String Pie ( A Reader Recipe)

Welcome to my very first Reader Recipe post!

I am so very excited about this.

I've been wanting to do this for a while and I'm hoping you'll all come through and give me some great recipes! 

(If you have no idea what I'm talking about click HERE to read my original call for help.)

Of course my first few recipes are going to be from friends, because they are the best for stealing  getting recipes from when you're getting started.

This one is from one of my very good friends from High School.

I just happened to ask her what she made for dinner one night last week and she said "String Pie".

I asked "What the heck is string pie?"  I couldn't even imagine what it was.  I really had no idea.

Well when I asked 2 of my kids what they thought string pie was they gave me these answers:

1. Probably some kind of casserole with shredded meat
2. Noodles

Apparently they are smarter than me.... well at least one of them is.  ;)

String Pie is, in fact, noodles.  

Well not JUST noodles... but noodles with a few other yummy things thrown in too.

It's pretty much like lasagna or baked spaghetti... but a little different.

Oh and did I mention that it's AWESOME?... hmm... well, it is!

This is why I already LOVE this reader recipe thing.

I was so excited about it, I asked her to e mail it to me right away.

So...Thank you Miss Helena... your String Pie is my first Reader Recipe!

Here it is:

Ingredients:
2lb ground beef

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped green peppers

1 Jar(26 oz)spaghetti sauce or you can go here for my recipe for homemade sauce

8oz spaghetti cooked,drained (this is about 1/2 of a box)

1/3 cup parm cheese

2 eggs beaten

2 tsp butter

1 (24 oz) container cottage cheese

2 3/4 cup shreded cheese

Directions:

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees

Cook beef,onion and peppers over med-high heat until brown then drain grease

Mix in spaghetti sauce

In seperate pan, boil spaghetti noodles until al dente (not quite done)

Drain noodles

In a bowl, combine spaghetti, parm cheese,eggs and butter ... Mix well

Place  noodles in bottom of 13x9 baking pan

Spread cottage cheese over top of noodles

Next, cover cotage cheese  with sauce/meat mixture (forgot to take a pic of that step...oops)

Sprinkle with cheese ( I used 2 different kinds... just for fun)

Bake 20-25 min or untill cheese is melted

Half mozzarella half cheddar

Makes about 12 servings

***Review:

Oh my goodness... this was so yummy!  It sounded so fun and it was.  But it was also very very good.  I will definitely add this to the favorites list.  Obviously, you can tell I loved it.  But the great thing is, all but one child loved it too!  The hubs is also in love with this.  I am so very happy I made this!
*Edit: I forgot to mention that I think it needed a little salt.  You may not agree... so I didn't add it to the ingredients. 

**Tips:

I used whole grain linguini on accident... it worked out just fine.  My guess is, you could use any pasta if you had to and it would work... but then it wouldn't be "String" Pie anymore.  I know it would still taste good though. 

I didn't add green peppers because I can't really eat them... and adding the onions was a mistake because my one super picky child found them and refused to eat it.  Grrr!  But I liked them.

When pouring the raw eggs over the noodles make sure that you mix it quickly, the hot noodles will start to cook the egg and you don't want it to get lumpy. 

 If you want to save yourself from washing yet another dish, just mix the noodles with the eggs and cheese right in the pan you cooked it in.
Also, don't over cook the pasta when you're boiling it.  You are cooking it twice and don't want it to get soggy in the "pie".

Make sure to watch this closely in your oven at the 20 minute mark. If you take it out too soon, the center won't be hot enough... but you don't want to burn the cheese either.  Everyones oven is different.  I cooked it for 25 minutes and then broild it for almost 2 minutes to brown the cheese.

Oh.. speaking of cheese... I used half Mozzarlla and half cheddar to see which I liked better. I liked them both. Mozz tended to give it a more italian flavor but the cheddar gave it more of a cheeseburger pie flavor.  I liked doing it half and half.. and will probably do that again.  I'm wierd!

Printer friendly recipe:

String Pie
Ingredients:

2lb ground beef

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped green peppers

1 jar(26 oz)spaghetti sauce or you can go here for my recipe for homemade sauce

8oz spaghetti cooked,drained (this is about 1/2 of a box)

1/3 cup parm cheese

2 eggs beaten

2 tsp butter

1 (24 oz) container cottage cheese

2 3/4 cup shreded cheese

  Directions:

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees

Cook beef,onion and peppers over med-high heat until brown then drain grease

Mix in spaghetti sauce

In seperate pan, boil spaghetti noodles until al dente (not quite done)

Drain noodles

In a bowl, combine spaghetti, parm cheese,eggs and butter ... Mix well

Place  noodles in bottom of 13x9 baking pan

Spread cottage cheese over top of noodles

Next, cover cotage cheese  ith sauce/meat mixture

Sprinkle with cheese

Bake 20-25 min or untill cheese is melted

Makes about 12 servings

Meatball Sub Casserole

Well, I don't know about you but this winter weather is getting to me already.

I miss the sunshine.

I miss the warm air.

I miss my motivation!

For some reason, I have not felt like cooking at all this past week

I mean, I'm even too lazy to put something in the crockpot

Yeah... it's that bad.

My kids need clean socks

Hubs needs clean work clothes

And here I am.... sitting in my heated blanket.

Blah! 

I just don't feel like doing anything.

I think I have that seasonal affective disorder

Or I'm just lazy...lol 

Luckily, I have a stockpile of things in the freezer

And my father in law made dinner for me one night.

He's a great cook, by the way! Mmmm!

Last night I got a little motivation and made a recipe I haven't made in years

My friend Laura made it for me when I had a baby and I had to have the recipe.

It's great!

I've been wanting to share it with you, but didn't have all the ingredients in the house at one time

Until recently.

See, I have these rules....

Like, grocery rules.

There are certain things I WILL NOT buy unless they are a certain price.

My friends are laughing right now because they know this and make fun of me for it

For example I will not buy grapes unless they are under a dollar per pound!  No exceptions.

Yes, really.

It can't be helped..... I have standards....lol

One of the other things I won't buy is pre made meatballs.

They are expensive...

So I wait until they go on sale BOGO and then I buy a few bags and keep them in the freezer.

Last week they went on sale....

So now I can share my recipe with you!

And in case you're wondering, yes, I do have my own meatball recipe. 

But remember above how I said I was being lazy?  Yeah.

I'll share that recipe with you another time.

Ingredients:
1 loaf Italian bread
8 oz. Cream cheese
1/2 C Mayo
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp Pepper
2 C Shredded Mozzarella
1 lb.  Frozen meatballs (thawed)
28 oz. Jar pasta sauce or make your own with my homemade sauce recipe
1 C Water

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
Slice bread into 1 inch slices

Arrange slices in an ungreased 9x13 baking dish

In a bowl, combine cream cheese, mayo & spices
Spread them onto bread in dish

Sprinkle bread with 1/2 C shredded cheese

In another bowl, mix meatballs, sauce & water and stir
Pour meatball mixture over bread in baking dish

Sprinkle with remaining cheese

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!! 


***Review:
I got an all thumbs up for this!  ALL of them!  Can you believe it?  It's a Christmas miracle!
This is a great comfort food on a cold night! I love it!  Now that I have lots of meatballs, I can make it more often ;)

**Tips:
You may want to use more than 1 lb of meatballs.  There just wasnt enough in this dish... although I didn't measure them, I think next time I will just make sure the whole top of the dish is covered in meatballs. 
As for the Moz. cheese, I think I might add more of that too.  I actually added a little fresh Parmesan to the top of mine as well to give it a little more flavor (aprox. 1/4 C)
Also, I forgot to defrost the meatballs before I added them to the sauce so they went in mostly frozen.  It seemed to work out fine.  I just left it in the oven a few minutes longer....making sure to keep and eye on it so the cheese didn't burn.  No one likes burnt cheese. 
The only complaint I got from this dish is that it was "too cheesy" meaning the cream cheese part.  I didn't add the whole bowl of mixture to the bread slices.  I just basically "buttered" each slice with the mayo/cream cheese mix and had a lot left over. Next time I might just cut that part of the recipe in half and see if that is better.  I still liked it this way, but I think a little less cream cheese would be good.
Oh and last but not least, this took about 45 minutes from fridge to table.  Not too shabby!

Crustless Turkey Pot Pie Topped with Stuffing

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. 

I had a great time with my family and friends! 

I wish I could have stayed another few weeks! 

Always so much to do and not enough time to fit it all in!

Anyway....

My mom made this great crustless version of a chicken pot pie... turkey style

It actually would be a great dish to serve on Thanksgiving if you didn't have a turkey

It's got all the fixings.... turkey, stuffing... and so on.

But we made it after Thanksgiving with all our leftover turkey. 

We had a lot of leftovers

My mom made a LOT of food

As always

So, she got creative and made this dish.

We ate it with a side of leftover mashed potatoes

And my leftover pumpkin cheesecake

Basically an awesome leftover meal. 

If you want to try it out, check it out below:

Ingredients:
2 C Turkey/chicken, cooked & diced
2 Potatoes, diced
2 Carrots, diced
1/2 C Onion, finely diced
1 Can corn, drained  (or peas, green beans etc.)
2 Cans cream of chicken soup
1/2 C Chicken broth
2 Boxes stove top stuffing (whole wheat turkey)  Any kind would do
1/4 tsp Chicken seasoning
1/8 tsp Pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Boil the potatoes and carrots until they are half done
Drain and set aside
Sautee Onions (or boil them with the other veggies if you don't want to sautee them)
Add veggies to a bowl and add all other ingredients except stove top.
Mix well and place in a greased 9x13 dish
Prepare stovetop according to package directions and add to top of chicken mix
Bake for 45 min or until heated through


Here is a photo taken after we all dove in... I totally forgot to take a pic until after we ate!

***Review:

Hubs and I loved this.  3 of the kiddos ate it and 2 hated it.... I know, shocking!  All the other adults loved it too.  It was a great way to eat up all the leftover turkey!

**Tips:

You can add any veggies you want to this dish... it's up to you.  Don't leave out the potatoes, but pretty much anything you want to add will work.  You could probably even throw all the ingredients in the crockpot (adding the stuffing the last 1/2 hour or so) and it would be great! You might add a little more broth and cook for about 3-4 hours on low. 

Turkey corn casserole

Ok... I will admit right off that I did not want to make this dish.

I would not consider myself a food snob, but there are certain foods I won't eat

Hamburger helper is among them (sorry if you like hamburger helper)

This dish kind of reminded me of a hamburger helper-ish meal

Anyway, long story longer, I had a yummy chicken dish I was going to make tonight

I went to the freezer to grab the bag of chicken that I knew was there and guess what?

Hubby decided to use it to experiment with a recipe of his own (yes... the whole bag)

This is in no way a good thing, since hubby is ONLY good at making breakfast foods.

One day I will tell you the story of him making his own BBQ sauce..... not pretty

Anyway... there was no chicken. 

There were also 70 mph winds and tornado warnings... so I wasn't going to the store.

What to do? What to do?

I searched the pantry, the freezers and the cookbooks.

I came up with this somehow. 

Really I think it was just that I didn't have much food on hand and I happened to have all the ingredients for this dish. 

Also, I was starving....so it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Guess what?  It WAS a good idea. 

I liked it.  Granted, I was starving..... but I wasn't the only one who liked it.

The kids liked it

The neighbor liked it

Did I mention I liked it?

The hubby liked it... a lot.

This is what the pan looked like when I got home last night:

This is in no way a "company" type meal though.

Meaning, I would never serve it to company( because it's not pretty - see photo below), but it did the job...and that's what counts right?

No Dinner drama for this mama!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
- 1lb ground turkey
- 2 cans cream of mushroom soup
- 1(16oz) pkg egg noodles
- 1 (15 oz) can corn (drained)

- 2 (10.75 ounce) cans cream of mushroom soup

- salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x13 casserole dish
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add noodles, cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until not quite done, and drain.
Place turkey in a skillet over medium heat, and cook until evenly brown. Drain grease.
In a bowl, gently mix cooked noodles and turkey, corn, and soup. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to the prepared baking dish.
Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until bubbly.


***Review:
As you can tell from what I wrote above, we really liked this one.  It's not pretty, but it's a decent dinner... it tastes good... which is half of what counts...lol

**Tips:
As you can see from my lovely photos, I did not use egg noodles.  Why? because hubby somehow used those too and left me with a half of a bag.  I improvised and used bow tie noodles... they worked fine, which leads me to believe you could pretty much use any kind of pasta you want in this dish. 
Also, next time I might throw a little cheese on top just for fun!  I also think you could easily use ground beef or even shredded chicken or turkey... pretty versatile dish.  Add a few green veggies too and it might look better...lol

Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole

Well it's a little late, but here is the last edition of what to do with your leftover chicken.

My son requested this recipe last week. 

Did you hear that?  My 8 year old son requested for me to make chicken!

Not pizza, not take out, not mac 'n cheese.... CHICKEN.

It was a proud moment. :)

I got this recipe in 2006 from our MOPS cookbook.  (thank you Jessica)

It's a pretty easy recipe.  I think my son could've made it himself... no, I'm not kidding.

Here we go..............

Ingredients:

- 6 chicken breasts (or a whole small chicken shredded)
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 1/2 Tbs poppyseeds
- 1/2 C butter melted
- 8 oz. Ritz crackers crushed (about 1 roll/package)

Directions:

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees
Boil chicken and cut into bite sized pieces (or use leftover cooked chicken)
Place chicken into a greased 9x13 casserole dish
In a bowl, mix soup, sour cream and poppy seeds
Pour mix over chicken pieces in casserole dish
Crush crakers in a bowl and pour melted butter over them
Mix to coat , then pour them over the top of casserole dish
Bake for 30 minutes or until heated through

***Review:
We love this dish. It's one of those foods that I will eat a second serving of just because it tastes so good...and not because I'm still hungry.  My kids love this dish.  My 14 year old who thinks I'm a horrid cook tasted this and smiled.  The other kids love it as well.  It's a definite winner at my house.   Apparently it's a winner at my parents house as well.  I made this for my mom and dad and they both loved it too!  Yay!

**Tips:
I usually make this chicken in the fall.... I think it's because after Thanksgiving, I need to use up all that leftover turkey.  Which brings me to my point.... this is GREAT with turkey.  A lot of times I buy those pre cooked chickens at the store when they go on clearance and then shred one up to use for this dish.
As for cooking tips go, I noticed that the top browned pretty good when I made it this time.  I didn't have my original recipe card with me but noticed when I got home that I wrote "cover w/foil" on the side.  Hmmm... maybe that wouldn't be a bad idea. I didn't mind the crackers being golden, but if you're not careful, it could get ugly fast.... so either use foil or really watch it. 

Here is what it looked like just out of the oven

And here it is on the plate! 



Let me know if you try this or if you have a similar recipe! 

Swiss Chicken... Crockpot OR Casserole

Ingredients:
- 6 Chicken Breasts
- 6 Slices of Swiss cheese
- 1 can Cream of mushroom soup
- 1 can Cream of Chicken
- 1 C Milk
- 1 bag of large croutons (cheese or garlic flavor)

Directions for CROCKPOT:
Add chicken to crockpot (mine was frozen)
Place a slice of cheese over each chicken breast
In a bowl, mix soups, milk and croutons.
Pour mix over chicken in crockpot.
Cook on high 4 hours or low 8 hrs.
Yes... it's that easy!

Directions for CASSEROLE:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Grease/spray bottom of 9x13 baking dish
put chicken in the bottom of pan
Cover each breast with a slice of cheese
In a bowl, mix soups, milk and croutons.
Pour mix evenly over chicken in baking dish
Bake for 90 minutes.

***Review:
This is a great meal. I first had it after I had a baby and my friend Elisa brought me dinner. I have been making it ever since. Its easy and tasty.... my kind of food! Originally, it was a casserole to be baked, but I figured it would work in the crockpot and I was right!
The hubby loves it ... I am a fan! The kids? a few will eat it a few wont... it's chicken... so it's always hit or miss no matter how you cook it.

**Tips:
One of the reasons I love this dish is that, not only is it easy, but you can make it and freeze it. I used to lay out about 4 disposable baking pans and make 4 dinners in a matter of minutes. As long as you have all the stuff out, you might as well make a few. (If you're going to freeze it, then you can use frozen chicken breasts). I would then freeze them and either use them for us when I was short on time... or when another family needed dinner. The only kicker is you have to thaw it the night before if you plan on using it the next day... so you have to plan a little... but still... easy dinner to keep on hand.

Breakfast for Dinner

Breakfast Casserole
Ingredients:
 - 6 slices of bread torn coarsely

- 1 lb bulk sausage cooked & drained

- 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar

- 6 med. eggs

- 2 cups Milk

- 1 tsp salt

-1/4 tsp pepper

Directions:

• Pre-heat ove to 350
• Lightly grease 13x9 baking pan or casserole dish
• Place torn bread in bottom of pan
• Top with sausage and cheese
• In seperate bowl, beat eggs, milk, salt and pepper
• Pour over bread/sausage/cheese mixture in pan
• Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until mixture is set in center and lightly browned.

*** Review:
This is a great dish. I got it out of the back of a magazine many years ago. I make it when I need to serve a lot of people for breakfast, because it's yummy and fast. But sometimes, breakfast for dinner is fun too.

Our whole family loves this dish.

**Tips:
One thing I do is leave the bread out overnight so it gets a little stale ... sometime I would like to try using some italian or french bread for a little bit of a different texture. You could also probably use leftover dinner rolls or anything similar. I like this dish just how it is.. but you cold probably experiment and add a few veggies if you wanted.... I bet that would be good. I also make the sausage the day before usually because I am NOT a morning person and it's just one less step... plus I hate going into the day smelling like fried food.
You can use any sort of shredded cheese too... I used Colby Jack this time because I was out of cheddar. In this recipe I used turkey sausage... it was the first time I'd done that and I loved it! 

Let me know what YOU think!!

Taco Cornbread Casserole

Ingredients-
- 2 boxes of Jiffy Cornbread
- 2 eggs
- 2/3 C Milk
- 1-2 Lbs ground meat (burger or turkey)
- 1 pkg taco seasoning
*1 Can corn (drained)
*1 can Black Beans (rinsed & drained)
*1 can Diced Tomato (drained)
*Sour cream (on the side)
*Salsa (on the side)

(* items are all optional)

Directions-

• Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
• Brown meat and drain
• Add taco seasoning and mix
• Add corn, beans & tomato to the meat mix (you can add any or none of these if you don't like them)
• Put meat into bottonm of 8x10 dish
• Mix the jiffy mix with eggs and milk and pour batter evenly over top of meat.
• Bake or 20-30 minutes @ 400 degrees or until cornbread is golden AND cooked through.
• This will make 8 large portions

***Review:

This is one of my kids (and our) favorites! They don't like it when I add tomato... but I did today and they just picked them out. We top it with sour cream and salsa and mash it all up in the bowl. It's an easy quick meal. I think it took about 40 minutes total...

** Tips:

Sometimes I keep frozen taco meat in the freezer and use that and it cuts out a step.

One problem I run across is that sometimes after 20 minutes, the cornbread is golden, but not totally done in the center... next time I may try covering it near the end. Also, if you don't drain the veggies & meat well, the dish will be watery when you cut into it.

You could also try this in the crockpot, but I personally think it would be more work than it's worth to do it that way. I figure if I'm already using the stove to cook the meat I may as well put it in the oven for 20 minutes.

One last thing... if you don't have a large family, you can cut the recipe in half and use an 8x8 dish.

Thanks to my friend Allison who gave me this recipe years ago in a frantic Dinner Drama moment!