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.