Butter Garlic Green Beans

Fresh green beans were on sale recently and I was looking for something other than the usual cook in the slow cooker with bacon and potatoes way I make them. Everyone in my family raved about these and they will be a staple from now on.

Basic Baked Brown Rice

I don’t have much luck cooking brown rice on top of the stove. Even when I follow the package directions exactly it is still crunchy. Instead of writing off making brown rice I decided to try baking it. It uses another dish if you don’t have an oven safe pot but I would rather have an extra dish to clean than crunchy rice.

Baked Brown Rice

Ingredients:

• 4 teaspoons olive oil
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1 cup brown rice
• 2 cups broth or water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a pot with a lid heat the oil over medium heat. Add in the garlic and rice. Cook and stir until rice has a toasty smell. Pour in the broth and salt, cover pan and bring to a boil. Carefully pour rice and broth into an oven safe casserole. Cover with foil or a lid. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and rice is cooked. Fluff with for before serving.

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Squash Dressing

This is a dish my mom first sampled at a covered dish dinner not too long after we moved here. We call it squash casserole but the proper name is squash dressing. It is a Southern-style cornbread based dressing instead of the loaf bread based dressing popular elsewhere.

Squash Dressing

Recipe by Micha

A super moist cornbread dressing with the addition of yellow squash.

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 60-75 minutes

Total time: 1 hour, 20 minutes to 1 hour 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 9 by 13 inch pan southern style cornbread (a double batch)
• 1 pound yellow squash
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 4 Tablespoons butter or margarine
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 10.75 ounce cream of chicken or cream of celery soup
• To taste salt
• To taste pepper
• To taste ground sage

Cooking Directions

Slice squash and place in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until very tender. In a large bowl crumble the cornbread. Drain and mash the squash to your desired consistency and add to the cornbread.

Melt the butter in a skillet and add the onions, saute until soft and translucent. Add the onion mixture, cream of chicken soup and half of the chicken broth to the crumbled cornbread. You want everything to be well moistened and if the mixture is still dry add the rest of the broth. You may find you need a bit more moisture depending on how dry the corn bread is, if you do add a little more broth or even just a little water.

Season the mixture to taste and place in a 9X13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until hot and the top is starting to brown

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Extra Creamy Macaroni and Cheese

Welcome to day three of kid friendly foods week here on Cookin’ Mimi. I was going to post this yesterday but I babysat my nephew until around one and he was not going to let me do anything that required much focus and then after he went home the poor dear fell and busted his lip open bad enough that they went to the emergency room just to make sure he didn’t need stitches. I was too worried about him to even think about posting yesterday evening. He’s fine but he looks just pitiful.

This is one of Punk Monkey’s favorite foods in the entire world along with tomatoes, ham, grapes and bananas. He could live off those five foods at home. Now if we pass fast food he starts hollering for a kid’s meal but those are his favorite at home foods.

Extra Creamy Macaroni and Cheese

Recipe by Micha

Creamy stove top macaroni and cheese

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
• 2 to 3 Tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups milk
• 4 ounces processed cheese, broken into bits
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese, I used mild cheddar
• 1/2 pound small cut pasta-ziti, macaroni, shells, wagon wheels
• salt
• black pepper

Cooking Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions.

In a sauce pan over medium heat melt butter or margarine and add flour. Stir and cook until just golden brown. Slowly add milk, whisking constantly to keep from lumping.

Cook, stirring often until it’s thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. A great way to tell if it is thick enough is to dip the spoon in the mixture then take your finger and draw a line through the mixture. If it stays separate it’s thick enough, if it runs back together cook it a bit longer.

Remove from heat and add process cheese stirring until melted. Add the shredded cheese and whisk that in until it’s melted placing over low heat if necessary. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix together cheese sauce and pasta. Serve and enjoy.

Linked to:Ingredient Spotlight at Eat at Home

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Here is a bonus picture:

When I was photographing my plate of macaroni and cheese, Punk Monkey brought me his plate and asked me to take a picture of his food. Of course I had to oblige because he is just too darn cute. Look at those little fingers.

Taco Potato Wedges

Taco Potato Wedges

Recipe by Micha @ Cookin’ Mimi

Taco seasoned potato wedges are a delicious side dish for burgers, chicken fingers, or sloppy joes.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 45 minutes

Total time: 55 minutes

Ingredients

• 8 large potatoes
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 packet taco seasoning
• To taste salt

Cooking Directions

Preheat to 425 degrees. Cut potatoes in to wedges. Mix taco seasoning, oil and salt to taste in a bowl. Put cut wedges on top of seasoned oil. Mix thoroughly.

 

Place in single layer on baking sheet. Bake for about 30-45 or until tender. Checking and stirring every 15 minutes or so. Serve with your favorite dippers which is Ranch dressing in my case-yum! Enjoy

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