The recipe card pulled for this week was Oven Porcupines! When I saw it, I thought, well, it's meatballs. It turns out, they are a lot better than plain meatballs. This hamburger recipe comes from The Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library, 1971, Budget Casseroles.
As you know, mixing up a batch of meatballs can be a messy job. The teen is really getting used to digging in and getting her hands dirty.
I think she did a great job with these, look how uniform they are!
I like this Oven Porcupine recipe because the meatballs are substantial. Everyone really enjoyed the taste, as simple as the spices and ingredients are. Note: we added cheese to the recipe. We are big cheese eaters around here. The meatballs are flavorful enough, but the cheese really added an Italian flare to them.
This week we baked up a Toasty Cheese Bake casserole for our family night cooking adventure. This recipe comes from the Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library, 1971, Budget Casseroles.
This was another dish that was extremely easy to put together. Brown your meat, toast your bread, layer, and throw it in the oven.
The recipe calls for 1/2 pound of ground beef. We thought this amount was too little for a main course entree that contained so much bread. We decided to use 1 pound of beef instead.
Another change we made was in the cheese. We used shredded cheddar and Jack instead of Shredded American. Our grocer does not carry shredded American nor block American cheese, only sliced.
This Hamburger Cheese Bake recipe is fantastic. The hamburger almost tastes like sausage the way it blends with the egg, cheese, and mustard. If you are looking for an easy, different, meal, you might want to try this little treat.
This week our Family Night meal was Zippy Beef Casserole from The Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library (1971), Budget Casseroles.
When this recipe card came up I was thinking, "Oh, great, potato chips and pasta." The kids were excited about it, including the big kid, my husband.
This beef dish goes together really easily and has ingredients you may have in your kitchen right now. We decided to use small shell macaroni instead of elbow macaroni. I purchased the shell macaroni in error.
These casserole recipes are getting easier for my teen to put together. She is really getting the hang of the kitchen and is learning that if you can read, you can cook.
This time the little one got a big job and helped put the chips on top.
The Zippy Beef Casserole turned out to be one of the easiest dishes we've tackled yet. It was tasty. However, I am eliminating the chips next time. Something just does not seem right about putting pasta and potato chips together in a recipe.
This pork recipe was pulled in haste. My teen saw the curly noodles and we just had to make it. We were all surprised to find how good it was. This Saucy Twist Pork Dish from the Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library (1971), Budget Casseroles is great, with some minor adjustments.
First, the pork recipe calls for a canned pork meat, you know, Spam. I am not a big Spam fan. We decided to use pork chops instead. We seasoned the chops with a little salt and pepper and browned them in a large fry pan.
While the chops were browning, we cooked the tri-color spiral pasta. The teen thought this would be better pasta than the plain corkscrew macaroni the recipe called for.
Once the pork was cooked through we cubed it and prepared to put the casserole together.
This is what the Saucy Twist Pork Dish looked like when it came out of the oven. The aroma was amazing.
I think our idea to tweak this pork recipe prior to cooking it was superb. The flavor was excellent. Everyone liked the dish and we will be making it again.
This week's Family Night Dinner Idea recipe is Newport Beef Casserole! This recipe comes from McCall's Great American Recipe Card Collection (1973), Party Casseroles.
When my daughter and I started cooking this yummy dish she barked at the ingredients. This casserole has two ingredients she despises: mushrooms and spinach. I told her, "Well, you picked the card!" She looked at the recipe and picture and as she began to smell the wondrous aroma, she decided she would try eating it.
This casserole goes together rather easily. However, the initial preparation and cooking takes some time. Not only do you have to chop and dice, you must brown and simmer. Okay, you have to do this with a lot of recipes, but I would ensure you have at least two and a half hours before you plan to serve dinner because of the simmer time.
When this dish came out of the oven we were amazed by how good it looked. The Newport Beef Casserole is a definite do over in this house, despite the mushrooms and spinach. The teen decided those ingredients are not too bad after all.
