Tag Archives: casserole

In My Kitchen a long time ago

Here we are in winter, again. The holidays are over, thank the Gods! I have to admit that I am daydreaming of what to plant and where once the snow melts. Though I don’t get much sun anymore so not sure how that will work out. Oh well,we are still a bit away from that. In the meantime I have been instagramming a lot and have left the blog to collect a little dust. I just went poking around in here and realized I started this post a very long time ago and didn’t hit the publish button, better late than never.

Made these as a baking challenge, the chocolatiest cake pops you can imagine

We have some fancy apple cider vinegar. This will go into some sort of salad dressing

the annual Paczki, yum!

made these pesto chips for a valentines post, super easy and fast

made a large casserole, so froze a container for another meal later

We did a baking challenge in January, which was bread bowls. They turned out really well and tasted great

Pre karate training lunch

Using up leftover bits and pieces for a breakfast “pizza”

We are growing the world’s smallest terrarium, I was sceptical but it is working. I am still sceptical…

made chocolate 8 bit hearts

The “In My Kitchen” monthly theme host is Sherry, from sherryspickings.blogspot.ie If you would like to know what is happening in other kitchens or join IMK head over to Sherry’s blog and check out all the other IMK participants and join in.

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Mashed Potato with Kale

This side dish to delicious.  Even if you don’t like kale just try it once I guarantee you will like it here.  I know at least two people that do not like kale, don’t eat kale, but love this. I didn’t get a picture of it plated because I took this to a friends house for dinner.

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This is not a low cal recipe.  It is a hearty stick to your ribs winter dish. We only make it about twice in a year for a treat, though it is so good I could eat it every week.

You will need:

about 2 lbs potatoes

1 bunch kale

3tbsp butter

2 cups finely diced onion or leeks thinly sliced (I use Vidalia sweet onion or leeks)

1/2  to 1 cup half-&-half (10% cream) (start out with 1/2 cup  and add more as needed)

1/2 to 1 cup milk (start out with 1/2 cup and add more as needed)

1/2 to 1 cup grated while medium or old cheddar, you want flavour here ( I use Balderson’s)

Boil potatoes in slightly salted water until soft and then drain. once drained well, mash.

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While the potatoes are cooking boil another large pot of water and cook the kale for about 5 minutes.  It doesn’t get fully cooked at this stage as it will get finished in the oven later. One it is cool enough to handle chop it finely, just run the knife through it several times, it doesn’t have to be pretty.

In another small pot melt butter and cook onions with a sprinkle of salt until they are very soft and translucent.

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Mix cooked onion mixture into the mashed potato.  Add cooked chopped kale, cream and milk (be slow with adding the milk & cream so you don’t make it to runny.  It should be very creamy but not watery.  I add 1/2 of cup of each at first and add more as required to get the consistency as I want it.  How much you add will depend on the potatoes you use and the moisture content.  Mash all together, add salt to taste.  I usually toss in 1/4-1/2 cup of grated cheese and mix it through as well, for extra cheesy flavour.

Place mashed mixture in baking dish or casserole dish and sprinkle top with grated cheese and bake at 350F until cheese is melted and top is lightly browned, about 20-30 minutes.

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Cheesy warm creamy mashed potato flecked with little bits of green.  Delicious!

 

Adapted from: The Green Door Restaurant Vegetarian Cookbook.

 

 

Leftover Turkey Dinner Casserole

I have been on quite a hiatus from this blog lately.  I have been more than slightly overwhelmed and stressed lately, work has been crazy, life has been busy, school work, karate, swimming, husband has been away alot for work, doggy has not been well again and the rest of life and chores still need to be done all with Thanksgiving and an election thrown in just to liven things up!

We have been cooking and baking when there is time and have been trying out some of your lovely blog recipes.  Those I will share later.

Our Thanksgiving was in October so we did have a turkey dinner.  We also has alot of leftovers.  I have been really trying not to waste food and wanted to use every last bite.  After a few suggestions which Evie quickly was not up to eating she wanted to make up a dinner…I let her and this is what resulted.

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She did it all herself, even took the pictures with the exeception of the one above.  It was very good, her dad and I really liked it.  She thought it needed more gravy, and it probably could have used more, but that was all we had.

SInce American Thanksgiving will be coming up in November and then Christmas after that we thought this was a good time to share this “recipe”.

Basically she mashed the potato, carrot and turnip together

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chop enough turkey to cover bottom of casserole dish

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Then dollop the cold gelatinous gravy evenly over that (we put about a teaspoon of water over each dollop  to help it loosen once it started cooking).

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then sprinkle the leftover stuffing over that, note ours only has stuffing on a portion.  That is because Evie doesn’t like stuffing

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Spread mash over the top and give a sprinkle of salt and pepper

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Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes or until piping hot through the middle

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Serve with leftover cranberry sauce, or crack open a new can!

We did still have a large container of dark meat that did not go to waste, we gave it to our neighbor and they used it up for supper that night.

Use up those leftovers!!

Lazy Lasagna

This is a very easy fast weeknight meal.  We haven’t made it for a long time because one day Evie declared that she wanted anything for supper except lazy lasagna because she hated it.  We haven’t made it in about a year and she agreed to try it again.  She is ok with it again now, kids, their tastes change so often.  Last week this was our meat free meal.

Place 2 cup tomato sauce in a saucepan, add 1&1/2 cups shredded mozzarella and 1 cup cottage cheese

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Stir to combine, heating over low just to warm the sauce

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Cook about 3 cups of egg noodles according to package directions and place in a large casserole dish

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Pour over the sauce and stir all together

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I usually top with 2-3 tbsp grated parmesan

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Pop it in the oven and bake at 375F for 20 minutes until bubbling.

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Serve with warm garlic bread

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NOTE: another use for the roasted garlic from my hummus post is garlic bread, mash a few cloves into some butter and spread on some loaf and bake until butter is melted and bubbling.