Hello to Melissa’s blog subscribers! Here’s a funny story to start out this week’s column: About two weeks ago, I told Melissa that I was going to make something early for Ms. Bear’s Kitchen. So I did; it turned out great, and I instantly forgot about it. Today Melissa reminded me that I never wrote up this recipe and asked me to do it. Thank goodness for the iPhone, where I had my pictures because I honestly couldn’t remember what I had made!!!! The end of the school year is like a big race, and I feel I am coming in last…LOL!

Anyway, this week’s recipe is Chicken Pasta Salad! It turned out well, with two meals of leftovers!

Ingredients…

*Some type of pasta noodles
*Italian dressing
*Shredded cheese and Parmesan cheese
*Chicken (I use my standby of rotisserie chicken)
*Your choice of veggies…I used onions, tomatoes, green pepper, cucumbers olives and bacon bits

As you know, the directions to any of my recipes are very simple….just cook the noodles, add the other stuff and enjoy! I served this with a whole wheat baguette and our “famous” fruit compote — peaches and mandarins mixed together!

Any requests for my next dinner? Try it. I bet you’ll like it!!!!!

Sloppy Tots?? What the heck was that, we wondered?

We stumbled upon this week’s recipe in a flyer from our local Hy-Vee grocery store. It’s also been going kind of viral on Facebook lately, so we figured we’d better give it a try.

Here’s the actual recipe…

But I was in a hurry and modified it by using just the tater tots, onion, hamburger and a can of Manwich. I also cut the recipe way down and put it in an 8×8 pan, and we still have enough for another night!

Sloppy joes have always been a favorite of mine; in fact, we had them at lunch before my wedding. This is an interesting take on the typical sloppy joe, that’s for sure!

We had them with a salad, veggies, green beans and some mixed fruit. We also had a cookie for dessert….we had a few of my mom’s classic almond cookies left over from a dessert auction at church. She would have been so proud because two boxes of my cookies brought in $195 for our fund-raising gala at church! Fun weekend.

And of course, to complete the meal, we watched our new favorite show! Patty Hewes, anyone??

Enjoy them, but don’t be sloppy when you eat them!!!! Until next time…..

What’s that, you say? Ms. Bear has made something she has never made before? Will wonders never cease?

Ask anyone who knows me: I have several staples that I make all the time — toast and deli meat, fruit compote, sloppy joes, pasta salad, chicken from the deli and rice and beans. Hence, when Melissa asked me to do this column, I was rather shocked. But, the good news is she has made me branch out a bit, so I don’t look incompetent with what I make!

Today’s recipe is called Farmer’s Casserole. Ironically enough, I had just taken one of those silly Facebook quizzes that Melissa and I are addicted to. The quiz was about the occupation I would have had in a previous life, and guess what? I got farmer! Right after that is when I saw the recipe, so I figured it was meant to be. And, we have been wanting to have a breakfast-for-dinner night, so here we are!!! Here’s the recipe…the only thing I changed was I used leftover spiral ham instead of ham chunks, and I added some green pepper…

*3 cups frozen hash browns
*3/4 cup shredded pepperjack cheese
*1 cup cooked ham, diced
*1/4 cup chopped green onions
*4 eggs, beaten
*1 can, 12 oz., evaporated milk
*1/4 t. pepper
*1/8 t. salt

Grease a 2 qt. baking dish. Put in the hash browns, evenly, and add the cheese, ham and green onions, and peppers if you are using them. In a medium bowl, mix the eggs, evaporated milk, pepper and salt. Pour the egg mixture over the potato mixture. You can cover and refrigerate the dish if you want for a few hours or overnight.

I just stuck it in the oven for 45 minutes….if you are baking it chilled, you bake for around an hour, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Serve with whole grain English muffins and strawberries for a nice breakfast-for-dinner treat! Yee-haw….enjoy!!!!!

It’s Throwback Taco Thursday in Ms. Bear’s Kitchen!!

We were thinking about what to make for the column this week. I have been a little obsessed lately with Chipotle (which seriously has to stop, especially the chips and salsa!), so we started thinking about Mexican food. Then I started thinking about the popularity of Throwback Thursday on Facebook, and we decided to tie the two together. You see, my mother absolutely loved tacos. Now my mom, in her old age, was quite a little thing, but boy, could she put away the tacos! Not one or two, but seriously at least three or four! It was such a joy to watch her enjoying them as we ate and talked. So tonight, we remembered my mother as we enjoyed some Mexican food.

Here is what you need for tonight’s dinner….it is quick and easy with leftovers to spare…

*1 pound of ground beef, cooked
*1 can grilling beans, Texas ranchero flavor
*1 can refried beans
*1 box taco shells and seasoning
*Whole wheat tortillas
*Shredded cheese
*Taco sauce
*Chopped tomatoes and chopped onions
*1 package Spanish rice, microwaveable if you want to save time

Cook the meat and heat up the canned goods.

Assemble the tacos any way you like, in any combination! Top with cheese, onions and tomatoes. Add rice for the side dish, and add some fruit on the side. Top it off with brownies and enjoy! Refrigerate the rest for tomorrow’s lunch and/or dinner, and you are all set!

Oh, I forgot the most important part….crank up the Pandora Salsa Loco station to really get in the mood, and don’t forget to talk about fun family traditions and stories when you are cooking. Buen provecho!

Imagine my surprise when Melissa told me THIS MORNING that it was time for another recipe!!! So, we started thinking what sounded good to us, and we both agreed that spaghetti, just plain, old classic spaghetti, would be great! So, after work and swimming, off I went to the grocery store to get things to do some cookin’!

I used two jars of sauce and the whole box of spaghetti to be sure we would have leftovers (and believe me, we do!). I also timed it today to see how long it took from start to finish, and it was one hour (and I even cooked some chicken breasts for Janelle at the same time!) Here’s what I did…

You need…

*1/2 pound ground beef, cooked (I browned up a whole pound and put the other half in the freezer for chili some night)
*2 jars of Ragu sauce. It was on sale for only $1/jar!
*1 can of tomatoes, drained
*1 box of Smart Taste thin spaghetti (I use that because it tastes like regular spaghetti, but is healthier)

Make the spaghetti how you like it, add a salad (I just got one from the salad bar at the grocery store), green beans and some grapes for a nice easy meal! We had turtle Cookies from the store bakery for dessert. You could have Italian bread with it, but I kind of have a weird carb phobia about spaghetti and bread all at once!

Enjoy! You better, because there will be plenty of leftovers 🙂