Bacon Cheeseburger on Spaghetti Squash

Ingredients:

1 lb hamburger
½ lb sausage
3 cloves minced garlic
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
minced onion (as much desired)
crumbled bacon (as much as desired)
muenster cheese slices

1 spaghetti squash
3 T butter
salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400. Half the squash and stick the two halves face down in a 9x13 baking dish, pour about 1/3 cup water into the bottom. Put in oven for 40 minutes. When done, shred squash to make noodles. Mix in butter. Salt and pepper to taste.

In skillet, mix up the hamburger and sausage until well blended and then brown. Once brown, mix everything else except cheese. Let simmer covered for 10 minutes. Cover meat mix with slices of muenster cheese, turn off heat and cover, letting cheese melt.

Serve meat mixture on top of spaghetti squash.

Italian Peasant Soup

This one takes a lot of chopping, but after that it's fast. Makes a ton, I often serve this for gatherings, but I freeze serving sizes in ziplocs when we make it for ourselves.

1 lb. sausage links, cut in 1" pieces

1 lb. cubed cooked chicken

1 large or 2 med. onions, chopped

6 large garlic cloves, minced (I use equivalent of preminced garlic from jar)

2 cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained

2 cans diced tomatoes, undrained

2 cans (3.5 cups) chicken broth

1 tsp. basil

1 tsp. oregano

6 handfuls of fresh spinach (small bag or half of a large bag), chopped

grated parmesan

In skillet/cast iron preferred over med. heat, cook sausage til no longer pink, transfer to large dutch oven/pot. Cook onions (& garlic if you're using fresh garlic) in skillet til tender, transfer to pot. Cook chicken if uncooked til no longer pink, transfer to pot. Add broth, beans, tomatoes, basil and oregano (& garlic if using preminced). Cook uncovered 10 min. Add spinach and heat just til wilted. Sprinkle with parmesan.

Even finicky kids eat it - just don't tell them ahead of time there is spinach! I get raves over this soup all the time and often lots of people go back for seconds.