Monday, October 28, 2013

All about BEEF!

So the husband has been complaining that we eat too much chicken.  Who doesn't love chicken?  It's pretty much my favourite meat, but he's more of a red meat fan.  This week I decided to be a kind wife and do ALL red meat.  Good thing ground beef was on sale last week when I went grocery shopping!

Last week I spent some time going through my cookbooks (yep, I took out the good OLD cookbooks!) and Pinterest, and looking through some pics that friends had recently posted on Facebook and Instagram.

With all of my research in my backpocket I decided on the meals I was going to make:

Ground Beef Wellington
Slow Cooker Beef Stew
Beef Enchiladas

I only made three meals this weekend as I still had some yummy goodness in my chest freezer.  So I went ahead and pulled out a dish my mother-in-law made me a few weeks back - chicken thighs and drumsticks with a grape tomato coulis served over brown rice.  I absolutely LOVE pulling ready made meals out of the freezer.  But, even though they're already made they always require some sort of warming in the oven, or on the stove-top, so after a long day of work it still takes some time to get it on the table before the children are freaking out :)

As soon as I rose out of my slumber on Sunday morning I started prepping the ingredients for the slow cooker beef stew.  I've made this recipe over a dozen times and it always tastes amazing.  I used to own a Crock Pot brand slow cooker and this was a recipe from Crock Pot themselves.  I currently own a Hamilton Beach slow cooker which is just as good :)

Here is the recipe:

http://www.crock-pot.com/stories?cgid=recipes&storyId=160992

I usually modify this and add maybe two more potatoes, a total of three celery stalks, and two carrots.  In the past I have also thrown some mushrooms in the mix as well.  Cook it on low for 10 hours and it's perfect!  I did once follow the directions to cook it on high, and it definitely overcooked the meat a little too crisp for my liking.


After I had the crock pot up and running, I started out on the next recipe that called for ground beef!

This recipe I haven't made since I was on maternity leave with my son.  That year I made it more than a few times and it turns out great each time, and is really simple to make.  It's from one of my Jamie Oliver cookbooks.  Jamie Oliver has some great recipes if you haven't checked him out before.  They're all relatively easy, and always turn out tasting great.

Here's the recipe from another food bloggers' web site:

http://www.chroniclesofacuriouscook.com/2010/04/ground-beef-wellington-from-jamie-oliver/

The only modification I make to this recipe is that I do not put the frozen peas in.  I just really dislike peas.  They're mushy, and don't have a great taste (in my honest opinion) so I leave them out.  The recipe calls for fresh rosemary but I have always used the dried version just because I always forget to buy the fresh sprigs when I'm at the store.

Because I had only ever made this while on maternity leave I was always baking the recipe and serving it that same night.  When I realized that it takes an hour to bake I went ahead and baked it on Sunday, and let it cool completely and wrapped it in tin foil.  This dish we will have on Tuesday.  What I plan on doing is keeping it wrapped in the tin foil and placing it back in the oven to warm (probably at 350 for about 25 minutes).  I will then remove the foil and let it continue to bake for another few minutes before taking it out.


The last ground beef recipe I tackled has been an ongoing request from the husband over the last few months - beef enchiladas!  When I saw a friend of mine making them on Facebook a few weeks back I immediately contacted her for the goods!

She provided me with the following recipe:

http://www.recipegirl.com/2011/05/02/easy-beef-enchiladas/

I made a slight modification based on a tip from my friend...as well as the zucchini and onion that is in the ground beef mixture, I added some mushrooms too.  About 1/4 cup of sliced mushrooms.  I chopped up all of the vegetables extra small so that they would remain hidden from the kids.  My kiddies do not like zucchini or mushrooms so whenever I cook with those veggies I make them very well hidden :)  And NEITHER of them even knew they were in there tonight when we ate them! HA!

And as I set out making this recipe I realized I forgot to buy enchilada sauce!  Since I was already deep into Sunday Soup Kitchen at that point I decided to search my Pinterest board as I remembered pinning an enchilada sauce recipe a few weeks back.  Good thing it was there and pretty easy to make!

Here is the recipe for homemade red enchilada sauce:

http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/red-enchilada-sauce/


Since it was pretty simple to make, I don't think I will ever buy pre-made enchilada sauce now!

For this recipe I cooked the ground beef/veggie mixture, made the enchilada sauce, assembled all of the enchiladas and then placed them in a dish and wrapped them in tin foil.  In the fridge they went as we were having them tonight (Monday).

So tonight I placed them in the oven covered in tin foil for 30 minutes at 350...then took them out and sprinkled cheese on them...then back in until the cheese melted.  They were delicious and everyone chowed down!

I ended up with a total of 15 enchiladas.  Enough for dinner for the four of us, and lunches for me and the husband!


And if you've been reading my blog, you should know by now that on Sunday I also made (of course!) banana chocolate chip muffins and pizza pinwheels.

And before I sign off, in other good news I am now a member of the Food Bloggers of Canada!  They have a great website that provides links to a bunch of amazing food bloggers across Canada so if you're looking for inspiration and ideas check them out!

www.foodbloggersofcanada.com

Nitey nite!

2 comments:

  1. Hi Miriam,
    Thanks for following me on Pintrest, I followed back and I love your blog! It's a great concept and I wish I were more organized to do what you are doing! I will definately keep checking back. Also it's awesome to find another great Canadian food blogger!

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  2. Thank you very much! Let me know if you try out any of the recipes here. I'll be checking your board on Pinterest for some inspiration too :)

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