Kind of a Chef Boyardee copycat version of their lasagna or pasta but also is lasagna soup (or stew if you make it thicker like I did)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This lasagna soup was one I saw on social media from McCormick spices, and although I didn't have lasagna noodles on hand, it looked really easy and surprisingly good to me that afternoon so I decided I'd whip it up for dinner.  I don't actually love 'soup' for dinner and I'm not a huge fan of lasagna or any of its soup equivalents.   But it was really cold that day, and this recipe was so easy to throw together in a pot and forget about it that I decided to make it.

At first I didn't think it was one I'd bother putting on my website for future reference but when I had leftovers the next day I realized it tasted a lot like the Chef Boyardee version I remembered from my childhood... and decided to put here just in case I ever felt like making it again.

Another quick note - I used food storage items in this too so if you need to use your freeze dried ground beef, this is a good way to do it.

 

 

Loosely based on the Lasagna Soup recipe by McCormick - but then winged it on my own version

2 T olive oil
1 onion, diced (or used the equivalent of dried)
1 lb. ground beef (used freeze dried - with some bouillon added for flavor)
2 cans diced tomatoes (14 oz each)
1 - 6 oz. can tomato paste
1 t garlic powder
1 t onion powder
1 t dried oregano (I used more like 2 teaspoons)
1-2 t dried basil
salt and pepper
4 c chicken stock or made with chicken bouillon base 
A handful of pasta - lasagna noodles broken up or penne, etc.

Brown the ground beef and onion in the oil.  Add everything else, bring to a boil and then simmer until the noodles are soft.  Add more water as needed if you are using freeze dried foods or if you want it more 'soup' and less thick.  It was even better the next day - it had thickened up to ChefBoyardee style and texture and tasted a lot like it.   

 

 

Carrot Loaf (a vintage recipe from the 1930's and 1940's)

What a bizarre recipe!  I don't often update this site anymore (maybe in the future if I get more time... right now it's impossible) but I saw this one in an old magazine and just thought it was the most interesting recipe!  Peanuts and tomatoes and carrots?  Oh my.  If you make it you can tell me how it was.  :)

Carrot Loaf

1 c ground carrots
1 c tomatoes
1 c ground peanuts
1 T butter
1 c bread crumbs
4 eggs

Grind carrots, peanuts and bread through your food chopper.  Add tomatoes and butter.  Mix well.
Beat eggs until foamy, then add.
Bake in a greased loaf pan at 350 for 1 hour.

Just another Mexican Casserole (or nacho dip) featuring ground beef, refried beans and sausage

The plan tonight was to use up some of the homemade sausage in the freezer, the last glass jar of homemade salsa, a half round of my favorite queso that I had food sealed and in the fridge as well as some cheddar from the deep freezer that tastes great, but cheddar does get 'crumbly' after frozen.  I added to that some refried beans, black olives and was able to empty the last of the homemade taco sauce. 

I originally got this recipe when I was 14 years old and was babysitting for a woman who made it and had me bake it for her 3 kids while I was babysitting.  I loved it so much I had her write down the recipe for my Mom.  She then made it regularly as we all loved it - and I continued making it for my own family once I grew up and married and had kids.

It's a casserole and/or a dip for tortilla chips.  You can also put it in a flour tortilla.  Since I'm trying to use UP groceries and not BUY ANY... I don't have tortilla chips so we are having it as a casserole - which is my favorite way to eat it anyway!

 

 Mexican Casserole or Dip

1 lb. ground beef browned with 1 small onion, chopped
1 can refried beans
1 c ground and browned sausage
4 c shredded cheddar cheese
1 small can green chilies, chopped
1 - 16 oz. container sour cream
1 jar salsa or taco sauce
*optional - black olives, green olives, sliced
*optional - 1 1/2 c guacamole or avocado dip


Spread the refried beans on the bottom of a sprayed casserole dish for a meal or if you are using this recipe as a dip, spread it thinly on the bottom of a larger pan of your choice - (pizza pan, 9X13, anything you wish!) Brown the ground beef and/or sausage with the onion. Place half into a greased casserole dish or if you are using for a dip, use all of it over the refried beans in the larger pan. Sprinkle with half the cheese. Add the chilies and/or jalapenos, the sour cream, the salsa/sauce and the rest of the cheese in layers. Top with olives if you love them!

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes for a thinner pan and bake 45 minutes if you have a thick casserole dish. When the cheese is melted and it's hot all the way through, remove and serve as a dip or let set for 5-8 minutes to 'set up' when serving as a casserole. It may be more runny when hot straight from the oven and it sets up (like lasagna does) when left to stand and cool a bit. We can never wait and don't care - we dig right in!

Here are photos of what I think might be the first (1st) time I posted the recipe on An American Housewife - these were from March of 2011.  You can see what it looks like when it's not all mixed up and dished, ready to eat.

 

My really old family favorite stand-by: Chicken and ham with mushroom sour cream sauce (lots of versions)

On days when I really don't want to cook but I want something hot, and I have chicken in mind for the main meat to use in some way, I often default to some version of this really old 'stand by'.

Chicken
Bacon
Ham
Mushroom Soup

Sour Cream

Salt and Pepper

That's it.  And I've been making this for so many years that I make it in almost any way possible using whatever versions of chicken, bacon and ham I have.  I also leave the ham out completely when I'm in a hurry and my ham options were frozen.

Here it is THIS TIME AROUND....  really fast and easy

Layered Chicken with Mushroom Sour Cream Sauce

3 boneless chicken breasts
3 slices ham
1 can mushroom soup mixed with about 3/4 cup sour cream I needed to use up
Real bacon crumbles
Salt and Pepper

Baked about 1 hour 15 minutes.

Originally I started making this one in a 9X13 pan (sometimes two (2) of them depending on how many people I was feeding).  That version was:

Rolled Stuffed Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

Boneless chicken breasts, pounded flat and even
Ham slice rolled up in each breast
Raw bacon slice wrapped around each chicken rolled ham slice

Place in a greased pan

Cover with a can of mushroom soup mixed with 1 cup sour cream
Season with salt and pepper, bake in the oven until the bacon is crisp and the chicken is done (about an hour 15 minutes).

More versions I've made over the years include.........

Roll the chicken with cream cheese and mushrooms inside, continue with bacon, sauce.
Roll the chicken with no ham or filling, just wrap with bacon and bake.
Roll the stuffed chicken and wrap with bacon but do not use a sauce.  Bake until crispy and done.
Stuff, roll, cover with sauce and sprinkle cooked bacon crumbles over all.
Use Spam for the filling instead of sliced ham
Lay the chicken breasts down, layer with the ham and bacon slice - bake.
Lay the chicken breast down and layer the bacon, skip the ham or use ham, cover with sauce and sprinkle bacon crumbles.
Use canned chicken, already cooked, layer with diced ham, the sauce and bacon crumbles.

When all the kids were still home and we had to feed and fill a lot of mouths, I'd double the sauce, and make potatoes on the side and use the sauce as a gravy of sorts.  

Food Storage: Mexican Casserole

Yesterday morning I was putting something in the freezer when I spied the extra 'fake' taco meat I had made a couple weeks ago.  I pulled it out of the freezer and placed it into the refrigerator to thaw for 'something' today.  And that is how this recipe came to be.

The idea was to use up some of this food storage imitation taco meat - which was already reconstituted for a previous post.  I saw next to it I had a food sealed package of corn tortillas leftover from last Fall (we don't normally eat them but we had a family get together so I had some random foods on hand left).  I grabbed those, a food sealed bag of frozen diced avocados, one fresh avocado a family member left here this week, one of my few remaining packages of frozen shredded cheese, and a can of enchilada sauce.  I had to go to the 2-3 year pantry to get a can of refried beans and a can of black olives.  I had some green chilies in the pantry so I grabbed those.

Lastly, the onions were freeze dried, and you all know how I hated the sour cream powder and did actually go to the store to buy a container of sour cream.  I used that in this recipe and finished it off with some homemade taco sauce (already posted).

Mexican Casserole

Reconstituted 'taco' meat
Refried beans
Green chilies
Cut up corn tortillas
Enchilada sauce
Sour Cream
Avocado
Cheese
Black Olives
Green onions
Taco Sauce

Layer the taco meat, beans, green chilies and corn tortillas.  Bake at 350 about 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and top with the rest of the ingredients.  Return to the oven for another 25 minutes.  Serve hot.  Goes well with flour tortillas and corn.

 NOTES:  I'm still using up the can of Auguson Farms imitation Taco Meat as I rotate out the oldest cans in our food storage - which are from 2012 ish.  Use that if you have it or use freeze dried ground beef, freeze dried diced beef, fresh or frozen ground beef or diced chuck, whatever you have.  Use freeze dried or canned chicken if you wish.

 

I happened to have some corn tortillas on hand in the freezer - which I normally don't.  What I do have however, is the ingredients to make them from scratch if I needed to, and I have one of the 'bucket' meals some of the popular food storage companies sell as a "Mexican Food" bucket that has a package of corn meal in it to make them as well.

 

Random... frozen avocado.  I also have freeze dried avocado if I need to break into that at some point.

 

Still blessed to have some fresh shredded (frozen) cheese and haven't had to use any of the freeze dried so  far, although I am out of cheddar cheese so if I want that I have to go dig through food storage to find a can of it.

 

Topped with my homemade taco sauce (recipe on the site a lot of times already) - and used freeze dried green onions.  Love black olives - and I have some in the 2-3 year storage.  Leave those off (obviously) if you don't like them.

 I don't have a finished picture of it.  I sent some with Mr. Husband for his dinner at work tonight and I had a LOT of it for my lunch today.  The rest is in the refrigerator and I don't  want to get up and go to the kitchen to take a picture of it.  So you get this... prior to baking.

Not too Spicy Chicken and Spinach

 

I've posted one of our family favorite 'go to' recipes more than a few times on An American Housewife - the Spicy Chicken and Spinach one.  But it's not actually spicy unless you want it to be by adjusting how much of a couple ingredients you use.

Basically it's really just a chicken and spinach dish - and not really a casserole either unless you choose to bake it.  AND sometimes I make it 'creamy' by adding some cream cheese or sour cream and other times I don't. 

Sounds confusing, but basically it's such a simple, quick and easy recipe, you can play with the ingredients and whether or not you feel like baking it. 

Food Storage Options:
Chicken - Freeze-dried (reconstituted), vegetarian chicken flavor, canned, home canned, or fresh
Spinach - dehydrated, fresh or freeze dried
Onions - freeze dried, dehydrated or fresh
Peppers - freeze dried, dehydrated or fresh
Butter - you can leave it out and not saute the peppers/onions if using dried or use canned butter or fresh
Cream Cheese - leave it out if you don't have it, or use some powdered if you wish
Tomatoes - canned, fresh or freeze-dried
Jalapenos - leave out if you wish, or use canned, fresh, dehydrated or freeze dried
Mushrooms - optional - fresh, frozen, freeze dried or dehydrated
Cheese is optional - fresh, freeze dried or frozen, thawed

 

 

 

 

Spicy Chicken and Spinach Casserole

3 cups cooked, diced chicken  (I used pre-cooked turkey I had froze)
10 oz. spinach (frozen, thawed or use fresh and cook just enough to wilt it)  (I used dried, from #10 can)
Peppers - green and yellow (I had fresh, frozen and dehydrated pieces)
Onions - about half a medium yellow onion or about 5-6 green onions, diced/chopped (I used dried, minced)
Butter to saute' the peppers and onions ( I used home canned butter with water to reconstitute, cook onions & peppers)
8 oz. cream cheese  (I still had a block in the fridge as, unopened, lasts for months  in your fridge)
14 oz. diced tomatoes or 1 1/2 cups prepared salsa  (I used canned diced tomatoes)
1/3 cup jalapeno slices or mild yellow peppers depending on your spice level of choice (I used from a jar)
1 t cumin
1 t chili powder
1 cup grated cheddar cheese (left out)
Mushrooms (I used a pack I had in the freezer I had food sealed last Fall)

In a sprayed/greased casserole dish layer the spinach.  Top with the chicken.
Saute' the peppers and onion in butter in a pan until tender and add the cream cheese. When melted, layer over the chicken.
Top with the salsa or the diced tomatoes, add the jalapenos or yellow peppers and spices.
Top with the cheese.
Bake in a preheated 350 oven for about 30 minutes or until heated through and the cheese is all melted.  Can serve with sour cream if you wish or you can add the sour cream to the dish with the cream cheese.  

Reconstituted the onion and spinach along with cooking the frozen peppers in a pan with some avocado oil and butter and a little water.  Added the chicken, tomatoes, mushrooms.  When it was all softened and simmering, added the rest of the ingredients.  Warmed and served.

Didn't get a 'final' photo... I was hungry, it smelled great and I was ready to eat.  Here is me heating it through.

 

Food Storage: A 'vintage' style chicken stuffing casserole, topped with my favorite pot pie filling

 

 

Again, I almost didn't take ANY photo of dinner, but at the last second, grabbed my phone and got one picture right before I finished dishing some up to eat.  :)

This is a mixture of two different recipes I've made for years.  I knew I wanted to use up a bunch of bread I had in the freezer (more on that in a second).  I also had some packages of cooked chicken mixed with the vegetarian chicken from the #10 cans I posted about previously.  The first thing that comes to mind when I want to use up our leftover bread is a simple 'comfort' casserole that is a stuffing/chicken casserole.

Bread from the freezer

Ever since my husband and I were very first married, I've taken the ends of the bread, or bread that is starting to get hard or stale, and popped it into a Ziploc in the freezer to use later in recipes. You should never throw our or waste any food - because you can always make something else from it.

 

This time we have all kinds of bread to use. And I decided to make a triple batch.  I tripled the batch and then put 2 of them back into gallon sized Ziploc baggies in the freezer for future meals.

 

This is a spice/herb mixture for the stuffing.
We've never, ever been one to buy the 'Stovetop Stuffing' brand mixes from the store - but that's basically what this is, as the original recipe most people use starts with a box or two of Stove Top.

 

Choices for chicken

Fresh, frozen, freeze-dried and reconstituted, canned, home canned... whatever you have to work with.

 

The original grandma recipe is simple:

Stove Top Stuffing Mix(es)
Chicken breasts - boneless
1 can cream of chicken or mushroom soup
1 empty soup can of water per box of stuffing used

Mix the stuffing mix, spices and the water and soup.  Place in a greased casserole dish.
Lay the chicken breasts on and salt and pepper or even add cheese to top.
Bake until the chicken is done.

Serve.

 

SUBSTITUTIONS I USED TO MAKE IT FROM MY FOOD STORAGE

For the 'stove top' stuffing spice mixture, I threw together a mixture from 3 different 'recipes' of sorts.  It's really just parsley, thyme, poultry seasoning, chicken bouillon, etc.  You can do a quick internet search to find one you like.  I used all dry spices from the cupboard along with some 'chicken base' instead of dry, crushed bouillon cubes or powder.

My bread was of course, from the freezer.  You can also just cut up or tear up your daily homemade bread.  I don't bother drying mine out in the oven, I always use it fresh.

The chicken was reconstituted 'vegetarian' Auguson Farms fake chicken, mixed with some precooked chicken.

I used a lot of bread this time around, but only one can of soup so I decided to make my favorite pot pie filling and top it with that.  That is the creamy filling with some carrots and peas you see in the photo above. 

The filling is from a recipe I've posted many times over the years - my favorite pot pie.   This time I used 1/3 of a can of peas from food storage, along with 1/2 a jar of home canned baby carrots.

 

 

Old Fashioned Turkey Pot Pie

1 10 oz. package mixed carrots and pea's or all veggies
1/4 c butter
5 T flour
1/2 t salt
1/4 t poultry seasoning or sage
1/8 t pepper
2 c chicken or turkey stock (or use 2 cups water and 2-3 boullion cubes)
1 c milk
3 c chicken or turkey
1/3 c chopped onion or 4 green onions, chopped completely and cooked until tender in a bit of water
1 c cooked and diced potatoes (or use canned or dice and cook them with the onions)


Prepare the pea's and carrots (or mixed veggies). I like to cook them in the microwave while I prepare the rest. Melt butter in saucepan. Blend in flour, salt, poultry seasoning or sage, and pepper. Gradually add stock and milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until thick and smooth. Add vegetables, turkey and cooked onions and potatoes. Pour into a greased shallow baking dish. Make a biscuit topping and top the vegetable mixture. Bake at 425 degree's for 25 minutes until the top is golden brown. About 6 servings.

Biscuit Topping;

Mix

1 1/3 c flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt

Cut in
2 T butter
3 T shortening

Add 1/2 c milk (scant) and stir with a wooden spoon until a dough forms. If it's too wet and sticky add one or two more tablespoons of flour. Pat down on a lightly floured surface and roll out to the shape of your baking dish. If you prefer you can cut into wedges or squares and simply top the vegetable mixture that way too. (Up to you!).

 

 

 

 

 

Carrot or Vegetable Casserole (an old, vintage church cookbook style, grandma recipe)

 

A older, 'vintage' Grandma recipe that I've been making off and on in various ways for years now (since my own kids were itty bitty) that can be varied with whatever you want or whatever you have on hand.

I posted this recipe in 2008 using all carrots from the garden: https://www.housewifebarbie.com/2008/10/carrot-casserole.html

Carrot Casserole

2 pounds carrots, cubed, chunks or sliced
1 c water
1 medium sweet onion
2 T butter, melted
1 1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese
1 c Ritz Crackers, or similar buttery flavor cracker, crushed
salt and pepper to taste
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbed
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 c more buttery crumbs for a topping (optional)


Combine the carrots and water in a saucepan and cook about 15 minutes until just tender. Drain and mash just a little bit to give it a mixed texture. Saute' onion in butter until translucent but not brown. Combine all ingredients in a greased casserole dish. Sprinkle with 1/2 c crumbs if preferred, bake uncovered at 350 for about 40 minutes until hot completely through and golden.

Later I posted the recipe again using many vegetables I had on hand, like zucchini and yellow squash.

Vegetable Casserole (Use;  Yellow Squash, Zucchini, Onions, Carrots)

2 - 3 cups squash;  either yellow or zucchini or a mixture of both, sliced and cooked just tender

1 medium sweet onion like Vidalia, chopped and added to the squash cooking the last 3 minutes

2 carrots, sliced or grated (if sliced, add to the cooking squash or use a can of sliced carrots if you need to substitute)

1 egg, slightly beaten

3 T butter

1/2 c mayonnaise

1 T sugar or substitute

1 c cheddar cheese, grated

1 - 1 1/2 cups crackers, crumbled such as TownHouse or Ritz

Dash Cayenne pepper

salt and pepper

Put the well drained zucchini or yellow squash and onions into a mixing bowl.  Add the carrots, egg, butter, mayonnaise, sugar, half the cheese, half the crackers crumbs and the cayenne and salt and pepper.  Mix gently.  Put into a buttered casserole dish.  Top with the remaining cheese and cracker crumbs.  Bake at 350 for about 25-35 minutes until warmed through and golden.

 

 
Last night for dinner we had this casserole and again, improvising what I was wanting to use up, and what we had to work with.

The carrots are the the final ones in the bag of carrots given to me in November (?).   They are locally grown, and may have originally been part of a food bank, or maybe just gifted to someone.  They don't eat or use carrots and they gave them to someone else.  They also didn't use or cook with them so they gave them to someone who gave them to my daughter.  A whole bag of fresh garden carrots, but she doesn't love carrots and never cooks with them (nor wanted to clean and cut these for fresh with ranch) so she gave them to me.  I've been using a few here and there ever since but they needed to be used up as a couple were starting to get a bit soft. 

So, carrot casserole it was!  I didn't quite have enough, so I grabbed a jar of home canned carrots as well.
I had some leftover green onion tops from a few weeks ago that needed to be used up from the fridge.
The egg was powdered whole egg.
The butter, home canned.
The crackers were dry canned from the pantry (food sealed with a dry canning attachment sealer)
Mayo and spices I have. 
Cheese is from a block of cheddar I had in the deep freezer.  It's my last one, so I'll have to switch to freeze dried in the future when this one is used up.

 

dry sealed crackers - I used Keebler Butter Flavor

home canned butter - canned back when butter was affordable!

powdered egg

canned baby carrots when I had a bunch to 'use up'

The original plan for this recipe/dish - using up the fresh carrots and some leftover green onion tops

 

Mixed the egg powder in with the mayo and spices - and water to reconstitute the egg per directions (I think 2 1/2 T)

Lots and lots of cheddar on top as I grated too much but just decided to use it all.  We love cheese so it's all good.

Chicken Tetrazzini (with photos and thoughts on the vegetarian 'fake' chicken bits from long term storage)

 

 

I mentioned last weekend I brought out the very first cans of long term food storage I had ever bought, when I had no idea of what to do, how to do it, or what we needed.  I just knew I wanted to start to seriously dive into food storage as we had just moved into our new home 1000 miles away and had to start from scratch.

My first-ever purchase included a kit that had vegetarian beef, vegetarian chicken, vegetarian ham and vegetarian taco meat. I had never actually HAD soy based 'fake' foods before so I thought it was a great deal as it was so, so cheap.  Well, luckily I quickly realized I wanted to invest in 'real' meats and not fake soy stuff... but for the record, I have these on hand and last week I brought them out of long term storage and am now finding ways to use them.

Because these were long term, I didn't open them to try them at that time, but a few years later I had bought freeze dried meals and pouches for one of the cross country camping/hiking trips I made with one of my daughters.  We had the imitation taco meat on that trip and it was... horrible.  Awful.  Disgusting.  So bad that neither of us could eat it no matter how hungry we were, and we ended up throwing it out.  

Because I know how terrible the fake 'taco' meat was on that trip, I was really dreading using the fake meats this month, but I took a deep breath and opened the 'vegetarian chicken'.

Oh wow, what a happy surprise upon first opening... it wasn't terrible.  

It looked nothing like chicken - freeze dried or otherwise - but when I grabbed a few crunchy fake chicken pieces and tasted them, they were... actually pretty good.  Not chicken really, but more of a crispy 'snack' with a faint chicken taste (?).  I brought some to my husband.  He tried them and said they reminded him of the corn based snack "Funyuns" with an onion flavor.  I mostly tasted a chicken flavor similar to the "Chicken and Biskit" crackers I recall my Mom buying when I was little.

 

 

The instructions say to rehydrate them 2-to-1 with water.  I decided to rehydrate them with real chicken, by cooking them all together in my instant pot - making ready to go 'cooked chicken' for other recipes.  Some people buy the rotisserie chicken from membership warehouses to keep on hand for quick "cooked chicken" recipes but when I've done that in the past, I can taste weird chemicals or strong 'odd' flavors so I don't actually buy or use those anymore and always make my own homemade. 

I just cook chicken breasts or thighs in my instant pot with some salt/pepper and sometimes other seasonings then package them in food sealed bags for the freezer. 

This time I mixed layers of my chicken breasts with the vegetarian 'chicken' pieces from my food storage.

 

 

Here is what it looked like when it was done.  I was just getting ready to shred it all and food seal it for the freezer... but was using some of it for dinner tonight as well.

 

 

 

Tonight's dinner was Chicken Tetrazzini - and improvised with food storage items.  

 

Chicken Tetrazzini

1/2 c chopped onion
1 stick butter
1 t flour
1 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 1/4 c chicken broth
1 c half and half or cream or milk
1 small jar diced pimento
3-4 cups chicken, cooked and chopped
1/4 c Parmesan
8 oz. spaghetti, cooked
2 c cheddar, shredded 

Saute' the onion in butter.  Add the flour, salt and pepper.  Cook 1 minute, add in the soup, broth, half and half and pimentos.  When it comes to a boil, turn off the heat.  Drain spaghetti and place in a 9X13" pan.  Cover with chicken, sprinkle with parmesan.  Pour the sauce over all and stir a bit to blend evenly.  Sprinkle top with cheddar and bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until bubbly.

FOOD STORAGE OPTIONS: 

I had 1/2 of a large, fresh onion for this one that needed to be used up, and used a can of my home pressure canned butter to saute' it.  The can of soup came form my short term storage pantry and the broth was made with cubed bouillon with water.  I still have heavy cream in the refrigerator so I used that this time (although later I'll be using evaporated milk or powdered milk) and I left out the pimentos as I haven't stocked any of those and we never miss them.

The chicken was the mixture from my instant pot of fake vegetarian chicken from my long term food storage in the #10 can, cooked with a package of real chicken breasts and then shredded/chopped.  The spaghetti was from short term food storage and I decided not to use any cheddar as it's not needed, is mostly for color and I just sprinkled a little more Parmesan on instead.

*This was SO SO GOOD.  Seriously.  5 out of 5 stars made from food storage items.  No complaints at all and I'd be happy to even serve this to guests.  We had it with some of my homemade bread (making each day as I've posted before) from my no-knead, 3 ingredient refrigerator recipe.  If you have fake vegetarian soy 'chicken' to use up in your food storage, this is an excellent way to do it.  If you don't have real chicken to cook it with - it doesn't matter.  This recipe is one you could rehydrate it with water and then use in this and it would be so, so good!  No worries.

 __________________

The butter was home canned this time instead of from the freezer.  I use both right now.  This particular one was canned in 2020.  Still just as perfect and 'fresh' as ever.  When/if I don't have any butter options, I would saute onions or rehydrated dried onions in an oil or even water, and then sprinkle butter powder over the hot spaghetti or mix the butter powder into the sauce to get a butter flavor (but never try to reconstitute butter powder and use it to cook or saute' because it won't work).

The fake chicken mixed with a little bit of real chicken, on top of the pasta in the pan

 

The sauce poured on top, blended a little and extra Parmesan on top - ready to go into the oven

Straight from the oven, hot and bubbling.  I let it sit about 10 minutes, it thickened up perfectly and was OH SO GOOD.

 

Chicken Bacon Ranch Slider Sandwiches - (Low-Carb Keto option too)

 

 

Last night I wasn't sure what was going to be for dinner.  It was getting late and I needed to come up with a plan so I walked to the deep freezer and chose a package of chicken breasts.  I cooked them in the microwave in water with a tablespoon of chicken bouillon soup base and from there decided to make a 'slider' sandwich but a chicken, bacon ranch version.

We used keto buns but obviously any hamburger style bun will do. 
I didn't measure anything, and honestly, that's just the kind of recipe this is - you can play with all the amounts.  I'll try to do a guesstimate on some of the items to give you an idea but honestly, it's mostly just common sense mixed with a little whatever you like best.

Chicken Bacon Ranch Sliders

Cooked, diced chicken breasts - 2 or 3 depending on the size of yours
1 fresh tomato
1/2 c mayonnaise
1/2 c ranch dressing of choice
Cooked, crumbled bacon
Cheddar Cheese, shredded
Hamburger Buns (I used Keto Culture brand since we are usually doing low-carb in our house)
Butter

To the cubed chicken breasts add the 1/2 c mayonnaise, fresh tomato diced, about 1/3 c crumbled cooked bacon pieces and about 2/3 c shredded cheddar.  Mix. If it's too dry add a little more mayo.  If you like more bacon or cheese - go ahead.  Less bacon or cheese?  Do that if you wish. 

Use some butter to heavily butter a baking pan.  Place the bottom bun in the buttered pan.  Top with scoops of the chicken mixture.  Heavily drizzle ranch dressing over the sandwiches and top with the bun.  Brush the tops with some of the butter, melted or even an egg wash if you wish.  Pop it into a 350 degree oven and bake about 15-17 minutes until heated through.

Extra chicken filling mixture is a perfect casserole, just tuck in along side the sandwiches to bake or just make more sandwiches with it.    The size of the pan you use depends on how many sliders you are making.  You can see we made 5 and heated the leftover chicken mixture separately as a casserole.

 

 

 

I always have crumbled real bacon on hand in the freezer, which I like to put on a paper plate and heat in the microwave to crisp up. 

 

Mixing up the filling; use more or less bacon and cheese and tomato based on what you prefer.

Scooping the filling onto the buns.

Top each slider with a dose of your favorite ranch dressing then put the top bun on, brush with melted butter and bake until heated through - about 15-17 minutes.

Ideas to Use Up Potato Peels After Cleaning Potatoes for Other Dishes or Using Up Peelings From Canning Potatoes

Potato peel crisps

Camping Potatoes - using the peelings

 

Although we don't get to eat potatoes regularly anymore because of the high carb content, we love them.  Anything you can make with them - any way, shape or form - I probably love it.  Potatoes and onions are two of my all-time favorite foods.  

Over the years of cooking them and using them in dishes, I've come up with a few ways to not only use leftovers from meals of mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, etc;  but use up the peelings as well. 

When I can potatoes I use a knife - not a potato peeler, as I personally like the feel of a paring knife better and can clean them faster.  I knew I planned to use the peels to make two side-dishes so I was also happy to slice freely with a bit more potato on each slice as I planned to use them in other dishes.

I soaked the peels in water to keep them from browning, and then drained them just before using.

Potato Peels

I've been cooking for more years than I'd like to admit (count the years in decades).  One of the first ways I ever used up potato peelings - and did so for the first 20 years of our marriage - was to make pancake syrup from them.  

I actually make pancake syrup from potatoes in two different ways;  you can either boil the potatoes whole with the skins on and use the potatoes after, however you wish; and the second is to peel and clean the potatoes first and use the peeling's starchy water after.  Either way works.  This recipe is very, very old.   

Pancake Syrup Made from Potatoes or Peelings

Approximately 6 potatoes - the starchier the better (like russet) or the peelings from 6-8 potatoes
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar

Scrub the potatoes well and place in a pan with 2 cups of water.  I've also used just the peelings from a bunch of potatoes (anywhere from 6-8).  Boil them, reducing the liquid until about 1 cup of the water remains.  Remove the potatoes and use them for another dish.  To the water remaining in the pan add the sugar.  Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve.  When dissolved, continue boiling about 1-2 more minutes.  Remove from heat and let cool.  Pour into a mason jar or other container, like recycling a syrup bottle.  You can use it right away, but the flavor is best if you can keep it in the cupboard or pantry for a few days before using.  Tastes like maple syrup!

 

The second way to use up potato peels - Baking them into a crispy treat to snack on. (The top photo)

 

Potato Peel Crisps

Potato Peelings
Onion powder if you wish
Oil
Salt (and if you wish, pepper)

Toss your peelings with oil (I use avocado oil or olive oil).   Spread them in a foil lined baking pan or baking sheet. Sprinkle with a little onion powder if you choose, then sprinkle with salt and pepper if you like it as well.  I like them with just oil, a little onion powder and salt.   Bake at 400 degrees approximately 20 minutes or more depending on the level of crisp you like.  Flip them and stir them a bit every 8 minutes or so to cook them evenly.  Around 15-20 minutes they are 'done' but if you want them really crispy, keep baking them longer, checking every 4 minutes or so.  Serve as is or with a sour cream dip. 

The last idea on this post for using up the potato peelings is to make the old, well known 'campfire potatoes' but make them using peels from other potato dishes or home canning.  (The second photo above).   

Normally you make individual campfire potato packs wrapped in aluminum foil and cook them over the fire when you are camping or at home in the oven just because they taste so good.  You use the whole potato, sliced up, topped with a bunch of other ingredients that everyone pick and chooses based on their personal tastes - topped with a bunch of butter, wrapped up tightly in the foil and eaten out of the foil as everyone sits around the campfire.  

This is like that - but the photos you'll see I opted to use a disposable aluminum pan for these batches.  I have leftover aluminum pans on hand from holiday cookie baking AND this allows me to cover the pans with foil and pop them into the deep freezer to grab out for future meals or when/if we have guests over.

Campfire Potatoes 

Peelings from your other potato dishes or home canned potatoes
Onions
Butter
Salt and Pepper
Onion Powder
Garlic, green peppers, other bell peppers, zucchini, green onions, chives, cheese, bacon bits, etc.

*if baking in an aluminum pan in the oven, add about 1/4 c cream.  If baking in little packets, do not add liquid.  

If you are using disposable aluminum pans, grease or spray the pans, otherwise use a double layer of aluminum foil or use heavy duty aluminum foil pieces large enough to wrap a pile of potato and other additions in and wrapping up to seal tightly with space for a little expansion.

Layer leftover potato peels and bits and pieces along with onions and a bit of onion powder;  if you like and want to add things like bell peppers or other ingredients - yes, please!   In a pan in the oven, add about 1/4 cup cream poured over all.  Do not add cream to little foil packets though.  Top with a bunch of butter pieces or pats.  Cover the pan with foil or seal up your little foil packets - but not too tightly, the potatoes and veggies will expand a bit during cooking.

Cook either over your coals or in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30-35 minutes until thick and dark golden brown.  Uncover the foil pan half way through cooking.   If you use potato slices you'd have to cook about 10-15 minutes longer but peelings are thin and cook faster.

 

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Photo:  layering leftover potato peelings from canning potatoes in a disposable pan with onions and seasonings.  I baked them, then served one and froze the rest for future meals - as they just have to be reheated in the oven. 

 

Layered to the top and then lots of yummy salt and fresh cracked black pepper

 

 

I went a little heavy on the butter this time - oops!  I was busy and just quickly cut up butter and threw it on.  I wasn't really thinking about it.

 

These were some of the peelings tossed with oil and sprinkled with salt and a bit of onion powder

 

Crispy potato peelings... yum!