Hamburger Helper has been an easy fix to most families weeknight dinner. Add a box of noodles, seasoning packet and beef, chicken or tuna and your meal is done. This meal wasn’t intended to turn out like a Hamburger Helper meal, I just simply had the ingredients in the pantry. If you wanted to change a few ingredients, you can make it into a pizza dish by adding pepperoni, olives, bell pepper and mushrooms.

Today in the kitchen, I’m going to share with you an easy way to make your own that will not only fit your grocery budget, but will give you leftovers for a future meal. You definitely will forget about buying that Hamburger Helper box at the grocery store once you learn how to make your own. This is another featured crock pot recipe this week at Noel’s Kitchen Tips using simple ingredients found in your pantry.

Crock Pot Hamburger Helper

Ingredients:

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 Tablespoon taco seasoning
• 1 jar Meat flavored spaghetti sauce
• 1 cup Mostaccioli or Rigatoni noodles, cooked
• 2 cups  Colby/Jack cheese (Mozzarella can be used too)

Directions:

1. In a small stockpot, boil water to cook noodles. Cook noodles 10-12 minutes or until tender. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, in a skillet over medium heat brown ground beef and onion until beef is no longer pink. Add taco seasoning and stir until well combined. Drain any excess fat from beef mixture.
3. Layer ingredients in crock pot. Cook on low setting for 5 hours.
4.  Serve with bread rolls and salad.

 When the weather starts to change, I find myself searching recipes for comfort-style foods. This week at Noel’s Kitchen Tips, I’ll be sharing some favorite slow cooker comfort foods that are not only delicious and filling, but also easy on the grocery budget!  Today we start off with a Garlic Lime Chicken using simple ingredients found right in your pantry.

Garlic Lime Chicken

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

4 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 Tablespoon water

juice of 2 limes

pinch of fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper

Directions:

Start the day off right with a hearty bacon, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich.

Today I am up early preparing for another family trip to Reno, Nevada for Street Vibrations. Street Vibrations is Reno’s  coolest celebration of music, metal and motorcycles. (We go fo the motorcycles.) Our family tries to attend the event every year. This year we may even stop in to check out the Tattoo Expo. It should be a lot of fun!

Before we head out for the day, I decided to make these easy breakfast sandwiches. They are quick and easy and can be made any day of the week.

Sunrise Sandwich

Ingredients:

1 16-ounce can Jumbo flaky biscuits

8 slices (6 ounces) hickory smoked, fully cooked Canadian bacon

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter

8 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

8 slices American cheese or your favorite cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place biscuits on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake 15-18 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and cool for 5-10 minutes or until cool enough to slice through the middle.

Meanwhile in a mixing bowl, add eggs, salt and pepper; whisk well . Add to pre-heated skillet. Cook until egg mixture is almost set, stirring occasionally.

To serve, slice biscuits in half. Spoon egg mixture on top of bottom half of biscuit. Top with cheese, bacon and top half of biscuit.

Recipe Note: You can individualize these sandwiches to fit your family. Add dill, cumin, ham, regular bacon, turkey bacon or turkey sausage, diced onion, green pepper or tomato to the egg mixture.

Know what the first day of Fall brings to our house?

It’s time for all our favorite comfort foods. What better way to wake up and celebrate the first day of Fall than with a nice bowl of Apples and Oatmeal. Mmmmmmm, smells so good. 

Down Home Cooking  with this busy mom could only get better. This busy mom makes oatmeal at least once a week and especially in the Fall and Winter months where our tummies need some extra warmth. Get out your crockpot everyone, because you are in for a real treat with this easy recipe.  I have found that cooking oatmeal in the crockpot is such an easy way to make oatmeal that I don’t think I’ll go back to the stove top. You simply just toss all the ingredients into your crocpot the night before and you wake up to a delicious smell.

This recipe is one of the basic ones I make and of course you could alter it to add different ingredients like blueberries, pears, apple slices, almonds, raisins or yummy pecans.

Apples and Cinnamon Oatmeal

Ingredients:

3 cups old-fashioned oats

1 1/2 cups chunky apple sauce (I like to make my own. Recipe to be featured soon.)

2 Tablespoons brown sugar, light or dark

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons butter

2 1/2 cups apple juice

2 1/2 cups water

Directions:

Combine dry ingredients in the crockpot.  Cover & cook on Low 8-9 hours or overnight. (or if you want a quick brealfast on the weekend on High for 2-3 hours, if you get up at 6am like I do.

 Depending on the size of your crockpot, you can double the recipe like I did or you can cut it in half. Leftovers can be placed in the fridge for 1-2 days and re-heated in the microwave with a little butter and milk.

A great  budget-friendly and healthy way to start off your first day of Fall or any day.

Recipe Note: In the morning, give it a good stir and scoop oatmeal into bowls.  Again, you can serve with milk or cream if you like it that way to make it a little creamier.  Another yummy addition (after it’s cooked) to this oatmeal recipe is a drizzle of maple syrup. Yummmm.

What are some of your favorite oatmeal recipes?

As always, my quick and easy recipes for Busy Moms can be found on my website Noel’s Kitchen Tips.com.

Visit my A Busy Mom’s Kitchen Amazon Kitchen Store  for some of my recommeneded appliances, storage and kitchen needs along with some of my favorite cookbooks and aprons to help you with your family meal planning. For high quality kitchen tools for your kitchen, visit www. NoelsKitchen.com

Would you like to join our growing Family Cooking Club? Share recipes and tips with others? Join the Family Meals Matter Cooking Club on Facebook.  

Before I begin with today’s recipe, I would like to remind all of you that today the voting opens for Project Food Blog where I am competing along with over 1,000+ food bloggers for the #1 spot. The Contest is designed to find the best food blogger who will win the title of “Project Food Blog Winner”. Oh, and I mention $10,000! This is so exciting I’m on the edge of my seat. It’s like being in a competition on the Food Network.

If you enjoyed reading all about me and my passion for cooking and family for the first challenge, or if you haven’t had a change to read it yet, please check it out: A Real Mom’s Kitchen:PFB #1 Ready, Set, Blog!, then head on over to FoodBuzz and cast your vote for me!!!

We experienced our first signs of autumn weather yesterday so it was a perfect day for a bowl of hot soup. To go along with the Bean and Sausage Soup I made two loaves of Foccacia bread.  This was my first attempt at making this recipe and I think it will take a couple more adjustments to get it perfect. Although this time the bread was nice and moist. I made one loaf Jalapeno and Cheese and the other Rosemary Garlic.

Focaccia Bread

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups warm water (110-115 degrees)

1 Tablespoon Bread Machine Yeast

1 Tablespoon sugar

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing loaves

1 ½ teaspoons salt

4 ½ cups flour

Toppings:

Jalapenos, sliced

Cheddar Jack Cheese, shredded

4 cloves garlic, pressed

1 Tablespoon Rosemary

Directions:

Place bread machine on dough setting. Place ingredients into bread machine in order listed. Turn bread machine on. This process usually takes approximately 1 hour 40 minutes.

Once dough has risen in machine and timer go off, pull dough out of machine and place on a lightly floured surface. At this stage, you can cut dough in half to make two loaves or cut into four mini loaves.

Shape dough into a nice round ball and stretch to an 8-inch disk. Place on a cookie sheet lined with foil or parchment paper. Brush loaves with the olive oil. Cover loosely with a cloth and place in a draft free area. Let rise for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Once loaves have risen, top with toppings.  Bake in a pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes, rotating halfway through. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or cold.

This is actually a very easy recipe. What are some of your Foccacia favorites?