#1. Name a food you like that uses a red sauce or anything red in it.
I love pizza- and since I guess pizza sauce is kind of red, I’ll go with pizza.

#2. Name a food you like with whipped cream in it or on it.
I love to have whipped cream on my hot chocolate.

#3. Name a food you like with blueberry in it.
My mom makes this amazing blueberry salad that I love.

#4. Share a recipe for pasta or dessert or a beverage.
I’m going to use this as a chance to post about my recipe that is a part of the Velveeta Casserole Challenge.  It’s called Meat Lovers Pizza Casserole (there are ziti noodles in it, so I think it qualifies as pasta, right?)

Meat Lovers Pizza Casserole

The ingredients

Cook about 10 oz of the Ziti noodles

Chop up 1 cup of green pepper

Chop up 1 small onion.

Cook 1/2 pound of ground beef, green pepper and onion until meat is no longer pink. Drain it and then set it aside in a medium bowl (which will be called the “meat bowl” for the rest of this post).

Brown 1/2 pound of sausage and add it to the “meat bowl.”

Cook 8oz of bacon, drain and add to the “meat bowl.”

Cut up 1 cup of fully cooked ham- and you guessed it- add it to the “meat bowl.” Stir everything in the “meat bowl” until it is well mixed.

Add 12 oz of Spaghetti sauce to the meat mixture and mix well.

By now your Ziti noodles should be done cooking so you will need to drain them.

Cut 4 oz of Velveeta Cheese into little cubes and mix it with the ziti noodles. Be sure to do this while the noodles are nice and warm and the cheese will melt very easily.

Now add the other 12 oz of Spaghetti sauce to the noodles and cheese. Spread that mixture into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Then spread the meat mixture on top of that.

Then grate 8 oz of Velveeta cheese (I didn’t know you could grate Velveeta cheese, but I tried it and it actually grated pretty easily). Sprinkle that on top of your casserole.

Then add pepperoni to the top of your casserole. Add as much or as little as you like. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until cooked through.

Yummy Meat Lovers Pizza Casserole.

And again from a different angle.

And now in case you just want the recipe in regular format:

Meat Lovers Pizza Casserole

Ingredients:
½ pound ground beef
½ pound sausage
8 oz bacon
1 cup fully cooked ham
Sliced pepperoni (use as much or as little as you prefer)
10 oz Ziti noodles, cooked and drained
1 (24 ounce) jar Spaghetti sauce, divided
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup chopped green pepper
12 oz Velveeta Cheese, divided

Directions:

In a skillet cook ground beef, onion and green pepper until meat is no longer pink, drain and set aside in a medium sized bowl.
In a skillet cook sausage until meat is no longer pink, drain and add to bowl with beef in it.
In a skillet cook bacon, drain and add to bowl with other meats.
Add 1 cup of fully cooked ham cut into bite size pieces to the other meats and stir everything until well mixed. Then add half of the jar of Spaghetti sauce to the meat mixture, mix well.
After you have cooked and drained your ziti noodles- add 4 oz of Velveeta cheese that has been cut into small cubes. Be sure to add the Velveeta cheese while the noodles are warm so that the cheese will melt. Then add the other half of the jar of Spaghetti sauce to the noodles and cheese. Spread the noodles into a greased 9×13 inch dish.
Add the meat mixture on top of the noodles. Cover with 8oz of grated Velveeta Cheese and top with pepperoni slices.
Cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until cooked through.

If that looks yummy to you (and I PROMISE, it is YUMMY!) then please stop by and vote for me at the Velveeta Casserole Challenge.  I’m the one all the way on the right- Livin’ With Me and Meat Lovers Pizza Casserole.

You can also check out some fun giveaways I have going on at my Livin’ With Me blog- if you vote for me you can have a chance to win some great prizes.

#1. Name one cookbook, cooking website or food blog that you frequently use.
I love my Taste of Home magazines, my Taste of Home cookbooks and using the Taste of Home website.

#2. Do you watch any cooking shows on tv? Which ones?
I don’t watch much TV at all, so I don’t watch any cooking shows.

#3. Are you in a cooking rut? Name a food or dish that you’d like to find a recipe for.
I’m definitely in a cooking rut.  We’ve been eating the same things over and over again.  I need to find something new and exciting and different.  We have a lot of chicken because my toddler will usually eat it so I am looking for new ways for making chicken.

#4. Share a recipe created by somebody else that you haven’t tried but would like to.
My bloggy friend Pam shared a recipe for a Pasta Salad that sounds delicious and I want to try it.  Here it is:

Pasta Salad
Need:
2 bottles of Italian Zesty dressing
1/4 lb hard salami
1/4 lb ham
1/4 lb provolone cheese
1/8 lb pepperoni
1 large box rigatoni pasta (or your favorite kind)
2 stalks celery
1/2 jar olives (go on last)
2 large tomato
1 pack dry Italian mix

Directions:
Cook noodles (let cool before mixing with other ingredients). Dice ingredients. Mix 1 large Italian zesty dressing and pack of dry mix. (I pour dry mix into dressing bottle and shake it up to mix it together) In large container, combine noodles, diced ingredients, and mixed dressing. Be sure to mix/toss ingredients well so everything is coated with the dressing. Let sit overnight. About 2 to 3 hours before serving, add olives and the other bottle of dressing.

Stop by Fun, Crafts and Recipes if you’d like to play along.

Ingredients
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
4 teaspoons dried onion flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
2 cups water

Directions
1. Combine tomato paste, garlic, parsley flakes, onion, oregano, basil and water in 2 quart saucepan. Cook over medium high heat until mixture boils.
2. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes.
3. Cool a little and spread on your pizza crust and proceed with remainder of your toppings.

When I made this I actually doubled it so that I could have extra sauce to freeze.  We used one last night and I put the extra in Ziploc bags to freeze for future pizzas. Although the recipe doesn’t call for it, we added some salt and some garlic salt to it for some extra flavor. It was really good and so easy to make.