Spicy French Dip Sandwiches

I hear it all the time in the blog world: "I wish I could use my slow cooker more often, it is so convenient!"  But often, bloggers don't like the "cream of..." soups that go with a lot of slow cooker meals.  When I saw this recipe on Cooking With Christen, I knew it had potential.  I stuck with the original recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking because I loved how simple it was - Beef, Peperoncinis... that's it!  After the recipe finished up and I gave it a quick taste test, I also added about a teaspoon of Tabasco sauce to spice it up to our tastes.  This was a good recipe, but if I make it again, it will be for a crowd, as it was way too much food for just the two of us, and I can't eat that much beef anyway because I get a "stomach full of anger" (thank you Tour de France racer Andy Schleck for that awesome and totally unrelated to digestion quote!).



Peperoncini Beef Sandwiches (from A Year of Slow Cooking via Cooking with Christen)
2 lbs Beef Chuck Roast
1 16 oz jar whole peperoncini peppers
1 tsp Tabasco Sauce
6 Slices cheese (mozzarella, swiss, or provolone as shown here)
12 slices toasted bread or 6 toasted sandwich rolls

Place beef and entire contents of pepper jar into 4-6 quart slow cooker.  Cook all day (8+ hours) on low setting.  Add Tabasco if needed.  Shred meat with 2 forks.  Dish onto bread and top with cheese.  If cheese needs help melting, place open sandwich in toaster oven on broil for about 30 seconds. 

Guinness Beef Stew

Growing up, my memories of beef stew are pretty much - Stew Meat + Golden Mushroom Soup + Dry Onion Soup Mix + Carrots + Potatoes. Not very exciting, and I really disliked Golden Mushroom Soup back then. I think the beginnings of my dislike of mushrooms came from that dish - the mushrooms didn't taste like anything, but had a nasty texture! Thankfully, I still held out hope for beef stew and have tried making it at home a couple times as an adult. Unfortunately, my husband is very particular about how he expects beef stew to taste because he had a mom who made it from scratch with no soup mixes (and I didn't know this was why he was so particular until just recently. I really need his mom's recipe!). Thankfully, the food blogging world loves to make Irish inspired meals for St. Patrick's Day, so I was able to find this recipe for Guinness Beef Stew on Mary Ellen's blog (originally from RazzleDazzleRecipes). Mary Ellen is great with comfort foods and all the stews I've seen on her site look fantastic, so I knew this recipe had great potential. I used a combination of Mary Ellen's version and the RazzleDazzleVersion (plus a couple of tasty mistakes of my own, haha) and I was floored by how good this was. So rich and velvety - and I don't even like beer! I will definitely be making this stew again!

Guinness Beef Stew
2 lbs stewing beef (I used one pound, intending to half the recipe, but messed that up a bit)
1 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
2 tablespoons flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of cayenne (I probably used a 1/4 tsp to my 1 Tbs flour)
2 large onions, coarsely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste dissolved in 4 tablespoons water (I used this entire amount for my half recipe, so the result was a more tomatoey flavor and a thicker consistency)
1 ¼ cups Guinness Stout (I used about 3/4 cup for my "half recipe" because it was pretty thick from the overage of the tomato paste!)
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cups carrots, cut into 2 inch pieces
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
Sprig of fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried thyme (I used about a 1/2 tsp of fresh rosemary)
1 ½ cups beef broth, canned or homemade (I used this full amount)
Chopped parsley for garnish (I omitted)

Toss beef with salt, pepper, flour, and cayenne. Heat the olive oil in a large dutch oven. Add beef and brown on all sides, about 6-7 minutes. Add garlic and onions, saute 2 minutes. Add tomato paste mixture, cover and let simmer 5 minutes. Remove beef to a resting bowl. Pour half of the Guinness into the saute pan where the beef cooked. Scrape up any brown bits and bring to a steady simmer for 5 minutes. Return beef to the pan and add remainder of the Guinness. Add carrots, celery, potatoes, thyme or rosemary, sugar, and broth. Stir and adjust seasonings. Cover and cook over medium-low heat (just at a nice simmer) for 1 hour 15 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes or so. Adjust salt and pepper, and simmer partly uncovered for another hour (hmm, just now realized that I never did this! Oh well, always next time!). Adjust salt and pepper and serve.

Balsamic-Garlic Flank Steak

Balsamic vinegar. Yum. I've been kind of obsessed with recipes that use it ever since our trip to Hawaii where my fish at Cuatro was served with a swirl of reduced balsamic and a swirl of cream sauce. It is just such a great combination of sweet, savory and sour. I've also been keeping an eye out for good flank steak recipes, since grilled sliced flank steak is such a great protein with a light summer meal. So this recipe from Mary Ellen's blog was perfect for me. It imparted just enough balsamic flavor to have an impact on the steak without overpowering the steak itself. I grilled this on our indoor cast iron grill pan and I have to say, I grilled it to perfection. Perfect done-ness for both of us and great grill marks! Unfortunately, my husband is not so much of a balsamic fan, so I will have to make this for myself on nights he isn't eating with me. He liked it okay, didn't love it like I did. Oh well!

Balsamic-Garlic Grilled Flank Steak
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 large garlic cloves
1/2 tsp thyme leaves (I used parsley, which I have a ton of, from my planter)
One 2 1/2 lb flank steak (Mine was a little less than a pound)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
In a blender/food processor (or Magic Bullet!), blend the vinegar, oil, garlic, and thyme until smooth. Place the steak in a large glass or ceramic dish; pour the marinade over the steak and let it stand for 5 minutes (mine stood for about 10-15 minutes). Season the steak with salt and pepper and grill over moderately high heat, turning once, until medium, about 8 minutes per side. Transfer the steak to a cutting board and let it rest for 10 minutes. Slice it across the grain to serve.

Brown Sugar Meatloaf

Sorry for the very long hiatus! The good news is that I've been tasting & touring for the last month and have lots of posts to catch up on. But my adventures have kept me away from my blog far too long and so now, I begin the catch up - starting with a recipe that uses ketchup! Ha ha!

Meatloaf is a classic recipe that many people consider a staple. I grew up with a pretty standard meatloaf recipe that included dry onion soup mix, bread crumbs and eggs, with a basic ketchup glaze. It was always just okay, so I was never really inspired to try it out on my own. But lately, with my food blog, I've decided to try making some of the classics on my own, utilizing the techniques I've been learning through the blogging world, plus adjusting for our personal tastes. Meatloaf was back on the list of potential "to-try" recipes. This recipe received some pretty rave reviews on allrecipes, and we do like savory items sweetened with brown sugar, so I thought I'd start there. I added some worcestershire sauce and Tabasco to the glaze and we really enjoyed that added kick to the glaze. Spicy and sweet just go so well together! This meatloaf was very moist and was tasty on sandwiches the next day. Everything a meatloaf should be in my book! I'm thinking of making this with a mix of beef and turkey next time, so that it is a little lighter. But as it was, it wasn't too greasy, since I used a pretty lean mix of ground beef. Good recipe.

Brown Sugar Meatloaf (adapted from allrecipes)

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup

(added: 1 Tbs Worcestershire Sauce)

(added: 1 tsp Tabasco Sauce)
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef (I used 93/7% Lean/Fat ratio)
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 cup finely crushed saltine cracker crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 5x9 inch loaf pan.
Press the brown sugar in the bottom of the prepared loaf pan. Mix ketchup, worcestershire sauce and Tabasco in a small bowl. Spread on top of the brown sugar in loaf pan.
In a mixing bowl, mix thoroughly all remaining ingredients and shape into a loaf. Place on top of the ketchup. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until juices are clear. Allow to cool for 10 minutes prior to slicing.

Porcupine Meatballs

There are some recipes that I make quite often, only to find that I've never blogged about them. This is one of them. Perhaps because I know that not everyone has a pressure cooker, perhaps just because I've been eating these my entire life (although my family used a different recipe when I was younger), I don't know why I haven't blogged about these. They are such a cute recipe, and they are very tasty, too. I loved these as a kid simply because of the cuteness factor. They are called porcupine meatballs because all the rice sticks out of the meatball like porcupine quills. They come together easily in the pressure cooker and always come out tender and delicious.

Porcupine Meatballs (adapted from my Presto pressure cooker manual)
3/4 lb lean ground beef (I used 90% lean)
1/2 cup white rice, uncooked (I use short grain)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1/2 Tbs dried minced onion
1 cup tomato juice (I use spicy V-8)
1/2 cup water
8 oz can tomato sauce
Combine meat, salt, pepper, onion & rice. Shape into about 12 small meatballs. Heat tomato juice & water in pressure cooker. Drop meatballs into boiling mixture, top with tomato sauce. Close lid and cook for 10 minutes with pressure regulator rocking gently. Allow pressure to drop of its own accord. Serve over hot rice, spooning juices on top. Makes 3 servings of 4 meatballs.

Stuffed Pepper Stew

The first time I made this stew, it was well before I had started blogging, but I had been reading several to collect recipes, never imagining I would start my own. I highly recommend this recipe for those interested in stuffed pepper flavor, but without all the time involved in making the real thing. I don't often make soup recipes as a main entree for fear that my husband will wonder where the rest of his meal is, but this recipe is really hearty and definitely holds up to the husband standards. I got the recipe from What's Cooking in the Orange Kitchen but it is originally a Rachael Ray recipe, and I can't find it online anywhere anymore, so I can't link it! This makes really good leftovers, too. I halved the recipe and there were still two full helpings leftover.

Stuffed Pepper Stew
2 tbsp EVOO
1 1/2 lbs ground sirloin
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp allspice (I used a tsp of chili powder instead for the 1/2 recipe)
4 cloves garlic
1 lg onion cut into bite size pieces
3 green peppers, seeded and cut (I used one green, one yellow for the 1/2 recipe)
1 bay leaf (I omitted)
1 quart chicken stock
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 cup orzo pasta (I used about 3/4 cup for my 1/2 recipe)
12-15 basil leaves,torn (I chiffonaded these instead)
Grated Parmesan to top
Heat medium soup pot over medium high heat with EVOO. When oil is hot add onions, beef, salt, pepper and allspice (or chili powder). Brown the meat for about 5 minutes then add garlic and peppers and cook 7-8 minutes or until veggies are tender. Stir in stock and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook to al dente. Turn off heat and fold in basil. Serve in shallow bowls with grated cheese on top.

Yummy Taco Burgers

I'm so excited about our dinner that I had to post right away. I haven't made beef burgers at home in a really long time. We eat ground turkey whenever we can because it agrees with my tummy a lot more and it is much healthier. I saw this recipe on A Taste of Home Cooking (recipe originally from Vintage Victuals) and thought it might be just the recipe to bring me back to home beef burgers. I loved that it was simple, but brought in some of the Mexican flavors we love, and it was a great opportunity for me to make my tasty homemade guacamole. I made a couple of changes. I omitted the egg (I didn't want to figure out how to divide it, since I made 1/3 of the original recipe, plus I don't like what it does to the texture) and I added about a 1/4 cup of chopped green onions to add some moisture to the mix to make up for the egg. I used a taco seasoning that was from Whole Foods and had no salt, but I added a little extra to my guacamole and that worked out great. I will probably use more taco seasoning next time (I used about a Tablespoon). These were particularly special because I grilled them up on our new cast iron grill! What a treat!

Taco Burgers

(original recipe for 4 burgers, I made 2)

1 packet of dry taco seasoning (I used a Tbs)

1.5 lbs. ground beef (I Used 1/2 lb 93% Lean)

1 egg, lightly beaten (I omitted and added 1/4 cup chopped green onion)

4 slices cheddar or cheddar jack cheese (I used 2 slices cheddar)

4 buns (I used 2 whole wheat buns)

Red onion sliced (I omitted)

Guacamole (I used about 1/4 of my original recipe shown here)

In a medium bowl, combine taco seasoning, ground beef, and green onions lightly until completely combined. Divide the meat into two equal patties.
Grill the patties to desired done-ness, topping with sliced cheese during the last 2 minutes of grilling. Grill the buns, too (We both agreed the grilling of the buns was required. Soggy buns would be a tragedy here!). Place a patty on each bun, and top with guacamole. Enjoy!

Hot soup on a rainy day: Burrito Soup

Most people have heard, the weather here in California has been nasty. A tornado touched down about a block from our apartment. We live in Santa Barbara, people. Seriously, a tornado? And this was the first of several that happened last week. Bad weather calls for soup, but I have a hard time making soup for dinner unless it is really hearty. Thankfully, this soup from Elly Says Opa fit the bill perfectly. It really is everything that you would find in a burrito, but in soup form. I loved that I could mix up the different types of chili powders I had, as the complexity of the spices worked out great. Both the husband and I took soup leftovers into work this week, and the guys at the bike shop were incredibly jealous. One guy swore he was going to stop by and pick up a crockpot for his fiance on the way home! The husband really liked this soup, but kept insisting that it was really chili in disguise, which I guess is a good sign that it was hearty enough to count as a meal for him! For my Midwestern family members reading this - make this, but I would use half as much chili powder for your spiciness tastes!

Crockpot Burrito Soup (from Elly Says Opa)

2 tsp. canola oil

1 large onion, diced (mine was more of a medium onion)

1 lb. extra lean ground beef

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce

5 cups beef broth

2 Tbsp chili powder (I used 1 Tbs regular, 1/2 Tbs Chipotle and 1/2 Tbs Ancho Chili powders)

1 Tbsp. cumin

2 tsp. oregano

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

2/3 cup corn

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup uncooked rice (or, cook rice separately)

Heat a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat and add oil. Cook the onions for a couple minutes before adding the beef. Brown the beef with the onion and drain if necessary. Put back on the heat and stir in the garlic, just until fragrant. Pour the beef mixture into the crockpot and then add the tomato sauce, beef broth, spices, corn and black beans. Cook on low for 8 hours. Increase temp to high and add the rice, just until cooked. Alternatively you can put the cooked rice in bowls and ladle the soup over it. Garnish with your favorite toppings (I used shredded cheddar, light sour cream and sliced avocado, yum!). This made about 8 servings.
Nutritional Information Per Serving (with 93% lean beef): Calories: 302 / Fat: 7.5g / Carbs: 33.5g / Fiber: 6.3g / Protein: 26g

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Happy New Year! Wow, it was a very busy holiday season for me, so as you can tell, I've gotten behind on blog posts. Thankfully, I have a bunch of recipes that I've been saving up with all my holiday baking as well as a few savory dishes, like this one. Unfortunately, this Pot Roast didn't turn out the way I remember it usually coming out. My cut of meat seemed fine in the package, but after I removed it from the package, it was revealed that my 3 lbs of roast actually had about 1.5 lbs of fat on the back side that was well marbled and I couldn't cut it off. Cooking beef in the crock pot can do wonders for a bad cut of meat, so I thought it would still be okay, but this was just ridiculously fatty. I think in the future, I'm going to go with a rump roast or another slightly leaner cut of beef instead of the chuck roast I used. This is such a great recipe (I've made it plenty of times), I'm not letting one bad experience turn me off!

Awesome Slow Cooker Roast (From Allrecipes)

2 10.75oz cans of cream of mushroom soup (I used 1 can Cream of Celery)

1 package dry onion soup mix (You can use half the package, I used it all)

1 1/4 cups water (I used beef stock)

5 1/2 lbs pot roast (Mine was about 3)

I added about a cup of baby carrots and 2 large white potatoes

In a slow cooker, mix cream of mushroom soup, dry onion soup mix and water. Place pot roast in slow cooker and coat with soup mixture.
Cook on High setting for 3 to 4 hours, or on Low setting for 8 to 9 hours.

Old Fashioned Pot Roast

I realized last weekend that I had never made an old fashioned pot roast. I've only ever cooked pot roast in a crockpot (and it is fantastic). I decided to try an old fashioned oven pot roast and used this recipe on allrecipes as my base. I added carrots and potatoes and cooked it all up in my Le Crueset dutch oven, which I don't use nearly as often as I should. This turned out okay, but I think that crockpot cooking has really revolutionized the pot roast. When cooked in the crockpot, roasts come out so juicy they just fall apart. This roast, while still tender, needed to be sliced up, and I've never had to do that with a crockpot roast. I'm glad I tried this method of cooking, and it felt really old fashioned and homey to have a roast in the oven all day on Sunday, but I'll stick to my crockpot recipe in the future.

Crockpot Pepper Steak

One thing I have tried to do with this blog is to write about all the fabulous dishes that I've been trying, but also to be honest and blog about the not so great dishes, too. This dish would fall into the "not so great" pool. I think the main problem is that the meat used in this dish (sirloin) was so lean that it just got tough in the crock pot instead of the usual crockpot beef fare, which is tender and juicy. It was also lacking in a bold flavor and was awfully bland (if I hadn't added the A-1 Sauce, it would have been inedible). I look forward to making this dish again, but using the standard stir fry method. So here is a recipe that I wouldn't recommend!

Slow Cooker Pepper Steak (from allrecipes)

2 pounds beef sirloin, cut into 2 inch strips
garlic powder to taste
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cube beef bouillon
1/4 cup hot water (I used a 1/4 cup of beef stock instead of bouillon/water)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 large green bell peppers, roughly chopped
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes, with liquid
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt

I added: About 2 Tbs A-1 Steak Sauce
Sprinkle strips of sirloin with garlic powder to taste. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the vegetable oil and brown the seasoned beef strips. Transfer to a slow cooker. Stir in onion, stewed tomatoes, soy sauce, sugar, and salt.
Cover, and cook on High for 3 to 4 hours, or on Low for 6 to 8 hours.

After 8 hours, turn crockpot to high (or simmer, if your crockpot has that function). Add bell peppers, A-1 sauce and mixture of beef stock (or bouillon mixture) & cornstarch to crockpot and stir well to combine. Cook for another hour. Serve over rice or noodles.

Delicious & Easy Mongolian Beef

This recipe might be one of my favorites so far in the food blogging world. It is not only tasty, it is super easy to make. It is restaurant quality, but with simple ingredients, and even uses flank steak, which is about as lean a beef cut as you are going to find. You might be able to tell from this blog that I really enjoy Asian dishes, so this is definitely going to be added to our list of regulars. The source for this (and I swear, I didn't plan this) is once again, Elly Says Opa. I think it is funny that the last three recipes I've blogged about have all been Elly's, but her recipes are just calling my name lately! I'm such a blog stalker!

Mongolian Beef (from Elly Says Opa)

2/3 lb. flank steak, sliced across the grain

3 Tbsp. corn starch

3 tsp. canola oil, divided

1/2 tsp. grated ginger

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce

1/3 cup water

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp. (heaping) red pepper flakes (I might add more next time)

2-3 large scallions, sliced

Pat the steak pieces and make sure they’re dry; then, toss the steak and cornstarch together. Be sure all pieces are fully coated, but shake off excess corn starch. Mix together the soy sauce, water, brown sugar and red pepper flakes. Heat half the oil in a wok at medium-high heat and add the ginger and garlic. Once fragrant (30 seconds or so), add the soy sauce mixture. Cook for about 2 minutes and transfer to a bowl. Turn the heat up on the wok and add the remaining oil. Add the beef and cook, stirring until just browned. Pour the sauce back in and let it cook with the meat. Let the sauce thicken to your liking, and then add the green onions in just before plating.

Stuffed Peppers

Today, my friends, I make a triumphant return to blogging after a bit of a hiatus. I have been busy this summer and not cooking as many new recipes, but I have a few saved up that I'd like to post about, and hopefully this will inspire me to find and create more recipes this fall.

The first recipe is one that didn't photograph well, but I think will be a good recipe with a few small adjustments. I didn't realize that my husband not only enjoys stuffed peppers, but his mom has a trusty recipe! I wish I'd known, I would have used hers! Instead, I used this recipe from allrecipes.com. I added low fat cheese, spicy V-8, and used very lean beef. In the future, I think I will use 85/15% beef instead, and I will definitely use regular instead of low fat cheese (which is the entire reason the picture looks so unappetizing). This is one of those recipes that needs a little fat to taste right. My husband made me laugh when he said "These are good, but my mom's recipe uses ground beef." He's so used to the turkey I use in everything, and the beef was so low fat, he didn't notice the difference when I finally used beef for once! I look forward to trying this again (or my mother-in-law's!) when the weather gets a little cooler.

Oven Roasted Tritip

OK, I'm definitely a Central California girl and LOVE me some tritip. It is a cut of meat that is rarely available anywhere else but in Central California and it tastes great on the grill with a salty dry rub seasoning on it. Those of us who live here know that is the only way to truly enjoy tritip. You don't mess it up with marinades or sauces, and you MUST cook it on the grill. Well, unfortunately, we live in an apartment that doesn't have any room for outdoor grilling, and grilling this on an indoor grill would probably give our smoke detector some issues. So I must oven roast my homemade tritip for now. Lucky for me, I have come up with a method that does the meat justice, and it comes out flavorful and juicy, just like a good tritip should. I know most people can't enjoy this delicacy themselves. Why am I sharing it on my blog, some may ask? Because I had a great dinner last night and I just wanted to share!

Oven Roasted Tritip (my recipe)

1 2 lb Tritip Roast

Very liberal amounts of barbeque seasoning salt (we use McCormick Broiled Steak Seasoning)

Garlic Powder

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Allow roast to sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes to get the chill off. There will be a large fat piece on one side of the roast, even if it is pretrimmed from the butcher. With a very sharp knife, remove the fat all in one piece, if possible, while removing as little of the meat as possible. When fat has been removed and set aside, season liberally (really liberally) with seasoning salt on all sides. Rub in well until meat has a good crust on it. Replace fat piece on top of one side of seasoned meat. Season top of fat with a light coating of garlic powder. Place on a baking rack (I use an old cooling rack and a cookie sheet) with the fat side on top. The fat will baste the meat while it is cooking. Bake uncovered for 40 minutes. The tritip will be medium well on the smaller sides and medium to medium rare in the thick middle. Remove the fat piece and discard. Allow to rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing into 1/4 inch slices. Enjoy alone or in a sandwich. Makes about 4 servings.

Fire Drill Food - Day 1

My lack of posts lately has been caused by two things: I have been sick, and the Jesusita Fire that has been devastating my home town has put a damper on cooking. For those of you who don't live in California, you might not know how much a fire like the Jesusita Fire can halt all productivity. Not only were we concerned about our fellow Santa Barbarians, but it was over 100 degrees here, and very few of us have air conditioning. On Thursday night, the fire could be seen spreading wildly westward from our kitchen window:

On top of all the fear, the power kept flickering and threatening to shut down as it has in fires past. A power outage pretty much kills all cooking for me, since I have all electric appliances and no outdoor grill to speak of. So all meals that I did manage to cook were very quick stovetop concoctions that wouldn't heat up the house and would hopefully be done before any power outages (which thankfully, never came to fruition out where we live).

The first of the two days that I cooked during the Jesusita Fire, I made what has been known in my family as simply "Teriyaki." The recipe is from one of my grandfather's Hawaiian girlfriends, and it uses flank steak. The teriyaki marinade used with the steak is not your standard from a jar teriyaki and can only be classified as "Hawaiian-style Teriyaki." My family has tried this on chicken before and it just isn't as good. The steak is where its at! I'm leaving the measurements as they are on the family recipe card, but I'll show how much I used, too. I just think family measurements are funny.

Teriyaki (from a girlfriend of Granddaddy)

1 large bottle of soy sauce (I used Kikoman 20 oz low sodium)

4 or 5 cloves garlic, crushed (I used 4)

6 or 7 slices ginger, minced (I used about 3 tsp jarred fresh ginger)

4 or 5 tsp sesame oil (I used 4 tsp)

6+ scoops sugar to taste (I think this measures out to about 3 cups or so)

2-3 lbs flank steak, sliced into thin strips against the grain

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients well until sugar dissolves. Add steak strips and marinate for 1/2 an hour. Grill steak strips until done, just a couple minutes per side.

I don't have nutrition info. for this one because the ingredient measurements are so crazy, but flank steak is one of the healthiest cuts of meat there is. Just be careful if you are watching your salt intake, this is really salty even with the low sodium soy!

Kicked Up Ramen

Early in my days of cooking real meals for my husband and me, I came across a recipe in a Pampered Chef pamphlet that I was surprised to see there. It was a ramen noodle stir fry. As a child, I adored Top Ramen and would eat it daily whenever I was home from school (seriously, it's scary how much of this stuff I ate!). I couldn't believe that Pampered Chef had a grown up recipe that I could make that would still count as cooking dinner! I promptly cooked it up, and when a guy from my office wanted to know what I had for dinner the night before, I told him "Ramen." Then I described it and he said, "Wow, that's not just ramen, that's kicked up ramen!" Since then, that is what I've called this dish. If you don't like ramen or are watching your sodium intake, this isn't for you. But it is so easy and really, really good, and brings back memories of all those summer days when I was eating hot soup!

Kicked Up Ramen (adapted a lot from a very old Pampered Chef booklet)

1 package beef flavored ramen noodles

3/4 lbs sirloin steak, sliced very thin

1/4 Cup Light Soy Sauce

2 tsp fresh ginger, grated

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 package frozen vegetable mix, thawed

1 cup water (1/2 of what the package calls for)

1 Tbs olive oil

Marinate beef in Soy, ginger and garlic for at least 20 minutes. Stir fry in oil in wok over medium high heat. Remove from pan. Add 1 cup water, ramen noodles & seasoning (add the seasonings now, not at the end). Cook for 3 minutes or until noodles are soft. Add the vegetables and simmer for about 1 minute until just softened. Add the beef back in and toss well to incorporate all ingredients. Makes 2 servings.

Nutrition Info: Calories: 638.8, Fat: 27.9g (9.5 Sat, 1.7Poly, 12.75 Mono), Carbs: 37.1g, Fiber: 2.8g

Weeknight Beef & Broccoli

Let’s face it – sometimes it isn’t about cooking a gourmet meal, it's more about just getting dinner on the table. I got the beef for this recipe marinating before we left for gym night, so all I had to do when we got home was heat up the stir fry pan and cook everything up – less than 10 minutes. We don’t eat beef very often, but this stir fry is easy and tasty. I steer away from the precut strips in the store. They aren’t as tender, so I just look for a sirloin piece that is the right size. The trick to really tender stir fried meat is to cut the beef into really thin slices, and the trick to that is to use partially frozen beef (either freeze for 20 minutes or so when you get home if you are cooking that night, or time your defrost in the fridge to be a little less time than normal). This recipe was originally from the back of a Campbell’s can from so long ago that it isn’t even on Campbell’s Kitchen website. As long as you are fans of Tomato Soup and don’t mind the extra sweet sauce, this is a great, quick weeknight option for just getting dinner done.

Beef and Broccoli
12 oz Lean Top Sirloin, sliced into very thin strips, fat removed
2 cups broccoli florets, steamed
4 Tbs Soy Sauce
1 Clove Garlic
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 tsp olive oil
1 10.5 oz can Campbell's Tomato Soup
2 cups steamed rice (white or brown)

Marinade beef in soy and garlic for at least 10 minutes. Stir Fry with oil on medium high until cooked, about 5 minutes. Remove. Mix Tomato Soup into the remaining juices in the pan, cook until bubbly. Add beef & lightly steamed broccoli to the pan. Mix well. Serve over hot steamed rice. Makes 3 servings.

Nutrition Info for entire meal: Calories: 503, Fat: 13.1g (4.3 Sat, 1.2 Poly, 6.5 Mono), Carbs: 54.1g, Fiber: 3.1g