January 24, 2012: Homemade Meatball Stew Recipe

Last year I shared an easy meatball soup recipe that uses convenience food items. I decided there was no excuse for being lazy and remade that recipe using homemade ingredients and keeping the calories as low as possible.

Homemade Meatball Stew

1 cup crushed Saltine crackers

¼ cup fat free half and half

1 egg

¼ cup ketchup

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

1 t. Italian seasoning

1 t. garlic salt

1 t. dried parsley

1 pound 93% lean ground beef

1 cup baby carrots, cut into small pieces

1 cup fresh green beans, cut into thirds

1 large Russet potato, peeled and cut into small chunks

1 celery heart, rib, greens and heart thinly sliced

1 cup canned corn (or fresh)

1 carton beef stock

1 cup water

2 cups dry macaroni or farfalle (bowtie) pasta

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine crushed crackers and half and half; let sit for five minutes to soften crackers. Add egg, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and seasonings. Mix in ground beef with your hands. Shape into small balls.

Spray a Dutch oven with nonstick cooking spray. Place meatballs in the bottom of the Dutch oven and bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove from oven and remove meatballs with a slotted spoon.

Add vegetables (with the exception of canned corn) to Dutch oven. Sauté for 2 – 3 minutes, scraping up bits of meatballs from bottom of pan. Add beef stock and water and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium; boil gently for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low and add reserved meatballs and corn. Cook for an hour, until vegetables are soft.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and add to meatball stew just before serving. Add water, if necessary, to thin stew.

Serves 6

January 18, 2012: Healthy Meatloaf Recipe

Here’s another of my favorite meals that I’ve slimmed down for the calorie conscious diner (me!). Although my husband groaned with he saw me using ground turkey, he enjoyed the finished product. If you want fewer calories, omit the ground beef (I added it so this meatloaf would taste more like the traditional recipe I usually prepare).

Healthy Meatloaf

1 slice whole wheat bread, torn into small pieces

1 T. dehydrated onions

1 T. dried parsley

2 T. fat free half and half

2 T. beef broth

1 egg

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

¼ cup ketchup

1 chile in adobo sauce, minced

1 t. each: oregano, sage, garlic salt

½ t. freshly ground black pepper

1 lb. 4 ounces ground turkey

12 ounces 80% lean ground beef

Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray. In a large mixing bowl, combine bread pieces, onions and parsley. Stir in half and half and beef broth; let sit for five minutes. Add egg, Worcestershire, ketchup, chile and seasonings; mix well. Add in ground meat and mix with your hands. Pat mixture into prepared loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 90 minutes, or until completely cooked through the middle.

Serves 6 (per serving: 615 calories, 30 grams fat, 882 sodium)

December 14, 2011: Beef Stew 2 Recipe

During the winter months, soups and stews are some of our favorite family meals. Not only are they economical and easy to prepare, they’re hot and hearty and perfect for a cold winter night, along with fresh-from-the-oven biscuits or rolls.

This is a variation on the beef stew recipe I shared earlier this year that uses Lipton onion soup mix. The spices are different and it has a very unique flavor – but one I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

Spicy Beef Stew

1 T. vegetable oil

1 pound beef for stew (try a tough steak, such as top sirloin), cut into chunks

1 small white onion, cut into chunks

1 cup baby carrots, cut into thick, diagonal slices

1 cup chopped celery (use the heart and bottom half of the stalks thinly sliced)

2 small potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

¼ cup ketchup

1 14-ounce can beef broth

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup dry red wine

1 bay leaf

1 cardamom pod

¼ t. ground cinnamon

½ t. thyme

½ t. freshly ground black pepper

1 t. sea salt

In a Dutch oven, heat the oil to medium. Add the chunks of beef and brown on all sides. Add vegetables and cook five more minutes; turn off heat. Add remaining ingredients. Cover Dutch oven and transfer to a low (225 degrees) oven. Bake for 4 – 5 hours, until vegetables are tender and sauce thickens. Remove bay leaf and cardamom pod before serving.

Serves 4

December 5, 2011: Lil Smokies in Barbecue Sauce

This is an old favorite recipe for serving at holiday parties because it’s quick and easy to make while being quite popular with guests. Sometimes, however, I prefer to serve it as a main dish for my husband and I (it makes a little bit more than the two of us can eat but it’s great for a leftovers lunch the next day). Although it may sound strange to add jelly to the sauce, try it before you knock it; it’s quite yummy!

Lil Smokies in Barbecue Sauce

¼ cup finely minced white or yellow onion

1 one-pound package Lil Smokies (Hillshire Farm brand, for instance) sausage

½ cup ketchup

2 T. corn syrup

1 T. prepared yellow mustard

1 t. chili powder

½ t. ground cumin

2 T. grape jelly (or seedless jam, such as blackberry)

1 t. Tabasco sauce

1 t. Worcestershire sauce

In a small crockpot, add minced onions and turn heat to high. Allow onions to cook for a few minutes, until they begin to soften. Add remaining ingredients and turn heat to low. Simmer for an hour or so, until heated through and the flavors have been allowed to meld. Taste and adjust sauce as necessary.

Serves 3 – 4 as main dish, 8 as appetizer

October 25, 2011: Baked Meatballs Recipe

I’ve recently figured out that there’s an easier way to cook both bacon and meatballs – and that’s by baking them. Cooking these meats on a baking sheet in the oven results in less mess and actually should be healthier because you can drain away all of the grease.

I had a large jar of leftover homemade pizza sauce recently. In order to transform it into spaghetti sauce, I thinned it down with water and added these baked meatballs to give it extra Italian flavor.

Baked Meatballs

1 T. dehydrated minced onion

1 T. Italian seasoning

1 t. garlic salt

1 slice of day old sandwich bread, torn into small chunks (the heel works great)

¼ cup milk

1 egg

1 T. ketchup

1 pound 80% lean ground beef

Combine onion, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, bread cubes and milk in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Let stand for five minutes to rehydrated ingredients. Add remaining ingredients and mix with thoroughly with your hands.

Shape balls out of the meat mixture (make them small or large, depending on your preference. Mine were medium-sized and I made about 13 of them with this recipe; you'd get about twice as many by making them walnut-sized or half as many by making them the size of tennis balls).

Place on a baking sheet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Bake in a 400 degree oven about 20 minutes, or until completely browned. Add to spaghetti sauce during last half hour of simmering.

 Note: You can also use a half pound of ground beef and a half pound of Italian sausage, if desired.

October 8, 2011: Slow Cooked Sirloin in Mushroom Sauce Over Pasta Recipe

As the days get shorter, I naturally turn to my crock pot to slowly cook a meal all day long. Of course, crock pot cookery is a natural for tough meats. For this recipe I used a couple of really thick sirloin steaks. Usually sirloin is a fairly good cut of meat but perhaps because of the size of these steaks, slow cooking was an ideal way to make them fork tender. Feel free to use any beef cut, such as chuck steak or London broil (flatiron), in this recipe.

Simply add all the ingredients to your crock pot and let it go all day long!

Slow Cooked Sirloin in Mushroom Sauce Over Pasta

1 pound top thick cut top sirloin steaks

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

½ yellow or white onion, thinly sliced

1 T. steak sauce

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

1 T. ketchup

1 t. yellow mustard

1 cup beef broth

4 ounces mushrooms, quartered

1 T. cornstarch

2 T. water

8 ounces penne pasta

2 T. butter

1 t. garlic salt

1 T. fresh parsley, minced (or 1 t. dehydrated parsley)

Combine all ingredients, except mushrooms, in slow cooker. Set to high for at least one hour. Turn heat to low and let simmer for 6 – 8 hours. Half an hour before serving, add mushrooms. If you wish to thicken the sauce, mix together cornstarch and water and add to slow cooker. Increase heat to high. Cook another 20 – 30 minutes, until mushrooms are soft and sauce is thickened.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain. Add butter, garlic salt, and parsley. Toss together lightly.

Serve steaks with sauce over pasta.

Serves 4

September 25, 2011: Spicy Stuffed Bell Peppers Recipe

I haven’t made stuffed bell peppers in ages but recently a friend of ours brought over some bell peppers picked fresh from his garden. They were just too tempting – and the best way to use up several at once was to make this recipe. Rather than resort to my mother’s recipes, I decided to give stuffed peppers a more modern twist by turning them into a Southwestern style entrée. Hope you like it!

Spicy Stuffed Bell Peppers

1 cup rice

1 cup coarsely chopped peeled and seeded tomatoes

1 green onion, thinly sliced

1 t. Worcestershire sauce

1 t. dried cilantro (or 2 t. fresh cilantro, chopped)

1 t. minced garlic

½ t. garlic salt

Salt and pepper to taste

4 jalapeno cheddar sausages

4 large or 6 small bell peppers

2 ounces Velveeta cheese

4 – 6 T. prepared salsa

2 T. ketchup

1/3 cup water

Cook rice according to package directions.

Meanwhile, set a large of pot of water to boiling. Add the peppers and the tomatoes (about 2 medium). Remove the tomatoes after a minute with a slotted spoon. Immediately run under cold water and then remove the peels. Remove the seeds with your thumb and chop tomatoes into large chunks. After 5 minutes, remove the bell peppers and allow to cool. When cool, slice off the tops and remove the seeds and white membranes inside. If necessary, slice a small bit off the bottom of the peppers so they stand upright. Place the cleaned peppers in a greased baking dish.

When the rice is done, add the chopped tomatoes, green onion, Worcestershire, cilantro, garlic, salt and pepper. If desired, you can also chop up any extra bits of bell pepper from the sliced off sections and add these, too. Thinly slice the sausages and add them to the rice mixture.

Fill the peppers with rice mixture and top with a slice of Velveeta cheese. Top each with a tablespoon of salsa, allowing it to drip over the sides. Mix the ketchup and water and add to bottom of baking dish.

Bake peppers uncovered in 375 degree oven for about half an hour, until the peppers are softened and the cheese is melted.

Serves 4.

Note: If you like more heat, add a couple tablespoons of chopped hot green chile or jalapenos to the rice mixture.