Skillet Pasta & Beef Dinner

Kimmy here! 

So I am finally getting around to posting a recipe that I am in love with and will be making for dinner next week.  I found this while surfing pinterest months ago and made it twice in one night....mainly because somehow I totally messed up the first attempt at making it so if we wanted to have dinner that night I had to figure out something to make.  This is super simple to make and can easily feed 5.5 people.  I want to say that even my picky eating daughter ate some of the ground beef!

The recipe is called Skillet Pasta & Beef Dinner.  The recipe given says that it will serve four people, so you will probably need to adjust a little to make sure there is enough to go around!! I used a the pound of ground beef, but less sauce and probably a pound of noodles.  Because I used more noodles and less sauce I found it easier to cook everything separately, throw in the skillet to mix with the sauce and melt the cheese on top.  I served a small salad beforehand and garlic bread with the meal!

What you'll need

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 jar pasta sauce
• 8 ounces uncooked rotini pasta
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (about 4 oz.)

How to make it

1. Brown ground beef in 12-inch skillet; drain.
2. Stir in pasta sauce and 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Stir in uncooked rotini and return to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook covered, stirring occasionally, 14 minutes or until rotini is tender.
3. Remove from heat, then sprinkle with cheese. Cover and let stand 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

 Here is the website too: Skillet Pasta & Beef Dinner

Let me know if you try it and how you like it! If you do anything different, let me know too!! I think it might taste even better with some extra flavor like maybe peppers or onions....although onions may make it taste to much like a cheeseburger!

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Howdy!

So, this is probably my all time favorite recipe. It is a classic that my mom use to make all the time. Now, I love to make it whenever I can. There are two ways to prepare this: easy and hard. There is no link to this recipe since it is a really simple family recipe. I'm sure families everywhere have this recipe so it is not a secret! Here is what you need:

• Meatballs (You can either buy frozen meatballs (easy) or ground beef to make your own (hard))
• One jar grape jelly (regular sized jar. Don't go crazy and get the massive ones)
• One jar chili sauce (comes in one size, I believe. Just need one)

1. If you plan on making your own meatballs, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Make medium sized meatballs. The smaller the meatballs, the shorter the cooking time. The larger, the longer. You get the idea.

3. Once you make your meatballs, cook on a baking sheet for about 20 minutes (for medium meat balls).

4. In a large pot, add the grape jelly and chili sauce. Set to low. You want to melt the jelly and let both mix into a yummy sauce!

5. Once the meatballs are done, use tongs to remove them from the greasy baking sheet and place them in the pot with the sauce.

6. Let the sauce and meatballs simmer together for about 15 minutes, to get a good flavor in the meatballs. 

7. Serve hot!

Simple, right! If you plan on using frozen meatballs (I use Food Lion brand), then just follow the directions below!

1. Place grape jelly and chili sauce in large pot. Simmer until jelly is melted and both are mixed well.

2. Add frozen meatballs to sauce mixture.

3. Simmer for about 25 minutes. (You can cook frozen meatballs in the sauce until they're cooked. So easy).

4. Serve hot!

Even easier! I usually serve this with some garlic/cheese bread and some steamed veggies. If I am feeling starchy, I'll throw in some mashed potatoes. We have tons left over from Easter so those are getting added to the meal tonight!

*Note: This makes TONS of sauce. I usually make about 3 lbs. of meatballs and I still have sauce left over. However, I did mix the leftover sauce with ground beef to season meatloaf the next night. It turned out pretty good. So, if you don't use all the sauce, use it in another recipe! You can always save this for another meal. It gets very thick when cold, so I suggest reheating it over the stove for optimal reheated goodness!

*Second Note: If making your own meatballs, I have cooked them in a table top toaster oven (is that what they're called these days? I don't know lol. Go to this link to see what I mean!). This is favorable for less grease. It has the built in drainage pan so when the meatballs cook all the grease is drained into the bottom of the pan. This is easier to handle than a baking sheet with sloshing grease. Just an idea if you're prone to messes!

Let me know what you think!

Rebecca :)

French Bread Pizza

Hello Again!

I have another delicious recipe for you to try! This one is a simple French Bread Pizza Recipe from Kraft. You can find it here. I did two different variations of this recipe for dinner tonight. Both were amazing! I altered the recipe a bit, because I am a simple cooking kind of gal; so, I did not go all crazy with everything that is included in the recipe. Here's what I used for each!

Pizza 1
This is the pizza that I did not follow the directions at all. I just threw a couple of pretty standard pizza toppings on the french bread, for the kiddos.

• 1 French bread Loaf (Cut in half lengthwise)
• 1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce
• 1/2 package Mozzarella Cheese
• Pizza Pepperonis (however many your heart desires!)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Cut the french bread loaf in half length wise. Than in half width wise to end up with four pieces.

3. Spread tomato sauce on all four sections.

4. Top each section with a generous helping of cheese.

5. Top each section with your preferred number of pepperonis.

6. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Note: You can cut each of these pieces in half again to end up with 8 total pieces, or have a blast and have a quarter of the pizza all to yourself. Whatever you fancy.

Pizza 2

This is the pizza where I followed the directions a bit. I did not include everything. 

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 French bread loaf (Cut in half lengthwise)
• 1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce
• 1 pkg (8 oz.) Mozzarella Cheese
• Pizza Pepperonis (however many your heart, once again, desires!

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees (or keep it on from earlier, your call if you want to make that much pizza in one night!)

2. Brown the ground beef in a pan. Drain.

3. Add tomato sauce and simmer for 5 minutes.

4. Cut the french bread loaf in half length wise. Than in half width wise to end up with four pieces.

5. Top each section with an even amount of the ground beef tomato sauce mixture.

6. Top each section with a generous helping of cheese.

7. Top each section with the amount of pepperonis of your choice.

8. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Note: Once again, you can cut these pieces in half to end up with 8 pieces of pizza!

And there you have it! They were both super amazing and delicious. If you want to add the other stuff that is mentioned in the recipe, or alter if for yourself, have a go! I think this is a fool proof meal that you can customize any which way and it will still turn out delicious!

Let me know what you think! And, until next time!

Rebecca

Tuna Melt

Hey Kimmy!

So, first up is a Tuna Melt recipe that I found at www.allrecipes.com. The name of the recipe is Best Tuna Melt (New Jersey Diner Style). Here is a link to the recipe. Here is what I used to make 5 servings:

• 18 oz of canned white tuna in water, drained
• ~1/2 cup of miracle whip (add however much you like when you make tuna salad)
• one celery stalk, chopped
• 1/4 of an onion, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tomatoes, sliced
• 10 slices of swiss cheese
• 5 slices seedless rye bread

I followed the directions basically how they were given in the recipe online, but I will reiterate them for you here:

1. Preheated the oven broiler.

2. Mixed together the tuna, onion, celery, miracle whip, salt, and pepper.

3. Placed the sliced bread in the broiler for about 1 minute until it was toasted.

4. Removed the bread from the broiler and topped each piece with the tuna mixture. Then topped each piece with 1 piece of swiss cheese. Then placed two slices of tomatoes on each (except hubby's). Then topped the tomatoes with another piece of swiss cheese.

5. Placed the tuna melts back in the broiler for 2-3 minutes until the cheese was melted (and browning; oops!)

Voila! Tuna Melt! 

I have to say, I am not a huge tuna fan but I LOVED this recipe! I will definitely be doing this from now on when I want to have tunafish! You could even make it a sandwich. Hubby did! Let me know if you try it and, if you do, how you like it!

Toodles!

Rebecca

Welcome from Kimmy

Hi!!

I'm Kimmy and like Rebecca said we are here to share our cooking experiences with one another and the world.  I don't know about anyone else, but I have the hardest time figuring out meal ideas that my whole family will enjoy so I routinely ask for opinions. Normally I write down the idea and never try it because we are used to what we are used to. I plan vow to try one new recipe a month.  Sometimes I may try more than one, but I WILL try one new thing each month!!Now I hope you can take some of our ideas and put your own spins on them to suit your own lifestyle and families!!

Kimmy

Welcome Post from Rebecca!

Hello There!

My name is Rebecca and this is a page where my best friend and I will be sharing new recipes with one another. Let's face it, it gets boring eating the same stuff all the time. As such, it get expensive, and boring, to eat out when you're bored with eating at home!

We both have different food tastes and find it difficult to stretch outside of our comfort zone. We are hoping that, with the guidance of the other, that we will learn to love new and never before tried foods!

I hope that you gain inspiration from our meal ideas and learn to love new foods!

Stay Tuned!
Rebecca :)