Twice-baked Potato Casserole

This is the perfect comfort food dish, so it makes sense that it's one of Ree Drummond's recipes (The Pioneer Women). You can make it as an entire meal or as a side dish. (Think Super Bowl!) I only did half the recipe, from the one listed on foodnetwork.com. This recipe is the edited half recipe.

Ingredients:

8 russet potatoes
Canola oil spray
2 sticks of unsalted butter (plus more of buttering the dish)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup cheddar cheese (you can experiment with jack, pepper jack, mild or sharp cheddar), plus more for topping
1 cup milk
2 tsp kosher salt
5 green onions
salt and pepper

So much amazing cheese!

First clean, scrub and pierce the skin of the potatoes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray all the potatoes with the canola oil spray and place on a baking sheet. After oven reaches 400, place in the oven for one hour. Remove from the oven and turn the oven down to 350 degrees.

Cut all of the potatoes in half and scoop out the pulp. You can have some of the skins from the potato, if you want. In a large bowl add the potato pulp, 2 sticks of butter and sour cream.

Mash the potato, butter and sour cream together, with a potato masher.

Next add the cheese, milk, onion and 2 tsp kosher salt. Now mix everything together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Be careful to not over salt.

Spread the mashed potato mixture into a buttered dish. Top with more cheese.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let sit for a few minutes, it will be super hot! Enjoy!

Meat-less Mondays! "Sausage" Red Lentil Hot Dish

I'm going meat-less today, with one of my favorite hot dishes. Hot dishes are an all-in-one pot meal, a popular dish from my mid-west childhood. There were usually always beef in them, but mine does not. You can totally switch up the veggie sausage for chicken or pork sausage if you like.

Ingredients:

1 14oz package of Tofurky sausages (you can use any kind of sausage you like)
2 tbsp avocado oil (you can substitute for EVOO or vegetable oil)
1 cup red lentils
2 cups vegetable broth
1 16oz package frozen cauliflower
1 16oz package of frozen kale (I like Trader Joes Brand)
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp red pepper flaskes
salt
pepper

Ingredients

Heat the oil in a large pan, on medium heat

Slice the sausage

Cook the sausage in the heated pan, till all sausage is browned, then remove the sausage from the pan.

Add the vegetable stock to the hot pan.

Then add the red lentils.

Then add the frozen cauliflower and kale and stir. Raise the heat to high, till the hot dish is boiling. Then cover and lower the heat to medium low and let simmer for 20 minutes. 

Then add the the diced tomatoes and let simmer for 5 minutes.

Lastly add the sausage, salt, pepper and pepper flakes. Cook till the sausage is heated thru and then remove from heat. Enjoy!