quick & easy stroganoff

I made a basic beef stroganoff for dinner tonight. It wasn't as yummy as the kind Mom used to make (sadly I don't have that recipe) but it fit the bill of beef and hearty. I used the base of this recipe from all recipes, Simple Hamburger Stroganoff, and tweaked it to what I had on hand. Overall impression is "meh", needs more flavor, even more than what I added to it. I had to add more garlic pepper and was tempted to add salt too while I was eating it (though I crave salt lately so its probably fine). Won't go out of my way to make it again but for a quick hearty dinner it was good. And I have leftovers for a few more meals since my hubby and Dad are both out of town this week.

Simple Beef Stroganoff
6 servings

Ingredients
1 (16 ounce) package egg noodles
1 pound lean ground beef (I used 96/4 and it turned out well)
1 (.75 ounce) packet dry brown gravy mix
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
2 ounces water
1/2 cup milk
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed golden mushroom soup
minced onion & garlic pepper
Directions
1.Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add egg noodles and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2.In a skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef until no pink shows; drain.
3.Mix brown gravy, cream cheese and mushrooms with hamburger until cream cheese has given the mixture a whitish look. Add milk and mushroom soup to beef mixture, season with garlic pepper and minced onion. Add sour cream to noodles and mix. Toss hamburger mixture with pasta until combined.

more apple adventures

I found an apple butter recipe in my favorite Betty Crocker cookbook today so I gave that a whirl. Was pretty easy and smells nice and seasoned.

Now that I have almost 4 cups of apple butter, I'd better keep cooking with that ;) lol. May try this sometime in the next 3 weeks (its shelf life in the fridge). Grilled Turkey with honey apple glaze.

Let me know if you have a good recipe that calls for apple butter now ;) I may be set for regular apple recipes, as after tonight's pork roast I'll only have a few left.

Apple Butter (from memory, if its not 100% I'll come back and tweak it)

4lbs of apples, peeled, quartered and core removed
1 1/4 cup apple juice (I used cider)
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cloves

Put everything in a large dutch oven. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer and cover, stirring occasionally. Simmer one hour. Mash up apples with masher or fork. Return to stove and simmer uncovered for one hour, or until nice and thick. Remove from heat, cool 2 hours, then place in containers and can be kept in in fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Mmmm Minestrone

Hungry girl promises its good, we'll see, I love the Olive Garden's minestrone. Probably not too authentic, but I'm 0% Italian so you can fool me. I'm using chicken broth and ditalini pasta since it's what I have, and northern beans since I couldn't find canellini and throwing in some corn & celery. I'm living dangerously. Going to have some foccacia and salad with it :) should be pretty tasty, and Dad won't care that its meatless and my veggie-adverse husband will be out of town. Should be something good and healthy to freeze for my grandparents too. Haven't been freezing latley since they don't handle spicy well.

Here's the recipe, for those of you who don't get the HG e-mails.

Hungry Girl's Mmm-mmm Minestrone

PER SERVING (1 generous cup): 105 calories, 0.5g fat, 512mg sodium, 19.5g carbs, 4.5g fiber, 4g sugars, 5g protein -- POINTS® value 1*

Need a big pot of soup PACKED with veggies (not calories!), but don't want to spend forever chopping? This recipe is a DELICIOUS shortcut to Soupville!

Ingredients:
Two 14-oz. cans (3 1/2 cups) fat-free vegetable broth

Two 14.5-oz. cans diced tomatoes, drained

One 15-oz. can cannellini (white kidney) beans, drained and rinsed
One 10-oz. package frozen spinach, mostly thawed

1 cup frozen cut green beans

1 cup frozen peas and carrots
1 cup uncooked whole-wheat-blend rotini or penne pasta
1 tbsp. dried minced onion 

2 tsp. chopped garlic

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 bay leaf

Salt and black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a large pot on the stove. Add 1 cup water and stir it up. Cover and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low and allow soup to simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Remove bay leaf, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve!

MAKES 10 SERVINGS

apple sauce

Fall is upon us so its apple season :)

This is what I do for applesauce, thought I'd share since someone had asked me for the recipe recently anyways.

APPLESAUCE

3lbs of apples (granny smith or another cooking apple work best), peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 cup water or cider
1/4 cup sugar (or to taste)
1/4 to 1/2 tsp of cinnamon (or to taste)
Nutmeg, allspice and cloves may be added to taste

Put everything in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Cover and cook until the apples are very soft, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer the apples to a bowl and mash with a fork or potato masher. Allow sauce to cool and place in a container with a tight fitting lid. Store in the fridge, can be kept up to a week.

new chili recipe

Ever since I had my daughter in 2007 I can't seem to stomach my old chili recipe that would make your eyes water and slap you around a bit as you ate it. ;) So I went on the hunt for a new one, and this chili recipe on allrecipes.com has good reviews, and the name is pretty awesome :) Boilermaker Tailgate Chili

BUT true to form I decided to start making it during naptime and didn't have everything... so I'll copy/paste the ingredients, to show what I changed, and then review it after dinner. I hope to make the original at some point. I also halved the recipe because we didn't need 12 servings of chili for 3 people.

INGREDIENTS (bold are changes)
1 1/2 lbs stew beef, browned/drained and diced up
1 30oz can chili beans, drained
1 (14 ounce) can petite diced tomatoes with juice
2 (10 ounce) cans rotel (tomatoes & chili peppers)
1 slightly larger than a golfball yellow onion, chopped
1/2 tsp celery seed
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped (was frozen)
1 tablespoon bacon bits
beef base powder (had about 1 1/2 tbsp left so thats what went in)
1/4 cup beer
2 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoons hot pepper sauce (e.g. Tabasco™)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon white sugar

we'll be using tostitos and whatever shredded cheese I have that will go with chili, it will be either cheddar or mexican blend. It smells really good :) Will review later.

after dinner:
It did have a lot of bite, Chris loved it with the stew beef instead of ground beef, Dad and I thought it was a bit too spicy. I will make it again and tweak to make it more my own. But if you don't like super spicy you may want to tone down the tabasco sauce and/or chili powder or cayenne pepper.

let the fall cooking begin!

It's in the upper 50s here in Michigan so that means fall cooking! Yay! We are also going to an apple orchard / cider mill this weekend so I hope to pick up some apples to make some tasty things with (in addition to cider & doughnuts, and pumpkins).

First up on the fall foods list is homemade sloppy joes. This was my Mom's recipe, my Dad and I love it, Chris doesn't (scary veggies! he prefers Manwhich) so since he's out of town its the perfect time to make it!

BEST EVER SLOPPY JOES

1 – 14 oz can petite-diced tomato
1 cup celery stalk chopped
1/2 cup green pepper, chopped
1/3 cup Red Wine Vinegar
3 garlic cloves, diced
1/3 cup ketchup
1-2 Tbsp. Chili powder (to taste)
2-3 Tbsp. Brown sugar
1 tsp. diced leaf oregano
1 cup yellow onion, chopped
1 1/2 1bs ground sirloin

Mix together the tomatoes, vinegar, ketchup and brown sugar until the sugar are dissolved – set aside. Brown the meat together with the remaining ingredients. Drain and add to the tomato mixture in a Dutch oven. Cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes. Serve with buns. Makes approximately 5-1/2 cups.

Chicken Noodle Soup

I don't have a recipe exactly for this one, I change it to suit my moods. I made that roasted chicken last week then Kathleen and I promptly got sick and the leftovers were frozen until I felt like standing to cook. Today I decided to make some chicken noodle soup. Here are the basics, your mileage may vary.

Chicken Noodle Soup

2 cartons Swansons chicken broth (2 - 32oz cartons)
2-4 cups water or you can add more broth, I usually water it down a bit to make it not so thick after I get all the stuff in it because I over veggie it.
veggies of choice. I used half a big frozen bag of my standard peas/corn/carrots/green beans mix.
If I have it I throw in celery, I didn't today so I threw in about 1/4 tsp celery seed
2 cups shredded or cut up leftover chicken
1-2 cups egg noodles (or I have used kluski noodles) I don't measure I just put a few handfuls in
ground black pepper

Today I also threw in some poultry seasoning, chives, minced onion and parsley. I throw everything but the noodles into a pot and bring to a boil until the veggies are cooked. Boil the noodles for 10 minutes in the soup and its done.

The Swanson box is not too far off from what I do, but they of course don't want you to water down their broth. :) and they only use carrots & celery

Broccoli Cheese Soup

I loved this soup but of course my husband didn't because it had the dreaded broccoli in it. He will eat broccoli smothered in cheese but apparently it was "too much broccoli" in this soup. Oh well, I will wait until he goes out of town and make it for Dad and I again. Mwahaha.

This recipe is on allrecipes so I'll just direct you over there.... Broccoli Cheese Soup you can feel free to use my suggestions below or make it as is ;)

I added "matchstick" carrots and frozen corn to the broccoli when cooking in the broth. Then added ham cubes when I added the milk/garlic powder. I also didn't have enough velveeta last time I made it so I only used about 1/2 pound of that and 1 1/2 c of shredded cheddar. The people that bitch about the onion probably don't know about the small (slightly larger than a golfball) cooking onions. If you use like a yellow onion you'd have way too much. I also didn't think the garlic powder was too much, but I like garlic and had the other veggies/ham/cheese flavors in there.

Bordelaise Sauce

This one I found on allrecipes, I have made it many many times and love it.

Here is the original Bordelaise Sauce with Mushrooms recipe.

When I am in a pinch and do not have mushrooms (which is pretty much every time because my husband hates them), this is the recipe I came up with based on what was on hand ;) I also don't use fresh shallots or thyme, I have dried. This is the cream of mushroom soup version I guess ;)

Bordelaise Sauce without mushrooms

INGREDIENTS
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp dried shallots
1 tbsp minced garlic (garlic is always mandatory)
4 tbsp butter
1 can campbells cream of mushroom soup
2 cups beef broth
2/3 cup red wine (I used a tasty shiraz)
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
(he had no bay leaf so that was left out)
dash of dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons cold water

DIRECTIONS
Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the garlic, and cook until the garlic is fragrant. Add the shallots and stir until starting to soften. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter, then stir in the cream of mushroom soup until encorporated. Pour in the beef broth, wine, and Worcestershire sauce; season with the thyme, and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Once simmering, season to taste with salt and pepper, reduce the heat to medium-low, and continue to cook, uncovered until the sauce reduces slightly, about 30 minutes. Dissolve the cornstarch in the cold water, and stir into the simmering sauce until thickened.

I boiled some ziti pasta, put the 2 strip steaks sliced up on top and covered with sauce and tossed. Mmmmm. For an experiment it was hella good. Sort of like beef stroganof without the sour cream in the sauce. Tonight I bought some steaks stuffed with wild rice so I plan to bake those with just salt/pepper on them and then top with this sauce.

Glazed Pork

I don't recall where I found this one, I thought it may have been allrecipes but I searched on its ingredients and didn't find it. I love this one because it has a very different flavor and is good to break the rut of casseroles, stews, and soups this time of year.

Glazed Pork

1 pound pork tenderloin (or I buy the tenderloin medallions/pieces already cut for me) trimmed/cut into 16 pieces
1 Tbsp all purpose flour
2 Tbsp brown sugar, divided
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/8 tsp ground red pepper
1/4 cup raisins (I omit)
1/4 cup orange juice
3 Tbsp balsalmic vinegar
2 Tbsp capers (I omit)
1 Tbsp olive oil

Combine flour, 1 Tbsp brown sugar, salt, cumin, cardamom, and pepper; rub evenly over pork (I put in a bag and shake it. Or flip the pork around in a bowl. I am lazy). I often do this step hours ahead of time so it can absorb into the meat in the refridgerator during the day.

Combine 1 Tbsp brown sugar, raisins, juice, vinegar, and capers, stirring until sugar dissolves.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add pork; cook 2 minutes, turn pork over and cook 1 minute (I brown mine then flip and brown it again). Add the vinegar mixture; cook 1 minute or until sauce thickens and pork is done. I let mine cook on low while I finish the sides.

This is really good with brown rice or couscous.

Orange Sauced Chicken

I made this the other night for dinner. It was again another weightwatchers board recipe, though I changed the breading method for the chicken to make it at little tastier (though not quite so guiltless). I also doubled the sauce because I was making 3 chicken boobs and the recipe called for 2 tiny ones. I like sauce, so sue me.

Orange Sauced Chicken

1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp of orange marmalade
2 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp dried crushed rosemary
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tsp ground pepper (or to taste)
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 cup flour
2-4 boneless skinles chicken breasts, pounded to a uniform thickness.
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups italian style bread crumbs
Pam
spray butter

Add salt, pepper, paprika, and flour to a quart or larger zip lock bag, seal and shake to combine. Whisk egg with milk in a bowl large enough for chicken dunking. Place breadcrumbs on a dinner plate (spread out).

Pam a skillet large enough for your chicken breasts, heat on medium to prepare pan.

Put chicken one breast at a time in the flour bag, seal/shake, then dip in egg mixture and roll in breadcrumbs. Place breasts in the heated skillet as you finish. I then spray buttered them on the side not on the skillet.

Cook the chicken 3-5 minutes per side, until lightly browned on each side. While chicken is cooking, combine the OJ, marmalade, broth, lemon juice, rosemary, cornstarch, and some fresh ground pepper and salt (to taste). Whisk well until combined.

Once the chicken is browned reduce heat, add liquid, and simmer, stirring/flipping chicken occasionally. I let mine simmer for about 20 minutes while I cooked the sides, I had large chicken breasts and wanted to be sure they were done. The original recipe said 5-6 minutes or until chicken is done.

I had enough sauce that I plated the chicken and drizzled sauce over top. Was very good with some these baked potatoes and carrots.