It may be hard to believe but I do use cookbooks every once in awhile. When I have a quiet moment and a napping baby, I like to prepare my meals for the week. Reading a cookbook is like curling up with a good book for me. I love looking at all the different entrees for the same food, like chocolate chip cookies. It’s amazing how everyone seems to have their recipe they swear by. While making my weekly meal, I ran across an enchilada casserole and I gave it a try.

Enchilada Casserole

Source: Beauty from Ashes, Zion Church Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lb ground beef, shredded chicken, or black beans (or a combination, I did 1 lb beef and 1 can of black beans)
• 1 onion, or severeal green onions
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup, condensed (I did one chicken and one mushroom)
• 1-28 oz can enchilada sauce
• 1 cup milk
• 1 dozen corn or flour tortillas
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Brown meat with onion (if using green onion, save and sprinkle on top) in large skillet. 
2. Mix all ingredients together except tortillas and cheese.
3. Layer meat sauce, tortillas and cheese in a 9×13″ baking pan. Repeat layers two more times.
4. Bake at 350° from 30-45 minutes.

Note: The tortillas fit really well in round cake pans. For a small family you can divide the recipe between three pans and freeze two (which is exactly what I did).

The Enchilada Sauce

Conclusion: Not bad. This made a LOT of enchilada sauce but I loved the idea of putting it in cake pans and freezing it. I now have two meals in the freezer with one going to my brother. I thought the recipe was a little weak so I added olives and some peppers, just to beef it up a bit. I also didn’t use all 12 tortillas. I had three layers in three pans so I had a few tortillas left over. If you do make this, put a pan underneath so it doesn’t drip into your oven (like mine did). The taste was fine. Nothing amazing but satisfactory. My husband however really liked it and I’m glad he did since I have another meal in the freezer.

Claire also hopes you all have enjoyed the nice weather, FINALLY!

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Answer: Iowa City. Hail was larger than baseballs and grapefruit sized hail (4.5″) was reported in Hopkinton. It’s amazing how much damage a storm can do in only a few minutes.

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Answer: 69!! This woman was the 1st wife to Feodor Vassilyev in Russia. She had 16 sets of twins, 7 sets of triplets and 4 sets of quadruplets. The father of her children also remarried and had a total of 87 children. That’s a lot of mouths to feed! Check out more at Guinness World Record online.

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Answer: May 24, 2012! As of May 10th, there have been 350 days without a tornado in Iowa. The record is 355 and was set from 1955-1956. We may be on track to break this record. We are in what some call a tornado drought and I think this is one drought a lot of folks enjoy.

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I tend to let me cupboards get down to the bare bones before I go grocery shopping. I am also a HUGE fan of breakfast foods. I love my bowl of cereal in the morning. That is always my first choice. If I’m out of milk or cereal, then I have oatmeal. I typically don’t make a huge breakfast for my husband and I. I’m hoping this is something I change as Claire gets older, but right now she gets to enjoy a bowl of oatmeal with her mommy.

So I NEED my breakfast in the morning, well one morning I was very low on supplies. I went through the cupboards and I had very little on hand for breakfast. Luckily, the internet is full of one cup recipes and I found one that had everything I had on hand!

French Toast in a Cup

Source: Prudent Baby

Ingredients:

• 1-2 pieces of bread
• 1/2 Tbs butter
• 1 egg
• 3 Tbs milk
• sprinkle of cinnamon
• drop of vanilla extract (optional)
• syrup

Directions:

1. Cut bread into cubed pieces.
2. Melt butter and let it coat the entire cup. Place cubed bread into cup and compact it down a bit.
3. In another bowl, mix remaining ingredients. Pour over cubed bread. Allow it to soak in for a minute.
4. Place bread cup in microwave and heat for one minute, adding 20 seconds until it is no longer runny.

Conclusion: Meh. I think I prefer my cereal. It was just a little too eggy for me. The bottom was also very mushy. The syrup is what kept me eating this meal in a cup. It wasn’t terrible, just not great. I’ll just make sure to keep my cereal on hand, always!

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Answer: 1993. May 5,  1993 is still the latest date on record for anywhere in Iowa to reach its first 80°F or greater high temperature. 1993 was a year of crippling floods and cold weather.

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Answer: May 29, 1947. Two inches of snow was recorded on this day from a storm that tracked through Iowa May 27-29. On May 10, 1945, 2″ of snow was also recorded in Waterloo. Both dates are tied for the most amount of snow ever recorded in Waterloo during the month of May.

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I have never heard of spaghetti squash. While I was picking up Claire’s squash the other day, I ran across this little guy. I was wondering while it was called spaghetti squash. After some research  I found out why. It looks like spaghetti noodles once cooked and supposedly tastes like it. In our attempts to eat healthier, I gave a squash recipe a go.

Skinny Spaghetti Squash Alfredo

Source: The Comfort of Cooking

Ingredients:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. First, prep the squash. Cut spaghetti squash in half using a large sharp knife, scoop out the seeds and place cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet covered with water. Bake until tender, about an hour.
3. As an alternate way of baking: Poke a few holes deep into the whole squash with a paring knife. Bake for 60 minutes, remove from the oven and let rest for 10 to 20 minutes before slicing in half with a large serrated knife. Scoop out the seedy inside leaving the spaghetti strands.
4. Once squash is cooked, use a fork to gently scrape the “spaghetti” strands into the center.
5. For the sauce, melt butter in a small pot over medium-low heat. Once hot, add garlic and sauté for 1-2 minutes. Whisk in flour, cooking for another minute while stirring. Whisk in milk until no lumps remain. Once hot, add cream cheese and stir until smooth. Remove from the heat. Stir in Parmesan, salt and pepper.
6. Spoon sauce equally into each spaghetti squash half. Gently pull up the spaghetti strands to coat as much as possible with the sauce. (This is where I then added the chicken) Top with extra Parmesan and place under the broiler of your oven for 2-3 minutes, or until golden and bubbly.
7. Top each half with a pinch of red pepper flakes and fresh chopped parsley, if desired. Serve hot.

Before the sauce.

After!

Conclusion: I was nervous my husband would not eat this meal because he’s not a fan of squash. But to his and my surprise, it was actually quite good. The “spaghetti” has more of a sweet taste and crunch to it then regular spaghetti noodles. The sauce may have been just a bit too thin for my tastes but still didn’t taste bad. It was a bit of a mess though. Next time, I plan to take the “noodles” out of the shell and mix it all together in a bowl. This way I can conserve more sauce and add more ingredients like veggies and meat. But the spaghetti squash has won my husband and I over and will likely be a new staple on our menu.

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Answer: Ozone. Ozone helps to protect the Earth from the Sun’s harmful rays in the upper part of the atmosphere. However, large amounts of ozone at the surface can be deadly. Ozone is a common gas found in smog. Air Quality Awareness Week starts tomorrow. For more information on air quality, check out AIRNow.

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Answer: Oak! In December 2004, Congress designated the oak tree as America’s tree. Enjoy the weather today and the shade our beautiful trees provide!

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