Easy Cheesy Sausage Potato Casserole

Nothing says Southern comfort food like cheese and potatoes. Cheesy sausage and potato casserole is a favorite on cold winter nights at our house. The original recipes calls for several pounds of peeled, diced potatoes, followed by 45 minutes in the oven.

But I'm a working mom. By the time I spend 8-9 hours seeing patients, the last thing I feel like doing when I get home is spending an hour peeling potatoes. I tweaked the recipe and developed a quick version of this comfort classic. My family can't get enough of it, and I can have it in the oven in 20 minutes.

Ingredients:

• Smoked sausage, 1 lb. (I use a local company's smoked sausage ring, either beef or green onion)
• Frozen diced hash browns, 2 lb.
• 1 can cheddar cheese soup
• 2 c. milk
• 1 c. cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/8 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Thaw hash browns in microwave safe bowl (3-4 minutes, stirring every 90 seconds) - pour into 9x13 baking dish when finished
• Slice and brown sausage; drain
• Mix milk, soup, paprika, salt, and pepper until well blended
• Pour milk/soup mixture over hash browns; stir well.
• Top potatoes with sausage and cheddar cheese.
• Bake for 45 minutes

Bread and Wine: A Review

It's easy for cooking and mealtimes to become a chore. I love to cook, but after three years of balancing school with work and family, coming home exhausted every day just to spend hours studying, I lost my love for it. I just wanted to find something quick and easy that would get everyone fed each night. After my graduation in May, I was determined to rediscover the joy I once found in cooking. Then I found Bread and Wine. It couldn't have come at a more perfect time.

 Shauna Niequist perfectly ties together faith, family, and food in a book that is part memoir, part cookbook, and entirely wonderful. This is not a book to read in one sitting or even in a couple of days. It's a book to read a snippet from, then mull it over (and try the recipes) before moving on to the next portion. It will make you fall in love with food, cooking, and sharing meals with the ones we love.

This is the perfect book for "foodies," but it's about so much more than food. Shauna openly shares her life and faith, including her infertility and miscarriages, her struggles with weight and body imagine, and the struggle to really, fully be where you are.

 

 

 

As I finished this book, it led me down some other trails, pointing the way to other books already on my to-read list. I'm following it up with The Hour That Matters Most by Les and Leslie Parrott (a books bout the lost art of family mealtimes) and The Unwired Mom by Sarah Mae.

 

I highly recommend this book!  I rarely give a book five stars, but this one makes it onto that list.

Comfort Food: Cheesy Potato Soup

I'm a Southern girl, and in the South, we love good old fashioned comfort food.  When I'm having a bad day or when I'm not feeling good, a bowl full of warm soup is the perfect pick me up.  Of course, you don't really need an excuse to make a big pot of good soup.

Cheesy potato soup is one of my family's favorite meals.  I got the original recipe years ago, and I worked on it for a few months, tweaking it a little each time I made it.  We had it this weekend, for the first time in months.  (According my oldest, now that I'm done with college, "We're having real food for the first time in a year - or three.")

It's super easy - peeling the potatoes is the hardest part!

·         8 cups potatoes, peeled and diced

·         1 small onion

·         3 stalks celery

·         5 cups water

·         5 teaspoons salt, divided

·         1 stick butter

·         4 cups milk

·         1/4 cup flour

·         1/2 teaspoon pepper

·         1 teaspoon dry mustard

·         1 (14 oz) can tomato sauce

·         1-2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

·         1/2 pound Velveeta

 

1.       Finely chop onion and celery; add potatoes and put in water with half of the salt; boil until tender.

2.       In a separate pan, combine butter, milk, flour, pepper, dry mustard, and the rest of the salt; heat until butter is melted and all ingredients are combined.

3.       Shred or thinly slice Velveeta and add to butter/milk mixture, stirring until melted.

4.       Combine cheese/milk/butter mixture with potatoes.

 

Add tomato sauce and Worcestershire, and heat through.  Serve with thick slices of French bread or homemade bread.

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Can You Really Plan a Month of Meals?

Would you get excited if I told you that you could pull together a grocery list in just a few minutes each week? Would you breathe a sigh of relief if you knew what was for dinner every single night for an entire month? Do you think it's impossible?

Monthly meal planning may sound completely overwhelming, but it's easier than you think.  I used to think I could never pull it off, but I'm on my third month now, and I love it.   My time is very limited, and having a long-term plan makes the weekly chore of shopping so much less stressful.  It also give me more time to coupon and work around sales to get the best deas.  It takes some extra time up front, but the time it saves every week and every month is worth it. Ready to try it?

1. Make a list of all the meals your family already likes and eats regularly. There are probably a lot more than you think!

2. Pull out cookbooks, magazines, and recipe files. Flip through them for recipes you've forgotten or always wanted to try. Add your finds to your favorites list, and start a second list of new recipes to try.

3. There are probably a few meals you can make a double batch of, then serve leftovers. For instance, you can use shredded leftover chicken for enchiladas, nachos, soup and more. Meatballs from spaghetti night can go into sub sandwiches. Extra soup or chili can be frozen for later. Take advantage of bulk cooking.

4. Plan around your schedule. Do you work late one night a week? Put dinner in the crockpot before you leave in the morning. Do you have extra time to cook another night? Plan a more complicated meal for that night.

5. Consider creating a theme for each night - for instance, Monday: crockpot, Tuesday: Mexican, Wednesday: chicken.  This might make it easier to plan, especially when you're just starting out.

6 Use a printable calendar, like the ones available at Organized Home, and start filling in your meal plan.  Be sure to include a couple of nights each month to try new recipes.

The first month will involve a little trial and error.  By the second month, you'll find yourself getting things together much better.  Once you get the ideal meal plan down, you can copy it month after month, making adjustments for holidays, changing seasons, etc.

If you need more ideas for recipes, check out my Pinterest Recipe board for some of my favorites.  For a super-easy start, try crockpot Italian chicken, a new addition to our family's "favorites" list.

Mexican Egg Rolls

If you're like me, you don't have a lot of time to cook right now.  Balancing Christmas parties, shopping and wrapping gifts with work, home, and family leaves very little time for cooking.  This recipe is fast, easy, and delcious - my whole family loves it, kids included.

·         2 c. cooked diced chicken breast

·         2 c. shredded Monterey jack or Mexican cheese blend

·         1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained

·         1 can whole kernel corn, drained

·         1/2 chopped red bell pepper

·         4-5 diced green onions

·         2 garlic cloves, minced

·         1/2 tsp. salt

·         1/2 tsp. pepper

·         1/2 tsp. chili powder

·         1 tsp. cumin

·         1 (16 oz) package egg roll wrappers

·         Oil for frying 

 

  1.       Mix all ingredients together.

2.       Moisten the edges of an egg roll wrapper and put approximately 2 tbsp. of filling in the middle.

3.       Fold like you would fold an eggroll.  (Picture and directions are on egg roll package.)

4.       Make sure the flap is sealed.

  5.       Heat oil and cook egg rolls until golden brown; drain on paper towels.

6.       Serve with sour cream.

 

The Easiest Slow Cooker Meal Ever!

I am all about cooking with a slow cooker, or crock pot, or whatever you prefer to call it.  My slow cooker is the queen of my kitchen - in fact, my husband often jokes that we wouldn't eat without it.  It's a working mom's best friend.  Most of the time, I use mine two to three times a week.  I'm always on the hunt for new recipes to try.

This is seriously the easiest slow cooker meal in the world.  Are you ready?

• One and a half to two pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast
• One bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce

Put them in slow cooker, turn it on low, and ignore it for ten hours...then shred up your yummy barbecue chicken.  This is great with potato salad and other barbecue fixings, or serve it up on a sandwich with some chips on the side.  I always have enough left over to make a second meal (which is always a plus) and the entire family loves it.  Fast, easy, cheap, and tasty...you can't beat that combination.