Archive for the ‘# Buster Approved’ Category
Stuffed Acorn Squash with Sausage Stuffing
This recipe is from an extensive cookbook titled Favorite Recipes, compiled by the active and retired employees of Michigan Bell in 1981. Link to the Shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Equipment
- Oven
- Baking Pan (9x13 inch)
- Steamer
Ingredients
- 2 medium acorn squash
- 500 grams bulk pork sausage, Shortcut
- 1 cup soft breadcrumbs, or ¾ cup dry bread crumbs
- 2 tablespoons onion, finely diced
- salt and pepper, as desired
Instructions
- Cut squash in half lengthwise, scoop out seeds.
- Add water to your steamer and bring to a low boil. Add the squash, cut side down, to the steamer tray, and steam for 15 minutes or until tender, drain squash well. Work in batches to get all the halves steamed. (15 minutes for small to medium squash, 20 minutes for large.)
- Place squash halves cut side up in a 9x13 inch baking pan.
- While the squash is steaming, cook the sausage in a pan, breaking up the sausage with a spatula. Cook until no more pink is visible and it is cooked through. Drain off excess fat. (I went overboard and cooked up 2 lb of sausage thought I was using 2 large squash but turned out to be 1 large and 1 small, the excess was saved for another use.)
- Preheat your oven to 200° C (400° F).
- Add the onion and breadcrumbs, and stir together. Add a little milk or water if the sausage seems too dry.
- Spoon sausage mixture into the squash, pressing down lightly.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned and squash is heated through.
- Serve and enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving if growing the squash yourself, as I have not seen acorn squash in any market. I am going to try and grow them in my garden.
Shortcut: Bulk Pork/Italian Sausage.
Variant: 1. Use Italian sausage in place of pork sausage.
Updated on 27 September 2021.
Crockpot Cream Cheese Chicken Chili
This recipe is from a friend on social media and it is excellent chili! Link to the Shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Equipment
- Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
- 1 package cream cheese, cut into quarters, (8 oz / 226 g)
- 1 packet ranch dressing mix, Shortcut
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1½ teaspoons chili powder, or as desired
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 can whole kernel corn, undrained, (15 oz / 425 g)
- 1 can Rotel tomatoes and chilies, undrained, (10 oz / 283 g)
- 1 can black beans, undrained, (15 oz / 425 g)
Instructions
- Place the chicken in the bottom of your slow cooker.
- add the rest of the ingredients.
- Stir together. Cover and set to Low setting for 6 hours, quickly stir after about 3 hours to mix in the cream cheese.
- Remove chicken breast to a cutting board, shred or dice, return to the pot and stir in.
- Cover and cook for another 15 minutes. Stir to mix everything together.
- Serve and enjoy. Feel free to use chili toppings as you desire.
Notes
Fair cost per serving based on the Rotel, but I am looking at making a shortcut for that and I will update the recipe with that shortcut.
Shortcut: Ranch Dressing Mix.
Creamy Swiss Chicken Bake
This recipe comes from a social media friend. And it is truly delicious! Only 5 ingredients and quick to put together. Links to the Shortcuts are listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Equipment
- Oven
- Baking Pan (9x13 inch)
Ingredients
- 6 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
- 6 slices Swiss cheese
- 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup, (10½ oz / 298 g), Shortcut
- 1 cup Chardonnay
- 1 box herbed stuffing mix, (6 oz / 170 g), Shortcut
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180° C (350° F), get out a 9x13 inch baking pan, and grease with butter or non stick spray. Arrange chicken breasts in pan.
- Place a slice of cheese on each chicken breast.
- In a small mixing bowl, add the soup and wine, whisk together. Pour mixture over the chicken.
- Sprinkle with the stuffing mix.
- Cover and bake for 40 minutes, then remove cover and continue baking for 20 more minutes or until the stuffing is browned and toasted. Test a piece of chicken for doneness, if using a thermometer, target temp is 74° C (165° F). I baked these for 1½ hours as I was using some large chicken breasts.
- Serve with sides of your choice, and don't forget to spoon the sauce and stuffing over the chicken, enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Shortcuts: Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup, Stuffing Mix.
Smoked Cornish Game Hens
My Dad recently purchased a smoker, so I figured a great way to help break it in is to smoke some Cornish game hens. I found a few recipes and settled on tailoring the one here. I made these on 15 Sep 2021, and they are absolutely delicious hens!
Equipment
- Smoker
Ingredients
- 4 Cornish game hens, whole, thawed
For the Brine - this is for 1 container for 2 hens
- 2 quarts water, (8 cups)
- ½ cup kosher salt
- ½ cup brown sugar, packed
For the Rub - this is for 4 hens.
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 tablespoon salt, table or kosher works fine
- 2 tablespoons black pepper
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme
- 2 tablespoons smoked paprika
Instructions
- Rinse the thawed hens inside and out, remove giblets if they come with those. Cut off any excess has around the cavity opening. This is 2 of the 4 hens I used, I was checking the size of the mixing bowl to brine them.
- For the brine, I used a 3 quart mixing bowl that held 2 hens. To the empty container, add the water, salt, and brown sugar listed for the Brine and stir until the salt and sugar are dissolved, add 2 hens to the brine. Repeat with the second bowl and the brine ingredients as listed. Let hens brine for 2 hours.
- While the hens are brining, add the Rub ingredients to a bowl and mix together. Set aside until the hens are brined.
- About 20-30 minutes before the time is up for the brining, preheat your smoker to 225° F (110° C), use wood chips of your choice, I used apple wood chips.
- Remove the hens from the brine and rinse under running water. Pat dry with paper towels place breast side up on a tray. Rub all over with the dry rub mix you prepared, turn hens over and rub the backside, place hens breast side down on a tray.
- Place the hens in the smoker, breast side down, exactly as they were sitting on the tray.
- Smoke for 1½ to 2 hours, checking the internal temp of a hen at 1½ hours, target temp is 74° C (165° F), continue smoking for another 30 minutes if the temp is below the target.
- Carefully remove the hens from the smoker and place in a baking pan, let hens rest for 5-10 minutes.
- Place a hen, breast side up for presentation, on each serving plate. Serve with sides of your choice, and enjoy.
Corn Casserole
I found this recipe on Instagram, made it on 10 Sep 2021, and my family loved this! Very easy to put together and excellent flavor. This will be a regular, and I will also test this with the variant, which is using fiesta corn. I did cut the recipe in half and a 8x8 inch baking pan is perfect for this.
Equipment
- Oven
- Baking Pan (9x13 inch)
Ingredients
- 2 cans whole kernel corn, (15 oz / 425 g each)
- 2 cans cream style corn, (15 oz / 425 g each)
- 2 sleeves saltine crackers, crushed
- 1 egg
- ¾ cup milk
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180° C (350° F), Get out a 9x13 inch baking pan and grease with butter or cooking spray. Use an 8x8 inch baking pan if making half the recipe.
- In a large mixing bowl, add all ingredients. If making half the recipe, use 1 egg as stated.
- Mix together.
- Pour mixture into the prepared baking pan.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Serve as a side dish, enjoy.
Notes
Variant: 1. Use fiesta corn in place of the whole kernel corn.
Hash Peppers
I prepared these on a suggestion from my Dad, and that idea was tasty! The bell pepper and hash go together very well, excellent flavor.
Equipment
- Oven
- Baking Pan (7x11 inch)
Ingredients
- 3 bell peppers, any color you want
- 2 cans corned beef hash, (14 oz / 397 g cans / about 2 cups)
Instructions
- Keep in mind the sizes of bell peppers can vary so you may need more than 2 cans of hash for 3 large peppers. I used 3 medium or smaller peppers.
- Cut the tops off the bell peppers, remove the seeds and membranes from the insides. (I dice the tops for use in other recipes.)
- Place the peppers in a saucepan and fill with water just to the tops of the peppers. Bring to a boil then reduce to medium heat, time for 5-6 minutes once the water boils. Drain the peppers and place in a baking dish.
- Preheat your oven to 180° C (350° F). Scoop out hash from the cans and pack into the peppers, round the tops. For extra hash left over, just pack into the pan next to the peppers.
- Bake for 45 minutes. During this time you can prepare side dishes of your choice, I fried up some yellow zucchini.
- Serve and enjoy.
Notes
I will say Low cost per serving as this can be a leftover dish made with homemade hash.
Shrimp Newburg
This recipe is from a cookbook titled Casserole Cook Book by Better Homes & Gardens, printed in 1961. This recipe sounds very good, on my to make and taste list.
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup butter
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 cups half and half cream
- 4 egg yolks, slightly beaten
- 4 cups cooked shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails removed
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup dry white wine
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- toast cups, or egg noodles, for serving, Link in Notes
- paprika, for garnish, as desired
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large non stick pan, stir in the flour until smooth. Slowly stir in the cream, stir continuously until sauce thickens.
- Lightly beat the egg yolks. Scoop out a little bit of sauce and stir into the yolks, then add the yolks to the sauce and stir until completely blended in, about 1 minute.
- Add the shrimp and salt, stir to mix, heat through.
- Stir in the wine and lemon juice.
- Spoon into Toast Cups or over hot buttered egg noodles. Sprinkle lightly with paprika to garnish, serve and, enjoy.
Notes
Fair cost per serving depending on where you source the shrimp from.
Additional recipe: Toast Cups.
Updated on 5 September 2021.
Crab Meat Pie
I found this recipe on the internet. This can be made with canned crab, fresh cooked and picked crab, or imitation crab. I made this on 25 Aug 2021 and used imitation crab. Excellent flavor, highly recommended.
Equipment
- Oven
- Pie Dish (9 inch)
Ingredients
- 1 unbaked pie crust
- 226 grams crab meat, canned - drained, or fresh cooked, or imitation - chopped, (8 oz)
- 1 cup celery, finely diced
- 2 tablespoons onion, grated
- 2 tablespoons green bell pepper, diced
- ⅔ cup mushrooms, sliced, fresh sautéed or canned (4 oz / 113 g can, drained)
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup mayo
- ½ cup dry bread crumbs
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ cup Cheddar cheese, shredded
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180° C (350° F). Get out a 9 inch pie dish and place pie shell in the dish, flute the edge as desired.
- In a mixing bowl, add the crab meat, celery, onion, bell pepper, eggs, mayo, salt, lemon juice, ½ the mushrooms, and all but 1 tablespoon of bread crumbs.
- Mix lightly together.
- Pour into the prepared pie dish and spread out evenly.
- Add remaining mushrooms to top.
- Sprinkle with remaining bread crumbs and the Cheddar cheese.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or firm and browned.
- Slice and serve with sides of your choice. Enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving if using imitation crab, fresh - picked, would depend on where you source the crabs from.
Easy Fruit Crumble Bake
This recipe comes from a friend on the Just a Pinch recipe site and it is delicious. This can be easily tailored depending on the pie filling you use. Link to the Shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Equipment
- Oven
- Baking Pan (8x8 inch)
Ingredients
- 1 box Jiffy yellow cake mix, (9 oz / 255 g), Shortcut
- 1 can fruit pie filing, any flavor, (21 oz / 1 lb 5 oz / 595 g)
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180° C (350° F), get out a 8x8 inch baking pan, and grease with butter.
- Sprinkle ½ the cake mix on the bottom of the pan.
- Pour pie filling over the cake mix.
- Sprinkle remaining cake mix on top of the pie filling.
- Drizzle the butter all over the cake mix.
- Bake for 45 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.
- Serve and enjoy.
Notes
Shortcut: Homemade Jiffy Yellow Cake Mix.
Variant: 1. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Pea Soup Royale
This recipe is from a cookbook titled Casserole Cook Book by Better Homes & Gardens, printed in 1961. I made this on 18 Aug 2021 for a quick lunch, my Mom and I loved this, excellent flavor. I used the variant and used condensed split pea with ham and bacon soup, perfect.
Ingredients
- 1 can condensed green pea soup, (10½ oz / 298 g)
- 1 can condensed beef consommé, (10½ oz / 298 g)
- ½ cup milk
Instructions
- Add everything to a saucepan, stir to mix together, bring to a boil then remove from heat.
- Serve and enjoy.
Notes
Variant: 1. In place of Condensed Green Pea Soup, use a can of Condensed Split Pea with Ham Soup.
