Confetti Taco Chili

I seriously can't believe I didn't post this recipe until now. My friend John always made this for dinner group back before my mission. It has become one of my standard meals during winter because it is sooo easy to make. I have both the small sized that I would make for myself and the larger portion for dinner group listed.

Serves 4 (16)

• 1 (3) Lbs Ground Beef
• ½ (2) Cup Chopped Onion
• 2 Tbl (2 Pkg) Old El Paso Taco Seasoning Mix
• 1 (4) 15.5 Oz Can Diced Tomatoes With Chilies
•  1 (4) 8 Oz Tomato Sauce
• 1 Cup (1 Bag) Frozen Corn
•  1 (4) Can Black Beans with Cumin And Chili Spices Undrained
• 1 Bag Frito Chips
• Cheddar Cheese

1.)   Cook beef and onion over med. High heat until beef is browned. Drain.

2.)   Stir in taco seasoning mix, tomatoes, tomato sauce and corn. Bring to boil. Reduce to Medium. Cook 10-15 min or until beef is thoroughly cooked and corn is tender.

3.)   Stir in beans; return to a boil. Reduce to medium. Cook 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated and flavors are blended.

Stuffed Shells

Stuffed Shells-half of the recipe

1 box of Jumbo Shells

1 16 oz Ricotta cheese

1 egg

1 garlic clove chopped finely or 1 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp Parsley

1 tsp. Basil

1 Jar Prego Spaghetti Sauce

3 cups grated mozzarella cheese

2 tsp Oregano

Parmesan Cheese

1.      Preheat oven to 375°F

2.      Cook jumbo shells according to directions on packaging. Cool on wax or parchment paper.

3.      While noodles are cooking prepare ricotta cheese mixture by mixing ricotta cheese, egg, garlic, parsley and basil in a small bowl. Add 1 tbsp. Parmesan cheese. Add 2 cups of mozzarella cheese.

4.      Heat Spaghetti Sauce.

5.      When noodles are cooled enough to handle, open the shell (I find it easiest to press the top and bottom of the shell towards each other. This opens the shell up.) Fill shell with 2 tbsp. cheese mixture. You can freeze the shells at this point for an easy dinner later on.

6.      Cover the bottom of a 9x13 pan with about ½ of the spaghetti sauce. Line up shells on top of the sauce. Cover shells with remaining sauce then remaining mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese and parsley on top. Cover with aluminum foil. Cook in oven for 35 minutes or until the shells in the middle are cooked thoroughly, removing foil for the last 5 minutes.

Cooking for One (or Two)

I’m a lousy cook for myself. I can barely cook for one person. A larger crowd I can easily handle, but just myself is difficult. Here are some of my tips for cooking for one (or two).

• Freezer space- This will make sense as I go on if it doesn’t already

• Ice Cube trays- I know what you’re thinking. What the heck?!? I recently purchased a set and they have been a lifesaver. Why? As I explained to Shana yesterday when she came over for dinner, have you ever had an open jar of spaghetti sauce that you couldn’t get rid of fast enough? I froze an entire jar of spaghetti sauce in the ice cube trays. Now I just have to take out 2-3, thaw in a mug briefly and pour over pasta. Really easy for a meal that you take to work. Some other things that I have done/wanted to do:

*   Yogurt (for smoothies, I have both vanilla and strawberry)

*   Baby food (technically this was my inspiration via a yahoo article)

*   Gravy/Cream of (insert type here) Soup

*   Ground beef (so that I can grab one or two cubes to thaw for instant tacos, add to spaghetti, etc. Its easier that a larger tub and you avoid repeated freeze thaw cycles)

Frozen Strawberry Yogurt in the tray

After the cubes are frozen I put them in a freezer ziplock (Tomato Sauce)

• Snack baggies- These are the ones that are a size smaller than a sandwich ziplock. This is again to prevent freeze-thaw cycles in your food. When I buy chicken (usually fresh tenderloins) or ground beef I divide the meat into individual portions and label the outside with the type of meat and date. One plus to these is that the small bags can be crammed anywhere in your freezer.

*   Divide large cheese filled pasta into individual portions. I take a few of these to work along with some pasta sauce cubes and have instant freezer meals that are a lot cheaper than the commercial ones.

*   Other meat dividing ideas include making ranch/parmesan chicken and freezing the precooked meat that’s ready for the oven. Swedish meatballs with gravy cubes, or cooked ground beef (if you prefer not to do cube idea).

* Grated cheese divided. Perfect if you buy the Costco sized Tillamook cheese and having the right amount of cheese ready to throw on a casserole.

Individual serving sized Ground Beef (top) and Chicken (bottom)

•  Extra Tupperware- Anyone who has lived with me knows I can’t stand leftovers. They don’t taste the same. Why on earth would I tell you to buy extra Tupperware? Prepare enough food for four people. Wait didn’t just say I hate leftovers? Yes. I didn’t say COOK all the food. Just prepare it. I will make enough food and freeze half of it in Tupperware. This is more along the lines of homemade TV dinners. Examples:
  * Casseroles cooked w/out the cheese for part of the time. I cook it so that it can easily get in and out of the Tupperware.
  * Enchiladas-these are a classic example. I’ll precook these all the way and freeze beans and rice too
  * Swedish meatballs-I’ll precook these and throw in frozen veggies on the side
  * Parmesan chicken-Frozen with sauce and cheese and ready to be thrown in the oven.
  * Calzone-uncooked
  * Roast- I bought a roast recently, got it all prepared, then cut it in half and froze one half and cooked the other. Later when I wanted a roast again, I just had to thaw dump in a pan and cook.
  * Pacos-uncooked (I think I still need to upload this recipe online)
  * Burritos-make them yourself and freeze them in wax paper. Its cheaper than buying premade froze ones.
  * Chicken haystacks- freeze the rice and chicken mixture. Add toppings when you thaw it.
  * Soups- I’ll put half in glass jars then freeze these.
  * Extra muffins-both unbaked frozen while in paper wrappers in the muffin tin and baked.
  * Lasagna Rolls- two rolls to a bag, prebaked
  * Egg Rolls- both cheese and veggie pre-fried
  * Chicken Crescent Rolls
  *  French Toast/Waffles/Pancakes-Divide into how much you personally eat. I’ll make a whole loaf of French toast then freeze what I don’t eat.

•  Dough- I know there are questions as to what I do with my dough. If I make too much or don’t want to use all of it, I will wrap it up in plastic wrap and freeze it. Just label what type of dough it is. You can accidentally turn pizza dough in to rolls (bread sticks) but dinner rolls don’t always make good pizza dough depending on the recipe. Sometimes I will pre-form the rolls or I will freeze the cinnamon roll logs before I cut them. It is best to freeze these before the second rise so they will actually rise when they thaw. Oh, you can thaw on either the counter or fridge.

• Fresh fruit- For my smoothies I will sometimes buy fresh fruit on sale and freeze it myself. The trick to this is to wash it and freeze it on a cookie sheet then transfer it to baggies after it is fully frozen. You can pre-make single serving smoothie concoctions by adding all the fruit and yogurt cubes to the same bag or keep them separated in larger bags.

These are just a few of the things I have done recently to help myself cook more complete meals when I eat versus just canned soup, that pasta thingy I make or burritos.

Pizza/Calzone Dough

• 1 Package Yeast           
• 1 Cup Warm Water
• 1 Tbl Olive Oil
• 1 tsp.  Sugar
• 1/2 tsp. Salt (optional substitution: garlic salt)                
• 2 1/2-3 Cups Flour (All purpose)
• Honey
• 1 tsp Basil (optional)
• 1 tsp Oregano (optional)

1. Sprinkle yeast onto water and add one large squirt of honey. Let sit for 5 minutes. 
2. Add oil sugar and salt and water mixture in medium sized bowl and stir well. 
3. Gradually add 2 1/2 cups flour and mix well. Add remaining flour if dough is really wet. Knead well. Let rise until doubled in bulk. 
4. Optional: Add basil and oregano to dough while adding flour. Make sure mixture is mixed well.
5. On pizza pan spray with non-stick spray and add 1-2 tablespoons of cornmeal onto pan. Roll out dough to the size of the pan. For thick crust, use the whole dough, for thin crust, use half of the dough.

Pizza: After adding dough to the pan let rise for 1/2 hour more then add ingredients on top. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Calzone:

1. Use half of the dough. Roll out as if you are making a pizza.
2. Spread pizza sauce over half of the dough leaving 1 inch border around the "crust". Cover with cheese then toppings then more cheese. 
3. Fold over non-topping side onto the toppings. Wrap the bottom "crust" border over the top of the calzone and pinch closed. 
4. Top with 1 Tbl. Butter, Parmesan Cheese, Garlic Salt and Parsley. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Freezer Idea: I will frequently freeze half the dough. Leave out for 2 hours to thaw prior to making pizza. Microwave on low for 1 minute if not completely thawed.

Spaghetti Sauce

I know everyone has their favorite sauce but this is how I learned to make Spaghetti Sauce.

4-8oz Tomato Sauce Cans or 1 Jar Prego Sauce

1 Large Boiling Pot 

Oregano

Sugar

Garlic Salt

1 Lbs. Ground Beef (Optional)

1/2 Chopped white onion (they make you cry less, Walla Walla's don't make you cry at all)

1.      1. Brown Ground Beef with onions if meat is wanted 

            2. Add Tomato sauce. Add onions if you are not adding meat.

3.      3. Make 3 passes over the pot sprinkling Oregano over sauce. (I think it is about 2 tsp, but I don’t know).

4.      4. Do one pass over of Garlic Salt and two light passes of sugar.

5.      5. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. If you have one of those cool screens, put it over the pot so you don’t have sauce everywhere.