Friday, November 12, 2010

Cheesy Potato Bake

24 ounces cubed potatoes
1/2 cup minced onion
2 batches of cream soup (mushroom or celery work well)
1 8-ounce package cream cheese
Shredded Cheese of your choice - Original recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups, but it's entirely up to your tastes
1 1/2 cups cubed ham (gf) - I pre-rinse my ham when I use it in recipes because the salt is just too much for me
1/4 t pepper
spinach - I use about half a pound cooked spinach
Take cubed potatoes and boil until soft (small cubes don't take long, maybe a few minutes).  Soften cream cheese and cream together with soup. Cook onions with some olive oil until tender.  Stir in onions, ham, cheese, spinach, and pepper into cheese mixture. Gently stir in potatoes.

For freezing:  Place in gallon freezer bag. Label and freeze.  To serve: Thaw. Place in 9x13 inch baking dish. Bake covered for 1 hour at 350°. Uncover and top with shredded Cheddar cheese. Return to oven until cheese is melted.

Same day:  Place in 9x 13 baking dish and bake 1/2 hour or longer at 350.  (I don't think I've ever covered it like the freezing directions say). 

Friday, November 5, 2010

Mini Cheesecakes



Mini Cheesecakes
  • Cookies, original recipe calls for vanilla wafers (see the gf cookies I used below)
  • 2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla (gf)
  • Filling/topping (cherries, strawberries, etc.) (gf)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
Place cupcake wrappers inside muffin pan. 
Crush cookies to make a crumbly base. 
Place 1/2 -1 tsp. cookie crumbles in each cupcake wrapper.
Take the room temperature cheese and beat with mixer until smooth.  Mix in sugar, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy.  Fill each cupcake wrapper almost to the top.
Bake 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.  (Watch it carefully)
Fill center with desired topping.  Refrigerate to achieve best consistency. 




Crumble Cookie Bottom




These are the cookies I used.