So, Eric (my fiance) has been coming home lately after working nights and peeking into the ice box to see what I cooked the night before. Well, it just being me most nights and me being tired from work, I usually eat a bowl of cereal or cook a quick egg and bacon breakfast and that is all. However, me seeing him in want of some foodie action, besides him mentioning that he misses having just a simple casserole got me to thinking. Casseroles are really not that difficult, if we use the short cut methods of the cooks before us (ummm....canned soups) and even those methods have been improved by cutting the fat and salt and just breaking it down to the bare essentials that make a casserole so good and most of all comforting. With the right planning and a good mixture of ingredients, anyone can make several casseroles (or even dishes that just require a reheat and eat approach) so that no one goes hungry in your household. It is with great excitement that I make this entry about prepping casseroles for consumption...
So, I cooked two pounds of ground turkey meat, (adding diced onions, minced garlic and bell peppers) while I boiled a whole box of Penne pasta. I also had rotel tomatoes, corn chips and a few cans of mushroom soup as well as cream of chicken and tomato. Also cheese...Cheddar, mozzerella, and pepper jack.
I made three distinct casseroles.
I took my easy pasta bake and added 1/2 the ground turkey and half the pasta (easy pasta bake can be found in another entry on this blog) But instead of sauce I threw in a can of tomato soup and seasoned it Italian style (garlic, basil and oregano) . I topped with mozzerealla cheese and baked until bubbly and brown in my iron skillet.
I took the other half of the turkey, added it to 2 C crushed corn chips, rotel tomatoes, cream of chicken soup, mixed together, topped with pepper jack, again baked at 400 until bubbly and golden.
Finally, I took the last half of the pasta, added 1 C frozen peas, 2 Cans tuna, 1 Can Mushroom soup, a bit of tarragon, dill, and dried chives. Mixed it, poured into a glass dish, topped with Cheddar baked at 400 until again, the cheese was bublly, gooey and delicious.
I put all of these into the fridge after they had cooled and Eric and I enjoyed lunch and dinner for 4 days...pretty easy and I think I am going to try thinking ahead like this and cooking ahead atleast through the wedding!
Have any casseroles recipes you wanna share? Lemme know on my facebook link located on my profile page and you could be my next guest blogger!
Yum!!! When my life is especially busy, I try to cook up meat ahead of time. For example, last week I had some breakfast sausage that had been in there a while, cooked it up; also some hamburger that I cooked up and some leftover bacon also cooked. I used these 3 creatively to make different things. A pasta side (Knorr brand or something like that, a packet of pasta with seasoning) and threw in some meat and a spoon of the Philidelphia cream cheese spread. Mmmmm LOVE casseroles Jennifer, great ideas! :)
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