Grandma Kit's Spaghetti Casserole

This week I'm doing an easy recipe, simply because I want to carve a pumpkin!!! So cheap and easy it is! My lovely cat Rocco helped me carve my pumpkin... what a helpful little man.

 Of course I carved a cupcake, what else would you expect from a cupcake gal like myself?

This recipe is from my Grandma Kit. She used to make this for my family when I was a little kid living in Los Angeles. Here is my favorite picture of her, I keep this one on my fridge!

When we moved to Redmond, Washington, my brother and I were begging for Grandma's Spaghetti Casserole! So my mom braved the recipe, and she made it for us. We also asked for Grandma's beef stew, but mom stopped making it for us, because it was never as good as Grandma's... (I'm sure it was delicious mom! Sorry!) But spaghetti casserole became the easy-peasy-go-to-dish, that everyone loved. So three generations of women, making some delicious easy spaghetti caserole, each of us changing it a little along the way... So here I am putting my cupcake twist on it. I couldn't resist!

Ingredients:

1 box of Spaghetti noodles

1 can of your favorite Spaghetti Sauce

1 can of chili (I used turkey chili this time because it was on sale)

1 can of whole black olives

1/2-1 block of cheddar cheese

Parmesan cheese

Salt

Non Stick Spray

1 big ole pot

So to start, bring about 6-8 cups of water (I don't measure, I just fill up the pot so my noodles have enough room to do their thing while cooking) to a boil. I add salt while boiling to season my noodles, probably about a teaspoon or so. Boil your noodles as it says on the package, mine went for 11 minutes. This is how full I filled the pot.

 While your noodles are boiling you can get your other ingredients ready. I shred the cheese into a bowl. Now you can go and get the pre-shredded kind, that saves a little elbow work, but I feel slightly accomplished after shredding my cheese (Plus I just buy whatever is cheapest or on sale). Here I used about 3/4 a brick of cheese, but you can use more if you want! Never too much cheese in my book!

After you are done slice your olives. I go about 4-5 slices per olive, I'm not really picky with it, I just slice away without really paying attention. 

 Now here comes the hard part. Open your can of chili and jar of sauce, then turn your oven to 350 degrees on bake. Phew that was rough! hehe.

 Once your pasta is done cooking, strain it, then put it back into your big ole pot.

 Put the entire can of chili, the entire bottle of pasta sauce, and all of your chopped up olives right into the pot. 

 Give it a good stir, and you are ready to prep your cupcake trays! I spray the trays with non stick spray, then we are ready to start filling the trays!

 Now with the sauce in the pot, all the good stuff will sink to the bottom, but don't worry, we'll get it all in there! I used a fork to put the spaghetti into the cupcake trays. 

 I'd fork in a little spaghetti, then use a spoon to put in some of the sauce in the bottom of the pot. Fill up the cup, and don't worry about it being a flat 'spaghetti cupcake'. They can over fill a little with spaghetti, as it will all bake down into a more flat cup. When they are all full, spoon the rest of the good saucy stuff down in the bottom of the pan on top of each spaghetti cup.

This is how many of the cups I was able to fill with the entire pot of spaghetti.

Top each one with the shredded cheddar cheese, then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. They are done and ready to go into the oven! I put mine in at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. The spaghetti is already cooked, so you are just waiting on the cheese to bubble and get all golden and yummy.

Once they are done, let them cool just enough that they are still warm (this helps them hold their shape) then pop them out and eat them! I freeze mine, so that I can have lots of meals later on!

The recipe that has been passed down has always just been baked in a large caserole dish, but I thought this would be a good way to make multiple meals and be able to freeze them without having to freeze the entire casserole! 

YUM!!! Hope you enjoy the family recipe!

Until next time!

xoxo

cupcake bettie

A mini cup of Benedict!

All week I have been craving a really good breakfast, so today I decided to take a little spin on my favorite dish of Eggs Benedict! This isn't the traditional dish, but it sure does the job! The first time I had Eggs Benedict my older brother had made it for me when I was 16. Ever since, it's been my absolute favorite breakfast food!! So here is my version! I only made 6 of them this time (I am only feeding myself, so I don't need to over do it, plus I'm going to test and see how these freeze, never frozen cooked eggs before!?) So if you want to make a full tray, just double all ingredients.

The Hollandaise sauce is inspired by one my very favorite of the Betty's - Betty Crocker. The original recipe calls for a little more lemon juice, and no salt and pepper, but I changed it up just a little bit. The whole recipe took me about 35 minutes to make including bake time. So this is a perfect treat for a morning with guests!

Ingredients:

1 can of biscuit dough (you can make your own too, but this helps make it a quick prep)

5 strips of bacon

6 eggs

Salt

Pepper

Non Stick Spray

Hollandaise Sauce:

2 egg yolks

2 1/2 TBS lemon juice

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter - salted

Salt

Pepper

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. 

First I opened the can of biscuits.

Then using a sharp knife cut them length wise in half. It doesn't have to be pretty, you can reshape them later if you don't cut them beautifully. 

Then I sprayed my cupcake pan with non stick spray. I'm a big fan of this stuff, because everything comes out easily, and it makes it even easier to wash the pan when you are done! 

I then ripped the bottom piece of biscuits that I cut in half to make them fit in the bottom of the pan. Just leave the top half aside, you will use it in a minute. You don't want the bottom to be too thick because it puffs up a bit, so don't try to make the whole piece fit. 

I cooked up 5 strips of bacon, then cut them up into small & medium sized pieces. Put them on top of the biscuits. 

Crack one egg on top of the bacon, then season with salt and pepper. 

Put the top half of the biscuits on top of the egg. You don't have to rip the top piece, it just fits perfectly on top. Place in the oven for 20 minutes.

While you wait for the eggs to cook, start your Hollandaise sauce. It isn't as scary as it always sounds, its actually really easy to make.

Start with a small sauce pan, add the lemon juice, and the egg yolks and stir together with a whisk or wooden spoon. I started on very very low heat, you don't want the egg to cook to quickly, or it may curdle. Which is just gross. So keep it on low.

Once combined add half of the stick of butter, and just keep stirring until the butter is melted. 

Add the second half of the stick of butter, and add salt and pepper. You can always add more later too. 

Melt the second stick of butter, and using a whisk, keep stirring until all of the butter is melted. I kept it on low heat and continued cooking for about 5 minutes when the sauce started to thicken a little bit, then set it aside (it will continue to cook a little in the pan so it will thicken some more while you wait).

Once your eggs are done, they look like they have exploded, but trust me, they are so worth it! I did make sure the eggs were fully cooked, I'm not a fan of runny eggs, and because I am trying to freeze them, I don't want anything weird happening... You can cook yours for less time if you want to keep them as the traditional Eggs Benedict with runny yolks.

Cut around the biscuit and remove it from the pan. Top with the hollindaise sauce and enjoy!

I know it isn't a traditional Benedict, but it is so darn tasty, and so easy to make! This might be my new favorite breakfast food! I'll let you know how it goes with freezing these too! I have to go now.. I need to eat a second one... hehe.

Happy breakfast!

xoxo

cupcake bettie

A little pizza inspired snack!

Here is a fun one, which is super easy to make, and even more delicious to eat! I used some of the left over ingredients from the mini lasagnas to make this tasty treat. 

Ingredients:

One Pillsbury crescent rolls (ya know, the kind in the can?)

Left over pasta sauce (you can use the kind with meat, but I just used the kind straight out of the jar)

Ricotta cheese

Parmesan Cheese

Pepper

Non Stick Spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Start by unrolling the cresent rolls on a flat surface. 

Cut length wise to make strips of the rolls, you can cut them thinner and make smaller rolls, but they burn a little easier and you have to watch them more carefully, I made 4 strips with this recipe.

Smother with pasta sauce, use enough to coat the entire crescent dough. Add your Ricotta cheese, then spread it over the pasta sauce, this mixes them together, and makes an even layer of cheesy sauce.

Add parmesean cheese and black pepper. Spray your cupcake pan with non stick spray then roll each strip into itself, kind of like a cinnamon roll. Drop each cheesy roll into the cups,  and bake for about 20-25 minutes. 

 They take longer than you think they will, because they are so thick you have to make sure they bake all the way through. (I must admit though, on my first test batch I didn't cook them long enough, and they were still delicious and gooey in the center!) 

 Once they are done, pop them out of the cup, and chow down! They are really good dipped in some of the extra pasta sauce! Make sure to try them while they are hot!!! Yum Yum!!!

Hope this holds you over till next week!

xoxo

cupcake bettie

Mini Lasagna

To most Sunday is that relaxing catch up day of the week, but for me, that is Monday! And Mondays are my absolute favorite day of the week! While everyone else is at work, I can do whatever I want! Today, that was baking... I was going to make lasagna and freeze it, but as only one person, I couldn't defrost the whole thing and eat it later...

Simple solution? Mini Lasagnas! It's a pretty easy recipe, the hardest part is the assembly! (Makes 24)

First things first, I start by pouring myself a glass of wine. Cupcake Red Velvet is my favorite lately... Not bad not bad! Even my cat likes it...

Ingredients:

1lb. ground beef (you can use turkey too which is also delicious!)

1 large jar of pasta sauce (your favorite kind or home made works too)

2 small onions

3 cloves of garlic

3 TBS olive oil

Lasagna noodles (don't get the no bake kind, they won't work with this recipe)

1 large container of Ricotta Cheese

1 tub Grated Parmesan Cheese

8 oz Mozzarella Cheese

Salt/Pepper/Nutmeg - to taste

Nonstick cooking spray

First, I chopped up the onions and garlic, and sauteed them in a pan with the olive oil. I cooked them until they were translucent

then added the beef. Cook until you don't see any pink, then drain off the excess fat.

 I used one of those 70 ounce jars of pasta sauce, and added about half to the beef. This is when I added salt & pepper, and just a touch of nutmeg. Taste your sauce to make sure it tastes just like you want it to!

 Take it off the heat and set it aside once it tastes just right. I had an audience while I was cooking, my little buddy Rocco wanted in on the action, but I made him sit on the other side of the kitchen.

 Boil a big pot of water with some salt in it (i use about a tbs. of salt to season the noodles). I used a whole box of lasagna noodles, and I broke them in half and cooked them in two seperate batches. Cook it as the directions on the box tell you to. Mine cooked for 10 minutes.

When they are done cooking lay them out on paper towels and line them up to prevent sticking. My mom taught me this when I was younger, and even when I make regular lasagna, I lay them out just the same. Now is a good time to preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 

 After all your noodles are cooked, spray your cupcake pan with your nonstick spray (I'm a fan of Pam).

Lay out 12 lasagna noodles, and cut off both edges of each noodle that are curly. I just cut right after the curly part to leave the noodle as wide as I could. Lay the noodles in the cupcake pan as if you were using the noodle as a cupcake liner. It will leave the sides of the cupcake pan open, but that's okay.

Start layering in your ingredients, I'm a big fan of ricotta cheese, so I add more to my lasagna! Here I added about a tbs (not exact) of sauce, then about 2 tsp of ricotta cheese.

 Find a drinking glass or cookie cutter that is about the same size as the opening of the cupcake tray and cut out 12 pieces of noodle to make the layer in your lasagna. I used a glass from anthropology that fit perfectly! This is how it looks when you add the layer. Do this to all 12 of your mini lasagnas.

 Then add another layer of sauce, and another layer of ricotta cheese. Here is where I cut off the extra noodle hanging out, just be careful while you are doing this, after spraying your pan your noodles may be a little slippery!

Top your mini lasagna with a heavy coating of shredded mozzarella cheese, and about a tsp of shredded Parmesan cheese. It's okay if they look a little full, they do bake down a little.

 Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until it is golden and bubbly! It's a seriously delicious bite, and once they cool you can pop them into a plastic freezer baggy and save them for later! When you want to heat them up again, you can defrost them and microwave them, or pop them right back in the oven and heat them up!

Till next time...

xoxo
cupcake bettie