Usually I love to cook. Lately, being pregnant and all, I find I don’t have the energy to devote hours or tedious attention to cooking.
I am looking for recipes that are easy to make. I also find myself craving ‘comfort’ foods. Having grown up in a Mexican household, I have no idea where to begin Casserole wise.
I only have three requests:
No Tuna or Fish (Mr Babs is not fond of these, sadly).
Little or no tomatoes (see above, except he doesn’t mind if they are in small bits)
No Mexican type food. I have loads of these recipes, obviously!
I am a big fan of “Impossible Cheeseburger Pie.” It’s a bisquick recipe, and I really do make it a lot. It’s filling, and easy. My husband and I both really like it. It also fits more into the comfort food category.
1 pound ground beef
large onion, chopped (1 cup)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (4 ounces)
1/2 cup Bisquick
1 cup milk
2 eggs
Heat oven to 400°. Grease 9-inch pie plate. Cook beef and onion until beef is brown; drain. Spread in pie plate; sprinkle with salt and cheese. Stir remaining ingredients until blended. Pour into pie plate. Bake about 25 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes.
What about a nice Irish stew or corned beef and cabbage? Meatloaf is always a perennial favorite and makes a great sandwich the following day. Here’s the meatloaf recipe:
Meat Loaf Main Course
You might want to try this simple recipe sometime:
32 oz. (approx.) canned kidney beans, rinsed and drained
30 oz. (approx.) canned butter beans, rinsed and drained
1 can lima beans, rinsed and drained
Brown the meats in a little olive oil. Mix everything and bake 1 ½ hours at 350*. Let cool 20 minutes before serving. Very easy, very tasty. I think you could do this with a crockpot if you wanted to.
½ lb diced bacon
1 lb. ground meat
1 c. diced onion
1 ts. salt
2 Tb. cider vinegar
½ c. ketchup
¾ c. brown sugar
30 oz. (approx.) canned baked beans
32 oz. (approx.) canned kidney beans, rinsed and drained
30 oz. (approx.) canned butter beans, rinsed and drained
1 can lima beans, rinsed and drained
Brown the meats in a little olive oil. Mix everything and bake 1 ½ hours at 350*. Let cool 20 minutes before serving. Very easy, very tasty. I think you could do this with a crockpot if you wanted to.
SPICE SOUP
1/2 of a green cabbage
1 medium onion
1 large bell pepper
1 carton fresh mushrooms
2 or 3 potatoes
4 or 5 cloves garlic
brick of frozen chopped spinach
bag of frozen crinkle cut carrots
box of frozen lima beans
2 cans herbed chopped tomatoes
olive oil
1 to 1 1/2 lbs. turkey polish sausage
basil, cracked black pepper, cumin, nutmeg, cayenne,ground thyme, bay leaf
Louisiana Hot sauce
Chop the fresh veggies. Chop the sausage. Cook onion and garlic in the soup
pot in some olive oil, then add the sausage and cook a little while. Then add
the mushrooms and cook til they release thier juice. Add the rest of the
fresh or frozen veggies, the canned tomatoes,and enough water to cover. Bring
to a boil, lower heat, simmer an hour or so. Add the spices in generous
amounts, and let simmer for at least another hour, adding a little more water
as needed.
GOOD LENTILS
2 c. tiny French dark green lentils (Le Puy, I think they are called)
6 c. water or broth
5 - 6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 box (8 oz.) fresh mushrooms, chopped
2 boxes frozen chopped spinach
salt and pepper
2 onions, finely chopped
4 Tb. olive oil, more to taste
juice of one lemon
Sort, wash and rinse lentils. Put in next-to-biggest pot along with the water
or broth, garlic, bay leaf, mushrooms, spinach, salt and pepper. Cook 'til
the lentils are tender, about an hour. Remove from heat. Now chop the onions
and fry them in the olive oil and juice of half the lemon 'til they are
browned, stirring frequently. When nicely browned, dump this mixture into the
pot of lentils and mix. Then squeeze in the juice of the other half of the
lemon and stir to blend. This is delicious!
Brown 1 pound of ground meat with onion flakes, salt and pepper. At the same time, cook 1/2 pound of elbow macaroni. After ground beef and pasta are ready, combine them with 1 can of cream of chicken soup, 1 can of mushroom soup, and one cup of sour cream. Add 1 cup of drained whole kernel corn. Crumble bread over top of casserole, pour melted butter on top.
Cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Make (brown) lentils in your usual fashion.
Mom sometimes adds bacon to the pot, but this step can be omitted.
In the meantime:
Saute diced onions. add diced tomatoes. add cilantro. Add jalapeños if you’d like.
There is no set measurement for the ingredients: add in proportions that you like. I, for example, like mine with loads of tomatoes.
Zen, Here is what I usually make with left over rice. I appologize again for lack of definative measurements. Mom just never cooked that way… her measurements are usually “a handful of this…”, etc. As you are a cook,however, I am sure you can make do with my description!
Albondigas
(Mexican Meatball soup)
Take about a pound of ground beef.
add minced onion, salt, pepper, garlic and 1 egg. We sometimes add grated carrot, too.
Add a scoopful of rice. I used the pre-cooked rice as its quicker. Mom uses raw rice.
mix up and make mini meat balls, about 1- 1.5" across.
in a stock pot add stock. Place meatballs in stock. Add diced tomatoes and onions. add Jalapeños or green chili if you’d like. season to taste. Just before serving, add cilantro.
When serving, we sqeeze lime juice into the soup. Also, believe it or not, we squirt ketchup on the meatballs just before eating. I can’t eat them any other way, but Mr Baboon thinks that it is a horrible addition.
½ lb diced bacon
1 lb. ground meat
1 c. diced onion
1 ts. salt
2 Tb. cider vinegar
½ c. ketchup
¾ c. brown sugar
30 oz. (approx.) canned baked beans
32 oz. (approx.) canned kidney beans, rinsed and drained
30 oz. (approx.) canned butter beans, rinsed and drained
1 can lima beans, rinsed and drained
Brown the meats in a little olive oil. Mix everything and bake 1 ½ hours at 350*. Let cool 20 minutes before serving. Very easy, very tasty. I think you could do this with a crockpot if you wanted to.
SPICE SOUP
1/2 of a green cabbage
1 medium onion
1 large bell pepper
1 carton fresh mushrooms
2 or 3 potatoes
4 or 5 cloves garlic
brick of frozen chopped spinach
bag of frozen crinkle cut carrots
box of frozen lima beans
2 cans herbed chopped tomatoes
olive oil
1 to 1 1/2 lbs. turkey polish sausage
basil, cracked black pepper, cumin, nutmeg, cayenne,ground thyme, bay leaf
Louisiana Hot sauce
Chop the fresh veggies. Chop the sausage. Cook onion and garlic in the soup
pot in some olive oil, then add the sausage and cook a little while. Then add
the mushrooms and cook til they release thier juice. Add the rest of the
fresh or frozen veggies, the canned tomatoes,and enough water to cover. Bring
to a boil, lower heat, simmer an hour or so. Add the spices in generous
amounts, and let simmer for at least another hour, adding a little more water
as needed.
GOOD LENTILS
2 c. tiny French dark green lentils (Le Puy, I think they are called)
6 c. water or broth
5 - 6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 box (8 oz.) fresh mushrooms, chopped
2 boxes frozen chopped spinach
salt and pepper
2 onions, finely chopped
4 Tb. olive oil, more to taste
juice of one lemon
Sort, wash and rinse lentils. Put in next-to-biggest pot along with the water
or broth, garlic, bay leaf, mushrooms, spinach, salt and pepper. Cook 'til
the lentils are tender, about an hour. Remove from heat. Now chop the onions
and fry them in the olive oil and juice of half the lemon 'til they are
browned, stirring frequently. When nicely browned, dump this mixture into the
pot of lentils and mix. Then squeeze in the juice of the other half of the
lemon and stir to blend. This is delicious!
Well, heck, sorry for double posting – I tried and tried to get a message through last night, but it looked like my connection to the board had gone wonky, so I left it on screen and tried to send it this morning. Looks like it did go through last night, 'though I hadn’t known it. I apologize for that.
1 lb. of bulk sausage (I prefer Jimmy Dean Hot), browned and drained.
cooked rice (1c rice, 2c water)
1 can Campbell’s Vegetable Beef Soup + 1 can of water
mix ingredients together and put in a casserole dish, bake at 375 for 30 minutes.
A good summer casserole - adjust the tomatoes to tastes for Mr Babs
Tomatoes - 2 or 3 depending on size
Onions - 1/2 an onion or more
Summer squash or zucchini - 1 or 2 depending on size
Stale breadcrumbs or croutons - about a cup
Cheese - 2-3 slices or about a cup shredded. (have tried with cheddar, mozarrella & colby)
Chunk up the veggies - mix with bread/crouts.
Put in casserole pan - sprinkle/lay cheese on top
Bake at 350 for about 45 min. The bread soaks up the veggie juices & the cheese melts all over everything… mmmmm
PS: Glad to hear the pregnancy is going well - you hadn’t said anything about it lately…
Incredibly easy curry chicken (Indian food purists will scoff, but I like it!)
1/2 c honey
1/2 c Dijon mustard
1/2 c (1 stick) melted butter
4 tsp curry powder
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Preheat oven to 350. Arrange chicken in a single layer in a buttered casserole dish. Mix together honey, mustard, butter and curry. Pour over chicken. Bake for 40 minutes, basting often.
Drain can of salmon (your cats, if you have any, will love you if you give them the juice) and place in small casserole dish. Use a fork to smash it up.
Saute a large green onion and a couple of peppers, both preferably fresh from the garden, and add these to dish. Hot peppers, such as Hungarian Wax or jalapenos, mean you don’t have to add a lot of spices
Break three eggs and place these in dish.
Grate one large carrot into dish.
Crumble up two pieces of stale bread into dish.
Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of some liquid to keep the casserole moist. Milk works best, IMO, but I have used homemade pickle juice, iced tea, and Worcestershire sauce.
Salt to taste
Use fork to mix ingredients well and level mush in the dish. Cover the mush with strips of Provolone or Mozzarella cheese.
Place into pre-heated oven. Last time, I made this I baked the casserole at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. This seemed a trifle long, and I believe I might try 350 degrees for 20 minutes next time.
Saute some chunks of chicken with onion in a large pan with some butter.
Add a little water, and throw in whatever veggies you like (I use carrots, broccoli, frozen corn, frozen peas, or whatever is in the fridge).
When veggies are steamed, add some milk and stir.
Put it into a casserole dish and pour Bisquik batter on top (follow the pot pie measurements on the box). Bake until nicely done.
Does Enchilada Lasagne count as Mexican?
Cook 2 cups rice.
Saute some chicken or beef (about 1 lb or less) with onion and some enchilada sauce. Throw in a can of black beans, a medium can of olives, a can of corn, and anything else you want. Mix the rice in, and add some more sauce.
In a 9x13" pan, layer tortillas,* mixture, and shredded cheese twice. Lay tortillas on top and pour the rest of the sauce on. Top with more cheese, and bake at 350 till warmed through.
*Corn tortillas will disintegrate into the stuff, while flour tortillas will stay firm. I like both.
Two easy things to do with meatballs* in about 20 minutes.
Fake Beef Stroganoff
Cook a pot of egg noodles.
Chop several mushrooms and an onion, saute in some butter. Put in several meatballs.
Put in about 2/3 - 3/4 of a can of cream of mushroom soup. Add some Worcesterchire sauce and a little ground mustard. Add milk until it’s a nice saucy consistency. Warm through and serve on noodles.
Chinese Meatballs (from an actual Chinese cookbook from the 40’s)
Cook 3 cups of rice.
Put 3 T vegetable oil in a pan, and when it’s hot: With a large can of pineapple chunks, pour juice into a measuring cup and add enough water to make 1 cup. Pour that into the oil. Throw in some meatballs. Mix up the following:
6 T water
3 T vinegar
1 T soy sauce (or more, if you like)
1/2 c sugar
3 T cornstarch
Put this into the pan and stir until thickened. Add the pineapple. At the last minute, add one chopped bell pepper. Serve over the rice.
*I make about 100 meatballs at a time and freeze them. If anyone wants the recipe, I’ll be glad to post it.
