Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Easy "Beef" Stroganoff

I got the idea of this from "Whole Foods for the Whole Family" but I changed it so much (added 5 ingredients) that I'm not sure you could say it is from there any longer. ::snort::

1 lb lean ground beef or ground turkey
1 onion, chopped
1/4 C butter
2 T flour
1/4 C Ketchup
1 C beef broth
1/2 tsp sea salt
Dash of pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
mushrooms
1 C plain yogurt (or sour cream)
Pasta or rice

Brown meat with onion, mushrooms and butter (my organic turkey is so lean that there is no need to drain...if using hamburger or something cook, drain and then add butter and flour). Sprinkle flour in and stir. Add ketchup, broth, salt, garlic (I used that amount twice and then dumped), pepper (used lots of dashes) and Worcestershire sauce (also gave a few extra splashes of this).Simmer until done. Stir in yogurt just before serving. Sever over pasta or rice.
Shepherd's Pie (Was that a hint Lisa? Jodi, please share your veggie pie???)

This is a dump as you go recipe...but this is how it goes...

Originally:
1 - 2 lbs of hamburger
16 oz of frozen mixed vegetables
2 jars of beef gravey
mashed potatoes

Fry hamburger and mix with veggies and gravey. Place in 9 x 13 pan. Top with mashed potatoes and bake at 350* for 30 min.

ADAPTED:
1 -2 lbs of "turkey breakfast sausage" - the kids really like sausage in this - sometimes I mix beef and sausage... This is one reason they finally like it - because I solved our sausage problem. LOL

Either frozen mixed veggies or steam whatever veggies you have

I used about 2 cups maybe 3 cups of organic beef broth...thickened it with cornstarch. I then mixed that with the meat and veggies and placed in the pan. I dumped some spices....garlic, onion salt, salt...

Meanwhile boil potatoes. Mash them with 8 oz of cream cheese and garlic. Top your meat mixture bake as before.

*Thou Shalt Not Grill* by Tamar Myers

I’ve been trying to stretch this series out all year. The children bought this for me last year for Christmas. They know I love to read books “in order” and I love to immerse myself in a series.

This has been a fun series, as I’ve mentioned before. In *Thou Shalt Not Grill” we accompany Magdalena Yoder to one of the wackiest “family” reunions/town celebrations you’ll ever attend. I hope. The edition of the Babesters Jewish mama to the small Amish/Mennonite town of Hernia is hilarious.

This series is simply pure, relaxing, FUN! I don’t sweat the “waste of time” to read it because frankly….reading is how we choose to relax around here…and we all need some time to let our minds “veg out”. Tamar Myers does that for me.

I have ONE book left to read and it’s October….Assault and Peppered….but I checked at Tamarmyers.com and a brand new one came out in Feb of 2006. I bet I can stretch these into November.

I’d love to hear ideas for a series to request for this year for Christmas. It was a wonderful gift.
A Blessed Day

This was one of those rare days where we had NOTHING on the calendar. Josiah didn’t even have to work. What a joy!!!

We did school (though we didn’t get to the Orphan Train book until bedtime).

The littles set up “Cool World Park” in the younger boys’ room. They came running in with tickets. It’s always fun to see their imaginations at work. I’ll share more with the pictures…if the pictures will upload.

I’ve taken THREE different pictures of Arielle’s squares and blogger won’t accept any of them. I wonder WHY?

I made myself sit down and play the “Narnia” board game with Arielle, Nolan and Zander. They love that game. We also put together a big dinosaur puzzle.

Last night one of our ladies had brought “butterscotch brownies” (Blondies) to Bible Study. I brought four of them home – obviously not much more than a taste each and the boys really liked them. Joyce had told me that it was from Betty Crocker. I got that out and attempted it. I substituted butter for shortening and rapadura for brown sugar….fresh ground flour…they were good and are gone…but they didn’t rise and get cakey…they were more like the ooey gooey butter cake I used to make. Ah well – I’ll try again. I HAVE been trying to figure out how to make ooey gooey now that I have sworn off packaged cake mixes (not good for Zander). I just wish I could get them to taste like Joyce’s “brownies”. LOL

The boys wanted stroganoff this week. I usually use the master beef mix from 30 day Gourmet. With the mix in the freezer I can make stew or stroganoff or several other dishes. I didn’t have any in the freezer. I also didn’t have the round steak to make it….nor the time. I found a recipe for “Easy Stroganoff”. I could tell right off that it needed much more spice!!!! {G} but it turned out good and the kids liked it. Nolan and Arielle even had a few bites of it. The older boys said they liked it as well. I used ground turkey because that is what I had…it comes in 3 lb chubs so the good news is that I got another dinner in the freezer.

After dinner I read to the younger ones – We finished a Great Brain book and read two more chapters in the OT book.

Arielle, Nolan, Stacia, Zander and I went for a bike ride. I learned several things: 1. it’s hard to ride a bike in tight jeans and sandals and 2. it’s a tougher workout with two in the bike trailer.

I finally got Stacia down (10:00 p.m. here regardless of the blog clock). She has changed her nap time the last few days from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. This is NOT good because then she doesn’t want to go to bed at 8:30 p.m. It’s o.k. for now but won’t be good when Mike is home. I need to start figuring out how to get her down at 1:00 p.m. That is the perfect time for her to nap as she isn’t very cranky then before bed time.
Cool World Park ~ BUSTED!!!

Do you see what this is? A ROCK CLIMBING WALL - obviously. Now I know why their wall is getting so marked up. :::snort:::

Once again the photos of Arielle aren't loading. I wonder if it the color green she is wearing - it's the same color as one of her quilt squares. They had built "Grandma's house" and she was inside dressed in a mask etc. It was cute. I'll try to load it later.

Packages continue to arrive daily! I loved getting the big SL boxes we used to get; but I'm starting to think the daily boxes are even more fun.