Judy's Black Bean and Corn Casserole

With this whole pregnancy thing, my taste buds have gone through a whirlwind of flavor changes. For example, I now like fried onions on burgers, hot dogs, perogies, or anything else that it can be put on. This may not seem strange to some of you, but my parents (before they knew I was pregnant) seriously thought I was ill when I ordered a rink burger with onions. I'm also really needing strong vinegar things to actually taste any kind of tartness - for example when I'm putting mustard on my hot dog, I need to give my hot dog a bath in it so that it's dripping out of the bun. Otherwise, I don't taste it at all. Also, I've stopped being able to detect the strong smell of 'cream corn' after a stem cell transplant at work - it's a glaringly obvious smell that even just by walking by a patients room, you can smell it without a doubt. Now? a subtle smell if I really really look for it.

So imagine my surprise when all my life I've stayed away from anything spicy, only to find out that I can't taste the spicyness anymore, just the delicious flavour of the food! My husband's a fan of spicy food, so mom saved some of her leftover casserole for him to try (as she wouldn't think of making it when I come home since I can't eat it). Well he hardly had two bites of it as he wanted me to try it and I scarfed it down! Mom was shocked! (so was I to be honest), but alas, a new casserole recipe for you guys! My mom threw a little of this and a little of that together one day and it came out great! I've already made it and doubled the recipe so we could enjoy it for a few days!

Judy's Black Bean and Corn Casserole

1/2-3/4 lb ground beef

1 can of corn

1 can of black beans, strained

1 taco seasoning packet

1 tbsp chille powder

salt & pepper

garlic (powder or the real deal - as much as you want)

1 small jar salsa

1 prepared box of Kraft Dinner

1 cup grated cheese

Fry up your ground beef with some chopped onion, then strain and rinse to drain some fat. Return to large skillet and add corn, black beans, all the seasonings, and salsa. Add your prepared box of kraft dinner (with cheese stirred into cooked noodles already) to your beef mixture and mix together. Pour into a casserole dish or roaster and top with grated cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until cheese melts and you're too hungry to wait any longer.

When I doubled the recipe, I used 1.5 lbs ground beef and two boxes of KD and two cups grated cheese on top and 2 tbsp chile powder. Otherwise, I kept the liquid from the corn and added about 1/2 cup of water to rinse out the salsa jar. Myself, I would probably only use half a taco seasoning package if I wasn't doubling the recipe, but that's just my personal taste. Enjoy!

Slow Sour Creamed Beef

This was the easiest and tastiest beef I've made in a long time and all because I needed to use up some freezer food, as we're moving soon! Anybody can make this, whether you're confident in the kitchen or not. The sour cream doesn't really taste like sour cream anymore and my husband who HATES sour cream absolutely loved this dish. So don't let that ingredient stop you from making it! The sauce is super yummy over perogies, rice, or pasta. The beef is so tender that it melts in your mouth! (and this is poor quality stewing beef that I used!). But you need to plan ahead as it takes four hours to cook slowly in your oven. This could easily be turned into a slow cooker recipe. Okay on to the recipe...

Shawna's Slow Sour Creamed Beef

2 lbs stewing beef

2 cups water

2 tbsp beef oxo

salt & pepper

garlic powder or the real deal

1 cup sour cream

Combine everything except for the sour cream and put in large roaster. Cook at 250 degrees F for four hours. Remove beef with slotted spoon after cooking, and place in frying pan with sour cream. Sour cream will melt and coat, about 5 min. Transfer into casserole dish, add a couple tbsp of the beef juice from the roaster to the beef mixture for taste and to thin it a bit. Pop the casserole dish back into the still warm (but now shut off oven) until the rest of your supper is ready!

Lasagna

You always need a good lasagna recipe and this one is easy and delicious. By using the oven ready noodles, it takes out a lot of the prep time! I throw spinach into my lasagna to add more veggies where you can't taste them! (I'm always trying to fool myself into eating more veggies than I think I am - I have to force myself to eat them!)

Lasagna

1/2 chopped onion

1-2 lbs ground beef

1/2-1 jar tomato pasta sauce

1/2 cup water

oregano, garlic, s&p, parsley

9-12 oven ready lasagna noodles

a bunch of chopped spinach, stems removed

500ml cottage cheese

grated mozzarella, divided

Brown ground beef and onion, stir in tomato sauce and water to make it really watery. Add spices. In a separate bowl, mix together cottage cheese, spinach, and half of the mozza cheese.

In a 9x13 pan, layers as follows:

1/3 of beef mixture

3-4 lasagna noodles

1/2 of cottage cheese/spinach mix

1/3 of beef mixture

3-4 lasagna noodles

rest of the cottage cheese/spinach mix

3-4 lasagna noodles

Rest of the beef mix

Top with remaining mozza cheese

Cover and bake at 350 for 45-50 min, removing the cover in the last 10 min of baking.

Let stand 10 min before serving and cutting

*Sauce is watery so that the noodles will soften and soak up the extra moisture.

Black Bean Chicken Quesadilla

I used to have an old quesadilla recipe that called for antipasto. Well, that's expensive and I use it so seldom that I would usually end up throwing out most of a jar. Tonight, I came up with a bit different recipe. We had some left over chicken breasts in the fridge, so I thought this was a perfect way to use them up! Also, I've never actually cooked with black beans before so it was a good excuse to try them (and get that can out of my cupboard!) I used some flavor inspirations from an earlier post of chile lime chicken, of which I got the recipe from Amanda Pokentickle. Mike absolutely loved these! And it was soft and easy to chew as he had his wisdom teeth out a few days ago!

Black Bean Chicken Quesadilla

two cooked chicken breasts, cut up into bite site pieces

1/2 can black beans, strained and rinsed

1/2 can corn

1 large tomato, seeds removed

1/2 tsp chipotle chile seasoning (VE seasoning)

1 TBSP chile powder (I use lots since my stock is old)

a few squirts of lime juice

1 cup shredded cheddar or Monterey jack

four large whole wheat tortilla's

Mix all ingredients together, except for the cheese and shells. Microwave for 2 minutes. On a large greased baking dish, place tortilla down, spread a bit of cheese on 1/2, then add filling, and top with more grated cheese, folding the other half over to cover. Repeat with remaining tortilla's. Bake in 400 degree oven for 5-10 min. Turn the broiler on for a couple minutes to brown the top.

** I added about 1/2 tsp lime juice, next time I'd add double this as you couldn't really taste it at all.

*** You can mix up a double recipe, omitting the tomato, and freeze the other half so you have another meal ready to go!

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo

I usually make this with pizza dough, but I had some Pillsbury Croissant rolls pushing their expiry date in the fridge, as well as some pie crust that needed to be used up, so I decided to adjust the recipe a bit! I usually make a big batch of the filling and freeze half, so it's a quick meal the second time!

It's always a crowd pleaser and it's so easy to make! And so easy to individualize tastes! I can see someone who loves mushrooms and peppers easily adding it to this dish!

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo

4 chicken breasts, chopped into bite size pieces

Italian salad dressing

3 potatoes, cubed

3 cups broccoli, chopped into bite size pieces

3/4 cup grated cheddar

1/4 cup real bacon pieces

1 jar alfredo sauce

Cook chicken in a big sauce pan on the stove in the italian salad dressing. Cook potatoes and broccoli in the microwave, stir this together with the cooked chicken breasts. Add the rest of the ingredients, stirring to mix. I usually add some parmesan and a few other spices: parsley, dill, thyme, salt and pepper. You could also add some red pepper flakes or cayenne to give it some kick.

Place a hefty portion on dough and roll up making sure the edges all stick together (put some water on your finger tips to do this). Cut vent holes in the top and bake for 15 min or until golden brown in 400 degree oven!

I didn't have enough croissant dough for all of my filling, so I used a leftover Pillsbury Pie Shell, rolled it into a square pan and topped with the filling, baking it for 30 min in a 400 degree oven.

Easy Vegetable Stir-Fry

I had a bunch of fresh veggies to use up, so did what any practical person would do and threw them all into one big pan and fried em up!! The results were delicious but it was so easy. I should make stir fry's more often as they are chalk full of vitamins and the vegetables taste better than when they're on their own (my opinion only - I'm not very fond of veggies).

Easy Vegetable Stir-Fry

Chop up half an onion, put it in a large frying pan or wok and fry it with some canola oil with a bit of salt to make it sweat.

Add 1/2 tsp of crushed garlic

Wash and chop up all the veggies you need to use up in your fridge, I used:

1/3 lg cabbage

3 carrots

2 celery stalks with leaves

1/2 head of cawliflower

whole head of broccoli

Add 1/2 cup of chicken broth to help steam the veggies

then add 1/4 cup of soya sauce

1/2 tsp (or more if you like) of ginger

1/2 tsp of pepper

Let simmer until your desired doneness of the veggies and serve with your favorite rice. I used an Uncle Ben's gourmet rice with a mix of white and wild with vegetable seasoning flavor and it was so yummy!

:)

Hello my faithful blog followers. I must apologize for my lack of posting, but I'm sure you will understand! For the past well.. 8 weeks or so, I haven't much felt like looking at food or cooking very much at all to be honest with you. When I have, I've stuck to the basics and what at the time I viewed as comfort food! I have been working on re-making some of the things on my site so that I could include pictures of those recipes. Feel free to look back at your favorite recipes to see if there's a pic attached to it yet! If there still isn't one, good things take time and I'll work on that as well as coming up with new delicious recipes to share! Feel free to let me know your most desired recipe pics!

Thanks for checking in,

Shawna :)