Chinese Beef with Broccoli

Found this recipe for Beef with Broccoli on the Food Network.   It's really simple to make and it tastes great.  I used the scrap meat from a beef tenderloin that I had cleaned.  The meat is extremely tender and quite yummy.  I also marinated the meat overnight, which really allowed the meat to absorb the flavor of the marinade and made it even more tender.  It literally melted in your mouth.  I opted out of using tomatoes because my hubby doesn't like them.  But I don't think that it took away from the dish.  I served it over Basmati Brown Rice.  Give it a try, it's definitely Good Eats!!

Beef Stroganoff

Hey!  I'm still here just so much has happened since my last post.  I have to say that "2011" hasn't been my best year,  but it could always  be worse I suppose.  No worries, I'm still cooking:>).  Tonight I made beef stroganoff from a Food Network Recipe.  I followed the recipe to a tee and you know what?  I don't like beef stroganoff.  I can't say that I had it before, so I really didn't know what to expect, but I don't like it. I don't think it was this particular recipe because I reviewed several and they were all pretty much the same.   I found it to be rather too boring and bland for my liking.  I like foods that add a punch and this just didn't do it for me.  Anyway, I'm sure that this dish is good eats for someone, but not me.  Oh, Will also thought it was just kind so-so.  Anyway, until next time Happy Holidays!  I'll be bringing a quick and easy appetizer and simple dessert next time, so stay tuned.

Tex Mex Beef & Saffron Rice

You've seen variations of this dish several times, but I like to try different things, so you will continue to see it in the future until I get it exactly the way I want it. Typically when I make the rice for this dish I use Turmeric, but tonight I wanted something different, so I used Saffron. If you don't what Saffron is, its the stigmas of the Crocus Sativus Flower. It has a strong flavor and should be used sparingly. It also gives a beautiful golden hue to dishes. Saffron is one of the most expensive spices and that is also a good reason to use sparingly. Tonight I added a pinch of Saffron to the Jasmine rice while it cooked in chicken stock. I also added a pinch of kosher salt to rice while it cooked. My Tex Mex beef consisted of using 1 lb of lean ground beef, chopped garlic, green pepper, jalapeño pepper, shallots, corn, 1 can of rinsed & drained low sodium black beans, 1 8oz can no salt tomato sauce, no salt added chicken stock and my Tex Mex seasoning blend. First thing I chopped my veggies. I had some corn on the cob leftover and I cut kernels off. I added my veggies to a large skillet with 1 tbs of EVOO and sauted it for about 10 minutes. I added the ground beef and broke it up while cooking. I then added the beans and sauce along with 3 tbs of my seasonings and 1 C of the stock. The season mix has cumin, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, coriander, cayenne, chili powder and corn starch. I use more cumin and paprika because those are my favorite spices.  When you make your spice mix, just play with it, you will figure out what you like best. I let the meat mix cook down and served it over the rice with avocado, cilantro and low fat sour cream. This dish took about 30 minutes to make. I really didn't like the tomato sauce addition, a little too acidic. I added 1 tsp of sugar to smooth it out, but it was still acidic. I didn't add more, because I didn't want it to be sweet. Next time less or no tomato sauce. Let me know what you think.

Bacon Burgers and Fries

We do burgers fairly regularly, today inspired by Chef Symon. There are some out there that I would love to make, but my honey is a little picky, so I try not push the burger creativity over the top.  Tonight we had bacon burgers and fries.  The first thing I did when I got home was to take 2 large russet potatoes that had been scrubbed and cut them in half lengthwise and cut the halves in to 5 wedges each.  I placed them in a bowl of water and let them sit for about an hour, because I didn't want them browning on me while  me and my honey took little ride thru the country on the bike, since we haven't really been able to get it out with all of this rain, BTW which will back tomorrow evening. When I got home I preheated my Breville oven to 450, drained the water, dried the potatoes and coated them with EVOO and S&P and placed them on baking sheet and popped them into the oven for 35 minutes.  While those were baking I took 1 part 80/20 organic ground beef, 1 part organic ground pork and 1/4 part organic chorizo, mixed them all together, formed into burgers and sprinkled both sides with S&P and put aside.  I took the bacon outside to cook  on the side burner of the grill.  Don't get me wrong I love the smell of bacon, but it permeates the house, and sometimes its just a little much.  Anyway, when there was 15 minutes remaining on the tators I heated my grill- 1 side on med  and 1 side on high.  Once heated I placed the burgers on the med heat side of the grill and let them cook thru, flipping only one time.  I placed the bacon slices and slices of red onion and monterey jack cheese over top, closed the grill and let the cheese melt.  While the burgers were grilling I also took my burger buns and lightly seared them on the grill.  That was it.  No mess, little clean up, easy and yummy.  We served our burgers with a little mayo, and some pickles next to those perfect fries.  Mmm! Mmm!

Laura's Lean w/ Creamed Spinach and Rotini

It has been awhile since my last post, but I revisted many of my previous dishes, so nothing to post. I'm glad to be back and this is what I've got.  I subscribe to Laura's Lean Newsletters and today she had some spring recipes, so I thought I would give one a try. It probably would've been worse, but I dressed it up a bit. Before I share my additions, here is her recipe: 1 med onion finely diced, 1 lb of LL 92/8 ground beef, 1 pkg of thawed creamed spinach, 2 eggs lightly beaten, 1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese. You will need to brown your beef with the onion. When beef is no longer pink, stir in the spinach, then stir in the eggs. Serve immediately over pasta and sprinkle with the cheese. Although very quick and simple, my thoughts were bland-a-rama. I kicked it up a notch by adding 6 cloves of minced garlic, kosher salt to my liking, and fresh ground pepper to the beef/onion while cooking, then followed remaining steps, and my last step was to add crushed red pepper. I served it over Rotini Pasta, but you could use whatever you have in the pantry. Healthy yes, but needs help. Try it and let me know what you did differently.

Beef Stir Fry

I went to Jungle Jim's over the weekend and picked up some really great veggies and really nice sized beef tenderloin.  If you've never been there you should definitely go, but be prepared to spend at least 1/2 day and lots of money when you go.  Like I said I picked up this 7 lb beef tenderloin that had to be prepared by cutting off the fat, silver skin and just misc stuff.  I watched a video on you tube to learn how to prepare it.  Anyway, after cleaning up the tenderloin, I saved the leftover pieces for my beef stir fry.  Yes, we used about 1.5 lbs of beef tenderloin in our stir fry tonight.  Mmm!!!  First thing I did when I got  home was to place the meat in the freezer for about 15 minutes (makes it easier to cut  into thin strips).  I got my medium grained rice going (I usually use basmati, but I found that the medium grain rice cooks up really starchy and really absorbs the juices of the stir fry).  I've done many stir fry's sauces, but tonight I decided to go online and try this Basic Stir Fry Sauce.  I doubled the batch and also added to it 1 1tsp of honey and 1/8 C more of the chicken broth.  The sauce becomes very thick, so you'll probably need to add some extra water or broth.  For my stir fry I used green beans, sugar snaps, onions, mushrooms, red pepper, jalapenos, celery, carrots, and broccoli.  I stir fried the veggies in 1tbs of canola oil for about 5 minutes, removed from the wok and added my beef and stir fried it for until almost cooked thru.  I drained off the juices and added the veggies back into the wok with the beef, stirred it and stirred in about 3/4 of the stir fry sauce.  I continued to stir fry for about 5 minutes, removed from the heat and served it over the rice in these really cute little bowls that were made by a local potter that we got in Yellow Springs, OH.  I love how the chop sticks rest on the bowls.  BTW, don't forget to season your beef with S&P before you stir fry.  I forgot to season it and the flavor was rather bland.  Overall, it was good, but it would've been even better if I had seasoned the beef.  Bon Appetit

Fiesta Thursday!!

Who doesn't like Tex Mex, Mexican or Spanish flavors?  Well tonight I decided to play on those flavors for the 2nd time this week.  This is so yummy, easy and there's little clean up involved.  The other day I purchased a skirt steak that I marinated for 2 days in that GOYA marinade that I told you about in a previous post. I love that stuff and it's very economical, about $2.5 for 16 oz.  First thing,  I got my basmati rice going, I cooked it in 1.5 C chicken stock and added 1 tsp turmeric and some a tsp of kosher salt to it.  I preheated my grill to high. I wanted to do something different with the rice, so I took 1 can of black beans rinsed and drained,  2 jalapenos that I seeded and small diced, 1/2 red onion small diced, removed kernels from 2 ears of corn (not cooked), 1 handful of chopped cilantro, 4 cloves of garlic minced, the juice of 1 lime, plus some lime zest, 1 tbs of cumin, 1/2 tbs of paprika, about 1/4 C grated manchego cheese and about 2 tsp of kosher salt and I added it all to a large bowl and mixed it up and set it aside.  While my rice was cooking I placed the steak onto the grill and cooked about 5-7 minutes per side, we like our meat fairly rare as you can see from the photo. I removed the meat from the grill and let it rest about 10 minutes.  After my rice finished cooking I let it sit for about 10 minutes before I removed the lid, and then I added it the bowl of black beans, jalapenos and corn mix that I had set aside.  I mixed it up and created this really yummy rice, bean, corn dish.  Trust me it's good stuff you should try it.  Anyway, we served it up with some avocado, sour cream and more grated manchego over top.  Give it a try it's really good! Good Eats!!

Spaghetti w/ Meatballs in Chef Mario's Basic Tomato Sauce

Simmering in the basic tomato sauce.

Not sure why, but yesterday I was craving spaghetti w/ meatballs, so I picked up some stuff at the market. I made Chef Batali's basic tomato sauce- that's found in an earlier post. The meatballs are from  All Recipes  

Finished product with grated romano cheese

and they are really good.  The meatballs turned out really moist and very flavorful, but next time I will add more garlic and parsley.  After I browned the meatballs I simmered them and cooked them through in the basic tomato sauce for a 30 minutes.  FYI, the recipe made 20 large meatballs, so you could definitely cut it in half or freeze some of the meatballs like  I did.  You should try the meatball and the basic tomato sauce recipes, very yummy.  I will definitely make the meatballs again.  Buen Appetito.