Stuffed Green Peppers

I often like asking my husband for meal ideas based on things his mom used to make when he was a boy, and many of those become regular staple meals for us. One of those ideas was stuffed green peppers. I finally got this on my menu and found a great recipe to try. I was very pleased with how they turned out!! Not only were they easier than I thought, they were really yummy. The funny thing was that while hand-pouring my sugar into the (tomato) sauce I accidentally over did it! I also used olive oil instead of vegetable oil. I really think it was that sauce that made it taste so good.

Ingredients:

• 4 green peppers with tops cut off and seeds removed
• ground beef
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1-2 T minced garlic
• 2-3 T parsley
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 2 cups uncooked rice
• tomato sauce
• sugar
• olive oil

Instructions:

• Set oven to 450 and begin browning the ground beef.
• While that is cooking, make your rice.
• Once meat is no longer pink, add eggs, garlic, parsley and Parmesan cheese.
• Cut the tops off the green peppers and remove the stems and seeds.
• Stuff the peppers with the meat mixture placing them in a roasting pan.
• Drizzle olive oil over the peppers and place in the oven for 20 minutes.
• Remove peppers from oven and turn oven down to 350. Mix tomato sauce, a little water and sugar. Pour over top of peppers and return to oven.
• Bake another 30-40 minutes until your peppers are nice and soft. Add a bit of water if the sauce dries up too much.

Serve and enjoy!

Thanks for visiting :o)

My Menu Plan 10/3/11

I really enjoy cooking and trying new recipes. One thing I look for are meals that have all the ingredients in one dish. That way, the meat, pasta/potato and vegetable are all together! I love meals like that. Here is what I plan on making this week. I'm still trying to use up the ingredients in my pantry and now working on our freezer.

Click here to see what others are making this week!

Monday
Beef Stroganoff over Noodles with Peas

Tuesday
Easy Chicken Cacciatore with Corn (Recipe is from Parents.com)

Wednesday
Spaghetti with Garlic Bread

Thursday
Chicken Divan Casserole

Friday
Hamburger Cabbage Soup an Amish recipe

Saturday
Possible date night - Out to Eat!

Sunday
Always my night off!

I am also linking up to Serve It Up Sunday:

Thanks for visiting!

A Tracey's Kitchen Original - Beef Squash Casserole

I bought something called "Vodka Sauce" and it's been sitting in my pantry. Well, this week as part of my "eating through the pantry" project, I decided to make something with it. Since there were so few recipes available, I decided to just try something from scratch and see how it turned out. I'm so glad I did! I ended up with something really good, and never even used the vodka sauce! (I was getting ready to add it at the end and opened the jar. It had an odd smell that didn't seem to blend with the wonderful smell the casserole had already, so I decided not to put it in!)

Ingredients:
1-1/2 pounds Beef Round Steak
2-3 T Olive Oil
3-4 T Ketchup
2 T Minced Garlic
Beef broth to cover
Sliced Summer Squash
Sliced Zucchini
Diced Tomatoes
Rice

Instructions:

• Cut up the beef round steak into small pieces.
• Place in large pot with olive oil, ketchup and garlic. Cook over medium to high heat until meat is browned.
• Pour beef broth over meat until covered. Simmer on medium-high for 45 minutes to an hour.
• Add sliced squash, zucchini and tomatoes and cook another 30 to 45 minutes. Add more beef broth should it need more consistency.
  
• Cook rice according to package directions.
• Serve meat mixture over rice.

ENJOY!

Thanks for visiting!

Shepherd's Pie (ala Nicko's Kitchen)

I found a new recipe site that I really like called Nicko's Kitchen. It's actually a video recipe site on You Tube. I find I like seeing the videos, but he isn't good about telling you how much time to spend on each part. You have to play that by ear.

I think I've finally found my "keeper" shepherd's pie recipe. I have checked out cook books from the library, tried friends recipes and the internet, but just never found one that had the taste I wanted. Until this one. I used all my own measurements and he doesn't give time instructions so I just played it by ear.


Ingredients:
Yellow potatoes
1/2 cup cream
1/2 stick butter
Salt/pepper
Olive Oil
2 T minced garlic
Carrots
1 lb ground beef
1 bag frozen peas
1 package gravy mix
1 cup water




Instructions:

• Cover bottom of frying pan with some olive oil.
• Add garlic and carrots and cook until softened.
• Add ground beef and mix together. Continue cooking until ground beef is browned.
• Sprinkle gravy mix over beef mixture and add 1 cup water.
• Cook on high for 10 minutes or so until most of liquid is absorbed.
• Cut up and boil the potatoes.
• Add cream, butter and salt/pepper to taste.
• Mash until creamy.
• Place meat mixture into glass baking dish. Spread mashed potatoes on top using a fork.
• Cook in 500 degree oven for minutes.

ENJOY!

Papa's Hungarian Goulash

Just last month, I had a wonderful week's vacation with J down at my sister's place in the Chicago suburbs. My sister's father-in-law, who we call "Papa" came over to visit and taught me how to make a couple of his favorite meals. Papa has an incredible story of living in Germany during the war and then coming to the US in its aftermath. He and his now late wife, Vera, were authentic cooks using everything fresh and not processed for their meals. This is a wonderful meal and I'm so blessed to now have this recipe.


Ingredients:
1.5 lbs Round Steak
2 pork chops
2 to 3 T olive oil
2 T Paprika
3 T ketchup
Salt/pepper to season
2 T Onion soup mix
1 can diced tomatoes
1 container fresh sliced mushrooms (or canned)
Beef stock
Few stalks of celery
2 parsnips
6 to 8 baby carrots
Red pepper
1 box Bow Tie Pasta
Corn starch (1 T plus little water)


Instructions:

• Trim round steak and pork chops removing fat and cutting meat into small pieces.
• Heat olive oil in large pan and add the meat.
• Add ketchup, onion soup mix, paprika and cook until meat is browned and not much oil is left.
• Put meat into dutch oven (basically any pan with a lid that you can put in the oven).
• Add beef stock, diced tomatoes and mushrooms. Cook for an hour or two (until meat is very tender).
• Chop veggies into small pieces and add to dutch oven.
• Cook for 1/2 hour or until veggies (especially carrots) are tender.
• Mix corn starch and water in small bowl. Add to dutch oven and let sit for several minutes.
• Add more corn starch and water until the sauce thickens to your liking.
• Prepare box of bow tie pasta.
• Serve goulash over pasta and ENJOY!
  

Corned Beef and Cabbage Slow Cooker Meal

We had a local Aldi store open up recently. For those of you who don't have one, they call Aldi the "stock up store". They have really good prices, especially for meats and fish. The corned beef briskets were on sale so I bought one. (Mind you, this was after I went to check out and didn't have enough money so I had to put the $8.50 brisket back. The store only takes cash and so I scraped together all our change to go back and buy it since I really had a taste for corned beef and cabbage...and I already had the rest of the ingredients too.) I don't know if it was the "Aldi" brand corned beef or that it needed to cook longer, but the meat wasn't half as tender as the corned beef I've had in the past. I really enjoyed this meal with all the vegetables though; the cabbage, carrots and potatoes turned out great. We did give it a thumbs up but next time will cook the meat an hour or two longer. I may ditch the seasoning packet too. I wasn't completely sold on the flavors. For sure, I think we'll do this again for St. Patty's Day.


Ingredients:
1 corned beef brisket of 3-5 pounds
5 medium-sized yellow potatoes
15-20 baby carrots
1 head of cabbage
3 cloves minced or crushed garlic
1 bottle of Guinness beer
Seasoning packet (if included)

Instructions:

• Place beef brisket in slow cooker.
• Add seasoning packet (if one included)
• Add cut up yellow potatoes.
• Add baby carrots.
• Slice the cabbage into large quarters and add to slow cooker.
• Add bottle of beer and garlic.
• Simmer on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.
• When serving, make sure to use some of the juice from the slow cooker as a light "gravy".

Enjoy!

Dad's Chili

I haven't made this recipe in a LONG time, and it's really a good one. My dad put this recipe together over a few years of tweeking it. I have a funny story. So I was making this chili for the Packers playoff game. It calls for chili powder and I ran out of my homemade concoction. See quick chili powder. While at an Indian grocery store earlier in the week, I picked up what I thought was regular chili powder. (The red coloring should have tipped me off, but it didn't.) As I put the powder in, my eyes watered a little and I thought to myself, "Hmmmm, maybe the Indian chili powder has a little kick." Is that an understatement! It turns out instead of regular chili powder, I bought red chili powder. And not only that, but EXTRA HOT red chili powder. Come to find out, that's ground up hot chilis! YIKES! Needless to say, this just about burned your mouth off. Since people were on their way over, I used every googled tip I could find...(using slices of raw potatoes to soak up the heat; cutting the heat with a couple tablespoons of honey, using a little baking soda) but nothing really worked. I did add a 28 ounce jar of tomatoes, 2 more cans of beans and a 15 oz jar of tomato sauce. This helped tone it down a bit, but we still needed huge dollops of sour cream to actually eat it. Interestingly, one of our friends asked for some HOT SAUCE to add to his!! He loved it! (They got most of the leftovers.)

So....be careful when going to an ethnic grocery store and read the fine print on ALL labels! This chili recipe is really good when you make it right!


Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey
1 lb ground pork
1 lb ground beef
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 (15 oz) can light kidney beans
1 (15 oz) can dark kidney beans
1 (15 oz) can spicy chili beans
1 quart crushed tomatoes
2 large red peppers, diced
1 large onion, diced
3 T minced garlic
6 T white vinegar
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne
4 T light chili powder
6 squirts Worcester
2 T brown sugar
4 squirts Tabasco or other hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste


Instructions:

• Brown the meat
• Using the juice of the meat, let the onions and peppers simmer until tender and soft
• Place meat in crock pot and add peppers and onions (after draining meat juice)
• Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together in slow cooker
• Cook for 4 hours on low or 2 hours on high

Enjoy!

Tasty Beef and Bean Burritos

There are a couple nights of the week where we need a quick and easy meal for nights we're going to the Y. This one I found on The Pioneer Woman. I am really finding a lot of neat recipes there. She had a lot of great ideas for add-ons to the recipes which I took advantage of. The filling for the burritos was just delicious. I have never really liked the taco seasoning that comes with taco packets. The El Pato sauce really makes this dish.


Ingredients:
1 to 2 lbs ground beef
1 can (7 oz) El Pato Mexican Tomato Sauce
Cumin, oregano, garlic to taste (chili powder can be added too)
1 can (28 oz) Refried Beans (we used Old El Paso)
3/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
8 or more flour tortillas

Extras inside:
Lettuce
Small slices of tomato

Extras On Top:
Shredded cheddar cheese
Guacamole
Sour Cream


Instructions:

• Brown ground beef and season to taste.
• Pour in sauce (saving a little for drizzling) and let simmer over low heat.
• In saucepan, heat refried beans and add shredded cheddar. Stir until melted and mixed in with the beans. Keep warm over low heat.
  
• Spread a few spoonfuls of refried beans onto tortilla. Add meat mixture.
  
• Add lettuce and tomato and wrap into a burrito.
• Sprinkle cheese on top and microwave until melted.
• If desired, spread guacamole and sour cream on top.
  
• Drizzle extra sauce on top. (I forgot to set some aside for this.)
  

Enjoy! This was delicious with a side of Mexican rice.



Burrito Filling















Side - Mexican Rice
















Finished Burritos and Rice

Frito Pie Casserole

I got the idea for this dish from a visit at Taste of the Blogosphere. When I saw her picture, this looked like something we'd like to eat. I decided to do a search on the internet and came up with a simpler version.


















Ingredients:
2-3 cups Fritos corn chips
2 cups Mexican shredded cheese
1 lb hamburger meat
1 can of Texas style chili beans
2 T chili powder
1 T minced garlic


Instructions:

• Brown ground beef adding minced garlic.
• Once meat is no longer pink, add Texas style chili beans and chili powder.
• Let simmer for several minutes to blend flavors.
• Put layer of Fritos on bottom of glass pan.
• Put half of cheese on top of the Fritos.
• Place meat/bean mixture on top of the Fritos and spread evenly.
• Add another layer of Fritos and the rest of the cheese.
• Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

We dished ours up putting sliced tomatoes, shredded lettuce and sour cream on top.
Hope you enjoy!

Tangy Slow Cooker Barbecue Ribs

My husband has been asking for ribs lately and I bought some beef spare ribs at the store a couple weeks ago. I finally sat down today and went through two "Fix it and Forget It" slow cooker cookbooks I got from the library. I put this recipe together borrowing from a few of theirs what sounded yummy to me.


Ingredients:
2 lbs beef ribs (I used boneless beef short ribs, but pork ribs would work too)
3/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup ketchup
2 T sugar
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 cup cola
1 T minced garlic
1 tsp dry mustard
dash or two of salt and pepper


Instructions:

• Take ribs if frozen and defrost in the microwave.
• Mix all the ingredients together (minus ribs) in a mixing bowl.
• Place ribs on the bottom of slow cooker and pour sauce mixture on top. If needed, arrange a second layer of ribs after you pour half of mixture onto the bottom ribs.
• Pour the rest of the sauce onto the top layer of ribs.
• Cook on low for 4-5 hours.

Tracey's Tasty Meat Loaf

This meat loaf recipe originated with my sister who adopted a recipe from her mother-in-law. Then I searched around the internet a bit for tidbits that I might add that sounded good (like cheddar cheese, shredded carrot and horseradish)... and so here it is.


Ingredients:
1-1/2 pounds ground beef
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup bread crumbs
3 or 4 shredded baby carrots
1 cup shredded cheddar
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 tsp horseradish
2 T parsley
1/2 tsp dried sage


Topping:
1/4 cup ketchup
2 T brown sugar
1 tsp dry mustard


Instructions:
Mix together list of ingredients into a large bowl. Form into a loaf and place in a loaf pan. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees or until meat thermometer reads 160-170 degrees. At 45 minutes, mix topping ingredients together and spread on to the meat loaf. Bake another 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

"Lasagna Mac"

Well, this one's right off the back of the box of the Kraft Mac & Cheese! But WOW is it YUMMY! Probably because it's so cheesy. Being a Wisconsin cheese head myself, that's right up my alley. Last night, I was just going to make a basic meal of mac-n-cheese with cut up hot dogs, but then I saw this recipe on the back of the box but below I tailored it a bit. I had all the ingredients and it sounded good, so that was our dinner. We only had a little left over, so I made more today for lunch! J just loved it and ate his entire helping.


















Ingredients:
1 box (14 oz) deluxe mac and cheese dinner (we used Kraft's sharp cheddar with cheese sauce)
1 lb ground beef
1 jar (14 oz) spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (I used sharp cheddar)
*minced garlic
*chopped green pepper

* = my additions


Instructions:

• Prepare the mac & cheese as directed on package including mixing in the cheese sauce.
• At the same time, brown the ground beef. Add garlic and green pepper. Once the meat is no longer pink, drain and add spaghetti sauce. Let simmer for 5 or 10 minutes.
• Alternate a layer of the meat sauce and a layer of the mac & cheese. Repeat layers and then top with the shredded cheese.
• Bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees.

Enjoy!

Grandma's Rice

The picture doesn't do this justice. I love casseroles, especially ones with rice and ground beef. This one I found a few months ago and made it tonight to bring to a friend who is a new mom. The recipe can be found at allrecipes.com but after making a few of my own modifications (like omitting olives and bacon), I'm writing out the details here.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1/3 cup chopped onion (I used dried minced onion)
1/2 cup shopped green pepper
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 bag frozen corn
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt (optional) - I omitted
1-1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 tsp melted butter

Instructions:

• Cook the beef, onion and green pepper in a large skillet over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain.
• Stir in the cooked rice, tomatoes, corn, chili powder, garlic powder and (optional) salt. Bring to a boil and remove from heat.
• Add 1 cup of cheese, stir until melted.
• Transfer to a greased baking dish (I used 9 x 13-in). Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Toss bread crumbs with the melted butter and sprinkle over the top.
• Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until cheese is melted.

We like eating this with french bread. Enjoy!

Upside Down "Pizza"

So this definitely isn't a gourmet meal, but it worked great when I didn't have much in the house. I didn't make it to the grocery store before dinner, so I needed to find a recipe that would use ground beef, spaghetti sauce and cheese. I had cheese in little star shapes that I got for J, but he didn't really like them so I used them up. It was fortunate that I also had crescent rolls, because that really made the recipe.

My husband really liked it. I was thinking there wasn't much too it; just spaghetti sauce with meat with a thin dough crust, but he said the main thing is it tasted good. It was good and we both had seconds. My son was not at all into eating tonight, so I couldn't find out if he liked it or not.

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com so you can click on the link or follow the instructions below.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 T chopped or minced garlic
1 (16 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
1 cup shredded cheese (mozzarella or cheddar)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 (8 ounce) can crescent rolls

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Brown beef, onion and garlic in sauce pan over medium high heat. Once browned, drain fat and stir in spaghetti sauce.
• In a 9 x 13 baking dish, spread a layer of sauce. Top with 1/2 the cheese and 1/2 the Parmesan, add another layer of sauce and then the rest of the cheese.
• Top with crescent rolls, pinching the seams together.
• Bake for 20 to 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Yummy Slow Cooker Pot Roast

'Tis the season for slow cooking! I have been meaning to get more use out of my slow cooker and finally did it. I hope to be doing a lot more of this during the cold weather months. I decided to start with pot roast, which was one of my favorite comfort meals that my mom would make when I was little. Hers was just delicious! So I visited several different sites on the internet and came up with this recipe. It really turned out well. I cooked it on high, but ended up cooking it for 5 hours so the meat would be extra tender.

(I forgot to take a picture so I used one that looked like it with a link below.)


Ingredients:
2 cans of cream of mushroom soup
1 package dry onion soup mix
1 cup water
1 can cola (I used Coke)
2-3 pound roast (I used a bottom round roast)
1 bag mini red potatoes
1 bag mini carrots

Directions:
Place the roast in the slow cooker.
Pour the rest of the ingredients on top.
Cook on high setting for about 4 hours or low setting for 8 to 10 hours. (The longer you cook, the more tender the meat will be.)

Photo credit: Trisha

Beef Broccoli Mushroom Pie

This is another Bisquick recipe and it turned out well. It could use a little extra kick of "something" (maybe garlic) but I couldn't figure out exactly what. Anyways, my husband had seconds so that's always a good sign.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound beef cooked, drained
• 1/4 cup chopped green onion
• 1 (9 oz) box broccoli cuts, thawed
• Sliced mushrooms (we like fresh)
• Salt & pepper
• 1/2 cup Bisquick or baking mix
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese

Heat oven to 400. Grease 9' pie plate. In bowl, mix beef, onions, broccoli, mushrooms and spoon into pie plate. In bowl, stir bisquick, milk, sour cream, eggs, salt and pepper until well blended. Pour into pie plate and top with Swiss cheese. Bake 30 to 35 minutes until knife in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes before serving.

Beef Stroganoff Casserole

This is a Betty Crocker recipe using Bisquick, but you can also use a generic "baking mix" version. It turned out really well when I used fresh mushrooms instead of canned. We liked this one.





Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 (3/4 oz) package mushroom gravy mix
• 3/4 cup water
• fresh sliced mushrooms, broken into small pieces (as many as you desire)
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup bisquick
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 small bell pepper cut into rings

Heat oven to 400. Grease an 11 x 7 x 1-1/2 dish. Cook beef and onion over medium heat. Stir in gravy mix (dry), water and mushrooms. Cook 1 to 2 minutes while stirring until thick. Remove from heat. Stir in sour cream. Spoon mixture into baking dish. In small bowl, stir bisquick, milk and egg. Spread gently over beef and top with bell pepper rings. Bake 18-22 minutes until topping is golden brown. Wait 5 minutes before cutting.