Beef and Beans

This is a new variation to an old favorite of ours.

Ingredients:

• 1 cans of chili bean
• 1 can of cannelloni bean
• 1 can black beans
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 lb. browned ground beef

Directions:

1. Mix beans, undrained, together.  
2. Add about 3/4 cup of water 
3. Add 1/2 pound of browned ground beef. 

The beans provide all of the seasoning that is needed.

Easy and quick to prepare. Nita called the taste "perfect", but I'm sure she exaggerates a bit. :)

Serve the leftovers over rice.

Guacamole

The amount of each ingredient depends mainly on your own personal taste, so I will simply list the ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 2 Fresh Avocados
• 1/3 White Onion - diced - I like the dices thick
• El Fenix Hot Sauce
• Garlic

Directions:

1. Mix and mash until the avocado is totally smooth.
2. Serve

For the two of us, I will use 2 avocados, 1/3 white onion and salsa/garlic to flavor until I get it right :)

Garlic Chicken

This one was basically a modification of a recipe in our slow cooker Owner's Guide.

Ingredients:

• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 2 sprigs fresh sage
• 2 sprigs fres Italian parsley
• Toasted French bread slices
• 40 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 4 pound whole chicken
• 2 stalks celery cut into 3 inch pieces

Directions:

1. Place 1/2 of the spices (except garlic) in the chicken cavity. (I don't use all of those spices for mine)
2. Place celery in bottom of slow cooker
3. Put chicken on top of celery and add garlic around the chicken along with remaining spices.
4. Cook on high 4 hours or low for 8 hours.

To serve, put all on a platter, squeeze garlic out of skins onto French bread and spread with knife.

Cabbage

Cabbage, I have been told, is a great food for those who want to lose weight. In the past 2 weeks, we have had 3-4 cabbage based meals, and I have lost 4 pounds (This was in 2010 and at that point, I was 18.5 pounds down from my highest weight ever - and that was before the cancer treatments).

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb chicken breakfast sausage
• 5 links of Archer Farms Garlic and Spinach Sausage with no casing
• 1/2 head of cabbage 

Directions:

1. Brown the sausages and cut into 1/2 inch slices
2. Boil the cabbage until it reaches the consistency you prefer
3. Mix and serve

 No seasoning is needed.

Tri-Tip Roast

When I asked the butcher for a tri-tip roast, he asked if I was from California. It seems the only people he met that even knew about a tri-tip were from California. Try it - it is very good.

Ingredients:

• 3-5 pound tri-tip roast
• 2 cups cream of mushroom soup
• 1 packet of dry onion soup mix
• fresh chopped garlic to taste
• 1 1/4 cups water

Directions:

1. Mix the soups and water in slow cooker.
2. Add the roast and coat it well with the soups/water.
3. Add as much garlic as you choose.
4. Cook for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high.

The juices from the roast mix with the soups to make a delicious gravy.
No other seasoning is necessary (except for the garlic).

December

Tostados, refried beans, nachos
Minute Steaks and soup
Noodles ala Russe
Korean Short Ribs
Sausage casserole
Pork chops with muffin stuffing
Waikiki meatballs
Shepherd's pic
Ragu and spaghetti

November

Fish Steaks with pineapple
Muffin Melt
Stuffed Pork Chops
Sausage and Spanish Rice
Turkey Breast and sweet potatoes
Tostado Pizza
Italian Sausage and cheese
Franks and Corn casserole
Veal Steaks and spaghetti
Cabbage and pinto beans
Chuck Roast in Barbecue sauce

October

Beef Roast
Ham with cabbage pudding
Cincinnati Chili
Beef Steak Pie
No-Peep Chicken
Lobster Quiche
Lobster

September

Teriyaki Chuck Roast, carrot and water chestnuts
Swedish Meatballs, noodles, beets
Chili Spaghetti Bravissimo
Chili-corn on English Muffins
Nachos, Mexicali Hash, refried beans
Sausage Stuffed Spinach
Round Steak
Chinese Steamed Chicken with Green Onions
Curry of Chicken Breast Crepes and cauliflower
Burger Beef Tiara with mixed vegetables
Seafood Newburg

August

Turkey, dressing, gravy
Spaghetti and meatballs
Turkey ala king on toast
Shish-kabobs
German potato salad with sausage links
Hun-Tung Soup, chicken and green pepper
Grilled spareribs with black-eyed peas
Corned beef and cabbage
Guacamole, burritos and beans
Pork Chops and spanish rice
Pepper steak, rice
Manicotti

July

City Chickens broccoli crepes
Stuffed Cabbage
Beef Goulash and noodles
Pizza burgers and zuchinni
Kielbasa and cabbage
T Bone steak with baked potato
Ground Beef stuffed zuchinni
Quiche Loraine
Smoked Chops, Brats Kielbasa and sauerkraut
Stuffed Peppers
Reuben sandwiches
Marzetti

June

Sweet and Sour Pork, rice
Swiss Steak
Enchiladas with chili relenos
Baked Country Ham from KY, mashed potatoes and gravy
Trout with noodle pudding
Beef Stroganoff
Bacon wrapped franks with beans
Sukiyaki
Sausage and musroom pizza
Steak Diane
Veal Birds (note - we will NEVER have them again - don't recommend trying them)
Green salad with salmon
Sirloin Tip Roast with potatoes, carrots and gravy

May

Fried sole, macaroni and cheese
Beef fondue
Brats, corn casserole
Lasagna
Wiener Schnitzel
Barbecued chicken
Stew
Crabmeat and broccoli crepes
Empress chili and spaghetti
Cornish Hens with scalloped potatoes
Bacon Burger and french fries

April

Tuna casserole with asparagus
Fried chicken
Hamburger-corn casserole
Dried chipped beef on toast
Hamburgers with tater tots
New York Strip steak with baked potato
Pork Roast with baked sweet potatoes
Chicken Kiev with rice and broccoli
Beef and mushroom fondue
Sloppy Joes

March

Beef and mashed potato bake
Meatloaf, asparagus, green beans
Cucumber salad, chili
Cole slaw, salmon patties, macaroni and cheese, broccoli
Broiled chicken, baked sweet potatoes
Baked round steak, cauliflower, peas
Broiled pork chops, peas, brussel sprouts
Guacamole salad, tamale pie, hot tortillas
Ham steak, brussel sprouts, creamed corn
Boston Clam Chowder, grilled cheese
Salisbury steak, carrots, cabbage
Stewed chicken, dumplings, pinto beans
Egg Foo Yung, spinach
Veal Parmegianna, spaghetti
Hamburger/Corn casserole

February

Fish with peas and cornbread
Bouef Shuee (French) with cream corn
Western Bean Bake with beets
Chinese style beef stead
Pork Chops with mixed veggies
Frankfurter Crown with cole slaw
Chicken Oriental with egg rolls
Lox and bagels
Baked Chuck Roast with potatoes and carrots
Swordfish with green beans
Turkey soup with grilled cheese
Chicken goulash with peas and spiced peaches

Meals for a year - January

It was somewhere around 1978 in Chicago when Nita and I began talking about putting more variety into our meals and still staying within our budget. We did so by making sure we never duplicated a recipe for an entire year.

Here are our meals for January (recognize that we no longer eat pork products, but we did back then and that the larger meats were used for leftovers):

Duck with wild rice dressing
Ham with lima beans and potatoes
Ham ala king
Chop Suey with egg rolls
Veal Elegante
Chicken parisienne crepes
Chicken soup and childen salad
Grinders
Corned Beef with zuchinni and cucumbers
Lasagna Roma with garlic bread

Meat Loaf - Onion, Lamb and GB style

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 lb. ground lamb
• 3/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1 envelope Lipton Dry Onion Soup
• 3/4 cup ketchup
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup water

Directions:

1. shape into loaf onto baking sheet or loaf pan (actually, I prefer to shape into 4 equal loaves of 1/4 pound each - easier to serve, to bake evenly and to freeze leftovers)
2. thickly dice 1/4 large onion and layer on top - poking into the loaf
3. cook in slow cooker on high 4 hours.
4. thickly dice 1/4 large onion and layer on top - poking into the loaf

Remove from slow cooker and serve. May add ketchup or BBQ sauce over the top of each loaf if you like.

Garlic Chicken

Easy Garlic Chicken:

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts
• 1 cup of chicken broth
• one thickly sliced onion
• 7 red new potatoes
• 3 tsps of freeze dried garlic
• garlic pepper to taste
• garlic salt to taste

All cooked together in the slow cooker for 4 hrs. on high

We love garlic, if you only "like" it, you may need to cut back on some of it. Just make sure to get enough salt and pepper on the potatoes.

Oven Eggs

I enjoy a variety of ways to cook eggs. It amazes me how cooking them differently gives them slightly different tastes. That is why I have several egg cooking items like egg coddlers and poachers. I even use the waffle iron at times.

The size of the skillet and the number of eggs can vary to fit how much you need.

Directions:

1. Spray a cast iron skillet or melt butter to cover the bottom
2. Crack 4 eggs into skillet 
3. Add sea salt and pepper
4. Add a mixture of cheeses on top - any cheese you like
5. Preheat oven to 350 
6. Bake for 10 minutes

Chuck Roast

Ingredients:

• One or two Yukon Gold Potatoes sliced thick.
• One or two Red Potatoes sliced thick.
• One or two Idaho Potatoes sliced thick.
• One large white onion sliced thick.
• Two stalks celery sliced thick.
• One can Pinto Beans.
• One container of sauerkraut

Directions:

1. Place all veggies in bottom of slow cooker and place chuck roast on top. 
2. Sprinkle with garlic pepper and garlic salt. 
3. Add a thin layer of sauerkraut on top of the roast.

Cook on high or low for maximum time if you like it well done; less time if you want it less well.

Bean Soup

I didn't use a recipe but Nita liked it anyway.

One package of dry navy beans and one package of purple hull beans - follow preparation instructions. Season to taste.

First day was just the beans as a side dish.

Second day, I added about 1/4 lb. cooked ground beef.

Third day, I added water, a can of Great Northern Beans, celery and onion and made it into a soup that lasted 2 more meals.

Bean, Beef and Rice Progression

The first night, I simply mixed one can of pinto beans with one can of diced tomatoes and 1/3 cup of rice.

The second night, I added 1/2 pound of browned ground beef and a 1/2 cup water.

The third night, I added a can of navy beans and enough water to make it into a soup.

That way, we had a progressive dinner three nights in a row from a basic start, and it was still different each night. The amounts can vary to suit your taste and the number of people being served.

Duck A L'Orange

Makes 4 servings, but we got more. This recipe was modified from one I saw on the internet. I made many changes. There are 2 parts - the duck and the sauce. Brian and James and Nita all liked it.

Total time is about 2.5 hours; active time is about 45 minutes.

Duck - ingredients:

1 tbsp. sea salt
1 tsp. coriander
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. pepper
1 Muscovy Duck (could use Long Island or Pekin)
1/2 orange cut into 4 pieces
1/2 orange for juice
1 small onion cut into 8 wedges
1/2 cup Triple Sec
1/2 cup stock - either from duck, veal or chicken
1/2 carrot
1/2 rib of celery

Duck preparation:

Preheat oven to 475
Stir together the salt, coriander, cumin and pepper. Pat duck dry and sprinkle spice mixture inside and out. Put orange pieces and 4 onion pieces in the duck cavity.

Squeeze juice from remaining 1/2 orange and mix well with Triple Sec and stock - set aside for later.

Place remaining 4 onion wedges into roasting pan with the carrot and celery; place duck on top of the veggies and roast 30 minutes. Turn on broiler and broil cuck 3-4 inches from heat until top is golden brown - about 3 minutes (I think I did it longer, though, since I like the skin crispy).

Pour Triple Sec mixture into roasting pan and reduce temperature to 350. Continue to roast until duck temperature is 170 (about 1 - 1.25 hours). Let duck stand 15 minutes.

Sauce Ingredients:

1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup fresh orange juice from 1-2 oranges
2 tbsp. white vinegar
1/8 tsp sea salt
2-4 tbsp chicken broth
1 tbsp softened butter
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. julienne fresh orange zest - I used a vegetable peeler to get the zest

Sauce Preparation:

While the duck is roasting, cook sugar in a dry 1-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, undisturbed, until it begins to melt. Continue to cook, stirring with a fork until the sugar melts into a deep golden caramel.

USE EXTREME CAUTION HERE!!!

Add orange juice, vinegar and salt - the mixture will bubble, pop and steam vigorously.

Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally until the caramel is dissolved. Remove syrup from heat and set aside.

Final Preparation

Discard the veggies from the roasting pan and pour pan juices through a fine sieve into a 1-2 quart heavy sauce pan. Add enough stock to pan juices to total 1 cup of liquid

Stir together butter and flour and add to the pan juices when they begin to simmer - whisk constantly to prevent lumps. Add orange syrup and zest and simmer, whisking occasionally until sauce is thickened slightly and zest is tender - about 5 minutes.

Serve sauce with the duck and enjoy!

Potatoes and Asparagus

1/2 pound of new potatoes quartered
1/2 pound fresh asparagus
olive oil to taste
garlic to taste

Wash the potatoes but do not peel them. Bring water to a boil then add potatoes, cover and boil 10 minutes.

Cut off the hard base of the asparagus, then cut the remainder of each stalk into 1 inch long pieces. Add to the potatoes and boil for 5 minutes. Add salt, pepper, olive oil and garlic to suit your own taste. This only makes 2 servings, so adjust to fit

Enjoy.

Cauliflower

OK, so you don't like cauliflower. Maybe you just haven't had it fixed properly. I really like it raw, with or without some dressing such as Vidalia Onion, Bleu Cheese, Roquefort, Ranch etal.

But the best way I have ever had cauliflower was the way my mother fixed it. I have never seen a recipe for it, but I do remember it.

Cut out the stem of a fresh head of cauliflower and split the florets being careful to keep them large. Small forets will get mushy too quickly. Boil the florets in lightly salted water for 10 minutes - just long enough to make it a tad soft, but still crispy.

Make a white sauce. I use one out of an old Betty Crocker recipe book. Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a sauce pan over low heat. Stir separately 8 tablespoons flour with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and as much pepper as you like (we like a lot, some use a "dash" - some also use white pepper). Add this mixture to the butter and stir. Add 2 cups of milk quickly. Stir constantly and remove from the heat when it starts to bubble. You can also add your favorite cheese or other flavoring if you like (I don't generally). Be careful to pay attention to the cooking of the sauce because it can get too thick and the butter will separate.

Cover the cauliflower with the sauce and serve hot. It reheats well in a conventional oven.

Bourbon-glazed Salmon

I modified a recipe I saw in a newspaper.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup bourbon
• 3 tbsp. tomato paste
• 3 tbsp. honey
• 2 tbsp. capers
• 3/4 lb. salmon

Directions:

1. Blend broth, bourbon, tomato paste, honey and capers and heat to a simmer.
2. Add the salmon (whole or divide it as you choose). 
3. Simmer for 4 minutes and turn the salmon. 
4. Simmer for another 4 minutes (we like our fish quite well done). 
5. Spoon excess glaze over the salmon. 

Nita gave it a 9.75 on a scale of 10 - said it could always use more bourbon.

Ground Beef and Pasta

OK, this won't make anyone's top 10 list, but I mixed one pound of ground beef with one can of Rotel, one can of pinto beans (I would have preferred black beans but didn't have any) and 4 portions of pasta and some chopped onion. I only used garlic pepper and garlic salt for seasoning. Nita liked it :)

Grits

Garlic Grits

Ingredients (all amounts according to number of servings):

• Grits made according to package and number of servings needed
• garlic pepper
• garlic salt
• 3 Italian Cheeses
• butter. 

If you think you don't like Grits alone - try them this way and you might be surprised. The garlic really adds to them.

Onion Soup

Onion Soup -- I will give the ingredients, but the amounts are dependent on how much you need. I use at least one of every kind of onion I can find - white, yellow, red, Vidalia, then add at least one fresh leek cut in thick slices. The liquid I use is beef broth.

Just let it cook for several hours so the flavors of the onions and leek combine with each other - the longer you cook it, the better it will be. No seasoning is necessary. You can't get much easier for a tasty soup than this.

Chicken Rockefeller

Ingredients:

• 9-10 oz. fresh baby spinach
• one egg
• 1 tsp. grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1 cup Italian breadcrumbs
• 6 chicken breasts
• sea salt to your taste
• black pepper to your taste
• crushed garlic to your taste

Directions:

1. cook 9-10 oz spinach, drain, cool, combine with one beat egg and 1 tsp grated Parmesan and set aside 
2. mix 1 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs and 1/4 cup Parmesan 
3. season 6 chicken breasts to taste
4. roll in breadcrumbs 
5. place in a greased 13x9x2 baking dish 
6. spread spinach mixture on top of each piece of chicken
7. add chopped garlic 
8. bake at 350 for 40 mins.

Pastitio

Pastitio --

Step 1 - the bechamel: bring 1 1/8 cups mile to a simmer & set aside; melt 5 tbsp. butter; put 6 tbsp flour in blender and start it - add melted butter and 1 cup of the milk thru lid slot; blend until smooth; stir this mix in with remainder of milk; simmer until thick; season with salt/pepper as desired; set aside - in fridge if making ahead

Step 2 - melt 2 tbsp butter in large saute pan on med.high; add one large chopped onion and saute; add 1 1/2 lbs ground lamb; saute until browned; season with garlic salt, cinnamon and nutmeg to taste; stir in 1/2 cup tomato sauce; salt and pepper to taste; set aside - can be made up in advance and save in refrigerator

Step 3 - preheat oven to 300; cook 1/2 lb macaroni to al dente; drain and return to the warm pan; stir in 2 tbsp melted butterand 2 beaten eggs; lightly butter 9x11 baking dish; put in 1/2 pasta mix; layer 1/8 cup grated parmesan cheese; layer all the meat mix; layer another 1/8 cup of cheese; layer 2 1/4 cup bechamel; poke top with fork to allow sauce to seep into the lower layers; add 1/2 cup chicken broth; cover with 3/4 cup parmesan; bake 1 hour; serve immediately, cut in squares

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

Roll the fresh fish in beaten egg
Coat with grated Parmesan cheese
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
Bake in oven to your desired wellness with a touch of olive oil.

Simple and it came out quite good.

Variation I have tried - add some bread crumbs with the Parmesan cheese and fry in Canola oil.