Green Chili Cornbread Casserole

Green Chili Cornbread Casserole                                                        Printable Recipe

1 cup plus 3 Tablespoons cornmeal, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
1 can creamed corn
1 cup milk 
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 to 2 pounds ground beef, cooked and drained (I used 2 here)
Your favorite flavors like cumin, garlic, pepper, or taco seasoning.
1 - 4 oz can green chilies (you may want 2 cans instead of 1)
2 - 3 Tablespoons grated onion

2 cups shredded Mexi blend cheese or cheddar 

Optional: 8 ounces tomato sauce
1/2 to 1 can light red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

Sprinkle 9"x 13" baking dish with 1 tablespoon of corn meal.  Set aside.

Mix together beef, chilies, and grated onion until well combined.  If you don't you will have hot and spicy parts!  Stir in the tomato sauce and beans here if you are using them.

In medium bowl add eggs, corn, milk, and oil.

 Combine.

Add pre-mixed dry ingredients (cornmeal 1 c plus 2 T) baking soda, and salt.  Stir just until combined.

 Pour 1/2 of the corn mixture into pan.  It will be quite runny.

 Add all of your beef mixture.

Top with cheese (I only used 1 cup here.)

Add remaining corn mixture pushing down on beef to cover.  I think coverage would be better if you only used 1 pound of beef but we wanted more meat to make it a main dish.

 Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown and not jiggly. Let set for 5-10 minutes before cutting.

Pin it:  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/273593746086783536/

Hash Brown Casserole

Hash Brown Casserole

8 eggs
3/4 cup milk (can sub rice milk for DF version)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
few dashes cayenne pepper
24 oz frozen shredded hashbrowns, thawed
1 to 1-1/2 cups shredded Mexi blend or cheddar cheeese (or leave out for DF version)
1/3 cup diced onion
1/3 cup diced green pepper
(or any veggie combination you like...mushrooms, zucchini, squash, etc)
1 pound pork and bacon sausage (or any other combination of meat you like, bacon, ham, regular sausage)

Cook meat and veggies til done.  Drain as needed.

 In large bowl, combine eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and cayenne.

 Add potatoes, cheese, meat, and veggies.  Combine.

 Pour into greased 8" x 11" pan. 

Bake at 350 degrees, uncovered, for 45 minutes or knife inserted  near center comes out clean.

Serve drizzled with ketchup.

Strawberries and Cream Mini Muffins

Strawberries and Cream Mini Muffins

1 cup strawberries, diced

1/2 Tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup vegetable oil

4 ounces low fat cream cheese

1/4 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Add baking cups to mini muffin tins. Put strawberries in small bowl, toss with lemon juice.

 In medium bowl stir together flour, sugar, and baking powder.

In another small bowl whisk together oil, cream cheese, orange juice, vanilla, and egg.

Pour over dry ingredients, stirring just until combined with a spoon or spoonula. (If you don't switch you'll be digging the batter out of the whisk.)

  Fold in strawberries.

Scoop into mini muffin tins (I use small cookie scoop.) Bake for about 9-10 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Remove from oven and cool in the tins on a cooling rack for 5 mins. Take out the muffins and continue to cool. If serving right away, let them set for 5 minutes before dusting with powdered sugar. If serving later wait until you are ready to serve to dust.

Strawberries and Cream Trifle

Strawberries and Cream Trifle

8 oz cream cheese, softened
3 cups milk
2 pkgs sugar-free pudding (cheesecake or white chocolate flavor)
8 oz tub sugar-free whipped topping
Ladyfingers
Fresh sliced strawberries
1 to 1-1/2 cups milk with 1/2 to 1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat cream cheese until creamy. Add milk and pudding mixes and beat until thickened. 

Fold or mix in whipped topping. 

 These are the ladyfingers my HyVee carried.  They also come more crisp and cookie like (those need a little extra soaking.)

In separate bowl mix milk and vanilla. Dip lady fingers in milk mix and line trifle dish.  Top with almost half of the pudding mixture.

Then 1/2 of the fresh sliced strawberries.

Add more ladyfingers dipped in milk.

A little bit of the pudding just to coat ladyfingers.

 Strawberries...

Rest of the pudding...

Top it with the whipped topping.  You can also put it in a decorator bag to make the top fancier. Cover and put in fridge to set up.  Needs several hours for best results but if you can't wait you could dig in now.  ;-)

**I used a 6x9" baking dish here and only 1/2 of the recipe.

Freezing Berries and Bananas

Freezing Berries and Bananas

We use a ton of bananas in our house.  I bet we go through two bunches a week.  I try to head to town just once a week and that means buying ahead on bananas and hoping they don't ripen too fast or that all they have are the greenest bananas you've ever seen.  Sometimes if I am lucky the stores have bagged bananas at a lower price, like $1.99/bag or the the other store has them for 39 cents/lb which is about 20 cents cheaper than regular price right now.  Bags are about 8-9 lbs.  They may look speckly but so far they are all still very firm. 

I take the peel off and hunk them.  Place them upright on a freezer paper lined jelly roll pan and put them in the freezer. When they are thoroughly frozen, at least all day or I wait until the next day, I put them in a freezer ziploc bag for use.  I tried the first time to see if they would turn brown and they didn't so I have frozen some several times since. We use them in smoothies, and protein shakes.  No need for ice (filler) or worrying about the bananas getting too soft or if the store only has green bananas.

I also freeze strawberries on sale (or hopefully soon from our own patch) and the wild black raspberries we have in our backyard.

Last year I bought a flat of cherries and blueberries and did the same.  I used my vacuum seal bags to keep them crystal free in the freezer. 

Try it and save some money!

Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken Pot Pie

This recipe makes a deep dish pot pie.

 3 cups chicken broth
3 chicken breasts, shredded
1-1/2 cups cooked vegetables (celery, onion, carrots)
using this method is best but you could use a purchased rotisserie chicken, broth, and saute your own veggies

2 to 2-1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup  instant potato flakes
1 cup frozen peas
2 pie crusts
1 egg , beaten

Rinse vegetables off.  This will remove all the funny bits they get from the crockpot.

Chop into chunks.

Add chicken broth (except about 1-2 T)  and chicken to a large skillet or Dutch oven. Heat to boiling. Add veggies.

Make cornstarch slurry with cornstarch and reserved 2 T chicken broth.

While stirring add cornstarch slurry.  Continue to stir to incorporate.

Add instant potatoes and stir to mix.

Your chicken filling should be thick enough you can run your spatula across the bottom and the liquid doesn't pool back to the middle.  Add more instant potatoes if needed. Season as needed here with salt and pepper.

Add frozen peas.

Put one crust in the bottom of the pie dish.  I use the Pampered Chef stoneware deep dish pie and love it.  My crust on the bottom is brown and flakey everytime! Add filling.

Place other crust on top and crimp together with bottom crust.  Poke any design into the top you want. I did it to release steam from the filling.  Not sure if it needed it or not but sure looks nice!

Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes, then brush on egg wash, return to oven for another 10 minutes. 

Let set for 5-10 minutes before digging in.

Veggie Pizza Cups

Veggie Pizza Cups

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried dillweed
salt and pepper to taste
1 can crescent rolls (they make one with no seams but it's not light)
Various veggies and favorite toppings

Roll out crescent roll dough, press seams together if that is the type you purchased. Cut into 24 even squares.  Press lightly onto back of mini muffin tin. Make it look like a checker board leaving blanks in between or they will puff up and stick to each other.

Bake according to directions, maybe a little less. When they are golden brown they are done. Take them off and put them on a cooling rack. 

Mix rest of ingredients together. Taste and add more or less spices as you like it. You could also use some premixed Ranch dressing dry packets. Use disposable decorating bag and star tip and fill each one. Quick and easy!

Have a relish tray full of diced carrots, green peppers, tomatoes, bacon bits, cheese, green onions, whatever veggiess you like for guests to assemble their own. They are easy to pick up and eat and everyone can have the type of veggie pizza they like without having to pick off the stuff they don't!