It’s been added to the “yes, we’d love to eat it again” list. I’ve included the nutrition information for the soup, but you need to be aware the fat count is way off. Yes, there’s half a pound of bacon, but all the fat that came out when it was cooked was drained off, so it’s not as bad as it looks.

Bacon Cheeseburger Soup

 
Serves 6

1/2 pound bacon — chopped
1 medium onion — diced
2 medium carrots — sliced thin
1 pound ground round
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 cups chicken broth
2 medium potatoes — peeled and diced
2 cups milk, 1% lowfat
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese — cubed or shredded

Put bacon into a cold, large heavy bottomed Dutch oven. Turn heat onto medium to medium high and cook until the bacon starts to get crispy. Remove the bacon from the pan and put onto a paper-towel lined plate to drain. Pour the bacon fat out of the pot and into a mug or something that can handle really hot stuff, leaving only what covers the bottom of the pot.

Add onion, carrots, ground round, garlic powder, salt and pepper to the pot and cook until the meat is browned. Drain off any liquid.

Add chicken broth and potatoes and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

Add milk, and cook 5 minutes. Smash a bunch of the potatoes up to help thicken the soup.

Remove the pot from the heat. Add cheese to soup and stir until melted. Serve immediately.

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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 658 Calories; 46g Fat (63.6% calories from fat); 42g Protein; 17g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 127mg Cholesterol; 1805mg Sodium.

Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 5 Lean Meat; 1 Vegetable; 1/2 Non-Fat Milk; 6 Fat.

NOTE: The fat count is *way* off, as most of the bacon fat is rendered out and drained off.

Sloppy Joe Pasta Bake

 
This recipe is based on Rachael Ray’s Super Sloppy Joes

1 lb penne, ziti or rotini
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan
1 lb ground chuck
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon grill seasoning (I use McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
28 oz tomato sauce
3/4 cup shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Cook the pasta according to the package directions, drain and set aside.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat.

Combine grill seasoning and brown sugar in a small bowl.

Add oil and meat to the pan and sprinkle with the seasoning mixture. Cook until the meat has browned, then add onion and red peppers to the skillet.

Reduce heat to medium. Add red wine vinegar and Worcestershire sauce to the pan and cook for five minutes.

Add tomato sauce to the pan and stir to combine.

Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer 5 minutes longer. When the onions are soft, add the pasta to the skillet and mix well.

Spray a 9″x13″ pan with non-stick cooking spray. Put the pasta mixture in the pan, and sprinkle with the cheddar cheese. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional five to ten minutes, or until the cheese is melted to the point you like it.

Serve with a nice big salad, or with veggies sticks (which my kids prefer).

I don’t know yet what I’ll be serving this with. Either roasted potatoes or egg noodles, to take advantage of that lovely gravy.

Spicy Slow Cooker Pot Roast

 
boneless beef roast, 3-4 lbs (rump, top round, chuck, whatever you can find on sale)
3 cups water
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 – 14 oz bottle ketchup
2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
2 large onions, quartered
2 tablespoons minced garlic
3 bay leaves
3 whole cloves
1 heaping teaspoon dried pickling spices
salt & pepper to taste

Combine everything but the roast in the slow cooker and mix well. Add the beef roast, turning it over once or twice if necessary to make sure the meat is coated with the liquid. Cover and cook on LOW for 10 – 12 hours.

Beef Tagliarini

 
Servings 6

1 pound ground chuck
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
8 ounces tomato sauce
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
2 cups egg noodles, medium, uncooked
4 ounces cream cheese — cut into small pieces
1 cup corn
1 tsp garlic powder
salt & pepper to taste
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 2 or 2.5 quart casserole with non-stick cooking spray.

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook ground chuck, onion and green bell pepper until no pink remains in the meat and the onions are tender.

Add in tomato sauce, water and dried basil. Mix well. Bring to a boil. Add in pasta, stir well, then cover, reduce heat and simmer for 7 to 8 minutes or until pasta is almost cooked.

Add cream cheese and corn, stirring until cream cheese is melted.

Pour everything into the casserole. Sprinkle cheddar evenly overtop and bake for 5 to 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 384 Calories; 30g Fat (58.6% calories from fat); 24g Protein; 24g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 119mg Cholesterol; 465mg Sodium.

Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 3 Lean Meat; 1 Vegetable; 4 Fat.

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If I had one word to describe this meal, it would be bland. There was little to no taste to it, even with the salt, pepper and garlic powder I added that wasn’t part of the original recipe. However, my family agreed this had lots of potential. I will try it again, but using a 6 oz can of tomato paste instead of the tomato sauce. And more seasoning – probably fresh garlic and italian seasoning (and more than just 1/2 tsp).

Grilled Gyro Burgers

 
16 ounces plain yogurt, divided
1 package dry Ranch-style dressing mix (I used Hidden Valley)
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1/4 cup diced onion
6 pita bread rounds
2 cups torn lettuce leaves
1 tomato, seeded and diced

DIRECTIONS

In a medium bowl, combine 8 ounces of plain yogurt with the envelope of ranch dressing mix. Remove half of the mixture to another bowl. Into one of the bowls, add the remaining yogurt and diced cucumber and mix well. Cover and refrigerate. Preheat grill.

Add the ground beef and 1/4 cup onion into the remaining half of the yogurt mixture and mix until just combined. Shape into 6 patties.

Grill the patties on medium heat for 7 minutes each side, turning once.

Cut off 1/4 end of the pita pockets and fill with torn lettuce, grilled burger, creamy cucumber sauce and diced tomatoes.

It’s really not all that difficult. Prepare some ground beef as if you were making tacos, using your favorite spice blend (packed or scratch doesn’t matter as long as you like it). Put a layer of tortilla chips on a microwave safe plate or in an oven-proof dish. Sprinkle 1/3 to 1/2 (depending on whether you’re doing two or three layers of chips) of the taco meat on the chips. Sprinkle sharp cheddar or a Mexican blend of cheese over that. If you want to put salsa in, put little dots of it over the ships. You don’t want to do too much salsa or the chips will turn into a soggy mess.

Put on another layer of chips, and repeat with meat and cheese (and salsa). If you’re doing three layers, repeat the process a third time.

Once your nachos are assembled, put them in the microwave or oven until the cheese has melted. If you want, you can then garnish it with finely sliced green onions, cilantro, or whatever else floats your boat.

Chicken broth is easy enough to do. A whole, 5 lb chicken gets my family 2 meals from the meat, and I can make up to 8 cups of broth from the carcass. In fact, since I first started my drive to cut back on our food expenses three months ago, I haven’t had to buy chicken broth from the store. I am truly starting to love my freezer as something more than just to store the ice cream.

One of the things this freezer-food revolution talks about is stocking up on things that are on sale for a really good price. There’s a small market in town that has made its name on having one of the largest selections of wines and spirits in the area. Seeing the inside of it makes me believe it. Anyway, they sell more than just alcohol – they have a fantastic meat counter. We’ve bought steak there (boneless top sirloin for $3.99/lb – a real steal in my area), and chicken breast (very nice stuff). Their ground beef, however, I think is the best. The regular price of their ground chuck is $1.99/lb, but for the last two weeks, they had it on sale for $1.79/lb, if you bought a minimum of 3 lbs.

We rarely use more than 1 lb per week, but there was no way I was going to let that deal pass us by. But what was I going to do with the meat? Just divide it up into meal-sized portions and put it in the freezer? That didn’t appeal to me, and then I remembered reading online about cooking large batches of ground beef at a single time.

A quick search and I found the directions – you boil the meat. That really surprised me. I was concerned about how it might affect the taste, but I wanted to give it a try. It actually turned out pretty good. Boiling the meat lets you cook it quickly, and gets rid of most of the fat when you drain the water.

I have found, though, that if you’re not going to use the meat right away (as in the day you originally cooked it), you’ll want to use the ground beef in a dish that will be simmered in a sauce. I don’t know why it is, but the meat doesn’t have much flavor after it’s been frozen, and works much better if it’s had a chance to cook in something else. For example, letting the sauce simmer for 20 minutes or so in tomato sauce gives the meat a better flavor than reheating the meat, tossing it into warm sauce and then serving. I don’t remember if I added salt to the water when I cooked the first batch, so part of the reason for the blandness could be the lack of seasoning.

You don’t just have to boil the meat on its own. The second batch of meat I cooked I added salt, pepper, onions and garlic. That turned out much better. I used a frozen portion of it in a batch of beefaroni and you couldn’t tell the meat wasn’t freshly cooked for the meal.

So, how exactly do you boil ground beef? Fill a large soup pot half full with water and bring to a boil. When the water is boiling, add in salt as if you’re cooking pasta. Remember, like pasta, whatever you cook the meat in will be giving it flavor. When the salt has dissolved, break the ground beef up into small pieces and put it in the water. Let it cook, stirring occasionally, until there’s no visible pink. Remove from heat and drain. And you’re done! Let it cool for about half an hour, then divide up into whatever portion sizes you want for meals.

If you want to do as I did and add onions and garlic to it, add 1 onion and 2 cloves of minced garlic for every pound of meat you’re cooking. There’s really no limit to what you can add to the meat, either during cooking, of just before you put it in the freezer.

When you’re cooking the meat, however, make sure you don’t overcook it. While it may not burn like it would if you were frying it in a pan, it can still get really dry and yucky.

Something else I’ve been looking at is freezer meals – meals you assemble and put directly into the freezer to be cooked later, or are completely cooked and can be thawed and reheated at a later time. We got a gift card for a bookstore for Christmas, and we finally got around to spending it. I picked up the book Don’t Panic – Dinner’s in the Freezer. It’s been recommended by several of the sites I read.

This recipe is my version of Continental Beef – I used smoked paprika (as I wanted a smoky flavor) and reduced the amount of mushrooms (as while we like the mushroom flavor, half the family has issues with their texture).

Lisa’s Continental Beef

 
Makes 6-8 servings.

2 tbsp butter
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 lb white button mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 lbs boneless chuck eye roast (or any other beef suitable for stew)
8 oz plain tomato sauce
2 tbsp Worchestershire sauce
1 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tsp smoked paprika
1/8 tsp pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup sour cream

Melt the butter in a large dutch oven (or other large, heavy bottomed pot) over low heat. Add onion and mushrooms, sprinkle with salt, and cook until lightly browned, about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the pot and set aside. Add 2 tbsp of oil to the pan and brown beef in 2 or three batches. When all the meat is cooked, return meat and onion to the pot.

Combine tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, paprika, pepper and garlic. Pour over meat mixture and stir well. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, over low heat for 2 1/2 hours or until meat is tender.

If you’re going to eat this all at once, add the sour cream, stir it in and let it heat through. If you’re going to freeze it, let the meat cool, then put in a freezer bag and freeze. To serve, thaw the meat completely, heat it over a low flame until hot, then add the sour cream, bring back to the temperature you want to eat it at and serve.

We tried this recipe on Wednesday, and decided it tasted far better without the sour cream, so that will be omitted in the future.

Sloppy Joe Manicotti Bake

Serves 4

1 12-piece package manicotti shells
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1 small onion, finely chopped
3/4 pound lean ground beef
1 can tomato sauce (28 ounces), divided
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Salt
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the pasta until al dente, about 8 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the EVOO over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.

Add the beef and brown it, breaking it up as it cooks, about 5 minutes. Stir in 2 cups of the tomato sauce, the brown sugar and the Worcestershire sauce and simmer for 5 minutes. Let cool slightly.

Drizzle a 9-inch x 13-inch casserole dish with 1/4 cup of the remaining tomato sauce. Stuff each manicotti shell with 1/4 cup of the meat mixture and place them side by side in the casserole dish.

Spoon the remaining tomato sauce over the manicotti and top with the cheese. Bake until golden and bubbly, about 15 minutes.

Braised Roast Beef

 
Serves 4

2-3 pound beef chuck roast
1 bottle dry red wine (I used Gato Negro Chardonnay Merlot, on sale at Meijer for $4 when I bought it)
5 bay leaves
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
Salt and ground black pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, as needed for coating meat
1/4 pound bacon, chopped
3 onions, chopped
6 carrots, peeled and chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 quart beef stock

In a large pot, submerge the chuck roast in the red wine with the bay leaves. Marinate in the refrigerator overnight (or soak it in the morning and let it go for 7-8 hours during the day).

Pre-heat oven to 350ºF.

Place a large, heavy-bottomed Dutch oven over medium-high heat with 1/4 cup of EVOO.

Remove the marinated meat from the wine, reserving the wine and bay leaves. Pat the meat dry, then season it with salt and pepper and coat it evenly in flour. Sear the meat in the hot pan, turning it to get all sides deep golden brown, about 5 minutes per side. Remove the meat from the pan.

Reduce the heat to medium, add the bacon to the pan and cook until golden brown and crispy, 5-6 minutes. Add the onions, carrots and celery to the pan, season with salt and pepper and cover the pan. Cook the veggies, stirring occasionally, until tender, 8-10 minutes. (It actually took me about 20 minutes to get the veggies tender, though I suspect my stovetop isn’t nearly as strong as a modern one.)

Remove half of the veggies from the pan and reserve for the next meal.

Add the tomato paste to the pan and cook until deep golden brown and aromatic, about 1 minute. Add the reserved wine and bay leaves, and reduce the liquid by half. Return the meat to the pan along with the stock and cover the pot. Transfer to the oven and roast until the meat is tender, about 1 1/2 hours.

When the meat has finished cooking, remove it from the pan and reserve. Return the pot to the heat and reduce the liquids by about half. Thinly slice the meat and serve it topped with the pan sauce and mashed potatoes or polenta alongside.