Veggie pasta....cook lots of veggies...onion, peppers, carrots, celery, broccoli whatever else....
make a white sauce....first by frying onion in butter and oil, adding flour...stir, chicken stock and milk...some cream cheese and some parm...and mix about 3 cups of that,4 cups of partially cooked veggies and a pound of cooked pasta like penne, fusilli, shells elbows etc into a 2 qt casserole....with the sauce and veggies and some grated chedder or whatever....a good cup of shredded cheese....and refrigerate over night.
Reheat in the am and there you go!
After a night in the fridg you may want to add a little more milk or chicken broth.
Or another favorite dish of mine....made in a big fry pan...
put 4 or 5 slices of bacon in the bottom of a frypan, add round steak cut into slivers...thin strips, salt and papper, cover with sliced onions, add a layer of carrot buttons, more salt and papper, and a layer of thinley sliced potatoes, salt and pepper. Add water to 1/2 inch in the bottom of the pan, cover and simmer until the meat and veggies are done, about 45 minutes to an hour....add more water if needed.
Then put that all into a 2 qt casserole, cover, cool and reheat.
It's a gravyless stew....and because there isn't much flavoring but salt and pepper, I find it appeals to lots....very basic....and I love it.

However the last church pot luck I went to there were lots and lots of over cooked pasta dishes.....and I vowed that the next one I go to I will take a vegetable dish without pasta!

Oh and i have a "real recipe" for the sauce for the pasta and veggie thing if you want it.

This one is not as "putzy" as it looks. the flavor is phenomenal! I can't see why you couldn't combine rice or noodles with it just before serving.

Beef Daube Provençal

Ingredients
2 teaspoons olive oil
12 garlic cloves, crushed
1 (2-pound) boneless chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 2-inch cubes
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
1 cup red wine
2 cups chopped carrot
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1/2 cup less-sodium beef broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
Dash of ground cloves
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 bay leaf
3 cups hot cooked medium egg noodles (about 4 cups uncooked noodles)
Chopped fresh thyme (optional)

Preparation
Preheat oven to 300°.

Heat olive oil in a small Dutch oven over low heat. Add garlic to pan; cook for 5 minutes or until garlic is fragrant, stirring occasionally. Remove garlic with a slotted spoon; set aside. Increase heat to medium-high. Add beef to pan. Sprinkle beef with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Cook 5 minutes, browning on all sides. Remove beef from pan. Add wine to pan, and bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Add garlic, beef, remaining 1 teaspoon salt, remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper, carrot, and next 8 ingredients (through bay leaf) to pan; bring to a boil.

Cover and bake at 300° for 2 1/2 hours or until beef is tender. Discard bay leaf. Serve over noodles. Garnish with chopped fresh thyme, if desired.

Note: To make in a slow cooker, prepare through Step 2. Place beef mixture in an electric slow cooker. Cover and cook on HIGH for 5 hours.

Yield 6 servings (serving size: about 3/4 cup stew and 1/2 cup noodles)

Linda

Oooohhhhhhhh...........dueling Linda's!!! LOL

LindaC: Do you think I could just do that second one in my cast iron dutch oven and go right from stove top to oven without messing up the layers (I like the layered look for presentation)?

I'll be trying the creamy one too, but bacon sounds good to me right now!

I totally agree about the overcooked pasta dishes!! We have lots of good cooks, but it tends to be shepherd's pie, pasta and tomato stuff at most of the potlucks. Small church and I like to shake it up a bit AND bring something not full of fat!

Linda (doucanoe): I think I'll make this one at home. Sounds wonderful, but trying to serve plain pasta at a potluck (as the base) is sometimes tough. I don't want to stand there and explain that you're supposed to put the beef over the noodles! But at home.............no problem!!!

Thank you both!

Deanna

Deanna, you just had to make it difficult with that round steak, didn't you? (grin) Most of my "potluck" recipes take ground beef or minced beef.

I suppose you could make a "pot pie" type dish with the beef, vegetables, thick gravy, top with biscuit dough and bake, or do a Shepherd's Pie with mashed potatoes. That requires another baking, though.

You could make swiss steak, but it wouldn't go very far and neither would Italian beef for sandwiches.

Good luck, I'm still thinking....

Annie

Of course, I always have to make things difficult, Annie!

I've got LindaC's layer beef recipe from above sitting on the woodstove right now.
Sure smells good!

I ended up cutting the bacon into 1" chunks and adding about a teaspoon of worcestershire and a tablespoon of dry brown gravy mix and a tiny about of (gasp!) garlic powder and a stalk of celery very thinly sliced (hey! it's what I had on hand and needed to use up).

Can't wait to try it!

Deanna

Now that's the way to clean the pantry, just take something to a potluck!

Annie

Yep! Once a month!
Not that my pantry is clean.......... :-)

Deanna

Gosh, I wasn't competing with LindaC, I was just offering up ideas, as that is what you asked for.

In my defense, I did state that you could mix the pasta with the stew before serving.

Let us know how your pot luck turns out. That beef dish sounds delish!

Linda

I was only joking Linda (doucanoe). I sure hope no offense was taken as I certainly didn't intend any!
I just noticed that both of the first responses were from "Linda's" (one of my favorite names, BTW, it also belongs to my daughter).

I'm hanging my head in shame...........I missed the line where you talked about mixing with the pasta.

That'll teach me...again....

Believe me, all 3 recipes sounded wonderful. I did go with the layered one simply because it sounded easy, and my woodstove was going at the time........I plopped the whole thing on top!!

The other two recipes are on my list to try. I've got lots more round steak and pork on the way.....Aaaaahhhhhh...

Thank you both for coming to my rescue when I needed inspiration!

Deanna