Asian Ground Beef and Peppers Sauté

Recipe as found on Allrecipes.com

1 cup Dry Jasmine Rice 2 cups Water
1 lb. Lean Ground Beef 1 tbsp. Olive Oil
1 Red Bell Pepper, chopped
1 Green Bell Pepper, chopped
1⁄4 cup Chopped Fresh Parsley
2 large Cloves Garlic, thinly sliced 2 tbsp. Minced Fresh Ginger Root 1⁄4 tsp. Crushed Red Pepper
1⁄4 tsp. Salt
1⁄4 tsp. Ground Black Pepper
1⁄4 cup Beef Stock
1 tbsp. Low-Sodium Soy Sauce
1 tsp. Chile Paste
1⁄2 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce 


Adjustments I made include:
Uncle Ben's Jasmine microwave rice
1 cup low sodium beef stock
cornstarch to thicken (about a tablespoon)
I minced the garlic and used a microplane zester to grate a piece of ginger that was about 1 in. 


Allrecipes.com instructions:

In a medium saucepan, bring the rice and water to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes. In a skillet over medium heat, cook and stir the ground beef until evenly browned. Drain, and set aside. Heat the olive oil in the skillet over medium heat. Stir in the red bell pepper, green bell pepper, parsley, garlic and ginger. Season with red pepper, salt, and pepper. Cook and stir until tender. Return the beef to the skillet. Mix in the beef stock, soy sauce, Chile paste, and Worcestershire sauce. Cook and stir until thickened and heated through. Serve over the cooked rice. 


What I did: 
I made this a one-pot meal. I cooked the ground beef in a dutch oven and chopped my peppers, etc while it cooked. As it was just about browned I added the chopped peppers, garlic, ginger, salt, Chile paste, soy sauce, Worcestershire, crushed red pepper and ginger.  I let the peppers cook about 5 minutes and then added the beef stock and parsley and let it simmer about 10 minutes.  Then I added the cornstarch and made the rice. 


It was fast and really good. The flavors were subtle but they built with each bite. I imagine it will be excellent the next day.  I was afraid it would be too spicy but it wasn't at all. The ground beef was fine and inexpensive but next time I might make it with flank steak. 

BBQ Pork Burgers with Slaw

BBQ Pork Burgers

I found this recipe on Epicurious.com a couple of years back and it's tasty. The recipe calls for bottled BBQ sauce, which goes against the Clean Eating philosophy but I found one with somewhat okay ingredients. What I need to do is make a batch myself and keep it handy. Alas….

Water, Tomato Paste, Sugar, Distilled Vinegar, Molasses, Tapioca Dextrin, Salt, Brown Sugar, Spices, Corn Starch, Contains Less than 0.5% of: *Onion, Paprika, *Garlic, Chili Powder, Natural Smoke Flavor, Xanthan Gum, Guar Gum, Citric Acid, Corn Syrup, Tamarind, Natural Flavors.

*Dried

I changed the recipe slightly to meet my needs. 

• 1 bag pre-made slaw mix

• 1/4 cup mayonnaise

• 1 tablespoon milk

• 1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons white-wine vinegar, divided

• 1/2 cup bottled tomato-based barbecue sauce

• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder

• 1 1/2 pounds ground pork

• 4 whole wheat kaiser or soft rolls
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• Mix the mayonnaise, milk, vinegar together and mix into slaw mix. Set aside.
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• Mix ground pork with sauce and chili powder.  Make into patties and grill or cook stove top.  Baste burgers with more BBQ sauce once cooked.
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• As you can see, I didn't make my patties big enough for the giant buns! And I should have toasted the buns but my child was fussy and the dogs were carrying on so I had to make due. I like these but I had forgotten that the meat can be a little bit dry. I think I'll try it again with ground beef.
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Steak House Panini

My first foray back into cooking new things (after a brief reprieve) was from Clean Eating. A steak house panini with flank steak and sweet potatoes. Sadly, this didn't appeal to me as much as I thought it would. I love all of the ingredients involved, but somehow they didn't meld to my liking.  The potatoes were too sweet for this, in my opinion. And I couldn't taste the cheese at all. I did alter the recipe slightly so I will post what I used. You can google steak house panini and find the original recipe.

Flank steak (will use about 8 oz)
olive oil
1/4 cup butter milk
2 cups baby spinach
1 tablespoon crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
salt and pepper
1/2 - 1 teaspoon paprika
2 sweet potatoes
whole wheat tortillas

Pre-heat oven to 425.

I peeled and quartered the potatoes, cut them into strips, coated them in olive oil and sprinkled with salt. Then I baked them until done, about 20 minutes.

While they were cooking I made the sauce. Using a blender I blended the spinach, Gorgonzola and "buttermilk." Lacking buttermilk I added 1 tablespoon lemon juice to a cup of milk and let it set for 5 minutes.  Blend until smooth. It's such a vibrant green, but all I could taste was the spinach.

Remove potatoes and set aside to cool.  Position an oven rack to just under the broiler and preheat oven to broil.

Season steak with paprika and salt and broil 5-7 minutes on each side.  Remove, let rest for a few minutes and slice thin against the grain.

Assemble the paninis and grill on a panini press or use a sauté pan to "grill."

While very pretty this just didn't hit the mark. The meat was wonderful though and we had enough left over for something different. I'll have to try this again with regular potatoes and an increased amount of cheese.

Not Gone….

I haven't given up on posting recipes, I just haven't been doing much cooking these days. Between an anniversary and general life interruptions we've been doing take out or quick non-interesting meals. But I do have a menu planned AND I have a new bread maker courtesy of my mother-in-law. I can't wait to put it to use!

Bacon Spinach Feta Pizza with Sun-dried Tomato Sauce

Wow. This pizza is so good there are almost no words. If you like the flavor of sun-dried tomatoes, this is for you. I found the recipe here:

Perry's Plate

I did make my own pizza sauce. For the sauce:

6-8 oz warm water
1 can tomato paste
3/4 tbl. Italian Herb blend
1/4 tea. salt
1 tea. honey
1/4 tea. red cayenne pepper
1/2 cup sun-dried tomato spread:

Mix all ingredients until well blended. 

You'll also need:

Baby spinach

cooked bacon (I used 5 slices)

1-2 cups shredded mozzarella

feta cheese (roughly 1/3-1/4 cup)

For the pizza crust I used a roll of Pillsbury Pizza Dough, thin crust. 

Preheat oven to 400. Lightly mist pizza pan with Olive Oil spray. Roll out pizza dough onto the pizza pan.

Spread sauce over dough. Be careful not to use too much or the pizza will be soggy.  I used about 1/2 a cup although I didn't measure. Top with baby spinach and shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake for 10 minutes.  Add crumbled cooked bacon and feta cheese to taste.

Bake for another 5 minutes or until the feta has melted some.

Enjoy! 

Grilled Apple Bacon Cheese with Roasted Red Onion Mayo

Grilled Apple Bacon Cheese with Roasted Red Onion Mayo

This is a Paula Deen recipe that was too good for such a simple sandwich. It's the roasted red onion mayonnaise that does it.

Ingredients

Roasted Red Onion Mayo:

• 1 medium red onion, chopped
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup mayonnaise

Set oven to 375. On a rimmed baking sheet, place the chopped onions, olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast 20-25 minutes. Once done, let them cool. Add onions and mayonnaise to a food processor and chop until finely chopped. 

Sandwich (for one, double or triple as needed):

• 2 slices (1/2-inch-thick) sourdough, multigrain or another hearty bread (I used an Artisan Asiago Cheese Bread)
• 4 slices thick-cut bacon, cooked crisp
• 4 slices Cheddar
• 1/2 Granny Smith apple, cored, sliced thin (a mandoline helps)
• Roasted Red Onion Mayo

I only needed 2 slices of cheese per sandwich.  Assemble the sandwiches: mayo on top and bottom slices of bread. Cheese, apple, bacon and cheese. Once the cheese melts it helps keep everything sealed in.  The recipe says to grill on a pan on the oven but I used a panini press.  Therefore, I skipped the butter the bread stage. 

This was so delicious.  The mayo really does make it great.  I will make this again and again. 

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Chipotle Beef Tostadas

I saw this recipe in the latest Food Network Magazine and immediately put it on the menu. Even though I forgot to put on the cheddar cheese that was in the original recipe, it was very good. I'm not convinced it even needed cheese. That might have detracted from the freshness of it. The lime juice in the slaw makes it special. And while the photo makes it look dry, I didn't find that it was. My grocery store didn't have tostadas so I just used corn tortilla chips. It's a bit on the spicy side and I only used a tea. of the chili powder. It's one of those heats that builds as you eat. But very tolerable and I'm a spicy lightweight.

Chipotle Beef Tostadas

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1 large white onion, minced
• Kosher salt
• 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons chipotle chile powder
• 1 10-ounce can Mexican-style diced tomatoes with green chiles
• 1 15-ounce can pinto beans, drained
• 1 medium zucchini or yellow squash, diced
• 2 cups coleslaw mix or shredded cabbage
• Juice of 1 lime
• Freshly ground pepper
• 8 tostadas (flat crisp tortillas) or tortilla chips

Directions

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef, half of the minced onion, 1 teaspoon salt and the chipotle chile powder; cook, stirring and breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, until the meat is browned and the onion is tender, about 7 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, beans and zucchini and cook, stirring occasionally, until the zucchini is just tender, about 6 minutes.

Meanwhile, toss the coleslaw mix, lime juice, and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl.

Divide the tostadas among plates and spoon the beef mixture on top. Top with the slaw and the remaining minced onion.

Addendum:
Leftovers are good in a whole wheat tortilla with a little monteray jack cheese! (minus the slaw)