Pizza Macaroni Bake

Evening guys, it's Tuesday which means it's time for another feel good recipe to fill your tummy's with. This week is all about comfort food. What is comfy food exactly? Well it's the food that makes you want to jump in your pj's, grab your fave comfy blanket, and watch a lifetime movie. Okie okie, maybe not the last part...well for me it is haha. You get the idea. It also could be foods you loved from your childhood or foods that are just so yummy you feel good eating them around people who warm your heart. So, Ma went down that path this week with this recipe. It involves macaroni, pizza, and cheese. YES. I just said Ma and cheese. As our faithful readers know Ma isn't the biggest cheerleader for the cheddar variety but she took one for the team this week. Well "took one for the team" seems a little harsh since mac and cheese isn't really a chore to eat. I don't care what the crazy non-cheese loving lady says lol. So wanna know what makes it comfy follow me:


Pizza Macaroni Bake

Ingredients
*1 package (7-1/4 ounces) macaroni and cheese dinner mix
*6 cups water
*1 pound ground beef
*1 medium onion, chopped
*1 small green pepper, chopped
*1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
*1 jar (14 ounces) pizza sauce
*1 package (3-1/2 ounces) sliced pepperoni
*1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese





Directions

*Set the cheese packet from dinner mix aside. In a saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add macaroni; cook for 8-10 minutes or until tender.
*Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook the beef, onion and green pepper over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Drain macaroni; stir in the contents of cheese packet.
*Transfer to a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Top with the beef mixture, pizza sauce, pepperoni and mozzarella cheese.
*Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until heated through. Yield: 6-8 servings.










Yeah this was a definite winner! I actually went back for seconds. To me it reminds me of comfort foods I grew up with which is nice.



Tid Bits:
*We used the creamy box mac and cheese. The powdered isn't our fave.
*We of course used turkey but you could switch it up and do half turkey and half beef or all beef



Ma's Spot: When I picked this recipe EVERYONE was surprised because I HATE no, I loathe mac and cheese but it is our intent to explore new things so I figured I would give mac and cheese prepared this way a try. So bloggers if you like mac and cheese and pizza you will love this recipe. I have to be honest I only had 4 bites of the mac and cheese compared to the whole top of the casserole. It was good and I enjoyed my limit of mac and cheese. So even after trying it this way I still do not like mac and cheese.






*SNACK CORNER:*

It's time for snack corner! Where we take new snacks in the grocery store and break it down for you. We tell you which are hot and which are not. Let's get to this week's picks:







Dinah: So this week's snack corner comes to us from Land O' Lake. Yep, we went the butter and biscuit route because let's be honest who doesn't love cinnamon, sugar, butter, and biscuits? I know we're fans and after having the Land O' Lake's cinnamon sugar butter I'm sure you guys will be fan too! It was smooth, creamy, and reminded me of cinnamon rolls. Not bad, not bad at all. :].


Ma: I wanna start my review off with a little story. When I was little and was sick or after one of my many ear surgeries my ma would always make me tea with honey and lemon and butter and toast with cinnamon and sugar on it. I don't know if it was all in my head but it always made me feel better. As an adult I still do it and the feeling I get reminds me of my mom. This butter gave me that feeling so please pick this one up. Whenever it's on toast, bagel, or biscuits you will enjoy it. The package also says you can put it on hot cereal, haven't tried it yet but I will soon.



As promised we redeemed ourselves from disaster food 2011 (AKA: last week). We''ll see you here next Tuesday, Have a great week guys!




Spoons & Spatula's
~Dinah & Ma

The Sad Story of the Bean and Cheese Burrito Casserole Slow Cooker Recipe That Never Was

Hola chicos & chicas, it's your lovely blog mistress back for another week of yum. Okie, that may be stretching it because this week the absolute WORST thing happened. The dish itself turned out to be a disaster. It was so bad we made a run to the grand place known as Taco Bell to recover our dinner options for the night. I myself take full responsibility for picking this dish and while this one was a complete dud I encourage you to stay until the very end simply because we A: Love you guys! and B: I promise to dazzle you with my whit and charm...even if the recipe was dazzle free.

Okie I'm going to set the scene: It was last Wednesday morning and as usual I was dragging in the "looking for the next recipe" department (I LOVE this blog but sometime I need inspiration to hit for it to click with me. I don't want to pick anything lack luster)and Ma was getting impatient with my procrastinating booty so I grabbed something from my tab of "recipe" bookmarks. The recipe is from a woman's 365 slow cooking blog (If you're not familiar with a 365 blog of any type it's when you do one thing each day for a whole year. Whenever it may be recipes, pictures, or something else.) and the recipe was for Bean and Cheese Burrito Casserole Slow Cooker Recipe (Click the name for the recipe) I thought "This sounds yummy and it'll appeal to my vegetarian friends (Hi Judi!) as well. Double score!". So Ma picked up the ingredients for us and we started the cooking. I placed the items in the slow cooker exactly how it was listed in the directions, turned it to low, and went back to my studying. After a few hours I noticed when I checked on the dish that the tortilla's were extremely mushy. I'm talking pizza dough sitting in water all day. I thought "Well, maybe it'll get crispier as the day goes on". Turns out I was wrong. I showed Ma the outcome and she was puzzled. If I had done everything correctly then why did we end up with mushy tortilla soup rather than crispy lasagna? The picture on the site and what ares turned out to be are completely different. Also, her followers made this dish and it seem to turn out perfect. So what had gone wrong? All the way to Taco Bell we were trying to figure it out and...nothing. I decided finally that it just wasn't meant to be in Mexican food destiny. Maybe in the future we'll try the recipe out again but for now I think our food hearts are too broken to try it again soon. I'll say this though, we are not food wasters around here so Ma tried her damnest to salvage this messy concoction but by then it had met it's soupy mushy death. R.I.P. Bean and Cheese Burrito Casserole Slow Cooker Recipe...you had a good start at least.

PS. Just because this recipe turned out horribly train wreck bad doesn't mean it will for you guys. It has to be said that while it was a mushy disaster the flavors were delish. We want to encourage you guys to try it. It may turn out great for you, and we hope it does!

Here's the damaged goods:


It started out so promising...




This looks and tasted like raw pizza dough. Mushy and gross!


The damaged slow cooker. It's going to take days of soaking this to get the burnt tortilla out of the bottom and sides. Isn't that weird the bottom was burnt but the rest of the dish was mushy?


Ma's Spot: First of all I have to say this recipe confuses me. The lady got 5 stars out of 5 by her readers. We followed this recipe exactly how it was supposed to be prepared and it's the worst thing we've ever made. The tortilla shells were like raw pizza dough. So I thought okie why not put it in the oven and it still didn't work. I don't know how this got 5 out of 5 stars because for us it just didn't work out. To me the concept of the recipe sounds good so if I was to redo this recipe it would go in the oven and never in the slow cooker. And so to our readers we are extremely Disappointed as you must be without a recipe tonight.


So no tid bits tonight BUT we have snack corner that is our saving grace this week!





*SNACK CORNER:*

It's time for snack corner! Where we take new snacks in the grocery store and break it down for you. We tell you which are hot and which are not. Let's get to this week's picks:




Dinah: Tonight's snack was a no brainer. I was down the frozen food section at Krogers and I passed by the Edy's® Black Raspberry Ice Cream and my mouth dropped. I LURVE raspberry's and this just sounds yum. That ice cream was coming home with me for snack corner. It's ridiculously creamy and smooth and the flavor is amazing. $3 for a gallon of epicness? Sign me up! Down side? It's only available until August 31st. I know, I weep for it's retirement also.


Ma: I have three words for this: Delicious, creamy, and smooth. Oh, and if it's not known I loved this. Run, do not walk, and pass go to get you this ice cream,





So, I hope this week's mishap doesn't have you running for the hills. I promise next week will be better. Ma's already got her pick so stick with us kiddies we'll redeem our foodiness. Have a great week!




Spoons & Spatula's
~Dinah & Ma

Corn Bread Salad

Evening guys and dolls, Tuesday is here which means another yummy recipe. Tonight's recipe was picked for the vegetarian peeps out there (including my good friend Judi). Now, no protests trying something new is fun. Besides give the meat section of your grocery store a night of rest. This one is going to the veggies. I do have to mention that tonight's meal is vegetarian NOT VEGAN. Vegan and Vegetarian are completely different. Why do I specify this? Well for years I thought they were the same thing and imagine my horror of embarrassment (my least favorite emotion) over arguing for hours with a friend on them being the same when in fact my dumb ass was in the wrong the whole time. So, if you are curious head on over to google and type in "the difference between vegan and vegetarian" it should beef up your brain knowledge on the subject. It'll also save you on the embarrassment with your friends during your next heated argument. You can thank me later. ;].
We aim to please here at Tuesday's with Dinah and Ma (again sounding like a corporation, ha!) and we were searching for something in the healthier department and more vegetarian department so with Ma's handy research led us to this yummy recipe:

(This was sent by e-mail from one of the dj's at Magic 105.1)

CORN BREAD SALAD
Serves 12
Ingredients:
1 package, 8 1/2 oz corn bread/muffin mix
1 can, 4oz, chopped green chilies, undrained
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 cup light mayo
1 cup light sour cream
1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix
2 cans, 15 oz of Great Northern or pinto beans, drained
2 cans, 15 oz of whole kernel corn, drained
4 good sized tomatoes, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
10 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled (Now, I'm aware this says bacon but to make it vegetarian just leave them out, I REPEAT LEAVE THEM OUT!)
2 - 3 cups shredded cheese

Directions:
1. Prepare corn bread according to package directions but stir in chilies, cumin and oregano.

2. Pour into greased 8" square pan and bake at 400 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes. Cool.

3. Combine with mayonnaise, sour cream and dressing mix, set aside.

4. Crumble half of the cornbread in a 13x9 pan. Layer with tomatoes, peppers, onions, bacon, dressing and cheese. Repeat layers ending with cheese.

5. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.









This was hands down one the best recipes we've ever made. Mucho props to Mitzi for sending this out. It's a definite keeper. Geoff ate 4 plate fulls and he's a carnivore lol.



Tid Bits:
*If you're not a fan of green chilies simply leave them out.
*Just a reminder about the leaving out the bacon to make this a vegetarian dish
*The only thing I did different is (Dinah's not a big fan of mayo) I put two cups sour cream to one cup mayo rather than the original way listed. I also used Italian seasoning.
*You can use different cheeses. Any one you like is fine.


Ma's Spot: I picked this meal because of one of Dinah Jane's friends requested a vegetarian meal and we do aim to please. So a shout out to Dinah's friend I have your back on this meal and another recipe to come in the future. As for this meal I absolutely loved it! I can't describe to you guys how great this is. So please try it, don't let the title throw you off. It is delish.




*SNACK CORNER:*

It's time for snack corner! Where we take new snacks in the grocery store and break it down for you. We tell you which are hot and which are not. Let's get to this week's picks:




Dinah: So this week we have the Pillsbury Sweet Moments Raspberry Cheesecake bite-size brownies. Two words for you: Raspberry and Cheesecake. ENOUGH SAID. Oh and the word epic comes to mind as well. :D.


Ma: Try these and send your taste buds in a whirl. These were fantastic! The little bites, you just pop them in your mouth and the chocolate runs a muck. Now I am back in good with my taste buds after last week's Gatorade Bars fiasco (Um, excuse me Dinah here. I'm sorry to intrude but come on they weren't THAT...bad. Well, okie yeah they were that bad...carry on lol). Coupon or no coupon or sale or no sale pick these up because they are well worth it.



That's it guys, meet us here next Tuesday for more yummy goodness. Have a great week!



Spoons & Spatula's
~Dinah & Ma

Cheeseburger Taco's

Welcome back guys, tonight we bring you another recipe to make your mouths water and recipe boxes weep with joy for another grand recipe from yours truly. I've been noticing the weather keeps going down in temperature. I love when that happens. I loathe summer. I know I know, I'm sure there was some GASPS! in the internet world but I have to come clean. I hate wearing shorts (my chub rub doesn't appreciate), I hate little bugs that think my skin is tasty, Oh and the heat? Not a fan at all. In fact Ma and I joke that the only good thing about Summer is Big Brother (if you don't know the show then you are missing out!). So with my heat hatred that can only mean I love love love fall/winter. I love it when it's cool enough to break out the slow cooker, make soups, and all around yummy stuff to make your kitchen feel all warm and cozy. So bring on the new seasons, our kitchen is waiting to share our weather friendly concoctions with you guys!

Okie so onto tonight's recipe. Let's get started, it was my pick this week and I was surfing the Pillsbury site for ideas and it occurred to me that we haven't made a form of taco's yet. While yes, we've featured Mexican themed dishes I don't recall a single taco dish and that's when I came across this divine dish. It mixes Mexican flare with an all American classic. Crazy right? No fear, it's not too outrageous but let's be real who doesn't love some outrageousness? So what goes into this? Follow me:


Cheeseburger Tacos

Prep Time: 20 Min
Total Time: 20 Min
Makes: 12 tacos

1 box (4.6 oz) Old El Paso® taco shells (12 shells)
12 slices (2/3 oz each) American cheese
1lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef
1 cup Old El Paso® cheese 'n salsa dip
12 lettuce leaves
12 tomato slices
3/4 cup Old El Paso® Thick 'n Chunky salsa


DIRECTIONS
1 Heat oven to 350°F. Line each taco shell with 1 slice of cheese. Arrange taco shells on ungreased cookie sheet (cheese will fall to one side). Bake 5 to 7 minutes or until cheese is melted. 2 Meanwhile, in 10-inch skillet, cook beef over medium-high heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring frequently, until thoroughly cooked; drain. Stir in dip. Cook until hot. 3 To serve, spoon about 2 tablespoons beef mixture into each warm taco shell. Top each with lettuce and tomato. Serve with salsa.
Die-hard cheeseburger fans can add pickle slices to their tacos.
To keep stove cleanup to a minimum, purchase a splatter screen. The round mesh screen sits on top of the skillet, minimizing the splatters you typically get when cooking ground beef. Look for a splatter screen in the housewares department of discount stores.




So this one was a hit. To me it's nothing to write home about. Sure, it has a taste of cheeseburger but honestly it reminds me of a plain ol' taco. Which isn't a bad thing. I found them yummy (and Geoff inhaled 6 of them so I'd say they were great lol) but as far as sparkle it lacked a bit. Hey, food can have sparkle. You didn't think it was just reserved for Edward Cullen did you?



Tid Bits:
No tid bits tonight guys. Hey, it happens. lol I'd say stay on point with the recipe.



Ma's Spot: If you like cheeseburgers you'll like these taco's. I unfortunately do not like cheeseburgers but I did try tonight's recipe and thought it was tasty if you like that kind of thing. So I left the cheese out of my taco's but I did place a slice of provolone cheese on the shells and melted it. It tasted pretty good. I encourage you to make these.


*SNACK CORNER:*

It's time for snack corner! Where we take new snacks in the grocery store and break it down for you. We tell you which are hot and which are not. Let's get to this week's picks:



Dinah: Oh...the Gatorade energy pre-workout bar. Hmm...well what's something nice I can say because it's about to get drenched in haterade <---Hahaha, get it? Haterade...gatorade? *crickets*...no? I know, stick to your day job Dinah. So maybe I should've picked a better actual "snack" instead of an "pre-workout bar" but I love Gatorade and I thought it would be like a granola bar. I thought how bad can cinnamon raisin and banana chocolate nut be? I was WRONG. It's some bitter, fruity, nasty, tiny bar that looks like it was cut from an old fruit cake circa "1995". Maybe if you're into mixing something into your workout regimen in the form of bars that have no flavor, wait that have bitter flavor then these are for you. I'd pass on these any day.

Ma's: What can I say about these horrible things?! I took one bite of each and gagged. They were bad, beyond bad. Now I'm a foodie so if I tell you something tastes bad then it definitely is. So save your $2.50 and go buy a bag of cookie. These are not worth the time, money, or taste buds. Your taste buds will turn against you if you eat these.


Another Tuesday done but no worries as always we'll be back next Tuesday with another recipe. Have a great week guys!


Spoons & Spatula's
~Dinah & Ma

Beef Porcupines in Tomato Gravy

Tuesday's here so it's time for another blog recipe!

Happy August! The year is going by way too fast but for lovers of fall (like myself) August cannot go by fast enough. Anywho, this is not a blog about weather so let's get to this week's recipe. It's Ma's pick and it comes from this sadly worn cookbook that she's had since well...probably before yours truly was born.




Look at it, what happened to it? Did it get into a food fight? <---haha food fight. Get it? Food...cooking? Okie yeah, not my best but you get the jist.



So with some PI work I tracked down this book and this is what the original cover looked like you know before the food fight. Alright, I know a bad joke when I tell one and I'm letting go. Sheesh!






So you're probably wondering why we have a diabetic cookbook. Well once apon a time I had a wonderful uncle. He was diagnosed with diabetes (among other medical problems) and we needed to whip up things to make him feel included in on the yummy food we normally cook. So tonight's recipe is an oldie but goodie for the Bellas clan. It's actually one of Aunt Jane's favorites. She even told me if I didn't end up liking it she was going to I dunno...something about murder or ring my neck? I couldn't quite make out her threat, ha. So for your viewing and recipe box pleasure I bring you porcupines!


WAIT! Oh geez, I should've confronted this head on in the beginning of this entry. Okie, come back I know the name is gonna throw you off but here at Tuesday's with Dinah and Ma we don't eat porcupines. Come on! no way. We love the pokey little fellas. It's just this recipe has taken on the name for whatever reason and by the end of it we may just decide to change it for fear of pissing off the porcupine community. Trust when I say, no porcupine was hurt in the making of this recipe.


Beef Porcupines in Tomato Gravy

4 servings (yield: 20 meatballs plus 1 1/3 cups gravy)

1 pound ground beef
1/4 cup long grain rice
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons minced parsley
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 can (10 1/2 ounces) tomato soup
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 cups water

Combine ground beef, rice, bread crumbs, salt, parsley, and 2 tablespoons water. Shape into an 8-inch square or pack evenly in an 8-inch square pan. Cut 3 lines on one side and 4 lines on the other side to make 20 equal sections; shape each section into a meatball. Heat oil in a large skillet, brown meatballs in hot oil over medium heat, turn frequently. Combine tomato soup, garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce, and 2 cups of water. Add to meatballs, cover and simmer gently for one hour or until rice is tender. Serve meatballs with tomato gravy from pan.




So this one was good, I really enjoyed the meatballs but the tomato gravy just wasn't my thing.


Tid Bits:

*You can also use a half pound of ground round and a half pound of turkey or just all turkey if you prefer.

*To make your tomato gravy a little thicker make a rue. For a rue just follow these steps: Use flour (make sure it's always all purpose) and place it in a bowl then slowly add some water to it to make it smooth (constantly stirring with a fork while pouring in the water). Once smooth pour rue into tomato gravy all the while stirring with the fork.

*If you are watching your salt in take we suggest using tomato soup from Campbells. lower sodium which is nice.

*You can pair this dinner with mashed potato's or noodles.



Ma's Spot: I have been making this dish for over 20 years. It is a family favorite (except Dinah lol). I love it, I love the gravy over the mashed potatoes (which is what we paired it with tonight). In making this out of the diabetic book, I hope to encourage you to try different recipes even if you do not have diabetes. You can find the tastiest recipes in the least likely books.



*SNACK CORNER:*

It's time for snack corner! Where we take new snacks in the grocery store and break it down for you. We tell you which are hot and which are not. Let's get to this week's picks:





Dinah: This week's snack is Golden Grahams Treats. I've never been a huge fan of the cereal bar trend. They usually give me heartburn (since they came out) and leave a bad taste in my mouth but this one seemed different and I was right. Pretty delish, and not too heavy. So I'd say give it a shot! Oh, and the best reason of all no heartburn nor bad after taste. I'd say that's a winner in my book. :D.


Ma: If you add marshmallow to any breakfast cereal I am happy. I love this, and it actually tasted like a s'more. I think it had the perfect ratio of marshmallow and chocolate. I encourage you to buy them and enjoy!


That's it guys, see you back here in a week for more yumminess. Have a great week!


Spoons & Spatula's
~Dinah & Ma