Pumpkin Sausage Soup

This stuff was good. Surprisingly good, like my husband went back for thirds kind of good.

http://livewellnetwork.com/My-Family-Recipe-Rocks/recipes/Pumpkin-Sausage-Soup/9151664?pid=9154406

Pumpkin sausage soup adapted from My Family Recipe Rocks

• 1 pounds breakfast sausage (preferably homemade)
• 1c sweet yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 package baby bella mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 3 cups pumpkin
• 2 cups chicken broth (preferably homemade)
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp dried rosemary
• 1/2 tsp sweet paprika
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 can coconut milk

Directions

In a large stock pot,  Add chopped sweet yellow onion and sliced mushrooms. Cook until onions become translucent. Add breakfast sausage and brown. Once sausage has browned add spices, herbs, salt and pepper. Stir in canned pumpkin and mix well.
Add chicken broth, mix well and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 1-2 hours (the longer the better, to allow the mixture to reduce a bit and the flavors to meld together).

Brussel sprout salad

I never once had brussel sprouts when I was growing up. Honestly I was afraid to try them as an adult. I mean really who do you know that raves about brussel sprouts? We'll these brussel sprouts are great! How could they not be fantastic, they are cooked with BACON!  I've made these too many times to count this past year. We'll eat them with eggs at breakfast or as a side dish at dinner. They even reheat well.

Brussel Sprout Salad

-3 slices of bacon
-1lb brussel sprouts, cored and shredded
-red onion, sliced thin, about 1/4 cup worth
-sea salt and pepper

Slice bacon into bite size pieces and place in a large skillet. Cook on med-hi heat for a minute or two then add the sliced up brussel sprouts and onion. sprinkle with some salt and pepper.
Cover and stir occasionally until the sprouts are tender but still nicely green, 5-10 minutes. Squirt a bit of lemon juice on top just before serving.

Optional toppings add a handful of toasted almonds or parmesan cheese.

Lasagna

This is my favorite way to have lasagna. It freezes well and even with the two of us we are happy to eat the leftovers for lunches.

1/2lb browned 80/20 ground beef
14.5 oz can diced garlic and onion tomatoes
4oz tomato sauce (or other veggie puree like squash)
season to taste (these amounts are just guesses)
1/2t garlic powder
1/2t salt
1/2t pepper
1/2t onion powder
1t oregano
2t parsley
1 box whole wheat lasagna noodles
approximately 2 cups cheddar cheese and 2 cups mozzarella cheese
1/2 lb cottage cheese, small curd


Brown 1lb of hamburger  letting half of it cool and store in the fridge for another dinner.
Mix 1/2lb browned ground beef with diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and seasonings.
pour a little of the tomato mixture on the bottom of a 2.75qt glass Pyrex rectangle. Layer on 3 or 4 uncooked noodles, breaking to make them fit. Scoop on a nice even layer on cottage cheese then a layer of the beef tomato sauce then the cheddar and mozzarella cheese. Continue to layer like this until you have three layers of noodles topped with sauce and cheese.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 90 minutes at 350'
Remove the foil and broil for about 2 minutes to get the top cheese lightly browned.
Allow it to cool for 10 -15 minutes if you want it to stay in a nice pretty stack when you try and put it on your plate.

Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese

adapted from  http://www.closetcooking.com/2011/08/buffalo-chicken-grilled-cheese-sandwich.html

This shit is awesome! Seriously, talk about amping up a grilled cheese sandwich!

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup cooked shredded chicken, warm
• 1 tablespoon hot sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon mayo 
• 1 tablespoon carrot, grated
• 1 tablespoon green or red or white onion, diced
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, room temperature, grated
• 2 slices bread
• 1 tablespoon butter, room temperature

Directions

1. Mix the chicken, hot sauce, mayo, carrot, and onion in a small bowl.
2. Butter the outside of each slice of bread, sprinkle half of the cheeses on the inside of one slice of bread, top with the buffalo chicken salad, the remaining cheese and finally the other slice of bread.
3. Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat.
4. Add the sandwich and grill until golden brown and the cheese has melted, about 2-4 minutes per side.

One pot "lasagna?"

I don't really know what to call what I made tonight but it was pretty quick and tasty. It reminded me of other recipes that I've seen for "skillet lasagna" so I dunno. Here's what I did

Cook 1 package of whole wheat egg noodles - boil water and cook for 6 minutes
Then add about 1/2 cup of frozen spinach to the noodle water to de-thaw (like 3 more minutes)
while that is all cooking throw about 15 to 20 frozen meatballs mixed with 1 can of Italian diced tomatoes into the microwave to heat up (about 5-6 minutes)
Drain the water and mix it all together in the pot; add a handful (or two) of shredded colby-jack cheese and half a can of tomato sauce. add a scoop of cottage cheese on top of each serving.

flour tortillas

This is really flatbread because it puffs up pretty thick. For tortillas use 1/2 to 2/3 t baking powder instead. I make it both ways and it is SO good. Its a major improvement from the store bought stuff. Just put it in a big ziplock bag and it keeps in the refridgerator really well. I loke to add a little garlic to the flatbread dough and use as pizza crust when I dont want to wait for the yeast to do the rising. Texas Flour Tortillas Ingredients:
2 cups of all-purpose flour (can make them whole wheat by substituting one cup of whole-wheat flour for white flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
3/4 cups of warm milk

Method:
Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and oil.
Slowly add the warm milk.
Stir until a loose, sticky ball is formed.
Knead for two minutes on a floured surface. Dough should be firm and soft.
Place dough in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap for 20 minutes.
After the dough has rested, break off eight sections, roll them into balls in your hands, place on a plate (make sure they aren’t touching) and then cover balls with damp cloth or plastic wrap for 10 minutes. (It’s very important to let the dough rest, otherwise it will be like elastic and won’t roll out to a proper thickness and shape.)
After dough has rested, one at a time place a dough ball on a floured surface, pat it out into a four-inch circle, and then roll with a rolling pin from the center until it’s thin and about eight inches in diameter. (If you roll out pie crusts you’ll have no problem with this.) Don’t over work the dough, or it’ll be stiff. Keep rolled-out tortillas covered until ready to cook.
In a dry iron skillet or comal heated on high, cook the tortilla about thirty seconds on each side. It should start to puff a bit when it’s done.
Keep cooked tortillas covered wrapped in a napkin until ready to eat.
Can be reheated in a dry iron skillet, over your gas-burner flame or in the oven wrapped in foil.

Makes eight tortillas.

Cauliflour soup

I really need to take more pictures of this delicious food for you to see but we just gobble it up to quick!
I'd be wanting to make some cauliflower soup for a long time because a guy I used to work with talked about how excited he was to go back to Wisconsin for Christmas to have it. Apparently it's another thing Wisconsin is famous for....and here I thought it was all about cheese, beer and Green Bay.
Anyway here's the recipe. It was smooth and creamy and delicious. We ate it with whole wheat salteens (which taste the same as regular salteens by the way) but it would be even better with a loaf of sour dough or french bread to dip it in. Yumm...

1 head cauliflower

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 quart low-sodium chicken stock

1 Tbsp parsley

1/3 cup milk

Salt (1tsp?) and Pepper (2tsp?)

Optional additions 3-4 sticks of celery (i didnt have any in the fridge so i left this out), water to help with softening the veggies and thining the soup (if you use too much water just add some cornstarch mixed in cold water to thicken it back up), and 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese (not my favorite kind of cheese so i dont keep it in the house either)

Remove the leaves and thick core from the cauliflower the chop coarsely.
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan or soup pot over medium heat and add the onion and garlic. Cook until softened, but not browned, about 5 minutes.
Add the cauliflower and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook until the cauliflower is very soft and falling apart, about 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and, using whatever blender you have (immersion or standard), puree the soup and return it to the pot.
Season, to taste, with salt and black pepper and parsley Add  milk (and cheese) Keep warm until ready to serve.

Green Beans with biscuits and gravy

I hate canned green beans. Seriously we got like 12 cans from the hubby's grandma years ago and every time he would open a can i literally had to CHOKE them down UGH :P So when we got like a gallon size bag of them from Bountiful Baskets I was NOT looking forward to eating them. But hubby sauteed them with olive oil and salt and they were nice and edible so long as they were still hot. Then I made a casserole with them and can I just tell you that green beans have never tasted so good! I was surprised! Plus it was super easy.


Here's what you need :

1 can cream of mushroom
a splash of milk (maybe 1/4 cup)
three big handful of great big green beans
Onion powder (maybe 1 Tbsp)
1 batch of buttermilk biscuit dough (or a tube of refrigerator stuff if you have to)

First trim grab your kitchen sheers and trim the ends off and cut into 1 inch strips and put in a 8inch square dish
sprinkle with onion powder (i sauteed mine for a minute or two but it was probably unnecessary)
then add the cream of mushroom and milk and mix it all together
 Bake at 425 for 15 minutes to get it all heated up (you could even microwave it for like 7 or 8 minutes instead of baking it for this part)
Top the heated mixture with biscuit dough and bake for another 15-18 minutes. Just till the biscuits are nice and golden brown on top.

scoop it out and enjoy!

PS this reheated really well also.

Mongolian Chicken (or beef)

I've been loving making stir-fry type things as a way to eat lots of veggies at dinner. This works well with rice, fettuccine, undon, or Ramon noodles (just don't use the flavor packet that comes with the Ramon noodles).

Mongolian sauce

1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
1/2 to 1 tsp ginger
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp cornstarch mixed with 2 Tbsp COLD water

in a pot over medium heat fry the garlic for about 20 seconds (helps bring out the flavor) then add the soy sauce, water, ginger, and brown sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar and boil for a few minutes. Add the cornstarch mixture and continue stirring for a few minutes to thicken the sauce. Remove from heat and pour into a bottle so you can pour some over the chicken and over your noodles/rice. Store the rest in the fridge.

Cut one large chicken breast into 1" chunks and sprinkle 2 Tbsp of cornstarch over them to coat just as you start cooking them. When the chicken is all browned and cooked through set a side and stir a little of the sauce into it to soak up the flavors.

Stir-fry your veggies and rice. Mix it all together and serve. Don't forget to garnish with a lot of diced green onions!

(PS keeping green onions fresh on hand is kind of a hassle so what I do is buy one bunch for when i need it and chop up the whole thing into the little tiny rounds. Use what i need that day and freeze the rest. They keep really well in the freezer and then you just have to add them in for the last minute of cooking or sprinkle them on your enchiladas right before you put them in the oven or whatever you want to use them on)

BBQ chicken pizza

YUM! I love bbq chicken pizza. Since I had time, I made my own crust today and boy was it tasty. I'm so sad that Papa Johns doesn't do the whole wheat crust anymore, it was so good. :(

I cooked a chicken breast in a small pot on the stove with bbq sauce 1tsp garlic and 1 Tbsp thyme over low heat (3 on my stove) for like 30 minutes while I was waiting for my dough to rise. Since it was such low heat i didn't even have to watch it, just put a lid on and came back to rip it into small chunks. I only used about 1/2 the breast on the pizza too so now i have leftovers for a sandwich or more pizza later in the week.

Roll out your dough to about 1/4 in thick put it on your cookie sheet and stab it with a fork all over (this way when it cooks it wont bubble up) then bake it at 400' for 3-5 minutes.
Do this with either homemade dough or use a package of Jiffy pizza dough, it tastes good, it's less than 50cents, it's easy and takes 5 minutes, I usually add just a couple tablespoons of wheat flour when I use the Jiffy kind because it just seems too sticky otherwise

Take it out of the oven and top with
1/3 cup (more or less) bbq sauce, I use sweet baby rays
1/2 of a chicken breast, in small chunks
some diced red onion
slices of peppers red, green, yellow, whatever you have/like. i just thawed some pepper stir fry
1/8 cups finely shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (or whatever cheeses you want)

Put it back in the oven to bake for 15-20 minutes, til the edges brown nicely.




Here is the recipe I used for the pizza dough. I've also used this to make bread sticks, just brush some butter mixed with garlic and a sprinkle of salt and finely shredded cheese.

Delicious Dough

1-1/2 cup warm water (like 110' don't do super hot water, over 125' will kill your yeast)
1 Tbsp sugar
2-1/2 tsp (or one envelope) yeast.

I use dry active yeast that i keep in the fridge so you have to let the yeast sit out for a minute or two in the bowl before you sprinkle the sugar and water on top. Then use a fork to mix it together and let it poof (foam up) for about 10 minutes. Then add

3-1/2 cup flour (I use half whole wheat half all purpose but you can use what ever you want)
1 tsp salt
Use the fork to mix it all together for a minute then when switch to you hand. You want to kneed the dough for at least a few minutes so that it all comes together smoothly and helps the yeast do it's job. Kneading the dough is important for the gluten to develop properly, you don't want the dough to rip, just use your palms to stretch the dough and fold it over and stretch it some more. This way your bread/rolls/crust will be sturdy and chewy.

Using a firm hand roll the dough into a nice tight ball, place it into a bowl that has a light spray of cooking oil and cover with plastic wrap.

Allow it to rise to double in size, like 2 hours or so. If your house is cold it wont rise properly. what you can do to help it rise on a cold day is turn on your oven just to 200 and as soon as it heats up turn it off, place the bowl with the dough in the oven and leave the oven slightly cracked.

Pepperoni Pinwheels

So when I made the bbq chicken pizza I had double the dough i needed. Instead of making two pizzas i decided to make these pizza pinwheels so that i could either eat/put them in the fridge or freeze some of them.

Roll out the dough into one big rectangle.
in a blender put 1/4 cup pizza sauce, 1/2 c shredded mozzarella, and 20 or so pepperoni slices,
pulse a couple times and then spread it onto your dough (you can also skip the blender and just layer it on but the pepperoni makes it hard to roll up)
Make sure you don't over fill or it will spread apart in the oven.
roll the dough up like you would cinnamon rolls and freeze it for 30 minutes (so that it slices easier)
Slice into 1 inch rounds and place on a sprayed cookie sheet.
Bake for 18-20 minutes at 400'

Enjoy for dinner or lunch :)

Pork tenderloin with Maple glaze

1 pork tenderloin
1 tsp dried sage (also good with terragon)
salt and pepper
2 tsp olive oil
5 tbsp pure maple syrup
5 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp dejon mustard
rub pork with dried sage sea salt and pepper heat olive oil in large skillet over med-hi heat onve it's hot add the pork tenderloin and cook untill it's brown on all sides, turning occasionally, about 5-6 minutes. reduce heat to medium low, insert a meat thermometer in the thickets part and cover and cook til thermometer registers 150' turning occasionally, about 10 minutes longer.
 transfer prk to a platter and cover with aluminum foil tent to keep warm.
whisk together maple syrup apple sider vinegar and mustard in the same pan the pork was cooked in be sure to scrape up any burned bits and mix in with the sauce (it'll add good flavor). bring to a boil then reduce to med heat and cook until the sauce thickens a bit, 2-3 minutes. return pork to the skillet to coat in the glaze. then you can pull it out and cut into 1/2 inch slices. spoon additionall glaze over the sliced pork and serve.

Swiss Chard and baked sweet potato

I haven't really jumped on the "meatless mondays" bandwagon like Ive seen so many people do but I do ramdomly make dinner that doesn't have any meat in it. (Half the time it's because i'm too lazy to prepair/cook the meat :) ) Anywho, when I got this big bunch of swiss chard I had no idea what to do with it. I'd never eaten swiss chard before so I wasn't even sure what it tasted like. I found this recipe that looked really promising and I've got to tell ya, it was a pretty good quick, easy, and filling dinner.

Ingredients:

-1 large sweet potato, cut into 1-inch chunks
-1 bunch swiss chard
-2 Tbsp. olive oil
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
-1 tsp. ground nutmeg
- cheese of your choice (I used shredded colby jack but mozzarella, Parmesan  or cheddar would work well too)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place diced sweet potato onto one side of the baking sheet with the stems of the chard on the other. Sprinkle a little olive oil and cheese on the chard stems and roast in the oven for 20 minutes.
2. Wash the swiss chard and chop the leaves into 2-inch wide strips. Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a large pan. Add swiss chard, garlic and red pepper flakes to pan, toss swiss chard around the pan until it starts to wilt a little.
3. Place lid on pan and cook for about 8 minutes, stirring every few minutes.
4. Remove sweet potato chunks from oven and toss into pan with swiss chard for last few minutes of cooking.
5. Sprinkle ground nutmeg over the swiss chard and sweet potatoes. Toss them together and serve with the stems on the side.

Ming's "Asian" meatloaf

Okay so this one isn't quite as 'healthy-ish" as my classic meat loaf but it's damn good.

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
1 large onion diced
2Tbsp Traditional spicy sambal (or your favorite hot sauce)
2 T minced garlic
2 T soy sauce
2 eggs
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 cup spiced panko bread crumbs  (you can use store bought or make your own using: 1 c bread crumbs 1/4T thyme 1/4 T basil  1 t ginger 1 tsp pepper 1 tsp chili powder)
3 strips of bacon

In a large bowl use your hands to combine all the ingredients except for the bacon. Gently press the mixture into a 9x5 loaf pan and top with the bacon strips.

Bake at 350' for 50 minutes

Serve with more sambal or ketchup to dip it in.

recipe from Ming Tsai - Blue ginger restaurant

Bigos ... or Hunters Stew, it's polish :)

So, we still had 1/2 a head of cabbage to use up, (aside from the head that was made into coleslaw that is sitting my fridge and will probably be lucky if 1/4 of it gets eaten) and a friend of ours said that we should make 'bigos' out of it. I'd never heard of it but he assured us that they all make it in Poland and it's delish. So I gave it a go. Three bowls later he gave it the official thumbs up.

Here's what i did
1/2 a head of cabbage chopped
1/2 a red onion chopped
1 jar sauerkraut drained and rinsed
1/2 lb Kelbasa
1 cup apple cider
2 large roma tomatos diced
2 beef boulion cubes
2 lbs pork shoulder - bone in
1/2 bag frozen pepper stirfry (green, red, & yellow peppers with onion all cut in strips)
2tsp - ish of garlic powder

Put your pork shoulder in the crock pot and a boulion cube on either side. Add the apple cider(or juice if that's what you have) and then pile everything else in. cook for at least 6 hours.

Traditionally most bigos has mushrooms in it but i wasn't in the mood today so i skipped it. I'll be honest when I opened the jar of sauerkraut my first thought was "I'm going to ruin this dinner if I put this in... Oh well gotta do it right or not at all" I was wrong. So wrong! As everything heated up and the flavors started to mingle I got less worried. Then we served up this stew and I was thrilled with how it tasted! The sweetness of the pork and apple juice mixed with the spice and sourness of the cabbage and sauerkraut blew my mind. I had no idea there was a way to make cabbage taste THAT GOOD. Next time we get cabbage from the co-op I'm totally making this again and next time I'm going to add more than 1/2 the head.

Classic Meatloaf

Do you have a dinner that is just comfort food with a side of childhood memories? That's what meatloaf is to me. I have made some improvements on my mothers recipe but I still like to serve it with a nice big baked potato and broccoli. I've tried to "healthy" up the meatloaf, at least as much as you can really expect to. But the biggest difference between now and growing up... I actually eat the potato, skins included!  :)
So here's what you need to do,
1 lb 97% lean ground beef
1 lb ground turkey (mama used ground pork but the turkey is SO SO much leaner)
1 large egg
3/4 cup milk
1 or 2 slices whole wheat bread ripped into small pieces
1/2 cup dry oats
1/2 cup diced onion
1 Tbsp  parsley
1 tsp salt
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp basil
1 tsp pepper

use your hands to mix together all the ingredients in a bowl
transfer the mixture into a 9 x 5 loaf pan
Bake for 1 hour at 350'
Optional topping,
Mix together
1/4 cup ketchup
2 T brown sugar
2 T Dijon mustard
After the meat loaf has been baking for 45 minutes spread on this topping and put in back in the oven to bake for 15 minutes longer. (it can also be served on the side if you don't want to force everyone to eat it)

Sausage rice caserole

This dish is super simple to throw together and is a nice change from your run of the mill stuff. So lets get to it...

Stir together in a glass 8x8 casserole dish:
1 cup uncooked rice
1 pkg dry chicken noodle soup (Lipton: the small single serving packet)
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1 lb sausage, uncooked
2 cups water

Cover with aluminum foil (or a lid of your cookware is nice like that, but I've got Pyrex so it's aluminum foil for me) and bake for 1-1/2 hours at 350'

there you have it. Did it tell you it was simple or what.

Produce Co-op

I decided to finally take advantage of the produce co-op called Bountiful Baskets in my area. Can I just say what a fabulous idea! I looked into it a few years ago and the closest place they had a pick up location was like 20 miles from my house and at 7am on a Saturday, that was just WAY to far to drive. But now it's only about 3 minutes from my house and since i've gotten used to getting up at 630 for work and by about 730 on my days off because of the baby I figured I'd see what it was all about. It's only $15 for a bunch of fruits and veggies. You don't get to pick what you get though so you are bound to get stuff you normally wouldn't think of, which is great for us cuz we love to find new recipes and try new things.
I got strawberries bananas apples mangos, a cantelope, and little pears. Yams (or sweet potatoes, I honestly don't know the difference) carrots, crook neck squash, spinach, asian artichokes (i'm told they are kinda like waterchestnuts but i haven't tried them yet) and the think i never would have bought... cabbage, two heads of it.
Have I ever mentioned that i hate colslaw? Well I do. I'm not sure where I've even had it except maybe KFC but I stopped even trying it years and years ago. So my hubs and I ended up making cabbage soup with the first half a head, and I got to tell ya. It wasn't half bad. Cabbage has a mildly spicy kind of flavor and it's one of those things that you eat lots of if you are trying to loose weight because it's got a lot of good nutrients in it but very few calories. So for those of you who get bountiful baskets and don't know what to do with all that cabage, this one's for you.

Cabbage Soup
1 package low sodium chicken broth I think it said it was 1.5 cups
1/3 red onion roughly chopped
1/2 head cabage roughly chopped
1/2 bag baby carrots cut in half
1tsp garlic powder
1 tsp season all
1 tsp chili powder
Honestly i'm not sure how much water we added, the hubs did it. I'd guess it was about 5 cups. added 1 cup at a time.

Chop all veggies. Sautee onion in the pot for 2-3 minuts then add the rest of the veggies and the chicken stock. Add a cup of water every few minutes until it get as "brothy" as you like. Total cook time is about 20 minutes. We ate ours with some kebler sea salt and olive oil flatbread crackers and that just made it even better.

Chicken Stir-Fry

OMG so tasty, simple, easy and quick...and cheap. Just cook a cup of rice per the package suggestions. Grab some precooked chicken if you've got it in the fridge or cut up a couple breasts and cook with some seasonings (I used cajun) for about 10 minutes. Then toss in the whole bag of frozen veggies. Continue cooking until the veggies are warm and tender and chicken is cooked through, about 7 minutes. For the sauce you can either use a jar of stir-fry sauce from the store or use the following ingredients

Stir-fry Sauce:

1 cup water

1/4 cup soy sauce

1tsp ginger

1-1/2 tsp garlic

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp cornstarch

Ingredients needed:

1 cup rice

1 bag frozen asparagus stir fry mix

1 lb chicken (seasoned)

about 1/2 cup stir-fry sauce



Shepards Pie

McCools introduced me to shepards pie (they are a cool Irish restaurant in SLC and Layton) and I thought to myself; wow, it would be easy to make a simple shepards pie at home on a cold night when I don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen and I don't want to leave to get food either.

Start out by microwaving about 20 frozen (walmart brand italian style) meatballs for about 5 minutes stirring halfway through. Or you can brown up some ground beef but I personally like meatballs so much better.
Preheat your oven to 375'
Then see what kind of frozen veggies you have in the freezer. I used peas, carrots, and corn about 1 1/2 cups total.
Dump your frozen veggies and meatballs into an 8" x 8" baking pan.
Pour 1 cup of brown gravy on top (one of those packets you can buy make 1 cup, or you can use beef bouillon to make it)
"cook" one packet of the Betty crocker garlic potatoes (or other flavor)  and spread over the top of your beef veggie mix and top it all off with 1/2 cup of shredded cheese.
Bake for 25 minutes.

Talk about making a real good meal out of a bunch of frozen food and packets! My favorite thing about the packets of potatoes or potato spuds is that they don't have a bunch of processes crap in it like other packaged food. When you look at the ingredients it says: potatoes. That's basically it! This dish really is so delicious too, my hubby and I were totally happy to eat it for lunch and second lunch the next day.