"Fake" Cupcakes

From FamilyFun.com

The first surprise here: there's not a grain of sugar in these cupcakes. The second surprise: your kids will love them anyway.
Meat Loaf
1 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
3 tablespoons ketchup
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Potato Frosting
3 cups mashed potatoes
Food coloring


Step 1
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 12 muffin tin cups with foil bake cups.

Step 2
In a large bowl, mix together all of the meat loaf ingredients until well combined. Divide the mixture evenly among the lined cups (the liners should be about three quarters full).

Step 3
Place the filled muffin tins on cookie sheets and bake the cupcakes for about 15 minutes or until cooked through.

Step 4
Divide the mashed potatoes among three small bowls and stir a few drops of food coloring into each batch to create blue, yellow, and pink pastel frostings. Spread a generous dollop on each cupcake. Makes 12 cupcakes.

Shrimp Chowder

I was looking for a good clam chowder recipe and Cherie gave me this recipe and suggested I could sub the clams for the shrimp.
Thanks Cherie! Can't wait to try it, with both!

1/2 c. diced carrots
1/2 c. diced onions
1 c. diced potatoes
1 cube butter
1/2 c. flour
2 c. milk
1 can shrimp
grated Parmesan cheese, to taste

Combine diced carrots, onion and potatoes in saucepan. Add just enough water to cover vegetable. Bring to boil, cover and cook for about 10-12 minutes or until veggies are tender. Set aside. Do not drain. In large pan, melt butter over low heat. Slowly stir in flour until smooth. Add milk. Turn up heat to medium and stir until mixture thickens. When thickened, reduce heat and add vegetable mixture with water and can of shrimp. Served topped liberally with Parmesan cheese. Serves 4. (Guess I'm going to be doubling it!)

Lazy Stroganoff

This is what we make when we have ground beef and can't think of anything to make with it. It also has very few ingredients and we almost always have the stuff to make it...thus, it is a staple in our house.

1-1.5 pounds ground beef
1-2 cans or one big can of cream of mushroom soup
1 C sour cream
1-1.5 C milk
some onion powder
some garlic powder
salt
pepper

Brown beef, drain (or make a rue...but that's not the "lazy way" now is it?), add all ingredients. Add milk bit by bit until it's the thickness you like (it will thicken some). Simmer. Serve over rice or wide egg noodles.

Chicken Mornay

Ok, this is something my mom has ALWAYS made, and it is *so* one of my top fav comfort foods of all time. I don't know what "mornay" is, I've googled it, tried different spellings...just can't find it. But this is what we always called it, so this is what it will stay.

1 boiled chicken, broken into pieces
1 large package of frozen chopped broccoli
3 cans cream of chicken soup
1 cup of mayonnaise
2 tsp curry powder (but I like more!)
1 T lemon juice (again, I like more!)
1/2 C cornflakes or saltine crackers

Put chicken pieces on bottom of 9 x 13 casserole dish. Dump broccoli over chicken. Mix soup, mayo, lemon juice and curry together, then spread over dish. Sprinkle crushed cornflakes or saltine crackers over top. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Serve over rice, potatoes or noodles. (We like rice the best) Freezes well.