Beef Stew

One of the first cookbooks I ever received as a gift was Betty Crocker's Cooking Basics.  I must have been around 18 year olds and I was lucky that I was even able to boil water!  I couldn't make anything.

Fast forward 12 or so years and I love cooking and baking just about anything.  This cookbook was collecting dust and I had only made 1 other recipe out of it in the 12 years I owned it.

Josh wanted beef stew so I made the recipe a few times for him.  Since then we've adjusted the recipe and improved it.

Beef Stew


Ingredients:
1 pound of boneless beef tip or round roast cut up into slightly larger than bite sized pieces
1 tablespoon of olive oil
3 cups of water plus an additional 1 1/2 cups of water
salt and pepper to taste
3 medium carrots cut into 1 inch pieces
4 medium red potatoes cut into large bite sized pieces
1 green pepper cut in strips with seeds and membrane removed
3 stalks of celery cut into 1 inch pieces
1 small white onion cut into strips
1 dried bay leaf
1/2 cup of cold water
2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour

1. In a large pot heat the olive oil over medium heat 1 minute, add the beef and cook about 10 minutes.  Stir a few times during cooking make sure that beef is evenly browned on all sides.

2. Add 3 cups of water to pot and salt and pepper to taste.  Heat until boiling and then reduce heat so that mixture is boiling gently.  Cover with lid and cook for 1 1/2 hours.  Beef will be tender.

3. Add carrots, potatoes, green pepper, celery, onion and bay leaf to beef mixture.  Stir well and add the additional 1 1/2 cups of water.  Cover and cook an additional 45 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

4. Make sure to remove the bay leaf.

5. In a small mason jar shake the cold water and flour until combined.  Stir into stew and heat over high heat.  Continue stirring and boiling until the stew is thick.

Ginger-Tomato Salmon with Coconut Rice

We sometimes grocery shop at Publix. It's actually the only grocery store in our area.

They always have really good samples and recipes and this was one that Josh got to try that he loved. It's ginger-tomato salmon with coconut jasmine rice and if you want to see the original recipe click the link.

 I made a change and didn't buy the ginger spice paste. We are not at all a fan of ginger and I was afraid the taste would be overwhelming. I only added some ground ginger instead. I also just used normal white rice since we didn't have any jasmine rice. We were surprised that the girls actually really enjoyed this dish too! They both love salmon but I was afraid the coconut rice would be a little "weird" for them but they both ate it!

 Ginger-Tomato Salmon with Coconut Rice


 Ingredients for fish: 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
1 cup of chicken stock 1 cup of coconut milk
4 medium sized fillets of salmon (our salmon had the skin still on one side)
salt and pepper to taste
1 (14.5 ounce) can of petite diced tomatoes (we didn't drain our can)

 For rice: 1 cup of white rice
1 1/4 cups of chicken stock
3/4 cup of coconut milk
1 teaspoon of olive oil
1/4 cup of diced green onion
salt to taste

 1. Start cooking rice first since it takes longer than the fish to cook. Add chicken stock, coconut milk, and olive oil to a medium saucepan.
 2. Bring to boil and add rice, stir, reduce heat to low and cover pot. Let simmer for 18-20 minutes until liquid is absorbed.
3. Once rice is simmering add the garlic, ground ginger, chicken stock, and coconut milk to a large saute pan and heat over medium-high heat for 3 minutes.
4. Sprinkle salt and pepper over salmon and then add fish to saute pan along with the can of diced tomatoes. 5. Cook fish 8-10 minutes, during this time we decided to turn our fish over in the pan once to make sure it was cooking evenly. Keep checking the salmon to be sure you are not overcooking it.
6. Once rice is done fluff with fork and add 1/4 cup of green onions and stir.
7. Serve rice on a plate with salmon on top, use some of the sauce from the salmon to cover the rice too.

After I took a picture of my plate the girls told me to take pictures of their plates too.  They ate their meal with a side of watermelon.

For both of them I chopped up their salmon and served it over their rice.

Fire Roasted Black Bean Chili

I like to prepare easy things for my husband to take to lunch for work.  We put together this chili on a Sunday morning, let it cook during the day and then divided it into containers for him to take for lunch.  Easy and simple!

Fire Roasted Black Bean Chili



Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef
1 15 ounce can of black beans
1 15 ounce can of tomato sauce
1 15 ounce can of dark red kidney beans
1 15 ounce can of diced tomatoes fire roasted
1 can of corn 2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
salt and pepper to taste

1. Brown ground beef over medium heat in frying pan over medium heat.  Drain off any excess oil

2. Add ground beef, black beans, corn, tomato sauce, kidney beans and fire roasted diced tomatoes to crock pot and stir well.

3. Set crock pot to low heat for 4 hours.

4. Add seasonings and stir well.

Question, do you prefer seeing step by step pictures and a picture of all ingredients or is a picture of just the "end product" better?

Lemon Pepper Fish Nuggets

I got really tired a while ago of feeding the girls chicken nuggets.  We pre-make chicken nuggets and always keep some in the freezer but I could tell that they were getting bored with them.

Both of the girls LOVE fish.  I'm so glad that they do.  I decided to combine two of their favorite foods, fish and nuggets, into one!

First I gathered up what we would need to even attempt my idea!

I love olive oil spray and foil!  I hate cleaning pans.

My set up, from right to left; fish cut into nuggets, flour, egg and panko bread crumbs seasoned with lemon pepper, yum!

First dip the nuggets into the flour and coat evenly.

Next dunk into the egg.

After coating in bread crumbs place on the foil lined pan.

All done!

What you need:

2 fillets of cod, cut into nugget size pieces
2 teaspoons of lemon pepper seasoning
2/3 cup of panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup of white whole wheat flour
2 eggs
non-stick cooking spray

Directions:

Heat oven to 400 degrees.
Spray pan lined with foil (optional, it just makes for an easier clean up) with non-stick cooking spray.
Line 3 bowls on counter, one with flour, one with eggs (beaten) and one with bread crumbs mixed together with lemon pepper seasoning.
Start by putting each nugget piece in flour lightly coating.
Next dip fish into egg.
Then put fish into bread crumb mixture.
Put nuggets on baking sheet.

Once all the nuggets are coated in bread crumbs bake in the oven for 13 minutes.


This was the girls' dinner that night.  Fish nuggets with a side of leftover spaghetti along with some watermelon (Annabel's favorite) and a Cutie (little orange).  They both ended up requesting a side of ketchup for their fish nuggets.