Salisbury Steak With Mushrooms

Salisbury Steak With Mushrooms

Recipe courtesy Food Network

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 onion, finely chopped (about 1/3 cup)
7 saltine crackers, finely crushed (about 1/4 cup)
1 teaspoon minced fresh sage
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 ounces sliced mixed mushrooms
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 to 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Buttered egg noodles, for serving (optional)

Directions
Gently mix the beef, egg, onion, cracker crumbs, sage, 1/2 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of pepper in a large bowl using your hands. Divide into 4 equal portions and shape into oval patties, about 1/2 inch thick.

Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the patties, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.

Add 1 tablespoon butter to the skillet and cook the mushrooms until slightly browned, about 2 minutes. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper to taste, scraping up any browned bits. Sprinkle in the flour and stir, then stir in 2 1/2 cups hot water and simmer until the sauce begins to thicken, about 2 minutes. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon butter, swirling to combine.

Return the patties and any juices from the plate to the skillet. Simmer until the sauce thickens and the patties are cooked through, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley and season with salt and pepper. Serve with noodles, if desired.

Check out all these quick and easy recipes.

Guiltless Chicken Alfredo

Here is another quick and easy recipe with ingredients that I always have on hand.

Guiltless Chicken Alfredo

Ingredients:

2- 2/12 cups low fat milk (depending on if you prefer thicker sauce or thinner)
4 oz low fat cream cheese
3 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter
5-6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup Parmesan, grated
2-3 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
Fettuccine pasta, cooked

Directions:

In a blender, mix together milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt. Blend until smooth. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, melt butter. Add in minced garlic and saute for about 30 seconds. Add in milk mixture to skillet. Allow to simmer 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently. Sauce will thicken as cooking. Remove from heat and add in chicken/cheese. Mix well and cover skillet. Allow to sit around 10 minutes. Once sauce is done, add it to cooked pasta and serve.

Found on The Cookin' Chicks.

Easy Kielbasa Dinner

I was looking for kielbasa dinner ideas and I love easy recipes.  This kielbasa recipe is super easy. 

MOM'S SKILLET KIELBASA

1 package kielbasa
1 med onion (sliced)
3-4 med potatoes (cut in lg cubes)
1 can beef broth
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp. thyme
1 can green beans (drained)

Place everything in covered skillet except the green beans, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes. Add green beans during the last 5 minutes.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Found at Cooks.com.

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Easy Ham & Bean Soup

This Ham & Bean soup is one of my standby recipes for those days when I am too busy and forgot to plan dinner (something I am working on for sure). It is so easy. It involves cutting ham and potatoes but it beats buying gross take out and cost less than $6.50 to make.

Start a medium-large pot of 5-6 cups of water boiling while you cut 4-5 medium potatoes into bite size pieces and add to the pot.

Add
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
2 chicken bouillon cubes

Cut 1 pound of ham into bite size pieces(turkey ham is cheaper and healthier and doesn't taste much different, to me anyway :-)

Add the ham and 12-16 oz frozen green beans. Return to a boil then reduce to a low simmer for 15-30 being careful not to over cook the potatoes.

1.5 lb potatoes $1.13
1 lb ham $4
12 oz Green Giant Green Bean Steamers Free (on Sale at Boyer's for $1. Used $1 off coupon from 9/7GM)
2 bouillon cubes $.13

If you try it, let me know how you like it. Everyone in my house likes this, thankfully!

Greek Tuna Salad Pasta

I took Mindi's challenge and made this pasta salad. It was pretty good. You can get the recipe from this link at "Moms Need To Know" Greek Tuna Salad Pasta - and a challenge!


This was my cost:
1 pound penne rigate pasta $1
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar $.27*
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil $.57*
2 plum tomatoes, chopped Free (from the garden)
1/2 cucumber, seeded and coarsely chopped Free (from the garden)
¼ red onion, finely chopped $.12
¼ cup pitted kalamata olives, chopped $1.20 (used plain stuffed green olives)
¼ cup finely chopped parsley (used basil from the garden instead)
Salt and pepper
One 6-ounce can solid white tuna in water, drained and broken into chunks $.42
¼ cup crumbled feta cheese $.26

I made this for about $3. *I didn't know what these items cost me so I used the original numbers below.

Here are the original numbers, courtesy of Rachael Ray Magazine:
Pasta: $1.25
Red Wine Vinegar: $.27
Olive Oil: $.59
Tomatoes: $.96
Cucumber: $.50
Red Onion: $.30
Kalamata olives: $1.20
Parsley: $.33
Tuna: $1.80
Feta: $.96
Total: $8.16 or $2.04/serving
Let me know how cheaply YOU can make this!
(for more recipes, please visit http://www.rachaelraymag.com/; photography by Kana Okada)

Manhattan Clam Chowder

Or is it PA Clam Chowder? You may have read in a previous post that we were recently on vacation in Maryland and did some clamming. We didn't have much luck with finding the little necks so we brought the long necks home to make chowder.

It's rare that I have all the ingredients for a new recipe and where we live, running to the store for a few things consists of at least 45 minutes time. Needless to say, I make a lot of adjustments and additions to use what we do have on hand.

Here is my version of Manhattan Clam Chowder. It will most likely be different next time.

Use fresh, frozen or canned vegatables. If fresh, saute for 5-10 minutes before adding to the pot. Frozen and canned vegatables and tomatoes can go in a few minutes after the potatoes start to boil.

2 Onions
3 peppers (any variety you want)
1 turnip
1 kolorabi
garlic (as much as you want)
3 bay leaves
Oregano, thyme, crushed red pepper, parsley, black pepper (I don't bother with measurements, whatever looks good goes here!)
3 cups or so diced potatoes
1 cup chicken stock
3, 4 or more tomatoes
corn
8 pounds of clams

Saute fresh vegatables (onion, pepper, turnip, kolorabi, garlic, corn) for about 5-10 minutes.

In 4-6 cups of water cook cleaned clams until they open, (if they don't open, don't eat them) When all clams are done and out of the water, ladle out as much of the water into your stock pot. This is your broth.

While bringing the water to a boil, add chicken stock, potatoes, vegatables and seasonings. Add water if the soup is too thick or salty. Chop clams and add to soup when vegatables are tender. If you allow the soup to sit an hour it will get better.

Enjoy and let me know what you think.

English Muffin Pizzas

When I feel like having pizza but I don't have any pizza, English Muffins come to the rescue. Use them as a pizza shell and add sauce, cheese and other toppings. Bake in the oven or toaster oven until hot and melted.

These should have been called English-Mexican-American-Italian Muffin Pizzas because I used salsa, American cheese and pepperoni. They were different but very good. I would love to hear what you have substituted in a pinch.

Recipes

I am always looking for ways to make meals as easily and quickly as possible. Not that I don't like to cook, or that I don't want my family to eat a good homecooked meal (we hate eating out). It's just that I have about 152 other things I would rather be doing.

So I have my old standbys and I search allrecipes.com when I have the ingredients but not the idea. I've come to find a lot of easy recipes, acceptable substitutions and ways to simplify some of the more difficult processes called for.

Let's face it, who wants to stand there and "gradually stir in milk". Ok, sometimes I do have the ambition for homemade mac and cheese but for the most part I say throw it in a pot and call it DONE!