Hello, friends. I hope you are having a good day. Of course I began this week with church. We had an wonderful service last week and this week promises to be just as good as we continue on through the book of Romans.
I thought I would begin the week by sharing a new recipe I made for dinner last night. I have been watching vlogs every morning and one leads to another which leads to another. Yesterday I found two new ones that I am really enjoying: "Cora Sue's Cozy Castle" and "Mandy in the Making." Both are lifestyle vlogs and both are good cooks. This is a recipe that Mandy made for her family's dinner one night. I made some changes to it to suit my needs. A big one was that she used jarred spaghetti sauce. I don't use that (I usually get sick on it), so I was going to use tomato sauce. It turns out I didn't have that either. So I used tomato soup. And it was good! So here's how I made this Beef and Macaroni Casserole. Mandy called it Red Macaroni. Either one works.
Begin by browning 1 pound of ground beef in a skillet.
Chop up one onion. I used a half an onion and it was enough for us. I think it depends on how big the onion is and how much you like onions. I found that if you and onions are not friends, you could omit this step and it would still be good. They really didn't add that much to the dish.
Mix them together in the pan and brown the together for a few minutes.
Add the can of tomato soup or a small jar of spaghetti sauce.
Add Italian Seasoning to taste. We like it so I added about a tablespoon. I didn't measure, just shook it in.
Add salt and pepper to taste. I didn't use nearly as much as I did the Italian Seasoning. Maybe a teaspoon of pepper and half a teaspoon of salt. But make it the way you like it.
Stir in a cup of water. I put it in the soup can to get the last of the soup out. If as it cooks it begins to look too thick, add a bit more water. I didn't need to.
Finally, add one cup of elbow macaroni to the mixture.
And stir everything together.
Cook on medium heat until it bubbles. Then turn it down to medium low.
Cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so.
After 20 minutes check to see that the macaroni is cooked. Put it into a casserole dish and top with shredded cheese. Mandy used cheddar. I didn't have any so I used up the mozzarella and provolone I had in the refrigerator.
Put into a 350*F (180*C) oven for 5 minutes to melt the cheese. Rather than heat the oven for 5 minutes, I put mine in the microwave for 2 minutes until the cheese was melted.
It was very good. We both liked it. I liked that I could change things, make it my own, and it still turned out good.
Here's what Joe thought about it.
I hope you enjoyed this recipe. I can't wait to try some more of Mandy's creations.
Until next time...
Kathy
Looks & sounds delicious! I agree that being able to tweak it to taste is great as not everyone can have all seasonings. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteLooks so good and know it was. I have made something similar and we really enjoy it too.
ReplyDeleteYum...
ReplyDeleteWould you believe I have never cooked the pasta in the sauce like that? I will have to try it!
HA...this was so cute Kathy....glad you liked Mandy's cooking videos!
ReplyDeleteHi Kathy! I love this recipe and will be trying it out on my family. I love the video at the end. It was fun to hear your voice and Joe's response was cute. Thanks and have a great Sunday. We are all sick here today and so are home from church for a second week in a row, and like you I really dislike missing church. My whole week is off when I don't go. Thanks for this post and your blog. I really enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteThe recipe sounds delish! I'll give it a try. I loved the video. It's always good to get confirmation on how tasty a dish is. You have a wonderful day, hugs, Edna B.
ReplyDeleteThis dish reminds me of the Goulash Mother would make! Loved the video snippet of Joe!
ReplyDeleteThis recipe with a little celery seeds or celery flakes and baked was called jonny marzetti when my kids were growing up in Ohio. I remember on Family Fun Night-the fun raiser-the we made this and sold it. People lined up to get it. I continued to make it after we left Ohio...for family and friends...now, as a vegetarian, I leave out the meat and still love it.
ReplyDeletelove your blog...
What an easy and delicious sounding meal, maybe I will try it. We are studying Romans also, in our study group after church services.
ReplyDeleteThanks for including Joe's taste test, Kathy. It was priceless and thanks too for the easy recipe suggestion. I bet leftovers are even better!
ReplyDeleteI could easily follow the recipe with all the steps by step photographs. It is always of great help to understand how the end result actually look like. Lol. The recipe turned out well. Joe’s recommendation was superb. I tweaked it a bit and added tomato sauce and one onion.
ReplyDeleteI make the same recipe with minced mutton. I also add more spices to it. My daughter suggested the recipe a couple of years ago. She got it from a friend of hers. I did not favour the pasta, but she loved it. So nothing went waste!
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