I blogged about this before.  This is from The Complete Meat Cookbook.  :)  I love that book. It covers it ALL.   It was given to me by my big sis.  

Begin with a nice size chuck roast.  This was almost 4 pounds. 

Mix the following seasonings in a bowl:

1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary, or 1 tsp. dried
1 tablespoon of paprika
1 tablespoon of kosher salt
1 tsp of fresh ground pepper 
Mix together and then rub over the entire surface of roast.  You can cook the roast immediately but it will be better if you let it sit for an hour or two at room temperature or overnight in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator.  

Sear the meat in 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, browning all sides. 

My recipe calls for 6 garlic cloves chopped.  This time I decided to use the garlic in the pan instead of on the roast- so I chopped the top off of a head of garlic.

The recipe calls for 5 cups of of thinly sliced onions (about 3 large onions).  I actually give mine a rough chop.  
I know this seems like a crazy amount of onions but they will caramelize and will be so yummy!!!

Set the garlic head into the pan, add the onions.  Add one cup of beef stock.  Place in oven that's been preheated at 350.  Cook uncovered for one hour.

This picture is taken after an hour in the oven.  Your house is going to REALLY smell like onions at this point.  
You are going to pull the pan out of the oven and turn the roast over so that the onions are on the bottom.  
What's going to happen is the onions are going to caramelize and will become sweet.  

At this point I added the other veggies to the pan (I just used carrots and celery) and I put a bouqet of fresh herbs in.  I just love the way the herbs smell.  
Cover the pan and place it back in the oven for 2 hours.  Don't peak!  
You can add potatoes to this if you like but my family prefers mashed potatoes.  
After the roast has cooked for 2 hours remove from oven and separate the veggie and the meat.  I strain the broth and pan drippings into a fat separator and use that to make a pan gravy for our mashed potatoes.  
I also pluck out the herbs because they aren't pretty once they're done.  You can add fresh herbs as a garnish if you like!   Enjoy!!  This pot roast is fork tender and delicious.  And if you have pot roast left over you can make the most amazing sandwiches.  

I'm making a new recipe category today called "Why didn't I think of that?"  and my first entry will be a link to a recipe I found on The Country Cook's blog.  Seriously, we've all made that hash brown recipe from Cracker Barrel, right?  And we've all made pork chops.  Why did it never occur to me to make this??    It's super easy and was delicious!  How could it not be?  
The only thing I did differently was I incorporated my cheese into my hashbrown mix like I usually do instead of putting it on top (like shown in the following blog). 

Follow this link:
http://www.thecountrycook.net/2011/08/hashbrown-pork-chop-casserole.html

I've had this recipe since my kids were little.  I got it from my beautiful friend Gina.  

Ingredients:

I box of Jiffy cornbread mix
1 cup of cheddar cheese
1 pound of ground beef
1 can of cream style corn
1 onion, chopped
sliced jalepenos  optional.


Mix cornbread mix according to package directions, add corn.  
In a skillet brown the ground beef with onions and peppers.  Grease a casserole dish.  Add half of the cornbread mix then meat, and then cheese.  Add the rest of the cornbread mix and then bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until brown. 

This is one of the very first dishes my son cooked for himself in his new apartment.  He said it was "apartment style" because he didn't make it exactly the way I did, but he said it was good and I'm sure it was!  He used whole corn.  And he didn't have any ground beef but he did have some angus hamburger patties so he used cooked patties and chopped it up for his meat.  It looked fine to me!  

You know how I feel about Tex-Mex... I could eat it every single night.  It never gets old.  I have a similar recipe that I got from Southern Living years ago that is a Chicken Cobbler recipe.  It uses bisquick instead of cornbread mix and chicken instead of ground beef.  But it also uses an enchilada sauce and it gives it a little "oomph".  It got me to thinking why can't you do the same with the cowboy cornbread recipe?  Well, you can!  

Basically, I only added two things to the recipe above.  
Enchilada sauce, and pinto beans. 

After you brown your ground beef and onions add a can of enchilada sauce and one can of pinto beans, drained.

 Add half the corn mixture, the the beef mixture, cheeese, and the rest of the cornbread mix.  
Don't worry if it's not perfect or doesn't cover the whole dish.  It's gonna work out, I promise!!!!

Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. Should be brown on top and a bubbly.  Let sit for a few minutes before serving.
This would be wonderful with avocado slices, a dollop of sour cream, or a little salsa as a garnish.  

This is an amalgamated version of the two recipes that were very similar from The Best Of The Best Of Texas ll Cookbook.    

The main differences in the two recipes:
One called for crushed cheese crackers and the other called for crushed crackers.

One called for 4oz. of velveeta and one cup of Monterrey Jack and the other called for 2 cups of Monterrey Jack only.  

Basic Recipe:
1 stick of butter or margarine, divided (I don't believe in margarine)
1-2 cups of crushed crackers ( I used both)
2 T. taco seasoning
chicken breasts boned and flattened.  They called for 8.  Seems like a lot to me!
5 green onions, chopped
4 oz. chopped green chilies
2 cups heavy cream 
2 cups of cheese (I used both velveeta and Monterrey Jack)

I used my food processor to crush the crackers and I discovered that about 1/2 tube of saltines is about the right amount.  I added the taco seasoning to the cracker mix and gave it a few pulses to ensure it mixed well.  

I put one piece of chicken in a large ziplock bag at a time and pound it with a meat mallet.  I find it completely contains the mess.  
After all the chicken has been tenderized I went ahead and salt& Peppered the chicken even though the recipe didn't tell me to.  Bland is unacceptable!  

First I dipped the chicken in an egg wash (instead of using the butter the recipe called for).  My standard egg wash is 2 eggs, beaten, with 1 tablespoon of water. 
Then I dredged the chicken in the cracker mixture shown in this picture.

While I was preparing my chicken I warmed half of a stick of butter in my skillet over low heat. Turn off heat when just melted. 

After dredging chicken and coating it place it in the pan. 

Then take a saucepan and melt the other half of the stick of butter.  Add the chopped green onions and sautee until just tender.  You don't want them to change color.  Then add the green chilies, cream, and finally cheese.  Heat on low heat until the cheese is melted.  

 Pour the sauce over the chicken in the pan making sure that each piece is coated. 
Bake in preheated oven at 350 for 45-50 min.  I had to cover my dish lightly with foil because the cheese was browning too fast.   I use a meat thermometer to ensure the chicken is cooked thoroughly because I'm a freak about food poisoning.  It's the nurse in me.  

The end result is a tender piece of chicken in a creamy decadent sauce that is slightly cheesy and has a hint of green chilies.  Very yummy!  

After trying this Joe and I agreed that we would change a couple of things:  
I don't really care for the cheese crackers in the coating mix.  It has a fake cheese taste and it doesn't seem right for a dish this nice.  I would stick with saltines.  The other thing I would do differently is skip the velveeta.  I would use extra Monterrey Jack if I needed to.  And finally, we both agreed that another can of green chilies would be great.  Perhaps top it off with a jalepeno slice.  

One final note about the recipe in the book:  One of the recipes called for the chicken to be cooked at 350 for 15-20 minutes.  I had to re-read that 3 times to make sure I was seeing that right.  That cannot be safe.  I would definitely make sure your chicken is thoroughly cooked. 
Sam's club sells a 3 pack of chef's instant read thermometers. (little ones that you can stick in the pocket of your chef's smock).  Go get some!  I love mine.  They are just as fast as digital read thermometers and feel so much more "cheffy".  

I hope you guys will try this.  It's worth the calories!  When is cream ever not worth it?  

This recipe is guaranteed to give you fork-tender pork chops every time!  

It's really hard to make this meal look amazing.  It's just so.. brown.  But this is one of my go-to meals.  I've made this for years and have changed it up sometimes.  
You can use thin cut chops, thick cut, bone-in.. it doesn't matter.  Whatever you use the results will be the same, tender and tasty!  

The basic ingredients are:
1 1/4 cup rice (I usually use long grain white rice)
1/2 envelope of Lipton dried onion soup mix
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 cups water
4-6 pork chops

As an option you can also add 1/4 cup of red wine.
I also will substitute the water for broth for extra flavor.  It really doesn't matter as long as your rice to liquid ratio is 1:2.  
Made the original way, it reminds me of the chicken and rice that my mom used to make when I was little.  

This is what I used for our meal last night.  1 can of beef consume, one can of cream of mushroom soup, 1 cup water, 1/2 envelope of dried soup, and then the rice medley.  Let me tell ya!  I was so happy to find this.  I was in Petty's in Tulsa the other day and I'm always excited to find products I can't buy in my little town.  This may not be new to the rest of the world but it's new to me!  It's a "mushroom medley" that has white rice, long grain rice, shiitake mushrooms, and carrots in it.  I started thinking about what I could make with it and this recipe came to mind.  I knew I had pork chops in the freezer and was happy to see I had a little package of thin pork chops and it would be perfect for us empty nesters! 

Let's do this!In a mixing bowl whisk together your rice, dried soup mix, and liquid.  Set aside.

Season your chops with salt and pepper.  I also used a dash or two of hot seasoned salt. 

Heat skillet to med-high heat and then add a little bit of oil.  I actually had too much in this picture.  The idea is you want to sear your meat on each side to seal in the flavors.  You don't want to cook the meat.  I usually work with one or two pieces of meat at a time because the process should go relatively fast.  

The seared meat.  I wish it had a nice golden color to it so the picture would be pretty.
:D

Spray your casserole dish with cooking spray and then pour in your rice mixture.  Lay your pork chops on top. 
Cover and then bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for one hour.

Take your dog for a ride in the boat

And when you come home goodness will be waiting! 

This recipe can also be made in a crock pot if you like, I just prefer the texture of the rice when it's been baked in the oven. 
If you aren't really a pork person you could easily use chicken.  I think the thin cut breasts would be perfect for this recipe.  And if you want to add veggies you could do that as well.  Broccoli, green beans, or mushrooms would be a great addition.  
Enjoy!   

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:
8 green chilis (canned)
8 oz. Monterrey Jack cheese
1/4 cup all purpose flour
3 eggs, separated
1 T. water
salt
cooking oil (I used canola)
 

Sauce:
1/2 onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
1 T. oil
1 cup chicken broth
1 can crushed tomatoes
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tso dried oregano leaves
salt & pepper

I had ground beef out because at the onset of this process I had grandiose ideas of making both cheese stuffed peppers and also ground beef stuffed peppers.  It didn't take long for me to realize I'd better just try to follow the recipe! My note on my recipe says that it can also be stuffed with meat or beans but that will have to wait until next time.

Preparation:
1. Drain and rinse peppers gently removing and seeds. Be careful handling because the break easily.
2. Cut the cheese into narrow strips. Place the strips inside the chilis (Because of my ocd I ended up using 2 cans of chilis trying to find "the perfect" chilis that weren't split)
Coat the outside of the chilis with 1/4 cup of flour.
3. Make sauce by sauteing onion and garlic in a tablespoon of oil until golden brown. Add broth, tomatoes, chili powder,oregano, salt and pepper.  Simmer 10 minutes. (I simmered a lot longer)
4. Beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks.  In a bowl mix egg yolks with 1 T. water and 3 T. flour and salt.  Mix until creamy.  Fold into the egg whites. 
5. Heat 1 inch of oil in frying  pan. 
6. Dip the stuffed chilis into the fluffy egg batter and ease into the hot oil. Fry 3-4 minutes or until a golden brown then gently turn. Drain on paper towels.  Serve immediately with heated sauce.  

Note: In this picture, it looks like I know what I'm doing...

But in reality, I had a mess going on. You can't even see my sink behind me. Plus, I had 2 plates (why did I use paper plates?) were covered in flour.  Then into the battering process I ended up with two hands in the batter bowl and all I could reach was the 2 remaining paper plates. I was making such a mess that I decided to go ahead and batter all of them at once.   I had it on the counter, on the recipe, on the floor, on me.  I was kicking at the dogs trying to keep them from eating the batter that was falling everywhere.  I was losing it.

But then 
Ay Chihuahua!!!!!!!!!!!
The first two came out of the pan and my heart did a flip!  I actually did it.
I had to try one right then.  I normally don't do that but this time I had no restraint at all.
It's amazing I thought to snap a picture of it before I demolished it. 

You probably can't tell... but I was pretty excited.  

This weekend I've had a small crowd to feed and the easiest way to do breakfast is to make a casserole.  We had one yesterday morning and today we needed a different type of casserole.  
The Fiesta breakfast bake uses frozen hash browns as a base and has spicy veggies and an egg and cheese topping.  

Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen hash browns, shredded style
1 jalapeno, diced
1/2 bell pepper,diced
1/2 tomato, diced
2 green onions, diced
sausage or bacon, cooked and crumbled.  
2 cups of cheese, shredded (pepper jack would be awesome!)
2 T. flour
Salt & Pepper
10 eggs
1/2 stick butter

Take the hash browns and place them in a bowl and cover with hot water.  Once the hash browns are thawed, which should just take a minute or two you can drain the water.  I actually used my salad spinner to get as much water off of the potatoes as I could.  
Mix 1/2 cup of melted butter with the hashbrowns and toss to coat.  Then add one egg, beaten to the mixture and toss to coat.  

Using a casserole dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray add the potato mixture and press into the pan and up the sides of the pan.  Salt and pepper the potatoes.  Then place in the oven at 375 for 25 minutes.  
While the potatoes are in the oven you can begin to prepare the rest of the ingredients.

1. Sprinkle sausage or bacon on the hash browns, then sprinkle on the veggies.
2. Sprinkle on your cheese
3. In a mixing bowl beat the remaining eggs and then add the 2 T. of flour and whisk into the 
egg mixture.  Pour over the top of the casserole.
4. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes or until the eggs are no longer wobbly.  As usual,I inserted a thermometer to ensure that the eggs are fully cooked.  I'd feel bad if I poisoned my guests.

Let sit for a few minutes before cutting.  Serve with some cheese shreds as garnish, or green onions.  You can add a spoon full of sour cream and/or salsa.  And enjoy!  

I decided that I would definitely prefer bacon with this recipe.  I used sausage this time.  I also went a little light on the salt and pepper.  But that can always be added when served.  Lori decided she needed more kick.  She would have used more jalapeno, pepper jack cheese, AND hot sauce because that's how she rolls! She's a spice girl.   

I love breakfast casseroles!  They are so easy to make and guests always give such great feedback.  I usually make the same two over and over.. but this is a new one to my family.

How easy is this?  
Layer cooked sausage on the bottom of a casserole dish that's been sprayed with cooking spray.  Drain the juice off of a can of Rotel.  Sprinkle the tomatoes on top of the sausage.  Add 2 cups of shredded cheese.  You can add any other veggie you like.. mushrooms, etc. but I just used tomatoes.  Salsa would be good if you don't have Rotel.

 
Beat 12 eggs, then add 2 cups of milk, and whisk together.  Then add 1 1/4 cup of bisquick.  Whisk together until most of the lumps are gone.  Add seasoned salt and pepper to taste.  (I used maybe 1/2 tsp. each)  Then pour mixture in pan over the sausage and cheese.  Top with chopped green onions and parsley for garnish. 

Place in preheated oven at 350 for about 45 minutes until it is not wobbly.  I usually insert a thermometer in the center to make sure it's cooked in the middle.  

Let cool before cutting and serving!  :)

I know I say this a lot... but this was REALLY good!  We had this for our first college football game watch party.  It's a different approach to a recipe I've made since my kids were little.    This is an easy recipe and the variations are endless!  

  
Serve with a little garlic bread and a side salad and you've got a hearty meal that everyone will love!

Ingredients:
1 pound of Angel hair pasta (we used whole wheat)
1 pound of sharp cheddar cheese, shredded 
1 box of cream cheese (feel free to use light or fat free)
1 large jar of spaghetti sauce, I like to use a zesty flavor.  
1 small jar of green olives with pimentos, chopped
1 small package of pepperonis, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
1 pound of ground Italian sausage
1 pound of ground beef

In a large skillet brown the sausage,ground beef, and onion.  Set aside. 
 Boil the angel hair pasta according to package directions and then drain, rinsing with cold water to stop the cooking process. Set aside.
Grate the cheese and chop the olives and pepperonis and add to the meat mixture.  

Heat the spaghetti sauce and then add cream cheese, stir to blend. 

Now it's time to layer!

Find a casserole dish large enough to accommodate all of the ingredients and spray a little bit of cooking spray to keep it from sticking.  Add a little bit of sauce to the bottom of pan.  Then add about half of the spaghetti, then half the meat, half the cheese, half the sauce.  Repeat the layers.  Make sure your final layer is sauce so that the cheese won't burn while cooking.  I reserved some of the cheese to add during the last few minutes of cooking.  Bake in an oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Let cool before serving. 

Feel free to add whatever ingredients you like.  Mushrooms would be great, or black olives, or even bell pepper if that's what blows your skirt up!  But to me, the green olives take me back to the spaghetti sauce that mom made when I was growing up.  :)  
This made a ton of food.  I ended up having enough that I made another pan to put in the freezer to send home with my son.