Last night I needed something easy and quick and comfort-foody. This is what I decided on.

2 boxes Velveeta Shells n Cheese (a generic brand would be fine too)

1 lb ground beef

taco seasoning

chili powder

minced onion

You can also use one box, but I needed leftovers for lunch today, and also I'm pregnant, so I'M STARVING. BACK OFF.

Boil water. While you are waiting for the water to boil, brown the ground beef. Drain it, and then add taco seasoning. Another way you can do this, D's way, is to just dump the taco seasoning over the meat BEFORE the browning and the draining. I was going to try it that way but I forgot. Anyway, put in the minced onion and a little chili powder too. Now the water should be boiling, so add all the noodles. The "shells". When the beef is browned, add the envelopes of delicious orange cheese sauce. And a little more chili powder. Drain the shells and add them to the stuff. Mix it all together. Serve. I had mine with corn. It's so good.

1 lb ground pork

1 package of wonton wrappers

garlic, onion, ginger, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper

In a bowl, mix up everything but the wonton wrappers (duh. That would be weird.) I didn't measure. I just tossed shit in until it smelled good.

Take a wonton wrapper and put a tablespoon of the pork mixture onto it. Fold the wrapper into a triangle shape, and use your fingers dipped in some water to seal it. The instructions said to seal it with some beaten egg white. I did not do this, because hello, I'm busy, I don't have time to find an egg and break it and separate it and beat it, but I'm sure it would work just as well, if not better. Put your folded potsticker aside. After you've made as many as you are going to make, heat a few tablespoons of vegetable oil in a skillet. When it's hot, drop the potstickers in. Cook them for about a minute and a half on both sides. This is when they start sticking to your pot if you leave them in too long. After they have been cooked a little on both sides, pour in one cup of water. Look out! It's going to get smoky! Frantically open the living room windows and the sliding door while yelling downstairs to your boyfriend "I'm fine! It's FINE. I don't need any help, everything is under control, I CAN COOK, DAMN IT, DON'T COME UP HERE!!!" Then cover the skillet and let them steam for 3 minutes or so. Then remove them, and serve them with hoisin sauce or soy sauce or spicy Chinese mustard.

i went to the dentist the other day and the hygienist was very aggressive with her scraping and poking.  my mouth hurt afterwards and i wanted some comforty-type food that was soft, and not too hot but certainly not cold.  beanie weenie soup it was!

add water to a can of campbell's bean with bacon soup.  i always add about half a can of water as opposed to the recommended full can as i like my soup to be a little thicker.  slice up a hot dog and put it in.  stir it up and nuke it until it's your desired temperature.  delicious!

one of my childhood babysitters, betsy, made this all the time!

I was going to make beef stew in the crackpot as usual, but all our crackpots are still dirty. From Christmas Eve. Yep. What can I say, I'm a Dirty Girl. So rather than wash the crackpots, I decided I'd make the stew in the oven.

package of beef stew meat

frozen or canned peas

baby carrots

two baking potatoes

onions

garlic powder, italian seasoning, salt and pepper

can of tomato soup (you can also use cream of mushroom if you want a creamier consistancy)

Preheat oven to 350. Realize that you didn't take the meat out of the freezer in time and now you have to defrost it in the microwave. Surf the internet and eat cookies while you wait.

Put everything in a casserole dish. (I cut the potatoes into pieces and cut the baby carrots in half.) Put in the oven covered for 90 minutes. If you have more time, uncover after 90 minutes and keep it in there for another 30-60 minutes. The longer you keep it in the oven, the more tender the beef will be.

 

Tonight I had to make dinner from stuff that I already had. This is what I came up with.

1 lb ground beef

salt, pepper, garlic, dried onion or real onion (I had both but I was way too lazy to cut up a real onion. Dirty and knife and a cutting board? Please.)

package of boxed Au Gratin potatoes (and the milk and butter that you need to make them)

can of cheddar cheese soup

frozen or canned green beans

 

I browned the beef. I almost burned it because I wandered away and watched "The X Effect" on MTV for awhile. I added garlic and onion and salt and pepper to the beef. I drained it. I added a little more salt, pepper, garlic and onion, because duh, I just drained it. Oops.

I dumped the beef into a glass casserole baking dish thing. Then I mixed in the can of cheddar cheese soup and some frozen green beans and mixed it all up. Then I had fun using a spatula to press it into kind of a loaf. You don't have to do that. It was just fun. Then I mixed up the au gratins in a bowl, and dumped it over the top of the meat-square.  Then I thought better of it and moved the potatoes to the sides of the dish. My dish was big enough to do that. I just didn't want all the potatoes to be on top because they might get hard and crispy. I wanted most of them in the au-gratin juice on the sides.

So then I put it in the oven at 450 degrees for 25 minutes. When it was done I let it sit and thicken for about 10 minutes.

 

This is not my usual chili recipe. Not my Gold Standard. That will come some other day. This is a "I feel like chili but I'm sure as hell not going to the store" recipe. So I made this for dinner tonight and it turned out really, really good.

Brown a pound of hamburger with a chopped onion and a spoonful of minced garlic. Drain. Put meat in a pot along with a 20 ounce can of diced tomatoes, juice and all. Add one can chicken broth. Add one bag frozen corn. Add half a can of Southwestern Black Beans. (add the entire can if you must, I don't like beans so I didn't want too many. I threw the rest of the can away. YES I KNOW THERE ARE STARVING CHILDREN IN CHINA. I promise next time I will Priority Ship that half-can of beans directly to China, alright?)

Now it's time to have fun with the spices. This is what I did...about 2 tablespoons chili powder, sprinkle of garlic powder, tablespoon or so cumin, sprinkle of salt and black pepper, half a teaspoon or white pepper, generous shake of red pepper flakes, and a few shakes of hot sauce.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes or so. The longer you simmer, the more the spices soak in.

Top with chunks of sharp cheddar cheese. Wait for it to get all melty and stir it. Eat it. Go back for more.

This is delicious and quick and cheap and easy.

1 lb ground beef

1 can french cut green beans

1 can Campbell's cheddar cheese soup

small onion

tater tots

salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

Brown the ground beef with the onions. Drain. Mix the beef, cheese soup, and beans in a baking dish. Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Top with tater tots. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Eat with shovel.

 

1 box lasagna noodles
1 jar roasted pepper alfredo sauce

1 lb Italian ground sausage

1 big thing of ricotta cheese

1 egg

Teaspoon or so of Italian seasoning

Some pepper

Italian shredded cheese mix

 

Pre-heat oven according to lasagna noodles instructions for basic lasagna.  Boil noodles and brown sausage.   Mix jar of alfredo in with sausage.  (you can stretch it here by adding a bit of cream or even a splash of water swished into the jar…Grandma’s trick)

 

Mix ricotta and a slightly beaten egg together in a dish, add seasonings and stir.

 

Spread about ¼ cup of sauce/sausage (herein referred to as SS) mix on bottom of 13x9 baking pan.  Add layer of lasagna.  Add ½ cup ricotta mix (RM), ½ cup SS, layer with cheese, add new layer of lasagna.  Do this until you run out of RM and have a little SS left.  Top layer should be a layer of lasagna, a thin layer of SS and topped with lots and lots of cheese. 

 

buy a chuck roast.  try not to get confused at the difference between "chuck roasts", "pot roasts", and "rump roasts".  poke some holes in it with a fork.  stick some garlic in the holes.  put it in your crackpot.  add some baby carrots and cut-up potatoes.  cover everything with beef broth.  turn it on and let it cook all day.

come home from work and thank almighty god that you don't have to cook that evening.

i was going to try this recipe my dad sent me for his pot roast (which is delicious!) (hi, dad!) but instead of beef broth, he uses coffee.  how genius is that?  but we didn't have any coffee.  bummer.

1 package Chuck Norris roast, cut up
1 can French Onion Soup
1 can Cream of mushroom soup
1 clove minced garlic
 chopped onion to taste
 black pepper to taste

  Put all ingredients in slow cooker with about half a cup of water. Cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 6 hours.   Serve over egg noodles.