Easy Peasy Reci-peasies for our dear friend - Karen

kit_kats_mom wrote: Ok ladies. Karen is in need of easy recipes for her and the girls. The easiest things you can think of. Post 'em.

Karen, we all know you are a picky lady so we understand if you can't eat some of it but if nothing else, you can cook up some of this stuff for the girls and then eat your bread

One good thing about DH being gone is that you can make giant batches of some things and freeze them so that they are easy to warm up in the micro after work.
You can also eat the same thing for a few nights in a row without complaints. When you find something that Kylie will eat, feed it to her over and over and over.

kit_kats_mom replied: Noodles and cheese (K's current fave)

Boil water - I know you can do this
Break pasta into small pieces over the pot of boiling water and drop it in.
Boil pasta (I use whole grain pasta to get the extra nutrients but if you can't stomach it, white is fine)
Drain pasta
Stir in butter and parmasean chees (or other shredded cheese)
Serve

Hot dogs, green beans and potatos (another of K's faves)

Cut baking potatos into large chunks (peel if you prefer them that way)
Microwave potatos in large bowl until you can insert a fork easily
Dump in 2 cans of green beans
Dump in how ever many chopped up hot dogs as you want
Microwave until beans and hot dogs are hot

Frozen chicken nuggets, frozen broccoli and fruit (we eat this on busy nights)

microwave frozen chicken nuggets (we get the Boca brand soy chicken)
Microwave frozen broccoli
Open can of peaches or other fruit
Serve with ketchup or BBQ sauce

Kaitlin'smom replied: I just had this sunday Kait ate it up

took a roast stabbed it poured over the seasonings, garlic power, onion power and Loury's seasonings (sorry I cant think of the exact name but I can find it for you) all over the meat all sides. Into crock pot then filled it with water. put it on high and let it sit turing it a few times when I could, we were gone a good part of the day so thats when I put it on low. Once we got back opened a can of diced patotoes and what ever veggie you want, let that simmer on hight for about 30 minutes or longer if you want.

Kait LOVED the roast and the diced pataoes, I had con on the cobb, just boil it unshucked for 12 minutes yummy.

I will try and thing of more easy things

coasterqueen replied: You guys are making me cry. You are so sweet! I will definitely try all these. I think they crockpot will be my friend too, lol.

I can cook spaghetti (jar sauce, lol); crockpot roast; crockpot cheesy chicken; and things like mac and cheese and spaghettio's etc., lol.

It's almost embarassing that I can't cook for my children.

I have a question......say I want to make cheesy crockpot chicken, can I dice up potatoes and put them in there too? So like they'd be cheesy potatoes...like my mom used to fix.

What if I make a lasagna (I do make good lasagna ) like after the girls go to bed. What do I do, bake it, then freeze it in smaller portions? Then you thaw it and reheat it? See, I am really dense.

Boys r us replied: Well, you can't really go wrong with pot roast!

Buy a roast at the store, cut up some potatoes into quarters, buy a bag of baby carrots throw it all into the crock pot and add 2 cups of water, a packet of dry french onion soup mix and maybe some A-1 or worsterchire sauce and cook on low all day while your'e at work!!!

Another easy one, thaw out 4 boneless chicken breasts, cut up into small cubes and boil them with some salt. Drain, put into casserole dish, mix in 2 cans of cream of muchroom soup, 1 small container of sour cream..add salt and pepper and mix, then top with crumbled ritz crackers and put littl epats of butter on top and bake at 350 for 1 hour. Serve with corn and mashed potatoes or whatever you feel like!

Jamison'smama replied: yes Karen, lasagna freezes very well--cook, cool and cut it up.

I'm not sure about the potatoes--in pretty big chunks they would probably do just fine.

mom21kid2dogs replied: I was thinking I should just pm you my stuff. I'm VERY cooking impaired and only cook things that take less than 20-30 min prep time with few ingredients. Here are some of my favs. My BIL is coming for dinner so I might have to finish later.

Ham & Cheese Quiche
2T all purpose flour 1 frozen 9" deep dish pie crust
1/2 t salt 1/2 C chopped spinach
1C half n half 1/2C mushrooms (canned or fresh)
3 eggs 1 4.5 oz can of ham, flaked
2 slices swiss cheese 1/2C shredded Cheddar Cheese


Preheat oven to 350. Beat together flour, salt, half n half and eggs. Place Swiss cheese on bottom of frozen pie crust. Arrange spinach over swiss cheese, cover with mushrooms. Place flour and egg mixture on top of mushrooms. Add flaked ham and top with Cheddar cheese.

Bake for 45 to 55 min until surface is golden brown and firm to touch.

** Note~ Quice is the gourmet equivlent to a garbage can. You can throw anything in the pie crust and top it with the egg mixture. We also like bacon, broccoli, onions, tomatoes and other cheeses in it.

Crock Pot Beef Roast

Any cut of beef roast or pork roast of any size
1 can beef broth

Cook roast on high 5-7 hours, if frozen, or medium if thawed.
Cook egg noodles in large pot.
Add to broth 10 minutes before serving.

Chicken Fajitas

1 to 1.5 lbs chicken, skinned and boned
2 bell peppers
1 sm pkg fresh mushrooms
1 small onion
1 bottle Fajita sauce (usually found with marinades)

Cook chicken in water or chicken broth in lg skillet till cooked through. Remove and set aside. Cut onions, mushrooms and peppers into strips, cook in water or chicken broth till soft/crisp. Add chicken and Fajita sauce. Cook through and serve on Fajitas. We like a little cheddar cheese melted on our fajitas.

Gotta finish supper~more later!

TANNER'S MOM replied: Here is one I make when I don't want to cook

Tasty Frito Pie Salad..

I bag of Frito's.. a bag of premade Salad.. add what you want and can eat.. Tomotoes, onions, etc..

2 cans of Chili..

Cheese and lots of it..

Mix all together and top with Catalina dressing.. it makes it yummy.

15 minutes to makes and I usually have some for lunch the next day..

Hillbilly Housewife replied: Boil some pasta
put a scoop of mayo in it, with a can of peas & carrots mix (drained of course)
cut up some leftover chicken, or even some chicken in a can or tuna...

mix it all together - yummy pasta salad, hot or cold.


*************

Break an egg into a bowl, mix it up a bit, stick it into the microwave for about 1 minute (more if it's still runny)

Put some bread in the toaster - make toast...

put either butter, or mayo, or ketchup, cheese, whatever you want... on the toast, and scoop the egg out of the bowl.

Quick egg sandwich

Hillbilly Housewife replied: Here's what I made for dinner tonight...quick and yummy.

I took 4 frozen italian sausages out of the freezer - put it in a frying pan and covered them about halfway with water. Put the burner on about 3/4...so between medium and high, til the sausages were cooked. Or, re-cooked - they were pre-cooked when I bought them.

As that was going on, I boiled some macaroni pasta, rinsed it off.

The water in the frying pan mostly boiled off - I kept adding more so that the sausages wouolnd't get too cooked on any particular side, but evenly...

once the sausages were cooked, I took them out and cut them into bit-sized pieces, put them back in the frying pan.

I cut up some leftover raw mushrooms into bite-sized pieces, added them to the meat in the pan.

Added the macaroni to the meat and mushrooms

Opened 2 cans of cream of celery soup, dumped it in - heated it all on low and mixed it all up

It was very tasty - and the kids didn't realize that the meat and the ushrooms were from 2 different food groups... lol

mom21kid2dogs replied:
We make 2C of Minute Rice (2C rice, 2C water and 5 min in microwave) and put it in our cheesy chicken right before we eat it. I'd have to say Olivia loves that meal best.

Here are a couple more easy and fast recipies
Chicken & Dumplings
1 to 1.5 lb chicken
2 can chicken broth
2 1/4 C Bisquick
3/4C Skim milk

Cook chicken all day in crock pot on low or in a saucepan in 1 can of chicken broth 'til cooked through.

Combine bisquick and milk to form 6-8 dumplings. Empty chicken broth and add one additional can of chicken broth to large skillet. Place dumplings in boiling chiken broth. Cook uncovered 10 minutes then cover and cook an addtional 10 minutes with cooked chicken added. Serve hot.

You can add peas or beans to this and sneak in veggies if you want!

Crock Pot Lasagne
1lb ground beef, browned
1sm diced onion
1lg (32oz) bottle spaghetti sauce
8oz mozarella cheese
1 carton ricotta cheese
2C parmsean cheese
2T Italian seasoning
1/2 pkg lasagne noodles (cooked)

Brown beef with onion, drain, add sauce. Mix ricotta, italian seasoning and parmsean cheese in bowl.
In large crock pot (use pan spray first for easier clean up), line noodles, top with cheese mixture, meat mixture and mozarella cheese. Repeat layers until noodles are gone. Top with mozarella. Cook 2 hours on high or low all day.

Easy Crockpot Beef Burgundy
1 1/2 lbs stew beef cut into 1" cubes
2T cooking oil
1 10oz can cream of mushroom soup
1 10oz can cream of celery
3/4C burgundy wine
1/2 of a 2.2 oz pkg onion soup mix
8 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced

In lg skillet, brown meat in oil. In crock pot, combine celery soup, mushroom soup, wine, onion soup mix. Stir in meat & mushrooms.

Cook on low 8-10 hours or high 4-5 hours

Serve on mashed potatoes or egg noodles

Easy Crockpot Salisbury Steak

4-6 chopped sirloin patties (frozen or thawed)
1 can mushroom soup
1 can beef broth
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 can or sm package fresh mushrooms, sliced

Place patties on bottom of crock pot. In seperate bowl, combine soup, broth, mushrooms and dry soup mix. Pour mixture over beef patties. Cook on low 8 hrs.

more later~bedtime

MommyToAshley replied:
I do not care for prepared frozen foods from the supermarket at all, but have you tried the Prego lasagnas in the frozen food section? They had them on sale one time and I tried them and now I am hooked. They are better than the lasagnas that I make. We like the one with the sausage the best. Ashley loves it too. We tried their veggie lasagna but didn't care too much for it. I like veggie lasagna, but didn't care for the Prego one. Just thought it was worth mentioning and might save you the time it takes to make them.

ammommy replied: One word---quesidillas (sp>)

Take a tortilla, put in the goodies (I use cooked chicken, veggies, beans, whatever I have on hand) put it under the broiler open faced until the cheese melts. Take it out, add salsa, lettuce and sour cream fold it over, cut it and ***ta dum!*** a quick, decently healthy dinner. It's fine to use low fat stuff, BTW. Don't use fat free cheese because the stuff doesn't melt

A&A'smommy replied:
YEAPERS I LOVE those things and they are SOO easy!! I'm the princess of easy cooking lol I will not cook something unless it is easy I have a WHOLE list I weight watchers recipies most of them are quick and easy do you want them?

Mommy2BAK replied: Here's a simple one

HAMBURGER CASSEROLE

1 lb. ground beef

can of peas

can of cream of musroom soup

bag of minute rice (or whatever kind)


After browning the beef add all the ingredients into a casserole dish and cook at 375 for 20-30 minutes.

coasterqueen replied:
cooked chicken....like frozen chicken pieces? Sounds good.

DH makes something like this but it seems like he skillets the chicken first.

coasterqueen replied:
Oooh I have to check this one out. Thanks.

coasterqueen replied:
I think I might have that same list.

Jamison'smama replied: I make quesadillas all the time--but I take a skillet---spray it or add a little butter--put one flout tortilla down--fill with whatever then put another on top--brown it a little, turn it over and cut with a pizza cutter.

My favorite things to put it are mozz cheese and fat free refried beans or cheese and regular or turkey bacon. When Jamison was a toddler, I could add a layer of mixed veggie baby food on hers and she'd never notice.

Along the same lines you can do breakfast burritos with egg, cheese and sausage.

My2Beauties replied: Ooh and don't froget Tombstone frozen pizzas - those are sooooooooo good!

I have a quesadilla maker those are really really nice - I got it as a wedding present but I think they only cost around $30, if you can get one you can do all sorts of stuff with your quesadillas.

Tacos:

You will need 1 lb ground beef or chuck
Mexican shredded cheese
Shredded lettuce
Taco Sauce

optional: Diced tomatoes
Sour Cream
Refried Beans
Onions
(you get the picture you can be really creative)

Really easy, brown 1lb ground beef or chuck

Buy those little Taco Bell or Old El Paso Taco mix packets, pour entire packet on top of hamburger and fill packet up with warm water and mix together. Let simmer.

Meanwhile....put the oven on 425 degrees and warm your taco shells.

once the taco shells are warm (usually 3-5 minutes) take them out and stuff tacos with whatever you choose


** I used Old El Paso ingredients rather than the Taco Bell ingredients, they taste a lot better if you ask me!

mckayleesmom replied: Hamburger helper.....those are great in a hurry


They make those betty crocker meal kits too


ALso...you can buy a bunch of veggies and cut them up and freeze them and pur then out as you go.....You can do that at the beginning of the week that way you don't spend all night cutting veggies and stuff.

ammommy replied:
You can freeze the chicken, but make sure to thaw it first. The broiling process is really to heat the tortilla and melt the cheese, not to actually cook anything. You can put it in the skillet first, but that adds fat and calories so I skip that step especially if I'm adding sauteed veggies to the quesadilla.

mckayleesmom replied:
Those Frechetta ones are better

Sarah&Mackenzie replied: Karen do and your girls like tuna?? I have a very easy tuna casserole.

Here is an easy Chicken and Rice Casserole

2 cups white rice (cooked)
1 10 oz can chicken
2 cans of Cream of Chicken soup
1 can of milk (use one of the soup cans)
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

Mix all ingriedients and put in casserole dish. Bake at 350 for 45 min to an hour or until bubbly.

coasterqueen replied:
We like tuna with our macaroni.

I like the chicken casserole, but I'm not a big fan of rice. Is there anything else I can substitute it with?

jdkjd replied:
Noodles would probably work too...or diced cooked potatoes, it basically just needs a starch.

moped replied: Well I always like to have Lasagna frozen.......................that is the only pasta Tom will eat and that is a push

I also have lot sof Michalina's too - LOL>....sorry I am terrible in the kitchen