Kid-Friendly Cheeseburger Casserole

She's not the prettiest thing on the plate, but she sure tastes goooood!

Once upon a time, I was a kid and my mom ordered one of those old recipe card sets from a cut-out in a magazine. You remember those? For $9.95 and a self-addressed stamped envelope, you could own you're very own recipe collection, mailed right to your door! Who needed informercials or ads on the intrawebs, right?

One of the favorite recipes from the circa 1971 Betty Crocker card collection was "Toasty Cheese Bake" - essentially browned beef with cheese, egg, set in a casserole pan with spices and toast. Ridiculously easy, and ridiculously good.

See? Hella old. 

Today, though, not only do I have to make at least double what the recipe calls for, I choose to make it healthier, using ground turkey in along with lean ground beef, using whole grain healthy bread, while adding more vegetables to it. Plus, the add-ons you can do for yourself are unreal.

Keep in mind, the original recipe is for a square casserole pan, utilizing only eight pieces of bread, serving 4-6. My gigantor family with eleventy-billion kids, however, requires double, and so the recipe reflects that below.

Cheeseburger Casserole "Toasty Cheese Bake"
Makes two 9x13 casserole dishes, serving 8-10 people.
Adapted from the 1971 Betty Crocker Recipe Collection

16 (ish)* slices bread (whole grain works REAL well)
organic butter (we use Organic Smart Balance with Flax)
1 lb lean ground beef, browned
1 lb ground turkey, browned
1/2 cup chopped celery**
2+ tablespoons yellow mustard
2 cups all-natural shredded cheddar cheese (we used the thick cut)
2 (ish)* organic eggs, beaten
2 (ish)* cups 1% organic milk
1 teaspoon dry mustard (powder)
1 teaspoon chopped (or minced) garlic
salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, Mrs Dash table blend, celery seed to taste

*These ingredients you may need more of, keep handy in case you do.
**You can omit celery, and/or add other vegetables, such as carrots, peppers, tomatoes, (ones that work well on a burger, for instance) etc.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Toast your bread lightly and spray both 9x13 casserole pans with cooking spray. As your bread finishes toasting, butter each piece both sides, and lay a layer in the bottom of your casserole pan. You may need to cut to make them fit. Cutting and puzzle-piecing together, Tetris-style is A-OK.

Once meat is browned, drain it, then stir in the chopped onion, celery, mustard, garlic (and any additional vegetables you desire) with chosen seasonings and saute a couple minutes until the onion is soft. Try not to eat from the spatula as you stir, I know it's tempting.

In a bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, and some seasonings, place it inside an easily pourable measuring cup and set aside.

(You can choose to follow the following simple trick of ensuring enough meat is in both casseroles, or ignore and do you're own thing.) Draw a "line" in the skillet of meat, dividing it by halving it evenly. Draw another line across, separating the cooked meat mixture into four equal sections. Each section will now become a layer in the two casserole dishes. (See how that works! Math! Fractions! At work!) Place a layer of meat on top of the buttered toast, and a layer of cheese. Season a little.

Place a new layer of buttered toast over top, followed by a layer of beef, then cheese again. Season a little again. Do not eat anything yet, don't spoil it!

Pour the egg milk mixture over top both casseroles, being careful to pay attention to how much you are using on each. (Here's why it's important to pour from the measuring cup, and why I mentioned potentially needing more egg/milk mixture.) If, after pouring, it seems to dry and not covered enough, feel free to beat at additional egg and 3/4 cup of milk to pour until you feel it's completely covered nicely. This egg/milk mixture is the "glue" to this casserole that keeps it together, and helps make it super-dee-duper yummy. I like to make sure all the crusts are covered nicely, and that it seems to set all the ingredients together well. Once poured, spray your foil with cooking spray (so it won't stick), cover, and place it into the oven for at least 40 minutes to cook. Turn your oven light on so you can peek, especially if your casserole dish is see-through like mine.

In the meantime, you get to agonizingly sit and wait and smell the deliciousness coming from your oven, trying to mask the stomach growls while you pant incessantly while watching the timer. It's okay, it's almost done. You won't die from hunger. Promise. But! Don't forget to prepare some vegetables as a side dish while you're waiting. After the timer dings and when you are sure the egg is fully cooked through, and the casserole is nice and bubbly with steam coming from the center and not mushy, you can remove the cover for a couple minutes to help the top brown, but it's not necessary, but it makes it look prettier (cheeseburger anything isn't exactly the prettiest, but it's so dang good).

Slice 'n serve, baby. Slice. And. Serve.

What do you think? Is this modernized 1970's budget casserole something that your family might like?

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Toddler Gigantor Nerf Gun War

There is no doubt that he's all boy. He may show interest in brushing my hair, putting lotion on me, and regularly chimes in on wanting his nails painted, too, when I paint his sisters. But this Baby Dude boy is all boy.

Trucks. Power Rangers. Ninjas. Pretend guns and swords. "Pew pew pew!" he calls out with the guns that don't make sound, and oh, the poses!

Rough 'n tough boy, all around. He took the biggest, badded Nerf gun he could find to come "get me."

Nevermind the gun was bigger than HE was. Good gravy!

"Are you sure you can hold that one, baby?"

"Yeah, I dot it." He says, maneuvering it, mouth agape, trying to sling it around and to the side to aim.

"Gotchyu, mommy!"

Oh, yes you 'got' me, baby. In so many more ways than just one.

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How to Make Yarn Flowers

I'm one of those macaroni necklace wearing moms. I would love to own tons of pretty jewelry, but it's the sentimental stuff that really gets to my heart. I also love wearing stuff that has meaning behind it, a history, if you will. I adore supporting mom-made stuff, too (so, as you can imagine, Etsy is quite a treasure to me). But making stuff with my kids, and for my kids, means a great deal to me, too.

After making that knitted hat a couple weeks ago, I was on the look-out for a flower to put on top or match it (like a pin). I'll be the first to admit, while I can crochet and knit, I'm still not that great at it, and often times I mis-count and my creations don't come out as intended (I'm still learning). I was looking for a yarn flower tutorial that was easy to do and would come out as intended without so much fuss. Desperate to make flowers RIGHT NOW in this nesting/crafting stage of my pregnancy, I found a different, yet easier route: I purchased a flower loom at Hobby Lobby (with a 40% off coupon), and, after looking at their yarn flower inspiration packet, I went flower-making nuts, yo! Woohoo!

See? After making a ton of flowers, I put them all onto a necklace

I dabbled in sizes and different yarns, too. I spent days surrounded by yarn of all kinds, making flowers to my heart's content while playing with the kids and watching TV. I experimented making barrettes, pins, and even dabbled in a couple yarn flower necklaces, too (tutorial to come soon).

A simple three-flower necklace and barrette for my Baby Sis

After looping and darning until my heart's content, I discovered I could make the flowers even fancier by single crocheting the flower loops around the outside, like this:

Are they not GORGEOUS!?

Notes: 

• When making a pin, use a larger pin and wrap yarn around it, affixing it to the back of your flower to secure them by tying to the flower with extra yarn. 
• Same goes with barrettes, get the snappy metal ones, wrap one side in yarn to glue to the flower (or tie), but do not use hot glue or crazy glue, it heats the metal and warps the barrettes so that they won't close properly. 
• When creating a square or hexagon and crocheting outside, chain extra at the corners to create the point-shape; three extra for squares, two for the hexagon. 
• Thinner yarn works better for the outside chain than thicker yarn does. 
• For double and triple stacked flowers, you do not need to darn in between each loop. 

I am seriously addicted to making these. I find that thicker yarn comes out much better than the thinner, holding up better. I can't wait to buy more colors.

Do you like what I made? Want me to make you one? Leave a comment below, from now until January 28th at 9pm CST, and I'll randomly pick two people to win a flower of their choice, made out of the yarn I have on hand (colors you see above). :)

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