Pineapple Cheese Casserole

I know what you're thinking..."Pineapple Cheese Casserole? Ew." Well, stop that right now because once you've tasted it, you'll never question me again! NEVER! :)

The first time I ever had this dish was when I was in Montgomery, AL with my mom. We were cleaning out my grandmother's house and decided to order dinner from Martin's Restaurant. That place has THE best fried chicken among other things. Anyway, so at Mom's suggestion, I tried their pineapple cheese casserole and well... obviously I liked it seeing as I'm making it here. :)

Now this isn't their recipe, per se...but they are all pretty much the same. So onto the food!

This is a super simple recipe and it takes no time at all. So this would be great for a week night dish and if your picky eaters like cheese and pineapple - you've got a crowd pleaser on your hands!

Preheat the oven to 350° F and spray a medium-size casserole dish with cooking spray. Now I veered off the recipe here - actually, I just didn't read it very well and used a 9x12 dish. If this is what you end up using, be aware that you will have to make 1 1/2 times the topping recipe.

In a large bowl, stir together the sugar and flour.



Next stir in 2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese.


Add the drained pineapple chunks. Make sure to get your spoon up under the pineapple chunks after adding to the dry ingredients, the flour and such likes to hide underneath. Mix until well combined.


Pour the mixture into the prepared casserole dish. *Remember - I would recommend using a smaller dish than this 9x12 one.


In another bowl, combine one sleeve of Ritz™ crackers* (smashed into crumbs), melted butter, and reserved pineapple juice. Mix until well combined!

*While at the grocery store, buying some things I needed for the recipe, I noticed that Ritz™ now makes whole wheat crackers. I figured why not try to make this a LITTLE bit better for me or at least have more nutritionally-redeeming qualities so that's what I used. And by the way, they are good!

Go ahead and spread the crumb mixture on top of pineapple mixture.



Now, pop it in the oven and bake for 35 minutes, or until golden brown. (There will not be much difference in color between the casserole before you put it in the oven and when you take it out.)


This makes a good side dish, but I also eat it by itself as a snack or even dessert.

Enjoy! Next post: I'm thinking about Chipotle Bean Burritos.

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Pineapple Cheese Casserole

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups grated sharp cheddar
2 20 oz. cans pineapple chunks, drained, and 6 tablespoons pineapple juice reserved
1 cup cracker crumbs (recommended: Ritz™ Whole Wheat Crackers)
8 tablespoons butter, melted

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350° F.

Prep a medium-size casserole dish with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, stir together the sugar and flour. Next, stir in the cheese.

Add the drained pineapple chunks, and stir until ingredients are well combined.

Pour the mixture into the prepared casserole dish.

In another bowl, combine cracker crumbs, melted butter, and reserved pineapple juice, mix until evenly blended.

Spread crumb mixture on top of pineapple mixture.

Bake for 35 minutes, or until golden brown.

Mexican Casserole

A long time ago, I found a recipe for a Mexican casserole that I never got around to cooking. Well, I pulled it out of my binder the other day and decided it was time to make it since it seemed simple enough. Therein lied the problem. It was too simple and I thought it could use some JAZZING up!

So here is my take on the Mexican casserole. Keep in mind, you can make this recipe your own VERY easily by adding black beans (which I may do next time) or anything else you think might fit the taste buds of your particular crowd.

Firstly, preheat the oven to 400°F and then combine the Bisquick, eggs, milk and salt & pepper.


Next, I browned the ground beef along with the chopped onion.

Once that is done, drain the whole thing. I usually put my colander on a stack of paper towels on top of a plate. That way i can throw the lot out afterward and not worry about all that grease going down my drain.

I put the meat/onion mixture back into the pan and added the corn, Rotel, jalapeños, green chilies and taco seasoning. (If you don't want it to be as spicy, add half or 3/4 of the seasoning instead of the whole packet.) Give the whole mess a good stir to mix everything up well.


It doesn't matter what type of baking dish you use, just so long as it will all fit. And *remember* the Bisquick WILL RISE - so a deeper dish would probably be best. So let's put everything into that dish now!


The original recipe called to add the green chilies in a ring around the edge of the mixture, which I did. But after eating it, it was kind of weird and gross to get a big, ole' forkful of slimy green chilies - so this is when i decided mixing them up with the rest of the veggies would be a good idea. Granted, it does look cool... but no one will know because you'll have covered it with awesome cheesy, Bisquicky goodness.

Just ignore the green ring around the cheese in the following picture. This is the step where you would cover the whole meat concoction with half of the cheese.


Now cover the whole thing up with the Bisquick.


Then the rest of the cheese!

Pop that bad boy into the oven for 30 minutes!


And after 30 minutes, you should be pulling the following loveliness out of your oven.


I couldn't wait to try it so I grabbed a big, metal spoon and scooped myself out dinner.

I don't see why you couldn't maybe add a dollop of sour cream along side it or anything you think might add to its enjoyment.

So there it is - super simple, yet so yummy!!

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Mexican Casserole Recipe

Ingredients:
1 ½ pounds, ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped
1 can green chilies, drained
1 can corn, drained
1 can Rotel, drained
2 Tbsp sliced jalapeños (optional)
1 package taco seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 cups Bisquick
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 ¾ cups Mexican blend cheese, shredded (divided)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to at 400°F

Combine Bisquick, eggs, milk, salt and pepper.

In a large pan, brown the ground beef with the onion. Drain and put mixture back into pan.

Add the corn, jalapeños, green chilies, Rotel, and taco seasoning (If you don’t want it to be very spicy, add half to three quarters of the package).

Mix well and put into baking dish.

Spread half of the cheese over the top.

Pour Bisquick over the cheese and finish off with the rest of the cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Chicken and Pea Casserole

Now i'm not one to normally make a casserole. They tend to be a little old school for me, but i found this recipe at Allrecipes.com and just had to make it. This is a perfect "i'm not in the mood to cook" recipe.

Go ahead and preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

I thawed the chicken and put the water onto boil for the pasta. The recipe didn't call for any specific way to cook the chicken, so i whipped out my trusty grill pan and brought it up to temp on a med-high flame.

I seasoned only one side of the chicken with approx 1/2 tablespoon of sale, fresh-ground pepper, basil and oregano. i LOVE those grill lines!!


And then added to pasta to my boiling water.

While everything was cooking [pasta and chicken] I went ahead and started putting together the sauce. 1 10oz can of cream of mushroom soup, 1 package of frozen peas, 3/4 cup of sour cream, 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 2 1/2 tsp onion powder, and 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper. Once the chicken was done grilling, i added 2 cups of it cubed to the mixture.


Stir this well. Then once your pasta is done cooking [about 9 mins for al dente], drain and mix everything together. Pour pasta mixture into a 9x10-inch casserole dish, and spread out evenly. Top with Parmesan cheese or an Italian blend, and spray the top with a bit of cooking spray.

Then stick that bad boy in the oven.

I baked it for about 23 mins and then let it sit for another 5 to 10 and it was still steaming hot!


This was a really tasty recipe and EASY! Here's my version:

Chicken and Pea Casserole

INGREDIENTS:
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tbsp kosher salt
1 (16 oz.) package of rigatoni pasta
1 (10 oz.) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
3/4 cup sour cream
2 cups of cubed chicken breasts
1 package frozen peas
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tbsp oregano
1/2 tbsp basil
1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
1/2 tbsp freshly-ground black pepper
2 cups grated Parmesan cheese or Italian blend

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 375°

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 to 10 minutes; drain

Cook chicken in whatever way you want. I grilled it. Season with 1/2 tbsp of salt, pepper, basil and oregano.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, stir together mushroom soup, sour cream, chicken, and peas. Then season with garlic powder, onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper.

Stir cooked pasta into chicken mixture until well combined. Pour pasta mixture into a 9x10-inch casserole dish, and spread out evenly. Top with cheese, and spray the top with a bit of cooking spray.

Bake in a preheated oven until golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Remove from oven, and let cool 5- 10 minutes