Hutspot

I know, you are asking "what on earth is Hutspot"?  It is a very simple Dutch dish, inexpensive, easy to make, tasty and filling.  Simply put, it's Dutch comfort food.  It doesn't look like much, but it is tasty.

I am of Dutch ancestry, and this was a meal that my mother sometimes served if her day had been unusually busy.  Her version was all cooked together in one pan, preparation was easy and  clean up was minimal.  The ingredients were simple and usually in her pantry.  There are many versions of this dish, this one is my mom's.

Ingredients:
Potatoes, carrots and onions, enough for your family
Salt and pepper to taste
Chicken broth or water, enough to cover prepared vegetables
Smoked sausage, enough for your family ( it's best to use the thick smoked sausage, which comes in rings or long links, rather than the ones sized for eating on buns)
Milk and butter to taste

Method:
Peel and quarter potatoes, peel and slice carrots, peel and coarsely chop onions.  Put the vegetables in a sauce pan, and cover them with water or broth.  Add salt and pepper to taste. Sometimes I add a bay leaf.  Bring this to a boil, then reduce to simmer and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until vegetables are not quite tender. Add  the smoked sausage ring or links on top of the simmering vegetables, and simmer for 10 more minutes or until vegetables are very tender. Remove sausage and drain the vegetables. Add butter and milk to the pan, just as you would for mashed potatoes and mash everything together. (Remember to remove the bay leaf if you added one.).  Cut sausage into serving size pieces and serve with the mashed vegetable mixture.

We often got homemade applesauce on the side.


Variations:
Some serve this with pot roast and gravy, or meatballs and gravy, rather than smoked sausage.
Bacon is a popular addition.
Dutch mustard is sometimes served with hutspot.
It is said that it tastes better if the onions are sautéed in a little oil or butter, rather than being cooked with the potatoes.  I've been too lazy to try this, but I suspect that this is probably true.
There are those who cook the carrots, potatoes and onions each separately and then mash them together. (See lazy comment above!)
Some recipes call for adding the smoked sausage at the beginning of the cooking time. I think this makes the sausage tasteless, but I will admit that it imparts a bit of a smoky flavor to the potato mixture.

More cooking for the freezer

I am amazed at how great it is to have some ready to cook meals in the freezer. I wish I had tried this a lot sooner.

A few weeks ago DD and I spent a day making freezer meals again. The recipes were a bit more time consuming and we weren't quite as organized so it took us quite a bit longer than last time, probably around 4 hours. However, we each got around a dozen meals so it was time well spent.

Here are some of the recipes that we made this time:


Chicken Pot Pie

We added a jar of a turkey gravy to this recipe because it seemed a bit dry. We made family size pot pies, rather than individual ones. DD felt that this recipe needed a bit more seasoning, and she would add a bottom crust next time. I left out the peas and substituted corn and green beans instead. DD used frozen mixed vegetables. We didn't use the celery. Andy and I thought this was very good.  When I baked this, I thawed it in the refrigerator for about 18 hours. It was still a bit frozen when I baked it. I baked it covered for 30 minutes and then uncovered for 30 minutes.

Beef Stew

I made one recipe of this. I was a bit dubious about freezing raw potatoes, so I baked them a bit first. (The recipe suggested this if one was uncertain about freezing raw potatoes.). They were still pretty solid when I added them to the freezer bag, but they totally disintegrated between freezing and cooking. This didn't taste awful, but it wasn't all that flavorful either. I'm not sure if I would try this recipe again.  If I did, I'd try freezing the potatoes raw.

Creamy Italian Chicken

This is a different recipe from the one we made last time and we haven't tried it yet.  I plan to serve this over pasta.

Pizza Casserole

We made this mainly to see how pasta would fare in the freezer. This is essentially pasta with ground beef, canned spagghetti sauce and cheese.  Nothing special here. However this is very kid friendly, and it certainly could easily be fancied up a bit with a few added pizza topping type of ingredients.  We cooked the pasta al dente, and immediately rinsed it with cold water to prevent further cooking.   We found it to be pretty mushy after freezing and baking despite that. It tasted okay though. A bit more seasoning could be added. If we made another pasta dish, we would cook the pasta for a shorter time before assembling the casserole.

Shepherd's Pie

We added about 3/4 cup of tomato sauce and a tbsp or so of Worcestershire sauce to a double recipe, and we used less water, about 2 cups total.  Initially I was concerned that this would be salty, given the brown gravy mix and the condensed soup in it, and using less water, but the meat and gravy mixture was quite bland. DD used frozen mixed vegetables and I used corn and carrots. Both DD's  family and Andy and I liked this. Both DD and I agree that we would season it more next time.  We would also add more tomato sauce or some tomato paste.

We repeated the Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole, Cowboy Casserole, and Alton Brown's baked brown rice.  This time we used frozen french fries rather than tater tots in the cowboy casserole. I put the meat mixture in the bottom of the casserole and topped my meat with slices of American cheese. DD put potatoes both under and over the meat, as she is feeding a houseful of growing boys. She used shredded cheddar cheese in her casserole.


Dd also made some sloppy joes for each of us, but she didn't use a recipe.

This website, Fabulessly Frugal, has a lot of great sounding freezer recipes. We tried a few of them this time, and there are more that I'd like to try. This link takes you to the freezer recipe list. If you are looking for recipes to freeze, this is an excellent resource.

Filling the freezer

Today my oldest daughter and I spent a couple of hours making meals for the freezer.  In order to keep track of the recipes for future use, I'm linking to all of them in this post.  Altogether we spent a little over 2 hours working on this today. That doesn't include the time we each spent prepping, but it does include cleanup.  I got 11 meals out of the deal and she got a few more.  Some of these meals are casseroles that bake in the oven, and quite a few of them are "dump" crockpot meals.  (You dump the ingredients into a ziplock bag, and when you want to cook the meal, you dump the contents of the bag into the crockpot.)


We each did a bit of prep ahead of time.  She made Zesty slow cooker chicken barbecue, and Spaghetti sauce, and I precooked chicken and diced up leftover ham for Chicken cordon bleu casserole.  (I've made and frozen this one before, it's good with rice or over pasta.).  I also made a double batch of Alton Brown's baked brown rice .

We made cowboy casserole which should appeal to the grandkids as well as Andy.   I made a half recipe of Chicken Philly cheese steak, without the peppers.  I didn't stop to consider how really unappealing that is going to look with all the white from the chicken, onions, and the cornstarch.  Peppers would certainly add some visual appeal.

DD made Pesto stuffed shells, (she gave me two servings, but I'm not too sure how well they will go over here, although they sound delicious to me), and Salsa chicken, (I passed on this one because I'm not so sure Andy will even consider eating it).  We also made Creamy Italian chicken.  I wondered if this recipe had too much Italian dressing in it, but DD says she's made it before and it's very good served over pasta.  I also made Cool ranch chicken tacos, but DD passed on that one.

As we eat these meals, I plan to add our thoughts on them.

10/4:  I cooked the cool ranch chicken tacos when ds came for dinner a few weeks ago. Both he and Andy really liked them.  I found them slightly spicy, but that's normal for me.  I'd make them again.

11/20:  The chicken Philly cheesesteak was quite good. I served it on buns, with Swiss cheese and heated them in the oven after assembling.  We also really liked the zesty chicken barbecue, which we had on baked potatoes. Pesto stuffed shells were very good and would be suitable for company. As for cowboy casserole, you can't really go wrong with meat, cheese and potatoes. (Unless you are grandson 2, as he did not like it.). I'd use American cheese instead of shredded cheddar next time, just because it seems cheesier and melts better.

DD reports that her oldest son pronounced the chicken cordon bleu casserole awesome served over rice.  We had it over pasta last week and liked it that way too.

DDs family thought the creamy Italian chicken was okay, but not especially great. She says she added chicken broth and vegetables to the leftovers and made chicken noodle soup, which they liked better than the original recipe.  Andy and I both liked the creamy Italian chicken a lot.  We had it over whole wheat pasta.  I would make it again as written, but I don't think that DD would.  Initially, I was skeptical about the recipe, as I thought that it had way too much Italian dressing, and DD thought it would be great.  Funny how the results were the opposite of what we expected.

Alton Brown's baked brown rice is good, and very easy.  I always omit the salt, and add two chicken or beef bouillon cubes instead.  I also add about 1/4 cup more water than the recipe calls for.  When I make it, I do two or three pans of rice at a time.  I've already got the oven going so I figure that I might as well fill it.  I've never tried doubling the recipe in a single pan, since I don't want to mess with what I already know will work.  The rice freezes very well.  I freeze it in quart size bags and then put all the bags into a larger bag so that I don't have little bags of rice floating all over the freezer.

Crockpot Ham and Potato Soup

Crockpot Ham and Potato Soup

3 cups water
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
3 chicken bouillon cubes
4 - 5 small red potatoes, peeled if desired and coarsely chopped
2 medium carrots, coarsely chopped
3 -4 large green onions, with some of the green part, chopped
1 can corn, drained
1 cup diced ham
1/4 tsp dried mince garlic
1/2 tsp dried thyme
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients except pepper in a 3 or 4 quart crockpot.  Cook on high for 4 to 5 hours, or until vegetables are tender and flavors have melded.  Season with pepper before serving.

Garnish with shredded cheddar cheese, bacon bits and green onion if desired.

Makes 4 servings.

Easy Mexican Lasagna

The chicken filling for this recipe is made in a crockpot, but the dish is finished in the oven.

Ingredients for chicken filling:
1 to 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, (frozen is okay)
1 cup salsa
I can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, drained
1/4 cup water
I medium onion, chopped
1 chicken bouillon cube, crushed
1 tsp dried minced garlic
2-4 tsp chilli powder, or even more, depending on how much heat you like)
1-2 tsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
Black pepper to taste

Other ingredients:
flour tortillas ( any size will work, you will just need more if you choose a small size)
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (or substitute cheese if your choice)

Combine all filling ingredients in crockpot.  For frozen breasts, cook 5 to 6 hours on high, or until you can easily shred the chicken.  (It will require less time for thawed chicken.). If the mixture seems too wet, keep heating on high for another 30 minutes or so.  Reduce crockpot to low and keep filling warm until ready to assemble casserole.

To complete dish:
Spray 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Line with a layer of flower tortillas, ripping them as needed, to fit. It's not neccesary to have every single inch of the bottom covered.  Cover tortillas with half of the chicken mixture and sprinkle with one cup of cheese.  Repeat tortilla and chicken layers once more.    Cover with another layer of tortillas and sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Cover pan tightly with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Let sit for a minute or two and cut into squares to serve.  Garnish with sour cream, lettuce and diced tomatoes.  Serves 6 to 8.

Last Minute Chicken Pot Pie

This evening we had planned to go to a dinner at church, hosted by the youth group as a fund raiser.  The dinner was cancelled because of the snowy weather, but not until after 4. I hadn't planned anything for dinner. Hubby suggested going out, but it was cold, snowy and just generally nasty out there, so I whipped this up instead, from stuff I had in my pantry.  I happened to have a jar of turkey gravy that I had purchased for Thanksgiving, "just in case" that I wanted to use up, and I usually have canned chicken in the pantry.


Last Minute Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:
Filling:
2 or 3 medium potatoes, peeled, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 large carrots, peeled, cut in half lengthwise and cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 stalk celery, diced
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1 chicken bouillon cube
12 oz jar chicken gravy
12 oz can of chicken breast, diced or 1 and 1/2 cups leftover cooked chicken, diced
Pinch of thyme
Sprinkle of dried chives
Black pepper to taste

Biscuit Topper:
1 and 1/8 cups biscuit baking mix ( like Bisquick or Jiffy)
1/3 cup milk
Sprinkle of dried parsley, optional

Method:
Place potatoes, carrots, onions, celery and bouillon cube in saucepan. Cover vegetables with water and cook until tender.  (I'd add some frozen peas to this if my hubby would eat them.). Drain the vegetables and stir in the gravy and the chicken.  Add thyme, pepper and chives.   Pour into a two quart casserole dish.

Combine biscuit mix and milk.  Mix in a little dried parsley for color if desired.  Knead the resulting dough a few times and flatten it into a large biscuit that is the size and shape of your casserole dish.  Place this over the chicken mixture and slash it with a sharp knife in a few places to let the steam out.

Bake at 375 for about 25 minutes, until the biscuit top is done, and lightly browned.

Serves 4.

Zero Point Vegetable Soup

I'm always on the lookout for low point weight watchers recipes.  I found a zero point vegetable soup recipe and it inspired me to create my own, using what I had on hand. This is easy, filling and zero points plus. Crockpot Vegetable soup I used a crockpot but this would be easy to adapt to stovetop. Amounts are approximate, I just chopped veggies and tossed them in. 1 package dry onion soup mix 8 cups water 1 1/2 cups canned crushed or diced tomatoes (I used leftovers, but I think a 14 oz can would work.) 3 or 4 beef or vegetable bouillon cubes 1 cup salsa (mostly because I was trying to clean stuff out of refrigerator, I used medium but both dh and I found the soup a bit too zippy, I'd use mild next time) 1 each: medium onion, large carrot, large celery rib, chopped 1 each: medium zucchini, and summer squash, quartered and sliced 2 to 3 cups chopped green cabbage (half a small head) 1 small fresh tomato, diced Combine all ingredients in crockpot. Season with your choice of herbs and spices. (I used basil, garlic, parsley, and lovage because that's what's growing outside my back door.). Cook on high for 4 or 5 hours or until veggies are cooked to your desired texture. It should at least come to a slight boil to really develop the flavor. I had planned to throw in some cooked spaghetti squash from the freezer for the last little while, but I forgot.

Creamy Potato Soup

As I was rummaging in the refrigerator for dinner ideas yesterday, I came upon the whipping cream that I had used in a recipe earlier in the week.  I decided that it would need to be used up, and that decision resulted in this soup.  I made this in a 2 quart crockpot, but it could easily be done on the stovetop, or increased for a larger crockpot.

Creamy Crockpot Potato Soup

3 cups water
4 chicken bouillon cube
2 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into half inch cubes
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
1 clove crushed garlic (this would be about 1/3 teaspoon if using dried minced garlic)
1/2 cup whipping cream (milk can be substituted)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup (approximately) dry instant mashed potato flakes ( adjust amount used to get soup to desired thickness)
Fresh parsley, chopped ( dry will work as well)
5 to 6 ounces Diced leftover ham, or chopped smoked sausage (optional)
Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Combine water, bouillon cubes, potatoes, carrots, onions and garlic in the crock of a 2 quart slow cooker.  Cook on high for 3 to 4 hours, or until vegetables are tender.  Stir in cream, milk, potato flakes, parsley and meat if using.  Cook on low for another hour or so, until soup is warmed thoroughly and somewhat thick.  Makes 4 servings.

I think that some finely chopped green pepper would be good in this soup, but I cook for a picky eater, so I did not try it.  I contemplated adding cheese to this too, but I decided that using whipping cream in the soup had probably added enough fat to the pot already.  If I had used all milk, I might have added some cheese.

Crockpot Pork Tenderloin

Last week, I was lucky enough to get pork tenderloin for $1.99 a pound.  I've always thought that slow-cooking is not really the best way to make pork tenderloin, but I've changed my mind after trying this recipe.  This turned out moist and delicious and not anywhere near as sweet as I was afraid it might be.  I started with this recipe from  All recipes.  I did not have all the ingredients, so I had to make a few minor changes.  Also spicy food does not agree with me, so even if I had the fresh red chile peppers, I would have left them out!

Crockpot Pork Tenderloin
Approximately 8 servings

2 (about 1 pound each) pork tenderloins, Doubt that it really matters how much meat you use.
splash of olive oil (for browning if you choose to do that)
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce (I used Sweet Baby Rays)
1 cup water
1 chicken bouillon cube, crushed
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp dried minced garlic
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 large onion, sliced in thick slices (so that Miss Picky could easily fish the onion pieces out)
freshly ground black pepper (optional)

Brown pork tenderloins in oil, in a heavy skillet over medium heat.  (I suspect that you could leave out this step if you wanted.)  I browned mine and then spent 5 minuted cleaning oil spatters up!
Combine teriyaki sauce, water, chicken bouillon cube, brown sugar, garlic and red pepper flakes in crockpot and whisk to combine.  Toss in sliced onion.  Add tenderloins to crockpot and turn to cover with sauce.  Grind a bit of fresh black pepper over top of the meat if you want.  (I did and did not find the meat too peppery.)
Cook on high for 4 hours, spooning sauce over tenderloins a few times during the cooking period. 

Be aware that this meat was so tender that it did not slice cleanly so the presentation was not as nice as you would expect from pork tenderloin.   I spooned the sauce over the meat to serve.

I think this would probably make good pulled pork sandwiches as well.

Recipe: Black bean and Corn Chili

Black bean and Corn Chili

Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground beef, browned, and drained
I medium onion, chopped and browned with the beef  ( optional, I omit this, since  I have an onion hater here, but I definitely think that an onion would improve the dish)
I can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
I can (15 oz) corn, drained
1 1/2 cups salsa
2 cups water
2 chicken boullion cubes
(or substitute 2 cups of chicken broth for the water and boullion)
1 package chili seasoning mix
1 Tsp.  brown sugar
1/4 tsp dried minced garlic

Method:
Combine all ingredients in a crockpot.  ( I use a small 2 quart pot for this so I don't know how it would work in a larger pot)  Cook on low for 4 to 6 hours.  It won't hurt it to cook longer.
If your crockpot is a newer one,I'd cook it for less time, since the newer ones seem to cook at higher temperatures than my old one.

This makes 5 or 6 servings and could easily be doubled.

The heat of the dish can be adjusted by the type of salsa used, (hot medium, or mild), and can also be kicked up by adding some chili powder.  This is more of a soup-like chili, rather than a thicker chili like a tomato based one would be. 

This dish reheats well, but I've never tried freezing it.

This recipe was improvised from one my sister in law, Laurie, shared with me. The original recipe called for  beef stew cubes, and instead of the chili mix, a variety of spices were used.

Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce

I've decided to share one of my lazy day recipes today. I don't like to cook much, but I do like to eat well, so over the years I've collected a number of easy but tasty recipes. This is one I made up myself, and its been very well received. This makes quite a lot of sauce and freezes well. It can easily be doubled if your crockpot is big enough. I serve it over whole grain pasta, with a big salad.

Here's what you need:

1 pound Italian sausage
1 medium to large onion, chopped
small amount of olive oil
2 29 oz cans of crushed or diced tomatoes (I prefer crushed or a can of each)
1 29 oz can of tomato sauce
1 6 oz can of tomato paste
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 and 1/2 tsp dried minced garlic (or 2 to 3 times that much fresh garlic)
1 and 1/2 tsp each of dried basil, oregano and salt
3/4 tsp dried thyme

Brown sausage and onion in hot olive oil until sausage is browned and onion is soft. Drain well and add to crockpot. Stir in all other ingredients. Cover and cook on low setting for 6 to 7 hours. Discard bay leaves before serving.

Variations and Notes:

I add a 1/2 tsp of dried fennel seeds if I have them, but not everyone likes the pronounced licorice taste of it, so I only add it if it's just my family.

If you want a blander sauce you could use ground beef or turkey instead of Italian sausage, and maybe cut back a bit ont he herbs and other seasonings. If you like your food quite spicy, add some dried crushed red pepper flakes, (up to one tsp). It's been my experience that a little crushed red pepper goes a long ways!

If you want to use fresh herbs, you will need two to three times the amount of dried herbs. You can use two 15 oz cans of tomato product in place of each 29 oz can.
I've never tried this next one, but I would think that 2 or three tsp of commercial Italian seasoning could substitute for the oregano, basil and thyme.

I sometimes add a shredded carrot or some shredded zucchini to the sauce to give my family a few more veggies in their diets. Mushrooms and green peppers, (I'd cook the green pepper with the onions and sausage), would also be good, but the picky eaters around here won't eat them.