French Toast Casserole

We love breakfast food in this house! We have breakfast for supper night at least once per week. I decided that this week instead of the usual waffles or pancakes and eggs/bacon I would switch things up a bit and we would give french toast casserole a shot at glory. I'm super glad I did, this is amazing! Plus, it left my kitchen smelling like french toast for days!

Ingredients...

...5 cups bread cubes (I used my french bread recipe for the bread. you can use whatever you want!)
...4 eggs
...1/4 cup white sugar, divided
...1 1/2 cups milk
...1/4 tsp. salt
...1 tsp. vanilla extract
...1 T. margarine, softened
...1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions...

Grease an oven safe casserole dish and place bread cubes in dish. In a small bowl, wisk together eggs, milk, 2 T. sugar, salt and vanilla. Pour mixture over bread cubes. Stir until bread cubes are all well coated. Dot with butter and let sit for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine remaining sugar and cinnamon together. At the end of the 10 minutes, pour the cinnamon/sugar mixture over the bread cube mixture and stir to coat well. Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes.

Bean Bake

If anyone were to ever ask what my favorite food is, this would hands down have to be it. This is another one of those dishes that I grew up eating and I have loved it all my life. It is such a simple recipe and many don't understand why it is my favorite...until they taste it. Basically, this is doctored up baked beans...but oh my it is wonderful! This was a recipe that my grandma always made, it reminds me of growing up, being in her warm and inviting kitchen where cookies were always in the cookie jar and something delish was always in the oven. I've noticed I've been making a lot of my grandma's recipes lately, but I think it's because it's fall and they are all such a warm, comfort food to me. I hope you love this as much as I do!

Ingredients...

...1 lb. ground meat

...2 (15 oz.) cans pork and beans

...1/4 cup ketchup

...1/4 cup brown sugar

...2 tsp. ground mustard

Directions...

Brown ground meat. In an oven safe casserole dish, stir together all ingredients until well combined. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. See...I told ya...simple.

To see other great recipes, check out Tasty Tuesday over at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam!

Pizza Dip

I love using my crockpot. I'm pretty sure I've confessed that love of mine to you all before. I have two crockpots, a larger sized one and a smaller one. (and I've asked for two more for Christmas!). I've never really used the smaller one before except to make a nacho cheese dip once, I usually make that recipe in the microwave, but I had to travel with it, so the mini crockpot just made good sense. I finally decided after cruising around A Year of Crockpotting that it was high time my mini crockpot got some lovin'. So I made Steph's version of the Pizza Fondue Dip. She has really made me want to make fondue and dip in my mini crockpot every day now!

Ingredients...

...1 cup pizza sauce
...handful of pepperoni
...1/2 tsp. italian seasoning
...1 cup shredded cheese

Directions...

Cut pepperonies into pieces. Dump all ingredients into mini crockpot and stir together (if you don't have a mini crockpot, just place a small, oven safe dish, into your normal size crockpot.). Plug in and let cook for about an hour before serving (most mini crockpots don't have heat settings. If yours does for some reason then, a) use the high heat setting and b) TELL ME WHAT BRAND IT IS!!!!)

Jagerschnitzel

I have no idea what jagerschnitzel stands for in english. But I do know that it's a German dish. So whatever the German phrase for "this was good" is...insert it here. I should really learn more German, considering it's where my ancestors are from. The only German is know is "Oh my good God", but only when someone is feeding it to me word for word, lol! Anyways. This really was good. Since I've never had authentic jagerschnitzel, I'm sure that it won't be heartbreaking to change it up a bit next time, so I'm going to bake the pork instead of frying it. Just to save some calories. Hubs really liked this too...and the gravy/topping stuff would make a great gravy on mashed potatoes. I did serve this with mashed potatoes, but we just put some butter and salt on them. Next time I'll try the gravy...as gravy.

Ingredients...

...2 pork steaks, pounded thin (make sure you don't skip the "pounding thin" part. I did and it took FOREVER for the steaks to cook through!)
...1/2 cup bread crumbs (unseasoned)
...1/2 T. flour
...2 T. vegetable oil
...1 egg, beaten
...1/2 medium onion, chopped
...1 small can mushrooms
...3/4 cup water
...1 cube beef boullion
...1/2 T. cornstarch
...1/4 cup sour cream

Directions...

In a shallow dish, mix together the flour and bread crumbs. Place the beaten egg in a seperate shallow dish. Dredge steaks through egg and then through bread crumb mixture, making sure that all sides are evenly coated. Place oil in skillet over medium heat. Place coated steaks in heated oil and cook until meat is no longer pink. Remove from skillet keep warm. Pour water into same skillet and dissolve beef boullion cube in water. Stir in mushrooms and onions and let simmer for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl stir together the sour cream and cornstarch. Add to skillet when done simmering. Lower heat to low setting and continue cooking until mixture has thickened but do not boil. Pour gravy mixture over steaks and serve warm.

Salsa Chicken

So the picture isn't all that appetizing. But this was actually okay. Yes. Just okay. It kind of reminded me of when I put chicken in my crockpot to swim in barbecue sauce. But a little spicier. What bums me out even more is that this recipe took an entire jar of Grandma's homemade salsa to make...and we only had two left. One now. PLUUSSS...Grandma didn't make any more salsa this year...hailstorm got the best of her garden. Darn you mother nature! I guess I'll have to settle for storebought for the next year or so. Anyways. I digress (I've been doing that a lot lately...). Despite that this was something of a let down, it really was good. Hubs enjoyed it. I think part of the reason I didn't enjoy it so much is because it gave me heartburn (which is something I should have thought of before preparing this. I'm pregnant. Heartburn is a given. Oi!). But I bet you'll like it! So, go make this! Let me know what you think...and PLEASE don't let my opinion sway yours. Form your own opinion and let me know what it is!

Ingredients...

No Picture, Sorry! (yet something else I seem to be doing (or more like, not doing) a lot lately...)

...4 chicken pieces (I say pieces because you can use what you choose. Legs. Breasts. Thighs. Whatever...)
...4 tsp. Taco Seasoning Mix
...1 cup salsa
...1 cup shredded cheese

Directions...

Place chicken pieces in a greased oven safe dish or pan. Sprinkle with taco seasoning, covering entire piece. Cover pieces in salsa and bake at 375 until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear. I'm not giving you an exact time to cook this because the original recipe says that 20-30 minutes will be sufficient. But when I baked mine, it took over an hour to not have pink chicken. So test, test, test that chicken and make sure you aren't eating raw bird for crying out loud!

Seven Layer Salad

This is a delicious seven layer salad. Except in this version, there aren't seven layers. There are 6. ish. There should be more, but I forgot to chop up carrots. And I forgot to hard boil some eggs to slice up. Even though that makes eight layers. ish. Either way. This is a recipe that my mom made when we were growing up and we always really liked it. And then I grew up and moved away. And never ate it again. Until now. And yu-u-um! I just love it! It's so different from your regular old run of the mill salad. It's tastier.

Ingredients....

...1 head of lettuce, chopped
...1/2 green pepper, chopped
...1/2 bag frozen peas
...1 cup sour cream
...1 cup mayonnaise
...2 T. white sugar (not pictured)
...shredded cheese (the amount is up to you)
...4 slices bacon (or bacon bits. those will work just as well)

Directions...

In a glass bowl (or 9x13 inch pan...that's how my mom made it back in the day...) layer lettuce, green peppers and peas. You can do as many alternating layers as your bowl will fit. In a seperate, small bowl, stir mayonnaise, sour cream and sugar together until well combined. Smooth over the top of the salad. Top with shredded cheese and crumbled bacon.

Cheesy Mexican Beans and Rice

I've been wanting to try a beans and rice dish for the longest time now. I've always held back though, because hubs is very anti-meatless. I can get him to eat a meatless meal every now and again, but to go meatless on a regular basis...unh-unh. I'd get called out on it sooo fast! I made the mistake last summer of telling him that we were having meatless Monday each week. Each Monday he would come home from work with a bad attitude towards the meal, and would of course "hate" it and end up eating a bologna sandwich. Kind of defeats the purpose of frugal cooking if he's going to make something else anyways. So now I just don't tel him what I'm making. And although I'm sure he notices the absence of meat, he never says anything negative. He actually told me that this was good. He didn't want it in our regular rotation, but he liked it. I, however, loved it! I thought it was great! So go ahead and whip this up for your next meatless meal, I'm willing to bet your family won't have any complaints!

Ingredients...

...1 cup uncooked rice
...1 can black beans (or 1 2/3 cup if you cook your own beans up)
...1 large onion, chopped
...1 T. olive oil
...14 oz. Pasta or Tomato Sauce
...2 tsp. chili powder
...1/4 tsp. salt
...Shredded Cheese

Directions...

In a saucepan, cook rice according to package directions. In a skillet, saute onions in olive oil. In a medium bowl stir together beans, sauteed onions, pasta or tomato sauce, chili powder and salt. Stir in Rice. Pour into a greased 2 quart oven safe baking dish and top with a few handfuls of shredded cheese. Cover and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes.