Spaghetti Casserole

Scooter’s Spaghetti

Recipe type: Entree

Author: Scooter

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 35 mins

Total time: 55 mins

Serves: 10

Layered spaghetti casserole topped with french fried onions. A family favorite!

Ingredients

• 8 ounces uncooked spaghetti
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 large can spaghetti sauce (26.5 ounces)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 cup chopped green peppers (I usually omit or substitute red peppers)
• 1/3 cup chopped onions
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons milk
• Fresh grated Parmesan cheese
• French Fried Onions (small can)

Directions

1. Cook spaghetti according to directions on the package. Cook to al dente, drain and set aside.
2. Brown ground beef. Drain excess grease. Add spaghetti sauce to skillet and heat.
3. Combine onions, peppers and butter in small glass bowl. Cover and microwave 4 minutes on HIGH until soft.
4. Add cream cheese and milk to vegetables and stir well.
5. Using a 10 x 6 dish, assemble in the following order:
6. Thin layer of meat sauce on the bottom of the casserole dish.
7. Spaghetti
8. Cream cheese/vegetable mixture
9. Spaghetti sauce
10. Parmesan Cheese (amount subject to your own taste)
11. French Fried Onions (added during last 5 minutes of cooking)
12. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Top with French Fried onion and continue baking 5 more minutes. (This is the secret ingredient–don’t let them burn.)

Notes

Make this ahead of time and refrigerate or freeze without the French Fried onions. Don’t forget to add them 5 minutes before casserole is finished cooking.

Found at: http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/family-recipes/scooters-spaghetti

Homemade Chalk Paint

Yesterday I showed you how to made sidewalk chalk paint... well today I found a way to make regular chalk paint to paint your walls with for kids! This clever craft only requires 2 ingredients!

Paint (any color or type that you want)
Non-Sanded Tile Grout

For every 1 cup of paint use 2 tablespoons of grout. Mix and paint :)

You can find the non-sanded tile grout at any home hardware store (Home Depot, Lowes, etc.). Have fun!!

Thanks http://www.theidearoom.net/2010/09/make-chalk-rocks-and-homemade-chalk.html for the clever craft!

Wooden Picture Decoration

For this glorious project all you need is:

gel medium (which can be found in the paint section at any craft store and probably walmart too)
block of wood
mod podge
picture on a regular piece of typing paper (printed from your computer is fine)
wet cloth for rubbing off residue
paint brush

Here is a youtube link that's only about 2 minutes long showing you how to do it for you visual people :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NjYbAAQ4vw

Take the block of wood and put gel medium on it with a paint brush. Then, place your picture face down onto the block of wood and let it sit over night. The next day, use the damp cloth and your fingers to rub away the paper. Once all the paper is off use a paint brush to apply mod podge all over the picture. Let it dry. Then YOU'RE DONE! :) Enjoy!

Here's a picture of one that someone did that I found on www.readymade.com

Homemade Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Sidewalk chalk paint for kids!! How fun :)

I found this on www.erinlincoln.blogspot.com, so creative and fun! All you need is corn starch, water, food coloring, muffin trey, and foam brushes. Just add a little bit of corn starch and water and then pour your "paint" mixture into the muffin trey and add whatever color food coloring you'd like. Then, take it outside, give the kids the foam brushes and let them have at it! They can paint the town red if they'd like ;)

Don't worry, it dries just like chalk and will wash off with the next rain. So let them have a blast while they're still young. :)

Easy Way to Clean Microwave!!

Easy way to clean your microwave - heat a bowl of water and vinegar for 5 minutes, the steam will dissolve stuck on stains. Simply wipe off.

Sweet Potato Donuts!

Thanks to the delightful bog: http://leannebakes.blogspot.com/2011/09/spiced-sweet-potato-donuts.html I discovered these wonderful things! I simply just copy and pasted her recipe so that others can see how awesome this is! She goes into greater detail on her blog about these donuts and she shows more pictures, so feel free to check out her blog! :)

Ingredients:

1 cup mashed sweet potato total (I used 2 medium-sized potatoes)

3 tbsp unsalted butter

½ cup milk (I used whole)

2¼ tsp instant dry yeast

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup packed light brown sugar

1¼ tsp sea salt

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

1 tbsp vanilla

1 extra large egg

2 extra large egg yolks

3.5 cups bread flour, plus more for rolling

Cinnamon Sugar Coating:

1 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Directions:

Prick the sweet potato several times with a fork and microwave for 8 minutes, until tender.  Cut the potato in half and scoop the flesh out.  It will be hot. Be careful. Mash it up with a fork.

Melt the butter, and let it cool.

In the microwave (or a saucepan if you’re fancy) heat the milk to just below 105F. Any higher will kill your yeast dead.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, let the yeast and warm milk sit for 5 minutes until foamy.  Add the sugar, brown sugar, salt, vanilla, nutmeg, and whisk to combine.  Add the mashed sweet potato, butter, egg and egg yolks, and beat until well combined.

Change to the dough hook, and add the flour.  Mix at medium for 2 minutes, then bump the speed up to medium high and knead until a soft dough forms and the sweet potato dough pulls away from the sides and toward the centre, about 5-7 minutes.  If it doesn’t pull together, add a little bit more flour.

Dump the dough out, form it into a ball, and let it rise on the countertop for 2 hours (don’t be alarmed if it doesn’t rise all that much… it won’t).

Gently redistribute the yeast by kneading lightly, and then roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  ¾ of an inch works. (Or 1.5cm if you’re Canadian like me!)

Using a circle cutter, gently cut out circles and poke the middles to make holes. If you have a donut cutter like I did, even better! It will do the annoying hole part for you. Place the doughnuts on two parchment paper lined sheet pans, and let them rise for 2 hours, covered with plastic wrap.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.   Bake the doughnuts in the centre of the oven for about 10 minutes, until ther have risen and are golden brown (they should be 200 degrees F on an instant read thermometer).

While the doughnuts are baking, make the cinnamon sugar topping by melting the butter in one bowl, and whisking the sugar and cinnamon in another.  While the doughnuts are hot out of the oven, toss them in the butter, then immediately toss in the cinnamon sugar.