Roasted Carrots

I have made these a few times recently and LOVE LOVE LOVE them! The kids love them too and that's the best part.

Of course depending on how many people you are feeding adjust accordingly, but I'm going to do for 1 lb carrots which will feed a good size group.

1 lb peeled and cut carrots
2 tbsp canola or olive oil
1 tbsp Garlic Salt
1/2 tbsp corriander (or oregan0....I have done both)

Just dump all ingredients into a gallon zip lock, mix well coating all carrots. Dump on a foil lined pan and cook at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes depending on how small you cut the carrots.

You really can use whatever seasonings you perfer. EAch time I make them I try something new!

Beef Stroganoff

So I know all my recipes are kinda shady lately. That's how I cook, just throw in some of this, some of that and then when it turns out good I want to share it! This is the same stroganoff I make all the time except usually I use ground beef, but because of my beef excursion lately we had the REAL stuff!

Ingredients:

1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
3/4 cup Sour Cream
1/2 onion
1/2 cup mushrooms (canned or fresh)
Beef (any variety really)
5 cups cooked Rice or Pasta

Slice thinly your beef and then cook in a large pan. Saute onions with your meat and then add the mushrooms. Once meat is thoroughly cooked add the cream of mushroom. Bring to boil (it's thick at this point) then add the sour cream. Cook at medium until heated through then keep warm until ready to serve.

Cook rice or pasta accordingly. Any pasta will do, but we prefer egg noodles.

I use the fat free soups, low fat sour cream and usually a very low fat ground hamburger or turkey. I also use wheat pasta or I think it's smart something? Anyway lower cal, higher fiber so any WW enthusiasts, it's only 3 points per cup instead of four! Anyway with these modifications you can enjoy your stroganoff for a reasonable amount of calories! Not to mention such an easy meal. We love some kind of bread and this week served it with our roasted carrots again...yummy!!

Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches

This is something that I came up with, obviously it's nothing original, but it had been a very long time since I had been Grocery shopping, and running out of food, I raided my cupboards, fridge, & freezer, to find anything to make a decent meal for dinner! And Viola.........



They turned out so good! Thanks to my mother in law who gave me the hogie buns, and luckily, I had some leftover steak in my freezer. There is no set recipe to this, but I'll explain what I did!

Start out with a hot frying pan, with some oil. Add the Strips of steak, once halfway cooked, add the sliced onions and green peppers! (It would even be good with mushrooms!) Add salt and pepper to taste. I had a lot of juices left in the pan, so I dissolved a little bit of corn starch in water and added it to the steak mixture to thicken the rest up!

Then take your Hogie Bun, spread some cream cheese on top and bottom, use as much or little as you would like! I also prefer the low fat cream cheese! Once cream cheese is spread, pile on the steak mixture, then sprinkle on some shredded mozz. cheese on top! With both sides open, broil on high in the oven, just till cheese is melted! Close the sandwich up, and enjoy!

Serve with french fries, or a side salad! Very tastey, very easy, and very quick meal!

-Janine

Tiny Spicy Chicken

4-5 chicken breasts cute into bite size pieces
1/2 t. garlic salt
Corn Starch
Oil
Sauce:
2 t. Sambal Oelek chili paste
1/4 c. ketchup
1/4 c. chicken broth
1/4 c. white vinegar
3 t. soy sauce
1 1/2 c. sugar
6 t. brown sugar

Cut semi-frozen chicken into bite size pieces and sprinkle with garlic salt. Refrigerate 2 to 4 hours if you have time. Then coat chicken pieces with corn starch making sure that each piece if heavily coated. Heat about 1/2 inch of oil in the bottom of a pan and deep fry chicken on medium heat until brown. Place deep fried chicken in a baking dish and pour sauce over the chicken. Place chicken and sauce in oven and cook for 45 minutes @ 350º, stirring every 15 minutes. Serve with rice or fried rice.
Sauce:
Place all the ingredients in a pot and cook on medium heat until sugar is dissolved stirring constantly. Do not boil or double the sauce recipe.

This is one Daniel would request once a week! We love it. The chili paste is easily found by the soy sauce or Chinese food section of your grocery store.

Cutting the meat!

So, I have to apologize, this isn't a recipe. But, this weekend we purchased a LOT of meat and I mean a lot. Like....golly, I think 40 pounds? Maybe more? Beef was .99 cents a pound, the pork was 1.89, and then chicken was like 1.50. So I stocked up. I think about 34 pounds was just beef. Now I'm not a big beef eater, mostly I prefer chicken, but for that deal I could handle throwing some in the freezer.

Another thing, I HATE touching raw meat and dealing with it. So, this post is not necessarily about HOW to cut the meat, but how to cut it and not have to touch it! REad on, laugh at my ridiculousness, but then next time you buy meat and remember this you will love me! (I hope)

So you start with your HUGE slab of meat, or hopefully for your sake much smaller.



Find a large cup for sandwhich size baggies, or bowl for larger baggies.



Cut your meat as you desire it. I had large pieces cut for roasting, small pieces for kabobs, smaller pieces for stew, and even small pieces for stroganoff. I also cut slices for steaks on the grill which I placed on a pan lined with foil, froze for a few hours, then placed in Gallon ziplocks. This way I can pull out however many or little I want.

I used a fork and a knife making most efforts to NOT touch anything.



Then I use a spatula to scoop up the raw nastiness



Then as you spatula you dump into cup or bowl lined with your baggie! I double bag mine, so I had one bag already labeled with date and what was inside. The greatest part is you don't have to touch the meat, and the zip lock part of the baggie doesn't touch the meat.




And if you are bagging larger pieces , just turn the bag inside out, and place your hand inside then grab the meat., then just slide the bag up around your meat and seal!

Nothing super ingenious about all this, just a few little tricks I learned since I didn't have gloves and I HATE to touch the meat! (have I said that enough times?)

Whatever you want soup!

So lately I have been making this soup in my crockpot a lot! I made it first about 6 months ago and Duck loved it so much he asked for it for FAthers DAY! I thought he was crazy, but whatever. We like it served over rice, but we also have it just as soup with some french bread or crackers. But the recipe is SOOOO s imple

3 Chicken Breasts (fresh or frozen, or even canned I guess{technically ANY meat that you think would taste goo})
3-4 cups cut Veggies, frozen, fresh, or canned! (Or 2 cans with juices)
2 Cans Cream of Soup any variety

Dump in a crock pot and let simmer away. Keep it at low for about 6 hours, or high for 3. Super Yummy, super easy and so many variations. Our favorite is a mixed can veggie and creamed corn with Cream of chicken, then served over rice. But we have done the cheese broccoli soup with broccoli....cream of celery with beans and corn, yesterdays was cream of mushroom with mixed veggies, creamed corn AND green beans. My kids LOVE it, my husband LOVES it and I LOVE how dang easy it is! ONe day I even added a cup of Sour Cream during the last hour to make it a bit creamy. Try it your style and share what combinations you liked!

Oh, and this serves our family twice, which is 2 adults and three kids under 5....so probably would be good for a larger family once.