Italian Beef III

So this recipe comes from my SIL Michon. I don’t know how to describe the flavor as compared to Italian Beef I except to say that it’s different! And also very, very good.

1 package of Italian dressing seasoning
1/2 bottle beer
3 beef bouillon cubes
several pepperoncinis
2-3 lb roast
water (enough to get it about 3/4 of the way up the roast or higher is fine, too)

Put it all in the crockpot on low for several hours, shred and serve! We, of course, serve it with provolone or swiss slices on a hoagie roll.

Up next: Italian beef without the spice. Which makes it, instead, French Dip, and which also means that my boys will devour it!

Italian Beef II

Ok, I hope you don’t mind Nic, but I liked this idea.  Thought I would add my ways as well 🙂

I basically do the same as Nicole’s I Italian beef recipe, but here are my changes!

I don’t add any kind of beef broth.  I do add a full jar with juice of pepporicini’s, but I add them already DICED in the jar.  I can’t eat them whole, but LOVE LOVE them in the sandwich DICED like they are.  I only find them this way at Kroger (for those of you not in St. Louis) and in St. Louis I find them DICED from Dieberg’s (couldn’t find them at Schnuck’s and haven’t been to a shop n save yet).  Can you tell DICED is the key?  🙂

I also add a can of petite cut diced tomatoes with the juice.  Now for those of you that aren’t huge tomato fans (Nana Jo – I remember you aren’t from another recipe of mine 🙂 the tomatoes almost melt while they cook all day with the roast, juices, and pepperocinis.  So, you don’t even see any tomatoes when it’s finished, but it gives it a great flavor!  I also add the seasonings Nicole mentioned and then shred it when it’s finished cooking.  Yum!  Nicole – you bringing this up makes me want to have this SOON!

Nic – hope you don’t mind me adding to the list!  This will be fun to see all the variations!

Italian Beef I

As time allows, I’m going to post a few different versions of crockpot Italian Beef/French Dip that we make and love around here.

First up is my friend Karen‘s Italian Beef…I remember being so impressed when she served this for lunch one day when just Matt and I were visiting her family on our way to Chicago for a weekend away from baby Luke. And then she shared how awesomely easy it was to make, and I was totally hooked. For the next several years, this was the only way I made it. It’s simple and delicious, and the pepperoncinis give it a bit of a kick. Enjoy!!

2-4 lb. roast (really anything will do: I use bottom round or rump most of the time, I think. Whatever’s on sale.)
2 cans beef broth (or 4 cups made from bouillon or stock)
1 jar of pepperoncini peppers
Garlic in some form: garlic salt, 2 crushed cloves or 2 cubes of Dorot frozen garlic
Black pepper

Put everything in the crockpot for several hours on low (I usually use all of the juice from the peppers, but only throw in a few actual peppers since we don’t eat them with our sandwiches). Cook until the beef is easily pulled apart. Shred all of the meat. Serve on rolls with a slice of swiss or provolone cheese.

Leftovers are great in vegetable soup! I even save all of the broth we don’t use and use it as a base for the vegetable soup the next time we make it.

Also – if you refrigerate the meat separate from the broth, you can skim some fat off the broth.

Mom’s Lasagna

I just realized, much to my horror, that I did not include my mom’s lasagna recipe in the cookbooks I made for my family last year!

I put this together this afternoon for our dinner tonight. It was so easy because I had the sauce frozen and thawed it yesterday…that’s my best tip for this recipe. Because making the sauce is time-consuming, it’s a good idea to double the batch, and then freeze it in portions you’ll use. I freeze it in half-recipe portions because otherwise we’d be eating lasagna for several meals, and none of us does that well with leftovers. Then, on a day like today that’s going to be crazy because of Luke’s ballgame, I have a good meal ready to go in almost no time.

Here’s the recipe for one 9×13″ pan:

1 lb ground beef (I use the leanest possible)
garlic salt
1 T parsley flakes
1/2 T basil
14.5 oz can tomatoes (I use petite diced)
6 oz can tomato paste
(you can also add in finely chopped carrots or carrot puree and no one will be the wiser)
10 oz lasagna noodles (about 12 noodles)
24 oz low-fat cottage cheese
2 beaten eggs
pepper
2 T parsley (of course, you can use fresh, too!)
1/2 c parmesan cheese
2 cups (or however much you want) mozzarella cheese – the original recipe calls for a pound of cheese, but I’ve never come close to using that much

Brown the meat; drain. Add the next 5 ingredients. Simmer uncovered, about 1 hour, stirring occasionally (this can be a little bit messy). Cook noodles for 8 minutes, rinse in cold water. Combine cottage cheese with next 4 ingredients. Place half of the noodles in a 13×9 pan, spread half the cottage cheese mixture and a cup of cheese over the top. Add half of the meat mixture. Repeat layers. Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes.

Tamale Pie

I remember making this years ago for just Matt and me, and I have no idea why I haven’t made it again, because it turned out really good! Now, the kids didn’t enjoy this (and I only made them try a bite because I was in no mood to have people not eat their dinner) so it was just for the adults. And because I felt like it made SOOO much, I mixed up the entire casserole part and then froze half of the mixture for another time. Notes about halving the recipe at the end.

Tamale Pie
1 lb lean ground beef
1 lb lean ground pork (not sausage, just ground pork)
NOTE: I think that you can just do ground beef in this, or even better, shredded beef from a roast or something. I’m sure shredded chicken breast would be good, too. I made it with the beef/pork combo, and I’m not really sure why it calls for this.
1/2 cup chopped onion
2-3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce with chili seasonings (I couldn’t find this, so I just used regular and sprinkled in chili powder)
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes with green chiles (like Rotel)
1 can (11 oz) Mexicorn, drained
OPTIONAL (but I omit): 1 can (2.25 oz) sliced ripe olives, drained
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 pkg (8 oz) shredded Mexican cheese blend (or cheddar or colby jack)
1 box (8.5 oz) cornbread mix (I used Jiffy this time)
1 tsp chili powder
Sour cream (optional but good!)

Heat large skillet over medium-high heat. Crumble meat into skillet; add onion and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until meat is browned. Drain off fat. Add tomato sauce, tomatoes, corn, olives and pepper, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in cheese until melted. Pour into a lightly greased 9×13 baking dish.

In a small bowl, prepare corn muffin mix as directed on package. Stir in chili powder. Spoon batter over meat filling to within 1/4 inch of pan sides. Bake in 400 oven for 20-25 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. Serve with sour cream.

Makes 8 servings.

If you halve the recipe: freeze half of the mixture for another time. Pour the half you’re using into a lightly greased 8×8, 9×9 or similar-sized dish. Then, top with about 2/3 of the cornbread batter. Pour the rest into a muffin tin (there might be enough to make 1 or 2 muffins, I’d guess) and bake alongside the casserole. If you put all the batter on top, it won’t be ruined, but there’s so much cornbread that it outweighs the casserole (and this is coming from someone who LOVES cornbread).

Hidden Valley Skillet Fajitas

This is one of Matt’s and my favorite Saturday-night-cook-at-home-after-the-kids-are-in-bed recipes. Simple and so good!

1 packet of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix
1 1/2 T olive oil
1 1/2 T water
1 lb flank steak strips (we actually always get shoulder tender medallions – they’re about $6 a pound and much better than flank) OR chicken breast strips (this is good too, but since we eat very little beef, we usually have the steak version)
3 cups assorted pepper and onion strips
2-3 sliced fresh jalapenos (if you like spicy stuff!)
sliced mushrooms (ok, not a traditional fajita ingredient, but we love them!)
flour tortillas
Fillings: guacamole, salsa, sour cream, shredded cheese

This is how the recipe says to do it: Combine dressing mix, oil and water in a skillet. Saute steak in this mixture. Add vegetables; cook until tender-crisp (or longer if you like). Roll in tortillas with desired fillings.

But this is how we do it, because otherwise, we feel that the meat gets overcooked: Combine dressing mix, oil and water in a skillet. Saute steak in this mixture until cooked as much as you want it. Remove from the pan, leaving as much of the “sauce” as possible. Add about another tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, and cook the peppers. After a couple of minutes, add the onions, jalapenos and mushrooms. Cook as long as you like (we prefer the vegetables be softer than stir-fry). Before serving, stir the meat (which will have most of the seasoning on it) back into the pan. Roll in tortillas with desired fillings.

You could also just cook the vegetables in a separate skillet, which would save time over doing it the way we usually cook it!

There’s usually leftovers for another fajita the following day.

Crockpot Lasagna

Another great Kraft recipe!

While this isn’t quite as good as traditional lasagna, it comes pretty close, and when you consider the small amount of work it takes to put it together vs. traditional, it’s worth having in your cookbook! The kids ate it up!

1 lb. ground beef
1 jar (26 oz.) spaghetti sauce (I use Ragu Traditional because there’s no chunks)
1 cup water
1 container (15 oz.) low-fat ricotta cheese
8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1/4 cup grated or shredded parmesan cheese, divided
1 egg
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
6 lasagna noodles, uncooked

Brown meat in large skillet; drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce and water. Mix ricotta, 1-1/2 cups mozzarella, 2 Tbsp. Parmesan, egg and parsley.

Spoon 1 cup meat sauce into slow cooker; top with layers of half each of the noodles, broken to fit; and cheese mixture. Cover with 2 cups meat sauce. Top with remaining noodles, broken to fit; cheese mixture and meat sauce. Cover with lid.

Cook on LOW 4 to 6 hours or until liquid is absorbed (3.5 hrs. on low in my crockpot, which has superpowers). Sprinkle with remaining cheeses; let stand, covered, 10 min. or until melted.

Spaghetti Sauce

I once commented to my friend, Heather, after making homemade spaghetti sauce for the first time that it wasn’t worth all the effort, and I was returning to bottle sauce. She replied that I needed her recipe!

And she was right!

This sauce is loaded with vegetables, and while it is a bit time-consuming to make, it is not at all difficult and it makes a lot, so you’ll have an extra meal or two to put away in the freezer. My kids eat this without a complaint, and I often don’t serve an additional vegetable with this because I just want them to eat the sauce!

Here is Heather’s recipe, with the couple of additions I’ve made to it:

1 lb lean ground beef (if you don’t eat beef, ground chicken or turkey will work fine in this)
1 medium-sized onion, chopped finely
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped finely or crushed
a handful of baby carrots, chopped finely (I think Heather uses whole carrots and shreds them)
1/2-1 zucchini, shredded (I use a whole zucchini or close to it)
OPTIONAL: fresh mushrooms, as many as you like, chopped finely (I know that Heather uses canned mushrooms, but I have a serious aversion to those, so I use fresh)
OPTIONAL: yellow, red or green pepper shredded (I don’t usually use this, but I think it would be good!)

Put all of this in a stock pot and cook until the beef is browned (chop the beef up while cooking so it’s in really small pieces). Drain well.

Add to the pot:
28 oz diced tomatoes (1 large or 2 regular-sized cans) – I run these through the food processor to take away the chunks, as my kids wouldn’t eat this if it was chunky
8 oz tomato sauce
12 oz tomato paste
1 cube beef boullion dissolved in 1/2 cup water or red wine (Heather uses a full cup in hers)
2 T fresh parsley (1 T should do if using dried)
1/2 T brown sugar (Heather uses a whole T; we prefers ours a little less sweet)
1 tsp Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

After you’ve added all the ingredients, simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Keep the lid on because it may pop!

I freeze this into portions that our family will eat for dinner, and this time I also kept out a larger portion (probably 3-3.5 cups) and made lasagne with it and it was delicious!

Grilled Meatloaf. Yes, I Said Grilled Meatloaf.

Since this week’s WFMW is about summer food, I thought I’d link back to this recipe that I posted a few weeks ago, since this just screams summer to me. This is the recipe that made me believe that I could love meatloaf…I had not eaten it for years until my parents convinced me to try this, and it totally won me over. It’s a little bit of a process, but totally worth it! It’s the perfect dinner for having company over in the summertime.

Grilled Meatloaf
3 lb ground beef
2 tsp broiled steak seasoning
1 c ketchup
1 ½ c Ritz cracker crumbs (or just crush one sleeve of Ritz – it’s really close)
2 eggs
3 tsp garlic salt
pepper
1 green pepper, cut into rings
1 large onion, thinly sliced rings
Bacon slices (I use 12)

Mix the first 6 ingredients (it’s easiest if you mix the beef in last) thoroughly until firm. Using a rectangular grill basket sprayed with Pam, cover the bottom with slices of bacon; top bacon with sliced onion. Place meatloaf on top of onion, pressing it evenly to all corners of basket. Lay thinly sliced green pepper rings on top of meatloaf. Top again with bacon slices. Secure cover on basket, all the way down to the top of the meatloaf. Grill about 20 minutes on each side or until done to taste. The grill cover should be used during the entire cooking time. It feeds 6-8.

first of all, are you using one of these? they’re great.

put meatloaf basket on a cookie sheet and spray with pam.

put a layer of bacon on the bottom (i usually use 6 slices; not sure why i didn’t this time)

cover with sliced green peppers

put all the meatloaf mixture on top of that, and form so it fits in the basket.

cover with a layer of onions…doesn’t it look like modern art?

aaaaaand another layer of bacon.

put the top of the basket down flat on the contents.

if some is squishing out the sides, just shove it back in…it’ll be fine.

ta-da! 40 minutes later, it looks like this.

dig in!

For more great summer recipes, go to We Are THAT Family.

Pot Roast Cacciatore

I found this recipe on a local news website the other day and thought it looked great! It’s a “Mr. Food” recipe. I had a roast in the freezer that I had planned to do something with, and this looked so good I had to try it.

Pot Roast Cacciatore

1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch strips
1 green bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch strips
2 small onions, quartered with segments separated
1 (3-1/2-pound) bottom round roast
1 (8-ounce) package fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 (24-ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
1/4 cup water
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Place bell pepper strips and onions in a 6-quart slow cooker. Place roast over vegetables. Place mushrooms over roast then pour spaghetti sauce and water over top.

Add garlic, basil, salt, and pepper. Stir gently, cover, and cook on low setting for 6-8 hours, or until meat is fork-tender.

Here are the changes I made to suit our family’s taste:
I sliced the peppers a little thicker than he recommended, because I pulled them out of the sauce before serving. Matt ate some of them, but I don’t love to just eat strips of pepper like that, so I made them big enough to remove easily.

I served the sauce over brown rice. The sauce tends to separate very quickly when taken out of the crock pot; next time I think I’ll omit the water, because after the meat starts cooking and produces so much juice, there’s really no need for extra water. Just pour some of the sauce down the bottom part of the crock before cooking to prevent weird things from happening to your vegetables.

There was a little more prep involved in this than I was thinking – give yourself 20 minutes to get veggies cut, the meat trimmed, etc. Or 30 if you’re me, and in the middle of preparation you have to stop to field questions from your 6-year-old about why a chipmunk just crawled into a hole in the corner of the garage. I so wish I was kidding.

Overall, we thought this was really good. Next time I might try it with chicken, which will require less cooking time.