This meal is incredibly easy and tastes great. This is a quick meal I grew up with, and it’s impossible to get it wrong. If you are nervous about boiling the sausages, you can also bake them with some water at 350 F for about 25 minutes, but just boiling them on the stove has worked fine for me. I also used mild Italian sausage, just because my family isn’t that big on spicy food. This meal made 5 Adult sized portions. To store leftovers, you can store the sauce separately or with the noodles. If you store them separately, the rinse the noodles with cold water to stop pasta from sticking together when you reheat. Start your sausage first if you have a faster cooking pasta like angel hair, since the sausage can cook for a while before becoming over cooked, but pasta has a limited time.
1. Fill the large saucepan with water for pasta. Place over medium heat until water boils. Then add Pasta and cook as directed. Place sauce into medium saucepan, place over low heat and cover.
2. Place frying pan over medium heat. Add your sausage and 3 cups of water. Cook for 6 minutes on each side. Once pasta is done, strain it. Remove your sausage and cut into bite sized pieces then add to sauce. Once everything is heated, plate pasta covered with sauce and sausage.
You can use any container you have for this veggie platter. These veggies are a good choice because not only do these colors look great together, but these veggies have a good variety of flavors that would be good with a variety of dips, or even just ranch! For this platter, I bought normal cherry tomatoes and pre-sliced carrot chips. This just made sense for me. You could get a mix of cherry tomatoes to get a variety in colors, but the cost wasn’t worth it for this platter. I also bought carrot chips for a different shape on my platter and for easy prep. If you have a mandolin you can cut your own chips, but you can also just buy the already sliced chips. Other than that, it just took a bit of prep for the rest. A nice cutting board is necessary for this and a sharp paring knife will help a lot with cutting the two head veggies. Celery is a great garnish if you want more color on your plate, and Yellow peppers are preference to add more color and a milder flavor than red or green peppers. Using the veggies below, your veggie platter will serve about 15 as an appetizer or side dish.
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What You Will Need
1/2 lb. Broccoli Head
1 Head Cauliflower
2 Yellow Bell Peppers
1 Container Cherry Tomatoes
1 Bag Carrot Chips
1 Bag of Celery
1 Large Bowl
Vinegar
Large Baking Sheet Lined with Paper Towels
Small Strainer
Directions
Preparing Celery
To prepare your celery, Remove large outer stalks and place in sink. Rinse thoroughly with cold water making sure to remove any dirt on the white tail end of the stalk. Transfer to a cutting board. Cut off the leaves just below the knuckle. Save all celery trimmings in a resealable container for vegetable stalk/soup. Reserve a large top for garnish under cauliflower. Cut off about 1/2 inch to 1 inch from the bottom. Then divide the remaining stalk into equal sections about 2 inches long. Continue this until you reach the fine stalks at the center of the celery, then save them also for a stock. Rinse your celery in cool water before transferring to baking sheet to dry.
Preparing Cauliflower
To prepare your Cauliflower, rinse under cold water then transfer to cutting board. First, you’ll want to remove any leaves from the bottom of the head. Then, begin cutting off florets and transferring to bowl of cold water. Once all cut, divide large florets to smaller pieces. Place florets on baking sheet to dry. Save the stem for stock.
Preparing Tomatoes and Carrot Chips
Place tomatoes and carrot chips in small strainer individually. Rinse your tomatoes and carrot chips. Place in containers to dry.
Preparing Bell Peppers
To prepare peppers, rinse the outside of the peppers thoroughly with water. Cut around the outside of the pepper to get 4 slices of pepper. Clean out any seeds and cutting any inside veins. Once cleaned out, slice the peppers into strips. Rinse in cold water then place on baking sheet to dry.
Preparing Broccoli
Follow the same steps at Cauliflower, however broccoli needs a double rinse. To do that, you’ll want to fill your bowl with 1/2 cup vinegar and fill the remaining space with cold water. Place your florets in the vinegar water for 5 minutes, before dividing into smaller pieces as needed, then you’ll want to do a final rinse before setting to dry. Once again save your stem! You can peel the tough outside and use the soft inside in other recipes.
Stuffed Cabbage, or pigs in a blanket, I’ve made before in the slow cooker. Last time, I used just beef, and that was very good. This time, to make it more traditionally, I added rice. Rice was originally added to stretch the filling to get more food cheaply. I also added some pork sausage. This added more spice to the stuffed cabbages. I also added beef broth to thin the sauce and cover the stuffed cabbages. It was another way to add more flavor than just water. I did make 10 stuffed cabbages with this recipe, but I made them very large, to the point where 1 to 1 1/2 stuffed cabbage was enough for 1 adult portion. These stuffed cabbages also freeze well. To freeze, transfer to a freezer safe container, cover with sauce, cover, label and freeze. Then they can be microwaved to reheat.
1. Bring dutch oven of water to a boil. Add Prepared cabbage leaves and boil for about 2 minutes until soft. Transfer to strainer and let cool. Place burger, sausage, and rice in a mixing bowl, add onion, garlic, and Italian seasoning. Mix by hand. Add 1 can of tomato soup to bottom of slow cooker and stir in 1/2 can of tomato paste. Place Slow Cooker on High.
2. Once cabbage is cooled, form about 1/3 cup of meat mixture into an elongated patty. Place patty on cabbage leaf and roll, tuck under ends, then place into slow-cooker. Repeat for remaining leaves, or until out of filling. Place down first layer of pigs, then spoon each with a layer of soup from a new can. Mix remaining tomato paste with remaining soup. Place your second layer of pigs, then top with remaining sauce. Add beef broth, and carefully stir. Cook covered for at least 2.5 hours or until internal temp of 165 F is reached, best if cooked on high for 6 hours for cabbage to become fully tender.
Empanadas are a great meal and can be made quickly or can be made from scratch. I’ve made empanadas a few times though I’m still not very good at making pretty ones. When I made this recipe, I made homemade pie crust to use as the dough. Though I know some people use pie crust, it was too buttery and a bit hard, so I recommend using biscuit dough instead. I’ve made them before with biscuit dough and I think it’s superior. For filling, it was very easy to make and full of flavor. Finally, I made 13 empanadas before running out of filling, so what I didn’t bake, you can place in the freezer for an hour before transferring to freezer bag. 2 empanadas is enough for an adult if you have sides with it. I served these with homemade mac and cheese and corn.
1. Heat your frying pan over medium heat. Add your ground beef, and cook until browned. Add your onion, garlic, spices, tomato paste, and 1/2 cup water. Cook until all liquid is gone, then remove from heat and let cool for 20 minutes.
2. Heat Oven to 400 F. Open your biscuits and separate. Cut your biscuits into thirds. Roll each into a ball, then roll out on a floured surface into a 3 inch circle. Fill the center with about 1 tbsp filling, fold over, then crimp edges closed using a fork. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes, turning the sheet half way through.
3. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Slow cooker meals are convenient and an important option as the fall busyness begins. Slow cooker ziti is one of my favorite recipes. This recipe makes lots of servings and is very filling! This recipe makes 10-12 adult sized servings. When I made this dish, I cooked everything in the slow cooker, and I cooked everything on high. Once I added the noodles and broth, my slow cooker only needed to cook for 20 minutes before the noodles were Al dente. And, once I added the cheese and let it melt for about 5 minutes, the noodles were perfectly done. You can easily make this recipe vegetarian by adding eggplant instead of meat, veggie broth or water instead of beef broth, and a cheese substitute instead of mozzarella.
Brown your burger quickly in a skillet, or by placing in your slow cooker on high and stirring occasionally for 30 minutes. Place in slow cooker. Add onion, spices, spaghetti sauce, and diced tomatoes.
Cook on low for 4-6 hours, or on high for 2-3 hours.
Add beef broth and pasta about 30 minutes before serving. Make pasta as submerged as possible and cook on high. Taste pasta firmness after 15 minutes, and again every 5 minutes until desired texture is reached. Top with cheese and cover for 5 minutes to melt the cheese. Serve, but wait 10 minutes before eating, very hot!
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