Category Archives: Main Meals

Deconstructed Lasagna

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I made this a few months back and I keep thinking about it. I need to make this deconstructed lasagna again. It’s calls for all of the standard ingredients for the body that gets combined into one messy mixture, but it’s topped with blobs of creamy spinach dip instead of a ricotta filling or a bechamel layer between the pasta and meat sauce.

Pros of making this dish: I found I used about 1/4 of the normal cheese blend I would have used for a traditional lasagna, and there was a speedier assembly of ingredients since I wasn’t stopping to do any layering. And I didn’t have to wait for a bechamel sauce to be made. I bought and used a spinach dip from the grocery store. I also didn’t have to wait as long for the layers to set up when it came out of the oven.

Cons of making this dish: I couldn’t find one because I didn’t have any Italians eating this with me. 😀 I didn’t like the tang of the spinach dip as much as I thought I would. I will have to source a different brand, or buy a different type of dip next time.

I can’t remember how long I baked this or at what temp, but I’ll use my best guess here. I’d say about I cooked it 30 mins at 350-375 with the casserole lid on.

Taco Hamburger Helper

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While I’m in front of the computer, let me give you the Taco Hamburger Helper recipe I got from the Instagram reel that kicked off my whole trip down memory lane.

Healthier Taco Hamburger Helper:
1/2 Lbs Ground Beef
1/2 Onion, diced or thin strips
Oil

Pan fry onions. set aside in a bowl to sear meat. Add onions back in. Add a small pinch of salt and start adding:

1/2 Red Pepper, diced or thin strips
2 Handfuls Spinach, washed/drained
10 oz Tomato Sauce
1 C Milk + 1/2 Water
1 C Egg Noodle Pasta
2 Tbsp Taco Seasoning Blend

Stir everything together, making sure the pasta gets submerged. Once the liquids start to boil, cover the pot and drop heat to low. Let that simmer for about ten mins before adding a can of rinsed off beans (black or pinto). Add a generous amount of Mexican blended cheese (reserve a bit for plating) and lid the pot again to melt it. After two mins, kill the heat and let it rest off burner to cool down.

Uncover and give everything one final good stir to combine the cheese into the mixture.

Plate with lettuce, sour cream, and pickled jalapeno or banana peppers, and a bit more cheese shred if desired. <– These are all the things I will add to make it a taco bowl meal when I make this next week.

DIY Hamburger Helper

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A few weeks ago I commented on an Instagram reel about DIY Hamburger Helper. I commented that I’d never eaten the box stuff before and asked what it tasted like. I never got a reply so I forgot all it until someone at work the other day was telling a co-worker she’s never eaten it before. She asked if I’ve ever eaten Hamburger Helper and then asked what it tasted like. Out of us three, not one of us had, and we come from three different age groups. And we all now work at a grocery store. I thought that was odd. What are the chances?

So, the three of us then had this back and forth about making it at home, and why it exists at all. The answer is, women started working outside the home in the 1970s. This product was marketed to every woman who was looking for faster, simpler meal ideas to feed their hungry family each night from the late 1970s onward.

The basic idea of Hamburger Helper has always been a box of small noodles with a cheese powder + curated spices packet, and all the consumer has to cook it with ground meat, veggies, and liquids to make it a complete meal. Easy peasy.

My mom made a version of HH which she could scale up (the box didn’t stretch far enough) to feed her army. So in that spirit, here is the basic idea of what Mum made us based on my memories, with spices I like, smashed together with what I saw in that Instagram reel. The husband and I loved it. I made enough for six big people meals on Monday at lunch, and by dinner tonight (Tuesday), it was all gone (save for one more portion for his lunch tomorrow.)

Aunt Stacey’s Hamburger Helper:
4 C Small Pasta Noodles, half cooked and strained (I only had penne on hand)

2-3 Tbsp Oil
1 Onion, diced
Salt Pinch
1 Lbs (454g) Ground Meat (of choice)

Fry the onion until it starts to soften; place into a small bowl. Lay the meat down in the oil to cook the first side, When the bottom edge is browned, carefully flip the meat over from you to sear the second side. Leave it go a full minute before breaking it up with a potato masher, twisting the tool as you push down on the meat to separate the strands into crumble.

Add to the meat:

1 Garlic Clove, minced (I used jar stuff)
1 Sweet Pepper, diced
1 Tbsp: Italian Seasoning, Ground Onion Powder (or more), Beef Gravy Powder (opt)
1 Tea Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 Tea: Ground Sage, Red Hot Chili Peppers grinds, Black Pepper
10 oz Canned Tomato Sauce (or canned diced tomatoes blitzed)
1+ Cup Whole Milk
1/2 Cup Water

Taste test the liquid. Adjust the flavours here if you want or need to. Add another small pinch of salt.

Bring the pot to barely a boil and drop in the half cooked pasta. Stir the pasta so 90% of it is submerged in the liquid. Lid the pot and drop the heat so it can simmer 10 mins to finish cooking everything and give the flavours time to marry.

Final additions:

1+ C Parmesan Cheese, grated or shredded
4 Marble Cheese Slices or 1 C Marble Cheese Shred

Kill the heat and lid the pot one last time to let the cheeses melt. Uncover and stir to combine everything evenly.

I’m not really sure how long this took to make, but I’d say it was between 20-30 mins. It was just as fast from scratch. The longest part was the time it took the meat to sear so I could start filling up the pan with the other ingredients.

Slow Braised Steak Cheese

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This is a loose version of the classic Philly Steak sandwich meat that’s typically cooked on a flattop. But since we don’t have one, I decided to make something in the oven instead. While looking into my Insta saved food videos, I found this one from Tasty that they put out in August of 2018.

I didn’t deviate from their recipe much beyond swapping out the chicken broth for beef broth, so my version was a bit darker overall. But, boy! The flavours were great together.

Sear the meat hunks in oil. Rest them on a plate while working on softening the onion and green peppers in the same pan with the knob of butter and minced garlic.

Drop in some S&P and start adding your hot broth. Give that a good stir before adding the meat back to the pan and dropping in the milk. Give it another good mixing and cover to bake in the oven for 3 hours at 334*F. Now sit with a bevvy while waiting. This is the best part of this recipe. 🙂

When your timer goes off, carefully remove the pot from the oven and let it rest uncovered on your stovetop for five mins before grabbing two forks. I used one to hold the pot in place (it wanted to move around on the glass top) and the other to smush the meat chunks down into shredded meat. Top with 1/2 cup cheddar shred + 1/2 cup Parm grate. Stir to combine and lift all of the shredded meat off the bottom of the pot.

I reserved a bit before laying the rest out on a sheet tray to rapid cool before storing in the fridge to magically turn it into tomorrow’s pasta dinner. I topped today’s reserve with slices of marble cheese and some Frank’s Red Hot Garlic Parm dressing to make us Hawaiian bun sliders.

Don’t forget to show your pots and pans the love they deserve so they last you forever.

Burger Mac & Cheese Soup

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While tooling around online, I came across this Big Mac & Cheese Soup idea that was perfect for using up some stuff I have kicking around in my fridge. Namely two leftover burger patties, and half a jar of spicy cheese sauce (soo good).

You know I love to play around with recipies to make it my own if I can, but more importantly, I need to make it simple enough to be both fast & dirty, and tasty as hell. I think I nailed this one. Check out what I came up with:

I started by cooking the pasta in water with a beef cube together from the jump. As this pot boiled, I heated up water and chicken stock powder in a small sauce pot off to the side.

When the pasta was done, I reserved about 1/4 cup of the flavoured starch water and drained the rest. While the cheese sauce and ground up burger meat heated through mixed into the pasta, I diced up a dill pickle to stir in as well to keep the Big Mac burger theme going.

I gave it all a good stir together and spooned heaping amounts of the mac & cheese into bowls, and then ladled the chicken stock over top to turn it into a soup. This dish stands on its own without the chicken stock if you’re not into soup. My husband loved this dish as a straight pasta + meal meal.

The original recipe above called for milk in the sauce mixture, but I wasn’t into that idea today, so this is all I used to make this meal:

Burger Mac & Cheese Soup:
2 C Macaroni Pasta
I Beef Bouillion Cube

2 C Chicken Stock

2 leftover Burgers (with an dry onion soup powder in the mixture)
1/2 C Salsa con Queso (found at Walmart)
1/4 C Dill Pickle, small dice

I hope you love making this one. It’s a hearty, tasty meal. It’s also fast and dirty, and tasty enough to satisfy. I really like that the spicy cheese and the onion soup mix did most of the heavy lifting. This is a no-sweat meal to make on the fly when you want to clean our your fridge more than you want to be all gourmet and fancy.

Straight from the Smoker

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It was a beautiful clear day yesterday, so I decided I needed to BBQ some food for the week. I thawed some back ribs I had in the freezer when I woke up, and while that was doing its thing, we headed out to buy some groceries for other items I was planning to smoke.

When we got back, the husband took off on the motorcycle (a rare luxury for him these days), while I fired up the charcoal. I prepped all the food as the fire heated up the coals. I slapped down some pepper cuts, potatoes, chicken breasts, and the ribs to get some colour on the top side before I rolled it over and shoved it over to the indirect side to slow smoke.

While this was happening, I got to enjoy a few hours out on the patio playing on the computer and drinking cold coffee. Ahhh… I was a happy camper. After the food was finished cooking, I brought it all in and get the table ready as the husband was walking in the door. The corn also got smoked but it was the last night I smoked a few mins on each side after microwaving them in their husks for 6 mins to speed everything up.

When the chicken was cool enough to handle, I cut all five breasts differently to target meals for the week. I sliced one and a half breasts into thin slices for the express of making my favourite sanny ever, the Chicken Club. 🙂

The rest of the chicken got cut up into thicker chunks for a Caesar salad for one, and cubes to drop into a pot of hot Butter Chicken sauce tomorrow night for dinner. Yes!

After dinner, I got making up a few meal kits for our lunches the next day. When the corn was fully cold, I dropped a bit of salt over them as well as a small butter pat, so after the corn is heated with the meat, we could roll our corn sections in the salt + butter inside the dish. Worked like a charm.

And the potato in my kit got pierced in a lengthwise line as was as a cross line. I didn’t think it was enough, so I stabbed the rest of the potato top and then used the fork to push it all down to a smushed mash before topping it with some cucumber salad dressing and green onion chops like I did the night before (see above dinner plate).

All in all, I’m liking this bbq weekend stuff. I just wish the weather was more consistently night as opposed to one bbq day every three fricking weeks. Ugh,

Smash Big Mac Quesadilla & Seasoned Fries

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We were going to smoke some ribs on the BBQ but time got away from us today and it’s about to rain, so switch of plans for dinner tonight.

I have been thinking about these small tortilla smash burger tacos, but I only have one large tortilla left, so I’m planning to make a quesadilla version for two. I bought some medium ground beef that I’ll season with S&P, garlic powder, and mince some onion into the mix.

Here is the classic Big Mac sauce I’ll be using. I’m renaming it for this meal idea.

Smash Mac Sauce:
1 C Hellman’s Mayo (I have no idea why this makes it taste better but it does)
2 Tbsp: Vlasic’s Relish / White Wine Vinegar
1 Tbsp Yellow Mustard
1 Tea: Regular Paprika / Garlic Powder / Onion Powder

Tuna Burgers

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I’m slowly weening myself, and by extension the husband, off of red meat. We tend to eat a lot of red meats all year, but in the summer, we tend to go bonkers smoking every thing we can get our hands on. I haven’t figured out what this summer will look like for us yet, but if Mother Nature has her way, she’s not into giving us many long weekend bbq/smoking sessions. 🙁

Sidebar: Doesn’t this Smoke warning look like a suggestion to smoke some bacon??

Anyway, I found this online recipe for Tuna Burgers, and having noted I have two cans of tuna collecting dust (not really) in my pantry just this morning, I instantly knew what to make for dinner tonight. I love tuna melts and tuna burgers. This recipe wasn’t far off of what I would have dreamt up had I had enough mental clarity to do so. I had a long day at work, so I needed a recipe geared towards the living dead tonight. 🙂

The burgers turned out nicely, too. I used some herbs from my garden in the patties as well as in the burger sauce, so that worked out nicely for me. I have to keep using them so they keep growing back and all that jazz.

Speaking of herbs, I am growing a small bunch of Strawberry Mint to use in simple syrups and to mottle down for faux mojitos. Fojitos?

I clipped a bunch the other day and whipped it over the fence for my neighbours who love to make summer drinks for their endless parade of visitors in their backyard. I really should have added a few rocks to the bag because it only just got over the fence, and then landed behind their bbq grill. LOL I quickly texted her and she grabbed it after they came back from walking the dog.

Like the other herbs, the more I harvest, the more it regrows. I should have a lot by this time in July. Woot.

Rice Bowl Upcycling

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So, the other day I made this lovely quasi Tex-Mex rice bowl for our Taco Tuesday dinner. The next night I still had so many materials leftover, plus all of the other ingredients I forgot to prep and add (salsa, cheese, deep fried onions), so I made another better version to make the true taco rice bowl I envisioned all week.

Both looked great, but the second one worked better because it had some moisture and heat the first attempt didn’t. Oh, and I found a squeeze bottle of some cheesy chipotle sauce I bought specifically for this taco meal and had forgot all about, the following Friday in my pantry. D-oh!

So, what was in my taco bowls?

Rice
Lettuce shredded up
Ground Chorizo Meat
Pinto Beans
Homemade Pico de Gallo
Sour Cream
Cilantro Leaves
Lime Juice squeezes
Cheese shredded up
Deep Fried Onions

That’s just a list of what I had on hand prepped to use in them. Your list might be different, and that’s ok. Cooked chicken shred or cooked ground beef also works, as does pickled onions and pickled jalapenos. You can use some Mexican cheese if you have it, as well as some broken up tortilla chips if you like.

Go crazy, or keep it pared down to five items. It’s your bowl, your way.

Fried Rice Breakfast

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Yesterday was my day off. On my days off, I like to linger in front of the open fridge looking at items I have in there that may be on the verge of turning. And I like to turn some or all of these items into a completely new meal. I hate food waste.

Yesterday’s upcycled meal was a fried rice breakfast dish. I used up the last of the cooked rice, and some of the bits and bob veg I had in the crisper drawer (a bit of yellow onion, a bit of a carrot, some celery chops). This was the holy trinity that would be the base for my dish. I threw it in the frying pan with bacon fat and got it going.

I found a container with egg whites in the back from the last time I separated yolks to make the husband a lovely pasta carbonara. I added whisked in another egg and dumped the rice in to combine it all.

When the veg mix was softened enough, I added the rice-egg mixture and moved it all around in the pan, picking up the veggies as I fried up the egg to a solid state. That was long enough for the cold rice to heat all the way through.

I added a splash of soy sauce and a dribble of fish sauce, rolled it around, and then scooped it into a bowl. I also sprinkled sesame seeds on top for good measure. So good.