Major Cooking Sessions/Edited

Major cooking sessions have been going on here. So far we have cooked and frozen:

36 Texas size muffin tin mini-quiches
6 dinners of beef stroganoff
9 lasagna size pans of macaroni bake (recipe below)
8 enchilada dinners from The Pioneer Woman

Today we're making 6 Beef and Tomato Pies.
Tomorrow we're making 8 Black-eyed Pea Pies and I'll cook the pork roast for the tamales.
Thursday will be spaghetti and tamales.

Over the past few weeks I've made lasagna, vegetable soup, etc.

One hit wonders where you can just add a salad and presto dinner is done. I love it when that happens.

Because I love you I'm going to share my friend Susan's, recipe for the macaroni bake. It totally rocks the house. I haven't met a person yet who doesn't love it so you won't be disappointed. Huge hit for kids too! J begs for it.


Macaroni Bake
1 lb of ground beef
1 yellow onion
16 oz can of tomato sauce
1 tsp of celery salt
¼ tsp of black pepper
8 oz cream cheese softened
1 cup cottage cheese
½ cup sour cream
¼ tsp of either fresh cilantro (I prefer cilantro) or flat leaf parsley
8 oz of baby macaroni

Brown ground beef. Drain. Add tomato sauce, celery salt, pepper, salt to taste. Cook 10 minutes or longer to let it marry.

In another bowl mix cheeses, sour cream and cilantro/parsley.

Prepare pan. I made it in a throw away loaf shaped lasagna pan. A layer of macaroni, layer of cheese, layer of macaroni, layer of cheese. Top with meat mixture.

Bake @ 350 for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until bubbly.

You can thank me later. ;-)

*****edited to add that J & I had the enchiladas for dinner and they were so good we could've taken a bath in them. Worth the trouble of frying those corn tortillas. We're on our way back to the store to buy the stuff to make another 2 more batches. Those will go quick.

Marion: I usually cook then freeze everything (like my mashed potatoes) but on these recipes I'm preparing them and will thaw and cook them when needed. It beats frozen TV dinners by a long shot!