Funeral Potatoes

One of my favorite dishes. I don’t know why I’ve never tried making it before. I’ve actually found myself wondering the same thing about a lot of other foods recently.

I absolutely love these potatoes. The idea to try these with freeze-dried ingredients actually came from my good friend Rose (Thank you for the inspiration!) They turned out perfect!!! It was so easy and I love the fact that my potatoes/hashbrowns don’t have to be taking up space in my freezer.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of freeze dried onion, reconstituted
2 cans of cream of chicken soup
2 cups of powdered sour cream, reconstituted (2 cups of powder, one of water)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups of grated freeze dried cheese, reconstituted
6 cups of freeze dried potato shreds, reconstituted (or 2lb bag of frozen hash browns)
3/4 c cornflakes, crushed and firmly packed
4 Tbsp butter, melted (optional)

1. Combine your onions, soup, sour cream, salt, and cheese. Stir in potatoes. Pour into a 9x13 inch pan.

2. *Combine crushed cornflakes and melted butter.

3. Sprinkle cornflakes over the top of your potatoes.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes. Makes 12 servings

*If you are interested in more onion flavor feel free to add more. The original recipe calls for 1 medium onion, chopped and cooked in 1/2 cup of butter until soft.

It’s delicious and can be served with all sorts of meats and other entrees.

Yes-a Yes-a Taco

Okay, this is kind of a family joke. It is the come back to “Nada Nada Enchilada”. That’s probably as much as you need to know.

We were having a dinner-time dilemma the other night. I had been called into work and hadn’t planned dinner accordingly. I had pulled some beef out in preparation for something, but hadn’t quite decided what. When I got home my husband had browned that beef (thank you!), but didn’t really know what to do after that (my fault since I didn’t have a plan).

So here is where the impromptu, it’s late and we’re hungry, taco night came into play. We didn’t really have all of the stuff fresh and ready that we usually like, so we decided to try out the freeze dried food we had.

So here you go, pretty much everything on this taco (minus the beef, the tortilla, and a little salsa that I added) can come from the dry food storage. It was all good too.

Ingredients:
Ground Beef, cooked and drained (I did ad some of my favorite seasonings to mine. Pampered Chef Southwestern Seasoning and Chipolte Lime Rub)
Tortillas
Cheese, reconstituted
Onions, reconstituted or thrown in while the beef is cooking. We used about 1/4 cup
Green Bell Peppers, reconstituted
Sour Cream, reconstituted (2 parts powder, 1 part water)
Tomato Cubes, reconstituted

You could also include olives, beans, or any other topping that you’d like. I just appreciated the fact that we could hurry and eat something without having to have had it fresh

Orange-Spiced Sweet Potatoes

I am a HUGE fan of candied yams and the like. Especially around Thanksgiving. In fact that’s generally the only time of the year that I eat them. It’s kind of sad now that I think about it. If there is something that you enjoy so much, why don’t you eat it more often? Maybe it’s just part of the tradition that makes it so good.

Anyway, this year I volunteered myself to bring them to Thanksgiving dinner. We had made a plan to do as much in Crockpots as possible though. That is where my journey started. I was just trying to look for some basic instructions for cooking yams in a crockpot when I fell about this one. I couldn’t resist trying it. It turned out perfectly! I loved it, the family loved it, and even people who generally don’t eat the candied yams tried it and liked it. So anyway, thank you CDKitchen. If you’d like to check out more of their recipes you can go to their website www.cdkitchen.com

Ingredients:
2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed (It was about 5 potatoes for me)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, cut into small pieces
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 medium orange, juiced
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
toasted chopped pecans

1. Place your sweet potatoes in the bottom of your slow cooker. Mix your spices together in your orange juice. Pour over the top of your sweet potatoes and stir to coat.

2. Sprinkle your brown sugar over the top of your sweet potatoes and stir it in.

3. Cook on HIGH for 2 hours or on LOW for 4 hours.

4. Before serving stir in your toasted pecans (or set on the side for those that want them and those that don’t).

*Tip: To juice and orange (or any other citrus fruit) I have found that if you roll it around with a little pressure before you cut it it is easier to get more juice out.

Parmesan Fries

A friend of mine mentioned these on Facebook and I pretty much immediately asked for the recipe. They are delicious!!!! Thanks Heather! :)

I’ve always been a fan of potato wedges, or things like them. I am usually pretty boring about them though. I could get daring and through some different spices on them, but I haven’t. For some people playing around with recipes, or even just ideas and flavors, is a little scary. Here is a recipe that you can just stick to.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic
4-6 potatoes

1. Scrub your potatoes really well and then pat dry. Cut them into 8 wedges (or maybe more if they are really big). Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

2. Melt your butter and mix in your seasonings and cheese. I use Italian seasoning quite often. You can buy the dry packets used for making salad dressing or there are lots of other seasonings out there that you could use. Just pick your favorite one. After everything is mixed dip your wedges into the butter and coat them.

3. Cover your cookie sheet with aluminum foil (It makes the clean up sooooo nice). If you’re using a stone don’t worry about the foil. This is also a good recipe to use if you’re trying to season said stone. Place your coated wedges on the pan and bake for 30 minutes.

*Tip: Don’t use the powdered parmesan (and not just on this recipe, always!). The fresh stuff is really worth it. It lasts forever in your fridge and adds such a great flavor.

Spaghetti (Freeze Dried Sauce)

I am amazed with this tomato powder. It is really so simple. The spectrum of things you can do with it is so broad. I decided that my first experiment I would try was a basic spaghetti sauce.

One great thing about using the freeze dried tomato powder is that you get to choose how thick or thin you want the sauce. I opted for a thicker sauce.

Ingredients:
Tomato powder
Water
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Chili Powder
Oregano Leaves
Salt

Extras:
1 lb Ground Beef
1/4 cup Freeze Dried Onions
1 cup Freeze Dried Green Bell Pepper dices
1 cup Freeze Dried tomatoes cubed
1 can Olives

1. My sauce was made of about 1 cup of Tomato Powder and 6 cups of water. Add more water until you get the consistency that you’d like.

2. Mix in your favorite spices. I wanted to go for sauce with a ‘kick’. I probably could have added more kick though. Season and taste until you get it where you want it. Start with a teaspoon of each and then adjust from there. Here is my suggestion according to my taste buds:

1 Tbs Onion Powder
1 tsp Garlic Powder
2 tsp Chili Powder
1 tsp Oregano Leaves
1 tsp Salt

3. Brown your beef. As you reach the end of the browning process through your onions right in. They will reconstitute in the grease drained off of your beef.

4. Pour your tomatoes and green bell peppers in bowl then cover in water. Let it sit for 5 minutes, then drain.

5. Combine everything in your pan that you browned your beef in. Let it heat to your liking. Serve with noodles.

This made enough sauce to go over an entire bad of spaghetti noodles. Probably made at least 10 servings.

Beef Stroganoff

This has to be the BEST Stroganoff I have EVER tasted. Wow! I absolutely love it! The Hubby has been getting free lunch from his company this week, so guess who gets to eat most of the leftovers? ME!!! and I totally don’t care because it is so delicious. I’m kind of glad that I don’t have to share. :0)

I’m sure I’ll be using this one a lot in the future. Having the powdered sour cream makes it so easy to have everything on hand too. I normally would have to plan on making something like this because I don’t often keep sour cream without already having planned something for it. Anyway, without further ado, here you go.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef, cooked
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup dehydrated sour cream, reconstituted
1 soup can of milk
Egg noodles (I used about 2/3 of a bag. So around 10 oz.)
1 can of Mushrooms, drained

1. In a medium pot, boil water for your noodles. Most egg noodles will probably need about 10 minutes in boiling water to cook.

(Side note: I have heard that if you place a wooden spoon over a pot of boiling water it won’t boil over. My pot didn’t boil enough to show me if it worked, but I’ll keep testing it.)

2. Meanwhile, reconstitute your sour cream. 1 cup of powder + 1/2 cup of water. Whip well and stick in your fridge.

3. In the same pan that you cook your beef in (or a large skillet), mix in your cans of soup and the one can of milk. Let it heat on medium-low stirring frequently. Once your sauce starts to bubble add your mushrooms and sour cream. Mix in well and keep heating.

4. Drain your cooked noodles and add to your sauce. Stir well and serve.

I thought about adding some spices (like garlic) to it for fun, but when I tasted it it was perfect. I didn’t even add any salt or pepper. Make sure to taste test it and see what you think before you play around with more flavors.

I think I may need to go reheat me a bowl right now. Just typing this up and looking at the pictures has made me hungry. That’s another good thing about this dish. It’s been just as delicious for leftovers.

*You could easily use freeze dried mushrooms as well as powdered milk. If you use powdered milk it will be one cup of powdered milk and one cup of water mixed well. You could also just as easily use fresh mushrooms and sour cream.

Cordon Bleu Casserole

One of my favorite things to order when I go to a nice restaurant is Chicken Cordon Bleu. There are many different kinds, and yet they are all delicious. There have been a few times that I’ve been tempted to try it myself at home, but it seems like there are too many steps. Maybe I just need to toughen up and actually try it… I’ll think about it.

In the meantime, this recipe was extremely easy and quick and tasted just as good! It might not be as pretty or as impressive, but sometimes that doesn’t need to matter.

Ingredients:
4 cups of turkey or chicken, chopped or shredded
3 cups of ham, cubed
1 cup freeze dried shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup chopped freeze dried onion (I think I will omit the onion next time)
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup flour
2 cups cream or half-and-half
1 tsp dillweed
1/8 tsp dry mustard
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Topping:
1 cup bread crumbs
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/4 tsp dillweed
1/4 cup freeze dried shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup walnut (I didn’t use)

1. Reconstitute your cheese and onions by pouring water over the top and letting it sit for 5 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, combine your meat and cheese. Set aside.

3. In a saucepan, sauté your onion in butter until tender. Add your flour and stir until it is coated. Add your cream, stir and bring to a boil until it thickens. Add your spices then remove from heat.

4. Pour over your meat mixture, mix well, spoon into a 9x13 pan.

5. In another bowl combine your bread crumbs, butter and dillweed. Stir in your cheese and walnuts.

6. Sprinkle over the top of your casserole and bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

*Tip*: One way to save money on bread crumbs is to save the heels of your bread (no one likes to eat them anyway). Have a plastic bag set aside that you keep in your freezer for just this sort of occasion. I would crumble the bread before putting it in the bag. That way it is all prepared and ready for you when you need it in a pinch.

The 1 cup of onions was a little much for me. Next time I think I will probably cut it to at least 1/2 cup, maybe 1/4. I will also be trying some broccoli in there. Despite my problem with the onions it was still amazingly good. If you really like onions then you would probably like it with the measurement listed originally.