This week I’m cooking up some easy recipes from Better Homes and Gardens Easy Skillet Meals! If you’re searching for dinner ideas this is the video for you.
Better Homes and Gardens Easy Skillet Meals (1972)
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ITALIAN SKILLET MEAT LOAVES (pg 13)
1 beaten egg
1/4c soft bread crumbs
1/3c milk
2 tsp instant minced onion
1 tsp dried parsley flakes
1/2 tsp garlic salt
Dash pepper
1/2lb lean ground beef
1 – 3 1/2″ x 3/4″ sticks Monterey Jack Cheese
1 Tbsp cooking oil
8oz pizza sauce
Hot cooked spaghetti
Combine egg, bread crumbs, milk, instant minced onion, parsley flakes, garlic salt, and pepper. Add ground beef; mix well. Divide mixture in half. Shape each portion into a little meat loaf around a stick of cheese. In a small skillet, brown the loaves on all sides in hot oil. Pour off drippings. Add pizza sauce. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer 15 minutes. Serve with hot cooked spaghetti. Makes 2 servings.
SPAINISH POTATO OMELET (pg 25)
2 large potatoes, peeled and finely chopped (3 cups)
1/2c finely chopped onion
5 Tbsp olive oil
6 beaten eggs
1/3c milk
In 10″ skillet cook potatoes and onion in 3 Tbsp of the oil until tender, turning occasionally. Season with 1/2 tsp salt. Remove from heat.
Combine eggs, milk, 1/2 tsp salt, and dash pepper. Stir in potato mixture. Heat remaining 2 Tbsp oil in same skillet. Pour in egg mixture. Cover; reduce heat. Cook until omelet is nearly set, about 10 minutes. Invert omelet by placing plate over skillet and turning over. Slide the omelet back into the skillet, moist side down. Cook until underside is set, about 1 to 2 minutes. Loosen and slide onto serving plate. Makes 4 servings.
SASSY ZUCCHINI (pg 12)
1lb ground beef
1c chopped onion
3/4c water
16oz canned diced tomatoes
1 – 1oz envelope spaghetti sauce mix
1 tsp salt
1c uncooked packaged precooked rice (Minute Rice)
1 1/2lb zucchini, cut up into 1″ wide strips (4 cups)
In large skillet, cook ground beef and onion until meat is browned and onion is tender. Stir in water, undrained tomatoes, spaghetti sauce mix, and salt. Bring to boiling. Stir in rice and zucchini pieces. Cover tightly; reduce heat. simmer, stirring occasionally, until zucchini is tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Makes 6 Servings.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
0:48 Italian Skillet Meatloaves
8:57 Spanish Potato Omelet
15:56 Sassy Zucchini
23:09 Cookbook Chat – BH&G Easy Skillet Meals (1972)
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45 Comments
Our library has a used bookstore and I’ve been able to track down some of the vintage cookbooks you feature. The BETTY CROCKER NEW GOOD AND EASY cookbook is my favorite! I found the 1962 first edition in hardback and I love it. I had it spiral bound and they added a bunch of blank pages at the end so I can write in recipes, etc. Thanks for the videos. I am a loyal fan.
I remember my parents having an electric skillet!
Good idea the canned potatoes…Always trying to save time…
Very, very nice. I shall try. Thank you. By the way, I love that beater. Also purchased it!
I made the Sassy Zucchini tonight with the zucchini we purchased from the Farmer's Market on Saturday. I did not have the packet of spaghetti sauce mix so I just added spaghetti sauce spices and it came out GREAT! I am a big fan of vintage cookbooks too and love them. I have a set of Southern Living books from the early 80's my mother-in-law gave me and look through them all the time. Thanks for such great videos and looking forward to more videos. I plan on trying the Spanish potato omelet next. Also you are right about the spice level back then, I think it was much lighter so I just add more – take care!
Congratulations on your chives! It's very satisfactory to grow your own! My brother is a wizard in the herb department. Basil, oregano, mint, cilantro and he grows beautiful tomatoes. He's going to try eggplant this year too!
Please take us on more field trips! I love seeing new places and the prices of things. I’m in East Tennessee and the produce prices look about the same as here
Our family had a similar skillet meal with zucchini in the early 70s. After that dreadful meal my sister and I do not eat zucchini to this day. Between the zucchini casserole and this easy skillet meal with zucchini our dog was ill for a day. 54 years later, I DO NOT eat zucchini in any form.
For zucchini haters, eggplant is an excellent substitution.
I live in Northeast Ohio too. Just found your cooking show. Enjoying the concept 😊
I have that same rotary beater in my camping stuff.
My mom always made meatloaf on the stovetop in a Dutch oven. She made it exactly this way without adding milk or cheese.
🌈🌈🦋🦋
Sassy zucchini needs some red pepper flakes!
Sassy zucchini is indeed a name that's made my pay attention! I think it's a recipe that's gonna work beautiful in a slow cooker! I made similar dishes just because I wanted to simplify zucchini boats, and I think this recipe is even better than mine. I also wanna add that I absolutely LOVE old cookbooks and I love your videos so much!
What a nice market!
My mom used her electric skillet SO often. To this day, she still uses one regularly. She even brought it camping a few years ago!
My mom had a hand beater that was well used until she passed. My son lives in north east Ohio and they have the best produce shops plus all the Amish places.
I was born in 1961, and the electric skillet was certainly a staple of my late mother’s kitchen. I have one she gave me so that I would make my own English muffins according to the family recipe. While I have done that, it is most often used for making pancakes, where the ability to hold a set temperature is a great help to me. For some reason keeping a stovetop skillet at a constant temperature is a real challenge for me. 😐
I always boil potatoes before frying! They get nice and fluffy inside and get this lovely sweetness.
Great job filming in the car and excellent coverage of the market . You did very well..!!
…and I watch quite a number of YouTuber field trips!!
My mother would make delicious fried chicken in her electric skillet.
I totally agree about using raw potato! My potatoes need to be fully cooked….probably over-cooked. If there is ANY snap left in a potato, I just can't eat it.
What an outstanding farmers market!! 😮
Ok, let’s break this down.
Skillet Meat Loaves — I started laughing when you patted down the meat to separate it. That’s exactly what Doug does. Wow! The cheese did ooze. This one looks pretty good.
Spanish Potato Omelet — You’re right about starting with raw potatoes. Aww! Love your new hand mixer. So, the omelet looks a little like a frittata.
Sassy Zucchini — Doug and I are fortunate to live very close to so many farms in our little part of the SF Bay Area. Fresh produce really is the best! All of those jams and jellies looked great. On another note, do you eat jams and jellies? For the record…loved the field trip. It’s funny you added cheese…Doug was just saying that the dish needs cheese. He also said he would cut the zucchini into medallions.
Love the book; it’s not part of our vintage library. Time to go on a book hunt. Thanks, Anna.
My grandma always made mini meatloaves in the skillet with tomato gravy.❤❤
I have my grandmother’s hand mixer, and it works so well! I’m intrigued to see if the Oxo mixer is dishwasher safe. I also enjoyed the field trip to the Amish store! I used to love going through Amish country whenever we would visit my aunt in Pennsylvania. Nice memories!
HI! Just found your channel and also a fellow NE OHIOIAN here also !
Love the rotary beater! Treat yourself!! 🎉
OMG … I still use that recipe book
I just love BHAG old cookbooks! I have collected so many! Just love the 60’s- 80’s! Great video Anna! I will try to meatloaf and the rice dish!
What is your favorite BHAG cookbook?
I recently found a vintage rotary beater at a thrift store. Did I need it? No. It came home with me.
anna. I need to go to pickering hill farms. ok bye
Thanks for testing out the canned potatoes. I was thinking about adding them to my emergency pantry but was afraid they would be a can of mush.
I remember back in the 60s my mom using her electric skillet to cook pork chops in a motel bathtub when we were on a trip to upstate New York with another family.
The sound that analogue beater makes is So Satisfying. A+
Are you from the Midwest? I feel like your Midwestern accent was more noticeable in this video and I don’t think I’ve never caught it before. 😃 my husband teases me because whenever I go to Tennessee to visit my family, he says my southern comes out. 😅
Suggestion: cupcake pan meatballs with inserted 1" mozz sticks at 350F for ~20-30 mins. Amp your meat and sauce, #win
I wonder if lightly coating the cheese with flour would help the meatloaf stick to it?
I found a vintage rotery beater at the second hand store the other day for three dollars☺️
After watching this video I bought this book. It's sitting here with a bunch of post it note markers sticking up from the pages with recepie names on them.
I haven’t had a proper stove in awhile now. The vintage electric skillet is a staple along with a vintage buffet burner I picked up at savers. Almost thought I had a “new”stove from an estate sale until I went back to claim it and the burners were broken. It’s an old Sears Kenmore model with the oven/microwave above it. Parts were going to be hard to find. I am sad about it.
Ihave mixed up nestliaf for a family of 5 ( aprx. 2 lbs meat) g the dough hook on my kitchen aide stand mixer. Worked very very well!
When making home fries (as we call them in upstate NY) we microwave "bake" them using the potato button on the microwave and let cool enough to dice up before frying. Comes out even better if you do actually allow them to fully cool from microwave. Then fry them up and they get crispy and browned evenly and are fully cooked. Love your videos! ❤
I learned to make genuine Spanish omelets a slightly weird way. I was on a field trip in college, and one of the professors (who had just come over from Spain for a while) had brought leftovers from her dinner for lunch. Being geologists, we spent lunch talking about our food, and she explained the formula for Spanish omelets (close cousins to fritatas). Hers was, unsurprisingly, potato and onion 🙂