Beefy Noodles (or, cheater stroganoff)

Recently my husband had the opportunity to travel to Russia for work.  While he was there, he dined in the finest of restaurants, eating the most ah - may -zing food.  How do I know it was amazing?  He took pictures of everything he ordered and sent them to me...because that's the kind of guy he is.

One of the things he actually got to eat was real Russian Stroganoff.  It was made with Venison and served on a bed of mashed potatoes. He said it was melt-in-your-mouth-would-even-please-chef-Ramsay good, which of course made me jealous. Immediately.

Since I've never tasted real Russian Stroganoff, I have nothing to compare to, but I did grow up eating a "beefy noodle" dish that my mother often called Stroganoff. I'm pretty sure comparing the two is like comparing fresh Gelato to a McDonald's Ice cream cone...but, to me they both taste great on a hot day.

So - here's what you need to make a cheater Stroganoff - or beefy noodles, whatever you want to call it.

1 package egg noodles, cooked and drained
2 lbs ground beef
1 medium onion, cubed
1 tbsp garlic
2 cups sliced mushrooms (optional)
2 tbsp olive oil
6 tbsp. butter
1/2 cup flour
4 cups beef broth (or equal amount of your favorite lipton soup mix, prepared to package directions.)
1 cup of sour cream (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook and drain egg noodles, set aside.
Brown and drain ground beef, set aside.

In a large sautee pan, heat the two tablespoons olive oil.  Add to the pan the onion and garlic.  Cook until the onion is tender and translucent.  Set aside in a separate dish.

Do NOT clean sautee pan.

In the same sautee pan you used for the onions and garlic, add the 6 tbsp butter and melt, stirring constantly to loosen bits from the bottom of the pan.  Once the butter is fully melted, make a roux by adding the flour.  Cook the flour until it is foamy and toasted brown, about three to five minutes on medium high.

Whisk in the beef broth stirring constantly and scraping the sides and bottom of the pan to get all  the 'bits' off.  When the mixture is thickened to the consistency of yogurt (store bought, not greek...) add the onions and ground beef.  Cook until heated through.

Rinse egg noodles with hot water, and serve egg noodles with a ladle full of beef/onion mixture.

You can use Lipton beefy onion soup mix prepared to package directions instead of the beef broth (it's yummy!), you can also add in mushrooms with the onion and garlic.  If you want a creamy sauce, stir in 1 cup of sour cream into the sauce just before serving.

Enjoy!

Home Made Mac N Cheese

I always thought it was funny to call something "home made."  If you want  to get down to the technical side of things, anything you make at home whether it be from a box or from scratch is home made. Was I at home?  Yes.  Did I make it?  Yes.  Therefore, home made.

This recipe is not, however, from a box.  Well, the noodles are.  I like to cook from scratch, but I'm not crazy.

Here's what you'll need:

1 16 oz pkg elbow noodles cooked and drained
1/2 stick butter
1/4 cup flour
3 cups milk
2 cups shredded cheese of choice (I used mild cheddar.)
salt and pepper to taste.
And if you want it super rich and creamy - 1 brick of cream cheese.

In a deep sautee pan, melt the butter over medium high heat.  Once melted, add to it the 1/4 cup flour, stirring constantly.  If you cook a lot you will recognize this as making a roux.  The butter is going to combine with the flour and get thick and foamy.  Cook for about three minutes, stirring constantly, until the butter/flour mixture becomes a light golden brown color.

Quickly whisk in the 3 cups of milk.  Stirring constantly, cook over medium high heat until thickened. It doesn't take long, about 5 to ten minutes at the most.  When the sauce is slightly thickened, add the two cups shredded cheese (and cream cheese if desired...) and mix well until melted.  Once completely combined, add to the pan the cooked noodles.  Coat well.

Salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

In our house,we tend to add a little more grated cheese to the top. Why?  Because we like it.  We also have been known to use bow tie pasta just for the heck of it.  Sometimes Wacky Mac.  Sometimes, we make the cheese sauce and serve it over asparagus or Brussels sprouts.  That's right, Brussels sprouts. Which my kids eat willingly. I know, they are weird.  I love them anyway.

Chick Fil A copycat chicken

I loves me some Chick Fil A tasty tasty chicken and some lemonade almost on any given day. Unfortunately my budget does not. I like it so much in fact that I have surmised there must be an addictive substance in it somewhere. Since I couldn't get my hands on the top secret recipe, I had to piece together several on the web to come up with one that will suffice. This one will do.

1 egg
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
5 teaspoons powdered sugar
20 chicken breast tenderloins
Oil for frying.

Preheat the oil to 350 degrees.

In one bowl mix the egg and milk. Set aside.

In a second bowl mix all the dry ingredients.

Take the chicken tenderloin and dredge it first in the milk and then the flour mixture. Place on a plate while you dredge remaining chicken. Once the oil reaches the optimum temperature place four tenderloins in to cook. Cook until dark golden brown, or until done, about 12 minutes. Drain on paper towels, cool and eat.

Repeat as needed.

Crock Pot French Toast

So the other day I was trolling Pinterest looking for fun organizational ideas for the home, when I realized, I don't think organizing is fun at all...it's work, and I don't like to do it; so I quickly switched gears and started looking for things that were fun, you know, like crock pot recipes.

After searching for a short time (and admittedly playing for a long time), I found this pin, which looked very interesting, and yummy.  It intrigued me for a few reasons, 1) my kids are french toast fiends and 2) they come by it honestly because I am too.


So, here's the recipe, we used plain white bread, but I think if I made it again, I'd use a cinnamon raisin bread, or a hearty sour dough, or homemade sandwich bread, or even bagels...but for this morning, plain old wonder white did nicely.

Recipe:
1/2 loaf of bread torn into half pieces (or enough to fill your crock pot about half way)
6 eggs
2 Cups Milk
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1 tbsp light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla 

Mix eggs, milk, cinnamon, brown sugar and vanilla together in a bowl.  One by one dip the bread pieces in the egg mixture and then lay into a pre-greased crock pot until all the bread pieces are in the crock.  Pour remaining egg/milk mixture over the bread. Cook on low for 4 - 6 hours, depending on the heat that your crock pot puts out. (Mine tends to cook a little hot, so I cooked mine for 4 1/2 hours.)  Let set for 20 minutes with the lid off before serving.

The kids really enjoyed this.  Heck, I enjoyed it.  I especially loved the outside ring of "toast" because it was crispy and delicious.  We served ours with syrup and fresh cut fruit. Nom nom nom.

If you try this, let me know what you did differently, a different bread?  Different spices?  I think I may want to add some nutmeg and leave out a good deal of the brown sugar next time around - and use raisin bread.

I must give credit where credit is due - the original pin and recipe came from this site,which I am starting to adore.  Thanks!

Peach Breakfast Cobbler

Since I am fairly new to the whole "cooking-breakfast-in-the-crockpot" thing, I've been staying fairly conservative in the recipes I'm trying out.  I'm still trying to figure out a)what the oven to crock pot temperature conversion ratio is and b)I'm kind of low on things like eggs and sausage right now, and with it being 120 bagillion degrees outside I don't want to go to the store to get more. So, conservative we stay - plus, it's kind of great to be able to use some of the food storage items we have around that need to be rotated.


So today, we are making peach cobbler.

1 large (28 oz) can of peaches - with juice.
1 white cake mix (or yellow, whichever you prefer. I think french vanilla might be good too...)
1 stick of butter cut into 8 to ten squares
1 cup brown sugar, divided
2 tsp cinnamon
pam (to spray the crock pot, of course)

1)Pour the can of peaches into the crock pot, including the juice (or syrup, whatever.)
2) Chop up the peaches.  I use a pampered chef food chopper right in the crock pot, you can use whatever you find easiest.
3) sprinkle 1/4 cup of the brown sugar over the peaches.
4) dump the entire cake mix (dry) on top of the peaches, spread it evenly.  DO NOT MIX.
5) Sprinkle remaining brown sugar over the cake mix.
6) sprinkle the cinnamon over the cake mix and brown sugar
7) Arrange the butter squares on top of the entire mixture.
8) Set the crock pot to cook on low for 6 hours at the required timer (I usually start mine at 11 PM to be done at 6.)
9) Go to bed, sleep, wake up - EAT!

I have to say, waking up each morning to a house that smells like freshly baked breakfast has taken me back to childhood.  I remember waking up each morning and mom having breakfast ready for us to enjoy before heading to school - in my very young formative years anyway.  I love that I can set the crock pot to do this for me - I only wish I had figured this whole thing out sooner.

Crock Pot Bread Pudding Breakfast

I found this one in a crock pot cook book, and modified it to fit our family taste buds. 

6 cups cubed sour dough bread (I bought a sliced loaf, and cubed it.)
6 eggs, beaten.
1 3/4 cups milk
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp (heaping!) cinnamon
1 cup raisins
1  cup fresh blueberries
1 cup pecan pieces ( the original recipe called for almonds.)
1 tsp vanilla

1) combine the eggs, milk, brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla in a large bowl.
2) Spray the inside of the crock with non-stick cooking spray
3) add the cubed bread to the crock, along with the fruit and nuts.  Toss to mix well.
4) pour milk mixture over the cubed bread (It will not cover the bread, nor do you want it to, I think.)
5) Toss to coat.
6) Set the timer to allow for four hours of cooking time, plus one hour of resting time after cooking. (Five hours total)
7) Go To bed.
8) Wake up and eat!   The original recipe also suggests you serve the bread pudding with fresh fruit.  I'm thinking strawberries.

Steel Cut Oatmeal Breakfast from the Crock Pot

2 Cups steel cut oats
3 cups milk
3 cups water
1 egg
1 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup pecan pieces
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup raspberries (I used fresh)
1 cup blueberries (I used fresh)
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1) crack egg and slightly beat
2) combine egg, milk, water, brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla.
3) pour all remaining ingredients into the crock pot then cover with milk mixture.  (will be VERY watery)
4) Set the timer for 7 hours on low, to be ready just as you wake up.  (So if you plan to wake up at 6 AM, set the timer to start cooking on low at 11 PM.)
5) go to bed
6) Wake up to a fresh breakfast.
All of the family liked this one, in fact, I had very little left over.  This recipe filled about half of my 6 quart crock, I have no idea how many cups that is, but I'd wager it was approximately 8 standard servings.
Again, no photo.  Sorry.  I honestly didn't think about blogging these until after I made tomorrows breakfast tonight. There will be one tomorrow, promise.

Baked Crock Pot Oatmeal

This year I'm trying to be a good mom and make sure the kids have a good breakfast each morning, and by good, I mean something other than a bowl of sugar cereal or a piece of toast...not that anything is wrong with that, mind you - but we all know that cereal and toast are a midnight snack food, not a breakfast staple...

ahem.

Anyway, I found a few recipes on pinterest a while back that made me think about using my crock pot for breakfast.  Why not?  I use my dutch oven all the time, and it's basically the same principle, right?  And since the recipes have been a big hit, I'm going to blog them so I know where to find the darn things later when I want to make them again.

So - here we go.

Baked Oatmeal

2 cups rolled oats
4 tsp cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar
8 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups cubed apples

1) Spray your crock pot with non-stick cooking spray (Do NOT forget this part, trust me.)
2) Combine all of the above in the crock pot and give it a good stir.  I think if I make this again, I'd add raisins, or maybe some nutmeg.  (mmmmmm....nutmeg.)
3) Set the timer so that your crock  pot will cook on low for 7 hours.
4) Go to bed.
5) Wake up to a crock full of oatmeal fresh and hot and ready.

You may want to serve the oatmeal with extra brown sugar on top.  My oldest didn't think it had enough flavor, where my son said, "It's like the spices are dancing in my mouth!"  I liked it just as it was, so did the husband.  Maybe the teenager is just being picky.

I didn't take pictures, because,well, I didn't think about it at the time.  Sorry  I'll promise to do better.