This Was Good

I made up this recipe last night. I wanted some veggies to go with the turkey leftovers and hadn't used my green bean casserole supplies because I had no room in the oven. Yesterday, I didn't want to turn the oven on and make it too warm in the house. So I made a microwaved green bean casserole and it turned out great!

1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 2.8 ounce can of French's Onion Rings
A 1 pound bag of green beans, I used Trader Joe's

Put the green beans in a microwave safe casserole, cover and cook for 8 minutes on your veggie setting or according to the instructions on the bag. Put the contents of the soup can into a microwave safe bowl without watering it down. When the beans come out, nuke the soup on high for 2 minutes. (My microwave is about 1100 watts, so this could vary depending on your microwave.) While that is in the oven, add half of the fried onion rings to the green beans and mix. When the soup comes out, pour it into the green beans and mix. Sprinkle the rest of the onion rings on top of the green bean and soup mixture. Cook for 3 minutes on high, uncovered. if you cook this covered, the onion rings will get soggy and won't brown up from the heat. Serves about 6.

The thinking was that it's the milk that takes forever to cook in the casserole. Why water down the soup with milk and then have to cook it a long time to thicken it up again? Here's another recipe that served as my inspiration.

Kraft Macaroni and Cheese - The Right Way!

1 box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese mix
3 - 4 Tbsp. Butter

Boil water, add macaroni when it is boiling and cook on Med-High heat for 7 minutes or until it is done to your liking. Turn the heat off. Dump the macaroni into a colander, shake it once or twice, and dump it back into the still-hot pan without rinsing. Put it back on the hot burner and add the butter, cut up into pieces or slices to help it melt faster. Stir til the butter is melted and coats the macaroni. Open the cheese packet and sprinkle over the macaroni, stirring til well mixed and no longer lumpy. You can let it sit with the lid on until you're ready to serve it.

THIS is nice and cheesy macaroni and cheese, not that wimpy, milky stuff you end up with if you follow the package directions! It, in turn, was inspired by how I make Campbell's Tomato soup, maybe my favorite all time soup. When I was a kid, it was the cheapest soup there was and I suspect that's why my mom gave it to us for lunch so often. Plus, it really warmed you up after a hard morning of building snow forts and snowball battles!

How do I make Campbell's soup? Only add half the water. And use that half a can to make sure you get all the soup out of the can. I hate leaving half of it stuck to the walls of the can! You'd just have to rinse it out before you stuck it in the recycle bin anyway.

Hope you American readers had a Happy Turkey Day! And kind regards to everyone else, too!