple cups of water and cook on low for 8 hours. Once chicken is cooked take it out and shred it into large chunks. If you used a store bought roasted chicken you can skip this first part and just shred the chicken. Save the liquid that is left in the crock pot. In a large pot add box of chicken stock and liquid left over from cooking the chicken, carrots & leeks, make sure you wash the leeks good they hold a lot of dirt in them, boil until the carrots are soft. You can also use less leeks and add some onion and celery if you want. Once carrots are soft add cream of mushroom soup and fines herb and shredded chicken. Boil the noodles in a separate pot otherwise they will soak up all the liquid in the soup, and then add the to the soup and taste of salt and pepper. You can use any kind of noodles but the Grandmas Egg Noodles taste home made, they are in the frozen food section and are in a red and yellow package, they can be a little tricky to find sometimes but they are totally worth it if you can find them, I stock up when I see them. If the soup seems to thick after you add the noodles you can add water or more chicken stock until it is the consistency you like.

Pumpkin Turkey Chili

Dawnie, this is for you. Hopefully it will re energize your will to blog!! You were having lots of fun doing it, and I am sure there are some things that you'd like to share. So, PLEASE!! BLOG!!!

That being said.

Here is an odd sort of recipe that I found in a Smith's mailer. I wanted to try it because I like recipes that hide healthy ingredients.

As always I also changed the recipe a ton based on what I like and what I had. I am only going to post what I did and not the original recipe.

1 Onion chopped
2 Bell peppers chopped (I only had red)
1 tbs Minced garlic
1 lb Ground turkey
2 C. Diced tomatoes (fresh or canned)
2 C. Pumpkin puree
1 can Kidney beans
1 can Pinto beans
1 1/2 tbs Chili powder
1 tbs Cumin
1/2 tbs Paprika
1/2 tsp each Black pepper & Salt
Toppings:
Shredded cheese
Sour Cream
Hot sauce

Brown ground turkey and set aside. In same pan add peppers & onion. Cook until tender, if using fresh tomatoes add them at this time too. Add garlic and spices. Return turkey to pan and add canned beans and pumpkin puree. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer until its as thick as you like it. I like really thick chili so I let it simmer for a while. The original recipe called for 4 hrs in a crock pot, so that's also an option .

Top with your favorite toppings and try to get your family to guess the secret ingredient. No one will guess there is pumpkin in it. It makes gives the chili a beautifully creamy texture.

BBQ Green Beans

There is something incredibly satisfying about the harvesting of these beans. I am in love with the festival of color. I don't think that one color tastes better than another, I simply plant all three because I love to pick them. When they cook unfortunately the purple ones turn green so I loose that visual gratification, but it's still fun to see two colors on the plate rather than only one.

At this point in the summer we have eaten beans in every way imaginable. We just alternate between beans and squash every night. I'm doing my best to use what the garden gives us, and at the same time trying to not get bored of the same food. So we eat the same food different ways :)

 This was almost like a double whammy in that first of all I didn't have to heat up my house to cook them because they cooked on the BBQ, and second of all it was a new way to eat the same food that we've already eaten plenty of this summer.

Before I began washing the beans I poured a couple of tbs EVOO in a bowl with a couple crushed garlic cloves and some salt and pepper. I mixed this and let it sit while I washed the beans. I did this hoping that the garlic would give some flavor to the oil.

I placed the beans on a double layer of foil, tucked some sliced onions into them and poured the oil mixture over the top. Wrapped the foil up tight and placed it right on the BBQ. I also made a kid friendly packet that only had some butter on it so that my kids would also eat their vegis.

I think it cooked for probably 20-30 mins on a mixture of high and medium heat. I cooked these one time before and let it burn a little (on accident) and I actually think I liked it better that way. Kinda caramelized the onions and gave it a little deeper flavor.

 The kid's packet.

So yummy, so easy, so healthy :)

Back To School Breakfast

My two oldest went back to school today so it was a big morning at our house.  One in 11th grade and another in 3rd. So I wanted to make something special. It needed to me yummy of course, but I also wanted it to have a little nutrition in it too so this is what I made.

It's a recipe for Blueberry-Swirl Coffee Cake but my kids like their food in muffin form better so I made it in muffin cups instead of a pan. I realize that it is a cake and therefore not terribly healthy, but at least I got a fruit in there, hehe.

Over the summer my now third grader was shopping with daddy and saw this magazine and insisted that they buy it for me because in her words, "mom always likes cooking healthy things" How cute is that? I love her!

Needles to say, I am glad they bought it because it's full of nice recipes and pretty pics.

This is where the recipe came from. I made this one other time and called it breakfast :) This summer while Rikard's family was staying with us I made it, and they all loved it too.

I didn't have lemon zest so I substituted almond extract and it was delish!

To make it into muffins instead of the cake I just layered it in the tins same as you would in the pan and sorta swirled it around with my finger. Worked fine.

 Maybe the best part about making this into muffins was that I had extra blueberries in the end. Of course I could not waste these sugared little beauties. They fit beautifully in a small baking pan and luckily I had a little batter left. Oh baby!

 I could eat the whole pan! Good thing it's small! It's almost like pie, maybe like a buckle? Whatever it is, it is definitely delicious! I may plan this little accident again by increasing the blueberries and decreasing the batter. It would be heaven with vanilla ice cream or vanilla sauce over it. But then I couldn't call it breakfast.

Here's the recipe:

Blueberry-Swirl Coffee Cake

2 1/2 c fresh or frozen blueberries

1/3 c packed light brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 c (1 stick) butter

1 c granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg white

1 tbs grated lemon zest

2 1/2 c self-rising flour

1 1/4 c reduced fat milk

Preheat oven to to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 13x9 inch baking pan. Toss 2 cups blueberries with brown sugar and cinnamon until blueberries are covered.

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add egg and egg white beat another 2 minutes. Add lemon zest. Reduce to low speed and add flour alternately with milk, one-third at a time. Scrape sides down and do not over mix.

Spread half the batter into pan and sprinkle with blueberries. Spoon remaining batter on the top and swirl with knife several times. Sprinkle remaining blueberries on the top .

Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging, about 40-45 minutes. Cool pan on wire rack 15 mins before serving.

I baked the muffins for 15-20 minutes. They needed to be in muffin cups because the ones that were not fell apart when I was trying to remove them from the pan. They also didn't work well as mini muffins. Maybe they would have if I would have used mini muffin papers but I didn't have any so they came out in a heap. Still tasted good but looked like a disaster :)

Enjoy!



Mandy

Garden Dinner

I love the meals that come right from the garden. From farm to table in a few minutes. This year my tomatos are a little slow coming, but for what it lacks in tomatos it makes up in cucumbers. So I'm getting a little creative in how to use up all the cucumbers that we have.

This is a super yummy fresh salad that we had last week paired with come grilled chicken. Yum!

Cucumber Salad:

Garden Cucumbers

Tomatos

Feta Cheese

Red onion

EVOO

Rice Wine Vinegar

Salt & Pepper

Combine all ingredients in proportions that you like. Toss and enjoy!

Cakes & Cupcakes

For my birthday I got a Cricut Cake. Oooh the possibilities :) I love decorating cakes. Mostly I love icing, but for me that has translated into a love of using the icing to decorate cakes.

This cake I made for Mandaline's 16th Birthday. It was so fun to make.

We were unsure how many kids would come so I decided to make a batch of cupcakes to compliment the cake and this is the cuteness that insued!

 I could very nearly die of cuteness - if that were at all possible, haha!

These are my first expirement with my new toy. I made them for Dawnie's Bridal shower. Orriginally I wanted to have a simple D & R on the cupcakes, but there is quite a learning curve with the machine so this is what resulted. I think they are darling!

Dawnie had some cute little metal tags that made all the difference in the packaging. I made them as a favor, not as a dessert so they needed to be portable.

A few notes on using Cricut Cake:

-For the sugar sheets that you buy at the craft store it worked best to not cut all the way through the sheet but only score it with the machine. This did make it so you had to finish punching the shapes out with your hands or a small knife but the success rate was a lot higher than when I cut all the way through because it would crack and chip and I would throw out most of the cuts. So I had it on medium presure and low speed.

-Also with the sugar sheets I left them on their plastic sheet and just stuck the plastic to the cutting mat with a little butter. This kept them from becoming to soggy with butter and made it so I didn't have to work so fast before the sheets became too soft to move.

-On my second try I just rolled out fondant instead of sugar sheets. The fondant is so much easier! Besides being more pliable you can also reuse the extra or the mistakes by simply re rolling it out. So this was better for me because I wasted much less.

Due to this I think that next time I use the machine I'll only use the fondant. I can easily dye it to any color I need, and I know I'll waste less.

The icing I love the most is here: Favorite frosting

Vanilla Sauce

This one is for you Mandy... Its the closest thing to the boxed kind you can get here... I made it last night and Then put it over strawberries.  Dont judge... Rikard is out of town and I am lonely! (and bored!) I have to keep reminding myself I have to fit into a wedding dress in a few months. CRAP!


Ingredients (serves 4)

1 cup milk
1 cup thickened cream
1 vanilla bean (see note)
4 egg yolks
1 tablespoon cornflour
1/3 cup caster sugar

Directions:
1. Combine milk and cream in a small saucepan. Using a sharp knife, split vanilla bean in half lengthways and scrape out seeds. Add bean and seeds to milk mixture. Place over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes or until hot (do not allow to boil). Remove saucepan from heat.


2. Whisk egg yolks, cornflour and sugar in a heatproof bowl until well combined. Remove vanilla beans from milk mixture. Pour hot milk mixture over egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly.

3.Return mixture to saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, for 15 to 20 minutes or until custard thickens and coats the back of a metal spoon (do not allow custard to boil, as it might curdle).

4. Serve custard warm or cold over stewed fruit, pancakes or crumbles.


Notes:
You could use 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla powder instead of the vanilla bean.

If cooling custard for later use, cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin forming.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

Here is another winner.... Rikard said it goes in the top 3 so that has to mean its pretty good!  I can never tell if the things I make really taste good, or I just think they do because I work so darn hard making them. So Rikard is my test dummy, I swear he would try poop if it looked good enough... Just saying!

The only thing I might change with this is I would rather a graham cracker crust, I am not a big fan of chocolate... Maybe due to the fact that the night before I made this I ate an entire pack of Oreos... YUCK! I have had my feel of chocolate cookies!!!

Ingredients


• 1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs

• 3 tablespoons white sugar

• 1/4 cup butter, melted

• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen raspberries

• 2 tablespoons white sugar

• 2 teaspoons cornstarch

• 1/2 cup water

• 2 cups white chocolate chips

• 1/2 cup half-and-half cream

• 3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

• 1/2 cup white sugar

• 3 eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix together cookie crumbs, 3 tablespoons sugar, and melted butter. Press mixture into the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan.

2. DOUBLE THIS PART ITS WORTH IT TRUST ME! SO GOOD! In a saucepan, combine raspberries, 2 tablespoons sugar, cornstarch, and water. Bring to boil, and continue boiling 5 minutes, or until sauce is thick. Strain sauce through a mesh strainer to remove seeds. (I didn't strain mine...)

3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). In a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt white chocolate chips with half-and-half, stirring occasionally until smooth. (Honestly I just threw them in to the microwave... Worked just fine!)

4. In a large bowl, mix together cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in vanilla and melted white chocolate. Pour half of batter over crust. Spoon 3 tablespoons raspberry sauce over batter. Pour remaining cheesecake batter into pan, and again spoon 3 tablespoons raspberry sauce over the top. Swirl batter with the tip of a knife to create a marbled effect.

5. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until filling is set. Cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 8 hours before removing from pan. Serve with remaining raspberry sauce.

AND how can you resist fresh whipped cream with vanilla bean in it! Oh God the little fat kid inside of me is screaming to get out...

Yummy Brownies

Rikard and I had a sweet tooth the other night so I found this pretty yummy recipe for brownies... The honey makes the frosting to die for! I think I ate half of it before the brownies were even out of the oven.  I am sure you could do the brownies with spray butter os something healthier, but you know me I am all about the butter! Mmmm!


Ingredients

1/2 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder



3 tablespoons butter, softened

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup confectioners' sugar









Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan.

2. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt, and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overcook.

4. To Make Frosting: Combine 3 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons cocoa, 1 tablespoon honey (I did 2 tablespoons and it made it even better) , 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 cup confectioners' sugar. Frost brownies while they are still warm.

Applesauce Bread

Ok, this I my own little baby (insert proud smile here)!
I was sleepy and wanted some sweet bread, but I had run out of shredded frozen zucchini and my bananas were not ripe enough for bread yet. Soooo, this is what I came up with.

3/4 c Fat Free Sour Cream
3/4 c Brown Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
3 Egg Whites
1 c Applesauce
2 c Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Allspice
1 c Craisins or Raisins

Mix brown sugar, sour cream and vanilla. Add egg whites and applesauce and mix well. Add remaining ingredients, except Craisins, and mix until combined. Stir in Craisins and fill loaf pan. Cook at 350 for 60 mins. I usesd mini loaf pans and only cooked them for 30 mins. So yummy and pretty healthy!

Korean Fire Meat

I think both Brandon and Rikard will like this one because it's lots of red meat. Not to mention its really yummy too.
My friend Julianne made this for our book club a few months ago. I think she originally got it from Good Things Utah.

2-3 lbs beef roast, well trimmed (she suggested having the butcher trim it really thin, but I just sliced it really thin myself)
1 c sugar

Marinade
3/4 c Soy Sauce
2 tbs Sesame Seeds
3 Garlic Cloves, minced
2 tbs Sesame Oil
1 Bunch Green Onions, thinly sliced
Red Pepper Flakes (optional for a little kick)

Combine beef and sugar in a bag or bowl and let sit for 10 mins. Combine ingredients for marinade and pour over beef. Mix and let stand overnight.

Cook in heavy pan or Dutch Oven in small batches over medium-high to high heat.

Serve over rice as a main dish. Or as an appetizer, serve on Boston lettuce leaves with matchstick carrots and cucumbers.

I ended putting the cooked meat into a crock pot to keep it warm, and with my last batch of meat I poured the remaining marinade in to cook and it made a nice sauce.

And knowing me, I forgot to take a picture so please use your imagination until I make it again and take a picture :)

Banana muffins

Last week I decided to master Banana Muffins... Here in Sweden they don't really know what a good muffin is. So I was on a mission to show them what a REAL muffin is. When I say muffin I am talking about a Big muffin with an even Bigger top, broke in two with butter melting on both pieces! SO good! I had 2 recipes I wanted to try and I still cant decided which I liked more, Rikard preferred the first recipe. 

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1.     Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.

2.     In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

3.     In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.

Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean


This next one makes like 3 pans of muffins... They have a more cake like consistency.

Ingredients

• 2 sticks Butter
• 1-½ cup + 2 TBLS Sugar
• 3 whole Eggs
• 1-½ cup Mashed Ripe Bananas
• 4 cups + 2 TBLS Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1-½ teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1-½ cup Sour Cream

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease muffin pan.

Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time, beating for a few seconds after each addition. Add mashed bananas and beat.

Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

Add dry ingredients and sour cream alternately to the mixing bowl. Beat well until all combined.

Pour into muffin pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Invert on a cooling rack and allow cake to cool slightly before slicing and serving with softened butter.

I also put the brown sugar crumbs on top of these and it made them delicious!

So, let me know which one you think is better! Good luck

Lettuce Wraps

I have been craving lettuce wraps like crazy lately. I searched for recipes, and then took the stuff I liked from several and combined them to fit my tastes. What I came up with was super tasty and I got lots of compliments on it.

Chicken Marinate
3 tbs lime juice
1 tbs curry powder
2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp salt
2 tbs crushed garlic

Mix all together and marinate for at least 4 hours.

2 heads lettuce, romaine or butter
4 chicken breasts

1 pkg mushrooms, diced
1 lg onion, diced
1 can water chestnuts, diced
1 bunch green onions, just the green partsB sliced
1/4 c hoisin sauce
2 tbs crushed ginger
2 tbs crushed garlic
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs rice wine vinegar
2 tsp sesame oil

Toppings
Fried rice noodles
Thinly sliced carrots
Hoisin sauce
Sweet chili sauce
Chopped cashews

Remove chicken from marinate and discard the remaining marinate. Rough chop the chicken and place 1 breast at a time in the blender and pulse until its nicely chopped up. Heat pam or cooking oil in a large skillet and brown chicken. Remove chicken and set aside. Add onions and mushrooms to the same skillet, cook until onions are soft. Add garlic, water chestnuts, and ginger, stir and add soy sauce, rice vinegar, hoisin sauce. Bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and add the sesame oil and green onions.

Scoop into lettuce leaves and top with your favorites.

Cheesy Chicken Potato Soup

So, I am trying to get back into doing the house-wife duties... Having a little trouble, 5 out of 7 of the meals I made this week were NASTY! But I did make some really yummy soup, its so darn cold here all I can think about is hot chocolate and warm soup. Most the time I want to wear my coat and gloves in the house! I don't think Rikard mentioned this when he asked me to move to this country, its just not right...How cold it is!

Anyway onto the recipe!


Ingredients:
 - 4 medium potatoes diced
- 1 qt. Chicken broth (you can use water, I just like the richness of the broth)
- Butter (as much as you want... I prefer at least a stick)
- 4 Tbs. Flour
- 1 Cup Milk
- 1 1/2 Cup shredded cheese (We don't have orange cheese here in this country so I used a pizza mix so what ever you have in the fridge)
- 1 Onion Diced really small
- 2 Sticks Celery
- Paprika
- Salt and Pepper
- Chopped Chives

Directions:

- Boil the potatoes in the chicken broth until tender, don’t drain.
- In frying pan cook onions, celery and butter until soft.
    -Add flour and mix
    -Add milk and stir until it thickens and remove from heat.
    -Stir into the potatoes and broth.
    -Add shredded chicken.
- Season with paprika, salt, pepper, and season salt.


I added ½ cup of sour cream just to make it a little creamier. Rikard says it’s the best he has ever had… and really simple. By now I am sure he is getting sick of all my soups but I am tackling Chicken noodle tomorrow! YUM!

Love,



Dawnie

Baked Beans (Dena's)

I hope you don't mind me just taking your stuff and posting it, but these are so yummy and every time I make them I get a request for the recipe. So here goes, please feel free to tweak this post however you want to :)

1 lb ground beef
1 onion diced
2 cans beans (one dark one light kidney beans work well)
1 can tomato soup
Mustard powder ~ 2 tbs
Brown sugar ~ 2 tbs
S&P to taste

Adjust the mustard and sugar to how ever you like things to taste. As usual, I also add some garlic.
Brown beef, drain and add onions (and garlic if using) cook until onions soften. Add the remainder of the ingredients and heat through.

Baked Oatmeal

Ok, I cannot claim this as my own, but it is way too yummy not to remember. Dawnie even made it for Rikard while he was here for Christmas and they loved it. I got this off a friends Facebook suggestion; so thanks to Susan for sharing.
http://www.mrbreakfast.com/superdisplay.asp?recipeid=1893



Baked Apple Oatmeal
(6 servings)

3 cups rolled oats (quick or old-fashioned)
2 cups chopped apples
2 cups milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1/3 cup applesauce
1 large egg - beaten
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
Prepare a 2-quart baking dish with a light coating of cooking spray.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

In a seperate bowl, mix together milk, egg, applesauce, butter, and brown sugar.

Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry and pour into prepared dish.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Stir the oatmeal, fold in the chopped apple and bake 20 more minutes until top is lightly browned.

Spoon into serving bowls and serve with milk and a little extra brown sugar.


You can replace the apples with equal an equal amount of blueberries or other fruit.


Mr Breakfast would like to thank DixieChick for this recipe.


Here's what I did to make it friendly to my kitchen. First I omitted the butter, exchanged cows milk for coconut milk (this was just because I had coconut milk - in the future I will probably use almond milk) I added more cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and left out the chopped apples and used more applesauce instead. If I were not trying to get my kids to eat it I would have used chopped apples, but what they don't know is in there they will usually eat. It was delicious, but needed some milk poured over the top. I also think you could omit the sugar with the additional applesauce it was plenty sweet.
Enjoy!