Easy Cinnamon Twists

This is one of our family's new dessert favorites.

All you need is a 12 ounce package of ready-made biscuits (we used Grands Jr), granulated sugar, butter, cinnamon, powdered sugar and water!

Ready? Here we go.

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Prepare cookie sheets or baking pan with non stick cooking spray. We use baking stones that are non-stick.

Place the biscuits a few inches apart and flatten them with the palm of your hand until each one is about 4 inches in diameter.

Place a pat of softened butter on each round and spread with a spoon.

Mix 1/3 cup granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon together then sprinkle evenly over all the biscuit rounds.

Cut each biscuit in half. Put the buttered and cinnamon sides together (so it's like a sandwich). Then twist a couple times and tuck the ends under.

Sprinkle any extra cinnamon sugar on top.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.

While that's baking, mix 1/2 cup powdered sugar with a small amount of water and/or milk in a small bowl.
After the cinnamon twists have cooled a bit, spoon drizzle the sugar topping over them. Serve warm.

Sarah's Easy Italian Chicken with Noodles

One day my daughter was just in the mood to fix herself something for lunch. She cut a chicken breast into bite sized pieces and cooked it in a skillet. She boiled some egg noodles. It was at this point she asked me for help. Noodles and chicken seemed a little plain. "What do I do for like, a sauce?" She asked.

We rummaged around in the cabinet and pantry for ideas and options. Tomato soup to the rescue! We added the can of condensed tomato soup, half a can of water, a decent sprinkling of Italian seasoning, and voila! We had the dish you see above. It was very good and so surprisingly simple. I told my daughter I had to add this to the Quick and Easy recipe blog so here it is in a more traditional recipe format:

• 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 1 to 1-1/2 cups dry egg noodles
• 1 can condensed Tomato Soup
• Water
• Italian seasoning to taste (about 1 tsp)

Put about 2 quarts of water into a 3 qt sized saucepan. Add a pinch of salt and put a lid on it and bring it to boiling. Carefully add the dry egg noodles. They'll take about 10 minutes to cook.

While the noodles are cooking, cut up the chicken breast into bite-sized pieces. Saute in a frying pan (about 10" diameter or so will work just fine.) We used a nonstick pan, but if you don't have a nonstick pan, you might want to add about 1/2 TBSP Olive Oil or vegetable oil to the pan. Cook until done.

Add the tomato soup and half a can's worth of water. Sprinkle on the Italian seasoning and mix well.

Drain the noodles and return them to the saucepan.  Add the chicken and soup mixture to the noodles and stir.

OPTIONS:

*If you want the recipe to be more creamy in consistency, you could add about 1/4 cup of sour cream at the very end. Do not allow the mixture to boil if you add sour cream.

*You could also use canned chicken breast for this and completely skip the saute step.  

*You could try this recipe with ground beef, but replace the tomato soup with cream of mushroom soup. Don't add Italian seasoning, but you could use something like 1/2 of a dry onion soup packet. It would probably turn out like a homemade Hamburger Helper.

Campfire Stew Recipe

This recipe dates back in my family to at least the 1970s, maybe even earlier.
Back in those days, this was an inexpensive dish, but soup prices are much higher nowadays. Still, I can feed 4-5 people for less than $1 per serving.
I'm surprised I didn't think to put this in the blog until today. This one is sooo simple, yet very good!
The only bad thing I can say about it is that it is a very unattractive dish. But it tastes good & it is indeed quick AND easy!
1 lb ground beef ( lean is best )
1 onion, chopped
2 cans of Campbell's Vegetable beef soup
Brown the ground beef  & chop it into small pieces then add chopped onion and mix well over medium heat. Add contents of the 2 cans of soup. You don't add water, except you may want to add up to 1/2 cup of water just for consistency as needed.
Heat through. Serve in bowls.

Easy Chocolate Pie

2 sticks margarine
4 eggs
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup sugar
1 cup nuts
1 cup coconut
2 unbaked pie shells

Melt chocolate chips and margarine together. Blend in sugar, nuts and coconut. Pour into 2 unbaked pie shells.

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Looking for good 4th of July recipes?

I get an email newsletter from Kellogg's, and here are some 4th of July holiday party tips, ideas, and of course, recipes.

Simple Summer Party Ideas

•   Inexpensive 4th of July Parties

•   8 Summer Dips and Spreads

•   Summer Backyard BBQ Tips

Burgers for the grill

This is a recipe I found and modified. I like my barbeque burger to be a little special, but I do NOT like them to taste like grilled meatloaf. I like it to be a BURGER.

Also, if I am going to grill, I feel like I might as well make a good quantity for the trouble. So I adjusted this to make 8 burgers & if there are extras, package them and freeze them for later delicious reheating.

This recipe got rave reviews.

2 lbs ground beef (I used 80% lean)
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
1 TBSP dried onion flakes
1/2 tsp McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak seasoning
1 TBSP ketchup
1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dry onion soup mix

Mix all well, make patties & grill/cook until internal temperature reaches 160 F.

If you don't have the Montreal Steak seasoning, you can replace that with 1/2 seasoning salt & a dash of black pepper, but I think the steak seasoning is worth it. If you are out of Italian bread crumbs, you can replace that with quick cooking oats.

If you try this recipe, let me know what you think of it and any modifications you make.

No Bake Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

I am a big fan of any recipe that doesn't require turning on the oven, especially when the temperature here in Georgia is in the high 90s this week. Whew!

I've made this cookie recipe twice so far this summer.

You'll need:

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 stick butter (the real stuff)
1/2 cup milk

3 cups quick cooking oatmeal* (uncooked)
1/2 cup peanut butter

Wax paper or non-stick cookie sheets.

Pre-measure the oatmeal and peanut butter and set aside.

Combine the 1st 4 ingredients in a saucepan. Stir almost constantly, until boiling. Keep stirring 1 more full minute while boiling then remove from heat. Mix in the oatmeal & the peanut butter until all is well-blended. I mix it together in the same saucepan, to make clean up easier.

Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper sheets. Shape them a bit with the spoon if needed.

If while you are setting them out the mixture gets a bit dry, add up to 1 teaspoon of milk & mix well. Let them sit and harden for 30 minutes.

*If you don't have any of the "Quick Cooking" type oatmeal, you CAN use the regular oatmeal, but keep in mind that the cookies will be chewier in consistency. The consistency can be improved if you put the oatmeal in a food processor and blend it for a bit to make the pieces smaller.

Cherry Fluff

Cherry Fluff is my name for this. I think some may call it Cherry Pineapple Salad. That doesn't sound as appetizing as Cherry Fluff, in my opinion. "Salad" always makes me think of leafy greens, which teeters dangerously close to making me think of healthy food. This is decidedly not healthy, unless you focus on the nutritional fiber from cherries and pineapple.

This is a great cool dessert for summer.

You'll need:

1 regular size container of Cool Whip, thawed.
1 regular size can of cherry pie filling mix
1 small can of pineapple tidbits (no kidding - it will really say "tidbits" on the can!)

Drain the pineapple juice into a glass or custard cup, in case you need it.

In medium sized bowl, mix Cool Whip, Cherry pie filling, and pineapple. I like to mix it it a Tupperware bowl that has a lid.

Refrigerate about an hour.

Because it is a pretty pink, it's a nice recipe for a baby shower or for Valentine's Day.

Vacuum Sealing Food Is Great!

My neighbor upgraded to a new FoodSaver (vacuum sealing) machine and gave me her old one.

I wasn't really sure I would use it that much. It needed new gaskets, which I was able to order very inexpensively online. Then I started using it.

Oh.My.Gosh. I love this thing.

I tend to let leftovers sit out until I have to throw them away (this is after mentally chastising myself for being wasteful.) But with the Foodsaver, I fix up a bag and put the leftovers in it, seal it, then label it with what it is and the date. Easy to reheat and I can't forget something in the fridge anymore.

To reheat, I can cut off a corner of the bag and microwave, or on the stove top, the bags can be submerged in boiling water on the stove top. Pretty easy. So far I've bagged cheese tortellini and sauce, chicken fried rice & cooked white rice leftovers.

I also bought ground beef in bulk from Sam's Club and divided it into 1 lb portions, sealed them, labeled them right on the bag and then put in the freezer. Whenever I need ground beef now, all I have to do is take one out and use the defrost setting on my microwave.

It's also served as a time saver. Whenever I'm preparing something, just say chopping celery or onions for a recipe, I go ahead and chop a little bit more (enough for another meal/serving's need) and I seal it up and refrigerate it. 

The vacuum sealing removes the air which degrades food quickly. The food I've frozen is "freezer burn" free. Foods keep up to FIVE TIMES longer.

I do realize I got my machine free, so it's easy for me to praise it. However, you can get these machines for about $80 and up, depending on the model. I like this one because it's a set that includes bags and is $129.99 as of this writing. A more expensive one is near $300. The more meaningful long term expense is probably really in the bags. I bought a large box of an assortment of bags for $40 from Sam's Club. You can buy a single roll at a time at other stores if you don't want to put so much into it, but we have a large family and I reasoned that going ahead and buying the set was probably my best deal.

Just in the leftover savings, I feel I will come out well ahead of the cost of the supplies.

I can imagine that a single person could really save a lot of money with this, since many recipes are for 4 servings, you can fix a recipe and eat your portion and divide the leftovers into 3 more portions that you can freeze and take for work lunch or something easy and healthy to heat up when you get home from work and are tired. Sure beats having to eat out all the time.

Another cool thing I found it does is that I can use it to reseal potato chip bags! That's right, I can seal the package right back like I bought it from the store. Sure beats a chip clip.

Want to see more about FoodSaver vacuum sealers? I made a Squidoo page about it and you can see it here.

Check out some of the Foodsavers at JardenStore - (Jarden is the manufacturer of the FoodSavers and Seal A Meal machine as well as Crock Pots, so they're a trustworthy online seller. I bought my gaskets directly from them and I would definitely order from them again.)

If you decide to order anything from my links, I make a bit of commission, so thanks in advance!

FoodSaver GameSaver Sport Plus
FoodSaver V2450 Vacuum Sealer Kit
FoodSaver V3860 Vacuum Sealer

New Squidoo Page with Lasagna Recipe, Pictures

I've created a new Squidoo lens on my lasagna recipe. Squidoo challenged lensmasters to create a page that featured a recipe that uses cheese for National Grilled Cheese Month. Did you know it's National Grilled Cheese Month? Who comes up with this stuff? Has to be a Cheese Council or something. Anyway, my page didn't have to be about grilled cheese specifically, just something with cheese. My recipe has cottage cheese and mozzarella cheese and it's a good recipe so that's what I decided to make my page about. Even if you have already seen my lasagna recipe here, you may want to check out the page because I have included even more photos and tips.

Lasagna - Easy Recipe 

Using Corn Flakes as Chicken Coating

If you read what I've written a lot, you may already know I am a stockpiler of groceries. Not a stockpiler as in hoarder -- no, just that I stock up on enough (usually about 6-weeks' worth of something I use) so that I won't have to pay full price. There is actually a procedure to this that isn't hard to learn. I tell you about how to stockpile here.

One thing I stockpiled was Kellogg's Corn Flakes...and I got the biiiig boxes of corn flakes too -- the 1 lb package. My justification was that corn flakes can be used for more things than just cereal. Chicken coating for example. For some reason, the thought never entered my mind "Um, Darla? You tried that several years ago and that was a dismal failure, don't you remember?" Well, that is what my mind SHOULD have told me. But my mind was on vacation that day and didn't tell me that, or if it did tell me, I didn't listen because my mind was on the "good deal" in front of me.

So recently I tried making the oven baked chicken coated in corn flakes again. I used the recipe on the box. I ran it by a few friends on Facebook and some gave it rave reviews. Personally, I couldn't get past the corn flake taste. It tasted like there were corn flakes on the chicken. Probably because there were corn flakes on the chicken.

If you decide you want to use corn flakes as chicken coating, go for it. But my advice would be the crush those corn flakes SMALL. Make them microscopic. I thought we crushed our really well (we used a rolling pin and had the corn flakes inside a gallon sized Ziploc type bag.) I know you know I have the propensity to screw up a recipe, but I promise I did not. I followed the recipe to the letter, and even used my digital meat thermometer. j

Mental note to never make this again. But it was worth a shot. I gave one of the boxes of cereal to my neighbor and she LOVES Kellogg's Corn Flakes and eats it daily, so at least I was able to help a neighbor.

Basic Italian Meatballs

2 slices bread (regular white bread, soft.) Slice it into small bites
1/4 cup milk
1 lb of 75-80% lean ground beef
1/2 of an onion, diced
1 egg
1 TBSP garlic, diced
1 TBSP Italian seasoning

Mix the beef with the bread, milk, egg, garlic, and Italian seasoning. Blend with your hands. But don't blend too much, it makes the meatballs tough. Taking about 2 TSBP of beef mixture for each, form into balls with your hands. If you put water on your hands, that will make forming the balls easier and they won't stick to your hands so much.

Place on baking sheet. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until heated through to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F.

I cook spaghetti and use a jarred spaghetti sauce if I'm crunched for time, or you can make this homemade spaghetti sauce.

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

I am in search of the "perfect" homemade macaroni and cheese receipe. A friend sent me this one, but I haven't tried it yet. A few more ingredients than I prefer to use, but I do like that it seems to be a basic recipe. However, I am trying to get away from processed foods like Velveeta. This has Velveeta in it, but I may make an exception just this once. In general, Velveeta can be pretty expensive too and I have been wanting to improve food value and cut costs. So here is the recipe, keep in mind that I have not cooked this yet.

Southern Style Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients:
2 lbs elbow macaroni
3-4 garlic cloves, pressed or diced
1 stick real butter
32 oz. Velveeta Cheese, cut into cubes
2 eggs slightly beaten
4 cups milk (half and half is really good too!)
2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese (grated sharp cheddar cheese for top approx. 1 cup)
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 - 2 tsp salt 2 tsp ground dry mustard

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly grease pan to bake the macaroni and cheese in (Use a cast iron dutch oven, but 9X13x2 will work. And have extra pans ready this recipe makes a lot.)

Slightly beat the eggs into the milk and let stand to room temp while cooking the macaroni, so eggs will not cook when it hits the hot macaroni. Cook macaroni until tender, in an extra large pot, then drain melt butter and cook garlic until translucent.

Put the macaroni back in the big pot, add the butter and garlic. Start stirring! Add the cheese and stir as it melts in the hot macaroni, add the milk and egg mixture, salt and pepper and dry mustard. Stir until all ingredients are well mixed and very creamy.

Pour into baking dishes or pan and top with sharp cheddar cheese. Bake at 350 until browned on top and knife stuck in the middle comes clean. Depending on the size of the pan - 20 min for a small pan, 30-45 min for a large pan.

Notes:

Hints: I have found that real butter is one of the mainstays, it holds the flavors together and margarine just doesn't taste as good. I like real cream but it is really rich, sometimes I use cream and milk. Sharp cheddar cheese is important for the sharp flavor; mild cheddar doesn't have the same taste. Of course the best way to insure a great dish is cast iron, but even the disposable pans still work well.

Reynold's Non Stick Aluminum Foil

Have you tried Reynold's Non Stick Aluminum Foil yet? When I first saw it advertised, I thought, "This is ridiculous -- just how lazy are people going to get? I mean, come ON...is this a REAL issue?" I actually shook my head -- the stuff was too expensive, and does it really take that long to put a little oil on aluminum foil yourself to make it "non-stick?!?"

But a little while ago, I finally tried it. It was on a good sale at the grocery store (BOGO!) and I had a coupon that doubled, which made the stuff practically free.

I think I used it for Brownies the first time. Oh-Em-Gee! The stuff is fantastic. I reserve it just for the things I cook that need a non-stick surface, because to use it for everything WOULD be way too expensive, but for the things that DO stick, I think the food that it prevents from being wasted (ie bits of food that will stick to regular aluminum foil that you won't bother to scrape up and eat) pays for it. Less frustration when time to clean the dish as well.

So if you've been wondering about whether to get it or not, I vote yes. Just be very sparing in the use of it so you don't waste it.

Now about those Reynold's slow cooker liners -- I'm just not ready to take that step yet.

Homemade Fudgy Brownies (Credited to actress Katharine Hepburn)

You know I have been on a kick lately to have desserts that are preservative and chemical free. Really tired of lab-food.

One evening recently, my daughter and I had a need for chocolate, and I mean a NEED for chocolate. I looked online to find a chocolate recipe we might have ingredients to make. Luckily, I had bought a package of Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate after Christmas on clearance (highly recommended, because unsweetened chocolate doesn't "expire," it keeps for a long time. So getting a package for $1.47 was a really great deal.

Well, I found this recipe called Katharine Hepburn's Brownies. It is a very rich, fudgy brownie. I was concerned that the kids might not like it, since they are accustomed to chemical-laden stuff, but they really liked this.

TIPS Before you start:

Use REAL butter, not margarine. Use REAL vanilla extract, not the fake stuff.

Right off the bat, there is something strange about these ingredients. Do you see it?
Very little flour. Ridiculously little flour. But that's what the recipe says and it works!

Also note that you want to add the ingredients IN THE ORDER LISTED below. Don't get all "industriously sidetracked" and get them out of order (like I did one time) -- follow the DIRECTIONS. It will make it much better.

When you get to the stage to add the eggs, ensure that the mixture has cooled enough that the whites of the eggs will not get "cooked." As you know, it doesn't take much heat to start cooking egg whites. Don't ask why I know this.

1 stick (8 TBSP) butter
2 squares of unsweetened chocolate
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)


ALRIGHTY THEN - HERE ARE THE DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Prepare an 8"x8" pan (I use that new Reynold's Non-Stick Aluminum Foil or you can butter the pan. Some people may want to butter and flour the pan, but I've found it is fine un-floured, plus you don't have white flour showing up on dark brownies if you don't flour the pan!)

Melt together 1 stick butter and 2 squares unsweetened chocolate then take the saucepan off the heat. This process is a little faster if you chop up the chocolate into smaller pieces. Be careful as the chocolate is hard and you don't want the knife to slip. Then we'd have to call you "Stumpy" and we don't want that now do we? (If you have a double-boiler, you may want to use that. I have also put water in a saucepan and set another pan on top of it to do the melting, so I don't have to worry about scorching the chocolate.)

Stir in sugar, and let it dissolve a little bit in the butter/chocolate mixture.

Add eggs and vanilla, and beat together well.

Stir in flour and salt.

Add the walnuts if you want to put nuts in this.

class="instruction"> Bake in a buttered 8" square pan at 325°F for approx 40 minutes.

Homemade Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

Cream Cheese frosting is delicious on many types of cakes, including carrot cake and my intended destination -- red velvet cake.

It is very easy to make. Only 4 ingredients!

You can make this. Don't buy the stuff in the canisters. It's expensive and full of additives. The short cut isn't worth it and you'll like this one better anyway I bet.

Make sure you follow the directions...for instance: "Softened" butter and cream cheese does NOT mean almost soft. It doesn't mean microwave it. Don't take any short cuts. Just leave it out and let it soften.

I'm not saying this to nag you. I want you to not waste money by doing this wrong and ending up with runny frosting.

TIP: Because you are going to mix it all together anyway, go ahead and put the cream cheese and butter into a bowl to soften, because it's easier to remove butter and cream cheese from their wrappers while they are still cold).

Ingredients:

2 packages of cream cheese, softened (you can buy the store brand, it doesn't matter. Just buy it in the rectangular package, NOT the kind that comes in the tubs)

1/2 cup butter, softened (Generally, this is a regular-sized stick of butter. NOTE: Use real butter -- not margarine or the stuff from the tubs. REAL butter)

2 cups sifted confectioner's sugar (Powdered sugar, 10x, etc are all other names for confectioner's sugar).

1 tsp vanilla extract (whenever possible, try to use real vanilla extract. Yes, it is expensive, but I stock up on it when it's on a buy-on-get-one-free deal, which isn't often...so if you see it on sale, stock up!)

Mix all ingredients together well.

FOOD SAFETY TIP: Refrigerate a cake that is frosted with this. There's a reason cream cheese and butter are kept refrigerated. Mixing it with sugar and vanilla extract doesn't change that.

Need chocolate frosting? See this previous post.

Homemade Chocolate Frosting

I am getting so disgusted by downsizing of food products, especially where cake frosting is concerned! It is ridiculous -- I now have to buy TWO containers of frosting in order to have a decent amount of icing on the cake.

I say no. NO to the ripoff (I hope Duncan Hines & especially Pillsbury are reading this); and hail no to the additives & preservatives that are in those processed frostings. (Check out that southern accent!)
We can have better food for less money by making it ourselves. We'll also know our ingredients are fresh.
Tomorrow I want to make a chocolate cake. Old fashioned homemade chocolate frosting does not look difficult at all, and get this -- This recipe will make TWO CUPS of frosting!!!

So here we go --

6 Tablespoons of softened butter (use REAL butter, not margarine or that stuff in the tubs)

2-2/3 Confectioner's sugar (same thing as powdered sugar). If you're like me & don't use this type of sugar often & it's been sitting for awhile, it's a good idea to sift it to get rid of any lumps.

1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa (the powder type)
*TIP* You may want to sift the sugar & the cocoa together

1/3 cup milk

(Frosting making time is not the time to be cholesterol conscious. Use Whole Milk if you have it. 2% will probably work fine, but if you only have skim milk don't even make this)

1 tsp vanilla extract (the real stuff is MUCH better than the imitation)

In a small bowl, beat the butter, then add in the confectioner's sugar & the cocoa, alternating between those dry ingredients and the milk.

It seems hard to believe that all that powdered stuff will go into such a small amount of moisture, but it will.
Keep beating it until it is smooth and creamy. You may need to add more milk, do so very gradually & carefully so you don't end up with chocolate soup!
Blend in vanilla.

Hoppin John over rice

This is a traditional New Years' recipe, & I'm a little early with it, but we are getting close! Hard to believe it's almost 2012, isn't it?

This recipe involves a lot of chopping, but the rest of it is very simple & fast. You can chop the onion and peppers earlier in the day to make it easier on yourself.

1 cup chopped onion
1 sweet red pepper, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 cup chopped cooked ham (sometimes you can find this already chopped in a vacuum packed bag in the meat department if you'd like a shortcut)
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 cans black-eye peas (I like Bush's brand best, but any brand works fine)
1/2-1 tsp hot pepper sauce (I have family members with extreme aversion to this. It is okay to leave it out or just put in a couple drops)

3 cups cooked rice. ( In general, that means to use 3 cups of water and 1-1/2 cups of dry rice. Use a ricemaker or cook your rice -- separately from the rest of this recipe! -- in a 2-quart size saucepan). If you need to know how to cook rice without a ricemaker, just let me know.

Salsa (optional)

Sour cream (optional)

In a large skillet, cook onion, peppers & ham in oil for 4 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Drain blackeye peas, reserving 1/2 cup of the liquid from the can. (I usually just drain the can into a measuring cup until I get the 1/2 cup, then drain the remainding liquid into the sink).

Add blackeye peas, reserved liquid, and hot pepper sauce (optional) to ham mixture. . .stir to combine. Spoon over rice. Top with salsa & sour cream if desired.

If you don't want rice, you can serve this over cornbread, or you can use cornbread as a side food.

Homemade Classic Sloppy Joes

Yes, you can make sloppy joes like Manwich from scratch, and here's how.

1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped green pepper
1lb lean ground beef
1-1/2 cups ketchup
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
8 hamburger buns

Directions:

Heat oil in a large frying pan on medium-high heat. Cook onion and green pepper for 5 minutes.

Add ground beef to the pan. Cook the ground beef, stirring often, until browned. Drain off fat.

Stir in the ketchup, brown sugar, worcestershire sauce, salt & pepper.

Simmer over medium-low heat  for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until mixture thickens slightly.

Serve on sandwich/hamburger buns.

Tyson Crock Pot Ready Stew

A quick and easy product you may want to try is the Tyson Ready Slow Cooker Beef Stew. The first time I saw this at Walmart, it was about $14, and I thought it was too expensive. However, recently I found it for $8.78 & decided to give it a try. It was easy and did taste good. Worth a try if you are very busy.

As you can see, there is a seasoning packet that you mix with water. The only work involved is opening the packages and of course you need to cut the vegetables.