On the 5th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

♪ ♫ ...fiiiiiiiiive pounds of chili ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ four clear glass bulbs ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ three quick breads ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ two craft projects ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ and an invite to Christmas Eve. ♫ ♪

Okay, maybe not five pounds, but pretty close to it.  :)

We had our first considerable snowfall in southeast Michigan last weekend.  It was sooo cold, and all I could think about was warm, comfort food.

Chili

Recipe courtesy of my mom's co-worker

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground chuck
• 1 lb ground sirloin
• 1 pkt mild chili seasoning (I use McCormick)
• 1 pkt hot chili seasoning
• 1 can hot chili beans
• 1 can red kidney beans
• 1 can mild chili beans (optional)
• 1 can stewed tomatoes or 1 can diced tomatoes with onions
• 1 small onion, diced (if you use stewed tomatoes or diced tomatoes without onion)
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 tsp sugar

Directions:

1. Brown the ground beef in a skillet and drain the fat.  Transfer to a slow cooker.
2. Add chili seasoning packets, beans, tomatoes, onion (if using), and sugar.
3. Mix everything well and heat on medium for 3-4 hours.

I used a can of Chili Ready w/ Onions - Red Gold Diced Tomatoes.  I hate cutting up onions and this eliminates that step for me.  :) 

I also only use two cans of beans.  I don't like beans, so the less there are the better.  They're so gross.  What's up with the texture?  If you don't believe me, this is what my bowl looks like when I'm done eating:

I can be such a child sometimes.  :)

Beef Stew

It's been pretty chilly here in Michigan the last few days, pretty far below the normal temperature averages for this time of the year.  When it gets this chilly I think of two things:  the cider mill and comfort foods.  A trip to the cider mill wasn't in the cards yesterday, so I decided to make beef stew instead.  :)

Beef Stew

Recipe courtesy of McCormick

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg. McCormick® Beef Stew Seasoning Mix
• 2 lbs. stew beef, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 3 tbsp. flour
• 2 tbsp. oil
• 3 cups water
• 5 cups cut-up fresh vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, onions and celery

McCormick's Directions:

1. COAT beef with flour.  Heat oil in large deep skillet or Dutch oven on medium heat.  Add beef; cook until browned on all sides.
2. STIR in Seasoning Mix and water.
3. BRING to boil; cover.  Reduce heat and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Add vegetables; simmer 45 minutes or until beef and vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.  Thicken stew with additional flour, if desired.

My Directions:

1. COAT beef with flour.  Heat oil in large deep skillet on medium heat.  Add beef; cook until browned on all sides.
2. STIR seasoning mix and water together in a crock pot.  Add beef and vegetables.
3. COOK on high for 5 hours or low if you're going to have it on all day while you're at work.

This time I only used 1lb of stewing beef.  That's all I had in the freezer.  I used carrots, potatoes, and onions.  I didn't have any celery, so that was axed.  Even with the slight changes, it was really good!  The broth was nice and thick, no need to add extra flour.  I paired the stew with whole wheat bread and butter.  The perfect dinner for such a chilly day!

Burger Queen?

So I'm not really a burger queen.  I'm not even the queen of the grill.  Ryan would be the king of that domain.  I cover the kitchen, but he gets the grill.  :)

Tonight for dinner we finished off the burgers we had leftover from this weekend's BBQ with our friends.  I was going to make a salad to with our meal, but the lettuce I purchase on Friday was NASTY!  Seriously...I've never had lettuce go bad that quickly before.  Looks like I don't know how to pick a good head of lettuce.  Our side with dinner consisted only of pickles.  I have a feeling we'll be getting something later when we go to Pint Night at Baileys'.  :)

Without further ado...


Grilled Hamburgers

Ingredients:

• 1lb ground meat (I use ground sirloin or lean beef)
• 1-2 Tbls Mrs. Dash® Hamburger Grilling Blend™ seasoning

Directions:

1. Mix 1-2 Tbls of the Mrs. Dash seasoning in with your ground beef.  The Mrs. Dash bottle calls for 2 Tbls per 1lb of beef, but we think that is too much.  I used a little less than 1 Tbls this last time, and thought it was the perfect amount.  I also use my Kitchenaid mixer to mix the meat.  It's just so much easier than using your hands.  Your hands can do the job just fine though.
2. Divide the meat mixture in fours.  Then just smush the meat together and flatten out into patties with your (clean) hands.  I heard a tip once that you should make an indent in the center of the patty.  I think it helps keep the burger flat while you grill it.  It's always worked great for me!
3. Grill!  I don't know the specifics on the grilling part because I've never done it myself.  The amount of time will depend on how well you like your burgers done.  Don't forget to top it with cheese if you like cheese burgers!

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July holiday celebrating our country's independence!

One of Three

Yes, you read that right.  This will be the first post of three! 

Saturday was Kitchenpalooza.  I started out making banana bread to pass out for Mother's Day on Sunday.  That post will come later.  I then decided to make meatloaf for dinner.  That recipe will be featured in this post.  The third post will be for lemon meringue pie.  My mom asked if I was going to make her something special for Mother's Day, so how could I say no?

Meatloaf

Recipe courtesy of my mother  :)

Ingredients:

• 1lb ground beef  (I used extra lean)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup italian bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup diced onion or 1/2 pkg of onion soup mix  (I use Lipton)
• 1 egg

Directions:

1. Mix everything together well.  You can either use your hands or a stand mixer. 
2. Form the meat mixture in a ball on a pie plate and smush it down.  (You can also put it in a loaf pan.) 
3. Bake for 1 hour in a 350 degree oven.

I know I've posted this recipe before, but I didn't post any photos with it.  So, now you have photos!  :)  Ryan and I usually pair our meatloaf with mashed potatoes, some other sort of vegetable, and ketchup (of course!).  We aren't fancy, and we like it!

My Favorite Meal

Tuesday night I finally made Mostacholi!  This is one of my absolute favorite meals, and it's so easy to make.  Of course I forgot to take a photo until after I had served it, but you get the idea.  :)  Sorry it looks kind of gross.  I promise it tastes good!

Mostacholi

Recipe courtesy of my mother  :)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 box of mostacholi/penne noodles
• 26 oz jar of spaghetti sauce (I use Prego)
• 1 cup (?) mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cook pasta as directed on box and drain.
3. While the pasta is cooking, brown ground beef and drain.  Add the entire jar of sauce to the beef and simmer while the noodles finish cooking.
4. Mix pasta and sauce mixer together in an oven safe dish.  Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and bake for 30 minutes.

That's it!  We usually have a ton left over when it's just Ryan and me eating, so I only made half the recipe this time.  I made the sauce for a whole recipe, but froze half of it to use the next time we have this for dinner.  I only used a quarter of a box of pasta and used a smaller dish.

Tonight I will leave you with this:

The largest grape I have ever seen!  It was bigger than my thumb!!!

Swiss Steak

Tonight we had Swiss Steak.  Even though it's one of the easiest meals I make, it tastes pretty darn good!  AND I finally remembered to take a photo!  Please feel free to virtually pat me on the back.  :)

I know I've already posted the recipe once, but what the heck...it's so easy, I'll post it again!

Swiss Steak

Recipe courtesy of my mother

Ingredients:

• 1 lb cubed steak
• 1 can stewed tomatoes
• 1/4 can water
• 1 small onion, sliced in rings

Directions:

1. Brown the steaks in a pan and transfer to a slow cooker/crock pot.  
2. Pour the can of stewed tomatoes over the steaks. 
3. Add water, about a 1/4 of the tomato can. 
4. Add onions to the top and let cook on high for 3 hours.  If you're putting this on while you're at work, put your cooker on low.

We paired our Swiss Steak with mashed potatoes and carrots.  Yes, I use instant potatoes and canned carrots.  We have no complaints here, and this takes even less time to make!

Tomorrow we're having mostacholi.  This is probably my favorite meal that I cook for us, and it's also super simple!  Do you sense a theme here??

It's Taco Time!

I made tacos for dinner on Sunday in order to use up the half can of diced tomatoes we had leftover from our meal on Friday.  We actually got two meals out of the tacos - we had them again tonight!

Taco Night

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground beef (or chicken or turkey)
• 1 pkg taco seasoning (I used Meijer brand or whatever is on sale)
• taco shells/tortillas/tortilla chips
• diced tomatoes (or salsa)
• shredded cheese (I used Meijer brand Mexican mix)
• shredded lettuce
• sour cream (Neither of us like sour cream, but I imagine someone out there does!)

Directions:

1. Brown meat and drain the fat.  Follow directions on the taco seasoning package to prepare taco meat.
2. Serve with all the trimmings!

I like to eat my tacos with soft tortilla shells, and Ryan likes to make a sort of taco salad with tortilla chips. 

It would be an understatement to say that this was a super simple meal.  The most time consuming part was probably browning the meat and shredding the lettuce. 

I won't be blogging as much in the upcoming days.  We are having pizza tomorrow, and I'm going out to dinner with some friends on Friday.  I may cook on Thursday, but it'll probably be something I've already blogged about like chicken alfredo or even something easier like grilled cheese.  I do plan on making mostacholi in the near future, so stay tuned for that!

Still no photos...

I really need to get better at taking photos! I made Swiss Steak for dinner tonight. This is something we have pretty regularly, so I'll be sure to take photos next time. Believe me? :)

Swiss Steak
Another receipe from my mom.

Ingredients:
1 package of Swiss Steak. I think it was almost a pound.
1 can of stewed tomatoes
1/4 can water
1/2 onion sliced in rings

Directions:
Brown the steaks in a pan and transfer to a slow cooker/crock pot. Pour the can of stewed tomatoes over the steaks. Add water, about a 1/4 of the tomato can. Add onions to the top and let cook on high for 3 hours. If you're putting this on while you're at work, put your cooker on low.


We usually have this with mashed potatoes and some sort of vegetable, but we had baked potatoes tonight. Turns out I prefer mashed! We had cooked carrots with it tonight, but corn is also good.

This is super simple and surprisingly really yummy!

Grandma's Birthday Dinner

Well, grandma's birthday party went well if I do say so myself! I ended up making a tossed salad, baked pototoes, and meatloaf. We also had corn, green beans, and french bread rolls. For dessert we got an ice cream cake from Cold Stone. I was actually surprised how good it was! The icing was awesome. I wonder if they make regular cakes?? Probably not, huh?

Meatloaf
My mother's receipe.  :)

Ingredients:
1lb ground beef (I used extra lean)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup italian bread crumbs
1/2 cup diced onion or 1/2 pkg of onion soup mix (I used Lipton)
1 egg

Directions:
Mix everything together well! You can either use your hands or a mixer like I do. I absolutely love my Kitchaid! I then form my meat mixture in a ball on a pie plate and kinda smush it down. You can also put it in a loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour in a 350 degree oven.


It's as simple as that! The photo I took didn't really turn out all that well, so I'll have to remember to take another one the next time I make it.

Enjoy!