Ham and Cheese Breakfast Bake

This is an approximate recipe of what I made for the Women of Worth brunch back in April. It's my version of a recipe we made at a Pampered Chef party a few weeks earlier.

Hashbrown patties, thawed

1 cup of ham, cut into small cubes

1 cup of sour cream

12 eggs

2 cups of shredded cheese

1 cup of Cheese Whiz

salt and pepper

tomatoes

green onions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place a layer of hashbrown patties in a greased baking sheet or baking stone. Chop up the patties until crumbly. Sprinkle ham over the hashbrowns. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

In the meantime, mix the eggs, sour cream, Cheez Whiz, and shredded cheese. (I have to admit, I haven't bought Cheeze Whiz in years, I think it's fake food, so you can substitute Velveeta or omit it all together.) Add a little salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the egg mixture over the baked hashbrowns, return to oven, and bake for another 15 minutes, or until eggs are cooked through.

Cut up the tomatoes and green onions.

Remove from the oven, sprinkle with the tomatoes and green onions.

Ruehrei (Scrambled Eggs)

This recipe is a classic from as far back as I can remember. It's from the Mennonite Treasury and can also be found in the white recipe book.

3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
4 Tbsp cream
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients into a smooth dough, except eggs, which you beat well, and fold into first mixture. Put 2 Tbsp butter in frying pan and heat, put in egg mixture, brown on both sides, cutting and turning while browning. Some like the reuhrei in larger chunks, others finer, depends on how you are used to it. Serves 2.

Notes:
I don't think I've ever done the two-part mixing process as written above. Sheesh. Chuck it all into the Kitchen Aid and whisk the tar out of it!

If you are making more than one batch of this stuff, divide it between two frying pans, or like I tried today for the first time, I poured it into my baking stone pan and baked it for about 20 minutes. I did the cutting and turning as suggested in the recipe. It worked great!

Here's my favorite thing! I've revised this recipe a handful of times. I've fried a little bit of onion and meat before adding the eggs and continuing to fry it. Today I fried half a pound of bacon, scattered it over the eggs in the baking stone pan and then after it was done baking, I sprinkled the top with diced tomatoes and a little green onion. Makes for a full meal.

These eggs (the plain version) are a perfect side for watermelon. MMM!

Actually Delicious Turkey Burgers

I found this one on allrecipes.com. They're not kidding when they say "Actually Delicious"!

Ingredients
* 3 pounds ground turkey
* 1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
* 1/4 cup finely diced onion
* 2 egg whites, lightly beaten (I just used one egg instead of 2 separated)
* 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
* 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions
In a large bowl, mix ground turkey, seasoned bread crumbs, onion, egg whites, parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper. Form into 12 patties.

Cook the patties in a medium skillet over medium heat, turning once, to an internal temperature of 180 degrees F (85 degrees C).

Creamy Macaroni and Cheese

While my husband was in Nicaragua, a friend blessed us with a delicious dinner of macaroni and cheese. It was yummy for Mommy and the kids loved it too! Since I don't have the recipe, I thought I'd try my own version.

Ingredients:
2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni

1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup Velveeta
2 cups shredded old cheddar
1/2 cup Kraft Parmesan/Asiago
salt and pepper

ham

Directions:
Cook the macaroni in a large pot of water. Generally I like them cooked for 7 minutes, but since this recipe will be baked, I undercooked them and drained them at 6 minutes.

In the meantime, in a second large pot, melt the butter and cook onions until soft. Add the flour and milk. Mix until smooth and allow to simmer until thickened. Over low heat, add Velveeta and stir until combined. Throw in salt and pepper to taste.

Remove cheese mixture from heat, then add shredded old cheddar and Parm/Asiago. Stir until combined.

Add your desired amount of ham into the cheese mixture. Dump the macaroni into the cheese, stir until it's coated. Pour into a baking dish.

Bake for 30 minutes (or until heated through) at 350 degrees.

Baked Burger Melt

This is where I live; taking on-hand ingredients and making a meal of it. When it comes together like this, I'm so humbled and grateful to God for giving me the ability and enjoyment from it.

This is all so approximate...

Burgers:
2 lbs ground beef
1/4 cup barbecue sauce
1/4 of a large onion, chopped finely
1/4 water
1/2 cup bran

Fried Mushrooms:
10 mushrooms, sliced
1 red pepper, thin strips
1 clove garlic, finely chopped

Burger toppings:
tomato, sliced
green onion
cheese, shredded

Mashed potatoes:
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup milk
s+p to taste

Smoosh all the burger ingredients together, form burger patties. I put it on a baking sheet that I had greased with bacon fat (oooooh, this is getting SO Mennonite!) I baked it for maybe 30 minutes.

In the meantime, I fried up the mushrooms (again in bacon fat) and at the end of the frying time, I tossed in the red pepper and a clove of garlic. At the end of the baking time, I put the mushroom/pepper combo on top of each burger, and then piled shredded cheese on top. I put it back in the oven till it got melty.

I made mashed potatoes, added a little sour cream, butter, warmed milk, and salt and pepper while mashing. I made a little schmaunt fatt (cream gravy) to top the potatoes.

And then, I sliced tomato and chopped green onion and put these on top of the burger melt right before serving. (So the tomato and green onion were cold.)

Epicure's Asian Dressing

This is from the Epicure website. I used one batch for the Epicure's Asian Noodle Salad and one batch for the two chicken breasts I fried for the salad.

Ingredients

* 1/4 cup (60 ml) vegetable oil
* 1 Tbsp (15 ml) sesame oil
* 1 Tbsp (15 ml) lime juice
* 1 Tbsp (15 ml) soy sauce
* 1/4 tsp (1.25 ml) sugar
* 1 Tbsp (15 ml) Epicure’s Asian Stir-fry Seasoning

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients.
2. Shake well before serving.

Per Serving (1 Tbsp (15 ml)) : Calories 90, Fat 10 g (Saturated 1 g, Trans 0 g), Cholesterol 0 mg, Sodium 130 mg, Carbohydrate 1 g (Fibre 0 g, Sugars 0 g), Protein 0 g.

Epicure's Asian Noodle Salad

This is from the Epicure website. I'll add my notes throughout the recipe.

A great way to get your daily recommended vegetables.

Makes 6 servings [It's true. There were five of us for supper, plus there's enough for Johan and I to have leftovers tomorrow.]

Prep Time: 10 minutes [I think not. By the time you slice and chop all of the veggies, there's no way it's only 10 minutes. But you can chop the veggies during the day and when you toss it all together at supper time, sure, then it would totally be only 10 minutes.]

Ingredients

• 1 — 1 lb pkg (500 g) vermicelli noodles, cooked according to package directions
• 2 large carrots, coarsely grated
• 1 green pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 red pepper, thinly sliced
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 English cucumber, thinly sliced
• 2 cups (500 ml) fresh bean sprouts
• 1 recipe prepared Epicure's Asian Salad Dressing
• 1 cup (250 ml) coarsely chopped peanuts

Instructions

1. Place first seven ingredients in bowl.
2. Add Epicure's Asian Salad Dressing and toss to combine.
3. Sprinkle peanuts overtop.

Per Serving : Calories 340, Fat 17 g (Saturated 2.5 g, Trans 0 g), Cholesterol 0 mg, Sodium 125 mg, Carbohydrate 39 g (Fibre 6 g, Sugars 8 g), Protein 12 g.

Tips: Serving Suggestion: Serve with grilled fish.

[I wouldn't serve this with fish. We're not big fish people. I cut two chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces, topped it with another batch of the Asian dressing. Very yummy!]

The day after: I'm having leftovers for lunch and it's every bit as good cold as it was warm last night. One thing I could have done was serve the peanuts separately. They're not as crunchy the second day.