Meatloaf Dinner

Ingredients:
2lbs ground beef
2 eggs
1/2 cup ketchup
3/4 cup warm water
3 TBSP brown sugar
1-2 TBSP worschestershire sauce
1 package of onion soup mix
1 1/2 cups dry bread crumbs
4 potatoes
6 carrots
1 medium onion
salt and pepper

Instructions:
1. Beat eggs in bowl. Mix in ketchup, warm water, brown sugar, worchestershire sauce, onion soup mix and bread crumbs. Let sit until liquid is absorbed.
2. Add ground beef and mix until well blended. If you are like me, I hate using my hands. Use a potatoe smasher.
3. Form into a loaf and place into a 9 x 13 pan lined with foil. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
4. Scrub potatoes and quarter. (like for smashed potatoes, but with skins) Cut carrots in half and slice onion. Arrange potatoes, carrots, onions around meat loaf, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Seal with foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours.

Review:

Pros: Easy. Great one dish meal. I made the meatloaf, then cleaned up and chopped up the potatoes, carrots and onion and then pulled it out. It might not have been a full 30 minutes, but the top was done. It reminds me of a tin foil dinner.

Cons: I thought there was alot of ground beef for one loaf, so I actually ended up freezing half of the ground beef mixture. Which is fine, because it's pre-made for next time.

Approximate cost: $6-8 (depending on price of meat) I'm working on making an cost sheet for ingredients to make determining the cost better.

Easy Pasta Primavera

Ingredients:
8 oz of uncooked fettuccine or linguine (This would be good with a penne pasta too)
1 TBSP olive oil
1 cup of broccoli flowerets (frozen will work too, just thaw before, don't cook them)
1 cup of caulifowerets
2 medium carrots thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
1 cup of frozen green peas, rinsed
1 small onion chopped (about 1/4 cup)
Alfredo sauce
1 TBSP grated parmesan cheese

Instructions:
1. Cook noodles as directed on package.

2. In 12 inch skillets, heat oil over medium-high heat cook broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, peas and onion for about 6 to 8 minutes, stirring frequently until vegetables are crisp-tender ( or however you like them)

3. In a medium bowl or serving dish, put fettuccine, vegetables and alfredo sauce.
Gently toss until even coated. Top with parmesan.

BONUS!F or those of you looking for an easy alfredo sauce: heat 1/2 cup of butter, 1/2 cup of whipping cream, and 1 clove of crushed garlic until butter is melted and mixture starts to bubble (stirring frequently) reduce to low heat and simmer for about 6 minutes or until it thickens. Stir in 3/4 cup of grated parmesan and 1/2 tsp of salt

Review:

Pros: Michael and I loved this dish and it probably serves 4-5 and we only had one serving left. We then fought over the leftovers. It was great with just some french bread with it. It has lots of vegetables, so it doesn't feel as heavy with the alfredo sauce. It was really easy and quick to make and made a complete meal.

Cons: Alfredo sauce always has lots of calories.

Approximate cost: $3.50 (without alfredo sauce, but you can buy a jar for about $2)

Peppermint Cocoa Crinkles

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup of butter

1 3/4 cup of sugar, divided

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

Frosting

1/2 cup crushed candy canes

Instructions:

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in medium bowl, set aside. -- I usually don't do this step, but with this recipe it does work better. Also, it helps to run your whisk through it and make sure it is mixed up.

Melt butter in sauce pan over medium heat; cool slightly. Add 1 1/4 cups sugar, whisk until smooth. Whisk in eggs, on at a time. Stir in vanilla. Stir into flour mixture just until blended. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350, grease cookie sheets. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Roll in remaining 1/2 cup of sugar in a bowl. Place on sheets with plenty of space -- I do 12 per sheet on my 11 x 15.

Bake 12 minutes. Let cookies cool completely.

Placed crushed candy canes on wax paper. Spread frosting on the bottom of cookie. Place second cookie on, bottoms together to create a sandwich. Push them together until frosting starts to appear on the edge. Roll through candy canes.

Review:

Pros: We love these at Christmas time, they are a nice twist on an old favorite (homemade oreos). They turn out perfect almost every time. I've also made these the regular way (soften the butter and whip the sugar in, then eggs & vanilla and dry ingredients) and they have still turned out. They are even good if you run out of frosting and just dip them in milk.

Cons: It always makes less than you think, because it takes 2 cookies to make a sandwich and it's like eating twice as many calories per cookie.

Frosty Pumpkin Squares

Ingredients:

1 quart of vanilla ice cream

1 pkg of graham crackers, smashed into crumbs

1/4 cup of butter (or more, based on how you like your crust)

1 cup of canned pumpkin

1/2 cup of brown sugar

3/4 tsp of salt

1 tsp of cinnamon

1 tsp of ginger

1/2 tsp of nutmeg

Instructions:

1. Let ice cream stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes until it's soft. (I recommend putting a plate underneath it... or you'll have a mess)

2. Mix graham cracker crumbs and butter.  Press into ungreased 8 or 9" pan (I used 9").  You can save some to garnish the top if you like. 

3. In large bowl, beat pumpkin, brown sugar and spices with wire whisk. Stir in ice cream with spoon.  I actually ended up using the wire whisk at the end because I still had a few lumps that weren't all the way melted.  Spread over crumb crust. 

4. Freeze uncovered for at least 4 hours.  Serve, or cover and keep in freezer until ready to serve. Wait 10 minute to soften before serving. 

Review: 

Really nice twist on a pumkin pie or cheesecake. It's got a good pumpkin pie flavor without being so heavy and no need to serve ice cream with it! 

Pros:  Really easy to make. Again, not alot of dishes to clean up.  It's easy to make before hand and serve later, especially if you are cooking a whole big meal. Easy subsitute for pumpkin pie without having to bake it.   

Cons: It does take a whole quart of vanilla ice cream (which is Michael's favorite and he hated to part with it)

Approximate Cost: $4.75  (I bought the ice cream, pumpkin and graham crackers on sale, so it maye be closer to $6 without the sale.) 

Green Bean Tater Tot Casserole

Ingredients:

1/2 lb ground beef

3/4 cup chopped onion (I used a small one)

1/2 cup chopped celery (about 1 to 1 1/2 staulks)

1 clove of garlic grated (you could subsitute 1/4 tsp of garlic powder)

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1 1/2 cups of frozen green beans, thawed

4 cups of tater tots.

Instructions:

1. Brown ground beef, onion, celery and garlic.  I did mine until the beef was barely browned and the celery and onion had just started to get soft.  Since you bake this for an hour, you don't want it too done or it will fall apart in the casserole. 

2. Mix ground beef mixture, soups and green beans in 2 quart casserole dish. (I used a 9 x 13 pan)  Top with tater-tots.  I actually didn't measure the tater-tot, I just poured them on until it was covered and then pushed them in a little bit.

3. Bake at 375 for 40 to 50 minutes or until the tater-tots are done and everything is warm. 

Review:

As far as green bean tater-tot casseroles, this one was really good.

Pros: Vegetables, meat and your grain all in one dish.  Very Easy to whip up and I had everything but the tater-tots on hand.  It also only dirtied a fry pan and casserole dish, which was great for clean up.

Cons:  It was a little bland and could use something, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I might subsitute the tater-tots with southern hashbrowns for some flavor. (I don't like tater tots though.)  

Overall cost to make was about:  $6.50 

Introduction

My sister requested that I share some of my recipes and cooking ideas with her. She told me just to publish them on our blog. Other have mentioned that I need to start sharing some of my recipes and my modifications.  When someone asks for a recipe it usually sounds like, "Here's the recipe, but I don't use this, I subsitute that and add some of this. AndI usually cook it for this long instead of like this." 

And then I got to thinking that it might be fun to just start a blog full of all things I end up cooking or baking at our house.  I'm going to post recipes as I make them with all my modification included in the recipe, so you get orginal Angela work.  Also, I'm going to try and give a ball park cost of the meal so those of us on budgets can plan accordingly.

So here it... What's Cooking at the Busselbergs'!