Tin Foil Dinner!

The other night I wanted to make tin foil dinners....but it's been so many years that I was a little concerned I'd forget something important..... I finally decided to look up a recipe or two to make sure I didn't skip anything, and ended up following THIS recipe almost exactly. Four out of five of us really enjoyed it, so we'll keep it here for next time! 

This was the ingredient list, and I'll tell you what changes I made.

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• ▢1 package dry onion soup mix
• ▢4 small potatoes peeled and sliced
• ▢2 cups carrots chopped
• ▢1 large or 2 small onions, sliced
• ▢2 tablespoons olive oil
• ▢1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ▢salt & pepper to taste
• ▢condensed mushroom soup

My quantities made 6 meals.
I used 1.5 lbs of ground beef, which I did mix with a packet of dry onion soup. I did five potatoes, peeled and sliced. I did two very large and three small carrots, and a little more than half an onion. I did not mix the vegetables, I layered them like I am accustomed to. I layered some potatoes in each, then sprinkled with a bit of seasoning salt. Then I added the carrots, then some onion, and then I drizzled on olive oil, with a bit of kosher salt and one twist of black pepper. Then I put the meat patty on top of that, and put roughly two tbsp cream of mushroom soup on top of that. I spread it a little over the meat, then folded the tin foil up around it, and laid four meals on a hot baking sheet that had preheated in the oven, at 375. After 45 mins, we ate!
Then I cooked the last two because someone came home from work late, and the 6th meal was eaten as leftovers the next night! 

I did toss maybe 1 tbsp of the cream of mushroom soup because I honestly didn't feel like I could add any more to the meals, and I had no idea what we would do with the leftover bit. That can was in our food storage a long time... 
The only complaints were that two people would have preferred a lot more potatoes and another would have liked a lot more carrots, so next time I'll do more vegetables. But it was tasty, and the flavors also worked well with A1 sauce on the meat! 

~~~
7/20/2022
I forgot what I was doing and diced the onion, so I put that down first, then a hamburger patty, with a couple drops of worcestershire sauce, a bit of black pepper, then cream of mushroom soup, potatoes, carrots, and a bit of seasoning salt. 

Swedish Meatballs from Scratch

Fantastic recipe for Swedish Meatballs. Found it on a website called Damn Delicious. Here is the link to the original post on the website. Family loved it and it makes plenty for a family of five. Made a slight change from the original recipe by adding the dried parsley directly to the gravy instead of using it as a garnish.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound ground pork
• 1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

FOR THE GRAVY

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 cups beef broth
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley leaves

DIRECTIONS:
Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until onions have become translucent, about 2-3 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine ground beef, ground pork, Panko, egg yolks, allspice, nutmeg and cooked onion; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Using a wooden spoon or clean hands, stir until well combined. Roll the mixture into 1 1/4-to-1 1/2-inch meatballs, forming about 24 meatballs.

Add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to the skillet. Add meatballs, in batches, and cook until all sides are browned, about 4-5 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.

To make the gravy, melt butter in the skillet. Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in beef broth and cook, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in sour cream and then the dried parsley; season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Stir in meatballs and cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through and thickened, about 8-10 minutes.

Serve immediately by themselves/on buttered egg noodles with a salad or other vegetables on the side.

Tin Foil Dinners

This is traditionally a camping dinner, but it works out in the oven too! We have a lot of hamburger patties, left from grilling season, so I thought I'd use up four of them! And I'm adding this meal here so I don't forget how I assembled it.

First I put out two sheets of foil, criss-crossing incase of leaks.
I sprinkled some dehydrated onion and laid down the hamburger patty.
I added a few drops of Worcestershire sauce and fresh black pepper to the patties.
I peeled and sliced 3 potatoes and split them between the 4 dinners.
Then I dolloped some cream of mushroom soup for moisture and flavor.
I peeled and cut 5 carrots and split those between the meals too!
Then I wrapped it all up and stuck it in the oven on 400* for an hour.
That was all- easy and filling!

before cooking...

 and after!

The best part was that the kids loooved it! haha!

 

*My husband noted that the hamburger patty probably didn't need the soup, but if you were to do a chicken breast instead, it would definitely need it.

Slow Cooker Italian Beef Sandwiches

Last Sunday's dinner came from here.
My husband (and son!) made buns using the same bread recipe as you find here but this time split into 4oz balls, which made 11 buns, that were about 4 inches in diameter.

Then, he followed the recipe for the meat, other than adding about a Tbsp of red wine vinegar and a Tbsp of Worcestershire sauce.

We ate while the buns were still warm, piling on the meat, a slice of provolone cheese and a side dish of cooked mixed vegetables! It was a yummy meal!

The only changes we would make is let the buns cool, and probably toast them so the meat au jus didn't soak thru quite so quickly.

Dinner was a hit!

So you know I gotta share it here! We made kabobs and flat bread, the kids loved assembling them and they even loved eating it!

We started by thawing two steaks and three chicken breasts.
We marinated the chicken for about three hours, with just:

• 1/4 cup olive oil  
• 1 tbsp granulated garlic
• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp lime juice

We quartered and boiled some "new harvest" red potatoes, and sprinkled them with seasoning salt and olive oil. Then we chopped up half a white onion, a package of button mushrooms, one zucchini and one corn cob. Then we set it all out and let everyone assemble their own kabobs. My husband made a few extras to use up stuff including a steak and potato only skewer, and we still ended up with two chicken-only skewers to cook the leftover chicken.

When we were done making the kabobs, and they were lined up on the cookie sheet at the top of this picture, he drizzled them all with olive oil and a sprinkling of seasoning salt. Then they all hung out on the grill til they were done! (the steaks were quite rare....)

While the kabobs were grilling, we also made THIS flatbread recipe. I added about 1/2 tbsp of dried basil to the mix, and since we have a jar of yeast, rather than packets, we used 3 tsp of yeast as our guessed amount. We pinched off blobs of dough and then rolled it very thin. We brushed the electric griddle with olive oil and threw the dough on sort of like a pancake, flipped it once and that was that!

This is my plate, to give you an idea! (a potato fell off from the middle...) My husband pushed the contents of his skewers onto his flatbread, and ate it sort of like a taco, and my kids discovered they could deal with the mushrooms better if it was with the flatbread.

The chicken was amazing! The flatbread was amazing! The potatoes were fabulous! The zucchini was rather bland, and the corn wasn't great, but the meal was a hit! We have leftovers and definitely plan to make it again!

A different lasagna!

I have now entered the world of Pinterest, have you? That is how I found THIS new dinner idea!

We used ground beef instead of chicken becuase we have more beef right now, lol. It was not a hit, but it was okay. It needed more flavor....but maybe feta is a super flavorful cheese? I used shredded mozzarella in place of the feta. My husband thought it needed salt in the mix, but that's not in the recipe. I used my own spaghetti sauce instead of Prego... I'm not sure what we should have done, lol, but it was filling and reasonably nutritious.

If you make it with chicken and feta, let me know how it turns out! :)

More Success!

Remember that link I shared HERE? Well we've tried two more meals off that site and they were both great!

First up, Pepper jack Potato Soup! (listed under Comfort Food)
We served it with homemade bread for dinner, and then with left overs I've had crackers on the side.
The first thing I have to say about this, is that the time listed on that link is very misleading. It took nearly an hour to make this soup so I was glad I started it way before time to eat! I did not use fresh bell peppers, I had some frozen bell pepper strips and I just chopped up whatever came out of the bag- green, red, yellow. Also, because one of our kids is going thru a phase where she removes anything green found in her food, we pureed the contents of the soup pot before adding potatoes and bacon. hee hee hee.

and then we had Taco Salad! (listed under Mexican)
While I have no doubt I could have easily thrown together foods to create a taco salad, it was nice to have the list right in front of me.
I used 1/2 lb of ground beef (instead of 1lb), black beans (instead of kidney beans) and left off the olives and the ranch dressing (my kids do not like olives, and I didn't think it needed the ranch, so why add the fat?), LOL! Also, instead of crushing the chips and topping them with the salad, I served a scoop of the heated meat/beans/corn, put cheese, lettuce, salsa, and sour cream on top and ate it as a dip. I've mentioned before that my kids tend to eat anything better if it works like a dip, so I take advantage of the opportunity to do so! This picture shows my husband's take on the meal, he got home late and finished off all that was left!

Burger & Fries Casserole

Tonight was one of those nights I didn't want the food in my house but I wanted a good and quick dinner... I was perusing websites looking for something fast that I had all the ingredients for, lol, and THIS is what I found.

It was fast.
It was easy
and it was good!

On the side of that recipe link was a "what people are saying" box and I loved the ideas from "msuavacado". I combined the original recipe with this person's changes and here's what I came up with:

• 1 lb ground beef cooked with dehydrated onion/freshly ground black pepper, and drained
• 2 tbsp flour
• few big squirts ketchup
• about the same amount A1 as ketchup
• 3 drizzles worcestershire sauce

Put meat mix across bottom of casserole dish

• topped with shredded cheese,
• an even row of tator tots and
• a little shredded cheese on top of that.

baked at 425* for 20 minutes, 40 minutes.
served with carrot sticks!
It was a hit!

Next time I'll use the full 1.5 lbs of meat. maybe even more....
....make that 40 minutes. The tator tots in the middle were still frozen after 20 minutes today....

Meatloaf from meat balls!

Remember my meatballs post? I really like those meatballs. My kids both like them now too. We have eaten them at least once a month since that first post, sometimes much more often. I've made them for my parents at least three times, and we actually don't have a nice dinner together all that often! lol!

Well. it is hot here, and I am very, very busy (as so many of us are) and I didn't want to take the time to shape out a bunch of meatballs. I just wanted to eat it. I asked my husband-the-cook if the mixture could be made into a meatloaf..? (my mom didn't make meatloaf one single time until after I was married so this is not a staple I grew up with. but since I do love those meatballs, I bet I'd like the meatloaf just as well...!) He thought it absolutely could, so that is what I did!

Since we used to watch Good Eats every night (until food network got so competition-heavy), I had vague memories of AB not liking square pans because casseroles get dry corners and uncooked centers...and something about dry meatloaf being bad...so I put the meat into a foil lined loaf pan for the first 45 minutes...

and then I turned it out into a rounded baking dish,smothered it in sauce and let it bake that way for the last 15 minutes. I added the extra five minutes to make extra sure the meat in the middle was totally cooked (I like my cows goooood and dead thanks).

As far as meatloaf goes, it was perfect! But it turns out I like the sauce in all three bites of meatloaf and unless you have the end slice, its hard to get the sauce in every bite. But that's okay, it was quicker, less messy and soo tasty!

While I'm on the subject, I should mention the alterations that my-husband-the-cook made to the meat mixture. He added minced garlic, Worcestershire sauce and a drop or two of liquid smoke. He might have changed up a couple other things, but at this moment I don't know what... if I think of them I will add them, so feel free to check back!

Nacho Skillet Dinner

I'm sorry there's been a lack of posts...it was really cold all spring and it just turned really hot so I don't really want to stand at the stove or use the oven. Not to mention the summer festivities and everything going on! But tonight I made a real dinner (hee hee) and tried a new recipe that we think is a keeper!

here's what it looked like:

and the recipe can be found HERE.

of *course* there are edits! :) For one thing, I didn't like the idea of putting the chips in the pan while it simmered....that sounded like they'd get soggy and I really don't care for soggy chips. So we ate the dinner as a dip, which always makes my kids eat better. Also, I will use black beans next time, instead of kidney beans. And my husband added salsa and sour cream to his. All in all? its a keeper!

Edited 10/14/12:
We had some left overs of this mixture and we were out of chips. So I made a quesadilla out of it!

Just laid down a flour tortilla, spread the mix on it, sprinkled it with more cheese, topped it with another quesadilla and there was dinner!

Burgers without a grill!

We do not own a grill. yet. but summer means burgers, so here's what we've got!

Pan-fried burgers with a slice of cheese melted on top, baked beans, chips, carrot sticks, and strawberries! mmmmmm!

Feeling Inept.

Two of my parents staple meals have outsmarted me in the same week.

The first was waffles. My dad makes waffles every Christmas, and for birthdays and oh, any time. But usually for dinner. On Wednesday I used the recipe from Alton Brown in his awesome Good Eats books. Okay, that flop wasn't my fault, it was that our waffle iron only worked on the bottom "plate". It took me two sets to realize that I had to flip the waffle to cook it. The bottoms were crispy and wonderful and the tops looked like soggy bread, even when I turned them. SAD! They tasted good, now we just need a new waffle iron.

Then tonight I made tacos. My mother loves Mexican food and we had it as often as she felt possible. Too frequent for my tastes then. Now, obviously, I love Mexican too and have to space it out for my picky child, lol! Anyway, my mom would brown ground beef with salt and pepper. Then she woudl fry corn tortillas, and most of them were soft tacos, lightly fried for just a couple minutes, I don't know, maybe even less. She would stack the soft taco shells on one side of the same pan holding the browned meat. And we always had shredded cheese, salsa, sour cream, lettuce, tomato and sometimes avacado to put on our own tacos.

I found out...I cannot fry soft tacos. I fry them shut, or they break or they are grossly greasy. I forgot lettuce until I was literally ready to serve. drat.

Next week we'll be back to my staple meals! I can cook those! :)

Meg's Meatballs!

This recipe comes from my favorite stranger-blogger Meg! On her side bar she has rainbow boxes and one is full of yummy-sounding recipes. So tonight my husband and I made her recipe for meatballs which you can find HERE.

My husband the foodie added garlic salt and onion powder, and we used green onions instead of white because we had them. Once again, 3 out of 4 liked it!

We made mashed potatoes with butter, milk, garlic salt and chives, and then had some frozen mixed vegetables to round off the meal. YUM!

"Easy Beef Enchiladas"

This one is my favorite meal. It was kind of a hard day so I treated myself to this. How's that for sass? LOL!

This comes right off the Old El Paso can shown below. And actually, until recently, I half the recipe for my family... All the ingredients I need are here:

Start by thawing your ground beef. I have no idea how much...my husband portions out the beef and sometimes does half pound blobs and sometimes full pound blobs. We were just discussing this the other night and he laughed that I don't bother to know, I just grab a blob and that's how much meat we get in the meal! Anyway, back to the dinner...
I always put freshly ground pepper and salt, and usually dehydrated onion in the pan with my ground beef as I brown it. But in the spirit of New Years, I'm thinking we should skip the salt... And I always drain the grease off my meat.

Heat the oven to 375*. Lightly spray your baking dish. Remove the meat from the pan into a small mixing bowl. For my little family, I pour about half of the enchilada sauce over the meat. The recipe calls for more... I put about two small handfuls of shredded cheese in the bowl now, and mix it up. To get my tortillas to roll easily (instead of tear) I microwave them on a plate for about 25 seconds. Then I scoop spoonfuls of the meat mixture onto a tortilla and roll it up. My pan holds 6 enchiladas, and once they are all rolled up, I pour the rest of the sauce over the enchiladas, sprinkle cheese on top and stick it in to bake for 15-20 minutes!

Mom's {famous} Spaghetti!

It's "famous" because our most frequent wedding gift to give is the recipe and dry ingredients for my mom's spaghetti sauce! Yep, its that good! It's also really, really easy.

Again, I have a family of four, so you may need more, or you might have more leftovers than I do. *grin

ETA 8/31/19: Here's a more clear list of ingredients. Instructions follow.

1 pound ground beef
1 14.5oz cans of stewed or diced tomatoes
2 8oz can tomato sauce
1 tbsp dehydrated onion
salt
black pepper
add the following spices to your liking: (at least half a tsp, as much as a tbsp)
oregano
basil
rubbed sage
ground thyme
parsley
bay leaves (2)
minced garlic or 1-2 garlic cloves, or granulated garlic or garlic powder
onion powder
brown sugar (about 2 tbsp)
*add tomato paste to thicken the sauce, add up to 8oz water to thin the sauce and stretch it for a crowd.

Get out your skillet and get it hot.
Sprinkle in salt, black pepper and a little dehydrated onion.
We usually freeze 1/2 lb globs of ground beef so I put one of those globs in the pan. (you can add more meat if you're feeding a crowd!) Brown the meat and drain off the grease.
I put in a can of stewed tomatoes, and personally, I use a stick blender and puree it. My kids nor I like to chew bites of tomatoes in my spaghetti. Then two cans of tomato sauce.
If I'm in the mood for thicker sauce, I put in a can of tomato paste. If my mom needs to feed more people, she fills one of the tomato sauce cans with water and adds that now.

Now for the seasonings. I love oregano and basil so there's a lot of that. Add thyme, sage, minced garlic, a dash of parsley, 2 bay leaves (remove before eating and definitely before you store the leftovers), onion powder, and a little brown sugar (a couple tablespoons or so). Stir it all up and let it simmer while you begin the spaghetti noodles!

Drain the noodles, scoop it on a plate, slather on some sauce, sprinkle with a little Parmesan, serve next to your favorite garlic bread and vegetables and tada! you have a yummy dinner ready to go!

mmmmm!

My MIL loved this recipe because all the sauce recipes she's seen require it to simmer all day. I don't know how this recipe was designed, but it has always been a quick dinner at our house.