My Three Go-To Meals

October 31, 2016October 31, 2016 RefreshHer6 Comments

Three Go-To Meals.jpg

There are always busy fall/winter days that demand a fast supper meal. For those days, I try to keep the ingredients on hand for the entree’s listed above because they are:

Done in under 30 minutes
Filling
Delicious!!!

To make White Castle Sliders, Cheese Ravioli with Tomatoes, and Sausage Corn Chowder, all I need to keep on hand is:

2 pounds hamburger
Hawaiian Rolls – I freeze these
Frozen Cheese Ravioli – I recently tried Aldi’s brand and it was very good!
Tomatoes (I freeze the cherry tomatoes and use them for this dish if I don’t have fresh on hand)
Red Onion
Parmesan Cheese
Canned Corn
Cream Corn
Evaporated milk
Potatoes
1 pound Sausage

These are all very basic staple items to keep. Having them on hand allows me to put a great meal together so quickly!

White castle sliders.jpg

White Castle Sliders

2# hamburger (80/20)

Dried Onion Flakes

Seasoned Salt

Sister Shubert Rolls

Sprinkle dried onion flakes in the bottom of a 9 x 13 dish.

Press beef over onion flakes, make a one huge patty.

Sprinkle with Seasoned salt.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or until done.

Drain and Pat grease off.

Top with cheese slices. Place back in oven for 2 minutes to melt.

Remove and slice into hamburger patties, the size of your buns.

Pasta dishes are great for quick meals, but this one isn’t your normal Spaghetti and pasta meal! This is one of our favorites – in a hurry or not! Add some toasted French Bread and a salad and your meal is complete!

Cheese Ravioli with Tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 pound cherry tomatoes
2 shallots, cut into wedges (I use red onion instead)
Cooking spray
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
12 ounces frozen cheese ravioli

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. Halve half of tomatoes. Arrange cut tomatoes, whole tomatoes, and shallots on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil; toss.
Bake at 425° for 35 minutes.
3. Add 2 tablespoons oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper to pan. Bake 10 minutes.
4. Cook ravioli according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain ravioli, reserving 1/4 cup cooking liquid. Add ravioli to tomatoes; toss. Add cooking liquid, if needed. Garnish with chopped basil.Drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil; toss. Bake at 425° for 35 minutes.
3. Add 2 tablespoons oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper to pan. Bake 10 minutes.
4. Cook ravioli according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain ravioli, reserving 1/4 cup cooking liquid. Add ravioli to tomatoes; toss. Add cooking liquid, if needed. Garnish with chopped basil.

This chowder is so hearty and comforting! It’s been a favorite of our family for years! You could add some quick biscuits or just crackers and a salad to round it out.

corn-choweder

Sausage Corn Chowder

1 LB Bulk Pork Sausage
1 med onion
3 medium potatoes, cut into 1/2 cubes
2 cps water
1/2 tsp dried marjoram
1 tsp salt
crushed 1/2 tsp pepper
1 15 1/4 oz can whole kernel corn, drained
1 14 3/4 oz can cream style corn
1 12oz can evaporated milk

Preparation:
Crumble pork sausage into 4 qt dutch oven; cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. add onion; cook about 5 minutes more or until sausage is brown. Add cubed potatoes, water, seasonings, bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Stir in the whole kernel corn, cream style corn and evaporated milk. heat chowder through.
6 Main dish servings

There are other meal ingredients that I have kept ready for those busy days and I’ll share some of those next week. In the meantime, tell me what ingredients do you keep in your pantry and freezer and what meal do you make with them?

With love from my country kitchen,

dinner in 30 minutes · Main dish.

Did Someone Say Shrimp Sauce?

October 17, 2016October 16, 2016 RefreshHer2 Comments

shrimp sauce.jpg

During our recent sabbatical, my husband and I were blessed with the opportunity to eat out quite a bit, thanks to the gracious gifts of our church family. One evening we ventured out to a local Asian restaurant that we hadn’t been to in a very long time. The meal we ordered was a mixed meat grilled on a hibachi and served with a side of Shrimp sauce. The meat was great. The vegetables were flavorful, but the shrimp sauce was OUT OF THIS WORLD! We ~~doused~~ added it to every bite!

Last week when I was making beef stir fry at home, the memory of that glorious sauce popped into my head and I Googled it in search of a recipe. I was shocked at the simple ingredients that are used to make the sauce. I had every ingredient on hand! This meal was so good, and it made me happy to be whipping it up in my own kitchen!

stir fry.jpg

Let me share with you the way I make my stir-fry and then I’ll add the simple recipe for the shrimp sauce.

Stir Fry
½ lb. your choice of meat – chicken, beef or shrimp
2 Tbl. Oil

In a wok, stir fry the meat until it Is cooked through. Remove meat and cover to keep warm. Add a little more oil to the wok and cook vegetables of your choice, starting with the vegetables that take longer to cook, then adding the other vegetables a bit later. The list below is the order I add my vegetables.

Zucchini
Red, green or yellow peppers – I like to ad a variety of these
Snow peas
Onion
Stir fry until crisp-tender.
In a small bowl, mix:
1 cup chicken broth
2 Tbl. Corn starch.
2 Tbl. Soy sauce

Add this mixture to the vegetables and stir to thicken. Add meat and stir to cover with the sauce.
Serve with Shrimp sauce.

Shrimp Sauce
1 Cup Mayo – I used reduced fat
¼ cup ketchup
1 tbl sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
Dash of hot sauce

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. If you can make it an hour ahead and refrigerate it, the flavors will combine even better. I served mine immediately and it was still delicious, so don’t let that hinder you!

We won’t have stir-fry in the future without this sauce, I can promise you! This is great with any Asian food, so whip this up and dunk away!

If you could recreate any restaurant food you’ve had, what would it be?

With love from my country kitchen,

dinner in 30 minutes · main dish

Dressing Up Leftovers

June 13, 2016June 10, 2016 RefreshHerLeave a comment

When you have meat leftover at the end of a meal, if you’re like me, there’s a temptation to reheat it the next night and serve it in the same way you did the first time – same salad, same side dish. Maybe there’s just a difficulty in getting creative with that meat!

Last week I had both pork tenderloin and grilled sirloin steak leftover. I took those meats and made two completely different entree’s with them. With a disguise like that, I wonder if my husband even knew he was eating leftovers…okay, he did, but they were so good, I know he didn’t mind! Here’s what I made:

With my Brown sugar and Balsamic Glazed Pork tenderloin, I made Toasted Pork Sandwiches. I added the pork and the glaze to a pan and heated it. Then I toasted the bun – this makes it sooo good! Spray the bread with cooking spray, then toast in a skillet until lightly browned. It gives the bread great crunchy texture.

Then I piled meat, red onion and avocado slices on the bun.

It was so good!

The next leftover was the sirloin. With it I made a Blue Sirloin Salad.

First I made up Pioneer Woman’s Blue Cheese Dressing. Here’s my lightened up version:

Blue Cheese Dressing

Ingredients
1/2 cup light mayonnaise
1/4 cup 2% milk
1/4 cup lilght sour cream
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup blue cheese crumbles
Salt and pepper

Directions
To a bowl add the mayo, milk, sour cream and Worcestershire, and stir until combined. Stir in the blue cheese and add salt and pepper to taste.

On a plate I piled up Spring Mix greens, red onion, yellow peppers and tomatoes. After warming the leftover sirloin, I sliced it and place it on top of the salad, then I topped the salad with the Blue Cheese Dressing.

Voila! Dinner was served!

How good does that look? It was refreshing and on the table in about 10 minutes!

How’s that for a makeover? I wish I could get a personal one that quickly!

How do you makeover your meat leftovers?

With love from my country kitchen,

dinner in 30 minutes · grilling · Main entree · Pork chops · Uncategorized

BBQ, Butter and Bargains

May 16, 2016May 16, 2016 RefreshHer5 Comments

We’ve been on vacation – maybe you’ve guessed. (A week alone with my preacher husband has me spitting out alliterated blog post titles! Ha!)

While we’re away, we usually stay in a condo with cooking facilities. We enjoy eating out, but after a while, we really prefer to fix our own meals so we can keep cost and calories to a minimum.

One huge blessing on this vacation was the discovery of two gas grills that have been added to the property where we stay! We made a trip to Kroger and purchased some boneless pork chops. Then I surveyed the ingredients I’d brought with me from home and I landed on a great recipe, mocking one we’ve enjoyed at The Chop House. It has an herbed butter that takes the simply grilled chop to another level! Here’s how I did it:

Grilled Pork Chops with Herbed Buttr

4 Boneless pork chops
Salt/Pepper
Cooking Spray

Herbed Butter
1/2 stick softened butter
1/2 tsp Garlic powder
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried rosemary

Combine ingredients for butter in a small bowl. Refrigerate 30 minutes or longer.

Prepare grill by placing foil on grill and spraying with cooking spray. Heat grill. Season chops with salt and pepper. Cook for 3-5 minutes on each side. Check for doneness. Remove from grill Serve with a small ball of herbed butter on top of pork chops.

My Menu:

Grilled Pork Chops with Herbed Butter
Sweet Potato Fries
Asian Chop Salad
Toasted Sour Dough Bread

When I figured up our meal, it cost us right at $6 for BOTH of our dinners! I got the chops on sale, we got about 3 meals out of the bag of salad, and 3 meals from the Ore-Ida Potatoes! The best part was how delicious the chops were! They were every bit as good as what we’ve enjoyed at the restaurant! We cooked all four on one night, but ate two the first evening and the other two the next night! This meal was a scrumptious barbequed dinner, dripping with that herbed butter!

If you’re home, make this dinner and you might feel like you’re on vacation! Here was our view while we ate…

God is so good to us! It was a blessing that we don’t deserve, but that He graciously allowed.

Fire up your grill, and make these chops! Now, alliterate your recent meal and leave it as a comment!

Reminiscing about the salt air,

dinner in 30 minutes · Main dish. · Pasta

Hearty Dinner in 30

January 18, 2016January 18, 2016 RefreshHer2 Comments

Stroganoff

Last week we (by “we” I mean my husband!) grilled steaks outside on the coldest, windiest day of the week! We love our beef and we will cook it at all personal costs! Ha! Forget the idea of every being vegetarian!

While we had the grill fired up, I decided we’d do two steaks and have one for another night. I used the leftover meat for Beef Stroganoff and it was so delicious! I couldn’t find my old recipe, but pretty much had it in my head. Here’s how I made it:

1# Beef, cut into strips – **(Mine was cooked, so I added it in at the end to warm it up.)
4 Tbl. butter
1 Onion, sliced
1 C Fresh Mushrooms
2 – 3 Tbl Flour
1 Can Beef Consume’
1 Cup Sour Cream
Bag of Egg noodles

Boil noodles. In the meanwhile, melt butter in skillet. Add meat and cook ’til browned. Add onions and mushrooms and cook until tender. Add flour and stir to combine. Pour in consume’ slowly to combine with flour mixture.. Cook over medium heat to thicken. Remove from heat and add sour cream. Stir. Warm on stove just until hot. Pour over cooked noodles.

The picture on the top right is the mushrooms, onion and consume’. The picture below it shows the sour cream being added. The picture on the left shows the creamy mixture after the sour cream is stirred in.

This is such a great fast meal. I love it because it’s not your typical pasta and red sauce quick meal. It’s hearty and full of flavor. Add a salad and a roll and supper is on the table in half an hour!

Any other meat lovers out there?

Happy Monday!

Love from my country kitchen,