Recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon-Daring Cooks

I'll admit it.  When I first read through this month's Daring Cooks challenge, I thought "is all that really necessary for a beef stew?"  Well, maybe not necessary but definitely worth it-I'd say this is the best beef stew I've ever made!  Our May 2012 Daring Cooks' hostess was Fabi of fabsfood.  Fabi challenged us to make Boeuf Bourguignon, a classic French stew originating from the Burgundy region of France.


Oh, and did I mention it is a Julia Child's recipe, from Mastering the Art of French Cooking?

Recipe for Red Wine Braised Short Ribs

This was my first time, but not my last, cooking short ribs.  I don't know why I've stayed away.  Mr. ELEB loves them and I have enjoyed them at restaurants from time to time.  He has dropped subtle (actually, not so subtle) hints about having them at home. When I saw a recipe in October's Bon Appetit I decided to bite the bullet.  I found some nice looking short ribs at Whole Foods and served this at our Boxing Day get together along with olive oil mashed potatoes and roasted squash.  It was a lovely rustic meal and the ribs were so tender and flavorful.  You really can't mess this recipe up!

Recipe for Simply Baked Pasta-Secret Recipe Club

Mmmm.  Little pillows of ricotta cheese (no not mashed potatoes!) on top of whole grain pasta, sauce, pepper jack cheese, beef - what's not to like?  That's what I thought when I was browsing through Stacy's blog Every Little Thing and saw her "wing it" recipe for baked pasta.  She was in the midst of an exercise to eat on $60/week and threw this together based on what she had on hand.  Perfect-I do that a lot too, probably why I was drawn to this recipe.  It's Secret Recipe Club time!  

Recipe for Beef Braised in Rooibos Tea with Sweet Potatoes - Daring Cooks

Do you enjoy a good challenge?  Me too, so I joined the Daring Kitchen-a group of hundreds of cooks around the world who come together each month to try something new in the kitchen.

Sarah from Simply Cooked was our November Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to create something truly unique in both taste and technique! We learned how to cook using tea with recipes from Tea Cookbook by Tonia George and The New Tea Book by Sara Perry.

Recipe for Slow Cooker Steak Sammies

Here's another good recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking.  I'm all in to quick and easy these days and this recipe hits all its marks.  Two ingredients in the slow cooker (plus salt and pepper); seven hours later-a flavorful, aromatic, tender pile of beef and peppers just waiting to be plopped on some healthy whole wheat buns with some provolone or pepper Jack cheese.  Yummy!

Quick and Easy BBQ Rubbed Skirt Steak

It's funny sometimes how we end up where we do.  Like this skirt steak.  I stumbled across an online discussion about cooking skirt steak.  The original poster (OP) was frustrated because the skirt steak had turned out very tough.  She/he got alot of feedback about marinating methods, cooking time, cutting across the grain, and the general consensus was that it is an amazing cut of meat and the OP must have overcooked it, apparently THE cardinal sin when it comes to skirt steak.

So I'm at Whole Foods later in the day and see a couple of beautiful pieces of skirt steak just calling my name.  Had I not read the discussion, I probably would have walked right by but the conviction of those touting how amazing this cut is prompted me to say "what the heck, I'll give it a try".   I'm very happy I did.

Recipe for Beef and Lamb Pastitsio

Oh my!  I try not to be too OTT about recipes but this one is amazing.  I served it to friends and family and everyone loved it, even my friend who is not a fan of lamb (I believe he had seconds).  The original recipe called for all lamb but I wanted to be sure my friend would eat it so I described the recipe to him and we agreed half lamb and half beef would work.  I used local Maui Cattle Company lean ground beef and lean ground lamb. 

The seasonings-nutmeg, oregano, cinnamon, and cloves-give a really unique flavor to the dish.  Go and buy some if you don't have them-they make this Greek version of lasagna so good.  And, bonus, your house will have an amazing smell while you are cooking!

Recipe for Dirty Martini Steak Kebabs

This concept behind this recipe sounded fun and tasty-using martini ingredients (vermouth, olives, onions) as a marinade and accompaniment for beef.  It was good, but nothing to write home about and not a recipe I’d repeat.  The meat was very tender as I marinated it overnight. But the flavor from the marinade was pretty basic.

I followed the recipe as written except for adding some green bell pepper to the skewers for some added veggie.  The recipe didn’t include instructions for soaking the skewers.  If you are using wooden skewers, be sure to soak them for several hours in plain water to prevent them from burning on the grill.  I didn’t make the salad included in the original recipe.  Instead I served my mushroom rice. 

We had company for dinner and we all ate our skewers so don’t get me wrong, there was nothing bad about it.  But, meh, just an okay meal.



Each serving Calories:418, Fat:24g, Carbohydrates:19g, Fiber:3g, Protein:28g

Original Recipe

Recipe for an Alternative to Plain Burgers

Even if you are like us and don’t eat a lot of red meat, you probably have a burger now and then.  I wanted to do something different than a plain burger so I put my thinking cap on (“what flavors am I hungry for?”) and looked in the pantry (“what do I have on hand?”). 

The result was this very flavorful burger with wilted cabbage and sautéed mushrooms instead of lettuce and tomato, a lemony, chutney-low fat sour cream sauce and chopped green onions instead of mustard, ketchup, and pickle, and a whole wheat naan instead of a bun.  It all worked together well and, paired with sweet potato fries, made a nice alternative for us.  Now I feel compelled to be creative on those occasional burger nights!

Makes 4 servings, each approximately 426 calories, 31.5 grams fat, 12 grams carbs, 0.8 grams fiber, 23.4 grams protein, 11 WW Points+ (including ¾ of piece of naan)

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef (10% fat content)

4 cups shredded cabbage, wilted

1 cup sliced mushrooms, sautéed in 1 tsp olive oil

½ cup chopped green onion

2 TBSP Major Grey Chutney

¾ cup low fat sour cream

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt and pepper

Whole wheat naan

Water

Method:

Mix salt and pepper to taste into the ground beef.  Make 4 patties.  Cook on grill (or in grill pan) to your desired doneness.  Meanwhile, mix wilted cabbage and cooked mushrooms together and season with salt and pepper, keep warm.  Mix zest, juice, chutney, and sour cream together. 

Brush naan with water and warm in oven on 400 degrees for 5 minutes.

Use cabbage/mushroom mix as base layer on naan.

Add burger and top with sour cream sauce and chopped onions.

How about you?  Ready to mix up your burger night a bit?  Please share your ideas!

Printable Recipe

Recipe for Sweet and Sour Meatballs

This recipe for sweet and sour meatballs is easy to make but it does take a bit of time, so I think it is best suited for a night when you have plenty of time. Don't let that dissuade you though, it really is easy and straightforward and a very tasty asian flavored dish that is under 300 calories (not including the rice).

Recipe for Santa Maria Tri-Tip Roast

We recently went to a barbeque and had a delicious tri-tip roast off the grill.  I asked my friend for the recipe and was told it was “Santa Maria”.  Almost everyone else seemed familiar with this but it was new to me.  I got my friend's recipe and also looked on the web and sure enough, tons of recipes.  I guess Santa Maria California is known for tri-tip, go figure!

I tripled my friend’s recipe and used Italian seasoning where hers called for dried parsley.  I also used smoked paprika instead of plain because I love the smoky taste.   The result was quite good although for some reason, much more peppery than hers.  Everyone I served it to at a sunset picnic liked it but next time I’ll dial the pepper back just a tad.  Although, the next day I made a gyro with some of the leftovers and cucumber raita sauce.   The cool cucumber sauce toned down the pepper perfectly!

If you aren't grilling this time of year where you are, I would give this a try in the oven or even maybe the crockpot.  The texture would be different in the crockpot, and you'd might need a bit of moisture for cooking but the flavors are worth the try-let me know how it turns out.

Recipe for NCLS Beef and Veggie Slow Cooker Stew

Last week, the SF Giants were contending for the National League Championship Series title.  They won!  And on to the World Series they went...long time coming.   I put this pot of healthy and delicious beef and veggie stew on in the morning and took it over to our friends house that evening where we all cheered on the Giants.  Was it our cheering?  The stew?  Not sure, but they did win, so I'm honoring that in the title for this easy crock pot recipe.

Company's Coming Slow Cooker Pot Roast

I recently purchased a slow cooker after seeing tons of healthy slow cooker meals that I knew we’d enjoy. Plus, I like cooking once and eating twice-leftovers!

When the slow cooker showed up, my hubby surprised me by asking if I could do pot roast in it. He lived in California for a long time, but I guess you can’t take the mid-west out of him completely. Pot roast is a meal I haven’t cooked in a long time!  Our good friends were coming over with the wife’s mom for dinner, and tri-tip roasts were on sale so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to do pot roast and mashed potatoes.