Beef Tips

I love this recipe because you can do it in a crock pot, or if you forget to set it up in the morning, you can do it in the oven. I chose to do it in the oven this time, but I have to be honest, I like it better in the crock pot. It gets more tender that way. Also, when you mix everything together you can do water or any type of lemon-lime soda. That also makes it better. It gives it this slight sweetness, but not too sweet.
Like most of my recipes, it only takes a few ingredients and it's super easy to put together.

Ingredients:
~2 lbs Stew Beef
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 packet Brown Gravy Mix
1 packet Onion Soup Mix
1 cup Water or 1 can Lemon-Lime Soda
1 bag Egg Noddles

In a 9X13 pyrex or in your crock pot mix together the cream of mushroom soup, brown gravy mix, onion soup mix, and water or soda. Add the meat and stir to coat. If you're cooking the oven cover with foil and place in the oven at 300 degrees for 2 1/2- 3 hours. If you're using a crock pot set on low and cook for 6-8 hours. When the meat is nearly done, cook the egg noodles according to directions. Drain and place 1 Tbsp of butter and stir to melt butter. Serve warm.

So tasty!

Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin

This recipe is AAAAA-MAZING! My sister found this recipe on Pinterest and told me and another sister about it. So we, of course, had to go check it out. I'm not even joking when I say it tastes like ribs. It's so tender and melts in your mouth. The recipe is from another blog called C + C Marriage Factory and if I can ever meet them I would say THANK YOU! I absolutely love it when I come across these gem recipes, it makes my heart and tummy very happy. :)

This is a crock pot recipe but it does require a couple steps. It's not complicated, but it's not one of those crock pot recipes that you can set and forget.

Ingredients:

1 (2 lbs) Pork tenderloin or regular loin
1 tsp. Ground Sage
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Pepper
1 Clove of Garlic, crushed
1/2 Cup Water

Glaze:
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Tbsp. Cornstarch
1/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 Cup Water
2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

Combine sage, salt, pepper, and garlic. Rub all over the roast. Place in the crock pot (or place in the crock pot first and rub the mixture on it then) and add water. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
About an hour before it's done cooking, mix brown sugar, cornstarch, Balsamic vinegar, water and soy sauce in a sauce pan over medium high heat. whisk together until thick and bubbly.
Brush the glaze over the roast 2-3 times during that last hour. Serve roast with extra glaze on the side.

That glaze is so good I've tried to bottle the left over and labeled it Smack your mama good glaze. But after a while it separates and it wasn't as good. So I wouldn't recommend doing that.

Cheese Steak Subs

I've been super busy since I went back to school. I've had this recipe ready to roll for a while, but I just haven't had the time or energy to post it on here. But look at what I've been doing! Meet my mannequin Vivian. ;)

                          


I'm only 2 weeks in at this point and I have all year to go. I can't wait to start cutting on real people's hair. :)

So since I'm going to school all day (literally, I don't get home until around 4:30) I need quick and easy recipes to make for dinner. I don't have time to put a whole lot of effort in dinner when I have a 3 year old who wants my attention and a 3 month old who just wants to be fed.

I love this cheese steak recipe. This so easy and super good. But I will go ahead and warn you, if you don't like onions, this will not be your thing. You can't even modify the recipe to no onions because they are literally everywhere.

Ingredients:
Cheap thin steak
Soft buns
1/2 Onion
1 can French Onion Soup
Provolone Cheese

Slice the steak and onion as thin as you can. Sprinkle with a healthy dose of salt and pepper. Cook in a skillet at a high temperature. They will start to juice up real nice. Cook until all the juice has reduced. Add the can of French Onion soup and reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the liquid has evaporated.
Cut your bun in half and spoon some of the meat mixture on it and top with cheese. Set under the broiler for 1-2 minutes until the cheese is nice and bubbly.

Oh.my.goodness. My mouth is watering just looking at this. Enjoy ya'll!

Smoked Sausage Pasta

I came across this recipe on Pinterest and I ALMOST didn't pin it. Actually, I didn't at first and when I was at the store I thought to myself that I would try it out anyway. I bought some stuff I remember it needed and when I came back home I went back to find it so I could pin it. It was a bit spicy for our taste so I changed it up with normal diced tomatoes instead of the Ro-tel diced tomatoes. Curtis always says how awesome this is at least 3-4 times each time he eats it. Then when there's left overs he asks if it's ok if he finishes it followed by how awesome this is. So, it's pretty awesome guys.

The original recipe called for turkey smoked sausage, but since Curtis is allergic to chicken and we don't know if turkey is the same or not we stay away from it too. Plus I think that a smoked beef sausage tastes much much better. It also called for chicken broth so I subbed it with vegetable broth. I was afraid that it wasn't going to work, but it did!  I never was one of those that kept heavy whipping cream in the fridge, but since this recipe calls for it, I now keep it in stock.

I make this approximately once a week. If my man loves it, I'm gonna make it. It reminds me of a fancy macaroni and cheese with cut up hot dogs in it.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
~1 lb. Smoked Sausage, cut
1 Onion, diced
2 Cloves of Garlic, minced
2 Cups Chicken Broth or Vegetable Broth
1 (10 oz) can of diced tomatoes
1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
8 oz. Penne Pasta,, uncooked
1/2 tsp. Salt and Pepper, each
1 Cup Colby/Monterrey Jack Cheese blend

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add cut up sausage and onions and cook a few minutes until slightly browned. Add garlic and cook for a few seconds.
Add the broth, tomatoes, cream, pasta, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the pasta is tender. Stir occasionally.
Turn off the heat and add 1/2 cup of cheese and stir until all melted and well blended. Top with the rest of the cheese (or maybe a little bit more). You can put it in your oven broiler if your skillet is oven safe until it is bubbly and spotted brown. Mine isn't so I just wait until the warmth of the dish melts the cheese on top.

I know this doesn't look too good, but it is.

This was hot out of the skillet so it's a bit runny. If you let it stand and cool just a bit, it will thicken up.

Three Cheese Pizza Pasta Bake

I am giving 100% credit and props to my husband for this recipe. His taste buds gave him a revelation that even I was surprised by. Like most everybody now, I find most of my recipes on Pinterest. Greatest invention ever. But, sometimes you strike out on recipes that you find. You think to yourself "Ooooo! This looks and sounds tasty." Then you try it and... not so much. Well this is what happened here. I found this recipe for a pasta bake and it was with cheese. I thought to myself "pasta- good, cheese- good!" Well, it's not that it was bad, but it was just way, way, way bland. Curtis told me not to make that again. So I shrugged and put the left overs in a container and put it in the fridge.

One day, as Curtis likes to do, he reached in the fridge for a little snack while he was holding our baby, and pulled out the pasta bake instead of mashed potatoes. Who just wants to eat mashed potatoes, by the way? He decided to eat it anyways, even though it wasn't what he was looking for. He said "You know, this would be a lot better with some garlic in it, and some sort of tomato sauce. Do we have any?" All we had was pizza sauce, so he went for it. He sprinkled some garlic powder, a little pizza sauce, and then he topped it off with some crumbled crackers. I gave him a weird look that said there is no way this is going to be any good. He nukes it in the microwave for a few seconds and takes a bit. He didn't say anything other than asking me to taste it. I did and I was shocked. It was SO much better!

I told him I would try to make it as a full recipe and if it turned out good I would include it in my blog. I did, and it was pretty good! So here you have it, a recipe for a pasta bake a la Curt.

Ingredients:
1 package of Ziti Pasta
1 Jar of Alfredo Sauce (16-20 oz)
1 container of Sour Cream (8 oz)
1 container of Ricotta or Cottage Cheese (15 oz) I used Ricotta
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese
1 Jar of Pizza Sauce
2 Cups Mozzarella Cheese
About 20 Multi-Grain Crackers, crushed Or any other crackers you want, or you can omit

Preheat oven to 350.

Cook Ziti according to the package. In another large bowl, mix together the Alfredo sauce and sour cream. Once Ziti is cooked, drain and add to the Alfredo sauce mixture. In a smaller bowl combine Ricotta or cottage cheese, eggs, garlic powder, and Parmesan Cheese. In a 9 X 13 baking dish, layer half of the pasta, then your Ricotta cheese mixture, then the jar of pizza sauce, then the remainder of your pasta. Top with the Mozzarella cheese and cracker crumbles.
Bake for 30 minutes or until the cheese and nice and melted.

Alfredo sauce and sour cream

Add pasta

Ricotta, eggs, Parmesan, and garlic powder

Pasta, Ricotta mixture, and pizza sauce. Make sure you spread it evenly.

More pasta, Mozzarella, and crackers

Surprisingly good! You know, for the hubs coming up with it. :)

Crockpot Steak n' Gravy

I hope everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving! As a tradition in our house, instead of turkey, we have steak n' gravy. As I mentioned before, my husband is allergic to chicken, and since turkey is a close relative to the chicken, we stay away from it too. We're not sure if he's allergic to turkey too, but we rather would be stay safe than sorry.

Grandma, who was the one who provided me with the awesome mac and cheese recipe, used to cook this AMAZING steak n' gravy. Curtis and I used to make it when she became unable to cook before we had kids. It is very time consuming but it's like heaven in your mouth. Since we are short on time to devote to cooking, I came up with a crockpot version that is, to be honest, not AS good as grandma's recipe, but very delicious. So now, we make this recipe for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Besides, Curtis told me that I wasn't allowed to share grandma's recipe. It's top secret apparently... If you ever had it, you would understand. :)

I stumbled across this recipe on Pinterest for Crockpot Cube Steak and Gravy and when I fist made it, it kind of reminded me of Grandma's Steak n' Gravy. I just had to make a few modifications and it was so much better. It's easy peasy and the smell!! UGH! It's heavenly.

Here is what you will need:

Family size pack of Cubed Steak
1 can of Cream of Mushroom
1 can of Golden Mushroom Soup
1 envelope of Onion Soup Mix
3/4 C. Water
2 Stalks of Celery, chopped
1/2 Green Pepper, chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix in your crockpot the cream of mushroom, golden mushroom soup, onion soup mix, and water. Wisk together until all blended. Add the celery and pepper and mix well. Finally add your cubed steak and mix a little so that all the steak is wet with your gravy mixture. Cook on low for 8 hours.
You can serve with mashed potatoes, rice, noodles, or whatever else you want. The steak falls apart, you don't even need a knife to eat it with.

Here is the soups and water whisked together and the onion soup mix

Onion soup mixed in, then there is the celery and pepper

Cubed steak is added in and mixed around some.

After 8 hours of slow and gentle cooking

And here is my Thanksgiving plate. It was so good it was ridiculous. My mouth is literally watering looking at this picture.

Cheeseburger Wraps

I have gone MIA for a while. I had our new baby a month ago and before then I was so tired from being pregnant that I didn't want to do anything. But now I'm back with a super awesome and delicious meal. Plus it's low on carbs, so that's always a plus. When I first made this, I didn't think my husband would like it because if there's the slightest hint of healthiness, he's usually not interested. He did say that he was skeptical when I first made it, but it's one of his favorite meals now. I guess the greasiness of the meat and cheese made up for the low carb count. So, no, it's not a super healthy meal, but it is low on carbs...

I got this recipe from possibly the best food blog there is out there, Six Sisters' Stuff. Anything I have ever tried from their web site has been absolutely delicious. And this cheeseburger wrap is just that. It's very easy and it doesn't take long to put together. You do need some sort of George Foreman Grill to press the wrap together, and if you don't own one, I strongly suggest that you get one. They are wonderful for so many things. I especially like to warm up my BBQ Taquitos in them. It gives back that crunch you had when you first pulled them out of the oven. They get soggy if you try to warm them in the microwave.

Here's what you need:

1 lb Ground beef
2 Tbsp Ketchup
1 Tbsp Mustard
1 tsp Dried minced onions
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Flour tortillas (Large burrito size)
Shredded cheddar cheese
Any hamburger toppings you like (lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, etc...)

Brown your ground beef until all the pink is gone. Drain extra fat and return to the pan (I usually wipe down my skillet with a paper towel to get the grease off). Add in your ketchup, mustard, minced onions, Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper. Mix well until it's all incorporated good.
Take a flour tortilla and line it with some cheddar cheese (I like quite a bit of cheese on mine), put some meat mixture on top, and top with any additional toppings you might like on your cheeseburger. Fold it up like a burrito and press it in on your George Foreman Grill for a couple minutes, or until crispy brown.

It's that easy. Don't get overly excited with how much stuff you put in there because it will be hard to fold.

My husband likes pickles only on his.

Sometimes I like to add some more stuff on mine, but I do tend to stick to pickles only.

DELICIOUSNESS!