Monday, 2/7/2011

I was very indecisive at the grocery store this morning. I basically bought stuff for breakfast, lunch, and only veggies for dinners this week.  I figured I had enough protein in the freezer, that I could improvise.  And, improvise is exactly what I did for dinner tonight.  When Ben called to say he was on his way home, I still didn't have a clue what I was fixing for dinner.  I asked him what kind of food he was in the mood for.  When he said "spicy," I had to come up with something quick.

We had some zesty pizza sauce, hot Italian sausage, and shredded mozzarella in the fridge, but no pizza dough.  I went online to the Bisquick website hoping to find a quick pizza dough recipe.  I was surprised to only find recipes that required yeast and far more time than I had available.  What I did find was a recipe for Reuben Fold-Overs, which looked like calzones or empanadas.  I took a chance and it worked pretty well.

For the dough, I took two cups of Bisquick and added 1/2 cup of boiling water.  I mixed until the dough formed, split the dough into four balls, pressed them out into 5 inch rounds, and placed them on a cookie sheet.  I topped each round with the sauce, cheese and sausage and baked for about 15 minutes.  They tasted pretty good, but were really just flat biscuits with pizza toppings:)  The pizza sauce really saved it.  Yes, it is that good;)  All in all, it was a successful improvisation. 

Monday, 6/14/2010

I had to strap Katie into her high chair so that I could make dinner. She seems to be cutting a tooth, which has made her very whiny, clingy, and kind of frantic today. Thankfully, she was mostly content being up higher so that she could see what I was doing from a distance.

I made Bisquick's Impossible Taco Pie tonight. We have a busy week ahead of us and it is a good meal to reheat as left overs. Here is the recipe we use. I'll share my notes at the end of this post.

IMPOSSIBLE TACO PIE

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 ( 1 1/4 oz.) envelope taco seasoning mix
1 can ( 4 oz.) chopped green chiles, drained
1 1/4 cup milk
3 eggs
3/4 cup Bisquick
2 tomatoes, sliced
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack or Cheddar cheese

Preparation:
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease glass pie plate, 10 x 1 1/2 inches.
Cook and stir ground beef and onion in skillet until beef is brown;drain. Stir in seasoning mix, dry. Spread in pie plate; top with chillies. Beat milk, eggs and Bisquick baking mix until smooth. Pour into pie plate. Bake 25 minutes. Top with tomatoes and cheese. Bake 8-10 minutes. Longer or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes. Serve with sour cream, tomatoes and shredded lettuce if desired. 6-8 servings.

I opt out on the onions for this dish. I don't think they are needed, and it cuts down on my prep time. I skip the tomatoes and instead top the pie with hot sauce for a little more kick. When we make beef burritos, we always use 1.5 packets of taco seasoning for one pound of ground beef. I use the same amount for this taco pie. And, I think 1 cup of shredded cheese isn't enough. Try 2 cups:) By the way, this is a great dish to take to a potluck. Hint: save a couple of those plastic pieces they use in delivery pizza boxes that keep the cheese from sticking to the box. You can use them in this dish to keep the melted cheese from sticking to the tin foil.