Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Easy Cheeseburger Casserole

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I’ve shared a version of this Easy Cheeseburger Casserole here. But this is an even easier variety I’ve started to make, and I encourage you to give this a try!

This casserole is as easy as browning meat, then stirring in the other ingredients. Make it the night before, then bake it at dinnertime when you need it.

Two of my boys helped me make this recently, and took such pride in everyone loving their creation!

A little tip: Instead of topping my casseroles with cheese, I have learned to stir the shredded cheese right into the casserole with all the other ingredients. This makes the entire casserole cheesy, plus it prevents the cheese from sticking to the foil.

Easy Cheeseburger CasseroleYum

Easy Cheeseburger Casserole
 
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Serves: 8-10 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 pounds ground beef
  • 6 cups frozen shredded hashbrown potatoes
  • 2 cups ketchup
  • 2 Tablespoons mustard
  • 2 cups French fried onions
  • 2 cups shredded cheese (I use Colby jack)
  • Sea salt to taste
Instructions
  1. Brown hamburger meat until no longer pink.
  2. Stir cooked meat and remaining ingredients together in a large casserole dish.
  3. Cover dish with foil.
  4. Bake in a 350 degree oven for one hour.

Another tip: I like to set out some Bacon Bits for people to stir in if they want to. Then it becomes Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole – even better!!

Tip number three: Aldi carries a variety of Organic French Fried Onions that are inexpensive and super tasty!

Do I double this recipe and make a giant sized Cheeseburger Casserole for our family? Of course I do. The leftovers (if there are any) are great!

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Make-Ahead Breakfast Burritos

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Here’s how to put together Make-Ahead Breakfast Burritos!

I used to make Breakfast Burritos like this – with Homemade Tortillas and Homemade Turkey Sausage. Wow. I was ambitious and I was able to use my time differently then.

Now, with a houseful of kids with special needs, food prep looks a lot different. Here’s the fastest way I’ve found to put together a large amount of Breakfast Burritos, and I highly recommend doing this! These go together fast, can be frozen if needed, and reheat easily in an air fryer or oven.

Here’s how I put together Make-Ahead Breakfast Burritos

Make-Ahead Breakfast Burritos
 
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Serves: 12-24 burritos
Ingredients
  • 1-pound ground sausage
  • 12-18 eggs
  • 2 cups shredded cheese
  • Sea salt and/or to taste
  • 24 small tortillas or 12 large
Instructions
  1. In a large skillet, brown sausage until no longer pink.
  2. Crack eggs directly into the skillet with cooked meat.
  3. Season as desired.
  4. Scramble eggs with the meat until fully cooked.
  5. Stir in shredded cheese until melted.
  6. Spoon mixture into tortillas and roll into burritos.
  7. Eat right away or refrigerate/freeze in freezer bags to warm up another time.

 

Breakfast Burrito Variations Yum

  • I make our Breakfast Burritos as simple as can be with eggs, sausage, and cheese. This is because we have a wide variety of specific food preferences at our house. Having just basic ingredients in our burritos allows each person to eat it as-is, add in extras, or dip their burrito in salsa or another dip if they want.
  • Any meat will work in these burritos. Sub sausage for bacon or ham for a great variation.
  • Use your favorite shredded cheese in these. Our favorite is Colby Jack – but cheddar, pepper jack, or even mozzarella would be good.
  • Use any size tortilla! I use small tortillas because we have small kids. The adults in our home easily eat three or four of these. Use larger tortillas for bigger appetites.
  • Some great add-ins for these burritos would be: tomatoes, onions, peppers, avocado, black beans, or salsa.

 

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Easy Chocolate Protein Mousse

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Wait until you try this Easy Chocolate Protein Mousse!

All it takes to make this Easy Chocolate Protein Mousse is four ingredients and a blender. Plus maybe five minutes of your time.

I decided that this is a perfect breakfast for our family, and none of my kids are arguing about it. When the ingredients consist of cottage cheese, honey, cocoa, and vanilla – why wouldn’t we declare it to be a great breakfast?!

Easy Chocolate Protein MousseYum

Chocolate Protein Mousse
 
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Serves: 6-8 servings
Ingredients
  • 3 cups 4% milk fat cottage cheese
  • ¼ cup honey
  • ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
Instructions
  1. Blend ingredients together until smooth.
  2. Serve!

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Angela’s Egg-Free Banana Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies

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Need a great breakfast recipe that doesn’t call for eggs?! Introducing: Angela’s Egg-Free Banana Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies. Yep, I give all the credit to Angela.

Yum

Way back in October, you might remember that I shared that a long time reader, Angela, was visiting her sister nearby so she came by and spent the morning with our family. It was wonderful to meet her, get to know about her family, and to be prayed over by her.

Well, the day she came, she handed us a fun bag of goodies and one of the gifts included her Homemade Breakfast Cookies. I ate one then and there, and loved it. She was kind enough to later send me the recipe, and guess what happened next!?!?

I tucked it away and forgot about it.

Boo. I blame the holidays and freezing temps.

Anyway, this week, Angela emailed to highlight the fact that this recipe doesn’t include eggs. What with eggs costing $500/dozen (I slightly but barely exaggerate) – I perked right up! Ah yes, let’s dig that recipe out!

I had all the ingredients on hand. So right then and there, I thawed some bananas and made a double batch of these cookies. Then I poured a cup of coffee and ate two of them during Auggie’s nap. And then I sat down to write this so that you, too, can enjoy these amazing cookies.

Angela’s Egg-Free Banana Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies include wonderful, wholesome ingredients all while tasting so, so, so delicious. And the fact that the recipe doesn’t call for eggs is a huge perk as we might all be trying to ration our eggs right now (or if you regularly bake for anyone with an egg allergy).

Angela’s Egg-Free Banana Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies

Angela's Egg-Free Banana Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies
 
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Serves: 18-20
Ingredients
  • 1 cup mashed overripe bananas (2-3 bananas)
  • ¼ cup melted coconut oil
  • ¼ cup pure maple syrup (or honey)
  • ¾ cup peanut or almond butter
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2½ cups whole rolled oats
  • ½ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Mix together bananas, oil, syrup, and nut butter.
  2. Add in salt, cinnamon, and oats and stir well.
  3. Fold in chocolate chips.
  4. Scoop dough onto parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.
  5. Bake in a 325 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned on the edges.
  6. Remove from oven and flatten each cookie slightly with a spatula.

What a great recipe to add to our collection of breakfast options!

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Easiest Chili Recipe

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Looking for the Easiest Chili Recipe? This has to be it.

I’ve shared other chili recipes with you through the years…

But after 30 years of marriage, feeding kids, feeding company, and making chili hundreds of times, I realized recently that I now have a favorite go-to chili recipe and it has yet to be shared here. Let’s solve that now!

Why is this my favorite chili recipe?

  1. Because there’s hamburger meat in it. This girl does like her beef.
  2. Because it comes together very quickly and with almost no effort.
  3. Because we can make it ahead of time and rewarm it when we want to serve it.
  4. Because it’s a perfect recipe to dump into a crock pot and have ready at dinner time.
  5. Because it freezes well. Might as well make a bunch and freeze some for another meal another time.

By the way. Have I talked about how much I love Rotel?

Probably not. But shucks if cans of Rotel haven’t become a buy-by-the-case-at-Costco-or-Sam’s ingredient that I must have in my pantry at all times.

There’s something about the flavor combination that makes food taste better. Like Rotel in this Spicy Ham and Potato Soup? I COULD EAT IT EVERY DAY.

And Rotel in this Easiest Chili Recipe? Yes, two cans please.

Look how easy it is to make this Chili:

  1. Brown hamburger meat.
  2. Stir in canned tomatoes and beans.
  3. Add spices.
  4. Simmer, slow cook, fast cook, freeze it, do whatever you need.

And after all that, serve it with Shredded Cheese, Sour Cream, and Fritos. See? The Easiest Chili Recipe.

Easiest Chili RecipeYum

Easiest Chili Recipe
 
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Serves: 10-12 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 pounds ground hamburger meat
  • 3 15-ounce cans beans (any combo you like and have on hand: pinto, red, kidney)
  • 3 15-ounce cans tomato sauce
  • 2 cans Rotel diced tomatoes and green chilies
  • 2 teaspoons onion powder
  • 2 Tablespoons chili powder (more if you like it spicier)
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
  1. Brown hamburger meat and drain excess grease if needed.
  2. Add all other ingredients with the cooked meat into a pot or crock pot and heat until bubbly (Crock pot: low for 4-6 hours or high for 2-3 hours)

 

Want to make this chili stretch into several meals? Serve it with Baked Potatoes or Hot Dogs for Chili Cheese Dogs.

You are going to love how easy this is to make!

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Easy Crock Pot Meals and Desserts

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Need Easy Crock Pot Meals and Desserts ideas?

I’ve found that lately, I’ve needed more crock pot meal ideas so that I can have our lunch or dinner ready when we plan to be out for the morning or afternoon.

Outings with these kids? They are a must. We’ve found that if we don’t keep our kids’ days very structured, the behaviors are a bigger struggle. Loading everyone up to use their energy in a productive way makes our days much better. It’s trickier in the cold weather months, but we find ways to still get out if possible.

We love the zoo, parks, children’s museum, and the library. We take walks, find ways to serve, and have lots of appointments.

I always pack snacks so that we don’t have as many hanger meltdowns while we are out. But always after any of these outings, we need lunch or dinner ready as soon as possible when we get home so we can sit right down and eat.

Easy Crock Pot Meals and DessertsYum

With all of this in mind, I needed an updated list of all of our crock pot meal, snack, and dessert ideas. I thought you might appreciate it too! So many meals can be made in the crock pot so that all we have to do is wash hands and eat when we get home from being out.

Keep this list handy. These meals are so helpful for so many reasons!

Also, fun fact: with our family becoming the large size that it is, I’ve found that often I have to move from a crock pot to our huge roaster! This is especially true when on Sundays when our adult kids come for lunch plus lots of guests!

And now the lists!

Main Dishes in the Crock Pot

  1. Simple Crock Pot Chicken Soup with a Kick
  2. Simple Creamy Chicken Stew in the Crock Pot
  3. Simple Hawaiian Crock Pot Chicken
  4. Simple Crock Pot BBQ Spareribs
  5. Simple Overnight Saucy Crock Pot Chicken
  6. Simple Overnight Melt-in-Your-Mouth Beef Roast
  7. Simple 3-Cheese Crock Pot Pasta
  8. Simple Crock Pot Shredded Ranch Chicken (for salad or tacos)
  9. Simple Crock Pot Pizza Casserole
  10. Simple Barbecue Beef Roast
  11. Simple Crock Pot Taco Pasta
  12. Simple Hawaiian Beef Roast
  13. Simple Hashbrown Casserole
  14. Simple Lasagna Casserole
  15. The Simplest White Chicken Chili
  16. Simple Crock Pot Applesauce BBQ Chicken
  17. Simple Three Cheese Spaghetti
  18. Simple Crock Pot Salsa Shredded Beef
  19. Easiest Beef Roast in the Instant Pot
  20. Simple One-Dish Chicken Florentine
  21. Simple Creamy Layered Enchiladas
  22. Simple Creamy Chicken Soup
  23. Simple Cheesy Salsa Chicken
  24. Simple Cheeseburger Noodle Crock Pot Dinner
  25. Simple Creamy Layered Enchiladas (Crock Pot or Oven)
  26. Simple 5-Minute Shredded Chicken
  27. Simple Crock Pot White Chicken Chili
  28. Simple Chili Mac
  29. Simple Crock Pot Creamy Stew Meat
  30. Simple 5-Minute Cheesy Hamburger and Potatoes
  31. Crock Pot Barbecue Chicken
  32. Breakfast Crock Pot Casserole
  33. Baked Potatoes in the Crock Pot
  34. Crock Pot Chicken Tacos
  35. Crock Pot Beef Stew
  36. Fiesta Chicken
  37. Creamy Crock Pot Chicken and Rice
  38. Italian Cream Cheese Chicken
  39. Turkey Sausage and Red Bean Stew
  40. 5-Minute Crock Pot Pasta
  41. Bacon in a Crock Pot
  42. Spicy Pasta Dinner
  43. The Easiest Pulled Pork
  44. Easy Ham and Potato Soup with a Kick
  45. Honey Glazed Pork Tenderloin or Pork Roast
  46. 5-Minute Crock Pot Chicken
  47. Taco Soup for a Crowd
  48. Make 5 Meals with 1 Pork Roast


Snacks and Side Dishes in the Crock Pot

  1. Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip
  2. Calico Beans
  3. Crock Pot Mashed Potatoes
  4. Crock Pot Beans
  5. Hamburger Sauerkraut Dip
  6. Hamburger Cream Cheese Dip
  7. Apple Butter


I don’t often use these recipes in the winter, but in the summer, baking in a crock pot is fun!

Desserts in the Crock Pot

  1. Simple Crock Pot Chocolate Peanut Butter Lava Cake
  2. Crock Pot Cheesecake
  3. Crock Pot Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding Cake
  4. Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cake
  5. How to Bake a Cake in a Crock Pot
  6. Strawberry Shortcake in a Crock Pot

What are your favorite crock pot recipes?

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Dark Chocolate Espresso Pie

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It’s our 2024 Christmas Brunch: Dark Chocolate Espresso Pie Recipe!

Oh yes, we are doing this!

A few months ago, our family hosted a Neighborhood Pie Party. Everyone from several blocks around was invited and asked to bring a favorite pie to share. It was a wonderful party with over 40 people in attendance!

Someone brought in a Mocha Pie and it was so very good. I decided to try and duplicate it for our 2024 Christmas Brunch!

It’s so easyYum

You know me. I rarely make anything that’s complicated. So I took the easiest chocolate pie recipe ever and turned it into a Dark Chocolate Espresso Pie with very little effort!

This pie includes simple ingredients like dark chocolate chips, whipping cream, and butter. Ah, and ground espresso.

Dark Chocolate Espresso Pie

Dark Chocolate Espresso Pie
 
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Serves: 8-12
Ingredients
  • 10-ounces dark chocolate chips
  • 4 Tablespoons butter
  • 2 cups whipping cream
  • 3 Tablespoons ground espresso
  • 9-inch pie crust (regular, graham cracker, or oreo)
Instructions
  1. In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate chips and butter together.
  2. Once melted, whip the chocolate mixture with cream and ground espresso using beaters or in a high power blender until smooth and thick.
  3. Pour mixture into a prepared pie crust.
  4. Chill pie for at least two hours before serving.

This is the fifth and final 2024 Christmas Brunch recipe, and it’s a perfect one to end on. But we aren’t done yet. Come back tomorrow for our Thank You Gift!

The other four recipes featured in our Christmas Brunch:

Coming up next: A very sweet gift for you!

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Santa’s Big Batch Drop Cookies

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It’s our 2024 Christmas Brunch: Santa’s Big Batch Drop Cookies recipe!

You’ll use four sticks of butter with this one, but it’s worth it. Why? Well, because these are delicious. But even better? You’ll end up with enough cookies to enjoy at home and share with others too.

The best thing about these cookies is that they are a wonderful sugar cookie – but without all the work of rolling out and cutting out dough. We love the tradition of making cut-out cookies too. But when Santa is busy, this is where we turn.

You’ll get about 40 cookies with this recipe!

Santa’s Big Batch Drop CookiesYum

Santa's Big Batch Drop Cookies
 
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Serves: 3-4 dozen
Ingredients
  • 2 cups melted butter
  • 2 cups raw sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 cups flour
Instructions
  1. Cream butter and sugar together.
  2. Stir in baking soda, vanilla, and eggs.
  3. Add flour until well-combined.
  4. Drop scoops of cookie dough onto cookie sheets two inches apart and bake in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes.
  5. Remove cookies from pan when they look slightly underdone so that they are soft in the middle.

You can roll balls of dough in colored sugar before baking if you want to make them more festive. We find that a fun Christmas plate offers all we need to fancy these up!

I love that you are a part of our fun 2024 Christmas Brunch! In case you missed them, here are the other recipes we’ve shared so far:

Up next: Dark Chocolate Espresso Pie

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Hot Cocoa Punch

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It’s our 2024 Christmas Brunch: Hot Cocoa Punch Recipe!

What’s special about Hot Cocoa Punch? EVERYTHING.

The mug, the taste, the fun treat. We made this for our kids last week, because of course we had to taste test all of our Christmas Brunch recipes before we shared them with you. What did they think?

Hot Cocoa Punch is a perfectly fun treat, and tastes wonderful after enjoying our Holiday Spice Muffins and Christmas Casserole.

Step 1: Make Hot Cocoa

Make it with a packet. Make it from scratch. Do whatever works for you. At our house we do either/or depending on our ability of the day. But our favorite Hot Cocoa is this and it’s worth taking a few extra minutes to make a batch.

Step 2: Pull out the vanilla ice cream

Again, buy it at the store or make it from scratch. If you can make Vanilla Ice Cream like this – WOW is it good! (Maybe you should ask for a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker for Christmas!)

Step 3: Put your punch together

Scoop Ice Cream into Mugs. Then pour in some hot cocoa. Suddenly you’ve got a creamy, frothy mug of delicious Hot Cocoa Punch!

This is easy, fun, and can be made with the finest of ingredients or with a packet and a spoon!

Hot Cocoa Punch RecipeYum

Hot Cocoa Punch
 
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • ⅓ cup water
  • ½ cup cocoa
  • 1 cup raw sugar or brown sugar
  • 10 cups whole milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1.5 quarts vanilla ice cream (or one recipe of Homemade)
Instructions
  1. In large saucepan stir together water, cocoa and sugar.
  2. Bring to a boil.
  3. Stir in milk and heat until small bubbles begin to form around the edges, stirring constantly.
  4. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
  5. Scoop vanilla pudding into holiday mugs.
  6. Add hot cocoa to each mug and serve right away.

I love that you are a part of our fun 2024 Christmas Brunch! Shared so far:

Up next: Santa’s Big Batch Drop Cookies

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Christmas Casserole Recipe

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It’s our 2024 Christmas Brunch: Christmas Casserole Recipe!

You are going to love this Christmas Casserole recipe! It is simple, hearty, flavorful, and you can make it ahead of time for ease.

How easy is it? Well, it’s easier if we cheat just a little bit.

Yes indeed. I buy a package of frozen peppers and onions and dump it right into my skillet instead of cutting fresh veggies. It doesn’t cost much more and let’s see…what else is there to do this time of year?? THERE’S SO MUCH TO DO, I don’t have time to make a list.

Therefore…

TIP: Buy the frozen veggies.

Or cut them fresh. I’m fine with whatever you decide.

Mmmm, brown those veggies with sausage.

Add eggs, shredded cheese, and frozen hashbrowns. (Yes, frozen hashbrowns. Do I need to whine about the 38 presents I still need to wrap? I buy shredded cheese and frozen hashbrowns even when it ISN’T Christmas. So, of course I buy them in December for survival.

TIP: Mr. Dell’s frozen hashbrowns contain only one ingredient: potatoes. Amen and thank you.

Put that casserole all together, then cover it and refrigerate it or freeze it until you’re ready to bake it. Oh how wonderful it is. Do you see why it’s called Christmas Casserole? The lovely red and green peppers (that we bought in the freezer aisle to keep our season merry and bright) have made our casserole so pretty!

Christmas Casserole RecipeYum

Christmas Casserole Recipe
 
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Serves: 8-10
Ingredients
  • 1-pound ground sausage
  • 20-ounce bag frozen pepper and onion blend
  • 12 eggs
  • ⅓ cup heavy whipping cream
  • 3 cups frozen shredded or cubed hashbrowns
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 cups shredded cheese
Instructions
  1. Brown sausage and vegetables together in a skillet until sausage is no longer pink.
  2. Allow mixture to cool while preparing the rest of the casserole.
  3. Crack eggs directly into a 9x13 inch baking pan.
  4. Add cream, hashbrowns, salt, and cheese.
  5. Stir in sausage/veggie mixture and mix well.
  6. Bake in a 350 degree oven 45 minutes or until the middle of the casserole no longer jiggles and is golden brown.

Did you try the Holiday Spice Muffins and Quick Bread recipe I shared to kick off our brunch? These are perfect with our Christmas Casserole.

Up next in our 2024 Christmas Brunch: Hot Cocoa Punch

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