My Top 10 cheap, easy, YUMMY recipes!!

I'm not a great cook and I HATE spending more time making dinner then actually eating it, who has time for that?! I'm in NO way against box meals, frozen food or grap and go meals.  I'd say I use those half the time and then just want a good "home cooked" meal the rest of the time.  When I don't have a lot of time but still want to eat well, these are the "Family Fav's" that I go to. They all take very little time and are always a hit with the husband and kids.

1. Cheesy Potato Soup (Crock pot or stove top, same directions for both)
6-8 Potatoes (Really depends on how much you want to make, I like having leftovers)
3-4 cups Chicken broth
Sm container of heavy cream
1 onion
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp Cayenne pepper (This makes the soup!!)
Lots of cheese!! :)

Cube your potatoes, toss them in your pot, and fill pot with chicken broth.  Just enough to barley cover the potatoes. Add in your salt, pepper, Cayenne pepper, and minced onion and let boil for about 10-15 min.  Add in your cream and continue to boil until potatoes are cooked.  Here's the trick, mash the potatoes while in the pot to thicken the soup but before you add the cheese.  Trying to clean melted cheese off your masher sucks! I leave some chunks too. Then add in all the cheese you want and your done!!  I like to dip Hawaiian bread in it too.  This soup rivals some of the best I've had and it's def. the best one I've ever made plus you only have to buy like 3 things...LOVE!

2. Chicken Enchilada Soup (Tastes JUST like the one at Chili's)
  About 2 cups chicken broth
 10 (6 inch) corn tortillas, cut into 1/2 inch strips (Cut some extra to fry)
 1.5 cups green enchilada sauce
1.5 (10 ounce) cans red enchilada sauce
4-6 cooked, boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1.5 cups half-and-half
1-1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Cook your chicken and cut it into bite size pieces, set aside.  Pour broth into pot and add in tortillas strips.  Cook until strips are dissolved in the broth. Pour in enchilada sauces, half and half, cheese and chicken.  Cook until hot...DONE! You can cut some extra tortilla shells and fry them up real fast in a skillet and use then to top the soup.

3. Mexican Pizza(Just got this one from a family member over thanksgiving!)

•  Cheese
• Refried beans
• beef
• salsa (I like Pancho's salsa for this, works much better then the others)
• sour cream
• Any other toppings you like on tacos (Lettuce, tomatoes, ect.)
• pre-made pizza crust

Pre-heat oven according to pizza crust instructions. Cook beef with the taco seasoning and set aside. Smooth and layer of beans over the crust, smooth a layer of salsa on top of that, then sprinkle beef over that, now add all your toppings except for the sour cream.  Pop it in the oven, serve with sour cream!!  Perfection!

4. Rotel Chicken Spaghetti
This is my husbands absolute favorite dish!  When he came home from Iraq, this is what he asked for LOL

• 2-4 chicken breasts (whatever you prefer)
• 1 pkg thin spaghetti
• 1 sm pkg spicy buffalo Velveeta (this may be a bit spicy if your kids aren't used to it or if you don't like spicy food, in that case just use regular Velveeta and very mild Rotel)
• 1 can Rotel
• 1 can cream of mushroom

Preheat oven to 375. Cook your chicken, cut up and set aside.  Cook noodles, drain, and pour into casserole dish.  Pour cream of mushroom and Rotel into dish and mix.  Slice 3/4 of Velveeta into cubes and mix in.  Then slice remaining 1/4 into thin slices and lay over the top.  Bake in oven until cheese in melty and bubbly.  Done!  Serve with bread sticks or salad or both or neither :)

5. Baked Spaghetti

• Pkg of spaghetti noodles
• 1 pd beef
• 1 pkg mozzarella cheese
• 1 big jar of your favorite sauce

Preheat oven to 350.  Cook beef, cook noodles pour into casserole dish.  Add sauce and 3/4 bag of cheese, mix.  Spinkle top with cheese and Parmesan cheese. Done!

6. Biscuits and Gravy

• If you have Bisquick then feel free to make your own biscuits, but I usually by the Grands or something similar in the frozen section.
• 2 Pkg's Peppered gravy mix in the baking isle
• 1 pkg sausage (I like my veggie sausage, but most aren't into that lol)

Cook meat set aside.  Pop biscuits in the oven according the pkg directions.  Mix gravy and water on the stove until thickened and then add in the sausage. This is one of my kids absolute favorites!  How easy can it get!?

7. Egg muffins and pancakes

• Dozen eggs
• Hash browns
• cheese
• sausage or bacon or both :)
• 1/3 cup milk
• salt/pepper
• anything else you would like in an omelet type food
• Pancake mix

Preheat oven to 375.  Grease muffin pan.  Cook sausage or bacon and mix with the veggies you want and hashbrowns. Put a spoonful of mixture into each space. Now mix eggs, milk, salt/pepper, and cheese in a bowl.  Pour egg mixture  into each space almost to the top.  Cook for about 20 min or until done.  Make your pancakes while you wait :)  Serve!  The kids love this one because they can pick up their eggs and eat with their hands. Figures...

8. Haystacks
Ok, so you don't actually cook anything but it's one of our fav. Friday night dinners.

• Bag of Frito's
• Beef
• Chili beans
• Cheese
• Sour cream
• Anything else you like on tacos (Lettuce, tomato, etc.)

Cook and season beef and put in a bowl.  Warm chili beans in pot.  Set out all toppings.  Put a layer of Frito's in the bottom of a bowl or plate top with beef, beans and then everything else!!  Yummy!

9. Tatortot Casserole
So this is not a full meal, but I fell in love with this when I was pregnant with Drew so I just made it a full meal because I craved it so bad. We all still love it so much so we just eat by itself for dinner. lol

• Bag of tator tots
• Bag of cheese
• 16 oz container of sour cream
• 1 can cream of potato soup (I prefer the walmart brand to anything else)
• 2 tbs butter
• Salt/Pepper

Preheat oven to 400.  Grease casserole dish.  In a pot melt and mix butter, sour cream, and cream of potato.  Add in salt and pepper to taste. Pour tatortots in dish, sprinkle with cheese then pour sour cream mixture over tots.  Add more cheese and lightly toss.  Top with MORE cheese (Yay!!) and bake for about 30 min. You could just make this a side, but who doesn't want a giant dish of cheesy potato goodness in front of them and knowing they're encouraged to eat huge portions! Come on!!

10. Empty Pantry Quesadillas
This is one of those things I threw together because I hadn't gone to the store and these are about all the ingredients we had in the house.  It has now become our favorite comfort food.  We've had it once a week since that epic night :)

• Corn tortillas
• refried beans
• Block of Pepper Jack cheese
• Pancho's salsa (You can use whatever, but Bill and I both agree it's our favorite for this)
• Sour cream

Heat oil in skillet, slice entire block of cheese and heat beans.  Put skin in skillet for just a few seconds, flip and add 2 slices of cheese and a spoonful of beans then fold and flip.  Do that about a thousand more times and serve with salsa and sour cream.  I'm telling you, it's sooooo good!!


11. Easy Lasagna
I know I said Top 10, but I had to add this one.  Everyone thinks lasagna has to take forever, but this recipe is about as easy as it gets and tastes GREAT!

• 1 pkg OVEN READY lasagna noodles
• 1.5-2 jars fav. sauce (just eyeball it)
• 1 container cottage cheese (If you just HATE it, then use ricotta, otherwise give it a shot!)
• 2 eggs
• 1 lb beef
• 1 bag mozzarella cheese
• Parmesan Cheese

Preheat oven to 400.  Spread a thin layer of sauce in bottom of baking dish.  In a large bowl mix in sauce, cottage cheese, 1/2 bag of cheese, and 2 eggs.  Layer noodles, sauce mixture, beef, sprinkle more cheese and Parmesan on top of beef in each layer.  Repeat until you get to the top then sprinkle more cheese and Parmesan on top. Cover with foil and cook for 45-60 min.  I like to serve it with the Ceasar salad kit. 

So there you have it! I don't cook fancy stuff, nothing seems very healthy, and I never spend very long in the kitchen...Perfect!