French Onion and Mushroom Rice Casserole

This casserole is so yummy!  I think I would have died if Mom made it when I was younger - all those onions!  But they're cooked until they're soft in this recipe and the flavor is awesome.
Plus, it doesn't use French Onion Soup mix.  I think the mix tastes okay, but it always leaves a funky aftertaste that lasts for a full day.  Yuck.
I very slightly altered this from http://iowagirleats.com/2015/09/08/creamy-french-onion-mushroom-rice-casserole/

French Onion and Mushroom Rice Casserole

Ingredients

• 5 ½ cups rice, cooked (mix of brown and white)
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 1 jumbo sweet onion or 2 small sweet onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup beef broth
• 1 Tablespoon gluten-free Worcestershire sauce
• 3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and pepper
• 8oz mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 teaspoons flour
• 2 cups milk, divided
• 6oz shredded fontina (or Monterey jack) cheese, divided
• 1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese, divided
• 1/3 cup regular or light sour cream

Directions

1. Spray a 9x9" baking dish (or equivalent-sized baking dish) with nonstick spray then set aside. Place a large skillet over high heat then add butter, onions, beef broth, worcestershire sauce, dried thyme, sugar, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Bring liquid to a boil then turn heat down to just a touch above medium and simmer until onions begin to soften and broth is nearly absorbed, 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Add mushrooms to skillet with onions then turn heat up to medium-high and saute until mushrooms are tender, 5-7 minutes. Add garlic, season with salt and pepper, then saute for 1 more minute. Remove bay leaf then scoop mixture onto a plate and set aside.
3. Whisk together flour and 1/2 cup milk in a small dish then pour into skillet. Add remaining 1-1/2 cups milk, season with lots of salt and pepper, then let the mixture come to a bubble, stirring constantly. Turn heat down to medium then simmer until liquid is thickened and bubbly, 8-10 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove skillet from heat then stir in 4oz fontina cheese, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, and sour cream. Taste then add salt and pepper if necessary.
4. Add the cooked rice and mushroom/onion mixture to the cheese sauce then stir to combine and scoop into the prepared baking dish. Top with remaining shredded fontina and parmesan cheese, then broil until golden brown.

S'moreos

We tried this great new twist on s'mores while camping this weekend.  You toast a marshmallow to your desired toastiness.  Pull apart your Oreo cookie (we used regular Oreos, not doube stuff, but you can use whatever you want.) and add a piece of Hershey's chocolate bar and the toasted marshmallow.  Put the top of the cookie back on and enjoy.  Deeelish!  So, next time you're out camping you might want to try these.  :)

This recipe is very simple, very easy, very cheap, and pretty quick to throw together.  Jeremy isn't a fan of lentils, so it's not his favorite.  Ava agrees.  Talmage and Adelyn ate three bowls of it.  I liked it a lot, but I did have to add some salt at the end (plus, some extra water - it was a bit too thick).  The salt really brought out the flavor.  And I'm all for cheap and quick (and healthy!).

Greek Lentil Soup (Fakes)

"Fakes (pronounced 'Fah-kehs') is a staple in the Greek kitchen, and an especially filling meal. It is traditionally served with a drizzle of olive oil and lots of vinegar.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces brown lentils
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 onion, minced
• 1 large carrot, chopped
• 1 quart water
• 1 pinch dried oregano

• 1 pinch crushed dried rosemary
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon olive oil, or to taste
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

Directions

1. Place lentils in a large saucepan; add enough water to cover by 1 inch. Bring water to a boil and cook until tender, about 10 minutes; drain.
2. Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic, onion, and carrot; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Pour in lentils, 1 quart water, oregano, rosemary, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Stir in tomato paste and season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer until the lentils have softened, 30 to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add additional water if the soup becomes too thick. Drizzle with 1 teaspoon olive oil and red wine vinegar to taste.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2015 Allrecipes.com
Printed From Allrecipes.com 9/16/2015

Peanut Butter Apple Dip

I made this for a Young Women's activity tonight.  We had different kinds of apples with different kinds of dips and this was pretty tasty.  I tweaked it, just a bit, from allrecipes.com

Peanut Butter Apple Dip

Ingredients

• 1 cup peanut butter (heaping)
• ½ - ¾ cup brown sugar

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup milk (plus extra)

Directions

1. Mix peanut butter, brown sugar (start with less and add more to taste), cream cheese, and milk together in a bowl until smooth.  You may need to add more milk, a little at a time, if the consistency is too thick/dry.  Refrigerate until chilled.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2015 Allrecipes.com
Printed From Allrecipes.com 9/16/2015

Chopping Onions

I decided that I wasn't very adept at chopping onions, so I browsed Youtube.  I think this method is great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwRttSfnfcc

Fiesta Chicken

I made this for dinner last week and we really enjoyed it. It smelled so good cooking all day in the crockpot! It's super easy to make and you could keep most of what you need in your food storage, chicken in the freezer and cream cheese in the fridge (that's the one ingredient that might not be readily available...) You can find the Fiesta Ranch mix in with the dry salad dressings. Left overs work really well for lunch the next day too and that always makes me happy!

Fiesta Chicken 

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 packet Fiesta Ranch dip 

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained 

1 can Rotel tomatoes, not drained 

1 can corn, not drained 

8 oz reduced fat cream cheese 

Cooked rice

If desired:

Tortilla or Frito chips 

Avocado, chopped

Sour cream 

Place chicken in a crockpot, top with Fiesta Ranch dip, beans, Rotel and corn.  Cook on low 6-8 hours.  Soften cream cheese.  Pull chicken out and shred.  Add cream cheese to crock pot while you shred the chicken then return chicken to crockpot and mix well. Turn to high and allow cheese to melt - about 10-15.   Stir well. 

Serve over hot rice and top with broken chips, avocado and sour cream - or whatever toppings you like.  

Serves 6-8

Thai Beef Stir-Fry

This recipe is in the Betty Crocker "New Cookbook" but since there are several versions of that book, I figured I'd post the recipe here just in case we don't all have it.  Anyway, this is really good.  It got 4.5 stars from Jeff, 5 stars from Tiernan and 1 trillion stars from Mia!  That's a lot of stars!
The original recipe called for carrots and water chestnuts.  I had originally planned to make beef & broccoli (Chinese) but forgot to buy an ingredient for the sauce so I used the broccoli, along with a small zucchini from the garden, some fresh mushrooms and about 1/2 of a green onion.  I also doubled the sauce since I was using a lot more veggies.  So that's how I've written it up here but feel free to sub any veggies you want and maybe cut the sauce in half if you don't use many veggies.  You could probably substitute chicken or maybe shrimp for the beef.  :)

Thai Beef Stir-Fry

1 pound boneless beef sirloin steak
1 C. beef broth.
4 Tbsp. fish sauce
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. white vinegar
4 tsp packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp vegetable oil, divided
4 tsp finely chopped or grated ginger or 1 tsp ground giner (I recommend the fresh ginger)
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 small heads broccoli, cut into bite size pieces
8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 small zucchini, halved and sliced
1 green onion, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp grated lemon peel
4 C. hot cooked rice

Trim excess fat from beef.  Cut beef against the grain into thin strips.  (Beef is easier to cut if partially frozen, about 30 minutes.)
Mix broth, fish sauce, cornstarch, vinegar & brown sugar.
Heat wok or large skillet over high heat.  Add 1 Tbsp oil; rotate wok to coat side.  Add beef, ginger and garlic; stir-fry about 3 minutes or until beef is brown.  Remove beef from wok with slotted spoon.
Add 1 Tbsp oil to wok; rotate wok to coat side.  Add broccoli, zucchini, mushrooms and green onions.  Stir-fry about 5 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender.  Stir in beef and broth mixture.  Heat to boiling and stir in lemon peel.  Cook for about 1 minute.
Serve over hot rice.

Adapted from the Betty Crocker New Cookbook