Almost Meatless Sloppy Joes

Whether you are trying to buy less meat in general or you have some leftover ground beef and are wondering what to do with it, this is a great recipe for you. It's a full 4 servings of sloppy joes but it only uses about 1/2 pound ground beef. Shredded carrots and kidney beans add bulk to the mixture, saving you both money and calories without sacrificing flavor.

In other news, I really am trying to post more often, but there has been a ton going on! My sister is getting married soon, I am now 6 1/2 months pregnant, and now we're MOVING to the Seattle area in August! Big changes and lots to do. We've found a place to rent up there and we've started purging and selling tons of stuff we've accumulated over the years in anticipation of the move. It's a nesting pregnant woman's dream, seriously.

We've been cooking a lot of easy meals lately, including a few that involved Tasty Bites. Have you ever heard of these? They are two-serving packets of pre-cooked Indian food for quick, easy meals. I tried them because they were on sale at the Co-op. You can also just buy sauce packets, where you provide the meat and veggies and cook them in the sauce. For the entrees/side dish packets, you can cook them in the microwave or in a pot of boiling water on the stove. What I like about these products is that the ingredient list is very short, and it's all real food and spices, no weird additives or preservatives. These would be great to take on a camping trip too.

Almost Meatless Sloppy Joes
adapted from Cooking Light / Mark Bittman - May 2010 issue
serves 4


Note: The recipe calls for 6 ounces of ground sirloin, but whenever I make it, I'm trying to finish up the other half of a 1 pound package, so I use 8 ounces in my version. You could definitely go to the meat counter at your grocery store and just buy 6 ounces though.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped white onion
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6-8 ounces ground sirloin
1/2 cup grated carrot (press out moisture with paper towels if freshly grating it yourself)
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cups canned crushed tomatoes, fire-roasted if available
1 (15.5-ounce) can low sodium red kidney beans, rinsed, drained, and divided
4 (2-ounce) whole wheat sandwich rolls, split and toasted
Thinly sliced red onions, separated into rings

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and beef to the pan. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to break up the beef, until the meat is browned and onion is tender (if using a ground beef that is not as lean as sirloin, you might want to start with less oil).

Add the carrot, and the remaining spices and cook for another two minutes. Add the tomatoes and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the carrot is tender and the mixture has thickened.

Partially mash 1 cup of the beans in a bowl with a fork. Add the mashed beans plus the remaining whole beans to the pan and cook for another minute or two to heat through. Taste and season with more salt if needed.

Pile a big scoop of the meat mixture onto the bottom half of a toasted roll, add some onion slices, then finish with the top half of the roll. Serve immediately. 

Beef Tacos

I can't believe I've never blogged about our favorite taco meat recipe! This America's Test Kitchen recipe is very similar to the one I grew up eating as a kid. This kind of taco meat is nice and saucy, with just a hint of spice, and you won't believe how quick it is to make. We like to make the Test Kitchen's refried beans to go with it.

Beef Tacos
adapted from The America's Kitchen Family Cookbook
serves 4

Notes: I've discovered that the quickest way to mince onions is to use a food processor. Peel and quarter the onion, then pulse in the processor, stopping to scrape the sides every 3-4 pulses. Just make sure that when you open the lid, for the love of god, DON'T stick your face over the opening, unless you want a face full of eye-burning onion fumes.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt
1 pound (90 percent lean) ground beef
1/2 cup smooth canned tomato sauce (8-ounce can)
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
8 taco shells

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the oil is shimmering, add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes, or until softened. Stir in the garlic, spices, and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook for about 30 seconds, until fragrant.

Add the ground beef. Cook for about 5 minutes or so, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink. Stir in the tomato sauce, broth, vinegar, and sugar. Simmer for about 10 minutes, until thickened. Taste and season salt to taste.

Divide the filling evenly among the taco shells. Top with cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes (or whatever toppings you like).

Creamed Chipped Beef on Toast or: What to do with Leftover Corned Beef

Still have some corned beef leftover from last weekend? This is a great way to make it into a new meal.

In fact, the main reason I even bothered to make corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day MAY have been for the sole purpose of having leftovers which I could then smother with white sauce and serve on a piece of toast. I am a HUGE fan of biscuits and gravy, after all, and this is a pretty similar dish.

My co-workers shared with me their not-so-fond memories of the original version of this dish. It goes by the endearing name "S.O.S", or "Sh*t on a shingle", from when it used to be served in the Army during World War II. Luckily, unlike the old versions, you won't find any condensed soup or canned chipped beef in this recipe.

By the way, the other thing in the background is a bowl of kale chips we made to have with it, because I have virtually no food-pairing skills whatsoever so that's what I came up with. Kale chips are awesome though. I used this recipe.

Creamed Chipped Beef on Toast
adapted from Cook's Country - February/March 2012 issue
serves 4-6 (can easily cut this in half if you don't have much leftover beef)

Notes: I made their recipe for Corned Beef and Cabbage, and reserved some of the cooking liquid for this recipe. It adds a lot of flavor, but you could also use chicken or beef broth if you didn't save any of the cooking liquid.

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cups half-n-half
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 cup reserved corned beef cooking liquid
2 cups chopped cooked corned beef
Pinch nutmeg
Pepper
6 slices hearty white sandwich bread, toasted
3 tablespoons minced fresh chives

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for about 1 minute, or until softened slightly. Add the flour, mustard, thyme, and cayenne and stir to combine. Cook for about 1 minute so it becomes fragrant. Slowly add the half-n-half, milk, and corned beef cooking liquid, stirring with a whisk. Bring to a simmer and cook for 6-8 minutes, stirring every now and then, until thickened.

Add the chopped beef and nutmeg and stir to combine. Cook for a couple of minutes to let the beef heat through. Season with pepper to taste, and a little salt if it needs it. Spoon over the toasted bread, and top with the minced chives. Serve immediately.

Barley and Beef Stew

It's officially cold and wintery. Bring on the soup! We really liked this recipe from Mark Bittman. Big chunks of veggies, hearty grains, and tender beef. So good.

We're finally nearing the end of our Bald Hill beef stash. It's taken us a little over a year, and in the process we've learned a lot about different cuts of beef and how to cook them. I've tried a lot of different cuts that I might not have ever tried otherwise. We've had some great classics, such as:

Salisbury steak (made with cube steak)
Beef sirloin tip roast
Beef stroganoff (made it twice, once with beef tenderloin and again with beef sirloin)
Braised short ribs
Roast beef (to make taquitos)
Flank steak

Other cuts I didn't blog about include oxtail (braised in tomato sauce - delicious), liver (with onions and pan sauce, visually appealing but disgusting), arm roast chopped up for beef stew, and many, many steak dinners.

We also got a ton of ground beef in this order. We ended up giving some away, and we also gave a large portion to my dad which he returned to us later in jerky form (he makes awesome jerky). My favorite recipes that we made with ground beef, besides the usual burgers, include:

Phyllo-wrapped ground beef and vegetable pastries
Thai-style ground beef
Sesame-soy meatballs
Stuffed bell peppers with rice and ground beef
Frito Chili Pie - from the Pioneer Woman - a simple recipe to throw together (almost no prep because most ingredients are canned) and it's absolutely delicious. Before now I would have never thought to put Fritos on chili. It's definitely going to become a staple recipe in our house I think. We've already made it twice in the last month.

We have a few cuts left that I haven't decided what to do with yet - London Broil and Rib Steak. Any suggestions???

CSA Week 23:

In the box: 1 lettuce, 1 bunch carrots, 1 bunch arugula, 1 basket grape tomatoes, 2 pounds sweet potatoes, 2 pounds Nicola potatoes, 1 Butternut squash, 3/4 pound Jimmy Nardelo peppers, 2 pounds Liberty apples.

We sauteed the peppers, along with some onions, and piled them on top of chicken andouille sausages from Costco. We even had hot dog buns in the freezer - bonus! I warmed them in the oven at 200 F and they tasted just like fresh ones.

Since I am house/pet-sitting for the next couple of weeks at a home on the outskirts of town (in the woods and on a mountain, no less), Joe and I split up the CSA. I took the arugula, some lettuce, grape tomatoes, half of the apples, and the other sweet potato, and gave him the rest.

I stopped over for dinner on Sunday and Joe had prepared an amazing beef stew using up the rest of the carrots and Nicola potatoes. He used the beef stew recipe from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (if you don't have it, you should get it!). We had an huge arm roast in our beef stash so he cut that up into chunks, and saved the bone to make stock later. Note to self: arm roasts make great stew meat! Very tender and flavorful.

We still had some mascarpone leftover from when we made the tomato and tapenade tarts so I wanted to think of a way to combine that with the arugula, grape tomatoes, and maybe some pasta. I found this recipe from NPR. Basically you whisk together the mascarpone, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and a little of the hot pasta water, then toss it together with hot cooked corkscrew pasta and arugula. I sliced the grape tomatoes in half and threw those in too. The hot pasta wilts the greens nicely and their peppery flavor offsets the creaminess of the sauce. Next time I would double the sauce recipe; I like my pasta very "saucy".

We seem to be hording our winter squash for now. We now have a Delicata and this new Butternut in our collection.

Barley and Beef Stew
adapted from Mark Bittman - How to Cook Everything
makes about 4 servings

Notes: Instead of barley, you could also use kasha, buckwheat grouts, millet, or cracked wheat. Instead of starting with a hunk of chuck or round, we just used a package of beef stew meat and cut it into smaller pieces.

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound beef chuck or round, trimmed of surface fat and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large onion, chopped
3 cups chicken or beef stock, or water
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 medium potatoes, preferably waxy, peeled and cut into about 1-inch pieces
8 garlic cloves, peeled (optional - but so good I wouldn't skip them)
2 cups sliced mushrooms, preferably an assortment (I used cremini and shiitake), OR 1 cup sliced button mushrooms and 1/2 cup dried porcini or other dried mushrooms, reconstituted in hot water to cover (but mushrooms in general are optional here)
1/3 cup pearl barley
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried
Chopped parsley or celery leaves for garnish

Heat the oil in a deep saucepan or dutch oven over medium-high heat. When hot, add the beef, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until browned on all sides. Add the onion, cook for about 5 minutes, until softened. Add the stock (if you used dried mushrooms, include their strained liquid - just reduce the amount of stock accordingly). Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover, and slowly simmer (should barely bubble) for about 30 minutes, stirring every so often.

Add the carrots, celery, potatoes, mushrooms, barley and thyme. Bring back up to a boil, then lower the heat again, cover, and slowly simmer for another 30 minutes, stirring every so often.

When all the vegetables are tender, the stew is done. Taste and adjust the seasoning, garnish with parsley, and serve.

Southwestern Chili-Mac Salad

This was printed up in a Rachael Ray magazine as a "make-over" recipe for traditional chili-mac. Not that there is anything wrong with chili mac; I am a huge fan of it myself. But it's fun to change things up every once in awhile, and in the summer, or in this case early fall, the produce stands are stuffed to the rafters with fresh veggies, so rather than having a side salad next to your bowl of standard chili mac, why not put your salad IN the chili mac? This dish makes use of fresh seasonal veggies like tomatoes, corn, spinach (my addition), and red onion. The chili-spiced meat and beans are mixed in with the veggies and the whole thing is tossed with a zesty vinaigrette and topped with sharp cheddar.

CSA Week 18:

In the box: 1/2 pound spinach, 1 pint cherry tomatoes, 1 pound Romano beans, 2 sweet Italian peppers, 8 ears corn, 2 pounds Nicola potatoes, 1 watermelon, 1 basket French petite plums, 2 pounds Gala apples.

We used the carrots from last week along with the Romano beans and sweet red peppers from this week to make a veggie stir fry. To go with that, we made beer-glazed black beans.

The corn, most of the spinach, and the cherry tomatoes were used in the chili mac.

We made home fries with the potatoes for breakfast on the weekend. My pan was too crowded though so they weren't as browned and crisp as I would have liked. Good to remember for next time.

Also noteworthy: apparently Nicola potatoes are reported to be lower on the glycemic index than regular potatoes. We've been trying to cut out excessive carbs and sugars lately so every little bit helps. I just read Gary Taubes' book, Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It, and it has given me a whole new perspective on carb and sugar consumption! Have you read it? What do you think? It pretty much contradicts everything I was told in Weight Watchers, but I find his arguments and interpretations of the research very convincing.

I used the rest of the spinach to go with this really awesome sun-dried tomato and chili walnut layered dip!

Check out the recipe over  at Leanne's blog, Healthful Pursuit. I followed her recipe almost exactly, except that I didn't have this one ingredient called Herbemare, but from what I could tell online it is a mixture of salt and dried spices so I improvised with sea salt, dried celery flakes, oregano, and thyme. I used lime juice instead of lemon juice, because that's all I had, but it seemed to work out fine. I didn't have a clear bowl to layer it in so I went with the platter instead, and topped with some sliced cherry tomatoes from our garden just for fun. We brought it to a going-away/board game night at a friend's house and it was a hit! I would definitely make this again.

We didn't do anything special with the fruit, just had it with breakfast and snacks. I loved those little plums!

Southwestern Chili-Mac Salad
adapted from Every Day with Rachael Ray - June/July 2008
Serves 6

Notes: My only changes to this recipe include using whole wheat pasta instead of regular, sharp cheddar instead of medium, and adding steamed spinach. I also didn't use cilantro this time, only because when I took it out of the fridge, I discovered that it had gone bad. If you have it, I suggest you use it. Oh, and I added coriander too, just for fun.

1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
8 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
Salt and pepper
4 ears corn, husks and silk removed
2 cups whole wheat elbow pasta
1 small red onion, half finely chopped, half thinly sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons coriander
1 pound lean ground beef
One 15-ounce can kidney beans, rinsed
2 tomatoes, cut into wedges, or a couple handfuls of cherry tomatoes sliced in half
Large bunch fresh spinach, big stems removed (optional)
1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

In a medium bowl, combine the lime juice and the cilantro. Whisk in 6 tablespoons of the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, and set aside.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the corn and cook for three minutes, it should be just tender. Transfer to a cutting board and let cool. Return the water back to a boil, add the pasta and cook until al dente, drain and transfer to a large (serving) bowl. Drizzle about a tablespoon of oil over the pasta and toss so it doesn't stick together. Set aside.

Cut the corn kernels from the cob, add to the bowl with the pasta.

Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the finely chopped red onion, chili powder, and coriander. Cook for about 2 minutes or so, until the onion has softened. Add the ground beef. Cook about 8 minutes, stirring frequently, until the meat is lightly browned and cooked through. Drain any excess fat.

Wash the spinach, and put the damp leaves into a large bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Microwave for a 2 minutes. Put the spinach in a towel and squeeze to remove excess water. Chop the spinach and add to the pasta and corn.

Add the beef mixture to the pasta bowl. Toss to combine. Season with a little salt and pepper. Add the kidney beans, spinach, tomatoes, sliced onion, and vinaigrette. Toss to combine. Taste again and adjust the seasoning as needed.

Scoop into bowls, top with cheese, and serve.

Thai Beef Salad with Coconut Rice

For the 4th of July we grilled a huge London broil (I know that's a method of cooking and not a cut of meat, but that's how the package was labeled so I can't be sure what it was). With the leftover cooked and sliced beef, we made this Thai beef salad. We marinated it as the directed, but instead of broiling or grilling it we just stir-fried it in a skillet until it was warmed though. The marinade/dressing was excellent. Such a flavorful combination of ingredients - fish sauce, lime juice, garlic, chili paste, brown sugar and cilantro...mmm!

CSA Week 6:

In the box: 1 head lettuce, 1 bunch radishes, 1 bunch salad turnips, 1 head garlic, 1 cucumber, 1 red onion, 2 pounds German butterball potatoes, sweet girl tomatoes, 3/4 pound zucchini, 1 basket strawberries, 1 basket gold raspberries

Last week is fading fast, so I'll try my best to remember how we used everything.

The fruit was just eaten for snacks and dessert with yogurt and granola - the usual.

The tomatoes, some of the cucumber (and some from last week too), and most of the red onion were used for the Thai beef salad.

I made a salad for lunch with the lettuce and tried adding a little sliced raw turnip - but I didn't really like it. So I roasted the rest of the turnips, along with the radishes, just cut in quarters and tossed with oil, salt and pepper. I kept all the radish and turnip greens and chopped and roasted them on the same pan. We ate all the roasted veggies with store-bought gnocchi and quick homemade tomato sauce.

We sliced and sauteed the zucchini and put it in an omelette with some herbs and cheese.

I made a gratin with the potatoes (all but two of them), and Gruyere. It was delicious, as most things made with milk and cheese are. To go with that I made this cantaloupe and cucumber salad to use up the cucumber in an interesting way (I omitted the celery). It was pretty tasty but would have been better if the cantaloupe we purchased had been more ripe.

The garlic just got added to our stash of garlic for general use.

When preparing vegetarian meals, sometimes I feel like I'm just serving a series of side dishes, though each one might be very flavorful and well thought out. Does anyone else feel that way when cooking vegetarian meals? I'm not saying that it's a bad thing, it's just a different feel than the more typical meal involving a piece of meat at the center. I always try to make sure I include a mixture of protein, carbohydrates, and produce. But sometimes, as in the meal with the gratin, the protein was just the cheese sprinkled over the potatoes and the chopped almonds on the fruit salad.

Thai Beef Salad with Coconut Rice
adapted from The Best of Cooking Light - Simple Summer Suppers
Serves 6

1/2 cup fresh lime juice (about 4 limes)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
2 tablespoons chili paste with garlic
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (1 1/2 pound) flank steak, trimmed
Cooking spray or olive oil
1 1/2 cups vertically sliced red onion
4 plum tomatoes, cut into 6 wedges (or an equivalent amount of a different variety)
1 1/4 cups thinly sliced cucumber (preferably English cucumber, because it's seedless, but regular is fine)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
6 cups torn romaine lettuce

Preheat the broiler.

Combine the lime juice, cilantro, brown sugar, fish sauce, chili paste, and garlic, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Reserve half of this mixture for dressing the salad later. Put the meat into a large ziplock bag and add the rest of the lime mixture. Marinate in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes, turning once (honestly, I let it sit on the counter while it marinated).

Grill or broil the steak however you like it. If you broil it, about 6 minutes on each side is probably about right. Let stand for about 5 minutes, then thinly slice diagonally across the grain.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat with cooking spray or add about a tablespoon of olive oil. Add onion, saute 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, saute another 2 minutes. Put the contents of this skillet, plus the cucumber, mint, and lettuce into a large bowl and toss gently to combine. Divide the salad among your plates. Top with slices of steak. Drizzle with the reserved lime juice mixture.

To make the coconut rice: bring 1/2 cup water, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and one 15-ounce can of light coconut milk to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Add one cup jasmine rice, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat, let stand 5 minutes and fluff with a fork.

Italian Braised Short Ribs in Red Wine

I love using my slow-cooker. Especially when I find a recipe with an exceptionally long cooking time such as this one. During the week I'm away from home for about 9 1/2 hours a day, and lately I've also been doing TurboFire after work in my garage "gym" which adds another hour (I try to workout in the mornings but lately I've been lacking the motivation to get up that early). So an ideal slow-cooker recipe for me is one that can go at least 10 hours, if not more. Ding Ding Ding - we have a winner with this one! On low it goes 10-12 hours. Perfect! And it calls for two cups of wine, which uses enough of the bottle to justify finishing off the rest yourself :-)

I realize that it's now grilling season, but I made this recipe a month ago when it was still cold and wet, at least where I live, and even though I'm way behind I still really wanted to blog about it.

I really like this cookbook (it was a bridal shower gift) - it's by the makers of Crock-Pot and it features more "gourmet" recipes than other slow-cooker books I've seen. Each recipe has a full page photo. I've also made their recipe for maple whiskey glazed beef brisket which was excellent. It has a lot of breakfast/brunch type recipes that I want to try someday as well.

Italian Braised Short Ribs in Red Wine
adapted from Crock-Pot Gourmet Slow Cooking Recipes
serves 4-6

Note: For this recipe, the package of short ribs we had in the freezer ended up only being about two pounds, instead of the three that the recipe called for. We went ahead with it anyway, still using the full amount of all the other ingredients. While we only had enough meat for about three servings, there was still plenty of delicious broth, onions and mushrooms leftover, so we added some cooked wild rice and turned it into a soup for a second meal later in the week. 

3 pounds beef short ribs, trimmed of excess fat
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus more if needed
2 large onions, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound baby bella or cremini mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
2 cups red wine
2 cups beef broth
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

Spray the inside of a 5 1/2 quart slow-cooker with cooking spray. Season the short ribs with a little salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, add the ribs and brown on all sides, adding additional oil as needed. Transfer ribs to slow-cooker as they finish browning.

To the same skillet you were just using, add the onions. Cook, stirring often, for about 3-5 minutes, until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic, mushrooms, wine,  broth, and Italian seasoning. Stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook for about 3 minutes. Pour this mixture over the short ribs in the slow-cooker. Cover and cook on low for 10-12 hours or on high for 6-8 hours, or until beef is tender. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.

Transfer ribs, mushrooms and onions to a serving plate. Strain the remaining liquid to get a smooth sauce. Serve with mashed potatoes or polenta and drizzle the whole meal with the strained sauce.

Beef Stroganoff

I have fond memories of beef stroganoff. Besides eating it as a kid, it was also one of the first things Joe ever cooked for me back in college. We weren't even dating yet, but I would go over to his place from time to time and eat dinner with him and his roommate.

All the versions of beef stroganoff I've ever had were made in a slow cooker, so I was very surprised when I came across this Mark Bittman recipe that boasted a cooking time of 30 minutes or less.

What the what?

Isn't this is a dish that's supposed to use a cut of tough meat that's cooked all day long until it's falling apart?

After reading the recipe, I realized the short cooking time is achieved because you start with a very tender cut of meat to begin with. Beef tenderloin is ideal here.

While I will always have a special place in my heart for the slow-cooked version, this recipe is great too, especially when you are short on time.

One other note; After I plated this dish, took something like 20 photos, and sat down to eat it, I realized that we forgot to add the sour cream! I was so upset that the picture wouldn't accurately reflect the dish because it wouldn't have a creamy-looking sauce, so I poured the contents of our bowls back into the pot, stirred in the sour cream, re-plated and took another 20 shots. It's times like this where I realize how lucky I am that my husband so patiently puts up with my obsessive food blogging bull-sh*t.

Real Beef Stroganoff
adapted from Mark Bittman - The Best Recipes in the World
serves 4

Notes:  Both the mushroom and tomatoes are optional here; the dish will be just fine with either or both. We opted to use the mushrooms but not the tomatoes, because that sounded more like the way we were used to having it.

3 tablespoons butter
2 large onions, sliced
Salt and black pepper to taste
1/2 pound mushrooms, trimmed and sliced, optional
1 1/2 to 2 pounds beef tenderloin or boneless sirloin, cut into 1 1/2 - 2-inch chunks
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 plum tomatoes (canned are fine), chopped, or 1/2 cup good tomato sauce, optional
1 cup beef or chicken stock, preferably homemade
1/2 cup sour cream
Chopped fresh dill or parsley leaves for garnish

Put the butter into a large deep skillet or flameproof casserole with a lid and place over medium-high. When melted, add the onions., a little salt and pepper, and the mushrooms if using. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, until the onions are very soft but not brown.

Add the beef and cook, stirring, for about one minute.

Stir in the mustard, the tomatoes if using, and the stock. Adjust the heat to get the mixture to a steady simmer and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the meat is tender.

Stir in the sour cream, taste and adjust the seasoning as needed. Garnish the the parsley or dill and serve over buttered noodles, rice, mashed potatoes, or just alongside some crusty bread.

Phyllo-Wrapped Ground Beef and Vegetable Pastries

It took me a long time just to figure out what to call this recipe, because my end result was so different from what I had originally set out to cook. I wanted to make Jamie Oliver's Ground Beef Wellington, from his latest cookbook. I had one single potato to use up, some puff pastry and ground beef in the freezer already, so this looked like a great meal to put on the menu for the last week of a long month when I've already spent as much as I want to spend on groceries until my next paycheck.

When I started prepping the ingredients, however, I realized that what I had assumed to be a box of puff pastry in the freezer turned out to be phyllo dough. Not wanting to go out and buy puff pastry, I decided to work with what I had and figure it out. Thank goodness for google and food blogs!

Jamie's recipe has you bake the thing for an hour. After looking up similar sounding recipes using phyllo, I didn't think that I would be able to bake that thin, flaky dough for as long as you would bake puff pastry, but I was afraid that cooking it for less time would not cook the meat thoroughly. So I opted to make mini appetizer-sized phyllo wraps to ensure that the beef cooked all the way through, and I baked them for about 30 minutes. They came out golden brown and flaky and the meat was perfectly cooked inside!

In the end, it just didn't feel right to call them beef wellingtons. Traditional beef wellington is made with a steak like beef tenderloin, covered with a layer of pate and wrapped in puff pastry. My recipe was none of those things, but was delicious!

Phyllo-wrapped Ground Beef and Vegetable Pastries
adapted from Jamie's Food Revolution, and some food blogs (this one and that one)
makes 18-20 appetizers (serves 4-6 as main course)

1 medium onion, diced small
1 carrot, diced small
1 celery stalk, diced small
1 potato, peeled and diced small
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 portabello mushrooms, cleaned and roughly chopped into small pieces like the other veggies
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves removed from stalks and finely chopped
handful frozen peas
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 pound ground beef
salt and freshly ground black pepper
About 20 sheets Phyllo dough, thawed according to package directions
Melted butter or cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350F.

Add the olive oil to a large skillet and turn the heat to medium-low. When hot, add the onion, carrot, celery, potato, garlic, and mushrooms. Saute for a minute or so, then add the rosemary. Cook for about 8 minutes, until the vegetables soften and color slightly. Add the peas and cook for another minute.

Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and let cool completely. Add the ground beef, half the beaten egg, and some salt and pepper to the vegetable mixture. Using your clean hands or a spatula, combine all ingredients thoroughly.

Remove the phyllo sheets from the box and unroll carefully. Keep the stack covered with a moist kitchen towel. Carefully remove one sheet from the pile, recover the stack. Lay the sheet flat on your working surface and brush the edges with the butter or cooking spray. Lay another sheet on top of that one and brush with more butter/cooking spray. Cut the stack in half lengthwise.

Place about 1 heaping tablespoon of the filling onto the edge of each half, leaving about a 1-inch border from the end. Roll it up like a burrito, tucking in the sides as you go. Place on a large baking sheet and cover with a most towel.

Continue rolling up your packets until you either run out of space on your baking sheet, run out of filling, or run out of phyllo sheets. You'll have somewhere between 18-20 little meat/veggies packets.

Brush the tops of the phyllo packets with the rest of the beaten egg. Cut three diagonal slits into each one. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the phyllo is golden brown.

We served ours with steamed rabes (kale, I think? I already forgot) drizzled with aged balsamic vinegar.

Sesame-Soy Meatballs

We loved these little meatballs. They were a little sweet, a little garlicky, slightly spicy, and were very easy to make. We made a double batch so we'd have plenty for lunches during the week. You can serve them with rice, or nestle them into lettuce leaves or flatbread. We decided to serve them over a bed of rice noodles tossed with red curry paste - a sort of Asian twist on spaghetti and meatballs.

Sesame Soy Meatballs
adapted from Cooking Light - November 2010
serves 4 (5 meatballs per serving)

Notes: The original recipe suggests serving with steamed snap peas and two cups cooked rice tossed with 1 tablespoon of chile paste. This method works for rice noodles as well. I've read that rice noodles don't make very good leftovers though, so I only cooked what I would use that night, about 1 ounce of dry noodles per person. I soaked the noodles for 30 minutes in hot water, drained, then tossed with about 2 teaspoons dark sesame oil and 2 teaspoons of red curry paste (or more to taste, and it helps to mix the paste with a little water or oil first). Right before we were ready to eat I stir-fried the noodles in a dry skillet, just to warm them up and toast the curry paste a bit.

1/3 cup minced green onions
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1 tablespoon chile paste (red curry paste works too)
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 pound ground sirloin
Cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

In a large bowl, combine the green onions, brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, chile paste, salt, and garlic. Add the beef and gently mix together until all ingredients are evenly distributed. With moist hands, shape the mixture into 20 (1 1/2-inch) meatballs. To make sure I made the correct number, I divided the mixture into quarters, and made 5 meatballs out of each quarter.

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add about half the meatballs to the pan and cook for about 4 minutes, turning them occasionally to brown on all sides. Transfer to a  jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray, spreading them out into a single layer. Repeat with procedure with the remaining meatballs. Once all the meatballs are browned and arranged on the jelly-roll pan, bake at 400 F for about 7 minutes. We baked them until a randomly sampled meatball reached an internal temperature of 160 F, so ours had to stay in the oven a few minutes longer.

Ma Po Tofu

This is Cooking Light's version of a fiery hot Chinese dish made with tofu and a little ground beef.

This was the perfect meal to make on the night that I workout in the evening, because I was able to prep everything before I left, including starting the rice cooker and getting the tofu under a heavy skillet to start pressing out the water. Then when I returned, dinner came together in minutes. Well, more than a few minutes, but you get my point. In no time at all I was in my pjs, curled up on the couch with my plate and a glass of wine, watching Arrested Development. That's right folks, that right there was a glimpse into my wild and crazy life.

Ma Po Tofu
adapted from Cooking Light - April 2010
serves 4 (1/2 cup rice, 3/4 cup tofu mixture per serving)

Notes: I pressed my tofu for 1 hour rather than 30 minutes because it worked out better for me time-wise, and it seemed to make no difference. Also, I had some shredded carrots that I wanted to use up, so I added a handful of those along with the garlic and ginger. Ground pork or turkey could also be used instead of ground beef.

1 (14 ounce) package firm water-packed tofu, drained
1-2 tablespoons Sriracha (hot chile sauce, such as Huy Fong), depending on how hot you want it
1 1/2 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)
1 tablespoon black bean garlic sauce (Sun Luck is the brand we used this time, but we've also used Lee Kum Kee)
2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons soy sauce (regular or less-sodium)
1 tablespoon chili oil
1 tablespoon canola oil
4 ounces ground sirloin
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
2 teaspoons peeled and grated fresh ginger
Handful shredded carrots (optional)
2 cups hot cooked long-grain white rice
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves

Place the tofu onto a plate lined with paper towels. Cover the tofu with a couple more paper towels, then put a heavy skillet right on top of the tofu and let stand for 30 minutes. Discard towels and chop tofu into 1-inch cubes.

In a small bowl, combine the Sriracha, mirin, black bean sauce, and sugar.

In another bowl (or a measuring cup) combine the broth, corn starch, soy sauce, and chili oil. Stir until smooth.

In a large nonstick skillet, add the canola oil and heat over medium-high heat. When hot, add the ground beef and stir-fry for about 3 minutes, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Add the garlic and ginger (and shredded carrots, if using), stir-fry for about 30 seconds. Add the Sriracha mixture and cook for another minute, stirring occasionally. Add the broth mixture and bring to a boil. After about 1 minute, add the tofu and stir to combine. Allow the tofu to heat through for a minute or two.

Serve with rice and sprinkle the cilantro leaves over the top. We added some steamed broccoli alongside.

Stuffed Bell Peppers with Rice and Ground Beef

These stuffed bell peppers were made with the batch of peppers that I froze back in October. Turns out, frozen bell peppers make excellent stuffed peppers, in case you were wondering.

I had read that you could bake them from frozen, but mine had some ice crystals that I wanted to remove, so I rinsed them under tepid water until they were pretty much thawed and all the ice came off. Before I added the filling I made sure I had dried them off really well with paper towels.

Are you wondering why my peppers had ice crystals on them? Well, funny story. I was rearranging some appliances in the kitchen, which required the unplugging and rearranging of cords. Turns out, I forgot to plug the chest freezer back in! I didn't notice until two days later when I opened it up to take out some ground beef. Luckily, the three tightly packed boxes of beef were still frozen solid. The peppers were near the top and sitting in a basket by themselves so they had thawed a bit. I'm so glad I opened it when I did; what a huge loss that would have been if the beef had gone bad! It made me jealous of the freezers in my lab; they have an alarm that sounds if the temperature gets too high.

Anyway, there are lots of different recipes for stuffed bell peppers. We liked this one a lot. About a year ago I made a vegetarian version that was really good as well. They are nice because you basically just assemble and bake. We made the full recipe for the filling, but we actually only had two bell peppers left in the freezer, so we baked the extra filling in a couple of small oval baking dishes on the same tray with the peppers. It made awesome burrito filling for other meals later in the week!

Stuffed Bell Peppers with Rice and Ground Beef
adapted from Cooking Light - August 2006
serves 4 (2 pepper halves per person)

Notes: The recipe calls for 1/3 pound ground turkey and 2/3 pound ground sirloin. I didn't want to buy a package of ground turkey just to use 1/3 of it, so I just used all ground sirloin. You could use all ground turkey instead too if you wanted (or get wild and crazy and try ground buffalo!).

4 large green bell peppers (or any color)
Cooking spray
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, minced (remove seeds if you don't want it very spicy)
1/2 cup uncooked long-grain rice (such as jasmine)
1 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth (we just used homemade, which I'm guessing is not fat-free)
2 cups tomato sauce, divided
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese, divided
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 pound ground meat, such as sirloin, turkey, buffalo, or a combination

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Wash peppers and pat dry. Cut in half length-wise, discard seeds and white membranes. Try to leave the stems intact if possible (it makes a nice presentation, but other than that I don't think it matters). Place the peppers on a foil-lined jelly-roll pan, cut side up.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Coat pan with cooking spray. Add the onion, garlic, and jalapeno to the pan. Cook, stirring often, for about five minutes, or until the onion is lightly browned. Add the rice and cook for another two minutes, continuing to stir frequently. Next, add the broth and bring to a boil. Cover the pan, reduce the heat, and let the mixture simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. It's frustrating to have to wait, but if you add it to the rest of the ingredients when it's still hot you might scramble the egg, and that's not what you want.

In a large bowl, add 1 cup of the tomato sauce, 1/4 cup of the cheese, the black pepper, the egg, and the meat. When the rice mixture is cool enough, add it to the bowl, and gently stir the mixture together with a spatula until well blended. Spoon about 1/2 cup of this filling into each of the pepper halves. Pour the remaining 1 cup of tomato sauce evenly over the peppers.

Cover the pan and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup of cheese, then bake uncovered for another 3 minutes or so until the cheese melts.

Shredded Beef Taquitos

I wasn't really all that excited about the Superbowl this year. Unlike the majority of my extended family on my mom's side, I am not a Steeler's fan (my grandpa joked that he's still crying over their loss). My apathy about the game did not stop me from getting excited about the food, however. For some reason I really had a craving for taquitos, and I wanted to make them from scratch, for the first time, ever.

For the filling, I decided I wanted to do shredded beef, an obvious choice for us, seeing as we have so much on hand these days. A quick google search for a good taquito recipe introduced me to one of my new favorite food blogs: Life's Ambrosia. She had it all figured out: directions on how to make the taquitos and a recipe for cooking a beef roast in a slow cooker to get the shredded beef. Perfect! I compared her recipe to a few others and decided I liked her method the best.

Some recipes want you to roll the taquitos and then fry them in oil - tasty, for sure, but not the healthiest method. Others have you simply microwave the tortillas, roll, then bake. From what I read, however, microwaving did not make them pliable enough - so the tortillas tore as you tried to roll them.

It seems that this recipe had the best of both worlds: first, you lightly fry the tortillas in a small amount of oil (just like my grandma does when she makes shells for tacos!) making them perfectly pliable, then you roll them up with the meat, and bake for a bit in the oven. The taquitos were nice and crispy, and not too oily.

The meat filling was great. I cooked a 5-pound roast the day before the game in the slow cooker and shredded it with two forks. I realize this seems like a lot of meat, but since I was going to all this trouble, I wanted to make it worth my while and make a big batch of taquitos, plus this way we would have leftover meat. Once I assembled all the taquitos (I made about 30), I baked a small tray of them to eat that night, and froze the rest, unbaked, for future meals. We used the rest of the meat for sandwiches later on in the week.

Shredded Beef Taquitos
adapted from Life's Ambrosia
makes about 30 taquitos

Notes: These would be just as good filled with cooked chicken or pork.

Canola or vegetable oil (as needed, should have at least 1/2 cup on hand)
30, 6-inch corn tortillas (yellow or white)
4 cups cooked beef, shredded (recipe follows)

Optional toppings:
Cheddar cheese, shredded
Guacamole

If baking the taquitos right away, preheat the oven to 350 F.

Heat a couple tablespoons of the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, carefully fry the tortillas, one at a time, about 30 seconds per side. Drain on paper bags, like my grandma does, or paper towels. You just want to fry them enough to get them really soft and pliable, not crisp.

Once you've fried about half of the tortillas, you can turn off the heat for now, and start filling and rolling them. I had to do batches because I ran out of room on the counter to drain my tortillas.

To fill the taquitos, place about 2 tablespoons of the meat onto the tortilla and roll tightly closed. Be careful not to overfill or it might not close very well. Lay them side-by-side, tightly together on a baking sheet so they stay rolled up while you assemble the rest.

Finish frying, filling, and rolling the rest of the tortillas.

If baking all or some of the taquitos right away, arrange them on a baking sheet with a little space between each one. If any threaten to unroll, secure with a toothpick. Bake for about 15-20 minutes. The ends will get browned and the meat sticking out of the ends will look a little crispy.  

Optional: Remove baking sheet from the oven, and sprinkle taquitos with cheese. Broil until the cheese is melted and bubbly, then remove from the oven and serve with guacamole.  

To freeze: Arrange rolled, unbaked taquitos on a baking sheet with some space between them. Freeze for about an hour, then pile them into freezer bags and freeze. Bake, straight from frozen, at 350 F for about 20 minutes. Add shredded cheese and broil if desired. 

Roast Beef in the Slow Cooker
adapted from Life's Ambrosia
makes all the shredded beef you could ever want, and then some

Notes: Since I used a larger roast than she did, I increased all the spice measurements. Other than that, I did not really change anything.

1 (5 lb.) beef roast, trim fat if desired
1 1/2 tablespoons salt (I used Kosher)
1 1/2 teaspoons pepper
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons granulated garlic
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons oregano
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups beef broth
2 cups water (or more as needed to cover)
1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
4 cloves garlic, peeled

Mix together the salt, pepper, chili powder, granulated garlic, cumin, and oregano. Rub onto all surfaces of the roast.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Brown the roast on all sides, 4-5 minutes per side. Put the roast into the slow cooker. Add the onions, garlic cloves, broth and water. The roast should be almost all the way covered, if not completely covered with liquid. Put the lid on and cook on high for about 8 hours.

Remove roast from slow cooker and shred with two forks.

Salisbury Steak

I know what you're thinking. Salisbury steak is just an entrée in a TV dinner, right? Or maybe it's just some old-fashioned meal that your parents were forced to eat when they were kids? That's what I thought too. I had heard of it, but I'm almost certain I'd never eaten it. It's usually made with ground beef, which is mixed together with onion and maybe some other seasonings, and formed into the shape of a steak. It's usually served with a brown sauce or gravy of some kind.

Another way to make Salisbury steak is to start with cube steak. Incidentally, that's how I came across Alton Brown's recipe, when I was searching for what to do with this thin, tough cut of meat. Not that cube steak is that uncommon, but it's definitely not something I've ever bought before. That's why I like buying mixed cuts of beef in bulk - not only does it save money in the long run, but we get to try new things! Cube steak is usually made from top sirloin or top round and has been tenderized with an electric meat tenderizer at the butcher (that's why the surface is covered with little "cubes").

I only took one package of cube steak out of the freezer, so we only made half the recipe. It was really good! Actually, it was pretty funny, the first thing I said when I took a bite was, "this tastes like hamburger". Well that makes sense, seeing as that part of the cow is usually made into ground beef.

Mashed potatoes are the perfect side dish for this meal because they soak up the delicious brown sauce nicely, but macaroni and cheese is also a common choice. For a quick vegetable side, I defrosted some peas on the stove with just the tiniest pat of butter, and salt and pepper. Peas are one of Joe's favorite vegetables, and they add a nice splash of color to the plate as well.

I still have two more packs of cube steak in the freezer - what should I make?  

Salisbury Steak
adapted from Alton Brown - I'm just here for the food
serves 4

Note: I say this recipe serves four, but 1/2 a pound of meat is a lot for me, so if you are watching calories and portions, just eat half to three-quarters of the steak and save the rest for leftovers.

4 (1/2 pound) beef cube steaks
Flour for dredging
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 medium onion, sliced Lyonnaise-style (that means thinly sliced lengthwise, from root to tip, rather than crosswise)
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/2 pound brown mushrooms, thinly sliced
3/4 cup red wine
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3/4 cup beef or chicken stock

Preheat the oven to 275 F. Season the steaks and the flour with salt and pepper. Dredge the steaks in the flour, and shake to remove the excess.

Heat an oven-proof saute pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon each of the butter and oil.  When melted and hot, add the steaks, two at a time, and brown for about 4 minutes on each side (they will finish cooking in the oven, you only want to sear them for now). Add more butter and oil when flipping to prevent them from sticking (I failed to heed this advice, and had major stickage. Luckily, I just scraped the pan like crazy during deglazing time and it just made the sauce that much more flavorful).  Remove the steaks to a plate and set aside.

Pour off any grease from the pan and add the remaining butter. Add the onion, garlic, and mushrooms to the pan. Saute until cooked down and caramelized. Deglaze the pan with the wine, scraping up all the brown bits from the bottom. Add the Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and stock, stirring to combine. Return the steaks to the pan, cover, and cook in the oven for 25 minutes.

Thai-Style Ground Beef, and 100th Blog Post!

It seems fitting that this, my 100th blog post, is also the first post to feature my new toy.  I turned 28 in late December, and this was my husband's birthday present to me.  The lighting in our kitchen sucks, so I had been making due by taking my photos near our Aerogarden to make use of it's bright light (incidentally, I've had to relocate my collection of begonias near it as well, as it seems that our house is also too dark for those.  They are now thriving and taking over our kitchen.  You can hardly get to the microwave anymore).  Anyway, for Christmas, my mother-in-law also gave me several fun-colored plates to spice up my meal plating (Fiestaware, same as our white ones).  Looks like another 100 posts are in store for this food blogger!

So, about this Thai beef dinner.  Let's be honest, it's basically glorified sloppy joes.  But it's fabulous.  I love the flavors of coconut milk, curry paste, and fish sauce.  Fish sauce smells like bad cat breath by itself, but it does good things to Thai food, I promise you.

Other than leeks and limes, if your pantry is well-stocked, you could have all the other ingredients on hand anytime you wanted to make this dish.  A big jar of curry paste is cheap and keeps practically forever in the fridge.  We just finished our bottle of fish sauce with this meal, but before that we had it at room temperature in the cupboard for 9 months (the high salt content is what keeps it from spoiling).  Keep a few cans of coconut milk and tomato sauce in the pantry, some ground beef or turkey in the freezer, and you're all set!    

Thai-Style Ground Beef
adapted from Cooking Light - January 2006
serves 4 (1/2 cup ground beef mixture, 3/4 cup rice)

Notes: The original recipe calls for cooking spray instead of olive oil, and iceberg lettuce instead of romaine.  My ground beef was not lean, so I spooned out the fat before I adding the curry paste and tomato sauce.  This recipe is easily doubled, and I highly recommend doing so to ensure that there will be leftovers.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup thinly sliced leek (I sliced the leek lengthwise into quarters first, then thinly sliced)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 pound lean ground sirloin
1 teaspoon red curry paste (such as Mae Ploy, from an Asian grocery store)
1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup light coconut milk
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon grated lime rind
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon Asian fish sauce (we like this brand, from an Asian grocery store)
3 cups any hot cooked rice (we had wild rice, so we used that)
Lettuce wedges, such as romaine or iceberg (optional)
Chopped cilantro
Chopped green onions (optional)

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add oil.  When hot, add the leek and cook 4-5 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute, then add the beef and break it up with a wooden spoon.  Cook for about 7 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring often.

Stir in the curry paste, then the tomato sauce.  Cook for a couple of minutes to allow about half of the liquid to evaporate.  Add the milk, brown sugar, grated lime rind, lime juice, and fish sauce.  Here it says to cook for 2 minutes or until slightly thickened, but mine was still very liquidy at that point, so I let it go for probably 8 more minutes (I lowered the heat slightly so the bottom wouldn't burn, and I stirred it often).

When the beef mixture is thickened to your liking, serve with rice and lettuce leaves.  You could also serve the beef mixture in warm corn tortillas if you'd like.  Garnish with cilantro and green onions.

Thanksgiving Leftovers: Shepherd's Pie

I love homemade mashed potatoes, but I can get tired of them pretty quickly.  A good way to use up leftovers is to put them on top of Shepherd's pie.  I have already posted one recipe for a sweet potato Shepherd's pie from Natural Home Magazine, and tonight I made a version from the Tillamook Cheese Cookbook.  It's actually quite a nice cookbook, especially if you are a fan of Tillamook Cheese like me.  Joe and I spent a weekend at the coast this past summer so of course we had to stop by the factory for the free cheese samples!

Shepherd's pie with salad on the side.

Shepherd's Pie topped with Cheddar Mashed Potatoes
adapted from the Tillamook Cheese Cookbook
serves 4

Notes: I only had about half of the mashed potatoes it called for so I planned to just make half the recipe, which would be four servings instead of 8.  As I am typing this up however, it occurs to me that the only ingredients I actually halved were the ground beef, the mashed potatoes, and the cheese.  I accidentally used the full amount of everything else!  Since we thought it tasted really good that way, I'm going to type the recipe up that way too.  :-)

1 pound extra-lean ground beef
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup diced onion
1 large carrot, diced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1-14 ounce can crushed tomatoes
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cups mashed potatoes
2 cups shredded Tillamook Sharp Cheddar cheese, divided
2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley

Preheat the oven to 375 F.  Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Saute the onion and carrot for 8-10 minutes, or until softened.  Add the garlic and cook for another 3 minutes.  Add the ground beef, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, and cook until browned.  Add the Worcestershire, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, and pepper.  Cook until the mixture has thickened, about 10 minutes.  Spoon the mixture into a 9x9 baking dish.

In a medium bowl, combine the mashed potatoes with 1/2 of the cheese and the parsley.  Spread this potato mixture over the top of the beef mixture with a spatula.  Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top.  Place the pan onto a baking sheet (I guess this is in case the mixture bubbles over.  It didn't when I made it, but it's not a bad idea, just in case) and bake until it bubbles, about 25 minutes.

(Leftover) Roast Beef Hash

Following up on my last post, this was my favorite leftover meal that we made.  What is your favorite way to use leftover roast beef?

Roast Beef Hash

adapted from Mark Bittman - How to Cook Everything

serves 4

Note: Instead of roast beef, you can also use leftover corned beef.  You can also swap out 1 cup of the boiled potatoes with peeled cooked beets to make what's called Red Flannel Hash.  

3 tablespoons oil or butter

2 cups chopped leftover roast beef (small cubes)

2 cups chopped cold boiled potatoes (small cubes)

1 cup chopped onion (I like it finely chopped in this dish)

1/2 cup liquid, such as stock, tomato sauce, milk, cream, or gravy

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

In a large bowl, toss together the beef, potatoes, and onion.  Add about 1/2 cup of the liquid, just enough to moisten the mixture but not so much that it becomes soupy.  Season with a little salt and pepper.  

Put the oil or butter into a large oven-proof, preferably nonstick, skillet and turn the heat to medium-low.  When hot, add the hash, pressing it out into a nice flat layer with a spatula.  Cook, undisturbed, for about 10 minutes.  Preheat the broiler.

At this point, Bittman suggests you can flip the hash over and brown the other side.  Mine did not seem that sturdy, so I opted for his other suggestion of browning the top under the broiler.

Serve with a fried egg on top, if desired.