Pot Roast Stew

I like pot roast.  I just dislike making pot roast.  Okay, the truth is I don’t like waiting for a pot roast to finish doing its thing in the oven. I have found that the best alternative is to make stew out of the pot roast.

I start with a nice pot roast, cut it up into nice little chunks and coat them with a little bit of flour.

Then I get my vegetables ready.  Now here is where you can get creative, because you can add whatever vegetables you like.  I generally use potatoes, celery, onions, green beans and carrots.  I cut them up in nice chunks.

In a large stock pot, heat up the olive oil.  Add about a clove of garlic and sauté for about 30 to 60 seconds before adding the meat.  After you brown the meat, pour in the broth and stir until the broth starts to simmer.  Add the vegetables, herbs and soy sauce then bring to a full boil stirring occasionally.   Then let simmer 25 to 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

Ingredients for my recipe:

Pot roast cubed up	32 ounces of low sodium chicken broth
2 or 3 large potatoes	1 large onion
3 or 4 stalks of celery	2 or 3 carrots
1 can of unsalted green beans	Ground black pepper
2 cloves of garlic minced	2 tablespoons of olive oil
Fresh basil	Fresh oregano
3 tablespoons of soy sauce	1/2 cup of flour

Here is the finished product

There are of course other ways of making beef stew.  At Allrecipes.com you will be able to find many different styles of stew including this "Hearty Beef Stew" and a "Vegan Stew."  Since flour is a source of gluten, I found this Beef Stew at Gluten-Free Goddess. 

However, If you don't want to turn your pot roast into beef stew, then try this pot roast recipe.

In the comment section below, please feel free to post your recipe, preferences or other comments about pot roast or stew.

Is This Really Good For Me?

One of the most important things that a lot of people don’t do when they shop for groceries is read the labels.

If you are person who has certain food allergies, needs to watch cholesterol or sodium intake, counting calories, or just want to know what you are eating, it is important to learn how to read the food labels.



Food Label Image from MSWord clip art



Start with the serving size.  How much is a serving?  Then look at the calories per serving.  Most breads list the serving size as one slice.  So, if a slice of bread has 160 calories, two slices would be 320 calories. Remember to look at the calories from fat.  If a food item has 150 calories and 140 of those calories are from fat, you might want to rethink eating it.

The next thing you want to pay attention to are thing you really want to limit in your diet.  That is fats, cholesterol, and sodium.  You want to limit your fat intake to no more than 58-78 grams of fat per day.  Keep the saturated fat down to 16 grams or less and your cholesterol to less than 300 mg per day.  (This is for a 2000 calorie per day diet.)

Many people get too much sodium in their diets.  The recommended sodium intake for sodium is 2300 mg per day.  The human body only requires 1500 mg per day that is less than a teaspoon of salt. Look at your food labels and calculate how much sodium you are taking in per day.  Are you surprised?

Now look at the good stuff, the vitamins and minerals that the food provides. 

Compare the percent (%) of daily values.  A value of 5% or less is low so you want things like sodium, sugars and fats to be less than 5% and vitamins and minerals to be higher.


This video from the American Diabetess Association shows how to read the "Nutrition Facts"

For more information about reading food labels, go to the American Heart Association’s website article Reading Food Nutrition Labels or the Mayo Clinic’s website article Nutrition and Healthy Eating.

In the comment section below, please feel free to discuss your opinions on nutrition labels and if you read them.

The Joys of a Cookbook

My first real cooking experience was when I was six and was given an Easy-Bake Oven® for Christmas. But in order to bake that cake I had to follow the “recipe.”  That is I had to pour the mix into a bowl and measure the correct amount of water, stir it up, pour it into the pan and bake it for the correct amount of time.

As I got older, my parents and both of my grand-mothers taught me how to cook different things.  My dad taught me to make milk gravy, something my mother could never quite get the hang of doing. 

As I grew into an adult and had a family of my own, I learned to cook different things by searching cookbooks for different recipes.  Over time, I developed my own style of doing things.  I found not all recipes are the same, as I’ve illustrated in some of my previous posts.  I have also learned that not every cook cooks the same way.  This is one of the reason why I have a shelf full of cookbooks, a file box full of recipes, and a notebook that contains printed recipes from the web.  I also search many websites for different recipes.

Cookbooks are wonderful things.  They not only contain these wonderful recipes, but many also give advice on how to make something, contain photographs of what the end result should look like, lists tables of conversions, and have information about ingredients. When getting a new cookbook, I do look at the recipes, but I also read about the techniques used.

My favorite cookbook is the “Joy of Cooking."  This book is a kitchen bible of sorts. Yes, it does contain many recipes, but it also gives great technique as well.  I’ve learned a lot from reading this book and in my opinion every kitchen should have one.

In the comment section below, please feel free to list your favorite cookbook, comments or other suggestions.

Chili

When it’s cold outside and what I really want is something hot to make me feel warm inside.

Chili does the trick for me.  Truth is I like chili most any time of the year.

There are various ways to make chili with a lot of variations in meat, peppers and spices.

My own recipe:

1lb. lean ground beef

1 medium Spanish onion diced

1 can of red beans (I use organic)

2 large tomatoes skinned and diced (or a can of diced unsalted tomatoes)

1 can of unsalted tomato sauce

1 or 2 green chilies seeded and diced

1 tbsp.  crushed red pepper

1 tbsp. chili powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tbsp. cumin

¼ cup of brown sugar.

Brown the ground beef.  Add the peppers and onions when and sauté for one or two minutes.  Add the spices and let cook for another minute before adding the tomatoes.  Let simmer 15 to 20 minutes then add the brown sugar.

Other recipes you might want to try:

·         Vegetarian Chili with Spicy Tortilla Strips

·         Spicy Beanless Chili

·         Kathy’s Easy Not so Spicy Chili

·         Spicy Buffalo Chili

·         White Chili

In the comment section, please feel free to post your recipes, preferences or other comments on chili.

Lasagna

Since both my husband and I are from Italian decent, it shouldn't be surprising that we both love lasagna.

I make two kinds of lasagna:  one with meat and marinara sauce, and one with spinach and Alfredo sauce.

When I have time to do so, I make my own marinara sauce from scratch.  Sometimes I don't have time scratch sauce and use one from a jar which can be just as tasty. 

When I make meat lasagna, I use a combination of pork sausage and ground beef. 

For the cheeses, I usually use a combination of cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese.  Other combination of cheese can be used.

I found this video for baking lasagna without first boiling the pasta. I will have to try this some time. I’m not sure I would try this with an Alfredo sauce though.

Other recipes I have found:

·         Gluten Free Lasagna Recipe

·         Vegan Lasagna

·         Easy Spinach Lasagna with White Sauce

In the comment section, please feel free to post your recipe, preference or other comments on lasagna.

Omelets

Every Saturday morning I make omelets for breakfast.  It took me a long time to figure out how to make omelets.  That is, I always had trouble with the folding part of it.

I used to just take the stuff I wanted to put inside an omelet and sauté it up.  Then I would whip up the eggs and pour them into the skillet with the other stuff and scramble it all together.  But I really wanted to learn how to fold an omelet.

I  purchased an omelet pan similar to this one found at Amazon.com.  However, I usually ended up with a mess on my hands.  Even though the pan was supposed to be non-stick, something always seemed to stick.

I soon discovered that the best pan was my 8” non-stick frying pan.  After a little practice, I can now fold an omelet.

The best thing about omelets is that you can put just about anything you want in them.  I generally add hash browns, sausage and cheese to our omelets.  Occasionally I will use up some left overs that I have. 

Some of the different things I’ve put into omelets are:

·         Fresh vegetables – celery, spinach, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, etc.

·         Left over Kung Pao (not the rice), General Tso, or Hunan Chicken

·         Fried rice

·         Spanish rice

·         Chili

·         Various meats -- Pepperoni, ham, bacon, shrimp, etc.

·         Cheeses – pepper jack, cheddar, mozzarella, cottage cheese, etc.

Follow these links for a variety of different styles of Omelet:

·         Denver Oven Omelet (Gluten Free)

·         Vegan Omelet for One

·         Spanish Omelet using Egg Beaters™

·         Fat Free Delicious Omelet

·         Alice’s Fruit Omelet

In the comment section, please feel free to post your recipe, preference or other comments on omelets.

Macaroni and Cheese

Macaroni and cheese is the old standby by comfort food.  There are many different ways to make macaroni and cheese by using different types of pasta or cheeses.

Some people are happy with the Kraft blue box version.

However, for those who like it home made there are so many ways to make it.

Some cooks will use the standard elbow macaroni.  Others cooks may use shells, spirals or other shaped pasta.

Some cooks my use different flavors of cheese.

Growing up one of the things my mother would make for us, and is still a favorite of mine, is pasta with a touch of butter and Parmesan cheese.

Some cooks have complicated baked versions of macaroni and cheese as seen in this video.

 

While I have no doubt that it is quite delicious, I prefer keeping it simple.

My own recipe calls for

·         1 cup of pasta

·         1 cup of shredded cheese (preferably Wisconsin white cheddar - extra sharp)

·         ¼ cup of Kraft peppercorn ranch dressing

Cook pasta until tender, add the ranch dressing and over a low heat stir in the cheese.

What I did was change a friend’s recipe; she uses Italian dressing.

For some people gluten is a problem so I found this recipe for Gluten Free Mac & Cheese.

Vegans and people who cannot eat dairy products here is a link to the Best Ever Vegan Mac & Cheese.

Some people cannot have a lot of fat in their diet.  For people on a low or no-fat diet this link leads to The Easiest Fat Free Macaroni and Cheese Around.

In the comment section, please feel free to post your recipe, preferences or comments on macaroni and cheese.