Enchiladas v 2.0

So I've been revamping a bunch of old recipes. Just little tweaks here and there really. But I'm super excited about how it's coming out. This is one of the first ones I did and they still taste great! This is such a classic recipe. Here's the original. Now, I did roll these ones. You can check out the pic at the end. So, here's the revamped version.

Ingredients
1 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp garlic powder
½ cup wheat flour
2 tbsp chili powder
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp oregano
4 cups hot water
2 beef bouillon
1 pound ground turkey
1 can kidney or black beans
½ pound grated cheddar cheese
10 flour tortillas

Combine first six ingredients. Add water. Stir (use a bouncer or whip). Add bouillon and cook over medium heat until it starts to thicken. Cook the ground beef while you are making the sauce. Drain and put in a bowl. Add the grated cheese to the ground beef, saving some to go on top. Dip tortillas in the sauce to soften, place on a plate and put a spoonful of the cheese/beef mixture near one side, spreading it out. Roll up and place in a 9x13 casserole dish. Pour remaining sauce over the rolled enchiladas. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes and put the saved cheese on top. Return to the oven until the cheese is melted.

The beans add an surprising amount of spice to the enchiladas. They have quite a bit more kick than the normal recipe. And I just thought of another addition I'll do next time. Flaxseed. Look at me getting all healthy and sneaky. :)

Taco Chili

We found this one online and really liked it. I think it's a pretty mild chili (a bit more kid friendly) but it's really flavorful!

Ingredients

1 lb ground turkey or beef (I think we used beef, but I'd totally use turkey)

1/4 cup chopped onion (I probably used at least half an onion)

2-3 cloves minced garlic (again, you can totally sneak in more if you want)

1 1/2 cups celery, chopped

1 15 oz. can tomato sauce

1 small can green chiles

1 15 oz. can stewed or diced tomatoes (You can use 2 cans)

4-16 oz. cans of beans (mix and match. We used kidney and black. And we might not've used 4, but less. Can't remember. You don't need to drain or rinse most. But I would drain and rinse black beans.)

1 pckg taco seasoning

1 pckg ranch dressing mix

2 tsp cumin

16 oz. bag frozen corn

1/2 cup water optional

Brown turkey (or beef), adding onions, garlic, and celery about halfway through. One by one, add the remaining ingredients. Do not drain anything, just dump. The 1/2 cup water is optional. It makes it more soupy and with the addition of more canned tomaotes or even one more can of beans, it's really not needed. Heat through. Simmer for awhile if you'd like.

This recipe is really open. You can use more beans or less. I think we used less because it was looking a little too beany for me. If it's not soupy enough, you can add the extra diced tomatoes, or just water. It's really versatile, and the flavors are great.

Beef and Bean Stir Fry

This one came from Reader's Digest. Unfortunately I partially botched the recipe a bit. But it wasn't irreparable. I just don't doubt that it could've tasted way better than it did.

Ingredients

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 lb. boneless beef top loin steak, trimmed of fat and cut in thin strips (I used ground beef. Not too fancy, I know.)

2 gloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. chopped fresh ginger (I didn't use fresh ginger, but ground)

2 carrots, thinly diagonally sliced

3 1/2 cups brooli florest (8 oz.)

6 green onions, cut in long thin strips (I'm pretty sure I didn't have any. Don't recall if I substituted with yellow onions or not.)

1/4 cup orange juice concentrate, thawed, or orange juice (Here's where I messed up. I put the whole container of concentrate, then when I realized, tried to scoop some back out. Needless to say, ours was a bit heavy on the orange flavor.)

2 tbsp soy sauce

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1 15-oz. can cannellini beans

In 12-inch skillet with flared sides or a large wok heat 1 tbsp. of the oil over medium-high heat. Cook and stir beef, garlic, and ginger until beef is browned, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from skillet. Heat remaining oil. Add carrots and broccoli; cook and stir 3 minutes. Add green onions; cook 1 minute more.

Add orange juice concentrate, soy sauce, and crushed red pepper; toss to coat. Add cooked beef and beans; cook until heated through.

We serve with rice. Although the flavor was a bit off, I still recall enojoying it and know that if I followed the recipe better (and added green onions) it would be even better. Perhaps one of you can cook it properly and let us know? :)

Shepard's Pie Soup

One of my favorite websites is Supercook.  You can list the ingredients you have and don't have and it will spit out recipes that you can make with those ingredients.  Supercook was my friend tonight and inspired a recipe tonight that will probably become a regular in our house.

I was planning on making my Mom's shephard's pie for dinner, which I thought Julie had blogged about and I was going to add a link to, but she hasn't so next time I make it I'll share it with you.  Anyways, I had made my Mom's Homemade Macaroni and Cheese for lunch and it ended up taking all of my cheese.  So I didn't have any to top the casserole with.  I went to supercook, put in the ingredients that I had been planning on using, and out came a recipe to make soup.  I strayed a little from the original recipe, so I'm going to give you what I made instead of what the original recipe was.  If you want to see the original, go here.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped
3 large potatoes
1 jar marinara pasta sauce
1 can corn
salt and pepper

Dice potatoes into 1/4 to 1/2 inch cubes and put in large pot to begin cooking.  Cook ground beef and onion in a skillet until beef is browned.  Drain all but 1 cup of the potato cooking water; the potatoes will not be cooked thoroughly yet.  Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot and cook 30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

I served it with biscuits on the side.  I don't have a biscuit cutter, so I use a heart shaped cookie cutter.  Adds a little something special, I think.

Crock Pot Roast

I know for most people roast is pretty darn basic and not exciting. For me, however, it's most intriguing. We did not eat roast growing up, and my first exposure to it I had mono (but didn't know it til the day after) and so needless to say, at the time it didn't taste great. I still don't think I would've liked it because it was a dry roast, which I've learned that I don't really prefer. However, after Emery was born, my neighbor and friend brought us dinner. It was a crock pot roast. I really, really liked it. We recently got a roast from my hub's family ranch and I had to do it right. So I emailed my old neighbor and got her recipe from her. This is what she sent me.

Ingredients
Roast
Onion Soup Mix
Cream of Mushroom Soup
Beef Bouillon
garlic, celery salt, onion powder, onion salt
Potatoes
Carrots

I use 1-2 (depending on the size of the roast, with my family size I usually use a 3-4lb. roast that I would use 2 for, but anything less I would use just one) envelopes of Lipton onion mix. 1-2 (matching how many envelopes you use) cans of cream of mushroom soup. I also like to add 2 beef boulion cube to the water. Add about 1-2 cups of water, I don't really measure it. Just enough to make it 1-2 inches deep in the crock pot. Then I like to set the crock pot on low for at least 6 hours preferrably 8. But if you want to just put a frozen roast in there you can do it for 12. I wouldn't recommend cooking them any faster unless you are doing it in the oven. Then you can do it for 3-4 hours at 250. If you do it in the oven seering the meat first is a good idea too. I just like putting a bunch of herbs on my roast like, garlic, celery salt (plenty of it, it's kind of the secret ingredient), onion powder, onion salt, pepper, Monteral Seasoning, beef bouillon (the other secrect ingedient :) Sometimes I add the cream of mushroom soup sometimes not. The the cooking instructions are the same.
I also add carrots and potatoes toward the end with at least 3 hours left.

So yes, the ingredients and instructions are a big broad. I'll give you a better break down of what I did. I don't know how much roast we had. It was big, so I assumed it was in the 3-4 pound category. (Although it had a bunch of bones, which wasn't fun to deal with. It was apparently a neck. Or was a neck.) So I did 2 cans of the cream of mushroom, 2 packets of onion soup mix, and added enough water to feel like it was sufficiently filled. Our crock pot is really big, so just use your gut on that. Then I peeled and cut up some potatoes. Just as many as you think would suit your size roast. Then I took my carrot sticks from my handy dandy peanut butter snack container and cut them all in half with my kitchen scissors.  As for the seasonings, I just sprinkled liberally. I did add the 2 bouillon. I didn't use any salts. I used garlic and onion powders. I try to reduce salts wherever possible. Just a personal thing. Our potatoes and carrots didn't end up fully cooked. The next time I did this, I put them in from the beginning. That worked well, although they probably didn't have to be in there that long. But I would put them in half way. It came out really tasty. I was very pleased. We've already cooked it again with the rest of our ranch roast. I rather enjoyed cooking a tasty roast.

Chili Upgrade

So we were making our normal chili but really wanted to make it a bit tastier, give it a little upgrade. So we combined it with the recipe for our white chicken chili and came up with something pretty yummy. It was kind of an on the fly recipe change, so bear with me. But I can still remember the gist of how we changed it. I know we started out with the original recipe.

Ingredients

1 lb. lean ground beef (or turkey)
1/2 onion, chopped
1 green sweet pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced (Can't go wrong with more garlic either)
1 15-oz can dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained (may use dried beans)
1 14 ½ oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
2-3 tsp chili powder
1 tsp dried basil, crushed
1/2 cup flax seed

Then we added some bits from the white chicken chili.
1 can of kernel corn

1 (4oz) cans diced green chiles
1 tbs ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano

I want to say that was most of the additions.

Brown meat, chop veggies, toss it all in a crockpot and cook on high for 4-5 hours. You can saute your veggies before hand if you want to, as well.

Taco salad

Over Aaron's two week break, he helped out with the cooking a bit. A few of the next recipes will be Aaron's. This is one of them. He has always loved taco salad. I didn't like it very much, but since my tastebud revolution over the summer, I now totally enjoy taco salad. It's pretty darn easy and pretty darn yummy.

Ingredients
lettuce
tomato
kidney beans (1 can or pre-soaked/cooked)
olives
1/2 lb. ground beef
grated cheese
salsa
tortilla chips

Ground beef. Combine with other ingredients in a large bowl. Serve over tortilla chips.

So I know it's pretty lame that I didn't include very good specifics on how much of what to use. It's really up to you. If you're not a fan of something, don't use very much or you can exclude it all together. It's really an eyeballing thing. If you do like something, you can have more of it.

Shepherd's Pie

This is another Emeril recipe. I really enjoyed it. I didn't start liking shepherd's pie until the last year or so, so it's a pretty big deal that I like this. My mom might think so anyway. Just don't overdo the cloves. It's a powerful taste.

Ingredients
5 tbsp unsalted butter
3 large Idaho potatoes (about 2 lbs) peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp plus 1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1 1/2 lbs ground beef or lamb (I used beef, but think lamb would be interesting. I'm not really familiar with it.)
3/4 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch ground cloves (seriously, just a pinch. I'd say half an 1/8 tsp. This is strong and can really go too far if you're not careful.)
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups reduced-sodium beef broth (I just use hot water and 1 1/4 tsp beef boullion granules)
3/4 cup diced carrots
1/2 cup green peas, fresh or frozen (if frozen, don't thaw)
2 tsp tomato paste
1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

Grease a 2 quart casserole dish with 1 tbsp butter and set aside. (This is smaller than a 9x13, I believe, so check your casserole dish.) Preheat oven to 375. In a medium saucepan, place the potatoes and 1 tsp of the salt. Cover with water by 1 inch and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and cook at a low boil until fork-tender, about 12-15 minutes. (I think I cooked mine longer than that.) Using oven mitts or pot holders, drain potatoes in a colander set in the sink and then return them to the saucepan. Add the remaining 4 tbsp of butter, the milk, heavy cream, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/8 tsp black pepper. Mash with a potato masher until smooth. Set aside.
In a large skillet, heat the vegetable oil over medium high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, and cook, stirring for 30 seconds, then add the ground meat and cook, stirring to break up chunk, until cooked through, about 8 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, and remove as much excess liquid as possible. Return the skllet to medium high heat. Add the italian seasoning, thyme, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper, cinnamon, and cloves, and cook until the meat is well browned, stirring frequently, about 6 to 8 minutes. Sprinkle the meat with the flour and cook, stirring, for about 1 to 2 minutes. Add the beef broth, carrots, peas, and tomato paste, stir to combine, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer until thickened, about 5 to 6 minutes.
Transfer the mixture to the casserole dish and spoon the mashed potatoes evenly over the top. Sprinkle with the cheese and bake for 30 minutes. Increase the oven temperature to broil and cook until golden brown and crisp around the edges, about 4 to 6 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Royal Round Steak

Well, this is a simple crock pot meal. It's really simple and tastes pretty good. To me, it was a bit too salty, but there's not much to edit to make it less salty. But with me, it could've just been that day. Aaron liked it so we're gonna keep it around. It was an all around easy and yummy dish.

Ingredients
1-2 lbs beef round steak or stew meat
1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 envelope (1 oz.) dry onion soup mix (maybe they make a reduced sodium version? And I didn't buy a nice brand, just the X-stuff. Maybe that would make a difference to salt and flavor issues.)
2 cans (10 3/4 oz. each) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
Hot cooked egg noodles
Chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Trim round steak and cut into cubes. Partially frozen meat makes for easier cutting. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown meat on all sides. (Do not need to cook through, just brown sides.) Combine dry onion soup mix and canned soups in mixing bowl. Pour mixture into crock pot. (I just mixed it in the crock pot. No need to dirty a bowl.) Add browned meat. Cover and cook on high 6-7 hours. Spoon over egg noodles. Sprinkle with parsley.

Fireside Chili

I made this for our ward chili/bake off. It was something I found from a magazine and it sounded exotic, so I went all out. In the end, I didn't really care for it. It's a specialty chili, I like to call it. It's got a real distinct and unique flavor. I think you either love it or hate it. I was missing one ingredient, but not a crucial one to flavor I don't think. Anyway, it's got a very smoked flavor. So if you like smoked, you'll probably love it. It also has a cumin polenta that goes with it. I forgot to try the polenta with the chili so I can't vouch for it. But I do imagine it's a good addition to the strong flavored chili, so I'll add it at the end anyhow. The picture is deceiving. With the flash from my camera, it came out very bright. This was a dark chili, not bright red. Be not deceived. And I put this in the Mexican label because it has fresh jalapenos and dried chile peppers. To me, that's in the realm of Mexican food. Oh, and despite me saying I didn't really like it, we brought the giant pot home almost empty. So it was getting eaten, no doubt. Which made me feel good, even though I didn't win the cook off.

Ingredients
1 recipe Chili Seasoning Puree (I'll list it further down)
1 1/2 lb. ground beef chuck (which I learned is just plain old ground beef. Why do they make this so hard?)
1 large onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 tbsp. smoked paprika (I think this gives it a majority of the smoky flavor. Smoked paprika is very, very strong.)
2 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/4 - 1/2 tsp ground cloves (This I didn't have. But it's such a small amount, I'm hoping it didn't ruin my chili not having it.)
1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes, cut up (I'd make the pieces about 1 inch or so)
1 1/2 cups water
1 14 oz. can beef broth
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
1-2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped (optional) (This is one of the things that drew me to this recipe)
1 1/2 cups dried plums or raisins, chopped (chopping dried plums is somewhat tedious. I'd do it before when you're not feeling rushed.)
Cumin Polenta (optional)

Prepare Chili Seasoning Puree. (listed below) In 6 quart dutch oven cook beef, onion, and celery until meat is browned, stirring as needed. Drain fat. Stir in Chili Puree, paprika, coriander, crushed red pepper, and cloves. Cook and stir 2 minutes. Stir in undrained tomatoes, water, beef broth, and tomato paste. Brign to boiling, reduce heat. Add chocolate and plums. Simmer, covered, 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Serve with Cumin Polenta.

Chili Seasoning Puree
2 dried chile peppers (There are tons of different types [from different regions] so just pick one.)

1 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

3/4 cup beef broth
5 pitted plums

Place chile peppers in a bowl. Add boiling water to cover. Let stand 30 minutes. Drain; remove stems and seeds. To remove seeds, cut off stem end. Cut a slit down one side and scrape out seeds with a spoon. In food processor or blender combine drained chile peppers, jalapeno pepper, broth, and dried plums. Cover and process or blend until smooth.

Cumin Polenta

2 14 oz. cans reduced-sodium chicken broth

2 tsp ground cumin

1 cup yellow cornmeal

1/2 cup whole milk (I do think using skim or otherwise will change the quality. I used skim cause it's all we have.)

1 tbsp butter

In large heavy saucepan combine broth and cumin; bring to boiling. Reduce heat; gradually whisk in cornmeal. Cook and stir until thick, about 6-8 minutes. Whisk in milk and butter, Season with salt and pepper. I was told by a friend that you should always stir the polenta in one direction only. It doesn't matter which direction, but you don't stir both directions or do figure eights in the polenta. Just pick a direction and stir it that way. She heard that from a reliable cooking source, so try it.

Cabbage Rolls in Creamy Bacon Sauce

So the title of this one sounds pretty good (if you're not afraid of cabbage.) However, I will warn you that the picture for this one looks really un-appetizing. Well, it looks just plain gross. BUT don't be afraid! It's mostly my own fault that it doesn't look as beautiful as the one in the book. I'll explain later. So don't be scared away because of my bad picture (and not so great camera. The fuzziness of the picture really isn't helping this one any.) For the record, these did taste good. They weren't spectacular or anything, but a nice recipe for using up my cabbage (which I just hate to waste, but have a hard time using.)

Ingredients

1 large head cabbage, core removed* Read note below
1 lb beef (extra-lean) (I only had turkey, but it worked great)
1/3 cup uncooked instant white rice
1/3 cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1 cup beef broth
½ tsp caraway seed
½ cup milk
½ cup sour cream
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
¼ cup cooked bacon pieces (I just used bacon bits, but fresher, larger chunks of bacon would've been really nice.)

Fill 5-6 quart Dutch oven half full of water. Heat to boiling. Place whole cabbage in water, core side down. Cover; cook 2 to 3 minutes, turning over once, or until leaves can be removed from head. With slotted spoon remove cabbage from water. With tongs, carefully remove 6 leaves from head. Save remaining head of cabbage for later use. Shave or trim part of the thick rib from each lead. Return leaves to water; cook 2 to 3 minutes or until wilted. In medium bowl, mix ground beef, uncooked rice, 1/3 cup milk, the egg, Worcestershire sauce, ¼ tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper. Spoon about 1/3 cup of the ground beef mixture on thick end of each cabbage leaf. Roll up, tucking sides in. Place filled cabbage leaves in 12-inch skillet, seam side down. Add broth and caraway seed. Cover; heat to boiling. Reduce heat; simmer 25-30 minutes or until thermometer inserted in center of ground beef mixture reads 160. With slotted spoon, place cabbage rolls on serving platter; cover to keep warm. In small bowl, mix milk, sour cream, flour, remaining ¼ tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper with wire whisk. Pour into skillet. Cook and stir over medium heat until thick and bubbly. Serve sauce over cabbage rolls; sprinkle with bacon.

*My biggest issue with this recipe was my cabbage. I didn't have a new head, but an older one that only had the smaller, whiter leaves from the center. So that made the rolls pretty transparent, making them look pretty weird. The leaves were also much smaller, so I had to use multiple leaves to wrap up each one. This meant that I only had enough leaves for 3 instead of 6 like the recipe calls for. So that's mainly the reason for my weird looking rolls. Had I had the larger green leaves from the outer cabbage, the rolls would have looked much friendlier.

The biggest issue with the actual taste was the caraway seeds. It might've been because I still cooked them in enough broth and caraway seeds for 6 but only have 3. So the caraway seeds were quite strong, especially if you bite into one. Kinda minty. Aaron's happened to have a lot of caraway seeds from the broth, so he didn't love the minty flavor.

Crescent Burritos

These came out great. We made them bigger than the original recipe because we were worried they'd be too small. I think they would've been okay. They turned out gigantic. Anyways, it's a great recipe no matter what size you make them. (I doubled this recipe because otherwise it doesn't make very many. They're kind of small, so you'll want more than one. But if you wanted to you could half it.)

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef (You could easily use turkey.)
½ onion, chopped
1 pckg taco seasoning
1 cup water
1 can refried beans (I like black beans. I think they're a bit better for you than refried beans. Just drain them first and smash them up a bit.)
4 cans crescent rolls
1 cup salsa
8 slices American cheese
1 cup sour cream
½ cup sliced olives

Heat oven to 350. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray. In 10-inch nonstick skillet, cook ground beef and onion over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until beef is thoroughly cooked; drain. Stir in taco seasoning mix and water. Reduce heat to medium; cook about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until water has evaporated. Remove from heat; stir in beans. Separate dough into 16 triangles. (4 per can) Firmly press perforations to seal. Spoon about 2 tbsp beef mixture and 1 tbsp of salsa onto each rectangle; spread across one half of rectangle. Fold rectangle in half and pinch edges to seal. Place on cookie sheet. Bake 18 to 23 minutes or until golden brown. Top each burrito with cheese; bake 2 to 3 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Serve garnished with sour cream and olives.

This is half a burrito. They were huge. Really. When you're making them, don't worry if you think they'll certainly explode while they're cooking. And don't worry if they look really small. (if you do the original 1/2 lb version.) When they cook, they expand and the crescent roll seals off all the areas where you think it'll leak. That was my experience anyway. And I didn't bother putting them back in the oven to melt the cheese. It melted just fine when they were fresh from the oven.

Enchiladas

A twist on an old favorite. This is a family FAVE! My mom's enchiladas have now made many a missionary happy in Montana as well. This recipe is pretty versatile. I usually make it with ground turkey. It's meant for beef, and can be easily converted to using chicken. Killer delicious! This version is not rolled enchiladas, but an enchilada casserole. You definitely have to make the original enchiladas to truly appreciate it. But, when you make it frequently, it's nice to do it casserole style because it takes less time. Here's the original recipe:

Ingredients

1 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp garlic powder
½ cup flour
2 tbsp chili powder
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp oregano
4 cups hot water
2 beef bouillon (use chicken bouillon if making with chicken)
1 pound ground beef (or turkey or chicken)
½ pound grated cheddar cheese
10 flour tortillas (When I make them into rolled enchiladas, I tend to only get 8. I think it's because I fill mine pretty full)

Combine first six ingredients. Add water. Stir (use a bouncer or whip). Add bouillon and cook over medium heat until it starts to thicken. Cook the ground beef while you are making the sauce. Drain and put in a bowl. Add the grated cheese to the ground beef, saving some to go on top. Dip tortillas in the sauce to soften, place on a plate and put a spoonful of the cheese/beef mixture near one side, spreading it out. Roll up and place in a 9x13 casserole dish. Pour remaining sauce over the rolled enchiladas. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes and put the saved cheese on top. Return to the oven until the cheese is melted. (I used to forget and always put the cheese ontop before I put it in the oven. Now I just do it before because it's easier to remember. It still works out fine.)

To make this a casserole:
Cut up your tortillas. I just use a pizza cutter and make then into small chunks. Then you layer your ingredients. Start with tortillas, then add meat/cheese. Then douse with sauce. Then repeat. This last time, I ended with a layer of tortillas. Just make sure they all have sauce on them before you bake. If any tortilla strips on top don't get sauce, they'll get dark and crispy.

I didn't add this to the kid friendly section because when Joseph was younger he'd never eat it. He did this time, however.

Lasagna

So I'm pretty sure this was my first lasagna. I was getting a bit ambitious I think. But it worked out! I will tell you I was afraid to take the first bite. I thought for sure it wasn't going to work out. But it did! Woohoo! This was originally Mom's recipe, but I changed it a bit.

Ingredients

1 tbsp oil
½ onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lb. lean ground beef cooked (I'm sure turkey would sub great in here)
4-8 oz. mushrooms (I used a 4 oz. can. If you wanted to beef it up two cans would work well.)
3 cans diced tomatoes (could use seasoned ones and skip the seasonings.)
¼ cup flax seed (honestly, I forgot them. But just now realized it would go in just fine.)
1 tbsp basil leaves
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp black pepper
½ tsp salt
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 egg
8 oz. mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
8 oz. lasagna noodles (oven-ready)
parmesan cheese

In a 2-quart saucepan heat oil; add onions and garlic and sauté until onions are translucent, about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, basil, sugar, salt, and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. While sauce is simmering, in a bowl combine ricotta, egg, and mozzarella cheese with parsley; set aside. In bottom of a 8x13” baking pan, spread a thin layer of meat sauce; top with alternating layers of cooked lasagna noodles, cheese mixture and meat sauce, ending with a layer of meat sauce. Douse with parmesan cheese. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to stand 15 minutes before serving.


When you hit the stage of adding tomatoes, etc. I'd put it in a soup pot. My saucepans aren't big enough anyhow. I would use as much noodle on each layer. You'll probably have to break them a bit. Since I used the oven ready noodles, they're stiff. Putting a layer of cheese mix on that is kinda hard. But I basically tried to spread it on the noodles like putting it on a cracker. It worked alright. I wasn't able to spread it too well, but I'm sure the heat helped it to spread when it was cooking. Make sure no noodles are exposed on that last layer. That's why it's important to end with a meat layer. Then I just doused the top with parmesan cheese. You can put as little or as much as you like. I liked it. It added a crunchy and flavorful crusty top to the lasagna. I didn't use all the lasagna noodles in mine. I probably could have if I had broken some of the pieces up. At first, I thought it had too much basil because I could really smell it. But once we were eating it, it was great. The taste wasn't at all overwhelming. I think it just has a strong scent. But the flavors balanced very nicely.
 

I didn't put this under kid friendly, however Joseph ate it without a complaint once it was cooled down. Maybe most kids are cool with lasagna. I didn't know that.

Chili!

So here's your standard crock pot chili! I've been making crock pot meals on Sundays with our church starting at 1 this year and choir practice right after, there's not time for elaborate cooking when we get home. This came out great. Like I said, it's a standard chili, but there's nothing wrong with that. It's refreshing every now and then.

Ingredients

1 lb. lean ground beef (or turkey)
1/2 onion, chopped
1 green sweet pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced (Can't go wrong with more garlic either)
1 15-oz can dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained (may use dried beans)
1 14 ½ oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
2-3 tsp chili powder
1 tsp dried basil, crushed
1/2 cup flax seed

In a large saucepan, cook ground beef, onion, sweet pepper, and garlic until meat is brown and onion is tender; drain fat. Stir in kidney beans, undrained tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili powder, basil and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered for 20 minutes. -OR-
Cook ground beef, chopped onions, chopped green sweet pepper, and minced garlic. Drain fat. Combine in crock pot beef mixture; kidney beans, rinsed and drained; tomato sauce; diced tomatoes, undrained; chili powder; dried basil, crushed; and black pepper. Cover; cook on low heat for 8-10 hours or on high heat for 4-5 hours.

I made a few alterations to the recipe. It's a bit bulkier than the original (from Better Homes and Gardens.) I also used dried beans. I measured out two cups and then cooked them. This of course equaled more than 15 ounces of beans when they were cooked. However, with the added meat (it was originally 12 oz.) it's not super beany or anything.

We like to top our chili with cheese (cheddar or swiss) and/or saltines. Generally speaking, we also eat it with corn bread (coming next!)

Stroganoff

A family classic. It's just mom's recipe. I never liked it with mushrooms growing up, but I've since gotten over my phobia of most vegetables. I think I even used more that it usually calls for, because they were in my fridge already opened. For some reason, it tasted a tad bit bland last night, but we're not sure why. I wasn't exactly measuring out the seasonings, but I tend to use more than recipes call for that way. Despite it not being too flavorful, we still enjoyed it, and on average the stroganoff tastes fantastic!

Ingredients

1 lb. lean ground beef (I have used ground turkey)
1 tbsp onion powder (I used chopped onions, since they were already chopped up in my fridge. Probably about 1/4 cup or so)
¼ cup margarine
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1 4-oz can mushrooms
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream

Melt margarine over medium heat, add onion powder. Add meat and brown. Add flour, salt, garlic, pepper, and mushrooms. Cook 5 minutes. Add soup, simmer uncovered 10 minutes. Stir in sour cream. Heat through. Serve with rice (or egg noodles.) If you don’t have lean ground beef, you can leave out the margarine. If you have 7% fat or less, you need the margarine to make the sauce.

Mom, maybe you can answer the question of why it uses cream of chicken soup instead of cream of mushroom?

Hamburgers

We had hamburgers a few weeks ago before I really started blogging here. At the time, we had more meat than we needed, so I decided to pre-shape some of them and freeze them for another time. That was what we ate a few nights ago. However, I neglected to get a picture of the patties all neatly frozen, nor did I take one before I had already bitten into my hamburger. So excuse the partially eaten hamburger picture. I took it, so I just had to use it. Anyhow, this had two stages.

Stage 1: Making the patties

Ingredients
1 lb. ground beef or turkey (we use turkey all the time)
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
liberal dousing (maybe a tbsp) of Alpine Touch (an all-purpose seasoner with garlic, salt, onion and pepper.)

You can season it in a multitude of ways. I've used worchestershire sauce, and tons of different combinations. What is listed above is our generic hamburger recipe. In the burgers shown above, I even added some grated cheddar cheese, instead of slicing it and adding it later on. It was a success, I'd say.

For shaping this burgers, this is the format. Choose how big you want them to be. Quarter pounders is quite big, but sometimes it's just the right size. With the recipe above, you can make 4 larger burgers, or you can make anywhere from 5-7 smaller burgers. Just realize that if you don't get them real skinny they will plump up when cooking and that can make them seem smaller in comparison to the bun. I used two sheets of wax paper. Put the amount of meat you want to use between the two and shape. (The wax paper keeps your hands from getting really sticky and gross) Keep in mind if you choose to use turkey, that the meat will be significantly more sticky and soft. After shaping, you may immediately grill, or freeze for later use.

Stage 2: Cooking or freezing

If freezing shape the patties, then stack them with a piece of wax paper between each patty. Make sure the wax paper is large enough to separate the meat patties from touching. Then place the stack of patties in a bag and plop in the freezer until you want to cook them! Upon removing them, you may have to pry them apart with a butter knife. However, the wax paper comes off really easily. Then plop right on a hot grill. They don't take too long to cook. I found that the pre-frozen patties tended to hold their shape better and make better patties. When you don't freeze them, they puff up while cooking, which makes them smaller in comparison to the buns. It's a technicality, but I liked them better that way. In freezing them, you can also make more than one batch at a time, so you have some on hand at the last minute.

Junior Wellingtons

This is one of those recipes I found in a cookbook I happened to have and decided to give it a go. It's a bit heavy on the meat (which can be adjusted easily), but it's really flavorful and we all like it!

Ingredients
1 ½ lbs lean ground beef
3 egg yolks
¼ cup buttermilk
4 ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp Baby Bam
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp Italian seasoning
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp flour
3 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 tbsp water
6 slices American cheese

Combine the beef, 2 egg yolks, buttermilk, Worcestershire sauce, Baby Bam, garlic, Italian seasoning, and salt. Stir well. Divide the meat into 6 equal portions. Form into patties. Brown thoroughly on both sides in skillet. Refrigerate browned patties for 30 minutes. Heat oven to 425. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll out pastry sheets to 1/16-inch thickness and cut into four even sections. Combine remaining egg yolk with water and beat with whisk to make egg wash. Place 4 pastry sections on baking sheet and paint a border of egg wash around each section. Place a chilled hamburger patty in the middle of each section and top with 1 slice of cheese. Top cheese with remaining pastry sections, pressing the edges together with a fork to seal. Paint the top with egg wash and cut an ‘X’ in the top of each Wellington. Bake until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

That's the official recipe. However, when I did it I only used 1 lb. of meat, 2 pastry sheets and 4 pieces of cheese. I didn't alter the seasoning too much. It still came out great. I don't bother cutting out circles. Then you have leftover pastry sheet with nothing to do with it. What a waste! I just cut mine in squares and use the whole thing. The patties are 1/4 lb, so they're pretty meaty. So for me, the more pastry, the better the balance. I think next time I'll even add some grated carrots. Anyhow, it's a flavorful meal, the pastry sheets are fun and add variety. Oh, here's the recipe for "Bam". (If you didn't notice, this is an Emeril recipe.)

Ingredients

3 tbsp paprika

2 tbsp salt

2 tbsp dried parsley

2 tsp onion powder

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried thyme

½ tsp celery salt

This obviously makes a bit. It lasts for a while. I'll eventually put up more recipes that use Bam. I've also used it randomly. It's a nice all-purpose seasoner with kick.