Recipe: Swiss Steak (gluten & grain free)

Every once in a while I'll try a new recipe and it will turn out great...really great. THIS is one of those recipes. It comes from the classic cookbook THE JOY OF COOKING, which is the first cook book I ever owned and it was given to me as a 20th birthday gift. Over the years I've made many things out of this book with great success including my family's all time favorite, Chicken and Dumplings. Kevin and Kyle are both meat and potato kind of guys so this dinner was right up their alley. Honestly, they went nuts over it. I liked it quite a bit too. The meat cooks slowly in your oven on a low temperature in sauce which produces extremely tender meat. These braised steaks, referred to in England as smothered steak, are best made with beef bottom round or round steak.

Here is what you will need:

2 pounds beef bottom round or round steak, 3/4-1 1/4 inches thick, excess fat trimmed (if possible use grass fed, organic, locally grown beef) I buy all my meat from Whole Foods.
1 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. ground black pepper
1/2 cup all purpose flour (if you are gluten free you can use rice flour...if you are on a grain free/Paleo diet you can use Tapioca flour) ie: Tapioca flour is an approved Paleo starch
2. T olive oil
1 c. diced onion (I buy frozen diced onions)
1 c. chopped carrots
1/2 c. diced celery
2 c. beef broth
4 T. (1/4 c) tomato paste
1/2 t. italian seasoning
2 bay leaves

**Use organic on all of the above whenever possible.
*A large, deep ovenproof skillet or Dutch oven (I used a dutch oven)

Prepare the veggies. Set aside.

Cut the meat into individual steaks.

Mix together the garlic powder, salt and pepper in a small bowl.

Sprinkle the seasonings evenly on both sides.

Dredge each steak into the flour, covering both sides. Shake off excess.

Cover the bottom of the pot (ovenproof dutch oven or deep skillet) with the 2 T. of olive oil.

Sear the meat on high heat. 4-5 mins each side.

Carefully remove the browned meat with a spatula, keeping the floured coating in tact with the meat. Cover with foil to keep warm and set aside.

Add the veggies to the pan drippings remaining in the pan. Stir, on medium heat, loosening up the browned bits and combining with the veggies for 1-2 min. Reduce the heat and cover the pan.

Cook, stirring occasionally, until the veggies are softened but not browned, 5-7 minutes.

Measure out 2 cups of beef broth and add the 4 T. (1/4 c.) of tomato paste and the italian seasoning.

Wisk together until smooth.

Pour the sauce over the veggies, stirring to incorporate.

Add the bay leaves.

Return the meat to the pan. Push the steaks down into sauce. Cover.

Place pot into a prepared 325 degree oven. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours. Check for doneness at about an hour and fifteen minutes. It is done when the meat is fork tender. Mine was done at 1 1/2 hours.

After taking out of oven, remove and dispose of the bay leaves.

Spoon the sauce over each individual steak when serving. I served this with mashed potatoes and green beans. If you are on a Paleo Diet like I am you can serve this with a green salad and mashed sweet potatoes or any other Paleo approved sides. 

Enjoy!!!

Recipe: Jean's Spaghetti Sauce (gluten free)

 A special thank you goes out to my Mother n Law Jean for sharing this recipe with me several years ago. Spaghetti is one of our favorite meals, especially with this delicious homemade sauce on top! This sauce is easy to make, affordable and healthy.

Ingredients

1 t. olive oil
1 T dried minced onion flakes
1/2 t. pepper                               
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1 T dried basil leaves
1 T dried oregano
1 pound LEAN ground beef (no more than 7% fat)
2 15 oz cans tomato sauce
1 small can tomato paste
1 can sliced mushrooms (optional)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 bay leaf
water (1/2 of an empty can of tomato sauce)

1 package spaghetti noodles (we LOVE Trader Joe's corn spaghetti...it's gluten free!)

Directions

 Drizzle the olive oil into the bottom of a large sauce pan. Place ground beef into the bottom of the pan.

(excuse my old pan!) Next sprinkle all the seasonings and garlic on top of the meat. Using a wooden spoon push the seasonings into the meat. (reserve the bay leaf)
 

 Brown over medium/high heat until all the seasonings are incorporated and the meat is browned, using the spoon to crumble the meat as you go.

If you use lean ground beef and dried onions, there should be no need to drain before adding tomato sauce.
Add the 2 cans of tomato sauce.

using a spoon, scoop out the tomato paste into the pan.

Stir well to incorporate the tomato paste. Then add the 1/2  a can of water. (use the empty sauce can)

Stir in the Parmesan cheese.

Stir well until all the cheese in incorporated. Add drained canned mushrooms if desired and bay leaf.

Let simmer on LOW for up to two hours.. If you have a lid with a vent to let steam escape, then put a lid on the pan. If not, careful it will bubble up and "spit" out. You may end up with a mess on your stove top.

When sauce is done, serve with spaghetti noodles. Enjoy!!

Recipe: Shepard's Pie (gluten free)

I'm probably more excited about this recipe than I've been about anything I've made in a long time. I just bought Weight Watcher's newest recipe magazine, Best One Dish Dinners. All the recipes look great and each serving is 6 points or less. This recipe is from this recipe magazine. I can guarantee you however, it DOES NOT taste like like a lower calorie, diet dish. This casserole is DELICIOUS!! As I was preparing it, I kept thinking, "this looks so boring" and "I bet it won't be good enough for me to put on the blog"..how wrong I was. Kevin and Kyle were loving dinner last week the night I served this. In fact they both had seconds. So as you can imagine I'm pretty happy to have this new recipe that is easy, inexpensive AND low calorie to boot. To top it off, for my devoted recipe followers with small kids, this is extremely kid friendly.

Ingrediants
1 t. olive oil
1 small onion diced (I used 1/2 cup frozen chopped onion)
1 pound LEAN ground beef (buy the leanest you can find) or ground turkey
2 cups frozen mixed vegies (I bought a mix with corn, carrots, green beans, lima beans and peas)
3 T. tomato paste
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1 14 oz can lower sodium beef broth (fat free if you can find it)
2 T all-purpose flour (or rice flour, Bob's Red Mill all purpose flour if you are gluten free)
non stick cooking spray
 1 package of dried garlic mashed potatoes (if you can find it use Idahoan roasted garlic..it was so good with this..and they are gfree)

Directions

 Preheat oven to 375

 Heat oil in a large skillet over med-high heat. Add onion;saute 5 min. Add beef,  and cook until beef is browned, stirring to crumble. Drain off liquid/fat. (not pictured, but I sometimes use a potato masher to crumble meat)

 Once drained, add frozen mixed vegies, tomato paste and salt/pepper; cook over medium heat 5 minutes or until vegies are hot, stirring frequently.

 Combine broth and flour in a small bowl or measuring cup, stirring with a whisk. Add broth mixture to beef mixture. Bring to a boil, and cook 3 minutes or until it begins to thicken, stirring constantly.

Spoon beef mixture into an 11x 8 inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. (I don't have that, so I used my Pampered Chef deep dish stone baker which is close to that size.) Set aside.

Following the directions on the package, prepare the mashed potatoes.
Drop potatoes in spoon fulls evenly over meat mixture. Then spread evenly, carefully covering all the meat mixture. I used a dinner spoon for this and it worked well.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until mixture in bubbling up around the edges and slightly browned on top.

                                                                           ENJOY!

Recipe: Quesadilla Casserole (gluten free)

Here is a new recipe at last! Kyle is back to school and I'm LOVING my free time during the day. I'm going to be trying out several new recipes through the end of the Summer and Fall and I look forward to sharing the "winners" with you. What is a winner in my eyes? When both Kevin AND Kyle say to me "yum", " it's so good", or any expression that says they like it AND they go for seconds that makes a recipe a winner. Of course I have to like it too. I made this casserole and all three of us absolutely loved it. It was easy to make, is healthy and I will definately be making it again. Here is what you will need to get started:

You may recall when I made fajitas using one of the Recipe Inspirations Spice Kits. I have found these at Albertsons for $1.99 in many varieties.  I love these spice kits! They come with pre-measured blister packs of the spices you need, a list of the other items you will need to buy and the recipe. The recipe is on a 3 x 5 card so you can hold on to it for the future. In this case, now that I have the recipe card...the next time I make this I will just use spices from my jars to make it since I have the spices. If I did not have one of the spices, I'd just buy the kit again. A jar of spices can cost anywhere from $3-$7 so this would save me quite a bit of money to buy the kit vs a jar of spices that I may not have on hand. In case you can't find the recipe inspirations kit or already have the spices on hand; here are the measurements for the spices.

1 Quesadilla Casserole Recipe Inspiration Kit which includes:
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 t. oregano leaves
1/2 t. crushed red peppers (optional)

1 lb. ground beef OR turkey
1/2 c. chopped onion
2 cans (8oz each) tomato sauce
1 can  (15 oz)  black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (8 3/4 oz) whole kernel corn, drained
1 can (4 1/2 oz) chopped MILD green chiles, undrained
6 flour OR corn tortillas (I used corn)
2 cups shredded Cheddar Cheese

Directions:

Brown meat and onion in large skillet on medium-high heat; drain. (I use a potato masher to break up the meat into small crumbles)

Rinse and drain the black beans.

Next, add the tomato sauce, beans, corn and green chiles; mix well.

Stir in all the spices (only add the red pepper flakes if you want a medium to spicy casserole..I made it without the red pepper flakes and the result was a perfectly seasoned, MILD casserole that is adult AND kid friendly)

Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.

Spread 1/3 of the meat mixture on the bottom of  a 9 x 13 casserole dish sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. (I used my Pampered Chef deep dish baker)

Top with 3 of the tortillas, overlapping as needed.

                                                           Sprinkle with 1/3 of the cheese.

Repeat the layers. 1/3 of the meat mixture, 3 tortillas and 1/3 of the cheese.

Complete the casserole by spreading the last 1/3 of the meat mixture on top and the last 1/3 of the cheese.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until bubbling. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream if desired.

ENJOY!!