Category: beef

Beef and sweet potato stew

Here is a recipe I have really enjoyed over the past two years. I finally got around to taking a picture. Normally I do add the carrots and celery but I forgot to get them at the store this time. If you don’t see them in the photo, that’s why 😉. Enjoy this soup and how easy it is!

 

 

Ingredients:

 

2 lbs beef stew meat, cubed

2 cups beef broth

2 large sweet potatoes cut into cubes

1 medium white or yellow onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 can of whole tomatoes large

3 carrots sliced

4 celery ribs sliced

2 bay leaves

5 sprigs of thyme

salt and pepper to taste

 

Directions :

Place all ingredients in crock pot. Cook on low for 7-8 hours or until the beef shreds easily and the vegetables are tender.

Original recipe :

Sweet Potato and Beef Stew {Crock Pot, Grain Free, Gluten Free, Paleo}

Slow Cooker Stuffed Peppers

I now have two kids and for some reason haven’t gotten around to posting anything in a long time…

Ingredients:

5 bell peppers- any color

1 1/4 c. cooked brown rice

1 pound cooked ground beef (I cooked up some diced onions with the ground beef)*

8 oz. tomato sauce

1 T. Worchestershire sauce

1 T. gluten free soy sauce

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 inch water in bottom of crockpot

 

Directions:

Cut out the stems and remove seeds from the peppers.  Combine all ingredients except water.  Put filling inside of peppers.  Place peppers in the crockpot.  Fill crockpot about 1/2 an inch with water.  Cook on low for 5-6 hours.  May be topped with cheese.

 

*As a time saving measure, I pre-cook a bunch of ground beef at once and freeze it in one pound portions.  I sometimes even cook onions with it.  I can pull together a meal much faster when the beef is already done and then I just dirty the skillet once :-).

 

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Pot Roast

This is my favorite roast recipe. It is so easy and quick. You can also add or take away ingredients and adjust the size of your roast and it should still be fine. Cook it longer if your roast is bigger.

Ingredients :

1 teaspoon each of thyme, oregano, sage, celery seed, garlic salt, onion salt, black pepper, parsley

1 bay leaf

3 teaspoons salt

1-2 cups water

3-5 pound roast

Directions :

Combine all spices and salt. Tub on outside of roast. Place seasoned roast in crockpot and add bay leaf and water. Cook on low for 7-8 hours or until the roast comes apart easily with a fork. You may add in some vegetables in the last few hours if desired.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mexican Pineapple Beef

I loved this dish so much I have already made it twice in the last month.  Once again, it looks super fancy, but it’s relatively simple.

2 pounds sirloin or similar steak, cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks

1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1 inch chunks

3 cups pineapple, cut into 1 inch chunks

 

Marinade:

3 T. tomato paste

2 T. olive oil

2 T. white wine vinegar

2 T. honey

1 T. gluten free soy sauce (I prefer Kikkoman’s Gluten Free Soy Sauce)

1 tsp. chipotle chili powder

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp fish sauce

1/8 tsp cloves

1 garlic clove, minced

Directions:

Combine the ingredients of the marinade and then stir into the chopped steak, pepper, and pineapple.  Allow to marinate for 4 hours or more in the fridge.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Bake at 450 degrees for 6 minutes, then stir and drain off excess liquid.  Cook for another 6-9 minutes and drain again.  Take it out of the oven and top with cilantro.  Serve with lime slices.

 

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Original recipe:

https://thehealthyfoodie.com/sheet-pan-pineapple-beef-mexican-twist/

One Skillet Dinner- Beef, Sweet Potato and Kale

So, I tend to think of paleo things as not as good as normal food.  This may be an unfair assessment, but it’s my gut reaction.  I assume it will taste “healthy” instead of good.  If you enjoy a little bit of mockery all in good fun, JP Spears has a video on youtube about the paleo diet in his Ultra Spiritual series.  My husband and I enjoyed it thoroughly.  If you get offended when people poke fun at things you like, you might not enjoy it…

Anyway, I went into this recipe with pretty low expectations, but I needed to thin my kale, I had a sweet potato growing stems and leaves on my countertop, and my carrots were growing roots in the fridge.  It was time to use these ingredients.  Normally I don’t let things go that far, but well, what can I say.  This was one of the first recipes that came up and I decided to give it a try.  I actually went back for thirds and am glad there are leftovers for later :-).  I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Also, I changed a few things, so I don’t think it’s paleo the way I made it, but I’ll put the link to the original recipe at the bottom and you can look at that if that’s important to you.  Basically, I replaced the coconut oil with olive oil and the coconut flour with brown rice flour.

 

Ingredients:

2 T. olive oil

1/2 onion, finely diced

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes

3-4 carrots, peeled and diced

2-3 garlic cloves, minced (I forgot to add this, so I sprinkled on garlic powder at the end)

1 to 1.5 pounds ground beef (lower fat preferred since you won’t be draining it)

salt and pepper to taste

2 T. brown rice flour

2 cups chopped kale- about 2 handfuls (this was my first harvest from my garden!)

 

Directions:

Dice the onion, sweet potato, carrots, and garlic.  Heat the oil in a large skillet.  Add the diced vegetables and garlic to the pan, stir, cover, and cook for 10 minutes on medium.  Add the ground beef and continue cooking uncovered while stirring the beef.  When beef is cooked, add salt, pepper, and brown rice flour.  Stir until combined.  Add the kale and cook for 2-3 minutes while stirring.

Taste and add more seasoning as desired.

 

Original recipe: http://fit4godonline.com/skillet-dinner-hamburger-sweet-potatoes-kale/

Simple Ground Beef and Potatoes

This is one of those meals where I looked in my fridge to see what needed to be used.  It turned out surprisingly well, so I have decided to share with you what I did.  Since I started blogging, I try to write down what I do while cooking so that I can share it accurately.  🙂

 

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds ground beef- raw

2 pounds red potatoes, diced with skins on

1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp salt

1 c. frozen corn (or more)

1 c. frozen peas (or more)

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp sage

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

1/4 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp parsley

1/4 tsp coriander

 

 

Directions:

Brown ground beef.  Don’t drain the fat!  Set the beef aside, leaving the grease in the pan.  Cook the potatoes in the grease for about 10-15 minutes until they start to get soft (this will depend on how big or small you cut them).  Add in all other ingredients and cook until potatoes are tender and peas and corn are warm.  Feel free to add in more vegetables than called for!

 

 

 

Pasta Fagioli

One of my friends gave me a copy of this recipe a long time ago and I finally tried it.  I don’t think I’ve actually tried this at Olive Garden and I couldn’t now, but it was a nice and easy soup that warmed us up on cold days.  You have the option of using canned or dried beans.  I couldn’t find navy beans in a can and I have two crockpots, so I used dried beans.   I hope you take time to enjoy this recipe!

 

Ingredients:

3/4 c. dry kidney beans (or 1 can, drained)

3/4 c. dry navy beans (or 1 can, drained)

2 lbs ground beef, cooked- leave out beef if you want it to be vegetarian

1 onion, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

4 stalks celery, chopped

2 cans diced tomatoes, undrained

32 oz beef broth (I used a carton of HEB Beef Broth but you could also use Swansons)- use vegetable broth if vegetarian

3 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp pepper

5 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp Tabasco sauce (optional)

1 jar spaghetti sauce (I used a 24-oz can of Del Monte Traditional)

8-12 oz pasta (I used HEB gluten free)

 

Directions:

If making beans from scratch, soak overnight and then drain and cover with water again in a crockpot.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours or until soft.  You may add them to the soup whenever they are soft enough.   Pre-cook the ground beef.  Add all ingredients to the crockpot except for the pasta.  Stir well, cover, and cook on low for 7-8 hours.  The original recipe says you can add pasta straight to the crockpot 30 minutes before you want to serve it, but I was nervous the gluten free pasta wouldn’t cook well that way.  Instead, I cooked it separately as per the package directions and then added it to the soup right before serving.

Note: I had two crockpots going at once- one for the beans and one for the soup.  When the beans were cooked, I added them to the soup.  If you only have one crockpot, you could cook the beans overnight and then use the same crockpot to do the soup during the day.

Original recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/pasta-fagioli-in-the-crockpot-just-like-olive-garden-52984961

Cheeseless Meaty Pizza

Sometimes I just skip the cheese altogether.  No alternatives, no substitutions, nothing.  And you know what?  It still tastes great.  Granted, a little bit of the pizza-ness leaves when you don’t include cheese, but it was more like really hearty bruschetta.  Or, it was like a pizza without the cheese…  Feel free to toss some cheese or some cheese alternative on top of your pizza if you want.  The crust is what this post is mostly about, and a little bit about the toppings.  As always, you can mix and match toppings as your needs require.

This was my first time to make this crust.  It was super simple and I was even able to follow the directions for freezing and use some of it later.  Here is the link for Pamela’s Crust recipe.  It uses Pamela’s Bread Mix.  I followed the directions exactly except I did not include the optional cheese.  http://www.pamelasproducts.com/chewy-pizza-crust/

As for the toppings, first I spread on 1 T. of oil.  This acts as a barrier and keeps your crust from getting soggy.  Next, I sprinkled on some fresh basil from my garden (put this under greasy things or wait until the end to add it.)  After that, I spread on my Pizza Hut Sauce Copycat recipe.  After pre-cooking some Jimmy Dean Sausage (regular) and some bacon, I spread it over the pizza along with some Hormel Pepperoni slices.  We had golden tomatoes in our garden, so I included some of those too, cut in half.  I baked it for another 10 minutes as the recipe says and then I enjoyed!

Note: if you don’t have cheese on your pizza, you may want to have a fork and/or napkin nearby.  Toppings tend to jump off quite rudely :-).

To sum up, here are the ingredients you need:

  • 3-1/2 cups Pamela’s Gluten-Free Bread Mix
  • 2-1/4 tsp active dry yeast or 1 yeast packet 7g (enclosed in 19 oz mix)
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1-1/2 cups warm water
  • 2 tsp Italian herbs
  • Pizza Hut Sauce Copycat recipe (see ingredients below)
  • Jimmy Dean sausage (optional)- could replace it with ground beef if needed
  • Hormel Pepperoni (optional)- could replace with turkey pepperoni or omit
  • Bacon (optional)- could replace with turkey bacon or omit
  • Fresh Basil (optional)
  • Cherry tomatoes (optional)

Pizza Hut Sauce Copycat ingredients:

  • 1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce (I used Hunt’s)
  • 1/4 tsp of each: basil, salt, marjoram, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, fennel, black pepper
  • 1 1/2 tsp sugar
  • 1/4 tsp lemon or lime juice

Happy pizza eating!

Beef and Vegetable Red Curry

I make this curry quite frequently, but this time it was extra good.  I followed the directions on the back of the Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste jar with a lot of changes (does that count as following them?) and I used up all the leftover vegetables in my fridge. It was the best one I’ve made so far!  I think the main difference was the fish sauce.  Once upon a time I bought a big bottle of the cheap stuff but it just smelled weird so I never used it.  Then I bought a bottle of the Thai Kitchen fish sauce and used it a few times but I think I left it at my old house when I moved.  The next several times I made this recipe, I didn’t have the fish sauce and then I finally broke down and bought a bottle the next time I went to the store.  It made all the difference!  My recommendation is not to skip it!  Also, I recommend storing it in the fridge :-).

 

Ingredients:

1- 13 oz. can coconut milk

1/2 jar of Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste (or more if you want it hotter)

1 T. brown sugar

2-3 zucchini, sliced into half coins

1 onion, diced

1 large tomato, diced

1 small head of broccoli, chopped

1 pound ground beef, cooked- omit for vegetarian

1-2 T. Thai Kitchen Fish Sauce (I used 2 T. and I recommend this brand.  It’s gluten free and the taste is right.)- omit for vegetarian and replace with salt

extra coconut milk from a carton if you need more liquid or just another can of coconut milk (I usually end up adding a cup or two if I have lots of vegetables.)

optional: splash of lime juice

Cooked rice for serving.

 

Directions:

Heat coconut milk in a large pan.  Add curry paste and brown sugar and stir, allowing to heat for 1-2 minutes.  Add in vegetables and allow to cook for about 5 minutes.  At this point I usually add in some extra coconut milk to make sure there’s enough to make a sauce.  Add in cooked ground beef and allow to simmer for another 5-10 minutes until vegetables are cooked to desired softness.  Pour in fish sauce and lime juice to taste.  Add extra salt if desired, but the fish sauce is salty.  Serve over rice.

Note:  The beauty of curry is you can put most vegetables in it.  Good options are: potatoes, green beans, carrots, celery, broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, onions, tomatoes, mixed frozen Asian veggies, etc.

 

Original recipe can be found on the back of the Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste jar.

 

Swedish Meatballs

I have never had the meatballs at IKEA, but these are supposed to be fashioned after those.  If you can eat gluten and dairy and such, you may want to just want to head to IKEA and get some.  However, if you have been longing for them and you can’t eat them for some reason, here’s the recipe for you!

 

Ingredients:

Meatballs:

2 T. olive oil, divided

1 onion, diced

1 pound ground beef

1 pound ground pork- or another pound of ground beef if you can’t eat pork

1/2 c. Rice Chex crumbs (I blend them in the food processor)

2 eggs (I used the equivalent of 2 eggs using Ener-G egg replacer)

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp and 1/8 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

 

Gravy:

1/4 c. butter (I used SmartBalance)

1/3 c. Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Baking Flour

2 1/2 T. arrowroot powder

4 c. beef broth

3/4 c. sour cream (I used Tofutti as a non-dairy substitute)

Salt and pepper to taste

2 T. fresh chopped parsley

 

Directions:

Meatballs:

Prepare Ener-G eggs.  Crush Rice Chex.  Put 1 T. olive oil in a pan and cook the onion until it’s soft.  Combine all meatball ingredients together  (meats, onions, Rice Chex, Ener-G eggs, allspice, nutmeg, salt and pepper) and stir well (I used my hands.)  Form into 1 1/2 inch balls.

Heat 1 T. olive oil in pan.  Add meatballs and cook in batches until outsides of all are brown- maybe 4-5 minutes.  Set meatballs aside.

Gravy:

In a skillet, melt the butter and add in the flour and arrowroot, stirring constantly.  Add in beef broth and continue cooking while still stirring, about 1-2 minutes.  Add sour cream and stir well.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put meatballs in the gravy and allow to cook for another 10 minutes until meatballs are thoroughly done, stirring constantly.  Add in chopped parsley and serve.

 

Original recipe:

http://damndelicious.net/2014/02/21/swedish-meatballs/

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