Category: Meat

Meatball Sandwich

I made spaghetti and meatballs the other day and then the seemingly impossible happened.  I had meatballs left and no more noodles!  Fortunately I just made a loaf of bread, so I made myself a meatball sandwich.  The bread I made was the egg free version of Pamela’a Gluten Free Bread Mix.  I still had some spaghetti sauce left (from a jar) and poured that on top.

 

Meatballs:

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef

1/2 c. Rice Chex crumbs

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp McCormick’s California Style onion powder with white and green onions and parsley (If you can’t find this, you can use 1/2 tsp onion powder and 1/2 tsp parsley.  It’s cooking- the seasoning doesn’t have to be exact :-)).

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Crush the Rice Chex until they are fine crumbs.  Combine with all the spices.  Put all the meat in a bowl and pour the spices and crumbs on top.  Mix with your hands until completely combined.

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and form into 1 1/2 inch meatballs and leave at least 1/2 an inch between each.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until cooked through.  Cut one in half to make sure.

IMG_6091

Chicken and Apple Salad

I way overbought on produce this week.  I also found an excess of crackers in my pantry that were expiring soon, so I made chicken salad.

 

Ingredients:

2 cups of chicken, cooked, cubed, and cooled

1 apple, diced

1/2 to 1 c. red grapes, sliced in half

1/4 to 3/4 c. Mayonnaise, depending on volume of food and desired wetness (I used Vegenaise)

Crackers of your choice.  We like HEB brand Multi-grain Gluten Free Rice Crackers.

 

Directions:

Combine all ingredients and stir.  Serve with crackers.

Hamburger Salad

This is one of the things I do when I run out of hamburger buns.  It’s really easy, but it does require a fork and a knife.

 

Ingredients:

One hamburger, grilled

3-4 bacon slices, cooked to desired crispness

large slice of a red pepper

Handful of pickles

2 tomato slices

Handful of spinach

Ketchup or other desired condiments

 

Directions:

Cook hamburger and bacon.  Put the red pepper slice in a pan, drizzle with oil, and cook at medium until it softens and starts to blacken.  You may want to use a splatter shield because of the oil.

Serve all ingredients on a bed of spinach.

Ham and Cheese Sandwich

I did a couple of things to make this sandwich special.  First of all, I put the ham in the skillet by itself to warm it up.  Then we buttered the bread and toasted it in a skillet with the cheese melting on top of one slice.  It made the bread really soft and pliable.

 

Ingredients:

2 slices of bread made from Pamela’s Bread Mix (the eggless version using flaxseed as egg replacer: 3 T. ground golden flaxseed plus 9 T. water)

4-5 slices of Oscar Meyer’s Smoked Ham

1 slice Muenster cheese (NOT dairy free) or non-dairy cheese

butter for sides of bread (I used SmartBalance)

 

Directions:

In a skillet, warm up the ham until it’s sizzling.  Turn once.  Meanwhile, butter one side of each slice of bread and put one slice in the pan, butter side down over medium high heat.  Put slice of cheese on one slice of bread so it begins to melt.  When ham is warm, put it on top of the cheese on the bread.  Top with the other slice of bread, butter side out, and flip the sandwich so the untoasted piece of bread can toast.  Serve with a side of vegetables.  Keep a napkin handy and enjoy!

Gravy

My husband and I really enjoyed this gravy.  The biscuits we made were merely edible as we were missing an ingredient or two, so I am not including the recipe at this time.  The gravy, however, was, well, “good gravy!”  I am guessing it might work as the creamy base in a chicken pot pie or something like that but that theory has not yet been tested.

 

Ingredients:

1 pound ground sausage (Jimmy Dean or HEB brand work nicely)

2 T. bacon grease

1/2 tsp oregano

2 c. milk (I used unsweetened cashew milk.  I would NOT recommend coconut milk for this recipe.  Coconut gravy and sausage- ew!)

2 T. rice flour (I don’t remember if I used brown or white rice flour.  Oops!)

2 tsp potato starch

1 tsp tapioca starch

 

Directions:

Brown the sausage.  Don’t drain it unless it has tons of grease.  Mine didn’t have much grease left so I added bacon grease.  Turn the heat to medium high and add the grease and oregano and 1 1/2 cups of milk and stir.  Mix the flour and starches with 1/2  cup of the milk and stir until there are no lumps left.  Add it to the pan while stirring constantly.  Gravy will thicken as it cooks.  You may add milk if you want a thinner gravy.  Serve over biscuits or sliced bread.

 

Original recipe: Hagman, Bette.  “Biscuits and Gravy.”   The Gluten Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods.   Henry Holt and Company.  2004.

Mongolian Beef

This is a version of P.F. Chang’s Mongolian Beef.  Mine has extra vegetables :-).

 

Sauce Ingredients:

2 tsp oil (I used canola.)

1/2 tsp minced ginger

1 T. minced garlic

1/2 c. soy sauce (I use Kikkoman’s Gluten Free Soy Sauce)

1/2 c. water

3/4 c. brown sugar

 

Beef Ingredients:

1 c. oil

1 pound steak (I used whatever was a good price at the store.), cut into 1/4-inch thick strips.

1/4 c. cornstarch

2 large green onions, chopped (I think I may have used the whole bunch)

1-3 c. frozen Asian veggie mix- allow to thaw while you are cooking

 

Directions:

Heat the 2 tsp. oil in a small saucepan over medium low heat.  Carefully add the ginger and garlic and then immediately add the soy sauce, water, and brown sugar.  Stir to dissolve the sugar.  After sugar is dissolved, boil for 2-3 minutes and then set it aside.

Heat 1 c. oil in a wok or large skillet.  Coat the steak in the cornstarch and allow it to rest for 10 minutes so the coating will stay on.  Cook beef briefly until all sides are browned, but meat should not be cooked through.

Remove meat from the pan and dump out the oil.  Return the meat to the pan and add the sauce and green onion and frozen veggies.  Serve over rice.

Adapted from: http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/pf-changs-mongolian-beef-copycat-recipe.html

Lemon-herb Chicken

 

Ingredients:

1/4 c. olive oil

3 T. minced garlic

1/3 c. white wine

1 T. lemon zest

2 T. lemon juice

1 lemon, cut in 8 pieces

1 1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

Salt and pepper to taste (maybe 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper)

4 chicken breasts

 

Directions:

In a saucepan, heat oil and add garlic.  Take off the heat before the garlic turns brown (about 1 minute).  Add wine, lemon zest, lemon juice, oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper.

Pour sauce into a 9×13 pan and then coat chicken breasts with a little olive oil and put them in the dish.  Add a little more salt and pepper on top and then spread lemon wedges throughout pan.  Bake for 30-40 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and make sure the chicken is cooked thoroughly.  Wait 10 minutes to eat.  This keeps the chicken moister if you wait to cut into it.

 

Original recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/lemon-chicken-breasts-recipe.html

One-serving Lemon Herb Chicken

I really don’t like to make only one serving of things, but I know some people don’t like leftovers.  I made my other lemon herb chicken recipe and had leftover chicken, so I made this single serving.  Here’s to all of you who don’t like leftovers :-).

 

Ingredients:

1 large chicken breast

2 sprigs rosemary

1 T. olive oil

1/4 tsp. dried oregano

1/8 tsp. dried thyme

1 tsp garlic

4 T. white wine

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

juice of one lemon, rind cut into quarters

 

Directions:

Pour all ingredients over the chicken breast in an oven safe pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until chicken is baked through (this will depend on the size of the chicken breast).

Goulash

My husband said, “Make sure to save this recipe for if/when we have kids.”  It makes a lot and it tastes similar to the goulash I ate growing up.  It’s supposed to be a one-dish wonder, but I was afraid the noodles wouldn’t hold up, so I did them separately.  So now it’s a two-dish wonder :-).

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef

1 onion, chopped

3-4 garlic cloves, minced

1 large can of diced tomatoes (1 lb, 12 oz)

4-8 oz cans of tomato sauce (32 oz total)

3 bay leaves

3 T. soy sauce (I use Kikkoman’s Gluten Free Soy Sauce)

2 T. Italian seasoning

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp garlic powder

2 c. macaroni noodles (I used HEB’s gluten free elbow noodles)

 

Directions:

Cook the ground beef in a deep skillet or wok.  Add onions and garlic and cook until they soften, maybe 5 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients except for the noodles.  Cover and cook for 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring water to a boil and cook macaroni noodles according to the package’s directions.  Once cooked, drain and then add to beef mixture.  We served it with a side of green beans.

IMG_5934

 

Original recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/bobbys-goulash-recipe.html

 

Orange Beef and Broccoli

I have started this thing where I am trying to use up sauces and such that I have just sitting around.  I have had rice vinegar in my cabinet for awhile and it is time for it to get moving.  Fortunately, I found this recipe.  My advice it to chop, juice, and zest all ingredients before starting to cook.  The way I made it, it wasn’t very spicy, but you could always leave the jalapeño seeds in or add in some chili peppers to spice it up.

Sauce Ingredients:

1 T. oil (I used canola)

1 and 1/2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

1 jalapeño, chopped (I easily removed the seeds with a grapefruit spoon)

2 T. orange zest from a navel orange

3 garlic cloves, minced

juice of the navel orange that you just zested

1/4 c. brown sugar

1/4 c. rice vinegar (not the seasoned kind)

1/4 c. soy sauce (make sure it’s gluten free if you are eating gluten free)

1 T. fish sauce (I know Thai Kitchen is gluten free- not sure about the others)

 

Beef Ingredients:

1 egg (I used 1 Ener-G egg which is 1 1/2 tsp of the powder plus 2 T. water)

1 T. cornstarch

1 pinch of sea salt

1 to 1 1/2 pounds of steak, cut into 1-inch slivers (I used sirloin steak I think, but flank or rib-eye would do also)

1/4 c. canola oil

1 bunch of green onion, sliced into one inch pieces with white and green parts separated

Broccoli, optional

 

Sauce directions:

Heat oil in a 2-quart saucepan.  Add in ginger, orange zest, and jalapeños.  Stir for 1-2 minutes to heat them up, then add garlic.  Stir for another 1-2 minutes.  Add remaining sauce ingredients to the pan and stir well.  Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer while continuing to stir.  Sauce should thicken and reduce a little.

Beef directions:

In a medium bowl, make Ener-G egg (see directions on the box) if not using real eggs.  Add in cornstarch and salt and stir well.   Add sliced beef and mix well (I used my hands.)  Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet.  Add in beef and cook for 1-2 minutes on one side, add the white parts of the green onions, and then turn the beef over.  It will be medium/medium-rare at this point.  Cook until the outside of the meat is browned and then pour in sauce and green onions.  Mix in steamed broccoli.  Serve over basmati rice.

 

Original recipe:

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017697-orange-beef