A popular dinner recipe from when I was growing up is being featured on Great Expectations.  

This is a kid-friendly comfort food type of dish: Cheeseburger Pie.  See the recipe here.

Along with the recipe I give tips for modifications and making the recipe healthier. (Back in the 70s most recipes didn't consider nutrition).

Also be sure to enjoy other articles in Kyna's blog.

Lori Thayer is passionate about finding ways to have the best life, from healthy eating, healthy living, saving money and enjoying life. She is excited to share these tips with others. Improve your health with her FREE article "5 Easy Habits To Improve Your Health".  Sign up now in the upper right corner of this page

Not sure what to make for dinner tonight?  Meals that can be made from leftover ingredients are a hit with busy moms.   What about a Beef Taco Bake.  A recipe is given below.  More can be found at Food.com.

Casseroles are a great dinner option.  They generally involve a little preparation followed by some baking time in the oven.  The time in the oven allows time for setting the table and preparing a side dish or two.  A large salad is a common side dish in our family.  We add cut up veggies and have a nice tossed green salad to start dinner.

A recent favorite at our dinner table is Taco Bake.  A Beef Taco Bake is very filling and very forgiving.  By forgiving, I mean you can use the basic recipe and add in a variety of ingredients and still have a wonderful meal. 

Here is a recent recipe we used:

1 lb Ground beef

1 packet taco seasoning

½ can refried beans (Make your own)

1 onion, chopped

1 cup chopped spinach

1 can Rotel (we like the hot)

1 container (16 oz) reduced-fat cottage cheese

8 oz shredded Mexican cheese mix

12 corn tortillas

Brown the ground beef in a large sauté pan, remove from heat and drain the fat.  Add the onion to the pan and sauté.  Return beef to the pan and add in the taco seasoning, chopped spinach and rotel.  Heat ingredients in pan until spinach is wilted.  In a separate bowl combine cottage cheese and ½ the Mexican cheese. 

Spread a small amount of the beef mixture to the bottom of a greased 9×13# pan.  Add a layer of corn tortillas (6), ½ the beef mixture and ½ the cottage cheese mix, repeat.  Top with the remaining Mexican cheese. 

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Serve with a green salad. 

The refried beans and cottage cheese were added to the above meal as they were ingredients in our fridge that needed to be used.  They worked very well in the recipe.  You may want to leave those ingredients out and find other leftovers in your refrigerator or cabinet that you want to try.

Other ingredients to consider adding in if you have them on hand:

• 1 Bell pepper
• 1 can Black or pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• green onions (these look great sprinkled on top)
• Hot Sauce
• Sour Cream (on the side or in the casserole, your choice)
• Cilantro

Casseroles are a great way to add great extras into your main dish.  If your spouse, kids or even yourself isn’t too excited about vegetable consider chopping them very fine or even pureeing them before adding them to the mix.

Do you add in extra vegetables or "healthy" ingredients into your meals?  Let me know what you’ve found that you really like.

What's for dinner tonight at your house?

Lori Thayer is passionate about finding ways to optimize life, from nutrition to exercise, savingmoney and improving relationships. She is excited to share these tips and tricks with others. Start optimizing your life with her FREE article "5 Easy Habits To Improve Your Health".  Sign up now in the upper right corner of this page.

How do you decide what to make for dinner?  Do you plan or do you just make something out of what is in the fridge?

Tonight, dinner was decided based on what leftovers needed to be used up.  Is this a common occurrence in your household?  It happens pretty regularly in mine.  Today the refrigerator offered up these options: Cottage Cheese, Asparagus, Eggs, and Garlic that needed to be used.  I also had a pie crust that had been sitting in the fridge for a while so…Quiche!  

Asparagus Quiche came to mind as I've seen recipes but never tried one.  So off I went to Food.com to browse some recipes.  I looked at a few and found one that seemed similar to the ingredients I had and what I wanted to do.  Then I loosely based my dish on that recipe.

Here is a picture of the dish before I put it into the oven.  I couldn't find my deep-dish pie plate so I made do with 2 smaller pie plates.  This actually worked out perfectly for me as I need to eat gluten free as much as possible.  I prefer crustless quiches as well.  Since the pie plate was smaller I had a lot of extra crust hanging off the edge.  I made the mistake of leaving those on rather than trimming the crust.  The reason this was a mistake…the overhang fell off and started to burn and smoke on the bottom of the fridge.  I should have seen this coming but…I didn't.  So – learn from me, always trim up your pie crust.

The quiche turned out really well. I meant to sprinkle some sharp cheddar on top at the end but I forgot.  The dish was received well by the family, teenage boys included.  They don't like eggs for breakfast so it always surprises me when they enjoy a baked egg dish.

What is your favorite way to use up leftovers?

Lori Thayer is passionate about finding ways to optimize life, from nutrition to exercise, savingmoney and improving relationships. She is excited to share these tips and tricks with others. Start optimizing your life with her FREE article "5 Easy Habits To Improve Your Health".  Sign up now in the upper right corner of this page.