My Favorite Recipes from Mom and LaDawn

I read Morgan's post today and thought I don't have any meal recipes to share because I mostly bake potatoes, chicken and make a salad and heat up green beans. Just ask Alan or Zack and they will tell you this is our standard meal 3 or 4 nights a week. I might sub rice for the potatoes once in awhile, but usually its a variation on an old and tired theme - meat and potatoes. Then I read Lizzy's post and I started thinking of mom and how she wasn't a very inventive cook either. But she did have a few recipes, which she didn't make too often, which I loved and wrote down from her recipe collection. Here is my favorite of mom's meal recipes. Sorry I don't have a picture to go with it. for those of you who have never had it, when it is done, it looks like a pie of hamburger crust with melted cheese topping. Yum, I love it!

Country Beef Pie - Yvonne Jorgensen Read this well before you start, i tried to make it not confusing.
Set oven for 350 degrees

Ingredients:
Two 8 oz cans of tomato sauce
1/2 cup of bread crumbs
1/4 cup onion (diced)
1 lb lean ground beef (don't get extra lean, cause it makes the shell tough)
1/4 cup green pepper (diced)
1/8 tsp oregano
salt
pinch of pepper
1 and 1/3 cup of minute rice (uncooked)
1 cup water
1 cup grated med. cheddar cheese

Meat shell: (I use my kitchen aid mixer) Combine in large bowl 1/2 can of tomato sauce, bread crumbs, ground beef, onion, green pepper, 1 tsp salt and pepper. Mix well and press onto bottom and sides of a pie plate. (9 in.)
In the same bowl, mix the remaining 1 and 1/2 cans of tomato sauce, rice, water, and only 1/4 cup of cheese and 1/2 tsp salt. Pour into the raw meat shell
and cover with foil. Bake for 25 min. Take out of oven and sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake an additional 10-15 minutes without foil.

Note: it is important to use minute rice. I have substituted reg rice but it messed up the time and water measurements.

So, if you like, hamburger, tomato sauce and cheesy dishes, this one is a good choice. I hope you will try it.

Here is another recipe from one of my favorite people here in Ashton, LaDawn Baum. It serves 20 -25 people, so cut it in half for your families. It is good for when you have a big family gathering in the winter or fall and want to serve something hot and tasty. She got this one from her grandmother.

Chicken and Rice Casserole for a crowd - LaDawn Baum

Ingredients:
1 lb sausage
1 large green pepper diced
2 pkg Lipton dried noodle soup mix
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 bunch celery chopped
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
2 small onions or 1 large onion chopped
2 cups uncooked rice (use the converted Uncle Ben's or other) not sticky
1/2 cup slivered or sliced almonds
8 - 10 chicken thighs cooked, skinned and boned or 1 chicken cokked and boned
salt and pepper to taste.
4 -5 cups grated cheddar cheese
Set oven to 350 degrees

In large frying pan on med-low heat brown sausage and drain - add onions, celery, peppers, and steam with lid on for 5 minutes. At the same time bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Add lipton soup mixes to water and bring back to a boil. Add rice and canned soup. Combine rice/soup mixture with ingredients in frying pan. Pour into large casserole dish or cake pans and cover. Bake for 60 minutes. Halfway through baking time, stir ingredients very well. Last 5 -10 minutes uncover and top with cheese.

I used this last recipe for a visiting teaching conference in March and had a lot of good comments and praise for it. Cut the recipe in half or even more and try it at home.