Fast and Easy Pasta Salad

Tonight pasta was on sale but I had to purchase 10 boxes to get the deal. Okay challenge excepted! We haven't had my pasta salad for a while so perfect side for the hubby's lunchbox this week. 

First rule and most importantly, cold salads or side dishes HAVE to be attractive otherwise they will not get eaten quickly! That is why I have to make mine with TriColored Rotini. It is so pretty! I cooked the noodles to the package's directions making sure not to over cook as no one likes mushy cold noodles. 

Next I drained the noodles and immediately added one bottle of Italian dressing. You can make your own, it is not difficult but it is a week night and I have books to dive into. 

Next I added cherry tomatoes. I kept mine whole as I do not like tomatoes and it is easy to pick out when serving. 

Here's the fun part, you can add whatever you like! Sometimes I like bacon crumbles and cubes of cheese, sometimes I add black olives, but my favorite is to add pepperoni. I like the mini pepperoni and will sometimes use the turkey kind as there is little to no flavor difference but tonight I could only find the original sized pieces so I quartered about 2 oz, separated the stick little slices and stirred them into my mixture. 

Lastly I topped with a little bit of cheese for those cheese lovers and placed in the fridge. It will be ready to serve in a couple of hours or perfect by morning. 

Hearty and Cheap Meal

I have this newly discovered app on my phone that hooks up to my fuel saver card from the local grocery store that keeps my coupons on the fuel save card so I do not have to clip or remember to grab my envelope from home. I was experimenting how this thing works tonight and thinking of some cheap dinner ideas and decided to do a little inventing. (This is normally an eye roll from my hubby wondering what crazy thing I came up with next). I promise this one is simple and yummy! 

I started with browning 1lb hamburger, normally I would have done breakfast sausage or Italian sausage because they are inexpensive and we butcher our own hogs but my handy dandy app found a great deal on ground beef so here we go! 

After browning the meat I added some chili beans(baked beans would be good as well), one hot and one original for a little flavor but not too hot. I really wanted to dive some onions to add to the meat but couldn't find the onion I swore I purchased from the store. I must be going crazy...but that's for another discussion.

Next I prepared a large Dutch oven pot by wiping a little oil on the walls and bottom of the pot. Then I sliced and diced some russet potatoes and lined the bottom of the pan. 

The wine just makes this more fun for the chef! 

Next I layered the meat mixture on top of the potatoes. 

I am kind making it like lasagna layering potato, meat and cheese. 

I did not use a lot of cheese as I am not a huge fan of cheesy filled dishes but just enough to help it all stay together when scooping out to serve. 

I just kept layering like you would lasagna until all ingredients were gone. My top was potato so I could add some extra seasoning of garlic, onion flakes, salt and pepper. Then I finished out with a layer of shredded cheese. 

Since this was an experiment I placed it in the oven expecting it to take a while just like a baked potato. My oven is a little slow so I baked at 400 degrees for 1 hour checking how soft the potatoes were starting at 45 mins until my knife could easily cut to the bottom of the dish.  The last 10 mins I removed the lid to let the cheese get a little more solid. Removed from the oven to enjoy!

In the meantime I found that sneaky onion hiding from me in a bag I thought was empty from the grocery store. Looks like I'll have to find something for it tomorrow night! 

 

Simply Delicious Chili

Hats off to all the people that make their own chili recipes, enter them in contests and win blue ribbons! I on the other hand am not one of those people! My cowboy hubby has a card party night tonight and needs snacks or crockpot items to bring for his buddies. He loves bringing chili because everyone is always amazed at "how good it is." Come on people it is as simple as it gets! No special ingredients, secret recipes etc just two busy people that through some junk in a crockpot and go.

Ingredients:

2 lbs fully cooked ground beef
30 oz chili beans (we like the hot/spicy)
1 qt tomatoes (straight out of my MIL's garden or the grocery store)
1 small onion
1 HOT chili seasoning packet (you can make your own but this is the simplified version)

Directions:

Throw all ingredients into the crockpot, stirring with each new addition to keep everything mixed well. The onion we keep whole by just chopping off and discarding the ends and the outer layer of skin for flavor only. We remove the onion before serving. If you like onion in your chili then dice and mix in. Cook on low for 8 hrs, the longer the better for flavor but technically it is ready to eat after thoroughly heated.

Serving suggestions:

Scoop out a large bowl, add a dollop of sour cream, top with cheddar cheese and crackers (or if you are like me, that spoon is just for looks, use the crackers to scoop up the chili). Enjoy with your favorite side of corn bread and or cinnamon rolls!