Buttermilk Bonanza

Last time I had leftover buttermilk to use up I went crazy trying to find recipes to make. I ended up making like 4 different recipes, since it seemed like the never ending container. I thought that the chicken I made last time, oven baked fried chicken, turned out good so I knew I'd be making that again.

To go along with my chicken I found two other recipes to try, baked onion rings and cheddar biscuits. The onion rings were difficult to bread, the crumbs got went and clumpy and it was hard to get a lot on them. I don't think mine turned out that great. I'm not sure I would attempt them again even to just use up some buttermilk. The second recipe I tried were cheddar and green onion biscuits. These biscuits were extremely easy to make. I thought they were quite tasty but I didn't get too much feedback from Mike on the entire dinner, he was cranky that night, but I thought they were good. I'd make those again if I had leftover buttermilk in the house.

Low Fat Baked Onion Rings
Source: Skinny Taste

1 medium onion, sliced into 1/4 inch rings
2 1/4 cups low fat buttermilk
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup Italian seasoned whole wheat bread crumbs
1/4 cup crushed corn flake crumbs
salt to taste
olive oil baking spray (I used my Misto)

Place slices of onion in a shallow dish. Pour the buttermilk over the top and let them soak for about 1 - 2 hours, refrigerated. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. Combine panko, bread crumbs and corn flakes and place half of the crumbs in a large dish, season with salt. Reserve the rest for when the first batch is used up. This should help avoid clumping and they should stick better to the onions. Dip each soaked onion ring into the crumb mixture; coat well. Place rings onto two cookie sheets. Lightly spray with oil. Bake about 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Cheddar and Green Onion Biscuits with Garlic
Adapted from: Betty Crocker & Skinny Taste

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 medium green onions, sliced (1/4 cup)
1/3 cup shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese (2 ounces)
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil

2 tbsp butter, melted
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley


Heat oven to 450°. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in medium bowl. Stir in onions and cheese. Mix buttermilk and oil; stir into flour mixture until soft dough forms. Drop dough by 8 spoonfuls onto cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes. Melt butter in a small frying pan, add half the garlic and saute on low heat about 1 minute. Remove from heat and add parsley. Brush or drizzle biscuits with melted butter. Bake for 5 more minutes, or until lightly browned on the bottom. Serve warm.

Note to Self

When attempting to make your own stuffed shells, one must first boil the shells and cook them before stuffing them. This is the story of the stuffed shells that were not meant to be and my attempt at making my own....

I bought a box of fresh stuffed shells to which I was looking forward to making for dinner, we'd already made a large pot of fresh sauce. We went to go use the shells, before the expiration date I might add, and they were covered in mold, what a disappointment. Already set on having stuffed shells I headed down to A&P to pick up some frozen stuff shells, only to find out that A&P does not carry any frozen stuffed shells (I hate that supermarket by the way). Then I proceeded to go around the store and pick up the ingredients to make my own.

My first problem when I got home was that I bought the small container of ricotta cheese, not the large one, but I suppose I could live with a little less cheese. I then proceeded to mix my cheeses and stuff them in the hard uncooked pasta shells. You see I missed the first line of the directions that mentioned, oh say, prepare the jumbo shells according to package directions. Mike even asked me once I had stuffed my shells and they were already in the oven if I had to cook them first, I replied, no, they cook in the oven, assuming this was like those no bake lasagna noodles they make, yea they're not. So lesson learned, always boil your stuffed shells before filling them.

Homemade Stuffed Shells
Source: Ronzoni Pasta Box

1 (12-ounce) package Jumbo Shells
1 (16-ounce) container ricotta cheese
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
¼ teaspoon pepper

Prepare jumbo shells according to package directions; drain. Pour sauce into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Fill shells evenly with ricotta mixture and place in baking dish. Top with sauce. Sprinkle evenly with remaining cup of shredded mozzarella. Bake, covered, in a 350° oven until hot, about 30 minutes.

Now if I got to make them the way I wanted to, I would have made them like this instead with spinach. But someone is a picky eater and requested no spinach in the shells.

Spinach Stuffed Shells
Source: Skinny Taste

2 cups part skim ricotta cheese
8 oz reduced fat mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 egg
16 oz package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed well
1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano

Learning Photography

I've taken a copy introductory photography classes now and have def been learning a lot of new things. When I saw a butterfly outside this afternoon it looked like the perfect subject to try out some of my new photography lessons on. I was surprised at how close I was able to get. Here's a couple of the shots I took today, all on manual I might add. Still a work in progress but I'm learning a lot more!

Frosty Puppy Treats

It's been a while since I'm made some homemade treats for Rocky. My previous treats for him were baked cookies but this time I went in a different direction, which was no-bake, frozen treats. Our friends Joe and Gina had mentioned that they buy these frozen frosty paws treats in the supermarket for their little guy. I don't think I ever looked for them in the supermarket before but I did keep it in mind for making my own for Rocky. A quick google revealed a whole bunch of websites that had the same quick and easy receipe to make your own frosty paws. Just simply combine the ingredients and put them in an ice cube tray for a simple easy treat. And it has two of Rocky's favorite ingredients in it - Peanut Butter and Bananas. His two favorite foods!

Frosty Paws Treats
Source: Modern Dog Magazine

1 large container of plain yogurt or vanilla yogurt (32 ounces)
1 ripe banana
2 tablespoons peanut butter, with no added salt or sugar
2 tablespoons honey

Combine. Freeze. And enjoy! I will even admit I licked the spoon and it was a delicious treat even for people! Now for a  picture of the little guy about to enjoy his treat. Of course he didn't get the whole bowl I put in front of him to take the picture, but it was hard to get him to sit still for me to take the picture. He did eventually make it up on the table to try to nab one, good thing Mike didn't catch me trying to take this picture!

Our NYC Food Adventure

For Labor Day weekend this year, my future sister-in-law and I spent the weekend conquering all the food we could possibly eat, with some exercise thrown in too. We needed something to offset all our calories. Stephanie and I seem to see eye to eye on so many things so it was perfect when she said she would spend the day in Manhattan with me, while the boys went to a bachelor party, and Mom was kind enough, as always, to babysit her Grandpuppy for the day.

Dad dropped us off at the train station for us to start our journey. We were armed with our "golden ticket" which we sang about on the trip (also known as Dad's monthly train pass which gave us one free train ticket, but we had to be sure not to lose that bad boy, NJ Transit monthly passes are not cheap). Not going to lie, it was quite the trek to get to the city on the train from our in-laws house, it took us like 2 hours to get to the city, we were starving by the time we arrived, our first and only mission of the day involved finding food.

Part I - Midtown

Before we began stuffing ourselves silly for the day we did make a quick trip to RK Bridal so I could see the bridemaids dress that Stephanie had selected for us to wear for their wedding. I even got to try it on, it's beautiful, and I can't wait to wear it next June! Then we were supposed to walk over to Times Square to pick up theater tickets for Mike and I to go see Anything Goes but I left the gift card at home,   disappointing but I was able to get them the following week on a subsequent trip to the city.

Now for our first meal of the day, a small lunch snack. We headed over to Bryant Park, it's such a nice park with beautiful scenery surrounding you, with views of the NY City Public Library and the Empire State Building. We picked a small snack from Wichcraft, to fuel us to get to our real lunch location.

After we had our snack we were ready for the next leg of our walk. We headed down 5th Avenue to get down by Madison Square Park. We passed the flat iron building on our way!

We wanted to check out Eataly. I'd heard a lot about it. It is a huge Italian food market with all different sections. Everything from breads, cheeses, meats, wine, desserts and much more, with different restaurant sections. I will say it was very crowded and hard to find where everything was, it was a bit overwhelming. And I doubt this was the busiest it gets, I'm sure it gets even more crowded. It was pretty cool to see it, and if I lived in Manhattan I could see myself getting some groceries here from time to time but we decided to pass on having lunch there.

We were saving ourselves for a meal at the famed Shake Shack which was right across the street in Madison Square Park. This place is supposed to have some of the best burgers in town! We were so looking forward to these delicious burgers and fries, but apparently everyone else had the same idea as us. What we weren't prepared for was the HUGE line. I had been expecting a line, I knew it was popular, I thought maybe a half hour or so sounded reasonable. There's no way this line was a half hour, it had to be at least an hour wait and was barely moving. It took me three pictures to get the whole line captured. Sadly we decided we had to pass on getting a Shake Shack burger and moved on with our quest to find food - You'd think in Manhattan this wouldn't be a difficult task.

We kept walking down towards Union Square, which wasn't too much further down. After we scouted out the area we decided on eating outside at the Union Square Coffee Shop. We were starving at this point and quickly ordered some sandwiches and two beers. The beers were probably our favorite part of the lunch, they were these delicious Hefeweizen beers. They really hit the spot. Stephanie and I did the classic split two sandwiches so we got the best of both. The boys never agree to do this with us! 

After lunch we walked across the street to check out the Union Square Farmers Market. It's always fun to walk through the Greenmarket and check out all the wonderful produce, organic products and flowers that they are selling. There's always such beautiful colors there!

Part II - Little Italy & China Town

From Union Square we hopped on the subway and headed downtown to Little Italy and Chinatown. Stephanie had never been before and was excited to check it out. It was our lucky day, when we got to Little Italy we were right in the middle of the San Gennaro fest and it wasn't too crowded. As soon as we walked into little Italy there was a stand in front of one of the restaurants selling mini cannoli's for like $2. How in the world could we pass those up? Of course we had to try one, after all we were just splitting one. 

We settled on a Birthday Cake Cannoli and boy was it good. 

We kept walking around Little Italy when we next spotted Ferrara Bakery. One look at the gelato stand outside and we had to do it. We were splitting this too, half the calories. Good thing Stephanie and I have similar taste. We walked up to order a taste but the girl only gave us one, to me, I tried the nutella gelato and knew Stephanie would love it. One nutella gelato please. Man was this thing good too. By this point we've had a small snack at Wichcraft, lunch and beers at Union Square Coffee Shop, a birthday cake cannoli and now a nutella gelato - and no we didn't stop there!

After our dessert snacks we decided to sit down and have a glass of wine at one of the restaurants in Little Italy. We sat down at Sofia's of Little Italy to enjoy our glass of wine. The staff there was a bit interesting, they kept making strange comments to Stephanie and I, so we had our glass of wine and then headed out, I don't think I'd go back there for dinner. If my parents had been able to find it when they were down in Little Italy they would've gone to their favorite restaurant, Vincents. 

A couple blocks over from Little Italy is China Town. We didn't spend too much time walking around, there's not really much to see unless you're in the market for a fake Gucci, Prada or Louis Vitton. We had one goal on our mind in China Town - Dumplings! I read this article online about the best dumpling places in China Town and apparently Tasty Dumpling is the place to be. For five for a dollar how could you go wrong? They even had a couple different kinds you could pick from. We settled on the pork and cabbage ones. It took only a minute to get our hot tasty treats, we walked across the street to a park with them to sit down and bask in our delicious dumplings. Stephanie was in heaven! These things were so good, def the best dumplings I've ever had, and I know Stephanie would agree too! 

Part III - The West Side

Our final stop downtown was to walk over to the Brooklyn Bridge. Stephanie had also never seen the Brooklyn Bridge before and it's just a short walk from Little Italy. We walked maybe a quarter of the way across the bridge and took in the beautiful lower Manhattan skyline. It was a great way to take in the beauty of the city. For the next and final leg of our journey we were ready for a cab, we couldn't walk any more, after we'd already walked and walked. It was Stephanie's first NYC cab ride! We took the cab over to the west side to The Standard Hotel. We wanted to go to the Beer Garden there. Unfortunately when we got there I think we were a bit exhausted and not really up to the crowded loud setting there. I'm sure it would be a great time though with a bunch of people.

We couldn't walk too much further, we'd had enough walking, so we went in search of a place nearby that we could have a nice dinner at before we headed back to Jersey. We found this cute little place, Revel, right in the Meatpacking District. The dining room was an indoor/outdoor garden, which gave it a beautiful atmosphere. We had some delicious pasta, I had homemade porcini mushroom ravioli's in a butter sage sauce and Stephanie had homemade spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce and basil, both were fantastic!

After that we were finally ready to head back to New Jersey, we'd successfully eaten our way through Manhattan and loved every single bite of it! By the time we got back home we were mentally and physically exhausted but we had so much fun recounting the experience. I can't wait to do it again - Maybe for Stephanie's bachelorette party - I'm sure I could plan another fun adventure for us if she wants to!

I Made It

Somewhere along the way I had this brillant idea that I was going to run a 5K. All my life I've never been much of a runner. I remember in high school I used to dread the days they would make us run the track or once a year you had to do it and finish in a certain amount of time. I was not blessed with long legs made for running, my mom and my brother on the other hand are much more suited for running. I always stuck to short distances like around the baseball field or tennis court.

I'd like to think that I am in good physical shape. For the most part throughout my life I've tried to go to the gym as much as possible. Some periods were more than others. It must've been about 5 years ago now when I had done Weight Watchers for the first time and lost about 20 pounds. I was going to the gym non stop. During that time I had gone away for a business trip one time and one of the events was an unofficial 5K race. Some of the top executives in the company participated in this event, it was early in the morning before the day began, I'm talking pre-sunrise, at the park across from the hotel in Nashville. I decided I was going to run with them, I was in the best shape of my adult life at this point. All of the people running in the race were men my Fathers age or older, so I figured I could keep up with them. Well let me tell you I barely managed to keep up with them, by the time I finished I thought I was going to die, I could barely walk and thought I was going to throw up. That was my only "5K race" experience, I never thought I'd do it again.

Now years later as part of my 30x30 list I decided I wanted to run at least one 5K race to say that I had done it. You see when I go to the gym and run on the treadmill, which I do somewhat enjoy, I wouldn't say love, but I do enjoy the calorie burn and sweat dripping down when I run, my knees end up killing me and I really can't make it much past 2 miles. So I knew it was going to be a stretch for me. I'd almost signed up for a couple of 5K races before but never followed through with it.

I got the idea to look around for races the weekend my Brother-in-Law & (future) Sister-in-Law were going to be in town. Nick and Stephanie met on the track team so I was hoping maybe Stephanie would be game for my little random idea. Her and Nick have always enjoyed running and I knew Stephanie had done 5K races before in the past. Stephanie happily agreed to my random idea and said she would run it with me. I was so excited to not have to do this alone.

The day of our race came. We prepared by eating a delicious pasta dinner the night before, and by walking MILES around Manhattan the day before, but we were up early and ready to go. And I popped two advil in the morning to help with my knees. We got to the race and there was a good amount of people there. I was sad when we signed in they had run out of the bibs and I didn't have my own number to wear, but Stephanie let me pretend in pictures with hers. Stephanie tried to get me warm up with her but I decided to decline, I needed to say all my energy for the race.

Before we knew it we were off and running with tons of other people. It was pretty easy in the beginning to get past some of the slower individuals. Amazingly we made it through our first mile in 9:33! I couldn't believe it when Stephanie told me. She had her fancy watch up to time us. Imagine my surprise when we made it to mile marker 2 in just another 9:27. By this point we were already half way there. Getting to the half way point really wasn't too difficult, the course itself was very easy to do.

The last 3/4 of a mile to go got pretty difficult for me, I tried pushing through it as much as possible. Running with Stephanie was such a terrific support system. She kept me going. I almost wanted to give up towards that last 3/4 mile to go, I told her to go on without me, but she stayed with me. I mustered some strength together to get through to the finish line, once we made it to the track I somehow ran through it at the end and we ended up finishing in just over a half hour in 30:11. My only regret is I wish I could've finished 11 seconds sooner to be just under the half hour mark but it is more than I ever could've hoped for. I never would've imagined that I would have run my first 5K with no training in a half hour. I have Stephanie to thank for that and getting me through it!

Who knows maybe my next race with be with Bridget and little pumpkin in the jogging stroller!

Too Many Eggs

What do you do when you have too many eggs in the house? Make a quiche! I had run out and bought eggs one night for one of my baking projects and then forgot to cross them off the list. But then Mike surprised me by going food shopping one night while I was at the gym and he also bought eggs, which leaves a whole lot of eggs in the house. A quiche seemed like a logical thing to make to use up some of the eggs. However quiches can be very fattening so I searched for a low fat recipe and found this one which had some of my favorite ingredients.

I never made my own pie crust before but this one was so easy. I had no idea it was that easy to make a pie crust. I will say that this recipe was a bit time consuming to prep it, a solid hour like the recipe said. It takes some time to caramelize the onions and then cook the mushrooms and get everything all set up. I prepped it the night before and then baked it the next night and it seemed to turn out just fine. The end result was awesome, this quiche was delicious. I used a combination of shitake and portabello mushrooms in mine and it was so good. Mike enjoyed it too, although next time he said he'd prefer a simple broccoli-cheddar quiche, if it were up to me I'd stick to this one! But I'll give it a shot, this is a great base to a low-fat quiche recipe.

Caramelized Onion, Mushroom and Gruyere Quiche with Oat Crust
Source: Food Network, Ellie Krieger

Ingredients
For the crust:
Cooking spray
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces - use a little more
3 tablespoons cold, lowfat buttermilk - use a little more

For the filling:
4 teaspoons olive oil
1 large onion, sliced thinly into half moons
8 ounces sliced mixed mushrooms, such as cremini, oyster, shiitake
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon dry)
3 large eggs
3 egg whites
1 cup evaporated fat-free milk (not condensed milk)
2/3 cup grated Gruyere cheese (about 1-ounce)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 9-inch pie dish with cooking spray. To prepare the crust, put the oats, flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse 3 times to combine. Add the butter and pulse about 12 times, until you get a pebbly course texture. Add the buttermilk and pulse 3 to 5 times more to combine. Form the mixture into a ball and place it between 2 large pieces of waxed paper. Roll out into a circle about 10 inches in diameter.

Remove the top sheet of waxed paper. Transfer the crust, still on the other piece of waxed paper to the pie dish, then remove the waxed paper from the top. Press the crust gently into the dish. Bake for 9 minutes, then let cool.

To prepare the filling, heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a large nonstick pan over a medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and caramelized, about 20 minutes. Transfer the onions to a bowl. Add the remaining 2 teaspoons of oil to the pan and heat over a medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until they have released their water and begin to brown, about 6 minutes. Add the onions back to the pan, stir in the salt, pepper, mustard and thyme.

In a medium bowl whisk together the eggs, egg whites and evaporated milk. Sprinkle the cheese into the pie crust. Top with the mushroom-onion mixture and pour the egg mixture on top. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake for 35 minutes or until knife inserted in the middle comes out clean (mine took at least 45-50 minutes to cook). Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting into 6 wedges and serving. Serve with a salad and enjoy!

Family Friendly Pasta

I  made a really simple pasta dish tonight for dinner. I'm mostly writing about it so I don't forget what I did for the next time I want to make it. I could see this being a good weeknight dinner for when we have a family down the line. It's quick to make and doesn't require a whole lot of prep work and is simple enough that it seems like even a kid would eat it, or I hope so any way. I hope our kids aren't picky eaters! Well it did satisfy Mike's requirements and sometimes he is a picky eater too.

I'm sure I prob could have just come up with this on my own, it really wasn't difficult, but I used a combination of two recipes for inspiration. It was a combination of Pasta with Roasted Broccoli and Orecchiette with Chicken Sausage and Broccoli Rabe. I combined them since I don't really care for broccoli rabe, roasting regular broccoli seemed easier too, and I had some chicken sausage I wanted to use.

Pasta with Roasted Broccoli & Chicken Sausage 
Inspired by: Skinny Taste

1 box of pasta
1 1/2 lbs broccoli florets
1 package chicken sausage - I used Trader Joe's Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage - Delicious!
6-8 cloves garlic, smashed
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup low sodium fat free chicken broth
kosher salt and fresh pepper
1/4 cup fresh grated Pecorino Romano
Optional - 1/2 cup reserved pasta water (or more if necessary)

Preheat oven to 450°. In a baking dish combine broccoli, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Roast broccoli about 20 minutes, tossing half way, until broccoli is browned and tender.

Meanwhile, boil salted water in a large pot. Cook pasta according to package directions.

In a large deep sauté pan, brown sausage on medium heat. I simply sliced mine and sauteed it until lightly browned and warm (about 7 minutes). (Another option is to breaking up into small pieces as it cooks). When completely cooked through set aside in a dish or a bowl.

Drain pasta and add to the broccoli, add in sausage as well. Add chicken broth, parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes if using. Add reserved pasta water as needed. Adjust salt and pepper to taste and toss another 30 seconds so that everything is mixed well and the pasta is coated with the sauce. Remove from heat and add to a large pasta dish or divide equally between 6 pasta bowls. Serve with additional grated cheese if you desire.

Pumpkin's Baby Shower

My bestest friend is going to be a mommy soon! In celebration of this very big arrival we recently attended her baby shower and it couldn't have been more fun getting ready for for this big event. I am so excited about this impending arrival that my little pumpkin that will be coming soon. My money is on a girl in there but also because I want to buy her lots of adorable little dresses and dress her up. Of course if it is nephew in there I will love him just as much but I will buy him lots of Yankee stuff on behalf of his Daddy, since Mommy likes that other team. Even Hurricane Irene stayed away for this wonderful celebration, we couldn't have had more fun, look at all the great gifts that Pumpkin got, now all we need is for pumpkin to arrive! I'm so excited for that day to get here, just about a month to go now and pumpkin will be here!!!

 I loved all of pumpkin's carebear gifts! 

Pumpkin's first pooh bear straight from Disney and 1/2 Garlic, 1/2 Gaelic Onesie!

My First RU Game

Attending graduate school is much different than undergraduate. It pretty much only involves (or for me anyway) going back and forth to campus for classes and group meetings only. I missed out on any type of campus life as a part-time student and full-time employee. There wasn't much of a social life to be had. I did however make a really good friendship with my friend Melissa who happened to be somewhat of a Rutgers expert, she had been there for her entire undergrad and grad programs. We always try to get together for dinner down in the area near school since that is a convenient in the middle location to meet at. She always takes me to all her favorite New Brunswick places and I get to try all these good food.

This time however she was taking me to my very first Rutgers football game. When we went to school and there was a football or basketball game we hated it since it meant we had to park even further away from campus, but this time it was different since I was going there for the game and not for class, which felt really good. 

I never really had much of a college football experience so it was fun to go to a game for "my" school. I was amazed by the sea of red and just how much there was going on at the pre-game. There was everything from carnival games and food to the famous Rutgers grease truck sandwiches there (which were quite tempting). It was so much fun to finally get to go to a game, it also didn't hurt that they killed the other team and won 48-0. I can't wait to go to my next Rutgers football game! 

Cooking with Oma

One of my latest culinary creations involved using my Grandmother's Dutch Oven to cook with. I remembered seeing this bright orange pot in my Mom's basement and asked her if I could have it, she gladly obliged my request. She's all about getting things out of her house - the rule is once it's out it can't go back. I thought it would be fun to use my Grandmother's pot to cook with since from what I remember and what my Mom tells me she was an excellent cook. I only remember her baking. She had this plastic jar on the counter always that had little smiley stickers on it with all the grandkids names on it and she would have cookies in it, at least that's what I think I remember anyway.

I wasn't too sure off hand what to make it in it but I did find this one beef and noodle recipe to start off with. It was pretty cool how you just browned the meat it in and then added all the uncooked noodles and just left it to simmer on the stove. It made cleanup a breeze with just the one pot to clean. I think the dish itself could've used some more flavor but my Dad enjoyed the leftovers I brought to him. I can't wait to find more recipes that I can use it for and try it again. I think when I attempt this one again I'd try it in a regular pan with a cover versus the dutch oven to see if maybe it gets a little juicer, I think I overcooked mine, and will also add some more season to it. Overall though a great first attempt at cooking with the dutch oven and a very easy meal to make plus with almost no clean up.

Dutch Oven Beef and Noodle Casserole
Source: Whole Foods Recipes

Ingredients
1 pound extra lean ground beef
2 cups frozen corn
2/3 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1 (10- to 12-ounce) package egg noodles
2 cups shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes

Directions
Heat a 5-quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add beef and cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked through. Add corn, mushrooms, onions, peppers, and salt and pepper and stir well. Spread uncooked noodles evenly over the top, then sprinkle cheese over noodles. Pour the can of tomatoes, with their juice, over the cheese and noodles. Tightly cover pot, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook for 1 hour. Uncover pot, set aside for 5 minutes then serve.