Salisbury Steak

I recently had a cookout and bought WAY to much ground beef.  We had a whole 5 pound package left!  Which means this week is all about ground beef recipes!  I have never made, or even had that I can recall, Salisbury steak.  Nic seemed really excited about it so I decided to give it a shot.  I googled some recipes and found a couple of different ones from allrecipes.com






Ingredients:
1 egg
1 10.5 oz can of condensed French Onion Soup
1/2 c dry bread crumbs
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1/4 c water
1/4 c ketchup
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1 tbsp flour

Directions:

1.  In a large bowl mix 1/3 c of the soup with ground beef, bread crumbs, egg, salt and pepper.  Form into 6 oval shaped patties.
2.  In a large skillet, brown both sides of patties.  Our off excess fat.
3.  In a small bowl blend flour and remaining soup until smooth.  Hand mix in ketchup, water, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard powder.  Pour over meat in skillet.  Cover and cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir Fry Vegetables

We had Asian night recently in my house.  I made Peanut Sauce, rice, soy sauce marinaded chicken skewers, and these great vegetables.  I had never had bok choy, let alone cooked with it, before this.  It is very good.  These vegetables were very filling, and very good for you!  The most time consuming part is cutting up all the veggies, but other than that very easy and super fast!

Ingredients:

1/4 c chicken broth

1 tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 tsp minced peeled fresh ginger

2 tsp canola oil

1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1-inch squares

2 cups chopped bok choy

1 c snow peas, trimmed

1/2 carrot thinly sliced

1/4 c drained canned sliced bamboo shoots

1/4 c drained canned sliced water chestnuts

Directions:

1.  In a small bowl, combine the broth, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger.

2.  In a large nonstick skillet, or a wok, heat the oil.  

3.  Add the bok choy and bell pepper, stir fry for 3 minutes.  Add the broth mixture, snow peas, and carrot.  Reduce heat and cook, stirring frequently for about 3-4 minutes.

4.  Stir in the bamboo shoots and water chest nuts.  Cook for another 1-2 minutes.

Peanut Sauce

I recently got a Weight Watchers cookbook to get some healthier ideas for dinner.  I saw this sauce and thought "Oh my goodness this sounds so amazing!!!"  I made this sauce with a vegetable stir fry and grilled chicken skewers.  This sauce was very easy to make and very good.











Ingredients:
3 tbsp creamy peanut butter
2 tbsp sugar
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp water
1 1/4 tbsp rice vinegar

Directions:
1.  In a small bowl, combine the peanut butter, sugar, and garlic until smooth.
2.  Add the soy sauce, water, and vinegar stir until combined.

Grandma's Famous Meatballs aka Bavarian Meatballs

This is by far my favorite dish ever!  Whenever I go home my grandma makes these for me.  I believe they are called Bavarian meatballs.  I started out by making some homemade meatballs, let them cool over night, and the next day mix all the sauce ingredients with meatballs in a crock pot and let it cook together.  The ingredients seem really weird but when you combine them it is delicious!!








Meatballs

Ingredients:
1 lb hamburger
1 egg
2 tbsp water
1/2 c bread crumbs
1/4 c finely chopped onion
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
splash of Worcestershire sauce

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Combine all ingredients, form into 1 inch balls.  Place on a a cookie pan, or a sheet cake pan.
3. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Sauce

Ingredients:
12 oz jar of Chili sauce
1 can (16 oz) cranberry sauce
1 16 oz can Sauerkraut, un-drained


1.  Combine all ingredients in a crock pot.  Fill chill sauce jar 1/2 up with water, shake to get excess chili sauce, add to crock pot.
2.  Add meatballs.  Cook in crock pot for 2-3 hours or until meatballs are hot.

Enchilda Sauce

I made a chili lasagna, and one of the ingredients was Enchilada sauce.  I decided to try my hand at making my own homemade sauce.  It was easy and delicious!  The one thing that I have learned because of this blog is that cooking does not need to be complicated, nor does it need to be expensive.  This is a great recipe and I will definitely be making some home enchiladas using this recipe for the sauce.














Ingredients:
4 tbsp vegetable oil
4 tbsp flour
4 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
4 c water
2 8oz cans of tomato paste
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt

Directions:
1. heat oil, flour and chili powder together in a large pot, allow to cook for a minute or two.
2. Add reaming ingredients, bring to a slow simmer.  Stir well.  Allow to cook for at least 20 minutes on a low heat.  Stirring occasionally.

This sauce is simple, and so easy to make.  I thought I might mess something up because when you cook just the flour, water and chili powder it cooks funny, but nope did not mess it up and it was delicious in my lasagna.

Chili Lasagna

I love lasagna!  It is so easy to make, you can make it in advance, and it is delicious!  I recently found this recipe for Chili Lasagna that seemed delicious.  My husband thought the same thing when I emailed the recipe to him!  I made my own enchilada sauce, which I guess kind of makes the recipe my own.  I suggest that anyone who likes lasagna and anyone who likes chili to make this at some point.









Ingredients:
9 lasagna noodles
1 lb ground beef
1 onion chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp chipotle chili powder
1 egg
20 oz enchilada sauce
2 (15oz) Ricotta cheese
1 c monterey jack and cheddar cheese blend.

Directions:
1.  Cook noodles according to the package.
2. Preheat oven to 350° F.
3. Crumble beef into a nonstick skillet.  Add onion, green pepper, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder, and pepper.  Cook until brown.  Stir in 3/4 c enchilada sauce.
4. In a bowl lightly beat egg, stir in ricotta cheese, 1/2 c shredded cheese, and remaining spices.
5. Spread 1/2 c sauce on bottom of pan.  Arrange 3 noodles on top of sauce, spread cheese mixture on top of noodles, arrange 3 noodles on top of cheese mixture, spread beef mixture on top of noodles.  Top with remaining noodles spread with remaining enchilada sauce.
6. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.  Remove foil, sprinkle with remaining cheese, and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes.  Let set for 10 minutes before serving.

Baked Chicken Tenders

I have a fairly decent number of cookbooks and recipes.  I have a recipe box jammed pack of recipes from family members, and I am constantly googling new recipes and thinking of ways that I can make them my own.  I love to cook, hence the reason for this blog, but I do not consider myself a good cook.  I can take a recipe follow it to the "t" and it will taste good.  Recently, I have been trying to make alterations to different recipes, whether they are minor or major.  With my love of cooking also comes my love of food.  And as we all know loving food can turn into a very bad thing very quickly.  Well, one of the recipe books I have is "Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook" by the American Heart Association.  I got this book a few years ago.  It is filled with great tasting recipes as well as some great tips on how to make recipes better for you and your heart.  This recipe for Baked Chicken comes from this cook book.  I cut the chicken into little tenders so it would cook faster.  It's absolutely delicious.  I hate the term "low fat" because it can mean artificial sweeteners, or not flavor (especially when buying frozen meals).  Food is meant to be good.  We should enjoy what we are eating.  If I do not enjoy what I am eating I will not eat, and that is not very good whatsoever.  The thing I love about this cookbook is that all the recipes I have tried are very good, which is very important.  Here is a simple, easy, and healthier version of baked chicken.  I hope you all enjoy it.

Ingredients:
Vegetable oil spray
4 c cornflakes, lightly-moderately crushed
1-2 cloves garlic crushed, or 1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
pepper to taste
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into tender pieces

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350° F.  Lightly spray a baking sheet with vegetable oil spray.
2. In a bowl combine cornflakes and garlic.
3. In a small bowl coming ginger, paprika, salt, and pepper.  Sprinkle the seasoning on both sides of the chicken.
4. Roll the chicken in the cornflakes, lightly pressing the chicken and the cornflakes together.  Lightly spray the chicken on all sides with vegetable oil spray and put on the prepared baking sheet.
5. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the chicken is golden brown, tender and no longer pink in the center.

Delicious!!  We had broccoli and mashed potatoes with this.

Insecurities

An insecurity is a form of fear.  Everyone is afraid of something, men and women.  Women tend to allow their insecurities or fears control us way more than men do.  Why is that?  Why do I allow such trivial things control me, or prevent me from doing something?

Lately, I feel like all the insecurities I experience have been controlling me more and more.  Take this blog for instance.  I started out saying I was going to do all sorts of posts, then I stuck with just recipes because they were the easiest.  Then I didn't post anything at all.  Even though I was cooking, taking pictures and typing up the posts.  I just wouldn't upload the pictures.  Absolutely ridiculous!  I started to think why wasn't I just taking the 3 minutes it took to upload the pictures?  At first I kept telling myself it is because I am so busy.  But, I know that is not the truth.  I was scared.  I did not want this to be a recipe blog but for some reason that is what it has become.  Why? Because it sure is a heck of a lot easier than writing about something I am passionate about, or my opinions.  When you write about your opinions then you are setting yourself up for ridicule and I most certainly do not want to ridiculed.  I am to scared to deal with that.  This blog is just one of my insecurities that I have been dealing with recently.