New Recipe: Million Dollar Spaghetti

Comfort Food Week continues! Much like Monday night's Chicken & Dumplings Casserole, I wasn't thinking "healthy" when I picked this meal...I was thinking "How much of that can I cram in my face before I hate myself?" 

Spaghetti is pretty basic, right? I mean, who doesn't love spaghetti? 

Me. 

I don't love it. I eat it, I don't hate it or anything. But it's not one of those meals that makes me excited to sit down to the dinner table. But I live with two spaghetti lovers so I make spaghetti (Grant did a serious happy dance in the kitchen when he found me making spaghetti). But that's why I love recipes like this Million Dollar Spaghetti. We can all get excited about it. It's sort of like deconstructed lasagna. Spaghetti casserole. Fancy spaghetti. Spaghetti that got dressed up for a really important job interview. Whatever. It was loved in my house.

Million Dollar Spaghetti
(this is the recipe as I found it; I'll add my notes, as usual, at the end)

Look at those layers...and the cheesy goodness.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 can of spaghetti sauce (I used Hunts)
• 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/2 lb. cottage cheese (I prefer small curd, not low-fat)
• 1 stick of butter
• 8 ounces of spaghetti noodles
• 1 bag of cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350. Boil your noodles according to the package directions (if you haven't already skipped ahead and done this.
2. While your noodles boil, mix together the cream cheese, sour cream, and cottage cheese. Make sure they are mixed well.
3. Cook your ground beef, drain it, add your can of spaghetti sauce to it.
4. Now for layering: put a few slices of your stick of butter on the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish; on top of that layer half your noodles; pour the cream cheese mixture (all of it) on top of the noodles and spread it around so it's even; add the rest of your noodles on top of that and put a few more slices of butter on top of those noodles; pour your meat sauce on the top of all that and spread it around so it's even. Bake for 30 minutes.
5. When it's baked for 30 minutes, add your cheese to the top. The whole bag...there's really no point in cutting calories now. Bake for 15 more minutes or until it's a little brown on top.
6. Unless you're starving, I'd let it sit for 5-10 minutes before serving (use that time, like I did, to pop some frozen garlic bread in the oven - its Fall, your body needs the extra carbs).

Recipe Source: being grown up

Notes/Suggestions:

• I omitted the butter entirely from this dish. I guess that makes the above recipe a bit of a lie. I sprayed my pan with non-stick cooking spray and everywhere where it says to put slices of butter...I did not. I've never used butter in spaghetti and it just seemed unnecessary here. I didn't miss it.
• I felt like the cream cheese/sour cream/cottage cheese mixture was a large amount for only 8 ounces of noodles. I cooked a whole 16 ounce package and ended up using almost all of it.
• If - like me - you go with extra noodles, you'll want to up your sauce to. My meat sauce had about 1 1/2 cans of sauce and I ended up heating the extra 1/2 can for us to spoon on top if needed (Husband always likes extra sauce).
• I added some parmesan cheese to my cream cheese mixture and I used and italian cheese blend on top in place of cheddar. It was really good but cheddar would have been too.
• BIG hit in my house! Husband had two servings and Grant couldn't get his into his face fast enough. At one point Grant leaned back, looked down and rubbed his stomach saying "Mmm mmmm. This is good. This is yummy in my tummy."

Enjoy!

New Recipe: Chicken & Dumplings Casserole

I've declared it Comfort Food Week at my house! Fall is HERE and I love it. I've been wanting to cook and eat some good comfort food. I enjoyed summer cooking, enjoyed finding good things to eat that didn't make me want to anchor myself to the couch. But comfort food season is here and this week I'm going a little crazy.

I've got three new recipes to try on my menu this week (four if you count the no-bake dessert I'm taking to my mother-in-law's on Saturday)...I'm feeling a little ambitious! Monday night I tried this Chicken & Dumplings Casserole from The Country Cook. I've seen several variations of this casserole but this one in particular I noticed last week and it looked like a good weeknight meal. I'm a big fan of chicken & dumplings but have never made them from scratch myself (though I enjoy eating it when others take the time). This casserole was a good substitute. SO yummy! I'm excited that I decided to try it.  

This picture really doesn't do it justice at all.

Chicken & Dumplings Casserole

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 2 ribs of celery, chopped
• 3 cups cooked chicken (shredded or cubed)
• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 1 cup milk (2% or higher)
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350. Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with cooking spray.
2. In a skillet over medium heat, melt your butter then add your chopped onion and celery. Cook until the veggies are soft (this took at least 10 minutes for me). You can season your veggies with salt & pepper if you like.
3. Pour the veggies and all that glorious butter into your casserole dish and spread it around so it covers the bottom. Layer your chicken on top of the veggie/butter mixture (season with salt & pepper if you so desire).
4. In a mixing bowl combine your self-rising flour and milk then pour it over the chicken layer. Do not stir!
5. In the same mixing bowl (you could use a new one but why?), mix your Cream of Chicken soup and chicken broth. At this point you can season this with salt & pepper too. Pour that mixture on top of everything in the casserole dish. Again - do not stir!
6. Pop your uncovered dish into the oven to bake for 40-45 minutes or until your casserole is set. (As Brandie - The Country Cook - notes, everyone's oven is different. This took about 45-50 minutes in my oven).
7. You could finish this with a sprinkle of parsley if you want to make it pretty. I was too hungry and too excited to eat this to remember parsley.

Recipe Source: The Country Cook (She has great step-by-step photos of this dish and some good suggestions along with a plug for the cookbook she got it from. Also, her site is loaded with great recipes.)

Notes/Suggestions:

• You can use a rotisserie chicken for the chicken in this dish, usually I would. But the store where I prefer to buy them was out so I bought a package of chicken breasts (I think there were 5 in there), boiled them in seasoned water, then trimmed & cubed them when they were cooled a little. Typically I'm not a fan of boiled chicken but it totally worked here. Next time, I'd maybe use Brandie's tip for shredding the chicken in my stand mixer.
• A stick of butter is a lot of butter to me. Usually I'd cut it down but I was worried it may affect the dumplings layer so I used the whole stick. This dish was super so I don't know that when I make it in the future if I'd mess with the butter. Plus, I love butter.
• See THIS POST about the lower sodium ingredients I use (says the girl who just admitted she loves butter). I did use the low-sodium chicken broth I have on hand but had to buy regular Cream of Chicken soup (the store was out of the healthy request stuff). It was delicious as is but I think next time I'll use the healthy request just to make myself feel a bit better about that stick of butter).
• I cooked & chopped my chicken the night before and also the celery & onions. Since this dish takes 40-45 minutes to bake, I wanted to be able to put it together as quick as possible. The early prep made it much more week-night friendly.
• Husband & I really enjoyed this dish (and it heated wonderfully the next day for my lunch!). Grant, not so much. But he's weird about casseroles. Husband isn't a fan of celery in things and I'm not a fan of onions but neither of us minded our less-than-favorite veggies in this dish. It had great flavor.

Enjoy!

New Recipe: Bacon Cheese Burger Casserole

I actually tried this recipe a while back but am only now getting around to posting about it. I had been combing through my old issues of Kraft Food & Family and stumbled across this recipe for Bacon Cheese Burger Casserole. It's a bit outside the box for me as far as casseroles. Almost all the casseroles I make have chicken in them. I just don't cook with beef with that much. I guess that's what made me want to try this. Well, that and I live with two burger lovers who I thought might enjoy something like this (and they did).

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 2 Tbsp. yellow mustard
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 8 slices bacon, cooked & crumbled
• 4 cups (1/2 of a 32 oz. pkg) frozen tater tots

Directions:

1. Heat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Brown the meat with onions in a skillet and drain. Stir in ketchup and mustard; spoon into 9-inch square casserole dish (that you've sprayed with cooking spray).
3. Top with cheese, bacon, and tater tots.
4. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until casserole is heated through and the tater tots are golden brown.

Recipe Source: Kraft Recipes

Notes/Suggestions:

• I'm not a fan of chunky onions in my food so when I can help it - such as in this recipe - I use onion powder.
• Shocker: I used more than one cup of cheese. I also used a few extra slices of bacon. Sue me.
• I was initially put off by mixing the ketchup & mustard into the meat. I have no idea why since that's pretty normal on a burger but it weirded me out. But you know what? It was good. And not an overwhelming ketchup/mustard flavor either.
• The recipe says to use frozen tater tots and that worked out fine. I didn't come across any uncooked potatoes (a turn-off for sure) but in the future I think I'll thaw them. I like my tater tots crispy and I would have overcooked the casserole to get them up to my crispy standards.
• Dishes like this make me think "What do we have with it?!" because I don't feel like its enough all by itself. So I served it with salad but some veggies would be good too.
• Easy weeknight or any night meal. It could even be made the night before so you can just pop it in the oven when you get home. Good stuff.

Enjoy!