Hamburger Stew

Ok, so I haven't made this yet but I can't figure out a way to pin it to Pinterest.  I'm just copy and pasting this from the Taste of Home Facebook page so I can keep it for later. :)

HAMBURGER STEW

From - www.tasteofhome.com



Note: Serve with buttered cornbread.
Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
4 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) stewed tomatoes
8 medium carrots, thinly sliced
4 celery ribs, thinly sliced
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 cups water
1/2 cup uncooked long grain rice
1 to 2 tablespoons salt
1 to 2 teaspoons pepper

Directions
Cook beef and onions over medium heat; drain. Add tomatoes, carrots, celery, potatoes, water, rice, salt and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30 minutes until vegetables and rice are tender. Uncover; simmer 20-30 minutes longer or until thickened!

Good 'ol Chili

Good ‘ol Chili

It's that time of year when you warm up with a cozy sweater and bowl of chili.  This is one of Joe's favorite chili recipes that he got from a co-worker several years back. We continue to make it a few times each fall/winter.  It makes a good amount and has lots of great flavor.

Ingredients

2 ½ lbs. ground beef (We usually use 1.5-2 lbs. only.)

28 oz. can Hunts diced tomatoes

15oz. can Bush’s chili beans

15oz. can Hunts seasoned, diced tomato for Chili (This can be difficult to find.)

20 oz. +/- Campbells Tomato Soup

15 oz. can kidney beans

1 pkg. McCormick mild chili seasoning (or hot)

½-1 bell pepper, chopped 

1 med. Onion, chopped

1 small jar jalapeno peppers (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Brown ground beef, drain, then add everything together.

Simmer on stove for 1-2 hours OR all night in crock pot. (I typically cook it in the crock pot on low for 8ish hours.)

Now, if you are an Aldi shopper, you can find most of these ingredients there, which will save you some money on ingredients.  If you don't see them in the regular canned foods aisle, check the aisle that has promotional food items.  Usually I can find the chili beans, seasoned diced tomatoes, etc. in one of those two places. 

Tater Tot Casserole

Our friend Steven is home on furlough from his time in China this summer.  When he's home, we try to have him over for dinner and I try to make something that he can only get here in the States.  When he was over for dinner last week, I decided to make one of his favorites (from my menu)...a simple Tater Tot Casserole.  This is easy and delicious and a family favorite in our house!  (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture!)

Taco Tot Casserole

Ingredients

4 Cups Ore-Ida® Tater Tots®

1 Pound Ground Beef

1 packet Taco Seasoning (My favorite is the Taco Bell Brand taco seasoning.)

11 oz. can Corn with Peppers, drained

11 oz. can Soup Nacho Cheese (In the stores near me Campbell's is the brand that has the soup.  If you can't find the nacho cheese soup, you can also use the Fiesta Cheese Soup.)

Salsa, optional for topping

Sour Cream, optional for topping

Sriracha, optional for topping

Directions

1.  Heat oven to 375°.

2.  Cook ground beef with taco seasoning mix according to package directions. Spoon meat mixture into an ungreased or 2-quart casserole. 

3.  Spoon corn over meat mixture; spread soup over corn. Arrange frozen Tater Tots® in a single layer over soup. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until potatoes are lightly browned and mixture is bubbly. Serve with salsa and sour cream, if desired.  

Note:  I double this recipe all the time.  Just make sure to use a 9x13 baking pan if doing so.

Steven (pictured far left) and a group of our friends at a picnic this summer.
What a fun time to catch up with people from our old Thursday Night Bible Study.

Original recipe found here.

Easy Goulash

Ever looking for something that will cook all in one pot and be easy enough that you can have the meal finished in a half hour?  This is one of those meals.  Plus, it’s hearty and filling.  Pair it with some fresh cornbread and you’re good to go!

Easy Goulash

1 medium onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 pound ground beef

1 cup uncooked pasta of your choice    I choose elbow macaroni.

1 can of Corn, drained

1 can of Lima beans, drained

1 can Diced tomatoes with Oregano and Basil

1 can Tomato Soup

Sauté onions and green pepper together.  Brown and cook meat.  Mix onions and green peppers together with meat.  Add corn, Lima beans, tomatoes, and tomato soup.  Cover, stirring occasionally until entire mixture is heated through.  While meat mixture is heating, make your pasta according to package directions.  Drain when finished.  Add pasta to meat mixture.  Stir and serve.  This one-pot dish is great served with fresh corn bread!

Dorito Taco Salad

My family first discovered this salad years ago.  My little cousin's grandmother brought it to a party.  She has since passed away, but we still remember her when we make this salad.  It's simple and good.  As stated in the actual recipe, do not mix the dressing until right before you plan to serve.  This is easy to take on-the-go, but it's best if you keep all the ingredients separate and just toss them together when at your destination.  The tastes all come together and the crunchiness of the Doritos really make this a great salad!  It's perfect for a summer BBQ, too!

Dorito Taco Salad

1 11.5 oz. bag Doritos (regular, red bag, Nacho cheese flavor)
1 can Black Olives, sliced or chopped
2 medium Tomatoes, diced
1 bag of pre-shredded lettuce (You can also shred a head of lettuce.)
16 oz. Green Goddess Dressing
1/2-1 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese, if desired
Ground Beef (1 lb.)

Directions:

1. Brown the ground beef. 
2. Mix beef, tomato, lettuce, black olives, Cheddar cheese in a large bowl.
3. When ready to serve*, crunch up Doritos and mix with beef mixture.  Mix thoroughly with dressing.
 
*It is very important not to pour dressing into the salad until ready to serve.  The dressing will make salad soggy if you aren't serving for a long time.

 Recipe Notes:

·         You can shred a head of lettuce if you don’t want the pre-shredded kind.

·         You can brown the meat with a packet of Taco Seasoning, if desired.

·         All ingredients can be adjusted to what you like.  You can add more/less/delete anything to your liking.

·         Mix ingredients in a LARGE bowl.  When combined, this makes a very large bowl of salad.

Ranch Cheeseburgers

In general I’m not a big burger fan; however, once in a while I get such a craving for a juicy burger.  It usually has to have cheese.   Everything is better with cheese.  While trying to come up with an easy dinner, I thought it would be great to enjoy the beautiful weather and get the grill fired up.  I didn’t want to buy a single ingredient.  I wanted something easy.   I wanted a burger.  Alas, I did some searching and settled on a simple ranch burger recipe.  This recipe has been around for ages, but this was the first time we’ve ever tried it.  We will definitely do this one again!  One of my favorite things about this is that the cheese is combined with the meat mixture.  Yummy!

Ranch Cheeseburgers

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1 packet (1 ounce) Hidden Valley® Original Ranch® Salad Dressing & Seasoning Mix

1 medium onion finely chopped

1 pound ground beef

4 hamburger buns

Preheat the grill or broiler.

In a large bowl, combine seasoning mix with the beef, onion, and cheese.  Mix with clean hands until incorporated. Shape the meat into four burgers about 1-inch thick. Grill the burgers to your desired preparedness.

Serve immediately on the hamburger buns.

Adapted from this Recipe.

It's time for Meatballs y'all

Growing up with an Italian family, there was never a shortage of meatballs with the typical Italian dinner.  However, I have always been intimidated by the meatball and making them from scratch was not something I thought I could do well.  Thanks to my sister Jane, I had a recipe in my recipe binder for over a year for a meatball recipe she found online.  I pulled it out the other night and decided to give it a whirl.  I’m glad I did!  They were delicious and my husband already wants me to make these again!

Mmm Mmm Meatballs

1 pound extra lean ground beef

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 small onion, diced

½ teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

½ teaspoon dried oregano

1 ½ teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup milk

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

½ cup seasoned bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Combine the beef into a mixing bowl.  Add sea salt, onion, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, oregano, and Worcestershire sauce.  Mix well.  I always find it best to mix with your hands!  Add the milk, Parmesan cheese, and bread crumbs.  Mix until evenly blended.  Form into 1 ½ inch meatballs.  Place onto a baking sheet.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until no longer pink in center.

The verdict:  These were delicious!  I did not use any of the spicy ingredients that were listed in the original recipe.  I’m a baby when it comes to spicy.  Next time I might make a few the same way but add the spicy ingredients in for my husband who can never have things too spicy.  After making this recipe, I’m no longer afraid to make homemade meatballs; that’s for sure!

Adapted from the recipe here.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

We have a huge bag of quinoa from Costco, so I began searching for some new recipes to try out on my family.  I also wanted to use up some green peppers that would be going bad soon, so my end result was quinoa stuffed peppers.   I substituted the rice for quinoa and they were delicious!  There are a few classic recipes when I’ll typically pull out my trusty ‘ol Betty Crocker cookbook (circa1971) and this is where I started for the dish. 

A few quick notes before I begin:  1.  My recipe called for 6 green peppers, but I only had 3.  I baked the extra meat/quinoa mixture in a ramekin along with the 3 peppers.   I also didn’t have tomato sauce, so I used a can of crushed tomatoes—worked like a charm.  3.  The recipe called for 2 Tbsp. of onion—I just used the whole onion, chopped.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

What you need:
6 large bell peppers

5 cups boiling salted water

1 lb lean ground beef

2 tablespoons chopped onion  I used a whole onion.

1-1 ½  cups cooked quinoa

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon garlic salt

1 clove garlic, finely chopped  I used ½ teaspoon garlic powder.

1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce

¾ cup shredded mozzarella cheese (3 oz) I used shredded Parmesan.

Heat oven to 350°F.  Cut thin slice from stem end of each bell pepper to remove top of pepper. Remove seeds and membranes; rinse peppers. Cook peppers in the boiling salted water 5 minutes; drain.

Cook quinoa according to package directions.  I cook mine in broth for added flavor.

Cook/brown beef and onion in medium skillet until beef is brown and onion is tender; drain. Stir in quinoa, salt, garlic salt, garlic and 1 cup of the tomato sauce; heat through.

Stuff peppers with beef mixture. Stand peppers upright in ungreased 8-inch square glass baking dish. Pour remaining tomato sauce over peppers.  Cover tightly with foil. Bake 45 minutes. Uncover and bake about 15 minutes longer or until peppers are tender. Sprinkle with cheese.  I sprinkle mine with cheese right before putting back in oven for the last 15 minutes of baking time.

Adapted from the recipe here.

Taco Soup

This week our Crock Pot Tuesday consisted of Taco Soup, an all-time favorite in our household.  Sam’s even old enough to love the beans, meat, and corn that are a part of this delicious soup.  The only thing I do differently from the original recipe is that I add 2 quarts of chicken broth or stock to make it more soup-y.  The original recipe has more of a chili consistency, but we like a good hearty soup, so I tried the change and we’ve never gone back!  You can't really mess up this recipe. Enjoy!

Taco Soup

1 lb browned and drained ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cans of kidney beans

2 cans of pinto beans

2 cans of corn with their juices

1  28oz. can of diced tomatoes with the juices

1  14oz. can tomatoes and chiles (Rotel), with the juices

1 packet taco seasoning

1 packet ranch dressing mix

1-2  32oz. cartons Chicken Stock (optional, this makes it more soup-like rather than chili-like; I always add this.)

Shredded cheese and sour cream for topping (optional)

The Directions:

Use at least 6-quart slow cooker.  Put the meat and onion into the slow cooker.  Drain and rinse the beans, and add to the cooker.  Add the corn and tomatoes.  Stir in contents of the seasoning packets.  Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours.  I think the longer you cook soup, the better, so if you have the time, opt for cooking on low.  Ladle into bowls.

        Add a handful of cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream to each bowl before eating.  Other topping possibilities:  soda crackers, corn chips, Sriracha

Adapted from this recipe.