I really enjoy cooking, but some days I just don’t have the energy, time, or even the desire to be in the kitchen. I’ve been exploring using my slow cooker more often, and trying to cook so that I can get a stash of food in the freezer. Sometimes, it’s as simple as cooking a regular dish and saving half – 4 servings is more than enough for us, so meals that serve 6 – 8 mean a second meal for us.
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.
This soup was inspired by the need for something hearty, with a good amount of protein for me and just enough carbs to make the soup filling for Matt and the kids. I checked out several versions of this soup online, picked out the bits I liked best, then threw it all together to make my own version.
