January 24, 2012: Homemade Meatball Stew Recipe

Last year I shared an easy meatball soup recipe that uses convenience food items. I decided there was no excuse for being lazy and remade that recipe using homemade ingredients and keeping the calories as low as possible.

Homemade Meatball Stew

1 cup crushed Saltine crackers

¼ cup fat free half and half

1 egg

¼ cup ketchup

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

1 t. Italian seasoning

1 t. garlic salt

1 t. dried parsley

1 pound 93% lean ground beef

1 cup baby carrots, cut into small pieces

1 cup fresh green beans, cut into thirds

1 large Russet potato, peeled and cut into small chunks

1 celery heart, rib, greens and heart thinly sliced

1 cup canned corn (or fresh)

1 carton beef stock

1 cup water

2 cups dry macaroni or farfalle (bowtie) pasta

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine crushed crackers and half and half; let sit for five minutes to soften crackers. Add egg, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and seasonings. Mix in ground beef with your hands. Shape into small balls.

Spray a Dutch oven with nonstick cooking spray. Place meatballs in the bottom of the Dutch oven and bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove from oven and remove meatballs with a slotted spoon.

Add vegetables (with the exception of canned corn) to Dutch oven. Sauté for 2 – 3 minutes, scraping up bits of meatballs from bottom of pan. Add beef stock and water and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium; boil gently for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low and add reserved meatballs and corn. Cook for an hour, until vegetables are soft.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and add to meatball stew just before serving. Add water, if necessary, to thin stew.

Serves 6

December 23, 2011: Cheddar Wurst Chili Mac

Do you have a crowd of people to feed for dinner before the big holiday meal? This recipe is an economical way to feed lots of diners and fill them up. It’s a recipe I created completely on my own, from scratch – hope you like it!

Cheddar Wurst Chili Mac topped with shredded cheese, salsa and sour cream.

Cheddar Wurst Chili Mac

One 1-pound package smoked cheddar link sausage (such as Hillshire Farms), cut into half inch thick slices

2 small stalks celery, diced

½ white onion, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 large Roma tomato, diced

2 T. chopped green chile (substitute black olives for less heat)

1 15-ounce can Ranch style beans, undrained

1 cup water

1 cup dry macaroni

½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

Sour cream and fresh cilantro sprigs for garnish (optional)

In a large skillet or saucepan, saute the sausage with the celery, garlic and onion until the vegetables are tender. Add the beans, green chiles (or olives) and diced tomato. Cook over medium low heat for a couple minutes, just until heated through. Add the water and raise heat to medium-high. Add dry macaroni and cook for an additional 15 minutes, until the macaroni is soft. To serve, spoon into bowls and top with cheddar cheese, sour cream and cilantro.

November 19, 2011: Chili Mac Recipe

Here’s an old standby that was the perfect recipe for some leftovers I had hanging around in my fridge. While the dish is reminiscent of the goopy casserole I remember being served from the school cafeteria, this recipe tastes a whole lot better!

Tip: If you don’t have leftovers available, just go ahead and double the amounts listed in the recipe; use a full can of corn and chili. I used homemade chili and corn that I had canned myself over the summer.

Chili Mac

½ lb. macaroni noodles

4 ounces Velveeta cheese, cubed

½ t. dry mustard

2/3 cup nonfat or low fat Greek yogurt or sour cream

¾ cup shredded Cheddar or Colby Jack cheese, divided.

1/3 cup cooked corn

1 cup chili with beans

Dash Tabasco sauce

Cook macaroni according to package directions; drain and return to cooking pot. Add cheese and stir until melted. To the pot, add mustard, yogurt or sour cream, ¼ cup shredded cheese, corn, chili and Tabasco. Pour into greased casserole cheese. Top with remaining cheese and cover with foil.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, until bubbly hot. Remove foil and bake an additional five minutes, until cheese is completely melted.

Serves 4

October 28, 2011: Macaroni Timbales Recipe

Have you ever had a timbale? This is a recipe I got from an old cookbook that belong to the mother of one of my friends from college. It was old back in the early 80s so… Never mind, no need to say how old I am!

Anyway, the cookbook contained a lot of pasta recipes but none like I’d ever encountered before. One of those was for timbales, which turned out to be pretty yummy. According to an online dictionary, a timbale is defined as “A custardlike dish of cheese, chicken, fish, or vegetables baked in a drum-shaped pastry mold.” This recipe doesn’t require a special baking dish but is made of small, individual timbales. Try this unusual pasta presentation for a very unique side dish.

Macaroni Timbales served on top of freshly made Copper Pennies.

Macaroni Timbales

6 ounces macaroni noodles

2 eggs

2 ounces grated cheese (Parmesan, cheddar, Swiss – any hard or semi-hard cheese will work just fine)

Salt and pepper to taste

4 ounces cooked mushrooms

1 T. grated onion (you can mince the onion very finely or use dehydrated)

Bread crumbs

Prepared spaghetti sauce

Boil macaroni as directed on package until tender; drain well. Stir in cheese, one beaten egg, and seasonings. Generously butter the cups of a 6-cup muffin pan. Sprinkle fine bread crumbs in the bottom of each. Fill with macaroni mixture. Make a hollow in each cup. Mix the chopped, cooked mushrooms with the remaining beaten egg and use this to fill the hollow in each cup.

Bake 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Let stand for three minutes before removing from pan. Serve with hot spaghetti sauce poured over the top.

Note: As is, this recipe is rather bland. Feel free to add some fresh herbs, such as basil or oregano, and my old favorite standby, garlic salt.

August 8, 2011: BHT and Avocado Pasta Salad Recipe

Normally, I try to stick with recipes that use ingredients that are readily available to anyone, anywhere. This one, however, is too good not to share – even though it uses a packaged dip mix from Coyote Country Seasonings.

This is a local company (based in Pinetop AZ) that produces some really delish mixes, everything from dips to soups to salsas. My favorite is the BHT (bacon, horseradish, tomato) and I thought it would be perfect for this salad. You can order the Coyote Country Seasonings BHT dip mix here – and no, I didn’t get anything by recommending this product other than the satisfaction of turning you on to a great product!

BHT and Avocado Pasta Salad 

6 ounces salad or elbow macaroni
1/3 cup BHT dip (prepared with mayonnaise and sour cream or Greek yogurt)
1 avocado, diced
1 roma tomato, diced
4 slices bacon, cooked until crispy

Prepare the macaroni as directed on the package; drain and cool. Add remaining ingredients, crumbling the bacon over the top, and toss together lightly.

Serves 4.