Chunky Slow Cooker Beef Stew

        Lisa's Dinnertime Dish has moved.  Please visit me at my new and improved blog site!  The new address is http://lisasdinnertimedish.com.  I look forward to seeing you at the new site!!


      On Saturday night, Steve and I were just hanging out together and I asked him if there was anything he wanted me to make for dinner on Sunday night.  He thought some kind of roast would be good, so I started thinking about what I already had on hand and I remembered that I had a beef round roast in the freezer.  I thought cooking it in the slow cooker would be a good idea, but beyond that I really didn't know what I wanted to do with it.  So I took it out of the freezer to defrost and hoped that I would have more inspiration in the morning.

     Well, when I woke up on Sunday morning, it all came together.  I had some baby carrots that needed to be used up as well as a few potatoes, celery and onion.  So I threw the meat and the veggies into the slow cooker along with some beef broth, red wine and Italian seasoning.  After cooking on low all day, I took the meat and veggies out and poured the sauce into a pan on the stove and thickened it with a little flour and some more beef broth.  Then I cut the roast up into large chunks and put everything back into the slow cooker and combined it with the thickened sauce and a chunky beef stew was born.  It was so delicious!  The meat was super tender and moist and the sauce had a very rich flavor.  It was successful with the family, too.  Let's just say there was not much leftover!

Chunky Slow Cooker Beef Stew

• 2 1/2 to 3 lb beef round roast
• 4 medium potatoes, scrubbed and quartered
• 2 cups baby carrots
• 3 ribs celery, cut into large chunks
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 1/2 cups beef broth, divided
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp flour

Place quartered potatoes in bottom of slow cooker followed by carrots, celery, crushed garlic, onion slices and roast.

Add 1/2 cup beef broth and 1/2 cup wine and sprinkle roast with Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.

Cook on low for 8 hours.

Remove roast and veggies from the slow cooker and pour sauce into a large sauce pan.

Heat sauce on medium high heat.  Whisk flour and remaining 1 cup of beef broth together and add to sauce pan, continuing to whisk.  Bring to a boil and cook until thickened.

Pour thickened sauce back into slow cooker along with veggies.  Meanwhile, cut roast into large chunks and put back in slow cooker as well.  Combine well.  Keep in slow cooker on warm until ready to serve.

ENJOY!


Shared at Mandy's Recipe Box on 1/10/12.
Shared at Chef in Training on 1/10/12.
Shared at newlyweds Blog on 1/11/12.
Shared at Gooseberry Patch on 1/11/12.
Shared at Forkful of Comfort on 1/11/12.
Shared at This Chick Cooks on 1/11/12.
Shared at Food Corner on 1/11/12.
Shared at It's a Keeper on 1/12/12.
Shared at Miz Helen's Country Cottage on 1/12/12.

Homemade Ham and Navy Bean Soup

        Lisa's Dinnertime Dish has moved.  Please visit me at my new and improved blog site!  The new address is http://lisasdinnertimedish.com.  I look forward to seeing you at the new site!!


      I don't buy ham very often (other that deli ham), mainly because they're so big and I always seem to have trouble using up all of that meat.  But shortly before Christmas, one of the grocery stores I shop at had bone-in half hams for 99 cents a pound.  How could I pass that up?!  So I got myself a big eight pounder and decided I'd get creative and figure out how to use up all of that ham.

     The first round with the ham was pretty simple.  On New Year's day, there were going to be eight of us for dinner and I needed a meal that would be easy to put together, since I knew I'd be tired from staying up so late the night before.  So I baked the ham and served it up with mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli.  Super easy and really tasty.  Over the next couple of days the leftovers got used in an omelet and a few sandwiches.

     A few days later was when I got more creative.  I took the ham bone along with all of the meat that was still around it and made a delicious ham and navy bean soup.  I had only made this once before and I had forgotten, first of all, how easy it really is to make and second of all, how GOOD it is.

     This recipe makes a fairly large batch of soup, so I froze the leftover soup in individual portions for lunch.  I think I ended up doing a pretty good job of making the most of that big ham!

Ham and Navy Bean Soup

• 1 lb dried navy beans, rinsed and drained
• 10 sprigs of parsley
• several sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 ham bone and meat surrounding it
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 8 cups cold water
• salt and pepper to taste

Place the beans in a large sauce pan and cover with cold water by about 2 inches.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer.  Cook for 5 minutes, then turn heat off, cover and let sit for one hour.  Drain beans and set aside.

Meanwhile, chop veggies.

Tie herbs together with kitchen twine into a bundle.

Combine the beans, herb bundle, carrots, onion, garlic, ham bone and water in a large pot.

Bring to a boil and then cover and reduce heat to a simmer.  Cook until beans are tender, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours.

Turn heat off and remove ham bone and herb bundle.  Skim any visible fat from the top of the soup.   Once ham bone has cooled enough to handle, cut meat into chunks and reserve.  

While ham is cooling you want to thicken soup by either using an immersion blender to semi- puree some of the soup (making sure there are still whole beans and veggies) or remove about 3 cups of soup and puree in a blender.

Add ham to soup.  Add salt and pepper to taste (you shouldn't need a lot of salt because of the saltiness of the ham).

At this point you can either continue to simmer until you are ready to eat or serve immediately.

ENJOY!

Shared at Mandy's Recipe Box on 1/10/12.

Shared at Chef in Training on 1/10/12.

Shared at Newlyweds Blog on 1/11/12.

Shared at Gooseberry Patch on 1/11/12.

Shared at Forkful of Comfort on 1/11/12.

Shared at This Chick Cooks on 1/11/12.

Shared at Food Corner on 1/11/12.

Something Sweet for a Day at the Spa

    Lisa's Dinnertime Dish has moved.  Please visit me at my new and improved blog site!  The new address is http://lisasdinnertimedish.com.  I look forward to seeing you at the new site!!

     For the past several years, my mother-in-law has treated all of the girls in the family to a day at the spa after Christmas.  We each pick whatever treatments we want and enjoy being pampered.  After we're done at the spa, we head over to her house and watch a chick flick and have dinner together.  It is always a very lovely day.

     Today happens to be our spa day for this year and my daughters and I are all very excited.  In between our treatments,  there is a room for us to hang out in and just relax with each other, so we like to bring some treats along to snack on.  Of course we need some chocolate, so I thought that chocolate chip mini muffins would be perfect!

      Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 2/3 cup sugar, plus 1 tbsp for the top of the muffins
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a 24 mini muffin tin.
Combine flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Beat eggs in , one at a time.  Add vanilla and beat in.

Add yogurt and beat in.

Add flour mixture 1/3 at a time, combining well.

Fold in chocolate chips.
Divide batter between muffin cups.  Sprinkle each muffin with sugar.

Bake in preheated oven for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown.

Let cool and remove from muffin tin.

ENJOY!


Shared at Baking Bad on 1/6/12.
Shared at Six Sisters' Stuff on 12/7/12.
Shared at Family Fresh Meals on 1/8/12.
Shared at Mandy's Recipe Box on1/10/12.
Shared at Chef in Training on 1/10/12.

A Great Tomato Meat Sauce

        Lisa's Dinnertime Dish has moved.  Please visit me at my new and improved blog site!  The new address is http://lisasdinnertimedish.com.  I look forward to seeing you at the new site!!


     I think everyone can agree that no matter what your level of expertise in the kitchen, not everything always goes as planned, right?  Well that's what happened at my house a few nights ago.  For Christmas, Steve had given me this cool tool to make ravioli, so I thought it would be great to give that a try and also make homemade meat sauce.  Everyone but Nicole was going to be home for dinner and Kelly and Steve said they would give me a hand.  Sounds like fun, right?  Well, it was fun, but it took us about 2 1/2 hours or so to make dinner and the ravioli was less than perfect.  It tasted just fine, but my technique left something to be desired!

     I had originally thought that I would write a post on how to make the ravioli.....well not yet.....I need some more practice.  BUT....the meat sauce was delicious and so that is what I can share with you today.  I have to give Kelly credit for the execution of the sauce, she did  a fabulous job.  The recipe is easy to make and doesn't take too many ingredients.  We used a combination of ground beef, crushed tomatoes, shallot, garlic, red wine, basil and parsley.  It is a nice hearty sauce.   It was great with the ravioli, but it would taste great with any kind of pasta.

Tomato Meat Sauce

• 1 lb ground beef (I used 93% lean)
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 2 cans crushed tomatoes
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Chop your veggies

 

Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large skillet.  Add hamburger and break up with a spoon.

Once meat is broken up, add shallots and cook until meat is no longer pink.  Add garlic and continue cooking until garlic is fragrant.

Add wine and let reduce for a couple of minutes.  Then add tomatoes and combine.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Allow to simmer for at least 15 minutes and then add basil and parsley.

Serve over your favorite pasta.

ENJOY!


Shared at Miz Helen's Country Cottage on 1/5/12.
Shared at It's a Keeper on 1/5/12.
Shared at Baking Bad on 1/6/12.
Shared at Six Sisters' Stuff on 1/7/12.

Roasted Chicken Breasts with Cherry Port Glaze

        Lisa's Dinnertime Dish has moved.  Please visit me at my new and improved blog site!  The new address is http://lisasdinnertimedish.com.  I look forward to seeing you at the new site!!


     I love how sometimes a plan for dinner comes together so perfectly.  One day last week, I was trying to come up with a plan for dinner.  Initially, I was drawing a blank, so I asked Steve what he thought he would like.  He started throwing out some ideas and when he said bone in chicken, it all came together.  I decided that  we could roast some bone in chicken breasts in the oven.  As far as how to flavor the chicken, my first thought was BBQ sauce, but then I thought it would be even better to make a cherry port glaze.  To round out the meal I made some garlic mashed potatoes and a tossed salad.  It was quite delicious!

     To make the glaze, I sauteed a shallot and then added some port wine, cherry preserves, a little dried thyme and some black pepper.  I simmered it until it reduced into a nice glaze.  Very simple and very good!

Roasted Chicken Breast with Cherry Port Glaze

• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup port
• 1/2 cup cherry preserves
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• salt and pepper
• 4 bone in chicken breasts

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Heat olive oil in a small sauce pan.  Add shallots and saute until translucent.

Add port and bring to a bubble.  Allow to simmer for a couple of minutes.

Stir in cherry preserves.

Add thyme and black pepper.  Simmer for 15-20 minutes until sauce has thickened into a glaze.

Meanwhile, place chicken on a baking sheet (if you have one, use a baking rack as well).  Season with salt and pepper.  Roast in oven for 15 minutes.

Remove chicken from oven and brush with glaze.  Roast for about another 15 minutes and brush with more glaze.  Roast for about 15 more minutes until chicken is cooked through.

Serve immediately.

 

ENJOY!


Shared at Food Corner on 1/3/12.
Shared at Lady Behind the Curtain on 1/4/12.
Shared atNewlyweds Blog on 1/4/12.
Shared at Miz Helen's Country Cottage on 1/5/12.
Shared at It's a Keeper on 1/5/12.
Shared at Baking Bad on 1/6/12.
Shared at Six Sisters' Stuff on 1/7/12.
Shared at Everyday Mom's Meals on 1/8/12.