An easy cheesy hash brown casserole recipe your family will love!

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I love potatoes. I can’t think of a way to prepare a potato that I wouldn’t eat from fried to boiled to mashed to baked! But this party potatoes recipe is hands-down my most favorite potato recipe of all time. While this recipe is almost the same as the one my mom has made for years, it has a couple of slight differences to make it even creamier and oh-so-delicious!

Another bonus of this party potatoes recipe is it uses frozen hashbrowns, just like my slow cooker potato soup. You get to enjoy the potato-y goodness without having to scrub, peel or cut potatoes. And that makes this recipe even easier to come together. You basically mix together the ingredients and then bake them. Easy-peasy!

I will eat these potatoes fresh from the oven and reheat them for leftovers. I’d guess that you could freeze and reheat them later, but they never make it that long around my house.

When it comes to a cheesy hashbrown casserole like these party potatoes are, I think there’s never a wrong time to make them. I’ve made them for Thanksgiving and for cookouts. In my opinion, they go with just about anything and everything! (I told you I love them!)

Let’s get this party potatoes recipe started!

Like any oven recipe, start with preheating your oven to 350-degrees (F). Next, find the biggest bowl you have. I use a giant glass bowl I got at IKEA a few years ago, but any extra-large bowl will work. Pour in the whole 30-ounce bag of frozen shredded hash brown potatoes.

Plop two cans of either cream of potato or cream of chicken soup on top of the hash browns. I have made it with both types of soup and love it both ways. It really is up to you on that one. Maybe go with whatever you have on hand, is easiest to find or is cheapest. Either kind of soup works well in this party potatoes recipe.

Next, add in 2 cups of sour cream. I just plop it right on top of the hash browns and soup. (One of my favorite kitchen tools to make mealtime prep easier is this kind of measuring cup with a push-up bottom. It makes measuring out ingredients like sour cream so much easier!)

While other party potatoes recipes put the shredded cheese on top, this one mixes some right in with the hash browns for cheesy-ness all throughout. Add in 1-3/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese.

And then, finally, add in 1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese. Shredded Parmesan cheese might work, but the grated works best for giving it more cheesiness flavor but without getting stringy. Combine all of the ingredients together in the bowl.

Get ready to bake!

Once the hash browns, soup, sour cream and cheeses are well combined, pour the mixture into a 3-quart baking dish that has been coated with non-stick cooking spray. Pat the mixture with a spoon so that it is even throughout the pan.

Sprinkle the hash brown potato mixture with 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese — or whatever amount looks good to you. Honestly, I don’t measure out this part. I just keep sprinkling cheddar cheese until it’s well-coated, but I am totally a cheese lover!

Bake the party potatoes in your preheated 350-degree oven for 40-45 minutes until the cheese is melted. If you want, turn your broiler on low for 2 minutes to get the top slightly browned and bubbly. And then enjoy the delectable cheesy goodness!

Party Potatoes Recipe

With just a couple of easy steps, this cheesy party potatoes recipe is great for a side dish any time and ideal for carry-in dinners!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Ingredients

  

• 1 30-oz. package frozen, shredded hash brown potatoes
• 2 10-3/4 oz. cans condensed cream of potato or cream of chicken soup, undiluted
• 2 cups sour cream
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

 

• Preheat your oven to 350-degrees (F) and spray a 3-quart baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Set it aside.
• In a very large bowl, combine the hash brown potatoes, soup, sour cream, 1-3/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese and grated Parmesan. Mix well.
• Pat the hash brown mixture evenly into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with the remaining shredded cheddar cheese (or however much your family would like!).
• Bake, uncovered, for 40 to 45 minutes until the cheese is completely melted and bubbly. If desired, turn your broiler on low for 2 minutes to get the top even more browned.
• Let it stand a few minutes before serving. Store any leftovers in the refrigerator.

Keyword carry-in, cheesy potatoes, Christmas, cookout, hashbrown casserole, pitch-in, potato casserole, Thanksgiving

An easy biscuit recipe with only 3 ingredients!

Affiliate links are used in this post; if you make a qualifying purchase via my link, I receive a small percentage of the sale at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products and services I use and love. It helps support my blog, so thank you for your support! Read my full disclosure here.

Considering I’ve shared recipes for pumpkin bread, protein-packed banana bread, bacon ranch cheese bread and the perfect yeast rolls, it’s pretty obvious I love bread. So when my daughter came home from spending time with my in-laws raving about a new biscuit muffin recipe, I knew I would be on board!

I had trouble believing that three ingredients could turn into biscuits, but they did. Even better is they are ingredients we have at home. And since they take about 20 minutes from start to finish, they are great for weeknight dinners. This biscuit muffin recipe is definitely entering into our recipe rotation!

Making the dough

This recipe calls for self-rising flour. If you usually like all-purpose flour like I do, you can easily make it self-rising by adding 1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt for each cup of flour. My daughter made it with self-rising flour with her Nana. With me she made it with all-purpose that we turned into self-rising. The biscuits turned out well both times. If you have all-purpose flour only, then your recipe will change to 5 ingredients with the salt and baking powder. But still not so bad, right?!

Get your oven preheating to 375-degrees, and then start by putting 2 cups of self-rising (or “doctored” all-purpose) flour into a large mixing bowl.

Next, pour in 1 cup of milk.

Finally, add 3 heaping tablespoons of mayonnaise. My daughter made these quite “heaping” when we made them. So good!

And then you want to make sure you stir the dough ingredients for this biscuit muffin recipe well together to combine them. Depending on the humidity or lack thereof, your dough may seem a bit dry. You can add up 1/4 cup additional milk if needed. You want the dough to be thick and a bit sticky, like this:

Baking the biscuit muffins

You’re ready to bake! Distribute your biscuit dough evenly into a muffin pan. Although my Rachael Ray muffin pan is non-stick, I still do a light spritz of non-stick cooking spray into the pan before adding the dough. We filled our muffin cups about 3/4 full, but they probably ought to be 2/3 full. I think this biscuit muffin recipe could certainly make 12 biscuit muffins; however, we ended up with only nine.

Bake the biscuit muffins at 375-degrees for 14 to 16 minutes until they are starting to get golden around the edges. They will still be pretty white like biscuits rather than golden like yeast rolls.

If you want, melt about 3 tablespoons of butter just before removing the biscuit muffins from the oven and brush butter over the tops. So delicious!

You can serve them however you’d like. Use them as a side along your meal.

Or make them into their own entree. The night we made them, I turned a couple into breakfast sandwiches for myself. One had precooked bacon with grape jelly and the other had a scrambled egg made in the microwave.

Serve them up warm or at room temperature. Put leftovers into a zip-top bag and store for up to 3 to 5 days.

Biscuit muffins

With just three ingredients, this biscuit muffin recipe is such an easy biscuit recipe you'll make it regularly!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Course Bread, Side Dish

Cuisine American

Ingredients

  

• 2 cups self-rising flour (Or add 3 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt to all-purpose flour)
• 1 cup milk
• 3 heaping tablespoons mayonnaise
• 3 tablespoons butter optional

Instructions

 

• Preheat your oven to 375-degrees.
• Place the flour in a large mixing bowl.
• Pour in 1 cup of milk and then add 3 heaping tablespoons of mayonnaise.
• Whisk together well. If the mixture is too dry, add up to 1/4 cup of additional milk until the dough is thick and sticky.
• Distribute the dough into a muffin pan that has been coated with non-stick cooking spray. Fill the cups 2/3 full to get 12 biscuit muffins or 3/4 full to get 9 biscuit muffins.
• Bake at 375-degree for 14 to 16 minutes until the edges are just slightly browned. Because they are biscuits, they will be more white than golden like yeast rolls.
• If desired, melt 3 tablespoons of butter and immediately spread over the biscuits. Serve them warm or at room temperature.

Keyword 3 ingredients, biscuit muffins, biscuits, bread, easy recipe, weeknight biscuit

A 5-ingredient, family-favorite sugar cream squares recipe

As a lifelong Hoosier, I’m quite familiar with sugar cream pie. It’s certainly popular here. But I don’t enjoy many pies and, honestly, I don’t really like sugar cream pie. (I know. My Hoosier “card” may be revoked for saying so!) However, growing up, my aunt often made this sugar cream squares recipe. And those I love.

When we went to St. Louis last year, I was excited to try its gooey cake. When I did, I found that it tasted a lot like this sugar cream squares recipe, but it wasn’t quite the same. Ever since then, I’ve had a hankering for these delectable squares, so I had to pull out the old family recipe and make some for us.

I’ve eaten this recipe many times, but I hadn’t yet made it myself. I was surprised to find it only takes five ingredients and is so incredibly easy. Sometimes when we have something nostalgic, it almost takes away the magic of it when we make it ourselves (or maybe that’s just me!). But this was just as good. It tastes like childhood in a creamy, sugary, sweet way. My family devoured it.

One other item of note is that this recipe uses cream cheese. I’m a longtime proponent of not using cream cheese in most dessert recipes. I feel like it almost always belongs solely in the savory foods category. But, I’m totally on board with it in this sugar cream squares recipe. Probably mixing in all the powdered sugar helps!

Affiliate links are used in this post; if you make a qualifying purchase via my link, I receive a small percentage of the sale at no additional cost to you. Read my full disclosure here.

The first layer

First, get your oven preheating to 350-degrees and then start with making the crust or bottom layer. Melt one stick of butter or margarine. I do this in the microwave, usually at about 60 or 70% power. Then stir in 1 yellow cake mix and one egg. It will come together as a thick mixture/dough like this:

Next, put your crust mixture in the bottom of a 9×12 cake pan. My Rachael Ray cake pan is great for not sticking, but if you’re unsure, spray yours with a bit of non-stick cooking spray.

Spread the mixture as evenly as possible over the bottom of the pan to form the crust in this sugar cream squares recipe.

Set the pan aside and make the second layer next.

The second layer

Next up in this sugar cream squares recipe is the second or top layer. Soften your cream cheese if it isn’t already, and place it in a large mixing bowl. I made the top layer in my stand mixer to save my arm some work, but you could definitely do this by hand as well. Add 3-1/2 cups of powdered sugar to the bowl with the softened cream cheese.

Stir or beat them together well until they are combined.

Once they are combined well, add in two eggs and keep mixing until the eggs are totally incorporated. The mixture will should have the consistency of cake batter or a runny pudding.

Pour the cream cheese mixture over the top of the crust layer and spread it evenly in your pan.

Time to bake

Put the sugar cream squares into your preheated oven at 350-degrees and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until it’s golden brown. I baked mine for 38 minutes and until it looked like this:

Let the sugar cream squares cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before cutting them. The great thing about this sugar cream squares recipe is that they are delicious warm and delicious at room temperature. Either way, I know your family will love them as much as mine does!

(Keep scrolling past the printed recipe to find a video of the recipe!)

Sugar cream squares

With only five ingredients, this sugar cream squares recipe is as easy to make as it is delicious to eat. It'll become a family favorite!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 3 minutes mins

Total Time 50 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Ingredients

  

• 1 stick butter (or margarine) melted
• 3 eggs
• 1 15.25-oz. yellow cake mix
• 8 oz. cream cheese softened
• 3-1/2 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

 

• Preheat your oven to 350-degrees.
• Melt the butter and mix it with the yellow cake mix and one egg. The mixture will be thick.
• Spread the mixture evenly in the bottom of a 9×12 cake pan. If the pan is not non-stick, then apply some non-stick cooking spray to the bottom of the pan first.
• In a large mixing bowl, soften the cream cheese. Add 3-1/2 cups of powdered sugar and mix it thoroughly by hand or with a mixer.
• Add two eggs into the cream cheese mixture and continue mixing until it is well combined.
• Pour the cream cheese mixture over the top of the cake mixture already in the pan. Spread it evenly over the top.
• Bake at 350-degrees for 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown on top. Cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting. Serve either warm or at room temperature.

Keyword 5 ingredient dessert, easy dessert, family recipe, Hoosier pie, sugar cream, sugar cream pie, sugar cream squares

A simple summer dinner idea!

Affiliate links are used in this post; if you make a qualifying purchase via my link, I receive a small percentage of the sale at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products and services I use and love. It helps support my blog, so thank you for your support! Read my full disclosure here.

I’ve got another simple summer dinner idea for you this week: slow cooker potato chili. It’s an easy recipe that has you using your stove before the day gets hot. Your slow cooker does the rest of the work.

I love making food in my slow cooker because I can do it early in the day and then basically forget about it. The last time I made this potato chili, for example, we had a play date at the park and came home hungry right at dinner time. It was perfect to come into our house with dinner ready for us. And this slow cooker potato chili recipe is a nice mix of meat and potatoes with just a hint of spice that is delish on a hot summer day (or a cold winter day!). Honestly, it’s a year-round weeknight family dinner you’ll love!

Prepping the ingredients

Start with getting your ground beef cooking. For us, I used 1/2 pound of ground beef. You can use up to 1-1/2 pounds if your family loves meat or you’re feeding a lot of people. My family isn’t big on eating meat, so using 1/2-pound to serve the four of us this potato chili was perfect. You want to crumble, brown and then drain your ground beef. (You could also use ground turkey or ground pork for this. I actually tossed in a small amount of mild Italian sausage with my ground beef that I had left from another recipe.)

Cooking the meat is the only active cooking you’ll do for this potato chili recipe. If you have cooked and crumbled ground beef in your freezer (like I often do), then you don’t even have to do this step!

While the meat is cooking, you want to prep your salsa and your potatoes. I use mild salsa for my family because the majority of us are not into spicy food, but you could certainly use medium or even hot salsa if you family likes spicy. A quirk of some of my family members is also that they don’t like things chunky. So when we have salsa at home for any reason, I puree it in my food processor. Using it in this recipe, I do the same thing, but you can totally skip this step if you don’t mind some chunks in your potato chili.

For the potatoes, you want to dice them up. I cut them relatively small, but they could have been even a bit smaller. You can use Yukon gold potatoes, but I love these petite gold potatoes. Even better, they come pre-washed, so all I have to do is cut them! In a pinch, you could also use southern-styled frozen hash browns just like in this easy slow cooker potato soup.

Putting it together in the slow cooker

The very first thing I do before making anything in my slow cooker is to line the slow cooker. It makes clean-up a million times easier! Making this potato chili recipe is no different.

If you don’t use slow cooker liners, give your slow cooker a bit of a light covering of non-stick cooking spray. Then pile all of your ingredients, except the cheese and sour cream, into the slow cooker. I add meat first.

Then add in the 1.5 pounds of potatoes.

Next, pour in 16 ounces of salsa (pureed or not).

After that, add in 1 can of condense cream of potato soup.

Finally, add 1 tablespoon of chili seasoning.

Give everything a good stir so it’s combined, put the lid on your slow cooker and set the temperature to low.

Cooking and serving the potato chili

Let your potato chili hang out on low in your slow cooker for about 8 hours until the potatoes are tender. I stir it every couple of hours because I work from home and can do so. Here is what it looks like about halfway through the day:

Finally, when it is all finished, it looks like this:

Spoon the potato chili out into bowls and serve it warm. It’s so yummy! My daughter and I like to add black beans to ours. So I open a can of them, strain them and then we add them in to our individual bowls. (The potato chili is so hot, that we don’t even need to heat the beans.) You can use any beans your family likes. If you want to add them into the slow cooker to cook all day, that also works. It just isn’t an option for my family.

We have also added frozen corn in with the potato chili and love the flavor it brings. You can put the frozen corn into the slow cooker from the beginning or steam it in the microwave and then add it in to individual bowls. So good!

And then my own philosophy is that cheese and sour cream make any chili better. That’s true for this potato chili as well, so I top mine with shredded cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream.

My family likes to eat this potato chili with corn chips that we can scoop the chili with, but you can also try it with tortilla chips or crackers if you prefer. Either way, it’s a hearty, filling dinner that won’t heat up your kitchen on hot summer evenings!

Slow cooker potato chili

An easy slow cooker potato chili perfect for weeknight family dinners

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 8 hours hrs

Total Time 8 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  

• 1/2 pound ground beef, pork or turkey can use up to 1/1-2 pound depending on your family's preferences or to feed more
• 1-1/2 pound gold potatoes, cubed
• 1 16 oz. jar salsa
• 1 10.5 oz. can condensed cream of potato soup
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 15.25-oz. can black beans optional
• 1 12-oz. bag frozen corn optional
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese optional
• 1/2 cup sour cream optional

Instructions

 

• Cook ground meat in a large skillet until browned and crumbly. Drain the meat and put it into a 5- to 7-quart slow cooker that is lined with a slow cooker liner or lightly sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
• If desired, puree the salsa in a food processor to avoid chunks. If not, move on to the next step.
• Add the diced potatoes, salsa, cream of potato soup and chili powder. If desired, add 1 15.25-oz can of strained black beans and/or 1 12-oz. bag of frozen corn. (You can also add the black beans and corn to individual bowls after the potato chili cooks. The beans can go in at room temperature, but heat the frozen corn before adding it.
• Cook in the slow cooker on low temperature for 8 hours, until the potatoes are tender.
• Serve with optional shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream on top.

Keyword chili, crock pot, ground beef, ground beef recipe, meat and potatoes, potato chili, slow cooker

Check out these other simple summer dinner ideas:

A simple summer dinner dessert idea!

Continuing on with the simple summer dinner ideas, I must include a simple summer dessert idea: easy baked sopapillas! I have a sweet tooth all year long. But I don’t want to spend forever in the kitchen or hours with my oven on during hot weather. I love desserts that are easy and delicious — perfect for hot summer days.

One of my favorite summer desserts is this whipped pudding pie recipe my family loves. But lately we’ve also been loving these easy baked sopapillas using flour tortillas. My daughter, actually, is the person who usually makes them for us. They are a perfect ending to a summer meal, especially something Mexican like this stuffed peppers skillet recipe.

Another bonus to these baked sopapillas is that they use ingredients I always have on hand, so I don’t have to plan ahead for them. Win-win!

Getting started

Preheat your oven to 400-degrees. Line two baking sheets with non-stick aluminum foil or parchment paper. This makes for easier clean-up. If you don’t have either, then be sure to spray the baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray or grease it with butter.

Next, melt 3 tablespoons of butter. I usually do this in a small bowl in the microwave.

Place four flour tortillas on your prepared baking sheets. I use taco-sized flour tortillas for these baked sopapillas and can usually fit two per baking sheet.

Brush each tortilla with melted butter to cover the top well.

Sprinkle each with about 1 tablespoon of cinnamon sugar. I usually have premade cinnamon sugar to make life easier around here because we like it on so many things. But it’s super easy to make yourself if you don’t have it. Just mix 1/2 cup sugar with 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon.

Baking the sopapillas

Put the baking sheets in the preheated oven and bake for about 8 minutes until golden brown and crispy. If you are using two baking sheets, switch them on the racks about halfway through for even more even baking. The baked sopapillas may bubble up a bit, which is completely fine!

Serve the baked sopapillas warm. Top them with whipped cream, cherries, chocolate syrup, vanilla ice cream and/or honey if desired. Usually we keep it simple with whipped cream and cherries. My son, however, loves them most just plain. No matter how you serve them up, these baked sopapillas are delicious!

Easy baked sopapillas using flour tortillas

Stacey A. Shannon

A super easy cinnamon tortilla dessert

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 8 minutes mins

Total Time 13 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine Mexican

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  

• 4 flour tortillas taco size
• 3 tablespoons butter melted
• 4 tablespoons cinnamon sugar (or mix 1/2 cup sugar with 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon)
• whipped cream optional
• cherries optional
• chocolate sauce optional
• honey optional
• vanilla ice cream optional

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 400-degrees.
• Place 4 tortillas on a baking sheet(s) lined with non-stick aluminum foil or parchment paper. (Or at least sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.)
• Brush each tortilla with butter.
• Sprinkle the tortillas with the cinnamon sugar, about 1 tablespoon per tortilla. If needed, use your clean fingers or a spoon to make sure the cinnamon sugar is spread over the tortilla.
• Put the tortillas in the oven for 8 minutes until golden brown and crispy.
• Serve topped with whipped cream, cherries, chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream and/or honey, if desired. Enjoy!

Keyword baked sopapillas, dessert, easy dessert, sopapillas, sopapillas with flour tortillas, weeknight dessert

Check out these other simple summer dinner ideas: