I stand corrected. Last night’s plan of stew didn’t pan out, because the hubby took all the leftovers to work with him. Here I thought there was plenty for both him AND stew. He confessed that it was just a little bit too much for him, but insists I didn’t have enough for the stew.
He did say there were some very jealous people at work last night. Pure goodness on a plate, I tell you.
So we couldn’t have stew. We ended up just having grilled cheese sandwiches and french fries. It was a good meal, but certainly no beef stew.
Tonight, if we have the beans, we’re going to have Taco Soup. My boys love this. My daughter loves part of it – the corn, the chips, and the cheese. It’s just like Chili (which they say they DON’T like) but it has corn added.
Here’s what you need:
* 1 ½ pounds ground beef
* 1 envelope taco seasoning
* 2 cans (15 ¼ ounces each) whole kernel corn, undrained
* 2 cans (15 ounces each) chili beans, undrained
* 2 cans (14 ½ ounces each) diced tomatoes, undrained
* Crushed tortilla chips (or Fritos – that’s what we usually use)
* Shredded cheddar cheese
And here’s how you throw it together:
In a dutch oven (I love my dutch oven) cook beef until done, drain (you could probably add some diced onions to the beef while cooking too, I sometimes do if I have an onion lying around). Stir in the taco seasoning, corn, beans and tomatoes. Cover and simmer (stirring occasionally) for 15 minutes or so, until heated through.
Place chips in soup bowls, ladle soup over chips, and sprinkle with cheese. OR, do chips, cheese, then soup. OR, do soup, cheese, then chips. Order doesn’t matter – the end result is the same. It’s all good!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Roast Beef with Gravy
Last night's dinner was made with our trusty crockpot. Let me first say that if you've never used those new crockpot liners, you don't know what you're missing - cleanup is a BREEZE with them. I use my crockpot a lot more now than I did before I discovered them. Or I should say, when someone directed me to a free sample. I'm all about free samples. And once I used the sample I was hooked like a fish.
Now the trick with this particular crockpot recipe is that it doesn't take all day - so a crockpot with delay start is helpful. I don't have that, but I do have a hubby who works second shift who is more than happy to plug in the crockpot for me before he leaves for work. Of course he is - he gets the leftovers from all my attempts.
Here we go...
Ingredients you will need:
* 1 boneless beef sirloin tip roast (about 4 pounds) <-- per the recipe. I used one about 2 1/2 pounds because that's what we were given when we bought 1/4 of a cow last year. It was a good size for us, with plenty left for hubby's lunch and the stew I plan on making tonight.
* 1/2 cup flour, divided (a word I missed yesterday morning when I threw it together - but no worries, it all worked out in the end)
* 1 envelope onion soup mix
* 1 envelope brown gravy mix
* 2 cups cold water
And this is what you do with it all:
Cut your roast in half. Rub it with 1/4 cup flour. (Or, if you want to be like me - and I know you do - rub it with all the flour, and watch some of it fall onto the cutting board. After it falls off the roast, dump the fallen flour into the garbage.) Place roast in crockpot. I used my small one (3-ish qts.) but if you use a 4 lb. roast you may need a bigger one. In a bowl, combine the soup & gravy mix, and the other 1/4 cup flour (unless you're doing it my way, in that case, just dump some flour in, estimating what you threw away. No, it never occurred to me that I should just put in 1/4 cup flour until today. What can I say, but OOPS.). Add the water, and mix until blended. Pour over roast. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours (I did 6 since it was a smaller roast - which is why I needed hubby to plug it in for me) or until meat is tender. Slice roast, serve with mashed potatoes. Instant is great. I also made corn. Now, the gravy was a little runny when I took the roast out of the crockpot; that was probably because I guessed on the flour (it all makes sense now...). I simply added some flour and whisked it in there and it was perfect.
It was a plate full of pure goodness.
Pure goodness I tell you.
Now the trick with this particular crockpot recipe is that it doesn't take all day - so a crockpot with delay start is helpful. I don't have that, but I do have a hubby who works second shift who is more than happy to plug in the crockpot for me before he leaves for work. Of course he is - he gets the leftovers from all my attempts.
Here we go...
Ingredients you will need:
* 1 boneless beef sirloin tip roast (about 4 pounds) <-- per the recipe. I used one about 2 1/2 pounds because that's what we were given when we bought 1/4 of a cow last year. It was a good size for us, with plenty left for hubby's lunch and the stew I plan on making tonight.
* 1/2 cup flour, divided (a word I missed yesterday morning when I threw it together - but no worries, it all worked out in the end)
* 1 envelope onion soup mix
* 1 envelope brown gravy mix
* 2 cups cold water
And this is what you do with it all:
Cut your roast in half. Rub it with 1/4 cup flour. (Or, if you want to be like me - and I know you do - rub it with all the flour, and watch some of it fall onto the cutting board. After it falls off the roast, dump the fallen flour into the garbage.) Place roast in crockpot. I used my small one (3-ish qts.) but if you use a 4 lb. roast you may need a bigger one. In a bowl, combine the soup & gravy mix, and the other 1/4 cup flour (unless you're doing it my way, in that case, just dump some flour in, estimating what you threw away. No, it never occurred to me that I should just put in 1/4 cup flour until today. What can I say, but OOPS.). Add the water, and mix until blended. Pour over roast. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours (I did 6 since it was a smaller roast - which is why I needed hubby to plug it in for me) or until meat is tender. Slice roast, serve with mashed potatoes. Instant is great. I also made corn. Now, the gravy was a little runny when I took the roast out of the crockpot; that was probably because I guessed on the flour (it all makes sense now...). I simply added some flour and whisked it in there and it was perfect.
It was a plate full of pure goodness.
Pure goodness I tell you.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Biscuits and Gravy
I didn't make dinner last night. The boys were at a scouting event so it was just me and the little one. I had leftovers; she had a slice of deli ham and some cheese. She was a happy little camper.
So I decided to go through a few of my recipes and find a favorite to post. This particular one is requested by my teen quite often, and most recently I made it for his birthday dinner a few weeks ago. You would not believe just how perfect the gravy turned out. It was SO GOOD. The biscuits, well, that's a whole nother story. Which of course I will get to, in a minute.
Here's what you need for the gravy:
1 pound bulk pork sausage
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
6 tablespoons flour
3 1/2 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
And this is how it goes together:
You could use a very large sauce pan and it might fit, but I like to use my dutch oven. So, cook the sausage in a dutch oven (or that very large saucepan) until it's no longer pink. If you wanted to add diced onion, do that before you cook the sausage. I think it would be tasty, but I never remember to do it. And do you know why? Because it's not on the ingredient list, that's why.
Moving along....after you cook the sausage, stir the butter in until it's melted. Sprinkle the flour over the sausage, and stir it in. Gradually add the milk. To me this means, add about a half cup, and stir. Add about another cup, and stir. Dump the rest in, and, you guessed it, stir. Add your salt and pepper, and stir (there's a lot of stirring involved in this recipe). Bring it to a boil, and cook and stir (I told you!!) for about 4 minutes. When it's thick like it should be, it's done.
Now for the biscuits. You could use Jiffy or Bisquick and your biscuits should be perfectly fine. Unless you do what I did last time - I used Bisquick, but I didn't quite have enough, and apparently I'm not very good at guessing measurements. We had little hockey pucks on the outside, with a very yeasty tasting bready consistency on the inside. That didn't work out well.
The other option, is to make some drop biscuits from scratch, which is what I should have done.
This is the recipe I've used in the past:
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons butter or margarine, melted
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in one bowl. In another bowl, combine the milk and butter, then stir into the dry ingredients just until blended. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown.
If you do this, you'll have some delicious biscuits to serve your sausage gravy on. Since I didn't do this, and had hockey pucks, I served the gravy on hash browns, which I had planned on having with the meal anyway. I just used the store-bought rectangular preshaped patties that you pop in the oven so I wouldn't have to try to watch potatoes and gravy at the same time.
This made enough for me, my teen, my tween, and my toddler; with a little left for the hubby to have for breakfast or lunch the next day.
So I decided to go through a few of my recipes and find a favorite to post. This particular one is requested by my teen quite often, and most recently I made it for his birthday dinner a few weeks ago. You would not believe just how perfect the gravy turned out. It was SO GOOD. The biscuits, well, that's a whole nother story. Which of course I will get to, in a minute.
Here's what you need for the gravy:
1 pound bulk pork sausage
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
6 tablespoons flour
3 1/2 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
And this is how it goes together:
You could use a very large sauce pan and it might fit, but I like to use my dutch oven. So, cook the sausage in a dutch oven (or that very large saucepan) until it's no longer pink. If you wanted to add diced onion, do that before you cook the sausage. I think it would be tasty, but I never remember to do it. And do you know why? Because it's not on the ingredient list, that's why.
Moving along....after you cook the sausage, stir the butter in until it's melted. Sprinkle the flour over the sausage, and stir it in. Gradually add the milk. To me this means, add about a half cup, and stir. Add about another cup, and stir. Dump the rest in, and, you guessed it, stir. Add your salt and pepper, and stir (there's a lot of stirring involved in this recipe). Bring it to a boil, and cook and stir (I told you!!) for about 4 minutes. When it's thick like it should be, it's done.
Now for the biscuits. You could use Jiffy or Bisquick and your biscuits should be perfectly fine. Unless you do what I did last time - I used Bisquick, but I didn't quite have enough, and apparently I'm not very good at guessing measurements. We had little hockey pucks on the outside, with a very yeasty tasting bready consistency on the inside. That didn't work out well.
The other option, is to make some drop biscuits from scratch, which is what I should have done.
This is the recipe I've used in the past:
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons butter or margarine, melted
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in one bowl. In another bowl, combine the milk and butter, then stir into the dry ingredients just until blended. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown.
If you do this, you'll have some delicious biscuits to serve your sausage gravy on. Since I didn't do this, and had hockey pucks, I served the gravy on hash browns, which I had planned on having with the meal anyway. I just used the store-bought rectangular preshaped patties that you pop in the oven so I wouldn't have to try to watch potatoes and gravy at the same time.
This made enough for me, my teen, my tween, and my toddler; with a little left for the hubby to have for breakfast or lunch the next day.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Cheesy Kielbasa Pasta Supper
This is what I made last night, and the kids all loved it. I did not think to take a picture of it, because the idea for the blog didn't come to me until this morning, so you'll have to imagine it. With the cheese, kielbasa, and veggies it's very colorful.
Here is the original ingredient list:
6 oz. (about 2 1/2 cups) uncooked rigatoni
1 (1-lb.) package frozen broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots
1 (10 3/4 oz) can condensed cheddar cheese soup
3/4 cup milk
1/2 lb. kielbasa or polish sausage (halved length-wise & sliced) - you could also use turkey kielbasa if you want to be healthier
1 (2.5 oz) jar sliced mushrooms
Now, when I gathered all this together, I decided that I wanted to use the whole kielbasa, because if I didn't, it would go back in the fridge for a month or two and then get thrown away. But if you're going to add more kielbasa, you have to add more of some other stuff too. So I added:
an additional 6 oz. uncooked rigatoni
about 1/2 of another package of frozen veggies (what was left in the freezer from another meal)
another 3/4 cup milk
I didn't have another can of soup so instead I added a handful of shredded cheddar cheese (probably about 1 to 1 1/2 cups)
and of course the rest of the kielbasa.
I ended up NOT adding any mushrooms at all because my 10 year old doesn't like them right now. I say right now because he used to.
So, there you have the ingredients. Here's what you do with them:
In a dutch oven, cook rigatoni per package directions. According to the recipe you should add the frozen veggies 6 or 7 minutes before the pasta is done. If you like your veggies quite firm, that's what you should do. Me, I like them a little softer, because they're easier for my toddler to chew. Next time I'll add them at 10 minutes so they'll be plenty soft enough.
Once the pasta and the veggies are cooked, drain them and return them to the dutch oven. Stir in the soup, milk, cheese, kielbasa and mushrooms. Cook over medium heat until heated through. You'll want to stir it occasionally.
The only thing I didn't really care for about this recipe was the rigatoni. It's basically a pasta tube with ridges, and there's nothing really wrong with it, but I'm a rotini kind of person, so next time I'll use that instead.
I served this with garlic biscuits, which is simply a tube of buttermilk biscuits (the skinny tube with 10 biscuits in it), with each biscuit dipped in a melted butter/garlic mixture, and placed in a pan (I melted the butter right in the pan I planned to bake them in, which worked really well). They should all be touching. Top them with shredded cheese - doesn't matter what kind. I usually use cheddar, last night I used an Italian blend. If you feel like it, sprinkle some Italian seasoning or whatever suits you on the cheese. Pop them in the oven and bake according to the directions on the biscuit tube.
Hubby got home from work at about 10:30 and heated up a plate of the pasta supper and gave it positive reviews. He didn't get any biscuits, because they were deelish and we chowed them all down.
By doubling the recipe, I have enough left for hubby and me to take some in our lunches, or there was enough for another meal for me and the kids.
Here is the original ingredient list:
6 oz. (about 2 1/2 cups) uncooked rigatoni
1 (1-lb.) package frozen broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots
1 (10 3/4 oz) can condensed cheddar cheese soup
3/4 cup milk
1/2 lb. kielbasa or polish sausage (halved length-wise & sliced) - you could also use turkey kielbasa if you want to be healthier
1 (2.5 oz) jar sliced mushrooms
Now, when I gathered all this together, I decided that I wanted to use the whole kielbasa, because if I didn't, it would go back in the fridge for a month or two and then get thrown away. But if you're going to add more kielbasa, you have to add more of some other stuff too. So I added:
an additional 6 oz. uncooked rigatoni
about 1/2 of another package of frozen veggies (what was left in the freezer from another meal)
another 3/4 cup milk
I didn't have another can of soup so instead I added a handful of shredded cheddar cheese (probably about 1 to 1 1/2 cups)
and of course the rest of the kielbasa.
I ended up NOT adding any mushrooms at all because my 10 year old doesn't like them right now. I say right now because he used to.
So, there you have the ingredients. Here's what you do with them:
In a dutch oven, cook rigatoni per package directions. According to the recipe you should add the frozen veggies 6 or 7 minutes before the pasta is done. If you like your veggies quite firm, that's what you should do. Me, I like them a little softer, because they're easier for my toddler to chew. Next time I'll add them at 10 minutes so they'll be plenty soft enough.
Once the pasta and the veggies are cooked, drain them and return them to the dutch oven. Stir in the soup, milk, cheese, kielbasa and mushrooms. Cook over medium heat until heated through. You'll want to stir it occasionally.
The only thing I didn't really care for about this recipe was the rigatoni. It's basically a pasta tube with ridges, and there's nothing really wrong with it, but I'm a rotini kind of person, so next time I'll use that instead.
I served this with garlic biscuits, which is simply a tube of buttermilk biscuits (the skinny tube with 10 biscuits in it), with each biscuit dipped in a melted butter/garlic mixture, and placed in a pan (I melted the butter right in the pan I planned to bake them in, which worked really well). They should all be touching. Top them with shredded cheese - doesn't matter what kind. I usually use cheddar, last night I used an Italian blend. If you feel like it, sprinkle some Italian seasoning or whatever suits you on the cheese. Pop them in the oven and bake according to the directions on the biscuit tube.
Hubby got home from work at about 10:30 and heated up a plate of the pasta supper and gave it positive reviews. He didn't get any biscuits, because they were deelish and we chowed them all down.
By doubling the recipe, I have enough left for hubby and me to take some in our lunches, or there was enough for another meal for me and the kids.
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