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!

If you have your own ideas or have any suggestions for me, please let me know. I am always looking for new recipes. As a matter of fact, I may have a mutiny on my hands if I don’t find new recipes!

Here goes:

Beef and Barley Stew
Garlic Chicken and Shrimp pasta with steamed kale
Tuna Casserole
Stuffed Red Peppers
Black Bean Soup
Manhattan Clam Chowder

Some of these meals are not so tasty (I can’t stand casseroles) but the kids like them and they are easy enough to make…. I’m starting to incorporate more vegetables in the hopes that the prices will soon go down now that spring is here. I’ll be planting a garden this year but we won’t see any production until June or July. That’s a long time to wait! We’re also reading Dr. Dan Colbert’s Seven Pillars of Health and have been finding out just how terrible processed foods are, that and learning about our water supply and diet pills side effects. It’s getting creepy out there.

Anyway, I’d sure love some recommendations for recipes.

So I am always adding little things to ziti to try and perk it up. This latest addition was pretty good– fresh kale.

I removed the stalks from the kale and ripped the leaves into bite-sized pieces. Kale is such a wonderful vegetable. A member of the cruciferous family, kale has plenty of vitamins and antioxidants that help destroy “free-radical” cells– the cells that cause cell mutations which can lead to cancer.

The ziti pasta will readily slurp up the moisture from the kale leaves during the cooking process, so I suggest adding a bit of water or additional tomatoe sauce to the mix. Cover tightly and bake. The kale added a nice tang to the otherwise bland dish.

How about you? Do you have any ideas for sprucing up a ziti dish?

This week I was sifting through more recipes, trying to decide on what to make. As I looked at ingredients and read cooking directions, I noticed a terrible flaw with the app– the directions do not match the ingredients.

Look at this recipe, the Thai Chicken I was thinking about making:

8 chicken thighs
1 cup hot salsa
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 Tablespoons lime juice
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1teaspoon grated ginger
1/2 cup chopped peanuts
2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro

Directions:
1. Coat bottom of skillet with oil and place on stovetop set to medium heat. Add chopped onion, garlic, and jalape-o, and saute until soft.
2. Move onions, garlic, and jalapeno to one side of the pan and brown chicken breasts on other side…
3. Place stoneware in slow cooker heating base, add onion mixture, chicken, potatoes, chicken broth, coconut milk, salt and pepper, and curry powder…

WHOA WHOA WHOA.

Now I thought I was supposed to have chicken thighs? And what’s this with coconut powder and potatoes and curry?

The thing is messed up. It wasn’t just for this recipe, I saw this for a few others.

I don’t think I can use this app anymore. It’s unreliable. The whole reason I liked it was so that all I had to do was literally “click here“, and it would automatically create a shopping list for me …. but if it’s going to add different ingredients than what the recipe calls for, what good is it?
I’m sad. I was hoping that I had finally found the perfect app. Please leave a suggestion if you have any apps you want to share. I’m obviously in the market for one! LOL

P.S. By the way, am I the only one who hates cooking things twice? When I want to make a crockpot meal, I just want to throw everything in the pot and forget about it. All this chopping and sauteing and transferring is a royal pain!

Well, I tried the Beef Stroganoff recipe last night. It was “OK.” I’m not a big fan of cream sauces, but the kids like stroganoff. Stroganoff is, I believe, a Russian dish. I find it bland…. I wonder if the Russians really made it as bland, it’s like eating the leather from ugg boots, to me. It always needs more salt and LOTS more spices.

The recipe is a basic Beef Stroganoff (you use beef strips and not ground beef). It has onions, mushrooms, beef broth, Worcestershir sauce, etc. The recipe called for white wine, but I had none so I skipped that. I also usually add some of my own ideas when cooking– I was tempted to add paprika to this recipe to give it some kick, but I decided not to. I wanted to see how this would taste if I made it straight by the recipe. Again, just “OK.”

The recipe also calls for sour cream (another bland ingredient, I think). I added it very carefully, but it still curdled from the heat a little. (I haven’t been able to stop sour cream from doing that for any of my crockpot recipes! I’m going to avoid sour cream altogether next time).

The kids liked it, enough to eat it all! The beef was nice, but a little strong (always is in crockpot). The gravy consistency was good, but bland. I would make this recipe again, but I would spice it up a bit.

I’ll have more from this app (and any future app) to come. I’m looking forward to making some of the chicken recipes, especially a lemon-herb chicken dish that looks great! Stay tuned…

I’d heard that you could earn a little money from the site… but I haven’t been able to really figure out how it all works. It seems confusing. I admit, I am an impatient gal– if I can’t figure it out relatively quickly (about the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee), then I either move along, or ask for help. ?? So I’m asking for Foodbuzz career advice here. I want to earn some $$…. but how do you do it? If I have to submit recipes and have them voted on…. sheesh, I’d probably lose money. :S My recipes are not anything near gourmet or desirable They are plain old, quick and easy family meals. We’re talking serious homespun here.

?? Is there any room in Foodbuzz for a plain Jane cook like me?

The recipe those guys made seems to be hard cider (they add yeast). I’m not looking for that, I’m happy with a basic Super Apple Juice kind of cider.

I did find a more basic Apple Cider recipe at Food.com, that does not require the use of an expensive apple press. This looks like a recipe I can actually do!

Making cider has got to be a terrific job to do with the kids; it can get their minds off acne products and get them involved in the kitchen work.

It’s from Foodbuzz. That luscious dessert is Tiramisu, a luscious Italian dessert. The recipe is here, although it’s in Italian so i can’t make heads nor tails of it. Whatever it says, the dessert looks fabulous.

I get emails from Foodbuzz just about every day, but I never have time to read them. I am too busy to cook, really, with the renovation and my job and a million other things pulling at me. I think I will try to get back into cooking someday…. we’ll see. I actually started this blog because I thought I could make some money from Foodbuzz and other ventures. But food blogging is REALLY time consuming. Besides the marketing of your blog, trying to submit stuff via directory submission service and get on the search engine pages, there’s the actual COOKING. And you have to take PHOTOS, too. GOOD ONES. And edit them, and upload them, and.. by that time, I’m either starved or exhausted, and don’t want to blog anymore– or, another project has my attention.

Anyway, Foodbuzz is a nifty place to surf for new recipes. But like I said, some of the recipes are SO fancy and so pretty that they look too good to eat!

The coolest thing I discovered is Apps. OMG I love apps!!! I spent some time last night sifting through the lists of apps, and found some really spectacular ones. Before I list some of the top apps I found, let me explain why they are so cool to me. Maybe I’m the only one this happens to, but I am ALWAYS losing that little piece of paper with the grocery list. It drives me bananas. I tuck it in my purse or pocket… maybe it falls out when I pull out my keys or wallet?? I don’t know, but I am always losing that blasted list. WELL, I found an app that stores grocery lists. It also keeps regular To Do lists, it has a diary, and a travel journal. I love it. It’s called the Awesome Note Lite app. It’s terrific. No more lost grocery lists!!!

iPod also has great recipe apps, loads of them.

So far, I have downloaded the Betty Crocker Recipes App and the All Recipes.com app. I haven’t had a lot of time to try them out yet, but so far, I love them. When I am at the store and need to think of another recipe– or if I see a certain ingredient on sale– I can look up a recipe and get the stuff for it. Wow, it’s totally cool.

There are tons and tons of apps, for everything it seems. I saw stuff for conversions, too (metric always has me stumped), and loads of stuff. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had an app for treatment for hemorrhoid, sheesh! Anyway, iPod is SO COOL!!! It will greatly simplify my life. What took me so long to get it?!

But look out. There are plenty of luscious recipes, too– some complex, and some terribly easy. I saw this one:

Isn’t it pretty? It’s simply white chocolate chips in raspberries! Oooooo lllaaaa laaa!