Corned Beef and Cabbage

3-4 lb corned beef brisket

2 tbl butter

1 head cabbage cut into wedges

Beef broth

Fresh parsley

Fresh ground pepper

½ onion very coarsely chopped

Melt butter in large skillet.  Brown sides off beef.  Place beef in pan, surrounded by cabbage, onion, and parsley.  Top with parsley and pour beef broth to halfway cover meat.  Cover and cook at 300 for 3-4 hours.  Let meat rest 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

Crockpot Beef Stew

2 lb beef stew meat

¼ c flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1 ½ cup beef broth

1 tbl Worcestershire sauce

1 clove garlic minced

1 bay leaf

1 tsp paprika

4 carrots sliced

3 potatoes diced

1 onion chopped

4 stalk celery chopped

Put meat in crock pot.  Mix flour, salt and pepper, then pour over meat and stir to coat.  Add remaining ingredients and stir to mix well.  Cover and cook on low 10 hours (high 6).  Stir thoroughly before serving.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

1 lb round beef

1 diced onion

1 can Italian seasoned diced tomatoes

1 ½ -2 cups cooked rice

Garlic salt

Pepper

1 tbl Worcestershire sauce

4 bell peppers cored and seeded

Shredded cheese

Boil bell peppers in cough water to cover for 5 minutes.  Remove from water and invert on paper towels.  Brown hamburger and onion.  Add tomatoes and juices, rice, garlic salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce.  Grease a casserole dish to fit peppers.  Place peppers in dish and fill to top with ground beef mixture.  Cover and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  Remove cover and top with shredded cheese.  Return to oven for additional 10 minutes.  (I usually layer more shredded cheese in with the filling in the bell peppers, but I like lots of cheese.)

Marinara Sauce

My mother almost always made marinara sauce from scratch when I was little, so it's pretty much the only way I will eat it.  Here's my best approximation of her recipe.

Marinara Sauce

1 pound ground beef
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 medium onion minced
2-4 cloves minced garlic
8 ounces mushrooms
2 (15 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 1/2 - 3 teaspoons oregano
2 1/2 - 3 teaspoons basil
2 teaspoon parsley
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/8 teaspoon ground pepper

Brown ground beef, drain.  Put olive oil in pan, saute onions until translucent, add garlic and mushrooms and saute a few more minutes, being careful not to burn garlic.  Add tomato sauce, tomatoes, spices and ground beef.  Simmer for at least ten minutes for flavors to mingle.

I use about half of this and freeze the rest, but my little penguins still don't eat a whole lot.  I think this covers about 2 one pound boxes of pasta, but depending on how saucy you like your pasta, it could be less or more.

Meatloaf

I always loved when my mother made meatloaf when I was growing up, mostly likely because she covered the top in cheese. And I have always loved baked cheese. I think my mother wasn't a fan of traditional meatloaf, so she added several things to lighten it up. She would also sometimes hard boil eggs and place them in the middle of it. I, of course, am never this on top of things and always forget to boil the eggs. However, this week I had some extra turkey lying around (or taking up space in my freezer) and I thought it would be an easy meal to make. I haven't been cooking much lately. The baby penguin doesn't nap much during the day and by the end of a day of refereeing the two older ones and walking while patting the baby, I just don't have much energy or enough hands to cook. So meatloaf it was.



1 1/2 lb ground beef or ground turkey
1 egg
1 scant cup oatmeal
1 small can tomato sauce
1 tbl Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 c grated cheese

Beat egg in medium bowl. Add ground meat, oatmeal, Worcestershire sauce, spices, 1/2 c grated cheese and tomato sauce minus 2 tbl and combine. Place in loaf pan and top with reserved tomato sauce and cheese. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.


I loved it. My husband loved it. The older penguin took one look at it and said, "Nasty!" But don't take that opinion for too much; every thing I've made in the last three weeks has elicited that comment or "gross-y." It's amazing he's still alive with how little he eats at dinner.

Cottage Pie

Last night we had cottage pie. Cottage pie is from England and uses ground beef filling with a mashed potato topping. It is also often called shepherd's pie. But I've always heard that it's cottage with beef and shepherds with lamb, and since I strongly dislike lamb, cottage pie it is!

Filling

1 tbl oil
1 onion minced
2 carrots diced
1 celery stick diced
1 1/2 lb ground beef
2 tbl flour
1 1/1 c beef broth
1 tbl soy sauce
1 tbl Worcestershire sauce
2 tbl tomato sauce
1 tbl tomato paste
2 bay leaves
2 tsp chopped fresh parsley

Topping

1 1/2 lb potatoes
1 oz butter
1/2 c milk

Cook onion, carrot and celery in oil over medium heat until softened about five minutes. Add ground beef and cook through. Drain fat. Add flour and cook for another two minutes. Add beef broth, tomato sauce and paste, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and bay leaves. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove leaves and stir in parsley.
For the topping, peel and thinly slice potatoes then boil until cooked through. Drain and mash with butter and milk.
Heat oven to 350 and lightly grease a two quart casserole dish. Put the filling in and top with potatoes. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.


I think this is a nice warm comfort food and I love it, as does my husband. My children both turned their noses up at it, but then, when they hate potatoes, what should I really have expected! I served it with salad, that being all I had energy to do after making it and cleaning the mud off my children before dinner!

Highly modified ground beef stroganoff

This started as an, "I don't want to cook dinner tonight" recipe I found. Meaning it was supposed to be a very simple and fast dinner. I couldn't do that though. It's not as complicated as the dinner I had planned to make, but more so than the original!

1/2 lb ground beef
1 cup very mashed beans
2 tsp minced garlic
1 cup sour cream
salt
pepper
1 recipe mushroom sauce (or one can cream of mushroom soup)

Brown beef over medium heat. Drain, rinse and return to pan. Add garlic and cook for a couple minutes. Add mashed beans and cook a few more minutes. Add mushroom sauce, sour cream and salt and pepper to taste. Heat through and serve over egg noodles or rice.



Mushroom sauce (credit: Beatrice Ojakangas) better known as a cream of mushroom soup substitute (use in place of one can)

4 tbl butter
1/2 lb mushrooms (you can use less, I only had about 1/4 lb)
1 small onion diced
1/4 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 c beef broth

Melt butter in medium sauce pan. Add mushrooms and onion and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add flour, salt, and pepper, stirring until mushrooms are coated. As beef broth slowly, stirring constantly to thicken sauce. Cook until desired thickness is achieved.



As this was supposed to be an easy dinner I served it with frozen green beans and corn. In different bowls because each child wanted a different vegetable. Go figure.