Simply Potatoes Spaghetti Squash Casserole

September 6, 2012 By 88 Comments

We recently had the opportunity to review Simply Potatoes products again with the challenge to make a recipe with them. Now don’t get us wrong, there is much love for the cooked up Simply Potatoes hash browns! We had spaghetti squash from our CSA share so it was a great challenge to try to use in our dinner.

Simply Potatoes Spaghetti Squash Casserole

 Ingredients

  • 1 medium spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
  • 4 cups white button mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 medium yellow onion, diced
  • 1 bag Simply Potatoes Diced Potatoes with Onion
  • 1 15 oz. can no salt added tomato sauce
  • 1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
  • olive oil
  • salt
  • pepper
  • grated Parmesan cheese
  • shredded Mozzarella cheese

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Rub squash lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake face-down on a rimmed cookie sheet for 30 minutes or until a sharp knife can be inserted into the skin with little resistance.  Set aside until cool enough to handle.  Once cool enough, scrape the insides with a fork into a bowl.  Reserve for later use.

In a medium nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add mushrooms and saute until mushrooms are browning, about 10-15 minutes.  Reserve for later use.

In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add onion, season with salt and pepper, and saute until onions are translucent and just start to brown, about 3-5 minutes.  Reduce heat to medium and add Simply Potatoes.  Cover and allow to cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, reserved mushrooms, and reserved squash, stirring to combine.  Continue cooking on medium until most of the water has cooked out.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Lightly grease a baking dish with olive oil.  Pour the squash and potato mixture into the baking dish.  Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Top with cheeses and bake another 5-10 minutes until cheese is completely melted.

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Meatless Monday: Broccoli Rice Casserole

May 15, 2012 By 11 Comments

So we’re a day late getting Meatless Monday up this week, but this recipe will definitely not leave you a dollar short.  When you combine rice, broccoli, mushrooms, and cheese, you know that you’ve got something healthy, delicious, and easy on your pocketbook.  You get plenty of protein from the broccoli, cheese, and rice, meatiness from the mushrooms, plenty of carbs, and lots of vitamins.  As a bonus, this would work incredibly well as a side dish for just about any meat you can think of.  A great way to use leftovers!  The best I can say about this dish is to quote my four-year-old and five-year-old girls who both looked up to thank me for dinner, saying, “Daddy, this dinner is yummy!”

Broccoli Rice Casserole

No cream of mushroom soup here.  Just fresh, unprocessed ingredients coming together to form a tasty dish!  Mmmmmm!

To cook the rice, pour 1 cup of rice, 2 cups of water, and a pinch of salt into a saucepan.  Bring it to a boil.  Cover and reduce heat to low.  Wait 20 minutes.  Perfect rice every time!

Ingredients

4 Cups fresh broccoli stems and florets, rinsed and chopped small
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 Cup diced onions
1 stalk celery, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Cup chopped mushrooms
1 Tbsp flour
1 1/4 Cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
2 Cups shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
1 1/2 Cups cooked rice

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

Steam broccoli until just tender (about 3 minutes on high in the microwave) and top with lemon juice.

Add oil to a skillet over medium-high heat.  Add onions, celery, garlic, mushrooms, and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Sautee 5-6 minutes until veggies are tender.  Add flour and cook another minute.   Stir in the milk and continue stirring until just beginning to thicken (it will still feel pretty loose…good!).  Add in 1 1/2 cups of cheese until just melted.  Taste and add more salt and pepper as needed.

Mix broccoli, rice, and cheese sauce in a casserole dish.  Top with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese.  Bake until bubbly, about 30 minutes.  Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes so that sauce can thicken.  Enjoy!

What did you have for Meatless Monday?  Have a Meatless Monday experience, recipe, or request?  Leave us a comment and let us know what you’re up to!

Meatless Monday, a national nonprofit public health initiative, is all about incorporating more vegetables and less meat into our diet.  It’s about moderation, just one day a week, cutting down on meats high in saturated fat and increasing protein-rich plant-based foods — good for personal health and good for the planet.

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Thanksgiving Memories: Pecan Crusted Sweet Potato Casserole

November 24, 2011 By 3 Comments

Thanksgiving is a pretty special time around our house.  I don’t really have a large extended family and the family that I do have is spread all over.  Growing up, we didn’t really do Sunday dinners, so those few times that we did get together for big meals were pretty memorable.  As I’ve gotten older, I have begun to really appreciate family that much more and I want to make sure that my kids get to create some special memories of their own.  One thing that I really remember from my childhood, was that first time that I ate sweet potatoes (we called them yams down in Louisiana…apparently there is a difference, but I haven’t the foggiest of what that difference is).  My grandmother was cooking them and I was dead set against them…until, that is, she started topping them with brown sugar and marshmallows.  At that point, they didn’t seem quite so bad….

Fast forward 20 years or so.  I’ve started to create my own dishes based on long lost memories.  It’s not really the particular dish itself, but the experience that matters most.  It’s how the dish transports you to that special place from so long ago that you hold deep within yourself.  For me, these sweet potatoes do that and so much more.  They take me back to a time when I was younger and not so worried about the schedules, timelines, and shopping lists that pervade our Thanksgiving experiences.  It was about the food and the family.  Furthermore, I see that simple joy of food in my kids when I put this special dish in front of them.

To top off the whole family experience…this year, my sister-in-law actually requested this.  Ordinarily, she is one who politely declines just about everything “different” that I offer her.  Last year, she finally broke down and tried these sweet potatoes.  She didn’t really comment on them, so I never gave it a second thought.  Imagine my surprise when, last week, I find out that she actually asked if I was going to make them.  Well, with that, I knew that we had to do them up right and, of course, we had to post them for everyone else who has been unsure about sweet potatoes in the past.

Pecan Crusted Sweet Potato Casserole

Sweet potatoes are yummy enough on their own, but a little brown sugar, some maple syrup, and some marshmallows really make these a special sweet treat to accompany the turkey and all of those delicious savory sides.  You can easily make the base a few days beforehand and just top with the topping before baking on the big day.

Ingredients

3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 C brown sugar
1/4 C maple syrup
1/2 C (1 stick) butter, melted
1/2 C milk
2 eggs

1/2 C brown sugar
1/3 C flour
1/3 C butter, melted
1 C chopped pecans

1 1/2 C mini marshmallows

Directions

Place chopped potatoes in cold water.  Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 10-15 minutes or until fork tender.  Strain and mash.  Add next 5 ingredients (through eggs) and mix well with an electric mixer.

Heat oven to 350.  Combine brown sugar, flour, butter, and pecans and mix until the butter is fully incorporated.  Place the mash into a small baking dish and top with the pecan mixture.  Bake at 350 for approximately 25 minutes.  Add marshmallows and bake an additional 5 minutes or until marshmallows begin to brown.  Allow to cool slightly before serving.

I hope you all enjoy this recipe and the memories that go with it.  I also hope that you are busy creating your own memories with your loved ones.  Leave us a comment with your favorite Thanksgiving memory.

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Meatless Monday: Spaghetti Squash Casserole

October 10, 2011 By 1 Comment

Don’t let the picture fool you!  This looks like a glob on a plate, but boy what a tasty glob!  Those great fall flavors and textures shine through and really warm you up on a cool, crisp fall evening.

Our Meatless Monday this week is inspired by some of the great produce that we get from out local CSA.  We got this great spaghetti squash from Liberty Mills Farm, but we also had a bunch of other produce that we needed to use up.  And so, the Spaghetti Squash Casserole is born.  To make life a little easier on ourselves, we actually prepared the squash over the weekend, scooped it into a container, and tossed it in the fridge.  The mushrooms add a nice meatiness and the cheese a nice richness so that you never really miss the meat.  This dish also reheats very well, meaning lunches or even sides for meals later in the week.  This is definitely one of those cook once, eat three, four, or even five times.  I hope you enjoy!

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

The ingredients here are just suggestions, really.  They are what I had in the fridge.  If you have fresh tomatoes, go for it.  Carrots, celery, any type of mushroom…really, whatever you have handy will do the trick well!  Bonus:  The kids loved it!

Ingredients

1 medium spaghetti squash
3 T olive oil
1 pound white mushrooms, sliced
salt and pepper
1 medium onion, diced
1 large bell pepper, diced
1-28 oz. can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 lb. shredded cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 400.  Slice squash in half and remove seeds.  Place flesh side up in a baking dish.  Add about an inch of water to the dish and cover with foil.  Bake 45 minutes to an hour or until tender.  Let cool slightly.  Remove flesh and set aside.  Reduce oven temp to 350.

In large saucepan over medium-high heat, add olive oil.  Add mushrooms with a good pinch of salt and pepper and cook until beginning to brown (this will happen all of a sudden after a seemingly endless amount of water releases), about 10 minutes.  Add onion, bell pepper, and another small pinch of salt and pepper.  Cook another 4-5 minutes until onions are very soft.  Add tomatoes, stirring well to combine.  Cook until sauce is no longer watery, about 5-10 minutes.  Season to taste.

In a large bowl, combine tomato mixture with squash.  Fully incorporate the mixture.  In a deep baking dish, layer half of the squash mixture, followed by half of the cheese, the other half of the squash mixture, and the last of the cheese.  Cover the entire dish with foil.  In a preheated 350 oven, bake for 30 minutes.  Remove foil for the last 5 minutes.  Let cool about 5-10 minutes before serving.

 

Quick Tip:  If you are in a super hurry during the weekdays, you can do this nice little cheat.  Prepare the squash over the weekend and refrigerate.  On dinner night, combine the squash with your favorite chunky type pasta sauce.  Layer and bake as above.  Enjoy!!

 

Like this recipe?  Want to see more?  Leave us a comment with your most recent successes or let us know what recipe you want to see next.

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