Mushroom pizza with rucola and goat cheese

This recipe ended up being a combination of other things I've seen/had.  It started off as a recipe I saw in a WW cookbook - Wild mushrooms with a fire roasted tomato sauce.  It changed when I got to talking to a friend about what to make for a Christmas party - we wanted her to make her bruschetta again -tomato, rucola and goat cheese with garlic (fantastic by the way).

So this is a combination of those mixed in with a few other things I like.  I would make some changes next time (hubby said I could make it again in 2 weeks so it must have been decent anyway :) )

You may notice that I never make my own dough if I can help it - the dough we have available here is a good sized selection - and with 2 little kids I just don't have time.  When I tweak a recipe from another site though, they have usually made their own dough.  Eventually I'll get around to doing it (and have done it before)

What you need:

Pizza teig (I tried the Coop brand this time and it wasn't bad).
Mushrooms - I used the Coop mixture of wild mushrooms plus another container of button mushrooms.  I think I would buy 2 of the wild ones next time and use 1/2 of the button.
Goat cheese - I used the entire 'roll'
Rucola (happily 25% off this time)
1 jar of dried tomatoes in oil
1-2 cloves garlic, diced
1 small red onion, diced
I also had garlic bread on the side

Wash your mushrooms and slice them along with your garlic and onion. Toss the onion and garlic into a pan and cook for 1-2 minutes before adding the mushrooms.  Cook for about 5 minutes.

Roll out your dough.  Pour the oil out of the jar but don't worry about getting it all out - you want some of it.  Roughly chop the tomatoes and then spread the excess oil on the pizza dough and randomly place the tomatoes.

Spread your mushroom mixture on top of this and then slice your goat cheese and place it on top.  (I put the rucola on first this time but would wait until after cooking next time).

Bake for the specified time on the dough (teig) wrapper. Usually about 20 minutes.
After cooking, add some roughly chopped rucola.  Enjoy with a side of garlic bread.

Will post a picture of the next time I cook it with the rucola on top. 

Grandma's Spaghetti Casserole

This is something my Grandma made when I was little and my Dad wanted my mom to make while growing up.  It's very easy for it to dry out, but I didn't have any problems.  The recipe calls for one can of diced tomatoes but I used two and my mom made sure to tell me to cover the dish with tinfoil while cooking (so I did!).  The only thing missing from this dish was the floral casserole dish that I remember it being cooked in (but I'm sure I can prevail upon my parents to make it while visiting some time in the future).

This is very simple to make. You can make it ahead of time and stick it in the fridge for later (cooks for an hour).  I don't know if it can be frozen or not, but I don't see why not - as long as you leave the potato chips off!

What you need:

500g ground beef
1/2 package of cooked spaghetti
2-3 carrots
1-2 onions, depending on size
1 can of mushrooms (feel free to use fresh)
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 handful of broken potato chips (I'm sure you can find a use for the rest of the bag :-)  )
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the spaghetti according to the directions on the package (or however you normally make it)

While the spaghetti is cooking, put the beef in a pan to brown.

Dice the carrots and onion and add in to the meat.  Cook until the beef is mostly done and then add the mushrooms and cans of tomato.  (about 20 minutes total)

Drain the pasta and then add in the cooked meat mixture.  Mix well and then put in a casserole dish.  Add the crumbled chips on top and cover with aluminium foil.  Put in the oven for 1 hour at 160 C (325 F)

Enjoy!