Easy Dinner Tips and Recipes

Tips on Making Dinner:
--Making dinner continues to be one of my biggest daily challenges.
--However, knowing “what’s for dinner” gives you so much peace throughout the day.
--It doesn’t have to be fancy, just planned.
--It gives you brownie points with your family….
--It makes the next day’s lunch much easier because of leftovers.
--I collect ideas by asking my friends what they’re having for dinner, in person or in email.
--Ward cookbooks are excellent for easy foolproof dinner recipes.
--The ideas below are not low-fat; I try to eat small portions & lots of fruits & vegs on the side.

“Cowboy Spuds”
Get some large baking potatoes, wash and bake for 1 hour at 400deg. or until easily pierced with fork. While potatoes are baking, put little bowls of toppings on the table: butter, sour cream, shredded cheese, real bacon bits (I get at Costco and store in freezer) or chopped up leftover ham, cooked broccoli, leftover chicken, etc. etc.

Tater Tot Casserole
Preheat oven to 350. Brown 1 lb. ground beef (or less), drain off fat. Mix with 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 soup can full of milk, a dash or two of onion powder, garlic powder, and black pepper. Pour mixture into a 9x13 baking pan, layer tater tots all across the top. Top with shredded cheddar cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Then remove foil and bake for another 5 minutes to melt the cheese.

Easy Chicken Parmesan (Cdf. Ward Cookbook 1992)
8 frozen breaded chicken patties 1 30-oz. jar spaghetti sauce
1 lb. spaghetti Shredded mozzarella cheese
Bake patties as directed on package, but reduce baking time by 5-10 minutes. In the meantime, cook spaghetti in boiling water; drain and put in greased 9x13 baking pan. Pour about ¾ of the sauce over spaghetti and mix together. Place cooked chicken patties on top of spaghetti; top with cheese and the remaining sauce. Bake at 350 for about 15 min. or until hot and cheese is melted.

Baked Chicken and Rice (Cdf. Ward Cookbook 1992)
1 cup uncooked rice 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can cream of chicken soup 1 pkg. Lipton dry onion soup mix
2 cans water (from soup can) Black pepper, to taste
Preheat oven to 350. Pour uncooked rice into 9x13 baking pan. Sprinkle onion soup mix over rice. Sprinkle pepper to taste. Place chicken on top. Mix soup and water together; pour on top of chicken. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour or until rice is tender.

Stouffer’s Frozen Lasagna
I never make homemade because we really like this. I get it at Vons and it’s about $10-12 for a large “family size” tray. (We do not like the Costco brand of lasagna.) Great leftover, and great introductory table food for toddlers. Starting from frozen, you need to allow about 2 hours to bake it, following package directions.

Fried Rice from Leftover Chinese
This is probably really obvious, but get Chinese takeout (we like Chin’s or the one next to Henry’s Mkt.) and ask for extra white rice. The next day, make “fried rice” by mixing all the leftovers and rice in a big frying pan and heating it up.