Toasty Cheese Bake recipe card #6 Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library

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Have you ever had one of those recipes you just loved growing up as a child and still like to eat as an adult?  For me, the Toasty Cheese Bake was the one.  This recipe came from the fabulous 70’s and is due with great thanks to Betty Crocker.

You see in the 70’s BC came up with this great marketing plan to reach house wives by selling these ultra attractive boxes with recipe card collections…yes I am being slightly facetious here.  I have read comments on the internet about the slightly unappealing green color of some…we lucked out and ended up with the Harvest Gold Box.  You could subscribe to the recipe cards and each month you would get one new set in the mail.

The above card pictured is one the recipes that was fantastic…about 10 years ago, pregnant with my second child, I was visiting my parents in ID and I mentioned I wanted to write down the recipe.  Yes, my mom STILL has her box!!!   We dug the box out, I sat there reminiscing over old recipes and found the one I wanted….did I mention I was pregnant at the time….so we get talking about recipes, things get moved around on the table, cook books are out, etc….and the RECIPE DISAPPEARED!!! 

I kid you not, we looked high and low and have NEVER been able to find the recipe….anyone else have things like this happen when they were pregnant?????  We have thought many times about trying to find the recipe and to no avail.

Well recently about a month ago, I came across a blog post somewhere that got me thinking about those recipe cards once again and the lost recipe.  I started doing a search to find some Forums that might be able to help those who lost cards and would they be able to post the recipe, etc.  The same night I came across a blog that only had pictures of the cards and her running commentary about each one and how cruddy she thought the food was and would never serve to her children, blah, blah, blah……I spent over an hour going through pages of her blog and was ready to give up.  I pushed the refresh button one more time and I gasped out loud…it was like seeing a golden egg or something….so much time searching and there was the picture of what I had been missing all these years.  I sent a text to my mom asking her if the name of the recipe was Toasty Cheese Bake and she said she would check the index and sure enough it was!!!

The problem was it was just the picture!! And now for the silly part, why had I not tried to Google the NAME of the recipe years ago!!!!  I know, as savvy as I am at times with the computer, sometimes my mind just doesn’t think straight…I know, it is Peri-Menopause all over the place!!!

So I did a Google search and FOUND the recipe card and the picture!!!!!  I was so ecstatic.  So here I present to you a simple, humble recipe for ground beef.  It is just another economical recipe that uses ground beef and doesn’t end up as taco’s on your plate, or shepherds pie, etc.

With the size of our family I have modified it from the original.  I use 12 slices of bread and would triple the egg and milk mixture.  The first time I made it after finding the recipe I followed the directions and thought it a little on the dry side but still good. So to make it a little moister I increased the milk and egg.

I also needed to add extra amounts of cheese…for this to be cheeeeezy, you really need to have lots and lots of cheese, covering the meat mixture sometimes looks adequate but you need to load it on top to get that stringy cheese look when you pull it out of the pan.  The other possible change I might make the next time I make it would be to add in Velveeta cheese, maybe on the bottom layer? I am not sure as of yet but it is something I want to check out and see.

Enjoy~~