Saturday, March 26, 2011

Vegetable Beef Casserole

In the craziness around here while working on our house addition, I've been looking for simple one pot meals or casseroles. I love having everything all in one dish to make serving and cleaning up easier.
But some casseroles are anything but simple. By the time you fry the meat, cook the pasta and maybe the vegetables, I already have several pans dirty. So much for time saving!

But this casserole is truly a one pot, no mess meal. It is full of great vegetables. Best of all, my family loves it! The only thing that is dirty in preparation is a knife and cutting board. It is easy to increase the amount of veggies or meat if feeding a crowd.


Vegetable Beef Casserole

3 sliced potatoes
3 sliced carrots
3 sliced celery ribs
2 cup fresh or frozen green beans
1 onion, diced
1 lb ground beef, raw
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
4 chopped tomatoes OR a pint pizza sauce
1 cup cheddar cheese

Layer vegetables, meat and seasonings. Top with tomatoes or sauce. Cover and bake at 375 for about 1 1/2 hours or until tender. Uncover and sprinkle with cheese. Melt and serve.

I have found this a good recipe for Sunday. I can cut up my veggies the night before, cover with water and assemble in the morning. I put it in the oven on time bake and it smells wonderful when we get back from church.

I'd love to find some more simple meals like this for Sundays. Any ideas?

5 comments :

  1. This looks yummy! We like to do either roast or chicken leg quarters. Cut up potatoes, carrots, onions and cabbage and put on top of meat. Sprinkle liberally with seasoned salt and bake! This is so yummy and simple!

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  2. Timing is everything in the kitchen--and last night the Lord's timing was once again, perfect! I quickly glanced at your page and your recipe was the answer I needed at the moment! I was in need of a meal to take to church today and your Vegetable Beef Casserole was perfect!
    We share a meal after church every Sunday, and most are done in crockpots. So I used your recipe (even cut all the vegies last night to eliminate that this morning--great idea!) except I cooked the hamburger/onion this morning and then threw the vegies in on top (I wanted to make SURE the hamburger was fully cooked by lunchtime). I used the pizza sauce, plus a cup of water just to make sure it wouldn't be dry (since I wouldn't be able to check it's progress while in church!) I turned the crockpot on high at 9:00am and by 12:30 when it was served it was perfect! I never even stirred it. Thanks for a great new meal--one for our family and even good enough to share with our church family!

    Kari

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  3. The Dominica version:
    Throw a couple of pieces of meat into a boiling pot of water. Add sesonings/herbs. Throw in half dozen of peeled green bananas, several pieces of taro, breadfruit, carrots, and anything else that laying around. Boil until all are soft enough to run a fork through, not mushy.
    Enjoy!!!

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  4. Gina,
    Thanks so much for sharing this fast and easy recipe.
    I had ground beef thawed out on Sat., it was in the 30's again, and all of my big guys and little guys were in the garden, cultivating and planting two 50 pound bags of seed potatoes.
    I threw this together at the last minute and stuck it in the oven. Made a pumpkin pie and crumble berry pie and honey wheat muffins.
    They were so excited to come into a warm house and smell all of the yummy goodness baking up.
    I did want to let you know that I had some sour cream that I needed to use up and I added that to my pizza sauce before baking. It gave it a more creamy and tomatoey type of sauce and was very good with the melted cheese if you ever want a variation on this dish.

    I also like to take chicken pieces and all of the those veggies from your recipe and throw them in the crock pot with a good amount of Italian dressing or spices. I can use frozen chicken or thawed. It's especially easy for Sunday mornings, to have a hot lunch when you get home.

    Another idea. Is chicken breasts, topped with a pint of salsa and two cups of black beans in the crock pot. Then add cream cheese the last 30 minutes and serve over brown rice with any of your favorite toppings.

    Love the progress on your house. So exciting for you!

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  5. Hi Gina! I like the looks of this recipe. I'm going to try it. And I SO agree with you about casseroles or any dish that requires stovetop cooking before the baking! I tend to avoid recipes like that.

    I have a whole category on my blog called "Sunday Dinner" that is real Sunday dinners, usually with recipes, that I rely on to feed the hungry crowd the minute we walk in the door after church (of course this need comes up other times too, so it's a useful collection of menus). Here's the link to my blog - the categories are in the sidebar.
    http://thriftathome.blogspot.com/

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