Haven't posted in a while - mostly because I haven't made anything new! Its easy just to do the same thing again and again since its easy to make and cheap... for example I just made the baked ziti again that I have posted about before.

I am posting today mostly about something I just realized - low fat Cottage cheese is a great, healthy addition to a ton of meals! I have always loved cottage cheese - my Mom always would serve it as a side with dinner (the 4% kind - not as good for you, but tastes amazing..), and so I kind of grew up with it.

I usually eat fat-free or, more recently 1% (which tastes so much better and has less sodium than fat free), as a side to my lunches. Since there is a lot of protein there it helps fill you up, and goes well with most foods. Plus the low fat kind is extreamly good for you. I never really mixed it with my food until the other day...

I had a bowl of my homemade chili (posted about before) and my usual side of cottage cheese. I took a experimental bit of the chili with the cottage cheese - and it was amazing!!! It was so good i then took my entire cup of cottage cheese and dumped it into my chili. It was almost like adding the usual addition of Sour cream, but better in a way. Plus it is much much better for you than sour cream!

Today I had my baked ziti and a side of cottage cheese. I thought the chili was good the other day, why not do the same thing? So I dumped the entire cup of cold cottage cheese onto my reheated baked ziti. Wow. It was almost like adding extra ricotta cheese! It tasted so much like the Ricotta that it really just blended in, and instead of dry, reheated baked ziti I had a creamy baked ziti that did not taste like leftovers!

I don't know off the top of my head what else I would try this with - but things like above are worth trying out. I'm not going to think of cottage cheese as just a side dish again!

This is pretty good - not as fast as the real, traditional receipe - but a fast and cheap version you can make in about 30 mins or so. It will cost you about $10 and will feed you for at least 8 meals. I got this off of the foodnetwork site - from the southern lady that cooks with all the butter. This receipe probably isn't all that bad for you since it is mostly cabbage - and it makes so many servings!


Easy Corn Beef and Cabbage:

Ingredients:

1 head white cabbage - chopped
4 slices of bacon
4 table spoons unsalted butter
1 can of Corn Beef
1/4 cup of water

Optional (but I like these and it makes the dish taste better IMO):
about 12 baby potatoes - cut in half (you can usually find a small bag of these at the store)
1 bag of baby carrots
1 onion - chopped

Steps:

1) Boil a pot of salted water, add carrots and potatoes - cook for about 15 mins or until they are done (when it is easy to slide your fork into potatoes). Drain and set aside until the end.
2)Cook bacon in the bottom of a large cooking pot (the deeper the better - until the cabbage cooks down it will take up a lot of space).
3) Remove bacon, set aside for later
4) Add butter to bacon drippings
5) Add chopped onion - cook for about 10 mins on med-low heat
6) Add cabbage and water, cover pot with lid - cook the cabbage until limp (its better if slightly crisp), about 20 mins on med heat.
7) Add in corn beef, crushed bacon, and the cooked potatoes and carrots. add salt and pepper to taste.
8) Heat for an additional 5-10 mins.

That's it! Pretty easy to make, makes a ton - and tastes pretty good. What else could you want???

I'm back - moving this weekend so I have been pretty busy...

I made this the other night - really simple, tastes great, and is cheap to make- what could be better?

Hamburger Pie

Ingredients:

1 lb or so of either hamburger or ground turkey meat

1 onion (optional)

1 package of cresent roll dough

American Cheese

1 jar of your favorite pasta salt

Salt and pepper to taste

Steps:

1) Preheat oven to 350

2) Cook ground meat, drain

3) Saute onions

3) Roll out dough to make a flat sheet - add to the bottom of a pie tin or other baking dish. Spead evenly, making the dough come up the sides (like any pie crust)

4) Mix ground meat, onions, and sauce in a large bowl

5) Pour mixture into dish with on the dough - spead evenly

6) Top with enough American cheese to evenly cover the mixture

7) Cook for around 15 mins - until the dough rises and starts to brown, and the cheese starts to brown.

Thats it!!! Nothing else to this and it tastes great right out of the oven or even cold.