Pamm's Simple Holiday Meal

Years ago when I had to make my first big holiday meal, I didn't really know how to cook.  I went with easy things that I was familiar with.

Years later, I seem to be still cooking the same menu.

Fresh veggies and dip to snack on before the big meal.

Sweet potatoes, I made them ahead of time.

Green beans.

Stove Top Stuffing (I added some grated apple).

I also have turkey (look for my recipe later this week) and pumpkin pie or other dessert.

The menu is simple, but special to our family because we don't eat those items on an every day basis.

This year I made our Thanksgiving dinner a weekend ahead of time.  I will post the details later this week.








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Beef Nacho Casserole

When I found this recipe for Beef Nacho Casserole from The Happy Housewife I couldn't wait to try it.

• 1 lb of ground beef
• 1- 14 ounce can of diced tomatoes
• 1- 10 ounce can of corn drained
• ¾ cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon of chili powder ( you can also use 1-2 tablespoons taco seasoning instead of the chili powder)
• 1 ½ cups of crushed tortilla chips
• 2 cups shredded cheddar or colby jack cheese

(you could also easily add beans to this also)

Cook beef until browned and crumbled. Drain grease and stir in tomatoes, corn, sour cream, and chili powder. Set aside.

In a 9x 13 or similar size pan, spread the crushed chips, then layer ½ of  the beef mixture,  then ½  cheese, then remaining beef and cheese.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until heated through.

My taste-tester said it was delicious and toddler-friendly.  I packaged up five toddler meals (and had a tester meal, so I got six meals out of this) and put in the freezer.

First thing on the morning I want to serve this for lunch, I will get it out and plop it straight from the freezer into a mini crock pot.  By lunch time, it will be defrosted and heated through.

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Slow Cooker Sweet Potatoes

Mmmm, sweet potato season.  I bought five of them.

I peeled, washed and cubed the sweet potatoes and tossed them in my big slow cooker.

I like tangy flavors, so I added:

juice from one can of pineapple
a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice
pats of butter
sprinkles of Garam Masala

I put the lid on (didn't even toss them or anything) and cooked on high for four hours.

I packaged them up for toddler meals, my meals, and possible Thanksgiving meals, and put them in the freezer.

To reheat, I will pop them out of a container straight into a mini crock pot and heat for a few hours, until defrosted and heated through.

Of course, I had a sample and the potatoes are very good!






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How Many Meals Can I Get Out Of One Chicken?

ELEVEN!  I got eleven meals out of this one $5 chicken.

I deboned it and divided it among these three recipes.

Four meals of Chicken and Rice

Four meals of Tropical Chicken and Couscous

Three meals of Rice Cooker Fried Rice

 I packaged ten of the meals separately and put them in the freezer.  The eleventh meal, I ate for dinner; mmmmm.

All these meals will be easy to defrost and heat in the microwave or I can put a meal straight from the freezer into a mini crock pot for a few hours and it will be defrosted and heated through.







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Quick Spaghetti Sauce

I wanted to put together some Ravioli Lasagna, but didn't realize I was out of spaghetti sauce.  It was either run to the store, or see what I could throw together.  Here's what I threw together:

2 cans tomato sauce

1 can tomato paste

1-2 tablespoons each of:

Italian seasoning, minced garlic, and minced onion

dash of garlic salt
1 pound ground beef, cooked and crumbled

Mix all ingredients.

Because I was putting together a recipe to freeze, I didn't bother heating anything up.  If I were going to use this to serve the same day, I would simmer it on the stove for 20 minutes or so or in a crock pot for an hour or more.

It turned out delicious.








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BBQ Cups

Remember these Taco Cups?  I thought I would give it a try with a barbecue flavor.

BBQ Cups

1 pound ground beef, cooked and crumbled

barbeque sauce to taste

refrigerator biscuits (or make homemade)

shredded cheese

Preheat oven to  400 degrees.  Mix barbecue sauce with the ground beef, enough to just hold it together.  I flattened the biscuits with a cup, then placed in a sprayed muffin pan.

Fill the biscuits evenly with the ground beef.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.  Turn oven off.  Sprinkle cheese on the top of each cup.  Return to oven for a few minutes until the cheese melts.  Remove from oven and let cool.

I put them in a Ziploc bag and into the freezer.  They freeze and reheat very well.  They turned out just as delicious as the Taco Cups.








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Stir Crazy

Hot, oil-popped popcorn....mmmmmm.  Remember how Mom used to make it on the stove in a pot with oil, dump it into a big bowl, pour melted butter all through it, and sprinkle with salt.  The whole house would fill with the aroma of fresh popped popcorn, reminding us all of a movie theater.  In our house, this usually occurred on a Sunday night just before the Wonderful World Of Disney.

Recently, I tried to recreate that awesome popcorn, but couldn't make it happen quite like I remembered.  I either over cooked it, sending the odor of burned popcorn throughout the house, or just I didn't put enough popcorn in and ended up with a small bowl.

So, I went on a thrift store hunt to find a solution.  I have a hot-air popper, but it's not as good as oil-popped.  I also got tired of microwave popcorn.  I wanted the real thing.

I was delighted to find a West Bend 82306X Stir Crazy 6-Quart Electric Popcorn Popper at a thrift store for just $3.00!!!

I couldn't wait to give it a try.  I followed the instructions (yes, it even came with an instruction book), measuring out the oil and popcorn.  I put pats of butter on the top and it melts through the holes as the popcorn pops, evenly buttering the popcorn as it cooks.

The result is perfect popcorn, just as I remembered Mom used to make.  The house filled with the aroma of hot popcorn, just like a movie theatre!  Yum!

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