Mongolian Beef

As per usual I was perusing Pinterest last night trying to decide what to make for dinner and I saw this copycat PF Chang's Mongolian Beef recipe.  I've only been to PF Chang's once and I have never had Mongolian beef but the picture looked good and we had all but one ingredient so it was decided.  It was really easy to make and we both liked it so I consider that a success and we will definitely make it again.  As a side note, it is also gluten free for anyone who doesn't eat gluten.

 

Ingredients

1 small flank steak (mine was 1.2 lbs)

1/2 C corn starch

1/2 C canola oil

1 C water

3/4 C soy sauce

2 T canola oil

1 C brown sugar

 6 cloves garlic, diced

3 green onions, chopped

Thinly slice the steak against the grain of the meat.

Place in a gallon sized ziploc bag.

Add corn starch and shake until steak is well coated.

Refrigerate until needed.  - I did this about 2 hours in advance.

Add water, soy sauce, 2 T canola oil, brown sugar, and garlic in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer, cooking until slightly thickened.

Put 1/2 C canola oil in a large skillet.  Add corn starch coated flank steak to hot oil.

Cook until slightly browned. (I did this in 2 batches)

Remove flank steak from pan and set aside in dish.

Remove oil from pan.

Place steak back in skillet and pour the sauce over the steak.

Allow to simmer together for a few minutes.

Sprinkle in a little bit of corn starch to thicken.

Serve over brown rice (or white if you prefer).

Top with green onions.

Deconstructed Cabbage Rolls

We had a head of cabbage leftover from our last CSA portion last week and the original plan was to make cabbage rolls.  But when push came to shove, I just didn't feel like taking the time to make the actual rolls so we just mixed it all up and baked it together just the same.  I made my own tomato sauce from diced tomatoes, fresh herbs, garlic, peppers, etc but that isn't necessary.

Ingredients

1/2 head of cabbage

1 1b ground beef or venison

2 C wild rice, cooked

Tomato sauce

Cook rice according to package instructions.

Brown meat.

Chop cabbage.

Mix rice, meat, cabbage and sauce in a dutch oven.

Cook, covered, for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Meaty Chili

My aunt Norah gave me a chili recipe that she said was the best ever and I've been holding onto it ever since our trip to Savannah.  I had planned to make it on Monday but since we had a snow day Friday chili and cornbread seemed like the perfect dinner. Plus I am working all weekend so it's easy to reheat for weekend meals.  I switched up the recipe a bit too.

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef

1 lb hot Italian sausage 

1 onion

1 green pepper 

3 jalapeños 

2 cloves of garlic

28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes

16 oz can pinto beans

Small can tomato sauce

1 can diced tomatoes with green Chilis

1/4 C ketchup 

1/2 C beer

1.5 tsp sugar

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin 

Black pepper

In a large Dutch oven combine all ingredients beef through garlic and cook until meat is browned.  Then add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, reduce hear & simmer for 30 minutes. 

This makes a spicy chili, if you do not like the spice you have several options - leave out or reduce the jalapeños or diced tomatoes with green chilis or use another type of Italian sausage other than hot.  We had this with cheddar cheese on top and Jiffy corn muffins.

Most Popular Recipes of 2013

I thought I would recap some of the most popular recipes on the blog for 2013.   These are the top recipes by page views and pins on pinterest.   Far & away this was the most popular post...   Beef & Broccoli  

  Followed by my Crockpot Buffalo Chicken  

  Pesto  

  Pizza Rolls  

  Pumpkin Dip  

  Baked Ziti  

Pasta Primavera   

      NOW FOR SOME OF OUR FAVORITE DISCOVERIES OF THE YEAR... Strawberry Rhubarb Pie  

   Grilled Pizzas  

Shrimp & Grits

 Oven Roasted Butternut Squash  

It Doesn't Get Much Simpler than Baked Spaghetti

This will be a quick little post because this is a pretty simple dish.  For some reason I thought about how I used to make this all the time when I lived at the 201 and that I haven't had it forever so we had it for dinner Monday & Tuesday. 

Ingredients
Spaghetti Noodles
Sauce - any sauce will do, Eric made homemade tomato meat sauce on Sunday. 
Italian Cheese Blend

Cook spaghetti according to package instructions.  Heat Sauce.  Mix together noodles & sauce.  Spread in a baking dish.  Top with cheese.  Bake at 375 for 20-30 minutes until cheese is melted & dish is warmed through. 

Smart me...I forgot the end picture which is kind of what makes the dish.  This picture is pre-cheese & baking.  We actually made the spaghetti and put it in the dish the night before and then baked it on Monday so ours had to cook for a little longer than if you just bake it right after you make it.
 

Meal Planning Monday!

  This week's meal plan might as well be called the week of soup.  Blame it on 5 straight rainy, dreary days I guess.  Sometimes soup is just so good plus a lot of times when we make soup we will freeze half of it so we have a quick meal at some point down the road.     Monday: Baked Spaghetti Eric made homemade tomato sauce with ground beef yesterday so we will use this to make baked spaghetti.  We have a meeting today at 4:00 and  I have to be at work at 7:00 so it doesn't leave us a whole lot of time to get anything together.     Tuesday: Smoky Corn Chowder with Shrimp     Wednesday: Drunken Noodles We have a frozen drunken noodles meal from Schwans so we will just whip that up for dinner since it's another work night for me.      Thursday: Bowling Alley     Friday:  Charlottesville? I am hoping we can get down to Charlottesville to meet a bunch of my college friends for dinner.     Saturday: Zuppa Toscana I planned to make this a few week's ago and it didn't happen.  Once again we are getting potatoes and kale in our CSA portion so that's already most of the things I need.     Sunday:  Football Party We are having friends over for a football party for the Redskins game.  It's a 1:00 game but we will probably be eating in the afternoon and not eating dinner.  I know chili is on the menu, probably also chips & dip or maybe pumpkin dip.  I'll share the exact menu in my recap next week.
 

   
Last week's recap...  

Monday Plan: BLTs & chips
BLTs & dill pickle chips it was.  We used Schwan's pepper bacon.  It's really good!

 

Tuesday Plan: Chicken & Sweet Potatoes
We marinaded some chicken with a garlic & herb marinade and grilled it.  It was served alongside baked sweet potatoes.  I forgot to take a picture.


Wednesday Plan: Chicken Stir Fry
Eric made this chicken stir fry and I shared the recipe Thursday.

Thursday Plan: Bowling Alley
I ate at the bowling alley but Eric actually ate more of the leftover stir fry.


Friday Plan: Slow Cooker Beef Sliders with Pickled Peppers

Saturday Plan: Leftover Beef Sliders
We had the leftovers for lunch then went out to The Cattle Co., a local BBQ restaurant, with a big group of friends for dinner since we had friends visiting from Richmond.

Sunday Plan:  Taste of Culpeper
It was rainy and gross & we hadn't pre-purchased our tickets so instead we stayed home and did a lot of cooking.  We had hot ham & cheese sandwiches for lunch.  Then, Eric made homemade tomato sauce and  I made Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Then we made breaded & pan fried chicken breasts with potatoes & onions from our CSA portion for dinner.

And just for a bonus, I made these Peanut Butter Double Fudge Brownie Cookies on Sunday.

  

  We did pretty well at sticking to our plan for the week.  As always there were a few change ups for the weekend.  We ate a meal out when we had planned to eat at home but then we ate a meal at home when we had planned to eat out so it all balanced out.      

Beef Sliders with Pickled Peppers

I saw a recipe in Southern Living for Slow Cooker Beef Sliders with Pickled Peppers that looked wonderful so I decided to give it a shot.  I made a few changes to the recipe and we had this for dinner on Friday.  Eric had it again on Saturday for lunch too.  

Ingredients:
1 chuck roast (mine was 2.70 lbs but you could go up to 4 lbs)
2 C beef broth
1/2 C red wine (I used a Cabernet)

2 small onions, chopped
4 pieces of celery, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic
5 sprigs fresh thyme
2 T horseradish
1/4 C parsley, chopped
1/4 C chives, chopped
3 T olive oil
S&P
Buns

    First in large dutch oven or cast iron skillet, heat oil. Salt & pepper roast & then cook on each side until lightly browned.  This doesn't take long, a few minutes on each side. Place roast in crock pot.  Top with onions, celery, carrots, garlic, & thyme. Add in beef broth and red wine.  

  Cook for 6-8 hours in slow cooker until fork tender.  Mine needed about 7 hours. Remove meat and shred.   Discard vegetables & reserve 1 C of cooking liquid.  Strain fat off the top of the liquid. Return shredded meat to crockpot, along with the 1 C reserved cooking liquid. .  Add horseradish, chives & parsley and mix well together.  

  Now the meat is finished but to assemble the sandwich...   Use some type of small buns, slice in half.  Fill with beef.  Top with pickled peppers.  We used banana peppers, candied jalapenos, and some sweet/hot pickles that Eric made recently.  Then we topped it with a slice of pepperjack cheese & placed it under the broiler for a few minutes to melt the cheese & crisp up the bread.  

   

Meal Planning Monday!

  We are in the OBX so there is no meal plan for this week (hopefully we will be eating a bunch of steamed shrimp & maybe some crab legs).  This is just a recap of last week's meals with recipes, etc.  Hopefully we can jump right back on board with our meal planning next week when we return!  

Monday: Grilled Buffalo Chicken Pizza

We made this Monday night and it was great.  We just can't get enough of these grilled pizzas.

Tuesday: Crockpot Orange Chicken, White Rice
This was a quick & easy crockpot recipe.  Only 4 ingredients!

Wednesday: Hamburgers, Potatoes & Onions
I picked up potatoes and onions along with several other things from our CSA portion this week.  Eric whipped them up with some burgers while I got ready for work on Wednesday night.

Thursday: Dinner at the bowling alley
BLTs for both of us!

Friday: Grilled Flank Steak Salad
We grilled flank steak rubbed with Shenandoah Spice Company's Spicy Adobo spice mix and ate it over a salad with the lettuce, tomatoes & onions from our CSA.  This steak turned out perfect.

Saturday: Pizza Rolls

We were invited to a cookout Saturday night for our friend Terra's birthday.  So we made the pizza rolls at lunch time.

pizza rolls on the left

We managed to follow our meal plan exactly last week! It may seem like sometimes we have way too much food for one meal as we don't typically eat the same thing multiple nights in a row.  I hate to eat the same thing over and over so Eric usually takes our leftovers to work for lunch.  Sometimes I will also take leftovers for "lunch" which usually falls around 3:00-4:00 AM for me.  If we do eat leftovers for dinner we try to eat it a different way instead of eating the exact same meal again.     

Beef & Broccoli

This morning I was searching Pinterest for a new recipe for dinner and I found this recipe for beef & broccoli.  It looked easy enough so I headed to the grocery store and picked up a flank steak and some ginger.  On nights when I have to work it is easiest for me to do the prep work in the afternoon and then take a nap and cook just in time for Eric to get home from work.  So I went ahead and sliced and seasoned the steak, as well as cut up the broccoli, onion, ginger, and garlic in advance which really cut down on the time to make this meal tonight.  This recipe is actually a clean eating recipe for anyone that does clean eating and is a healthy meal in general.  As always, I made a few small changes from the original recipe and here is my version.

Ingredients

1 T olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp ginger, grated

1 small yellow onion, sliced thinly

2 small heads of broccoli, cut into florets

1 1b flank or skirt steak

Juice of one lime

1/2 tsp sesame oil

2 tsp low sodium soy sauce

2 tsp cornstarch

3/4 C water, divided

S&P

First prepare the steak by slicing it thinly.  Season with salt & pepper.

Heat wok to medium heat and add olive oil and steak. Cook for 6-8 minutes, stirring as needed.  Remove meat from pan and keep warm

Add garlic and ginger to the pan.  Cook for a minute or so until garlic is golden.

Add onion, broccoli, 1/4 C water, sesame oil, and soy sauce and cook 6-8 minutes until broccoli is bright green in color.

Add beef back into pan and season with additional soy sauce if desired.  

Mix 1/2 C water and corn starch then add to the pan.  Bring to a boil.

Add lime juice.

Serve over brown rice (with hot sauce if desired).

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