Easy Peasy!!!

Beef, mixed vegetables, steamed potatoes, canned tomatoes was the list today.  And so..what else could it be but SOUP!!!  Vegetable Beef Soup.
2 pounds cubed (1 inch) beef
3 cups cubed steamed potatoes
15 ounce canned tomatoes
32 ounces frozen corn, peas, beans and cubed carrots
2 quarts beef broth
1 large diced onion
In a large skillet, brown off and cook the cubed beef and the diced onions.  Season with salt and pepper.  In a large dutch oven or soup pot, pour all beef broth, and the frozen vegetables.  In a smaller bowl, mash up the tomatoes and then add them to your soup pot.  Bring the whole pot to a boil.  Once boiling add the meat and the potatoes.  Reduce to a simmer and serve with your favorite grilled cheese sandwich or even a PB&J.  Either way it's a filling healthy meal.  By the way, leftovers will freeze easily or you may "can " it.  This you can do buy heating to a boil and pouring into jars.  Add your lids and place on a cookie sheet inside a 250 degree oven for about an hour.  This is called oven canning and when you remove the jars from the oven, carefully place the jars on the counter to cool.  As they cool you will hear a distinctive "pop" of the lid sealing itself.  Once cooled, tighten lids completely and store on your shelves.  According to the information I have read, this will last up to a year if unopened and properly sealed.

Using the same ingredients, you can combine all the ingredients but the canned tomatoes (after cooking the beef and onions) and add a lovely brown gravy to serve over white rice.  It can also be thickened to make a"brunswick" type stew that can be served over either rice or mashed potatoes.

Now,...if you really want to get ambitious, make a thicker stew and with a can of grands type biscuits, place half (horizontally) of your biscuit in a large muffin tin, fill with stew mixture and top with the other half of the biscuit and bake for a quick individual sized beef pot pie popover.

Enjoy!

Today's request included:  Ground Beef, Frozen Green Beans, 1 Sweet Potato.  My solution?
Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie
(adapted from the same recipe at the "Taste of Home" recipes. Prep time is 25 minutes and the Bake time is also 25 minutes.
1 large sweet potato
1 large white potato
1pound ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onion
frozen green beans
1 cup tomato sauce
2 ounces softened cream cheese (optional)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons 2% milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Scrub and pierce sweet potato and white potato; place on a microwave safe plate and microwave uncovered on high for 10-12 minutes or until tender.  Turn once.
While that is cooking, in a large skillet cook beef and onion until it's cooked through. Drain completely.  Add the beans tomato sauce and spices.  Spray down your casserole dish and then pour the meat mixture into the dish and set it aside.
When cool enough to handle, cut potatoes in half and scoop out the pulp and place in a small bowl.  Mash with butter, milk, softened cream cheese, salt and pepper and spread evenly over the meat mixture.
Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
***the recipe at Taste of Home uses corn instead of beans and used more spices.

Now this is only one recipe.  There are plenty of things you can do with these ingredients seperately.  I tend to do casseroles because they are easy "one dish wonders".

If you want to do separate "dishes" I would follow the following menu:
 1 pound of ground beef,
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup diced onions
1 egg
mix all ingredients together and form into small meat balls.  Brown off in a skillet until done.
In the same pan, add your favorite BBQ sauce and simmer on low.
green beans
1/4 cup diced onions
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons butter
1 sweet potato, sliced
1 white potato, sliced
In a separate skillet, stir fry your sliced potatoes with onions and garlic and butter. When these are done and have a nice caramelization on the edges, add in your green beans and saute for a couple of minutes until they are heated through.
Serve with Corn Bread or Corn Bread Muffins.

Turkey Tired!!!

Today was leftover turkey, stuffing, broccoli, carrots,  and rolls.  So of course the recipe will be...Turkey Stuffing Casserole.  Quite simply this is the same as the Chicken stuffing casserole but you use your leftover turkey.
layer stuffing, broccoli, carrots in a casserole dish.  Open a can of cream of chicken soup and mix it with half a can of milk.  Pour over the whole dish and bake.  If you want to make it even healthier, add all the green been casserole leftovers as well.  It will just make it a creamier messy dish.  Either way, by the time you get to this point, it should be the last of your Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner.  Enjoy!

Chicken, Broccoli, and rice?

Today's challenge for dinner was Chicken, Broccoli and Rice.  My solutions were the following two recipes:  

Broccoli Rice Casserole
1 can of condensed cream of broccoli soup
1 cup water
3/4 cup uncooked rice
1/8 teaspoon pepper
4 chicken breasts (or pieces)
1 pinch Paprika
Broccoli
Velveeta or shredded cheese
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Stir together the soup, water, rice and pepper in an 11 inch casserole dish.  Top with chicken breasts.  Sprinkle with paprika and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove from the oven and on the outer rim of the casserole dish, surrounding the chicken, place your broccoli pieces and sprinkle with the shredded cheese or pieces of Velveeta.  Return to oven and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes,  Make sure that your chicken is at 165 degrees on the meat thermometer. (NO PINK AT ALL)
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Balsamic Chicken 
Broccoli
Chicken
Cream of chicken soup
Cream of mushroom soup
1 soup can of milk
Velveeta (1/4 of bar)
3 tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar (or to taste)[we like lots]
3 tablespoons Worchestershire Sauce (or to taste)[we like lots]
Butter, margarine, or Pam Spray
Cut chicken into bite size pieces and season with salt and pepper.  Stir fry in a pan with the butter, margarine or Pam the chicken until the edges are crisp tender and the chicken is done.  Remove from pan the pieces of chicken and set aside.
To the pan, add the cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, milk and velveeta and stir to get all ingredients combined and smooth.  Once smooth, add the Balsamic Vinegar and Worcestershire Sauce TO YOUR TASTE.  This is an important step because in our family we love the strong taste of the Balsamic and Worcestershire.  After the sauce changes to that nice deep rich color from the last two ingredients, add your chicken back and simmer until hot through.  Serve over rice with a side of Broccoli.  I suggest a salad as well, since this is a very starchy meal.

And there you have it folks....2 "meals" using the 3 requested ingredients.  If you have a set of ingredients, please let me have a go at it.  I love coming up with menu suggestions.

What's for Dinner?

For some time now, I have been watching The Food Network channel shows and especially the competition shows.  Let's take Chopped.  I try to take what they get in their mystery baskets and come up with recipes.  I do the same for Cutthroat Kitchen and any other show that I can just to be able to test my ability to come up with something nutritious.  Now...I may not be as "gourmet" as these people are on the shows, but I can come up with a good wholesome meal.  As an example, on the cooking show that is on right now about the "holiday bake off"... they were given a "ready made" pie crust from the refrigerated section and were told to make something with it but not a pie.  My thought was "empanadas" or some other "pastry".  However, I could think of so much that my brain was on fire.  I also thought,...this could be fried as well.  But then...it's a baking competition.  But for me, filling it with a savory filling and making a pocket with it was an option.  Let's pretend.  Cut out circles with a large cutter or free hand it.  Place cooked steak, caramelized onions, cooked bell peppers, mushrooms and shredded cheese.  Bake and you will come out with amazing "Philly Cheesesteak" rounds.  But for the sweet side, I would take some lemon curd and some blueberries and mix them together and bake them in the circles or in the empanada shape and top with the crystallized sugar and a small amount of meringue.  I think that would be a great "tart".  
So...because of a request from a dear relative/friend, I am asking---what's for dinner?  What do you have in your cabinets and freezer and yet still don't have a clue of what to do for dinner with?  Give me a list.  I'll figure something out.  Hopefully I will also get feedback on it and people to let me know how it turned out and how it was received by the family.  Please keep in mind that, no matter what the products are, I also try to be budget friendly.  This all started when I was a young college student and had maybe $20 for groceries per week.  I did things like have ramen noodles soup but adding in thin slices of ham or turkey with frozen veggies and maybe a sprinkling of parmesean cheese.  I sometimes added an egg to turn it into an "egg drop" feel to the much more filling soup.  I have also turned it into a thicker "stew" by adding a little flour or corn starch (depended on what meat was in it) to create a more savory dish that could be served over rice or potatoes.  Even macaroni and cheese can be made to be filling with the right additions.  Don't hesitate...send me what you've got.  I'll do my best.  After all, this is what fun is to me.   

Steak Salad Recipe

Steak Salad  

6 cups spinach leaves
6 cups mixed lettuce leaves torn into 1 inch pieces
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup shredded purple cabbage
1 cup shredded cucumber
2 cups grape tomatoes
1/2 cup bacon bits
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 pounds favorite steak grilled and sliced into thin strips
Crumbled feta cheese
Toss everything but the steak and feta together, spread over your serving platter and then lay the thin slices of seasoned steak over your veggies and crumble your feta cheese over everything.  Top with dressing below when serving.

Dressing

Balsamic vinegar
A-1 steak sauce 
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Dried Cranberries, diced
Raisins, diced 
Walnuts, chopped
These are all to your own taste.  I have found that I like more A-1 steak sauce than some, but I put it on everything.  Just feel your way through this recipe.  Start and build it to your own tastes but remember to write it down so that you can duplicate it later.

Let's get ready for fall.

As the seasons begin to change, and fall is in the picture, we begin to look to things that we can cook that keeps the house smelling like a home from the 1800's or so.  It's hard to describe but it's like walking into your grandmother's kitchen on a Sunday afternoon or a holiday afternoon with family.  We crave that feeling that life is good.  It all starts with a meal.  The first thing we crave after we arrive on this earth is food.  And that feeling of being satisfied for the very first time never leaves us.  We seek that with every single meal.  On that note, here we are on the cusp of September, the last month of the 3rd season and we want to "prepare for the winter". Now, having said all of that, we are a "fast food" society with a "throw away" mentality.  We need to be able to prepare things not only quickly but simply and yet elegantly.  I will be posting some of the great recipes from different cook books that I've collected but adding my own little twists in them.  Please forgive me if I go on and on about them, but we are living in a time when food prices are outrageous and we need to make the most of what we have.  The first recipe is:

Onion Mushroom Soup

4 cups thinly sliced onions

2 cups thinly sliced button mushrooms

1 stick of butter

1 cup milk (2 cups if you want a creamier soup)

8 cups beef broth

1 loaf of French Bread

12 slices of Muenster cheese

12 slices of Monterey Jack

In a large skillet saute mushrooms and onions in the melted butter. You may need more butter but that is your call.  (I use enough to taste the butter as well as the onions and mushrooms) In a large dutch oven or pot, heat up your beef broth.  Do not boil.  After the onions have become translucent, transfer the whole skillet of mushrooms and onions and butter, into the simmering beef broth.  Slowly add the milk and season with salt and pepper if needed.  While this is simmering, (again, do not boil) cut thick 1 inch slices of the French Bread and toast these slices in an oven slowly.  You want the bread to be "crusty".  While these are toasting, prepare your crock bowls (deep oven safe bowls) by filling nearly to the top, with your soup.  Take your toasted French bread slices and lay them gently on top of the soup.  Layer one slice of Muenster and one slice of Monterey Jack on top of the French Bread toast.  Bake in the oven on 400 degrees for 5 minutes or until the cheese has melted and begun to ooze over the sides of your crock.  Serve with an amazing beef salad and you have a complete meal.  (Salad recipe to come)