Sloppy Joe Casserole Recipe

     Hope everyone's week was good.  I have finished a couple of books and posted the reviews on my other blogs, started crocheting a baby blanket, started 3 more books, tried some new recipes for dinner and did some genealogy. Good week.

     I made homemade hamburger soup that we all love on Tuesday night and decided to try a recipe from Bisquick for gluten free bread sticks. I wasn't sure if this was going to work but they really turned out good. I got the recipe from http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/biscuit-sticks/5d670e15-a7da-4091-b59d-e8d3f1766acb. I just added about 1/4 tsp to the Bisquick whisked them together and then followed the recipe. They turned out really good, sorry I didn't think to take a picture of them. Try these with regular Bisquick or like I did use the gluten free Bisquick.

   Thursday night I wanted to use up the russet potatoes that I was afraid would go bad and the hamburger I had left.  The same old thing of hamburgers and fried potatoes didn't sound good to me, I wanted something different so I decided to make a Sloppy Joe Casserole instead.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef I used 85% for less fat
1 can Manwhich ( you can use any sauce you want that you normally use for sloppy joes. I usually make my own but had this can and decided to make it easy on myself)
5 potatoes
shredded cheddar cheese
Ketchup
olive oil

Directions

Pre heat your oven to 400 degrees.
Brown your ground beef. Drain the fat and then add your can of Manwhich or sauce you use. Simmer.
While you are simmering the sloppy joe cut up your potatoes into thin slices. Put olive oil in to your skillet and heat. Put potato slices into oil and cook till tender like you would for fried potatoes.

Take a pan and put the sloppy joe hamburger mix in the bottom. Top with the potatoes. Now cover with aluminum foil and put in oven for 10 minutes covered. Take out and drizzle ketchup over the top of the potatoes and then put the cheddar cheese on top to cover the potatoes. Put back in oven for another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted completely. Serve with a nice salad and the breadsticks from the above recipe and you have a delicious meal.

I would have used hash browns or tator tots instead of the russet potatoes but I needed to use up the potatoes. I think if you used either one of these it would be really good.
It was a hit at our house.

Stew Casserole or Stewcarole

 Here is another recipe that was one of those, don't want the same old thing for dinner, recipes but on a limited budget and made with just what I had in the refrigerator and pantry. We call it Stew Casserole or as my Grandson says Stewcarole. There is no picture because the family ate it so fast I didn't have a chance, it was a big hit.


Stew Casserole or Stewcarole

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
3 lg baking potatoes
1/2 pkg frozen mixed vegetables
olive oil
butter
1/2 cup BBQ Sauce
1 cup Ketchup
2 Tbl taco seasoning
2 Tbl chili powder
salt and pepper to taste
6-8 slice American cheese or cheese of your choice

Directions:
In skillet drizzle the bottom with olive oil and heat. Add 1/4 of a stick of butter to skillet and melt. When the oil and butter are heated you can add the peeled and thinly sliced potatoes to the skillet. Potatoes should be thin like you would have them for fried potatoes. Heat the potatoes till they just start to heat through and are starting to get tender. Pre heat oven to 400 degrees while you are cooking the potatoes in the skillet. When potatoes are ready put them with the oil and butter from the skillet on to a sheet pan in a single layer. Salt and pepper to taste. Put in oven for 20 minutes or until they start to crisp and brown turning once half way through cooking time. Now while the potatoes are in the oven brown the hamburger. Drain. Also in a pan cook the vegetables like it says on the package. Add chili powder and taco seasoning to the ground beef give it a stir till it is mixed well into the hamburger. Add the BBQ and Ketchup to create the sauce on the meat ( if you need to you can add more BBQ sauce and ketchup) Add the cooked drained vegetables to the hamburger mix well. let simmer till potatoes are ready.
When the potatoes are done remove them from the oven. Pour the hamburger vegetable mixture evenly in a 9X13 pan. Layer the potatoes on top in a single layer covering the hamburger mixture completely. Top with the sliced cheese on top of the potatoes. Put in oven for 5 minutes or till cheese is melted. Serves 4-6 depending on size of serving or how hungry they are. Add a nice side salad and garlic bread and you have a nice dinner in no time at all.

This is a very easy meal to make and at our house it was a big hit. You can make it with gluten free BBQ sauce and Ketchup and spices like I did.  To make your own garlic butter and bread  you can   melt a 1/4 stick of butter. To the butter add gluten free garlic powder and mixed them together. Then I used my gluten free bread for myself and regular bread for the family. I didn't have a baguette so I used sandwich bread. I put on a cookie sheet the bread and  spread it with the garlic butter and placed under the broiler till toasted. It works in a pinch when you don't have French bread or baguettes. Since I made this meal I see that Udi's brand has a gluten free baguette that I will try next time.

Hope you will give this recipe a try and let me know what you think.

What's For Dinner? LeftOvers!

   I don't know where you are on the leftover debate but I love leftovers. As a kid growing up I thought everyone ate leftovers. I loved them. My favorite I think was when we had leftover roast beef and if we had enough we would have roast beef hash the next day. Roast beef, onions, and potatoes chopped into bite size pieces and fried in a skillet yum. Mouth watering just thinking about it. If we only had a little roast left my Grandmother would make Roast salad like tuna salad. That is so wonderful on a sandwich or just by itself. You just grind up the roast or like I do chop into small bite size pieces add mayo and pickle relish and mix all together and eat. Those are just some of my favorite ones from my childhood. Of coarse I loved left over  fried chicken, hamburgers and spaghetti too, but those I just ate cold and usually for breakfast.

   When I first got married we had a lot of leftovers because I was use to cooking for 7 not 2. So glad my  husband didn't mind leftovers either or we would have lost a lot of food. The key to leftovers is not just serving the same thing but to figure ways to use them that is different than what you had to begin with.

 This brings us to tonight's dinner and what to do with our leftover white rice and hot dogs. Now to you that might sound like just heat and eat but to me it was a challenge to make something that was different so here is what I came up with and it was a big hit. No leftovers of the leftover meal which is a good thing.

Ingredients:
6 left over grilled hot dogs
2 1/2 cups cooked white rice
1 cup frozen green beans
olive oil
1/2 stick of butter
1 cup ketchup
1 cup bbq sauce
2 tablespoons honey mustard
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons chili powder
salt to taste
pepper to taste
6 slice American cheese

Directions:

In large skillet drizzle olive oil to coat bottom when olive oil starts to heat up add the butter and when warm add rice. Make sure you have broken the rice up so that it doesn't have any big clumps. Heat on medium heat stirring to keep from scorching. Cute the hot dogs up into bite size pieces and add to rice. In a separate bowl mix the ketchup, mustard, bbq sauce and brown sugar till sugar is dissolved. To the rice and hot dogs add the green beans, the chili powder and salt and pepper. Then add the sauce you made and stir till all the rice and hot dogs and green beans are coated. Cover and heat on medium heat for 10 minutes stirring once in awhile . When completely heated through and the green beans are done add the 6 slices of cheese around the skillet and put lid back on. When the cheese begins to melt stir it into the mixture and you are ready to eat. Serve with a nice salad and some bread and butter. It make a great meal. Try it you might be surprised just how good it is.