Chicken & Spinach Pasta Bake

This was the recipe on my menu for tonight and it turned our great, plus it was super easy. I found it on Pinterest and the link is here. I changed a few things like omitting the onion, olive oil, diced tomatoes and I added Top the Tater sour cream since it seemed to go well with the cream cheese. My son told me it's super yummy, so this turned out to be a keeper.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz uncooked rigatoni
• 1 (10 oz) package frozen spinach
• 3 cups cubed cooked chicken breast
• 1 (8 oz) container chive and onion cream cheese
• 3 Tablespoons Top the Tater sour cream
• 1-1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella and Provolone mix

Instructions:

• Prepare rigatoni and set aside.
• Cook and drain the chopped spinach, pressing it into a colander to remove all liquid.
• Cook the chicken breast.
• Combine chicken, spinach, cream cheese, sour cream and then add the rigatoni.
• Place in 9 x 13 baking dish and cover with the shredded cheese.
• Bake for 30 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

Enjoy!

Thank you for visiting :o)

Stuffed Green Peppers

I often like asking my husband for meal ideas based on things his mom used to make when he was a boy, and many of those become regular staple meals for us. One of those ideas was stuffed green peppers. I finally got this on my menu and found a great recipe to try. I was very pleased with how they turned out!! Not only were they easier than I thought, they were really yummy. The funny thing was that while hand-pouring my sugar into the (tomato) sauce I accidentally over did it! I also used olive oil instead of vegetable oil. I really think it was that sauce that made it taste so good.

Ingredients:

• 4 green peppers with tops cut off and seeds removed
• ground beef
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1-2 T minced garlic
• 2-3 T parsley
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 2 cups uncooked rice
• tomato sauce
• sugar
• olive oil

Instructions:

• Set oven to 450 and begin browning the ground beef.
• While that is cooking, make your rice.
• Once meat is no longer pink, add eggs, garlic, parsley and Parmesan cheese.
• Cut the tops off the green peppers and remove the stems and seeds.
• Stuff the peppers with the meat mixture placing them in a roasting pan.
• Drizzle olive oil over the peppers and place in the oven for 20 minutes.
• Remove peppers from oven and turn oven down to 350. Mix tomato sauce, a little water and sugar. Pour over top of peppers and return to oven.
• Bake another 30-40 minutes until your peppers are nice and soft. Add a bit of water if the sauce dries up too much.

Serve and enjoy!

Thanks for visiting :o)

Chicken Cacciatore

Well, too late I realized the recipe I printed out from My Menu Plan this week was supposed to be cooked in a slow cooker. Oops! So I had to improvise and created the recipe below, using some basics from the original recipe. I liked how it turned out! Very flavorful and my son just loved it. Definitely a keeper!

INGREDIENTS:

1-2 pounds chicken breast, cubed

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can tomato paste

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 red pepper, diced

1-2 carrots, diced

1 T minced garlic

Italian seasonings to taste

1 cup rice, cooked

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Cook chicken in 1 tablespoon olive oil until no pink is left.
• Add red pepper, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, carrots, chicken broth and Italian seasoning. Stir ingredients together.
• Cook on low to medium heat until carrots and red pepper are tender (20 minutes or so).
• Serve over cooked rice.

ENJOY!

Thanks for visiting!

A Tracey's Kitchen Original - Beef Squash Casserole

I bought something called "Vodka Sauce" and it's been sitting in my pantry. Well, this week as part of my "eating through the pantry" project, I decided to make something with it. Since there were so few recipes available, I decided to just try something from scratch and see how it turned out. I'm so glad I did! I ended up with something really good, and never even used the vodka sauce! (I was getting ready to add it at the end and opened the jar. It had an odd smell that didn't seem to blend with the wonderful smell the casserole had already, so I decided not to put it in!)

Ingredients:
1-1/2 pounds Beef Round Steak
2-3 T Olive Oil
3-4 T Ketchup
2 T Minced Garlic
Beef broth to cover
Sliced Summer Squash
Sliced Zucchini
Diced Tomatoes
Rice

Instructions:

• Cut up the beef round steak into small pieces.
• Place in large pot with olive oil, ketchup and garlic. Cook over medium to high heat until meat is browned.
• Pour beef broth over meat until covered. Simmer on medium-high for 45 minutes to an hour.
• Add sliced squash, zucchini and tomatoes and cook another 30 to 45 minutes. Add more beef broth should it need more consistency.
  
• Cook rice according to package directions.
• Serve meat mixture over rice.

ENJOY!

Thanks for visiting!

Chicken Tetrazzini

This was a recipe I linked to in my Menu Plan Monday. It was so good that I wanted to share it in full here! The only change I made was to add broccoli, which seemed to go really well with it. It was also a big help in my "eating through the pantry" project with the 3 different kinds of soup, the chicken broth and then the pasta. Plus, it was easy to make too.



Ingredients:
1 box regular or thin spaghetti
3/4 cup chicken broth
4-6 cups chopped, cooked chicken (4-6 chicken breasts)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1-1/2 cups sour cream
1 box sliced mushrooms
1 bag frozen cut broccoli
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 t pepper
1/2 t salt
Shredded cheddar to top


Instructions:

• Cook pasta according to directions. Once done, pour back into pot and add chicken broth. Let sit.
• Stir together the cooked chicken with soups, salt, pepper, sour cream, Parmesan cheese , mushrooms and broccoli.
• Add pasta and mix well together.
• Place in 9x13 pan and sprinkle with the shredded cheddar.
  
• Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and sides are bubbly.
• This makes enough for two 9x13 dishes, so split in half. I cooked one, and put the other half in a gallon Ziploc bag which will go in my freezer.

Enjoy!!

Shepherd's Pie (ala Nicko's Kitchen)

I found a new recipe site that I really like called Nicko's Kitchen. It's actually a video recipe site on You Tube. I find I like seeing the videos, but he isn't good about telling you how much time to spend on each part. You have to play that by ear.

I think I've finally found my "keeper" shepherd's pie recipe. I have checked out cook books from the library, tried friends recipes and the internet, but just never found one that had the taste I wanted. Until this one. I used all my own measurements and he doesn't give time instructions so I just played it by ear.


Ingredients:
Yellow potatoes
1/2 cup cream
1/2 stick butter
Salt/pepper
Olive Oil
2 T minced garlic
Carrots
1 lb ground beef
1 bag frozen peas
1 package gravy mix
1 cup water




Instructions:

• Cover bottom of frying pan with some olive oil.
• Add garlic and carrots and cook until softened.
• Add ground beef and mix together. Continue cooking until ground beef is browned.
• Sprinkle gravy mix over beef mixture and add 1 cup water.
• Cook on high for 10 minutes or so until most of liquid is absorbed.
• Cut up and boil the potatoes.
• Add cream, butter and salt/pepper to taste.
• Mash until creamy.
• Place meat mixture into glass baking dish. Spread mashed potatoes on top using a fork.
• Cook in 500 degree oven for minutes.

ENJOY!

Easy Salmon Cakes

I think I got distracted by all this beautiful weather we've been having .... it's mid-April and my first post of the month! I did make the salmon cakes I mentioned in my Menu Plan Monday. They were actually pretty good! They're not the ones my mom used to make when I was little (she called them salmon patties), but I'd make these again. The sauce really made them, I think. I got the recipe from a new site I found called Eating Well. As always, I did my own editing.


Ingredients:
Salmon Patty
Olive Oil
A stalk or two of celery
2 T chopped parsley
15 ounces canned salmon
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1-3/4 cups bread crumbs
1/2 t pepper

Creamy dill sauce
1/4 cup mayonaisse
1 T lemon juice
1 T dill

Instructions:

• Cover bottom of frying pan with oil. Add celery. Cook until softened.
• Stir in parsley and remove from heat.
• In small bowl, place salmon and break apart with a fork. (Remove bones and skin if necessary.) Add egg, mix well. Add the celery mixture and mix until all combined.
• Make into 8 thin patties.
• Cook salmon cakes in pan about 3 minutes a side.
• Transfer cakes onto a baking pan. Cook in oven for about 15 or 20 minutes, until golden.
• For dill sauce: Combine in a bowl and mix well. Serve on top of or next to salmon cake.

ENJOY!

Hoppin' John

There was a time after J was born that I was not doing well at all. We were living at our pastor's house and they were helping me recuperate. Tina and Andy love down home Southern cooking and are from there so we enjoyed a lot of great meals she made. One of the meals we liked was called Hoppin' John. I had never heard of it before, but even though it had an odd name it was really good. It's just a basic dish with black-eyed peas and rice with a few other ingredients thrown in. One morning this past week, I woke up having dreams about Hoppin John so I got my friend's recipe. This is something you can keep the ingredients in your pantry and have when you want something quick but nutritious, and tasty.


Ingredients:
2 cups rice
2 cans Black Eyed Peas (look for "seasoned with bacon" on the can)
1 green pepper
1 T minced garlic
Few splashes olive oil or grease from bacon
1/4 cup vegetable broth
Salt and pepper to taste
Several stalks of celery
Shredded cheddar or your preferred cheese
Few slices of Bacon (optional)



Instructions:

• Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat (you can use your bacon grease instead of the olive oil if you are using bacon in your recipe).
• Add green pepper, celery and garlic. Saute for about 5 minutes.
• Drain and stir in black-eyed peas, broth, salt and pepper. Reduce heat and cook for 10 more minutes.
• Season with anything you prefer like garlic salt and a splash of hot sauce
  
• Cook rice. Spoon pea mixture over rice and sprinkle with cheese.
  

ENJOY!

My friend enjoys serving this with some corn bread on the side.

Picture credit to Vegan Planet.

Just My Mac-n-Cheese

So Brandie responded to my "fancy mac-n-cheese" recipe wanting to know the recipe for my "basic" mac-n-cheese that I usually make all the time for my family. It's funny because I don't really have any measurements (until today). So I mentioned earlier that my husband just loves mac-n-cheese. I used to just make it using Velveeta and shredded cheddar but then my sister told me she always used flour and water in addition to her cheese. So I've played around with this dish many times and here's the best I can do at estimating how I make it. This is still my favorite way to make it, by the way.

Ingredients:
1 box macaroni
1/4 to 1/2 jar cheese whiz (it's up to you)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
A few tablespoons of flour or more
1/2 cup water (to start)


Instructions:

• Prepare macaroni according to package directions.
• In medium skillet, add cheese whiz and shredded cheddar. Over medium heat, stir until cheese is melted. Be very careful not to let it burn! (I learned from experience when I had it too high and got distracted doing something else, and it burned.)
  
• Add a few tablespoons of flour and 1/4 cup water. Stir until well-blended. (Note: Sometimes I have to stir it a while slowly until this all really blends together and the water "becomes" part of the cheese and isn't separated.) Add another tablespoon of flour and 1/4 cup water. You can repeat this procedure a third time until you get the consistency you want. If it seems too thick, you can also just add 1 or 2 T of water.
• Add the melted cheese mixture to the macaroni and stir until mixed well.
• You can eat as is or pop into the oven and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees for a crispier dish. Sometimes I add a pound of hamburger too if I am using this as my main dish.

ENJOY!

(Picture credit goes to free Microsoft Clip Art)

Fancy Mac-N-Cheese

My husband absolutely loves mac-n-cheese, and my son and I like it too. This time, I wanted to do something a little different and I found this one at The Pioneer Woman. I made a bunch of modifications including a lot less bacon and I used Sargento's 6-cheese mix instead of the specialty cheeses she used (Gruyere, Fontina, Chevre). I'm not sure this turned out "better" than our traditional mac-n-cheese where I use flour, shredded cheddar and cheese whiz, but it was a nice change of pace.


Ingredients:
4 cups macaroni
4 T butter
4 slices bacon
leftover bacon grease
1/4 cups flour
2 cups milk
1/2 cup half and half
2 egg yolks, beaten
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups Sargento 6 cheese Italian blend























































































Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Cook macaroni for half of the time specified on the box directions. Drain and set aside.
• Fry bacon until slightly crispy. Place on paper towel. Once cooled, cut up into small pieces with kitchen scissors. Save grease.
• Melt 4 T butter in a pot. Add bacon grease and flour. Whisk to combine. Cook over medium heat for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
• Pour in milk, half-and-half and cook for 3 to 5 minutes until starts to thicken. Reduce heat to low.
• Separate egg yolks and beat with fork. Drizzle 1/4 cup of hot milk mixture into yolks stirring constantly. Pour egg mixture into sauce and cook for another minute.
• Add cheese and stir until melted. Add bacon and stir.
• Taste for seasoning - add salt and pepper to taste.
• Add cooked macaroni and stir until coated.
• Pour into baking dish and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until sizzling and hot.

ENJOY!

Sweet Potato Tray-Baked Chicken

I saw a picture of this in the Parade Magazine and it really caught my eye. I love meals that include lots of cooked vegetables and the star of this one is the sweet potato. I know how good sweet potatoes are for you, but so far this is the first recipe I have that uses them. This turned out to be a huge hit. J really liked it and it made plenty for leftovers too. This starts out with a brine that the chicken breasts will soak in (2-8 hours), so you have to do a little pre-planning for the time factor involved there. The only ingredient I omitted was the bacon. Partly I forgot, but then realized we didn't need it. Oh, I guess I nixed the onion too since it doesn't agree with my husband.


Brine Ingredients:
1 quart water
2 T salt (calls for kosher but I used sea salt)
1/3 cup honey
3 T minced garlic
1 T sage
1/4 cup apple-cider vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon


"Bake" Ingredients:
4 boneless chicken breasts
3 sweet potatoes (scrubbed and thinly sliced)
4 medium potatoes (scrubbed and thinly sliced)
4 T minced garlic
2 T sage (shredded leaves if possible; I had to use ground sage)
Olive Oil (I used our oil sprayer and liberally sprayed it over the vegetables before baking)
Sea salt and pepper
1-2/3 cups chicken broth
2/3 cup half and half
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
A few pats of butter


































Instructions:

• Mix the brine in a large bowl. Add the chicken and cover with cling wrap. Refrigerate for 2 to 8 hours. (I did mine for about 6 hours.)
  
• Remove chicken and allow it to come to room temperature. Drain chicken and discard brine. Pat dry with paper towels and set aside.
  
• Toss potatoes, garlic and sage with olive oil and a pinch of salt/pepper. Place in large roasting pan and pour in broth. Cook for 30 minutes. **Note to self: Don't forget to add the broth at this point next time. I forgot and ended up adding it in the next part. It didn't seem to be that big of a deal though.**
  
• Remove pan from oven. Pour in cream and sprinkle with pepper and Parmesan. Add the chicken breasts placing pats of butter on each piece. Cook for 35 minutes or until chicken is golden brown.

ENJOY!

For more recipe ideas click below:

Papa's Hungarian Goulash

Just last month, I had a wonderful week's vacation with J down at my sister's place in the Chicago suburbs. My sister's father-in-law, who we call "Papa" came over to visit and taught me how to make a couple of his favorite meals. Papa has an incredible story of living in Germany during the war and then coming to the US in its aftermath. He and his now late wife, Vera, were authentic cooks using everything fresh and not processed for their meals. This is a wonderful meal and I'm so blessed to now have this recipe.


Ingredients:
1.5 lbs Round Steak
2 pork chops
2 to 3 T olive oil
2 T Paprika
3 T ketchup
Salt/pepper to season
2 T Onion soup mix
1 can diced tomatoes
1 container fresh sliced mushrooms (or canned)
Beef stock
Few stalks of celery
2 parsnips
6 to 8 baby carrots
Red pepper
1 box Bow Tie Pasta
Corn starch (1 T plus little water)


Instructions:

• Trim round steak and pork chops removing fat and cutting meat into small pieces.
• Heat olive oil in large pan and add the meat.
• Add ketchup, onion soup mix, paprika and cook until meat is browned and not much oil is left.
• Put meat into dutch oven (basically any pan with a lid that you can put in the oven).
• Add beef stock, diced tomatoes and mushrooms. Cook for an hour or two (until meat is very tender).
• Chop veggies into small pieces and add to dutch oven.
• Cook for 1/2 hour or until veggies (especially carrots) are tender.
• Mix corn starch and water in small bowl. Add to dutch oven and let sit for several minutes.
• Add more corn starch and water until the sauce thickens to your liking.
• Prepare box of bow tie pasta.
• Serve goulash over pasta and ENJOY!
  

Corned Beef and Cabbage Slow Cooker Meal

We had a local Aldi store open up recently. For those of you who don't have one, they call Aldi the "stock up store". They have really good prices, especially for meats and fish. The corned beef briskets were on sale so I bought one. (Mind you, this was after I went to check out and didn't have enough money so I had to put the $8.50 brisket back. The store only takes cash and so I scraped together all our change to go back and buy it since I really had a taste for corned beef and cabbage...and I already had the rest of the ingredients too.) I don't know if it was the "Aldi" brand corned beef or that it needed to cook longer, but the meat wasn't half as tender as the corned beef I've had in the past. I really enjoyed this meal with all the vegetables though; the cabbage, carrots and potatoes turned out great. We did give it a thumbs up but next time will cook the meat an hour or two longer. I may ditch the seasoning packet too. I wasn't completely sold on the flavors. For sure, I think we'll do this again for St. Patty's Day.


Ingredients:
1 corned beef brisket of 3-5 pounds
5 medium-sized yellow potatoes
15-20 baby carrots
1 head of cabbage
3 cloves minced or crushed garlic
1 bottle of Guinness beer
Seasoning packet (if included)

Instructions:

• Place beef brisket in slow cooker.
• Add seasoning packet (if one included)
• Add cut up yellow potatoes.
• Add baby carrots.
• Slice the cabbage into large quarters and add to slow cooker.
• Add bottle of beer and garlic.
• Simmer on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.
• When serving, make sure to use some of the juice from the slow cooker as a light "gravy".

Enjoy!

Dad's Chili

I haven't made this recipe in a LONG time, and it's really a good one. My dad put this recipe together over a few years of tweeking it. I have a funny story. So I was making this chili for the Packers playoff game. It calls for chili powder and I ran out of my homemade concoction. See quick chili powder. While at an Indian grocery store earlier in the week, I picked up what I thought was regular chili powder. (The red coloring should have tipped me off, but it didn't.) As I put the powder in, my eyes watered a little and I thought to myself, "Hmmmm, maybe the Indian chili powder has a little kick." Is that an understatement! It turns out instead of regular chili powder, I bought red chili powder. And not only that, but EXTRA HOT red chili powder. Come to find out, that's ground up hot chilis! YIKES! Needless to say, this just about burned your mouth off. Since people were on their way over, I used every googled tip I could find...(using slices of raw potatoes to soak up the heat; cutting the heat with a couple tablespoons of honey, using a little baking soda) but nothing really worked. I did add a 28 ounce jar of tomatoes, 2 more cans of beans and a 15 oz jar of tomato sauce. This helped tone it down a bit, but we still needed huge dollops of sour cream to actually eat it. Interestingly, one of our friends asked for some HOT SAUCE to add to his!! He loved it! (They got most of the leftovers.)

So....be careful when going to an ethnic grocery store and read the fine print on ALL labels! This chili recipe is really good when you make it right!


Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey
1 lb ground pork
1 lb ground beef
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 (15 oz) can light kidney beans
1 (15 oz) can dark kidney beans
1 (15 oz) can spicy chili beans
1 quart crushed tomatoes
2 large red peppers, diced
1 large onion, diced
3 T minced garlic
6 T white vinegar
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne
4 T light chili powder
6 squirts Worcester
2 T brown sugar
4 squirts Tabasco or other hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste


Instructions:

• Brown the meat
• Using the juice of the meat, let the onions and peppers simmer until tender and soft
• Place meat in crock pot and add peppers and onions (after draining meat juice)
• Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together in slow cooker
• Cook for 4 hours on low or 2 hours on high

Enjoy!

Quick Chicken with Saffron Rice Meal

I do a weekly menu every week which makes meal time so much easier. Sometimes though I veer off my menu (like today) and try to find something quick and simple to cook. Very low-maintenance. I was supposed to make Pork Goulash in the slow cooker, but totally forgot to get it going 4 hours ago .... hence the need for something quick and easy since it's 5pm. I found (saffron) Yellow Rice at our grocery store as I'd had a hankering to try saffron rice after having it with a dish at a restaurant downtown. This particular brand has dehydrated vegetables too, which I like. It is called Vigo Saffron Yellow Rice.


Ingredients:
1 pkg yellow saffron rice
1 lb boneless chicken breasts
1 T olive oil
1 T minced garlic
1 pkg peas
1 T turmeric (optional)


Easy Instructions:
For tonight's dish, I just prepared the yellow rice according to the package directions. While that was cooking, I took about a pound of frozen chicken breasts and threw them in a pot of water to boil for about 1/2 hour. To the water, I added the olive oil and minced garlic to flavor the chicken. Once the rice and chicken were done, I cut the chicken up and added it to the rice. Then I cooked the peas and added them too. Since I just bought turmeric from the Indian grocery store, I added about 1 T of that too. Because it was a little dry, I poured in a few splashes of milk and dinner was served!

Tasty Beef and Bean Burritos

There are a couple nights of the week where we need a quick and easy meal for nights we're going to the Y. This one I found on The Pioneer Woman. I am really finding a lot of neat recipes there. She had a lot of great ideas for add-ons to the recipes which I took advantage of. The filling for the burritos was just delicious. I have never really liked the taco seasoning that comes with taco packets. The El Pato sauce really makes this dish.


Ingredients:
1 to 2 lbs ground beef
1 can (7 oz) El Pato Mexican Tomato Sauce
Cumin, oregano, garlic to taste (chili powder can be added too)
1 can (28 oz) Refried Beans (we used Old El Paso)
3/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
8 or more flour tortillas

Extras inside:
Lettuce
Small slices of tomato

Extras On Top:
Shredded cheddar cheese
Guacamole
Sour Cream


Instructions:

• Brown ground beef and season to taste.
• Pour in sauce (saving a little for drizzling) and let simmer over low heat.
• In saucepan, heat refried beans and add shredded cheddar. Stir until melted and mixed in with the beans. Keep warm over low heat.
  
• Spread a few spoonfuls of refried beans onto tortilla. Add meat mixture.
  
• Add lettuce and tomato and wrap into a burrito.
• Sprinkle cheese on top and microwave until melted.
• If desired, spread guacamole and sour cream on top.
  
• Drizzle extra sauce on top. (I forgot to set some aside for this.)
  

Enjoy! This was delicious with a side of Mexican rice.



Burrito Filling















Side - Mexican Rice
















Finished Burritos and Rice

Frito Pie Casserole

I got the idea for this dish from a visit at Taste of the Blogosphere. When I saw her picture, this looked like something we'd like to eat. I decided to do a search on the internet and came up with a simpler version.


















Ingredients:
2-3 cups Fritos corn chips
2 cups Mexican shredded cheese
1 lb hamburger meat
1 can of Texas style chili beans
2 T chili powder
1 T minced garlic


Instructions:

• Brown ground beef adding minced garlic.
• Once meat is no longer pink, add Texas style chili beans and chili powder.
• Let simmer for several minutes to blend flavors.
• Put layer of Fritos on bottom of glass pan.
• Put half of cheese on top of the Fritos.
• Place meat/bean mixture on top of the Fritos and spread evenly.
• Add another layer of Fritos and the rest of the cheese.
• Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

We dished ours up putting sliced tomatoes, shredded lettuce and sour cream on top.
Hope you enjoy!

Tangy Slow Cooker Barbecue Ribs

My husband has been asking for ribs lately and I bought some beef spare ribs at the store a couple weeks ago. I finally sat down today and went through two "Fix it and Forget It" slow cooker cookbooks I got from the library. I put this recipe together borrowing from a few of theirs what sounded yummy to me.


Ingredients:
2 lbs beef ribs (I used boneless beef short ribs, but pork ribs would work too)
3/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup ketchup
2 T sugar
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 cup cola
1 T minced garlic
1 tsp dry mustard
dash or two of salt and pepper


Instructions:

• Take ribs if frozen and defrost in the microwave.
• Mix all the ingredients together (minus ribs) in a mixing bowl.
• Place ribs on the bottom of slow cooker and pour sauce mixture on top. If needed, arrange a second layer of ribs after you pour half of mixture onto the bottom ribs.
• Pour the rest of the sauce onto the top layer of ribs.
• Cook on low for 4-5 hours.

Tracey's Tasty Meat Loaf

This meat loaf recipe originated with my sister who adopted a recipe from her mother-in-law. Then I searched around the internet a bit for tidbits that I might add that sounded good (like cheddar cheese, shredded carrot and horseradish)... and so here it is.


Ingredients:
1-1/2 pounds ground beef
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup bread crumbs
3 or 4 shredded baby carrots
1 cup shredded cheddar
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 tsp horseradish
2 T parsley
1/2 tsp dried sage


Topping:
1/4 cup ketchup
2 T brown sugar
1 tsp dry mustard


Instructions:
Mix together list of ingredients into a large bowl. Form into a loaf and place in a loaf pan. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees or until meat thermometer reads 160-170 degrees. At 45 minutes, mix topping ingredients together and spread on to the meat loaf. Bake another 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

"Lasagna Mac"

Well, this one's right off the back of the box of the Kraft Mac & Cheese! But WOW is it YUMMY! Probably because it's so cheesy. Being a Wisconsin cheese head myself, that's right up my alley. Last night, I was just going to make a basic meal of mac-n-cheese with cut up hot dogs, but then I saw this recipe on the back of the box but below I tailored it a bit. I had all the ingredients and it sounded good, so that was our dinner. We only had a little left over, so I made more today for lunch! J just loved it and ate his entire helping.


















Ingredients:
1 box (14 oz) deluxe mac and cheese dinner (we used Kraft's sharp cheddar with cheese sauce)
1 lb ground beef
1 jar (14 oz) spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (I used sharp cheddar)
*minced garlic
*chopped green pepper

* = my additions


Instructions:

• Prepare the mac & cheese as directed on package including mixing in the cheese sauce.
• At the same time, brown the ground beef. Add garlic and green pepper. Once the meat is no longer pink, drain and add spaghetti sauce. Let simmer for 5 or 10 minutes.
• Alternate a layer of the meat sauce and a layer of the mac & cheese. Repeat layers and then top with the shredded cheese.
• Bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees.

Enjoy!