Calling all gravy lovers...

This was our meal tonight! The steaks were sooo tender!!! The gravy was to die for!!! This is comfort food at it's finest!


CUBE STEAKS WITH GRAVY
Credit: Taste of Home Slow Cooker Recipes


1/3 cup all-purpose flour

6 beef cube steaks

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 large onion, sliced and separated into rings

3 cups water, divided

1 envelope brown gravy mix

1 envelope mushroom gravy mix

1 envelope onion gravy mix


Place flour in a large resealable plastic bag. Add steaks, a few at a time, and shake until completely coated. In a skillet, cook steaks in oil until lightly browned on each side. Transfer to a slow cooker. Add the onion and 2 cups water. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or until meat is tender.

In a bowl, whisk together gravy mixes with remaining water. Add to slow cooker, cook 30 minutes more. Serve over mashed potatoes or noodles.

Yield: 6 servings

E is for...

Yea! Canarygirl has nominated our little blog here for an Excellence Award. Now, she had a hard time making up her mind, so she nominated everyone from her blogroll. But who cares?! We'll take it! We're just so excited to receive our "first" of anything!!! lol... I'm just truly honored that she considers us a "blogger friend"!!! That means more than anything. If you haven't visited Canarygirl's blog yet - go there right now!! You won't be sorry - she has amazing recipes with awesome photos that you'll drool over!!!

Now who to nominate...

1. Bakerella - I don't know what's wrong with me (maybe something hormonal) but for the past couple of years I have not craved sweets of any kind. And I have been a serious chocoholic my whole life!!! Well, one look at Bakerella's site and my sweet tooth is coming back!!! I love her blog! I just found it about a week ago, but it's already at the top of my favs list!!!

2. All the girls over at What's For Dinner. Nothing better than a bunch of girlfriends sharing their love of food and recipes.

3. Laura, the Organizing Junkie. I get so much inspiration from Laura's site. Now if only she would make house calls!!!

Not in the mood for chicken?

We weren't! So, I went and made Thursday's meal tonight instead. Nothing wrong with that - my menu plan is just a suggestion anyway!!! I'm strict with the kids, but not my supper schedule! ;) This was a nice change from the usual tacos or chalupas. The kids really loved the fry bread. It's sad I know, but I think this was my first time to knead dough in about 14 years!!! LOL! Yep, my "do-boy" had to work late tonight ;) I really dreaded doing the bread but it was so easy and not time consuming at all. Just a big mess - flour, oil, and me -- not a good combination. But the proof is in the photo - doesn't it look tasty? Let me know if you give it a try :o)


Fry Bread Tacos

TOPPINGS:
1 pound ground beef
1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
1 (15.5 ounce) can pinto beans, with liquid
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
2 cups shredded iceberg lettuce
1/2 cup picante sauce

FRY BREAD:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
4 cups oil for frying, or as needed

Combine beans and 2 tablespoons of picante sauce in a small saucepan over low heat. Cook until heated through. In a large skillet, over medium-high heat, cook the ground beef with taco seasoning mix according to seasoning mix package directions. Cover, and keep warm while you prepare the fry bread.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in milk, and mix until the dough comes together. Add more flour if necessary to be able to handle the dough. On a floured surface, knead the dough until smooth, at least 5 minutes. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

Heat oil in a large, deep heavy skillet to 365 degrees F (180 degrees C). Oil should be about 1 1/2 inches deep. Break off 3/4 cup sized pieces of dough, and shape into round discs 1/4 inch in thickness, making a thinner depressed area in the center. Fry breads in the hot oil until golden on both sides, turning only once. Drain on paper towels.

Top fry bread with beans, ground beef, lettuce and cheese. Spoon picante sauce over. You can also top with other of your favorite taco toppings, such as onion, sour cream or guacamole.

Kathy's menu - week 15

Monday - Take-out night (gymnastics)

Tuesday - Taste-testing... Cindy's Smothered Steaks and Bell Peppers, rice

Wednesday - Roasted Lemon Chicken with Croutons, Roasted Veggies

Thursday - Fry Bread Tacos

Friday - Tom's Simple Beef Steak, baked potatoes, green beans, rolls

Saturday - Either leftovers or a carry over meal from last week ;) Or I might make some pasta salad with my leftover roasted chicken. yum... we'll see...

Tonight's supper...

Poblano Chicken on a Cornbread Waffle

3 Tbs. butter
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 tsp. garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. white pepper
1 tsp. salt
2 roasted Poblano peppers, peeled and seeded
milk, pour just enough to get to desired consistency
8 oz. sour cream
1 cn. cream of Chicken, undiluted
8 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, baked and cubed
1/2 to 1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

* Cornbread waffles
* Garnish with chopped green onions and diced tomatoes


Melt butter in pan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, then saute for 10 minutes. Puree poblano peppers, sour cream, white pepper, salt, and milk in blender or processor. Add pureed poblano mixture to onion and garlic mixture. Stir in cream of chicken soup until smooth. Add chicken. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring often. Add cheese and cook for 5 minutes more until cheese melts. Serve over cornbread waffles. Garnish with chopped green onions and diced tomatoes.

For the cornbread waffles - I used 2 boxes of Jiffy and followed the waffle directions.

Smothered Steaks & Bell Peppers

TASTE TESTED this tonight and it was sooo good! My kiddos of course LOVED the meat portion......

Smothered Steaks & Bell Peppers

4 beef cube steaks, about 5 oz each
1 small onion, sliced
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons veggie oil
2 cups uncooked Minute Rice, prepared as
1/2 cup green and red bell pepper, sliced directed (I used 2 boil in bag)


Sprinkle steaks with seasoned salt and pepper. Brown steaks in hot oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat 3 minutes on each side, remove and keep warm. Saute onions and bellpeppers. Blend together flour, soy sauce and 1 cup water; pour over onions and bell peppers. Cook and stir until sauce boils and thickens. (I added about 1/2 more water at this point, for more of the gravy) Spoon over steaks. Serve with rice.


***Next time, I think I'll add some broccoli, my family loves broccoli and I think they'll really like that flavor with it!!**** For those wondering....the steaks were very tender, not tough at all, unless you over cook them, 1 of the steaks was a little tougher than the rest, but otherwise, this is a keeper at our house!!!

ENJOY!!!!!!!!

We ate at...

the other night and it was the BOMB!!! OMGosh, it was soooo good!!!! I had the Stuffed Sopapilla filled with Fajita Steak meat, beans, and cheese. It was topped with their Ranchero sauce!!! Now I can't quit thinking about that Ranchero sauce!! I've been searching all over the web trying to find a copycat recipe. If you have found it - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE send it to me!!!! I promise I'll love you forever!!! ;) The only one I could find today was from Sustenance...


Ranchero Sauce

1 tablespoon butter
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/4 green bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 cups vegetable broth
1 8 ounce can tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 ounces tomato paste (optional)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Melt the butter in a heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add the next 6 ingredients and sauté until the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Add the broth and tomato sauce and cook until sauce starts to thicken, stirring frequently. Taste and season the sauce with salt. If you prefer a more "tomato-y" sauce, stir in the 4 ounces of tomato paste (1/2 a small can). Cook for about 15 more minutes. If the sauce is too thick, you may add a little bit of water to thin it out. Stir in cilantro.




If any of you have eaten at Chuy's, you know they are famous for their Jalapeno Ranch dip that they serve with their tortilla chips. Here's a recipe I found for that from the Lubbock online newspaper...

JALAPENO LIME SAUCE

(Yield: 31/2 to 4 cups)

3 cups commercial Ranch dressing

1/4 cup roasted green chilies

1/4 cup pickled or marinated jalapeno chilies

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice

1/3 bunch fresh cilantro

1/2 Roma tomato, diced

1. Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Chill and use as a salad dressing or dip for tortilla chips.

Kathy's menu - week 14

Monday - Take-out (gymnastic night)

Tuesday - Bunko (who knows?!)

Wednesday - Pioneer Woman's Lasagna, salad, garlic bread

Valentine's Day - Poblano Chicken on a Cornbread Waffle and Southwest Chocolate Stack-ups

Friday - Cubed Steaks with Gravy, Mashed Potatoes, Green beans, rolls

Saturday - No1here's famous Tortilla Soup (the best I've ever had in my life!!!)


Teacher gifts - thinking about making these Red Velvet Cake Balls with white and dark chocolate for the kid's teachers.

Taste Test Sucess...

I made this last week and it was awesome!!! This photo and recipe is from Canary Girl. Trust me - it tastes as good as the photo looks!!! yummm… Even my picky kids loved it!!!


Sorry, I haven't posted in awhile. Our power supply crashed, but No1here got us back up and running :o)

Kathy's menu - week 13

Superbowl Sunday - Roasted Chicken Legs, Mexican Vermicelli, Borracho beans, tortillas

Monday - pizza delivery (gymnastic night)

Tuesday - Taste Testing... Canary Girl's One Pan Beef Stroganoff over egg noodles, Roasted Garlic Sourdough Bread

Wednesday - King Ranch Chicken, salad

Slow cooking Thursday - Shredded Beef for Tacos

Friday - leftovers

Saturday - Bruschetta Chicken Bake, Green Beans, rolls