Vegetable Beef

Well I have been quite the negligent blogger - long nights at work, tons of good TV, time well spent with the boyfriend...all great excuses, trust me.  But now it is time to get down to business and I declare the first week of November, Soup Week.

Start with this one.  It's easy - so easy, I am not even going to include pictures.  Tomorrow, we can tackle a soup a teeny bit harder but only harder because it involves more than one step (Pea Soup).

Tonight, just throw this stuff in the crockpot and get excited you can eat delicious vegetable beef soup while cuddling up at watching Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice tomorrow.  Or your show of choice.

Vegetable Beef Soup
In a crockpot, combine the following:

28oz can crushed tomatoes
Beef stew meat (I got the prepackaged kind, not even sure how much it weighed)
1 or 2 potatoes, cut up into chunks
16oz frozen mixed vegetables
5 or 6 beef boullion cubes
pepper
dried basil - approximately 1 tablespoon, but can adjust to your liking
2 cups water - more or less depending on how thick you like it.  This is a good medium amount

If you are feeling extra crazy, this is delicious with a few carrots chopped up, the addition of a chopped onion, and a big juicy roll on the side.

Let your soup cook in the crockpot on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4 hours.

ENJOY and be thankful for the delicious foods of Fall.

MOPS Chili

Even though I am leaving town tomorrow, for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to make a huge pot of chili this morning.  Even though it may not have been the most practical thing, it was delicious and soooo easy.  I got the recipe from an old church cookbook, and it was submitted by Rochelle Cooper.  The book is full of really simple recipes and is one of those cookbooks where you just interpret things as you see fit.  I have listed the original recipe, and the changes I used (based on what I had on hand)

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
1 can diced tomatoes - I prefer no salt added
1 can tomato sauce - again, I prefer no salt added
3.5 lbs beef chunk tender or beef tri-tip, sliced and cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch cubes - I used some beef I had left in the fridge (and only used about 1 lb)
1 Tbsp vegetable oil - I used sunflower oil
2 cans beef broth - I only used one
2 cans chicken broth - I used chicken stock.
1/2 cup dried minced or finely minced fresh onion - I chose dried (too lazy to chop)
3 tsp. granualated garlic (I assumed this meant garlic powder?)
3 to 9 Tbsp. chili powder - I used 3
2.25 Tbsp paprika
1 can green chilies, chopped
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. red pepper (I used cayenne and only 1/4 tsp)
Juice of a half fresh lime
1 lb bag dried kidney beans. 

1) You need to commit to making chili a day early, so you can soak the kidney beans overnight.  I soaked mine for only about eight hours (while I slept) and would recommend at least sixteen hours if you want your beans to be soft.  Mine were a bit raw even after being cooked.  Simply pour out the pound of beans, cover it with PLENTY of water, and let sit.  I use a huge bowl and pour in way more than you think necessary.  The beans will soak up an impressive amount of water.

2) When your beans are ready and it is chili-time, start by slicing up your beef.  You might already know this, but my mom taught me to slice it while still slightly frozen -- it slices much better.  

Then put about a tablespoon of the oil of your choice into a pan, and "brown" your meat.  I took this to mean cooking it completely, as I wanted to sample my chili as I went and not have to worry about any raw meat.

3)  Get out your big pot (recipe says 6qts) and toss the cooked meat into it.  Add this:

Aka a can of diced tomatoes, 3 cans of both (2 "cans" are in that chicken stock), your minced onion (1/2 cup equaled that entire container), and a teaspoon of the garlic powder.  Bring your chili to a slow boil and cook for about an hour.  After mine reached a boil, I put it on about a four (a little less than medium). 

4) Add this:

 &

For the spices, I added 1 Tbsp cumin, 2 Tbsp paprika, 3 Tbsp chili powder, and 2 tsp. garlic.
ALSO ADD YOUR KIDNEY BEANS NOW! Drain them before doing so (duh).

Cook all of this for about 45 more minutes (again I set my stove to about a 4).

5) Add:

Any additional chili powder (I didn't add any more), your cayenne pepper, the juice of half a lime (roll it around on the counter first) and 1.25 Tbsp cumin.  Simmer this an additional thirty minutes.

There you have it.  Chili that is actually REALLY healthy (all those spices each have some amazing benefits). 

*If you want to make the chili a little thinner, you can add another can of broth.

I like my chili with extra lime juice and curry powder.  So good!  And don't feel like you don't have enough time to make this...I threw mine together at 6:00 am, and even in the fog of sleep, it is very easy to do.  Most of the time it is just simmering away, and you can pay very little attention.

Stir-fried beef with black bean sauce

Today at work I had a 7:30 am meeting, which of course meant little time to prepare any sort of lunch. However, I have been fortunate lately to have stockpiled lots of proteins (rare for me) including chicken, ground turkey and LOTS OF TUNA FISH.  Currently I have twelve cans...

So in my mad rush to make something decent for lunch this morning, I remember a Cosmo article that mentioned tuna [get your head out of the gutter].  I popped a can open, put it in a tupperware, and added a generous amount of plain Greek yogurt (my breakfast of choice mixed with lots of honey, cinnamon, and flax seed).  I also had dill left in the fridge, so I threw in about five sprigs (and ripped the dill-y part off at lunch to sprinkle in).  I had read that a squirt of lemon is also good, and had just bought a lemon at the store.  I couldn't find it anywhere in the morning, so had to go without (and just found it on the floor tonight).

Anyway, it was a simple recipe with no measuring, and it was totally delicious! I have also read that any place you would use mayo, you can replace with Greek yogurt for a healthier alternative.  Furthermore, when I told my mom about my discovery, she said she has heard of using cottage cheese with tuna.  Have any of you tried these unique combinations?

After a hastily (but delicious) thrown together lunch, I decided I wanted something more substantial for lunch tomorrow, so I went to the grocery store after work.  I don't USUALLY eat meat much, but lately I have been trying to because of my aforementioned stockpile and because it really is a good "bang for your buck," meaning I can eat it at lunch and stay full.  If I had it my way, I would eat a little bit every three hours, but the work zone isn't the most conducive to that.  Even with how I eat now, I find the lunch hour slightly boring because my smaller-but-more-frequent portions disappear in a few minutes, leaving me with tons of time.  I get teased because I usually start to do my chores (pay bills, write thank yous, etc.), but I think it is multitasking at it's finest. Anyway, I am confident I could go vegetarian no problem (vegan would be another story) but there are so many tasty recipes involving meat.

I also wanted another opportunity to use my Chinese black bean sauce.

Therefore, I found myself at the grocery store and in the meat aisle.  Amazingly, a perfect looking piece of beef was on sale for buy one get one half off, so I got too big slabs (~.75 pounds each) for $4.50.  I also picked up a yellow onion.

I then looked in my trusty Forever Young cookbook, and found the recipe for stir-fried beef with black bean sauce, which was perfect because I had a huge bag of spinach in my fridge.

To start, I cut up one of the pieces of beef into slices.  The book says 12 ounces of boneless grass feed beef sirloin.  Then I cut up about half the yellow onion (book says 3 tablespoons but I winged it).

I have sunflower oil I bought forever ago, that says good for high heat cooking, so I used that (and love it).  The book says basically DON'T use extra-virgin olive oil (bad for high heat).  I put in three tablespoons and turned it to high until it was barely smoking.
I think have finally mastered the art of stir-frying.  Last time I made one, the oil was flying up and burning me (I was using a fork).  This time I used a spatula and was MUCH more successful.  Anyway, I added the onions and cooked for 30 seconds (they browned up fast).  I then added a teaspoon of choppd garlic and cooked another thirty seconds.  Then I added all the beef and cooked for three minutes -- this was MORE THAN enough time.  I think you would be fine to cook for two minutes if you genuinely have your stove on high.

A big piece of meat really doesn't go that far, so if you have a big family, I would double the recipe.

Take the beef and onions out of the pan, leaving the oil, and add six cups spinach.  I just dumped a huge bag in.

Cook this for about one minute.  I think this part is important just to decrease the space the spinach is taking up...it basically wilts itself once you add the meat.

Now, add the meat back in.  Here are the sauce ingredients:
2 tablespoons Chinese Black Bean sauce
1/4 cup cooking sherry
2 tablespoons low-sodium beef broth (I used chicken).

Add the sauce and stir to coat, cooking everything for one more minute. As you can see, the spinach shrinks drastically.

To serve, garnish with sesame seeds.

And there you have it! A super easy meal that only involves chopping half an onion and slicing meat, and a total of seven minutes cooking time.  Easy peasy.

*The only sad part is now my black bean sauce is almost gone already!