Ground meat Minestrone Soup

This is a great soup to make when you a bit under the weather or its cold outside.

olive oil
chopped garlic
onion
2 cups celery
2 cups carrots
2 cups water
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup red wine
4 cups tomato sauce
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 large can petite diced tomatoes
2 cups baby spinach
oregano
basil
parsley
salt and pepper to your taste
1 to 2 cups mini/small seashell pasta
ground meat of some kind or you can leave the meat out

Cook your pasta first and set aside when cooked.

I cut up my onion, celery and carrots in small pieces.
In a sauté pan I heated up some olive oil and saute my garlic in the oil then added the onions, celery and carrots. I cooked them until they were el dente. Then added my meat, some oregano, basil, parsley, garlic salt, and Johnny's Seasoned Salt. Cook until meat is done.

In a stock pot of large pot for cooking soup in I added the water, broth, one large can tomato paste, one large can petite diced tomatoes, wine, kidney beans, some more oregano, basil and parsley. Put on stove to start warming up.

When your veggie meat mix is cooked set aside. Add your pasta to the soup pot and then add in your veggie meat mix and bring to boil. Add your 2 cups of spinach and mix in. Keep on low until you want to serve it up to eat. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top when serving with some toasted rustic baguette bread.

You can also add zucchini or beans to your soup. But really you can add any veggie you want.

 

Hamburger Stew

A very easy stew to make.

You will need:

Ground Meat of some kind....deer, elk, bear, beef, turkey, chicken, etc
carrots
celery
potatoes
onion
garlic
large can of petite diced tomatoes
large can of crushed tomatoes
seasonings

In a skillet heat up some olive oil and add chopped garlic and finely chopped onions. Cook till almost transparent then add ground meat. Cook till almost done. You can season with Lawrys Seasoned salt, garlic salt, and anything else you would like to use. I also use this steak and chop seasoning.

In a large stock pot put in both cans of tomatoes. Heat on warm as you cut up your carrots, celery and potatoes.

Add your meat mix to the tomato mix. Mix and then add your veggies. Add a few cups of water to the mix to thin it out.

Add some more seasonings and I also add a salt free vegetable seasoning and like a garlic herb one.

Heat on medium high until all veggies are cooked. You can also add canned beans or corn too. Mix it up and be creative !! Even serve with rice.

Spoon up in a bowl and ENJOY !!!

Any questions ask me !!

Chicken Fried Steak

Ok so I am releasing my chicken fried steak routine and recipe. This is an art making this and sometimes requires several times making it until you can get it down.

You will need:

Meat- deer, elk or bear and of course beef cubed.
eggs
flour
seasonings
oil

Depending on how much meat and if you want to do the double dip method you have you may need 4 to 8 eggs. So place in a large bowl and scramble those eggs up pretty good.

Get out another large bowl and dump some flour in it. Probably about 4 cups.

Now the seasoning gets kind of tricky. I dump a bunch of the following seasoning in the bowl:

Johnny's Seasoned Salt
Some sort of steak seasoning
Garlic salt
Pepper
McCormick's Steak rub
and almost any seasoning you want sometimes I also use Adobo Seasoning.
Dont be afraid to use quite a bit of all of the seasonings.
Mix up in the flour with a metal hand mixer like you'd use for gravy. That works great.

Now place your steak in the egg and coat both sides.
Then place in the flour and coat both sides.
 If you want to do the double dip method you will repeat this process over.
Place on a wire rack over a cookie sheet or place on some sort of slick plate.

If you are doing the double dip method you will want to place on a rack and put on the cookie sheet and put in the fridge for a hour.

Heat up a generous amount of oil in a large deep pan.

Place steak in the oil and cook each side until brown. Not too brown because you dont want to over cook the meat. Especially deer or elk.

Make sure your oven is on warm and you place a cookie sheet in there with paper towels down on top.

After you cook each piece place on paper towel in oven. Keep oven on warm so you dont over cook.

While cooking in between sets you will want to wait a minute or so for the oil to heat back up. You will probably want to add more oil at some point in the process and heat it back up.

This is a process that will take a bit too get down. Just DONT over cook your meat. I also advise only dipping once your first time and not doing the double method. Get the basics down first.

We dont make gravy from anything in this process. We just bust out the gravy packets from the store and use them. The dark kind. Not the kind you use for biscuits and gravy. But if you fancy that then by all means go right ahead.

Any questions feel free to email me !!!

Macedo's Layered Taco Lasagna

This recipe came from the home of the Macedo's. I changed it a bit.

He is what you will need:

A bag of tortilla chips. Any kind but I use Jaunita's.
One can of green enchilada sauce. The biggest can you can get. I use Las Palmas Green Chile Enchilada Sauce.
One can of mushrooms. I like the stems and pieces because you get more.
Mexican style cheese.
One small can of diced green chillies or diced jalapenos. 
Garlic
Onion
one bunch of cilantro
Any ground meat or shredded meat. I prefer ground meat.

Get out a pan and put some olive oil in it and heat it up.
Add your chopped garlic and finely chopped onion to the pan and saute it all up until onions are clear-ish.
Add your meat to the mix of garlic and onion and make sure you break it up so its not in big chunks. Kind of like when you would cook taco meat.
After the meat is mostly cooked I either drain off any fat but if you cook with deer or elk then you probably wont have anything to drain off.
Then add your small can of diced green chillies or diced jalapenos. Depends on the intense of hotness you want.
Then add your whole can of green enchilada. Mix it all up.
Then chopped up some cilantro and add to the mix. Heat it all up. Doesnt need to be really hot.
Now get out your bag of chips and crush them in the bag.

You will need some sort of casserole dish and place a nice layer of chips on the bottom.
Then a layer of your meat.
Layer of cheese.
Layer of chips.
Layer of meat.
Layer of cheese.

For a twist sprinkle some cilantro on top and or some green onions and maybe some black olives.

Place in oven on 350' degrees. I cook it until the sides bubble or the cheese browns on top. 





This makes a great taco lasagna. The taste of it is unbelievable. You will get the taco shell taste from the chips and it is so COOL !!!

Enjoy with some sour cream on top and salsa or taco type sauce.

Thanks to the Macedo's for the idea.

Carne Asada Burritos

Courtesy of Cuisine at Home:

We have made this now several times and it is so GOOD !!!

One Flank steak (I pound the steak and then use our tenderizer on it)

Marinate for steak:

1/2c chopped fresh cilantro
1/2c oil
1/2c lime juice
2 tbsp minced chipotle chile and adobo sauce (we used just adobe seasoning)
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 1/2 tps kosher salt (we use sea salt)
1 tsp ground cumin and black pepper (we just use pepper)

Combine 1/2 cup cilantro, 1/2 cup oil, lime juice, chipotle, adobe sauce, garlic, vinegar, salt, cumin and blak pepper in a large bowl. ADD steak to marinate; toss to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap; chill 4 to 12 hours, flipping steak occasionally.

Heat:

2tbsp canola oil
2 red bell peppers sliced (we like to use the variety bag of colored peppers)
1 onion sliced

Heat oil in a large cast iron skillet over high until it shimmers. Remove steak (reserving 1/4 cup marinade) and season with salt and black pepper; cook 5-7 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer steak to a cutting board; tent with foil and let rest 10 minutes. Slice steak against the grain.

Saute:

Saute bell peppers and onion in drippings in skillet with reserved marinade over medium-high heat until crisp-tender, 3-5 minutes

Warm:

6 burrito sized flour tortillas
2 c chopped lettuce
1-2 avocados sliced
6 tbsp purchased pico de gallo
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

warm tortillas in a large nonstick skillet over heat

Divide steak, bell pepper-onion mixture, lettuce, avocado, pico de gallo and 2 tbsp cilantro among tortillas. Fold sides of tortilla into center, then roll edge closest to you over the filling; continue rolling and tucking in filling until enclosed.

Now we dont use the lettuce or romaine in the burrito. We use pico de gallo, avocado made into guacamole, peppers and meat. Also add your favorite mex type sauce.

Soy-marinated Chinese Pork Tenderloin

Courtesy of cuisine at home:

1 pork tenderloin
Whisk:
1/2 c low sodium soy sauce or normal
1/4 c packed dark brown sugar
1/4 c purchased BBQ sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp fresh ginger or minced in a jar
2 tbsp dry sherry or mirin
1 tbsp chili garlic sauce (i couldnt find this so just mixed garlic in with the chili sauce)

Whisk ingredients together and add  tenderloin into a large resealable plastic bag. I put in fridge over night and then grill on the BBQ the next night. Grill until inside temp is 150' then tent on a cutting board with foil for about 5 minutes Then slice and serve. YUM !!!

A great idea for spring roll wrappers.

In a previous post I gave you a recipe or idea on won tons I believe. Well here is an idea for using the spring roll wrappers. Most of this idea we picked up from the Macedo's kitchen of awesome cooking when we had beef tongue tacos last week.

First for our meat ingredient we used the recipe for the meat for the won tons:

8 ounces or small package of ground meat...can use sausage type too....for this we used one package of ground pork and a small package of wild pork ground sausage
one or two bunches of cilantro
grated orange peel
dashes of red pepper flakes
ginger....already minced in a jar or fresh and then grated..I use a generous amount
garlic...shopped finely from a jar or fresh....I use a generous amount
Dashes of some salt

Now I process this all in a processor. It grinds up the meat and cilantro very finely.
Cook the meat mixture.
Drain and let cool in a strainer of some type.

One can of black beans. I used the largest can Safeway had.
Frozen corn
one small can of diced jalapenos
one small can of diced green chilie peppers
Drain beans, jalapenos and chilies in strainer before mixing together.

Once the meat is cooled mix everything above with the meat mixture.

Lay out your spring roll wrapper on a plate and place a large portion of the mixture in the middle and roll up. To seal the wrapper lightly wet the edge with water and then place on a greased flat large cookie sheet.

I actually covered my cookie sheet with foil them sprayed the foil with Pam.

After you wrap up all the wrappers you have and place them on the cooking sheet I lightly brushed olive oil on the top and bottom of the wrappers.

Place in oven on 350'
Cook till lightly brown on the the top and then flip each wrapper and put back into over.
I did this twice or so until the wrappers get a nice golden brown almost like when you would fry them. But this avoids the bad for you part by cooking in the oven and they are fabulous.

Now the man likes his with soy sauce and I like mine with Herdez green cause thats what the Macedo's served with the ones we had at their place. And they are just as good the next day as left overs too !!

Extra Leftover Meat ??

How we use that extra and sometimes mystery meat in the FRIDGE....and if you know us, yes the meat very well can be a mystery of some animal. LOL :)

Ok so you have some extra steak or pork from the night or nights before hanging out in the fridge? That happens alot in our fridge. This week I had a couple steaks and some cut of pork steaks so I cut them up into small pieces and put them all in our electric skillet.

One package of gravy mixed with one cup of water
One large can of creme of mushroom soup

Pour over meat in skillet.
You may want to add a bit more water but be careful cause the soup will cooked down thinner.
Let simmer for as long as you want.
Serve over rice or mashed potatoes.

Mix of meat in the skillet

Mix of meat and creme of mushroom soup and gravy.