Stove Top Meatloaf Muffins

Ingredients:
1 lb extra lean ground beef
1 box Stove Top stuffing mix
1 cup water
2 egg whites
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium green bell pepper, diced

Mix together and divide into 12 muffin cups that have been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Shirley

If you're new to cooking, my advice is don't try to do too much. Start simple and work up. For instance you can make a hearty meal from a Stouffer's pan of lasagna, a bag salad, bottle of dressing, perhaps some canned/frozen corn, and garlic bread. Maybe start with frozen garlic bread. Then start making your own? Then maybe doctor up the bagged salad with a tomato and cucumber. etc. A dish of sherbet is a refreshing and easy dessert too.

Maybe take one day a week to try a more "major" project? Make a meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Or a pot roast. Turkey?

Learn from convenience foods. I did. I looked at Hamburger helper and decided it was easy enough to boil macaroni, which you have to do anyway, then add cooked ground beef, which you have to do anyway, and some tomatoes or tomato sauce and a little seasoning. Work your way up. Things like macaroni hotdish, tater tot hotdish, spaghetti (with frozen meatballs simmered in canned sauce) is easy too.

You'll find a dish or two that you find easy to make, that you like to make and is your "specialty". Learn as you go. Enjoy the trip. Learning is a continuous thing. And don't be afraid to make mistakes. Worst case? Burn the roast? OK, so you order pizza! Or make a frozen one. You learned for next time.

BTW, the Meatloaf Muffins sound easy and good. Gotta try that sometime soon.

Brown 1 lb hamburger w/1 diced onion
Drain off grease (I drain it into an empty can, then go back and wipe the fry pan with a paper towel to get rid of the majority of grease).
Add 1 can of low sodium chicken broth or same amount of chicken bouillion (don't have to be too precise)
add 1 diced green pepper
1 cup of uncooked rice

Put lid on pan and simmer at lowest heat for approximately a half hour til liquid decreases and rice is softened.

Sometimes instead of rice I will dice potatoes (fairly small). Depends if I have potatoes that are going bad or if I am lazy rice is easier. Salt & pepper to taste, naturally! If you like a little garlic flavor you could also add a little garlic powder while browning the burger.

I usually add a stalk or two of sliced celery to the ground burger and onion.

Good luck, let us know what you try.

2-4 thick pork chops -- I use boneless loin chops. Sprinkle them with pepper and a little sugar. Brown them well in a skillet and then put them in a casserole. I use a fairly deep Corningware one with a lid. The sugar helps make nice "brownings" in the bottom of the skillet . . .

1 c. white or rose wine
1 can cream of mushroom soup
Whisk these two together till smooth, then pour into the skillet and heat and whisk till it's brown. Pour over the chops, cover and bake at 350 for 2 hours. Ideally the chops will be covered by the gravy and will be very tender and not dried out at all. Serve with rice.

For company, I use my electric knife to slice the chops in thin diagonal slices, then fan them out on a platter and top with some of the gravy. Dress up by topping with sauted fresh mushrooms or those cute little whole button mushrooms. Looks elegant and tastes wonderful!

When I find thick loin chops on sale, I buy a lot and multiply this recipe and make a large batch, then freeze in "meals-for-two" amounts of sliced meat with gravy.

Arlene

Looking back, I would give you several pieces of advice. The first is that you invest in some tools. A portable mixer, a food processor, a nice marble rolling pin, some silicone mats, some nice heavy cookware (I use cast iron skillets and a dutch oven. For my saucepans, I use nice heavy ones that I bought at a flea market. For bakeware, I like those insulated pans.), measuring cups and spoons, and a good set of knives. The mixer can be an inexpensive one. It needs to be lightweight enough that you can bring it to the stove and use it to mash potatoes and make 7-minute frosting, if you want to someday. I had a big MixMaster for years, but I found it too cumbersome and heavy. The food processor can be an inexpensive one, too, but get one that has a big bowl if you can. I use a Cuisinart. It was killer expensive and if I had it to do over again I would've bought something else, due to the fact that once in awhile the blade gets jammed down onto the bowl and it has to be shipped to get it repaired, and they take their sweet time. I have Cutco knives, simply because I was suckered in when I was 18 and not very consumer-savvy (something ELSE I had to learn on my own!). They have served me well for 40 years, but I've broken a couple things and the manufacturer will not make good on the "Lifetime Guarantee" because I lost the certificate somewhere along life's way. There are lots of brands of knives that are still good that don't cost as much. They should feel balanced in your hand when you grip the handle in a cutting position.

I use my food processor a lot. I make my own chopped and shredded vegetables, "Shake'n'Bake, graham cracker crumbs,and lots of other things. When a recipe calls for the sugar, eggs and fat to be creamed together, I just drop them all in and turn on the motor. So also when the flour and fat needs to be "mixed till the mixture resembles corn meal". I find I hardly ever use my blender unless I'm making smoothies, and I bet I could make them in the food processor, too. I like wire whisks for when I make gravy, puddings, pie fillings. Christmas is coming up, maybe you can put in a request to Santa. I almost forgot, I use my crockpot a lot, too, and it's one I bought at a thrift shop. I have a microwave I bought at WMT on sale, but mostly I use it for heating up things, melting butter and thawing frozen things, and baking potatoes. I think I could probably do without it easier than some of the other tools I have listed here.

The second piece of advice is that you learn certain skills, such as how to cut up a chicken and how to roll out a pie crust. Yes, you can buy cut up chicken and rolled-out pie crust. If you want to cook for your family in order to cut your grocery bills, you'll notice these things are more expensive.

The third piece of advice is that you start with casseroles. There are lots of variations, each calling for a pasta, rice or potato ingredient, a meat ingredient, one or more vegetable ingredients, and usually something that binds them together, like tomato sauce or canned soup. Men and kids usually love a good casserole. If you go to Allrecipes.com and do a search on "casseroles", it will return any number of dishes. These are all rated and critiqued, and these are worth reading. No, I'm not connected to Allrecipes in any way, and there are other sites where you can do the same thing, it's just that it's my "Go to" site usually. They even have a section of "How-To Videos".

Here's something I make and use a lot. I think I got it off Allrecipes.com. You can use it on chicken, fish, pork cutlets. Pop these in the oven, make a nice salad and bake some potatoes in the microwave:

Shake ‘n’ Bake
an 18 oz box of cornflakes yields about 5 cups of fine crumbs. I mix this recipe up and keep it in a quart canning jar in the refrigerator. When I'm ready to use it, I put only about 1/4 cup on a plate and dredge the meat in it. You can always add a little more to the plate if you need to, but this way you don't waste, because you need to throw out whatever comes in contact with raw meat that doesn't get baked.

3-1/2 cups corn flake crumbs
1/4 C all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and stir to combine. Prepare chicken following the same technique as described on the box of the original mix using 2 1/2 lb. of bone-in chicken (6 to 8 pieces, with or without skin) or 2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast halves Preheat your oven to 400º, then moisten the chicken with water. Use a large plastic bag for the coating and use the same steps as described on the original package:

"Shake moistened chicken, 1 to 2 pieces at a time, in shaker bag with coating mixture. Discard any remaining mixture and bag. Bake at 400º in ungreased or foil-lined 15x10x1-inch baking pan until cooked through --BONE-IN: 45 minutes/BONELESS: 20 minutes"

Sorry this is so long! --Ilene

Lasagne

1 lb. lean hamburger

1 lb. ground pork

1 medium onion

1 T minced garlic

12/15 Sweet Basil leaves

Italian seasoning ( I just dump it in)

Salt

Pepper

1 can Hunt’s Traditional Spaghetti sauce

1 can Diced Tomatoes

1 ½ lbs Mushrooms

1 lb Provolone Cheese (sliced on 2)

Large package grated Mozzarella

16 oz lasagna noodles

Brown meat, onions, and seasonings; add tomatoes & sauce let simmer 20 minutes; add mushrooms. Let mixture set while cooking noodles.

Layer: noodles, sauce mixture, cheese (alternate Provolone and Mozzarella).

When ready to serve, heat until bubbly and cheese has melted. I usually do it with foil on top for a little while and then remove the foil till the cheese is nice and melted.

Take 3 lbs of any kinds of pork or beef. Cut it up if you want too but it's not necessary. I usually will have short ribs, pork shoulder or chuck roast on hand. Just cut off some of the fat. Now......

Put the meat in the slow cooker and top with this:

One jar pepperoncini peppers....

That's it. Add garlic if you like it. Cook for two hours on high and four hours on low.

Or Add this to the pot:

One jar green salsa, juice and all
One envelope onion soup mix

Cook for the same amount of time.

With Chicken, use a whole chicken cut up, remove some of the skin...now add:

One jar sweet and sour sauce
One half cup Soy sauce
small can of chunk pineapple, cut up onion, green pepper chopped. That's it. Cook exactly as above for the pork or beef.

You can put anything over the meat like a can of tomatoes and an envelope of gravy mix. Or put a can of tomato soup and a can of cheddar soup plus a chopped onion.

Just experiment with your slow cooker. It is hard to go wrong. I will serve this over rice or noodles or for the roast beef, I may make instant mashed pot...open a can of peas or green beans,,,dinner is served. I hope this helps someone.