Mamaw's Spaghetti Sauce

I am sharing my Mamaw's famous spaghetti sauce today. I am not sure if it is really quite famous, but it sure is in our family! I made this last week on my freezer cooking day and I saved a little out for a quick, easy, and delicious dinner.

Why is it that most people don't make their own sauce?

It is pretty much as easy as heating up store bought sauce...just a few extra cans to open. Not to mention the frugality of it. I made each batch for about $3 with my sale stuff...but even without you could do it for $4. Add a box of pasta and you have a cheap meal!

As a child, I think Mamaw made this on every family vacation. It was always something to look forward to! I love that I not only have a Christian heritage passed down to me, but great family recipes!

I like to double or even triple it and keep it in the freezer. Mamaw was doing that long before freezer cooking was ever trendy.

Do you think I am a total nerd for saying freezer cooking is trendy...it is, isn't it? You hear about it everywhere now.

Ingredients:
1 pound hamburger
1 large onion
2 clove garlic, crushed
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon oregano
3/4 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 can (15 oz.)tomato sauce
1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste

Directions:
Brown hamburger, onion, and garlic. Drain well. Stir in remaining ingredients and heat to boiling. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer at least 1 hour, stirring occasionally.


Do you typically do homemade or canned on spaghetti night?

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This post is linked to Tasty Tuesdays at 33 Shades of Green

Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce

The days were dwindling. The plan of attack had been in place for a while.

Attack of the extra poundage, that is!

I knew that I had to make the most of my last week. Leave no stone unturned.

I did it. I think I successfully finished off every food I love...and maybe gained an extra ten pounds to lose in the process. I had a wonderful Moe's burrito, pizza, Mexican, my favorite brownies, a Caribou Mocha. Oh, and I can't forget the evil liquid calories in my beloved Coke!

(I ate it all...and here I am now, my only indulgence is sugar free jello. When I am feeling really wild I top it with a dollop of light Cool Whip. Wild, I tell you!)

One thing on my list of foods to indulge in last week was this Roasted Red Pepper Pasta. I had cream in the fridge, a jar of roasted red peppers, and the creative juices were flowing! I wanted to try it out before all cream and pasta would be banished. I am so glad I did.

I declared this my best pasta recipe, ever! The great things about it is that it meets all of my blog criteria with flying colors. It is delicious, quick and easy, and very "Cutting Back"!

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, diced
1/2 cup onion, diced
1 jar roasted red peppers, drained
Crushed red pepper (amount depends on how spicy you like it, I used about 1/2 teaspoon)
1/4 chopped parsley (plus more for garnish)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1-1 1/4 cup heavy cream (depending on how saucy you like it)
Salt and Pepper
1 lb. pasta, cooked


Add olive oil to a large skillet. Heat and add onion and garlic. Saute until they are translucent. Add drained red peppers and parsley and continue cooking until heated through. Blend in the pan with an immersion blender (if you don't have on transfer mixture to a regular blender and puree and add back to pan). On med-low heat add in the heavy cream and Parmesan cheese. Continue cooking until thoroughly heated. Season with salt and pepper as needed. Add in cooked pasta. Garnish with additional parsley or Parmesan cheese if desired!

This post is linked to Ultimate Recipe Swap

Fresh Summer Pasta

A few weeks ago I was faced with "dinner dilemma". You know...I didn't want to make what was scheduled and was missing one ingredient to everything that sounded good. I was by myself and just when I was content to eat from the cereal stockpile I decided to check the status of my garden.

I know what you are thinking right now...I had all kinds of beautiful, juicy, ripe tomatoes waiting for me. Well, the story didn't go exactly like that...

I had a fresh zucchini and I was really wanting to make this pasta that I had been dreaming of. A trip to the garden (if you can call a 2x2 foot plot of land a garden?) brought me disappointment as I had no squash and no ripe juicy tomatoes, just lots and lots of green ones. My neighbor, with whom I have major garden envy, came out with a bag of summer squash and tomatoes just for me.

As I skipped inside I was so full of joy for I know could make this fresh summer pasta. The only thing I lacked was fresh garlic, but garlic powder worked just fine.


1 box angel hair pasta
1 zucchini, diced large
1 summer squash, diced large
5-6 fresh tomatoes
1/3-1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, crushed (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon dried basil

Cook pasta according to box directions. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet. Saute zucchini, squash, and garlic in olive oil just until vegetables are cooked. Cut tomatoes in half and squeeze juice in a bowl. Dice the tomatoes and add to the juice. Add tomato mixture and basil to sauteed vegetables. Add pasta and olive oil to your liking. Mix in 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Stir until mixed well. Top with the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.

Serves 4-6




This post is linked to Ultimate Recipe Swap at www.lifeasmom.com

Macaroni Salad

This week I want to share a few of my favorite cookout recipes! While we all love cookouts, eating the same things year after year can get quite boring. Switch it up this year and add something new to the mix!

Macaroni Salad is one of my top 5 favorite cookout sides. That is saying a lot, because I am a salad nut. I have so many different salads/sides that I make every summer. In fact, it can be quite hard to fit them all in.

I have been enjoying this recipe my whole life, thanks to my Grandma. I make sure that I get this recipe in as much as I can in the summer. Macaroni Salad is normally not my thing...they are often too runny, goopy, and just really unappetizing. I promise this one is really good!

1 1/2 cups macaroni, dry

10 oz. box mixed vegetables

2 hard boiled eggs, chopped

1 T. minced onion

1/2-3/4 cup Miracle Whip or mayonnaise (You either like one or the other...am I right?)

Cook macaroni, rinse with cool water, and drain well. Cook vegetables according to package; drain and let cool. Add vegetables, eggs, onion, and Miracle Whip/mayonnaise to macaroni. Mix well and let sit overnight.

Serves 4-6

**I normally don't measure...I just boil some macaroni, add in a bag of vegetables and dump in the mayonnaise. It always comes out the same.

Spaghetti Pie

Let me preface this post by telling you right now that I am not a huge spaghetti fan. I just don't care for it, and I can't remember the last time I made it. Baked spaghetti, now that is a different story...I love the stuff. Weird, isn't it?


When I was planning my last freezer cooking day I came across this recipe at Freezer Friendz. I have a ton of jars of spaghetti sauce in the pantry so I gave it a try. I sure am glad I did, it was wonderful and will make regular appearance on my freezer menus!


Don't let the cottage cheese in this recipe scare you off. I promise you can't taste it at all. I don't like cottage cheese alone, well, actually I have never tried it....it just looks gross. Go ahead and whip this up, it is great to have meals like this in the freezer!




1 lb. ground beef (browned and drained)
10 oz. spaghetti (cooked)
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs, well beaten
2 cups cottage cheese
1 jar of spaghetti sauce (28 oz.)
8 oz. grated mozzarella cheese


Cook spaghetti and drain. To the cooked spaghetti add in butter, Parmesan cheese, and eggs to form a crust that cover the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Spread the cottage cheese over the noodles. Brown the hamburger and mix with the sauce and spread over the cottage cheese.


Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Add the cheese and bake until it melts.


Serves 12


Freezing instructions:
Prepare up til it is ready for the baking stage. Then wrap well and freeze. When you are ready to eat, thaw and bake. Then top with cheese and bake until it melts!


*I froze mine in 3 - 8x8 pans for 3 separate dinners.


This post is linked to Ulitmate Recipe Swap at www.lifeasmom.com

The Best Macaroni and Cheese

I think I received the best gift ever this month...my first Le Creuset pan...in flame orange! I think I have been drooling over, yapping about, and dreaming of owning one for years.

My wonderful friend, Roberta, gave me this as a goodbye gift when I left my job. I will treasure it forever. We worked together for over 6 years and I miss her already. We have loads of great memories and enough funny stories to keep you laughing for an entire month or more. If you don't believe me...just ask my family.

This gift, while wonderful, gave birth to a new unhealthy addiction to collecting Le Creuset pans. I splurged and spent all my Christmas money and maybe a little more when I invested in three more. The nice man who sold them to me said they are truly an investment and will be passed down for generations...what a good salesman...that made me feel good!

Ok, on to the recipe...the best ever macaroni and cheese!

I love this recipe because it doesn't get all dried out, it stays cheesy and creamy. It has great flavor, and I truly believe it is the best. Trust me...I am a real mac and cheese snob!

Recipe

1 8oz. package elbow macaroni
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded cheese (I use Cheddar or a mix of whatever I have on hand)

Topping: More cheese or buttered cornflake crumbs.

Cook macaroni according to package directions, drain water and place in a buttered 1 1/2 quart casserole. Melt butter, stir in flour and blend well. Gradually add milk and cook over medium heat until thick. Add salt and cheese, stirring to melt cheese. gently mix sauce with macaroni. bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Serves 6

Recipe Credit: Cooking with Vestal and Friends

Smoked Sausage, Macaroni, and Tomatoes

I have just recently started to explore “easy” meals. It isn’t that my husband expects a big meal on the table, quite the contrary. He has always requested tomato soup and grilled cheese, but it rarely graces our dinner table. Maybe it is because I am kind of picky myself, maybe I just like to cook, maybe I try to be a modern day Betty…I don’t know why, probably a little bit of all.

The problem is that most nights I just don’t have the time to cook a big meal… then dinner ends up being Qdoba or Pizza. In effort to keep with my menu plans I started cooking “easy” meals on those busy nights.

My husband had mentioned many times how much he liked macaroni and tomatoes. I had never had it, or even heard of it. I finally decided to make it and I couldn’t believe how much I loved it. It is about the easiest meal you could make. There is nothing to it...

1 pkg. smoked sausage
1 box macaroni
2 cans diced tomatoes (I used the chili seasoned kind but use what you like)
1 small can tomato sauce

Cook macaroni according to package directions. While macaroni is cooking, chop the smoked sausage into smaller pieces. Drain macaroni and put back in pot. Add tomatoes and tomato sauce. Place your smoked sausage on top and simmer until the sausage is warmed through.

*This makes a lot of food. If you have a smaller family you may want to consider cutting it in half by using half of the macaroni and one less can of tomatoes. That way I won’t be eating the leftovers all week.

Stuffed Shells

Here is another quick and easy meal per your requests. It is also one that I regularly make for the freezer. I am sure you have seen it on my menu plan, we eat it all the time. The recipe calls for spinach, but you could easily substitute ground beef or whatever you like. I really think this recipe was meant for Popeye, he sure loves him some spinach, doesn't he? Seriously though, even if you *think* you don't like spinach, I challenge you to try it in these shells. It is good for you, afterall!

1 jar spaghetti sauce

1 box of jumbo shells

1 pkg. mozzarella cheese

Filling:

1 onion, diced

10 oz. frozen spinach, cooked and drained

1 chicken bullion cube

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup cottage cheese or ricotta cheese

Cook shells al dente. Mix filling and stuff into shells. Place shells in a baking dish. Pour sauce over shells and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

To freeze:

Prepare dish up to the baking point. Cover and freeze. To eat, thaw, and follow baking instructions.