Mom has made this Baked Ziti forever, or it feels like it anyways, and hopefully it will become one of your favorites!  Just looking at it makes me drool!  Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• 1 onion chopped
• 1/2 pound ziti
• 1 container (15 ounces) ricotta cheese (may use less if desired)
• 3 cups (12 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
• 3 cups bottled spaghetti sauce divided (I use the whole jar)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 cloves garlic,minced or about 1 teaspoon of kind in a jar

DIRECTIONS

PREHEAT OVEN TO 350 DEGREES.  Cook ground beef, onion and garlic; stirring frequently. Cook until done then add spaghetti sauce and oregano.  Let Simmer.  In a large pot, cook ziti in boiling water until just barely tender; drain and place in a large bowl.  Mix the ricotta cheese WITH appx.4 ounces OF mozzarella cheese and about 1 cup of the spaghetti sauce with the ziti.  Grease a 9 x 13 baking pan; cover bottom of pan with 1/3 the spaghetti sauce.  Spoon half the ziti mixture into the pan; cover with half OF the remaining spaghetti sauce and half of the cheese.

REPEAT.

Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese and top with the remaining mozzarella cheese.  Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until cheese melts and is lightly golden.

Note: serve with garlic toast and salad

Note 2: For a lighter toast version, place toast under broiler to brown then rub in garlic clove to add flavor (see pic)

Mmmm, this squash dressing is sooooo good! I’m always looking for creative ways to cook squash and can’t wait to make this for the next holiday! I’d love to hear if you’ve tried this, you version of it or any other creative squash recipe you might make.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 large onion
• 1 stick of margarine
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 c. cooked squash drained
• 2 c. cooked cornbread crumbled
• Salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS

Sauté onions lightly in margarine. Mix with other ingredients. Bake at 350 for 35 to 45 minutes.

* I cooked my squash with the onions, and then mixed everything together.
Tip: Be sure to drain all the excess fluid from the squash!!

Just another side dish idea.  We try to cook potatoes in a variety of ways and for everything but mashed, we use red potatoes. Basically you throw all this in a bowl, mix and bake. Pretty simple. I chose to use light dressing and no cheese since I’m trying to lose weight but normally we do add cheese.  Another great variation of this if you don’t like ranch, is to chop up an onion, mix it in, and cover with 1 cubed stick of butter.  Ummm, yeah, not so great on the heart but it sure is good.

The casserole pan is Emile Henry, some of the finest bakeware around. I love the way it cooks and if you have the chance to pick up some pieces for yourself, you should!

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup Light Kraft Ranch Dressing
• 1/2 cup Kraft Shredded Cheddar Cheese (optional)
• 1/4 cup Oscar Mayer Real Bacon Bits (or real bacon)
• 2 lb. small red potatoes, quartered
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
• Salt & Pepper

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix dressing, cheese and bacon bits in large bowl. Add potatoes; toss lightly.  Spoon into lightly greased 13×9-inch baking dish; cover with foil.  Bake 40 min. Remove foil; bake an additional 15 min. or until potatoes are tender. Sprinkle with parsley.

Have you ever set out to make something only to realize that you don’t have the ingredients so you’re scurrying around trying to think of something else to make?  Well, try being in that situation when you’re feeding a cowboy crew.

This recipe would be one of those times and even though it was pretty good overall, some improvements can be made no doubt, in which I’ll leave up to you.  I needed something that would cook within an hour so I wasn’t thinking, at the time, what I should or shouldn’t do.  Clearly, I should have done something because the rice ended up like an oatmeal texture. In fact, my husband said, “Was that oatmeal or rice?”.  UGH.

You can see how I did the recipe below but I would love for you to tell me what I should have done differently or to improve the texture of the rice. I basically threw it all in a casserole pan and baked it and have never baked rice in the oven before.  I could use your expertise here folks!

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cans of cream of chicken (I used cream of mushroom because it’s all I had)
• 1 onion
• 2 cups of rice
• a whole bunch of thighs (chicken of course:)

DIRECTIONS

Cut your onion up, skin your chicken (or not) and throw it and the rest of the ingredients  in a casserole pan, adding water to cover.  Bake for one hour in a 350′ oven.

I’m actually not a fan of squash but everyone I know loves it.  I try to cook it often for my family and for the cowboys but get tired of the same ol’ fried squash.  I decided this time around to try some baked squash.  I fed the cowboys today and must have done something right with the recipe because the entire casserole dish was empty!  Makes me wish I had tried a little bit of it.

INGREDIENTS

• 5 pounds medium−size yellow squash
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup bread crumbs plus additional bread crumbs for topping
• 1 stick butter or margarine
• 1/4 cup sugar
• Salt, to taste
• 2 tablespoons chopped onion
• Dash of pepper

DIRECTIONS

Cut tips off squash and cut each squash into 3 or 4 pieces. Drop squash into a large saucepan with enough boiling water to cover. Return to boil, reduce heat and cook until tender. Drain in colander and mash. Combine with beaten eggs, 1 cup bread crumbs, butter, sugar, salt, onion and pepper. Turn into 3−quart casserole that has been lightly greased or sprayed with nonstick
spray. Cover with light layer of bread crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

Remember my Shrimp Stroganoff Casserole? Well, it’s in the April issue of Taste of Home! I found out a while back that it was going to be in there and was so excited! I was told it had been made in several of the Taste of Home testing kitchens and they were giving it thumbs up all around, which made me feel very good.

Casseroles really are making a comeback it seems even though they’ve always been a part of our family’s meal time.  You really can make a lot with very few ingredients which is great for big families and freezes well for smaller families.

I love breakfast casseroles, dessert casseroles, and of course casseroles that serve as a main dish.  I don’t think I could have ever fed 50 cowboys & cowgirls without a casserole!

Thanks for letting me brag a little!

P.S.  They took a good picture of the dish but I think mine is better…..just sayin’

P.P.S.  If you don’t have cream of shrimp, cream of chicken will do!  I get asked that a lot;)

This is mine…..well, maybe their shrimp looks better than mine huh?  lol

Sounds slightly fancy but it’s actually VERY easy to make and really not fancy at all….lol  Casseroles are making a comeback which is not a surprise with our current economic situation so when I can find a good casserole that is cost friendly and easy, I run with it full speed ahead.

This recipe calls for frozen diced hash browns in a bag but could easily be made with real potatoes.  Since the majority of my readers are working women who don’t have time to peel, dice and bake potatoes once they get off from work, I decided to share the frozen version with you to help speed things up a bit.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 32oz bag of frozen diced hash browns
• 8 oz grated cheddar cheese
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 16oz container of sour cream
• 1 can of cream of chicken or mushroom
• 1 stick of butter melted
• chopped chives

DIRECTIONS

Make sure your chives are chopped and then mix ALL the ingredients in a big bowl.  Pour in a 9×13 pan and bake for 1 hour at 375′, uncovered.

IT IS THAT EASY!

TIP: If you don’t want to use grated cheddar cheese, then you could use a can of cheese soup which is actually better but I didn’t have any.

Great side dish for pork chops!

My sister-in-law was so gracious enough as to submit a King Ranch Casserole with her own flay-va!  She really is an awesome cook and I hope that one day she’ll share her family recipe for her pecan pie….HEAVEN!!!

A couple of the things in her recipe are optional.  As always, substitute, omit, or whatever you want to your liking:)  ENJOY

INGREDIENTS:

• 10 3/4 oz cream of Mush
• 10 3/4 oz cream of Chicken
• 10 oz diced tomatoes w/ green chilies
• 1 small can black olives (OPT)
• 1 8oz soften Cream Cheese
• 2 lbs Ground Beef or( 2 C. Chicken-precooked)-we prefer beef
• 12 Corn Tortillas, broken to fit pan
• 2 C shredded cheese
• Uncle Chris’s seasoning (OPT) -our favorite on everything.

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven 350F. Lightly mist 9×13 casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray.  Brown meat add seasoning’s (of choice) , drains excess grease. Add Cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, Diced tomatoes w/ green chilies and cream cheese. (I cube the cream cheese)

Use 1/2 the tortillas tear and layer bottom of dish until covered, add all meat & soup mixture, take other half of tortillas, tear in pieces and place on top of meat mixture, until covered. Top with Cheese & olives. Bake 30 – 45 mins. I like to brown the cheese on top. We love olives and cream cheese and added them to this recipe for my own special touch.  Serve with garlic bread….

THANKS SO MUCH TO MY AWESOME SIL FOR SUBMITTING HER RECIPE!!  SHE DOESN’T HAVE A BLOG SO I CAN’T SHOW HER SOME LOVE………SINCE I CAN’T, PLEASE WELCOME HER IN THIS POST AND ENCOURAGE HER TO SUBMIT MORE RECIPES:)

Okay, so I really don’t know the name of this recipe. It was given to me by a friend of mine years ago. It’s been a cowboy favorite for many years for me. People try to take short cuts like NOT pan frying the patties but you can’t do that! It’s not the same if you don’t pan fry them! Thank you to Johnna for giving me the recipe and many others.

INGREDIENTS:

• Ground beef formed into patties
• Cheddar Cheese
• 2 Cans Cream of chicken or 1 can of cream of chicken & 1 of cream of mushroom
• Green Chilies but I highly recommend Rotel!  I know many of you don’t have Rotel though.
• Flour

DIRECTIONS:

Flour up your patties and start frying them.  While they are cooking, mix up your cream of soups and green chilies and set aside.  When patties are done, place in casserole dish and cover with soup mixture.  Top with cheese and bake in 350′ oven until warm and cheese melts.

Served with my quick bread rolls, green beans and mash taters!

Not the best picture I know but I was having a bad day;)

This republished easy to make recipe came from Lisa over at Lisa Cooking.  She says it’s one of her many recipes that is very popular and I assume it’s ease of preparation has something to do with it.  Thanks Lisa for submitting it!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 cup diced pepperoni
• 5 Tbs of diced onions
• 1 jar chunky tomato pasta sauce
• 1 box (10.6 oz) Pillsbury refrigerated Parmesan breadsticks with garlic
• 2 cups shredded Colby-Monterrey Jack cheese blend

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 12×8 (2 qt) glass baking dish with cooking spray.

Brown ground beef and drain. Stir in pepperoni, onions, and pasta sauce. Cook until boiling.

Unroll dough into 1 large rectangle. Spread garlic mixture from the box evenly over the dough. Separate dough into 10 breadsticks. Cut each breadstick into 3 crosswise pieces.

Pour ground beef mixture into baking dish. Spread dough pieces evenly over hot ground beef mixture.

Bake 15 – 18 minutes or until topping is golden brown and no longer doughy. Sprinkle with cheese and bake 10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.