Cheesy Enchilada Casserole

Cheesy Enchilada Casserole

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
1 lrg Onion
2 1/2 cups of salsa
1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained
1/4 cup Italian Salad Dressing
Taco Seasoning ( I made my own Taco Seasoning, found here. Cumin was already in this so I didn't add it to the dish)
Taco size Tortillas
1 small bag frozen corn OR 1 (15 oz) can of sweet corn, drained
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups Mexican Blend Cheese

Directions
In a large skillet cook the beef and onion. Stir in salsa, beans, corn, dressing, sour cream and taco seasoning. Once cooked spoon a generous about of the meat mixture onto the bottom of a large baking dish. Sprinkle with the Cheese Blend lightly. Layer tortillas on meat mixture. Continue alternating meat mixutre and tortilla layers until the dish is full. Sprinke the top with a generous dose of the cheese blend. Top with foil that has been sprayed with a cooking spray OR use non-stick foil and bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.

Review
Brooks gave this an 8 out of 10. My biggest dish was dirty so I didn't get to layer many times, however, Brooks thinks he'd like it more with more layers. If you are going to double this recipe (which we do so we have left overs for Brooks' lunch) use a LARGE skillet.

**UPDATE**

Brooks says that heating an individual slice of this in the microwave takes about 3 minutes (depending on size). I heated a single slice up in the oven at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes.

.

Bainigí sult as an bia

Pepperoni/Pizza Rolls

I am married to a man that LOVES pepperoni. In any shape, way or vessel. The man is a pepperoni NUT.

Growing up in West Virginia he and his family frequented a bakery callled "Tomorrow's". Their slogan is "tomorrow's bread today". They do have delicious bread. I love their pizza dough. Brooks? He LOVES their Pepperoni Rolls.

I feel bad because we rent and have a very small freezer and when we visit West Virginia he can only bring back so many pepperoni rolls because we don't have room.

I saw this recipe on Pinterest and I thought, "with a few modifications to meet my husbands tastes this could work!"

This recipes is adapted from the blog *Riches to Rags*

Ingredients 

3 cans of Grands Buttermilk Biscuits (8 to a can)
Pepperoni slices (you could also use little sticks)
Blocks  of cheese (Colby Jack, cheddar...I used mozerella string cheese)
Egg wash (1 beaten egg with a little water)
Parmesan
Garlic Powder
Pizza sauce (optional..to dip)

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees.

Cut the blocks of cheese into 24 pieces. Take one raw biscuit and flatten with your hand (not too thin). Lay down two pieces of round pepperoni slices. Stack the cheese on and then top with two additional pieces of round pepperoni slices. Repeat 23 more times. Place completed rolls into a (preferably glass) lasagna pan.

Crack one egg into a bowel and add a tblsp of water and beat until fully integrated. Take a culinary brush and brush the egg wash lightly on top of the rolls.  Lightly sprinkle with garlic powder and Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Make sure you go easy on the egg wash on top. As you can see mine are Golden Brown and delicious, however, some of the dough was still a bit raw. Thankfully, there was enough risidual heat in the oven that another 2 minutes did the trick.  

Ok, this is the orignial recipes. The only things I modified were
#1. I did not use Italian Seasoning
#2 I cut Mozerella String Cheese into thirds for the cheese
#3 I used 4 pieces of pepperoni (two on bottom and two on top of the cheese)...because, as I said, my husband LOVES pepperoni.

Results

My husband gave these an 8 out of 10. However, he said they tasted a whole lot more like Pizza Rolls than Pepperoni Rolls. Which isn't a BAD thing because we like Pizza Rolls....but I was going for more of a pepperoni rolls thing. His suggestion to make them less like Pizza Rolls is to 86 the garlic powder all together, no parmesan sprinkling and use Cheddar cheese inside instead of string cheese. 

However, he did say that these are delicious for Pizza Rolls and asked to take some to work tomorrow for lunch :) 


**UPDATE**

These heat up VERY nice in the microwave. I heat up about 4 of them in the microwave for about 1 1/2 minutes. Dipped in a little pizza sauce 4 of these will TOTALLY fill you up.

Bainigi sult as an bia

Sausage Stuffed Zucchini

So, I have been trying really hard lately to figure out ways to add more veggies to our diets. Stuffed veggies opened a whole new world to me. This is my first attempt. Brooks gave it 10. He said it I should boil the Zucchini a little longer to make it a little more tender (I originally only boiled for 10 minutes). A 10 from Brooks is a HUGE compliment because he's basically a food snob :)

This recipe is adapted from about.com by Diana Rattray

Ingredients

1 lb pork sausage
2 large Zucchini
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 tblsp minced garlic (we REALLY like garlic so I probably used 1 1/2 tblsp)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup crushed slatine crackers (I used red box Zesta)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp salt
pepper (I lightly covered the entire top of the pan while cooking the meat...I didn't measure)


Instructions

Boil the Zucchini whole for 15 minutes. (Keep an eye on it at 15 minutes. You want the Zucchini to be soft enough to 'mash' the inside easily and you want the outside tender because it won't get much more tender when baking it BUT u want it firm enough to hold the fillings).

Cut the Zucchini in halves and scoop out the meat inside. Scoop out as much of the meat as you can, however, make sure to leave a least a thin layer or the Zucchini will be too unstable to hold the filling. Put the meat in a mixing bowl and set aside.

In a large skillet brown the sausage with the onion. Once everything is cook add the garlic, the thyme, the salt and pepper.

In the mixing bowl mash the Zuchinni meat (there will look like there is A LOT of liquid but I promise the crackers and parm cheese will soak it up). Add the egg, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese and cracker crumbs and mix well.

Add this mixture to the meat mixture and FULLY integrate it.

In a backing dish line up the Zucchini and scoop the filling into the Zucchini. They will be very full but that's a good thing.

Sprinkle the tops with a healthy dose of parmesan cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.


Possible changes for future:

Brooks suggested adding 1/2 cup of shredded cheese (cheddar, mozerella, colby jack, etc) to help bind the filling to the Zucchini better. The filling does slide off a bit but it's still RIDICULOUSLY yummy!

UPDATE::::
To reheat extra Zucchini boats goes WONDERFULLY in the oven at 300 degrees for 15-17 minutes. Keeps the crunch of the Parmesan cheese on top. Brooks tried in the microwave and said it wasn't as good.

Also, a small amount of cheddar cheese before the parmesan cheese was delicious.

2ND UPDATE::

Ok, if you don’t wanna worry about stuffing the zucchini I’ve got the solution: casserole. That’s right. After you cut open the boiled zucchini simply chop it into chunks and mix it in with the sausage mixture. Top with bread crumbs or crushed up saltines and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes and bam  you have a casserole! 

Bainigí sult as an bia