A couple of nights ago I had not really planned dinner so out comes the 'burger' and a meatloaf is whipped up. I sort of remembered a recipe my son had done in 4H boys cooking several years ago. It had cream of chicken soup in the recipe and that is all I could recall.
So I set out to try this recipe I thought I remembered! So my usual ingredients, ground beed, eggs, bread crumbs, onion, catsup, seasonings, garlic and this time the soup.
I think my oven messed up because this was a SOGGY meatloaf! LOL
Maybe I should have increased my breadcrumbs, I'm not really sure but I like thinking it was my oven and not me.
One night of this soggy meatloaf is all we could handle so I took my bungled meatloaf and turned it into a buritto.
I threw the burger back in the skillet; thinking that I could cook out some of the SOGGY. I chopped two potatoes and added because as soggy as this meatloaf was I was sure there was enough liquid to cook my potatoes. I then added 2 stalks of celery chopped fine, salt, pepper, cummin, red pepper flakes, 1 sm can tomato sauce, and a little jalapeno juice from the jar.
30 minutes later I put in on a tortilla and woo hoo, not bad at all. In fact much better than the soggy meatloaf!
Have you ever bungled something but was able to save it?
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Soup Weather
Oh yes....it's still been cold enough to induce cravings of home made soup. I got out the old trusty Six Ingredients or Less Slow Cooker cook book by Carlean Johnson and turned to page 35 for a GREAT recipe for onion soup.
10 cups of yellow onion sliced thin
1/2 cup butter
2 cans condensed beef broth
1 1/3 cups dry white wine
french bread slices
shredded mozzarella cheese
Cook on low 3-4 hours
I know...I know..you're asking ok Tina what did you change this time....hehehe....NOTHING!!!!!!
This soup was ssssooooooo easy. Not only was it easy but it had a great flavor.
Now that I think about it I did put garlic butter on the bread. LOL
While we were eating we were thinking of many different things you could do with this onion soup. You could brown hamburger and saute some veggies and throw in this great onion soup. Or how about thickening the soup and making a gravy and top hamburger patties with it.
Well that would take us to our next recipe we tried which was on page 39.
1lb stew meat, bite-size
10 small red potatoes, slice in halves or quarters
5 medium carrots
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 can condensed french onion soup - or your home made soup you made above :-)
1/3 cup red wine
I chopped the potatoes and carrots and just dumped everything in the slow cooker along with some very finely chopped stalk of celery, mixed it up and added salt and pepper. This cooked on high about 5 hours; the recipe says 8 - 10 hours.
Again, this was a great quick and simple 'stew'. The stew meat was tender and the veggies done just right.
So both of these recipes get a thumbs up!
Stay tuned.............
10 cups of yellow onion sliced thin
1/2 cup butter
2 cans condensed beef broth
1 1/3 cups dry white wine
french bread slices
shredded mozzarella cheese
Cook on low 3-4 hours
I know...I know..you're asking ok Tina what did you change this time....hehehe....NOTHING!!!!!!
This soup was ssssooooooo easy. Not only was it easy but it had a great flavor.
Now that I think about it I did put garlic butter on the bread. LOL
While we were eating we were thinking of many different things you could do with this onion soup. You could brown hamburger and saute some veggies and throw in this great onion soup. Or how about thickening the soup and making a gravy and top hamburger patties with it.
Well that would take us to our next recipe we tried which was on page 39.
1lb stew meat, bite-size
10 small red potatoes, slice in halves or quarters
5 medium carrots
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 can condensed french onion soup - or your home made soup you made above :-)
1/3 cup red wine
I chopped the potatoes and carrots and just dumped everything in the slow cooker along with some very finely chopped stalk of celery, mixed it up and added salt and pepper. This cooked on high about 5 hours; the recipe says 8 - 10 hours.
Again, this was a great quick and simple 'stew'. The stew meat was tender and the veggies done just right.
So both of these recipes get a thumbs up!
Stay tuned.............
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Ah Potato Chowder
Today's trial recipe was pretty darn good!
Ok so just a recap I am trying recipes from Six Ingredients or Less, Slow Cooker cookbook. Today's recipe is on page 34.
16 ozs frozen obrien hash browns, thawed
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 can whole corn undrained
1 can creamed corn
1 can evaporated milk
salt/pepper to taste
Yes still having difficulty actually following a recipe. I used a whole bag of obrien hashbrowns and I have NO idea how much that is. :-) And I used a whole chopped onion about medium in size. But those were the only changes I made.
This chowder is GREAT! Pretty thick, not soup consistency and a definite corn flavor. I'm thinking if I would have drained the whole corn it would have less corn flavor, but I give this recipe a GREAT big woo hoo!!
Well we have some left overs so it will be a couple of days before we try a new recipe but...stay tuned!
Ok so just a recap I am trying recipes from Six Ingredients or Less, Slow Cooker cookbook. Today's recipe is on page 34.
16 ozs frozen obrien hash browns, thawed
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 can whole corn undrained
1 can creamed corn
1 can evaporated milk
salt/pepper to taste
Yes still having difficulty actually following a recipe. I used a whole bag of obrien hashbrowns and I have NO idea how much that is. :-) And I used a whole chopped onion about medium in size. But those were the only changes I made.
This chowder is GREAT! Pretty thick, not soup consistency and a definite corn flavor. I'm thinking if I would have drained the whole corn it would have less corn flavor, but I give this recipe a GREAT big woo hoo!!
Well we have some left overs so it will be a couple of days before we try a new recipe but...stay tuned!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Isn't Chowder Soup?
I tried a new recipe from my slow cooker book; Six Ingredients or Less Slow Cooker. This recipe is Potato Chowder on page 32. The recipes calls for:
6 cups potatoes peeled and cubed (small)
1 cup chopped onion
2 cans Italian style diced tomatoes
2 cups frozen corn, thawed
salt and pepper to taste
Again I have a hard time following the recipe. I just don't measure things! But I stayed very close:
6 potatoes cubed; I never peel my potatoes
1 onion chopped
2 cans diced tomotoes with chilis; only because I could not find the italian on this particular day
2 cans corn; I never use frozen vegetables because they squeak when I eat them
salt and pepper
I poured in the tomatoes, onion and corn, salt and peppered. I then started cutting my potatoes. When I had a layer across the top of the other ingredients in my slow cooker I salt and peppered again because my family likes a lot of seasoning. I finished cutting the potatoes and again salt and peppered. I then took a wooden spoon and mixed it all up getting the seasoning throughout all my ingredients.
So I really did not deviate from the recipe that much. However, I did have some finely chopped carrots that I threw in just because they needed to be used. :-)
The recipe calls for cooking on lovw 10 -12 hours. I cooked on high for 5 hours. It smelled wonderful!
Yet again disappointment set in as we started to 'dive' into lunch. First it didn't look like chowder. I always thought of chowder as soup so I was expecting a soup like consistency. Second no flavor. Even with all the salt and pepper I used...NO flavor. You could taste the chilis but that was it.
So what did I do....turned the slow cooker back on low. I added 2 cups of beef broth, a small can of tomato sauce and 2 tablespoons of itailan seasoning. Well....I added these ingredients over the next couple of hours trying to find the flavor that made my tastebuds tingle and in the end I was quite please with my potato chowder. The only ingredient I am really not sure of the exact amount used is the italian seasoning so go slow and taste along the way.
Because this chowder had a tomato base (kind of) I'm thinking that it was supposed to be similar to a manhatten style chowder. The book also has another potato chowder recipe that is cream based so guess what dinner is tomorrow? Yep yep yep! We are going to compare the two chowders.
Eat up and stay tuned!
6 cups potatoes peeled and cubed (small)
1 cup chopped onion
2 cans Italian style diced tomatoes
2 cups frozen corn, thawed
salt and pepper to taste
Again I have a hard time following the recipe. I just don't measure things! But I stayed very close:
6 potatoes cubed; I never peel my potatoes
1 onion chopped
2 cans diced tomotoes with chilis; only because I could not find the italian on this particular day
2 cans corn; I never use frozen vegetables because they squeak when I eat them
salt and pepper
I poured in the tomatoes, onion and corn, salt and peppered. I then started cutting my potatoes. When I had a layer across the top of the other ingredients in my slow cooker I salt and peppered again because my family likes a lot of seasoning. I finished cutting the potatoes and again salt and peppered. I then took a wooden spoon and mixed it all up getting the seasoning throughout all my ingredients.
So I really did not deviate from the recipe that much. However, I did have some finely chopped carrots that I threw in just because they needed to be used. :-)
The recipe calls for cooking on lovw 10 -12 hours. I cooked on high for 5 hours. It smelled wonderful!
Yet again disappointment set in as we started to 'dive' into lunch. First it didn't look like chowder. I always thought of chowder as soup so I was expecting a soup like consistency. Second no flavor. Even with all the salt and pepper I used...NO flavor. You could taste the chilis but that was it.
So what did I do....turned the slow cooker back on low. I added 2 cups of beef broth, a small can of tomato sauce and 2 tablespoons of itailan seasoning. Well....I added these ingredients over the next couple of hours trying to find the flavor that made my tastebuds tingle and in the end I was quite please with my potato chowder. The only ingredient I am really not sure of the exact amount used is the italian seasoning so go slow and taste along the way.
Because this chowder had a tomato base (kind of) I'm thinking that it was supposed to be similar to a manhatten style chowder. The book also has another potato chowder recipe that is cream based so guess what dinner is tomorrow? Yep yep yep! We are going to compare the two chowders.
Eat up and stay tuned!
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Back to Slow cooking
Well the holidays are over and the left overs have been consumed so now what? Yes! Back to using my slow cooker.
I've been back to reading my slow cooker cook book and I started to wonder how much less electricy does a slow cooker use? I know my house seems a lot colder on those days when I don't use the stove or oven does this mean my heater works more and which is more effecient heating the house with my heater or heating it by using the stove and oven? Hmmm things that make you wonder.
Yesterday was a good day for a BBQ beef sandwich with steak fries so we 'fired' up the slow cooker with a chuck roast for about 6 hours. Then I remove the roast and take out any fat - fat makes my tummy hurt and there is nothing worse than taking a great big bite of a saucy bbq beef sandwich to have it be a mouthful of fat. I put the beef in bbq sauce in a skillet and heat until the bbq sauce is hot.
We buy different types of rolls depending on what sounds good at the time but this is always a yummy quick no mess meal.
For the fries I sliced several potatoes long ways through them in a bowl with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and and about 5 cloves of minced garlic. I laid them flat on a cookie sheet and baked them for about 30 minutes and then turned the broiler on high and cooked another 3-5 minutes for some crispiness.
Needless to say there was not much left overs!
Another quick no mess recipe - NOT a slow cooker recipe is home made sloppy joes. Just brown your ground beef with onion, salt and pepper. Remove as much fat from the meat as possible by putting in a colander and letting very hot water run over it (no you do not have to pay high prices for lean ground beef), this process does NOT remove the seasonings. Put the ground beef back in the skillet add your favorite BBQ sauce and heat until hot. Serve on your favorite hamburger buns. Change it up and add a slice of cheddar cheese.
Todays slow cooker experiement is Potato Chowder...........stay tuned!
I've been back to reading my slow cooker cook book and I started to wonder how much less electricy does a slow cooker use? I know my house seems a lot colder on those days when I don't use the stove or oven does this mean my heater works more and which is more effecient heating the house with my heater or heating it by using the stove and oven? Hmmm things that make you wonder.
Yesterday was a good day for a BBQ beef sandwich with steak fries so we 'fired' up the slow cooker with a chuck roast for about 6 hours. Then I remove the roast and take out any fat - fat makes my tummy hurt and there is nothing worse than taking a great big bite of a saucy bbq beef sandwich to have it be a mouthful of fat. I put the beef in bbq sauce in a skillet and heat until the bbq sauce is hot.
We buy different types of rolls depending on what sounds good at the time but this is always a yummy quick no mess meal.
For the fries I sliced several potatoes long ways through them in a bowl with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and and about 5 cloves of minced garlic. I laid them flat on a cookie sheet and baked them for about 30 minutes and then turned the broiler on high and cooked another 3-5 minutes for some crispiness.
Needless to say there was not much left overs!
Another quick no mess recipe - NOT a slow cooker recipe is home made sloppy joes. Just brown your ground beef with onion, salt and pepper. Remove as much fat from the meat as possible by putting in a colander and letting very hot water run over it (no you do not have to pay high prices for lean ground beef), this process does NOT remove the seasonings. Put the ground beef back in the skillet add your favorite BBQ sauce and heat until hot. Serve on your favorite hamburger buns. Change it up and add a slice of cheddar cheese.
Todays slow cooker experiement is Potato Chowder...........stay tuned!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)