OK, I admit I’m not a fan of casseroles, anyway. They almost always have pasta or rice in them, and I actually don’t like rice and pasta very much. When I have a meal with either, I like to add more vegetables, meat or sauce and less pasta or rice. I also am not a fan of ground beef. It tends to be dry and tasteless to me. I like beef– give me a filet mignon and I’m happy as a clam! Ground beef is meh.

But the kids like casseroles and ground beef and they like easy meals. Here’s the recipe:

Cheeseburger Casserole

3/4-pound extra-lean ground beef
1 cup oats
1 onion, chopped
1 large red bell pepper
1 large carrot, grated
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper
8 ounces spinach egg noddles
1 cup low-fat Cheddar cheese

Basically cook the beef, rain it, cook the vegetables and spices. Cook the noodles. Throw it all into a casserole dish, sprinkle with cheese, and bake.

The recipe is very simple to make and makes use of typical ingredients in the kitchen. I’m sure younger kids would love it, but it has too few veggies and too many starches and heavy ingredients for us older folks. The recipe, in my opinion, was a bit tasteless except for the cheddar cheese. I think it could use some vegetables like spinach or broccoli or something, to give it a bit more kick.

You may like it. Give it a try!

I searched the web for a while, looking for recipes. Even though everyone had to have their own “secret ingredient,” they all looked the same to me: tons of rice, chopped onion, some ground beef, spices.

ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I decided to do it MY way. These days, MY ways are usually looking Italian. I figure you can never go wrong if you default to tomato, basil, and mozzarella cheese, right?!

Now, mind you, I didn’t measure ingredients at all. I’m kinda notorious for that. I drive myself nutty because I don’t do it– I can never make the same thing twice! But measuring is so…. blase. Anyway, I’ve tried my best to approximate my measurements.

Stuffed Red Peppers
Makes a big 6-person dinner

6 red peppers
2 pounds very lean ground beef
1 pound medium-spicy ground Italian sausage
1 minced onion (optional)
2 cups cooked Jasmine rice
1/2 to 1 cup spaghetti sauce
Minced garlic or garlic powder
3 tablespoons dried basil (I like basil, ok?)
Half a bag of Baby spinach leaves
1 tablespoon dried parsley
Mozzarella cheese

Cut out the stems and seeds of each pepper. Lob off the top so it’s open. I saved the extra pepper pieces for salad, later. Smart, huh?

Place the peppers in a big glass dish. Already, everything is looking pretty.

Cook the ground beef and sausage. If you are using the onion, throw it in and cook it, too. I didn’t need to drain my beef because it was so lean.

Add the garlic and the rice and the spaghetti sauce. Add the basil. Cook until warm.

Stuff the peppers fully. I had extra meat, so I mixed in the baby spinach leaves and created a “bed” in the casserole dish. The peppers were nestled in the bed. Cook for 30 minutes in a 350-degree oven, or until the peppers are wimpy and so that a fork can poke through easily.

Sprinkle a generous amount of mozz cheese over the peppers and broil for 3 or 4 minutes until the cheese is melted.

Sprinkle parsley flakes over the cheese.

Does that look good or what?

Serve with a fruit salad. GOOD STUFF.

Well, I still have a bit of a problem with green peppers. I’ll eat them in smaller portions, but I don’t think I could ever hack into a whole one and chow it down. I do kinda like red peppers, so for the first time in my life, I made stuffed peppers.

I did a little searching online to see what recipes others have. I mean, I had NO IDEA how to make these suckers. Where do you begin? My mom used to stuff them with a ton of rice and a little hamburger (*shudder*). I don’t know how I got through childhood, I just don’t know how…

Well, most people were saying the same thing, except now they were suggesting the fashionable brown rice. Well, rice is rice. The only rice that is set apart from the others is Jasmine rice– everything else tastes rather bland and pasty (I was SUCH a fussy eater as a kid!).

It so happened that I had some leftover Jasmine rice!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! And I dug out some hamburger, too. But I couldn’t BEAR to make the recipe this simple. I just HAVE to add other things to it!

Well, stay tuned and I’ll tell you all about my recipe! LOL… I don’t have time to jot it down now and this post is already huge. I’ll have the recipe and fixings coming up!

P.S. It tasted GOOD.

Quick Fake Spanish Rice

5 cups leftover rice
4 cups ground beef, cooked and drained of fat
1 can (24 oz) spaghetti sauce (I used Hunt’s “Four Cheese” flavor)
1 1.25 envelope Taco Seasoning Powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat up the cooked ground beef and rice in a large pot on the stovetop. If the rice is dry, add a small amount of water to keep the rice from burning. Add the Taco Seasoning packet, the garlic powder, and the salt; mix well. Add the can of spaghetti sauce and mix again. Allow the sauce to heat up but don’t let it burn! When sufficiently heated, turn the mix into a large bowl and let the kids go at it. Even better, give them paper plates and disposable cups, too! Make yourself a peanut butter sandwich and surf the Net.