Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Bell Peppers

Once again, getting creative with my vegetables.  Tonight's dinner involved bell peppers.  And I was a little anxious since I normally do not enjoy sliced deli meat.  This one turned out excellently, and only had like 100 calories per pepper!  That's a keeper.

This recipe comes from Quick n' Easy Recipes.  (Which currently has an ad of an EXTREMELY unattractive man on it.  haha).  And quick n' easy it was!  And the site has some awesome photos of the food (I swear I will take some pictures soon, at least of the finished project.  I really love seeing the pictures because it helps me to see if I am doing it right or not.  Since more often than not, I am doing it wrong).

So here's the deal.

INGREDIENTS

8 oz. Thinly Sliced Roast Beef

8 Slices Provolone Cheese

2 Large Green Bell Peppers

1 Medium Sweet Onion (obviously, I would never use)

6 oz. Baby Bella Mushrooms

2 Tbs. Butter

2 Tbs. Olive Oil

1 Tbs. Garlic – Minced

Salt and Pepper – to taste

DIRECTIONS

Slice mushrooms.  
Saute over medium heat with butter, olive oil, minced garlic and a little salt and pepper.  Saute until onions and mushroom are nice and caramelized.  About 25-30 minutes.  (I didn't do nearly this long, maybe 15-20 mins and they looked like they were getting burned.)

Slice peppers in half lengthwise, remove ribs and seeds.

Preheat oven to 400*

Slice roast beef into thin strips and add to the onion/mushroom mixture.  Allow to cook 5-10 minutes

Line the inside of each pepper with a slice of provolone cheese. 

Fill each pepper with meat mixture until they are nearly overflowing.

Top each pepper with another slice of provolone cheese.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the cheese on top is golden brown. 

Done and done.  4.5 stars.  Sometimes I think I like the taste of roasted peppers better.  Maybe next time I'll fire roast them first.

Beef Chili

I don't love chili.  I never have.  Well, that does not include white chicken chili.  I love that.  I'm talking about red beefy beansy chili.  But this one I could actually tolerate.  Don't love it, though Callen said a few times that he liked it.  He even said it was a bit sweet (due to the sweet peppers and the lack of hot spices.  I don't do hot).  So overall rating, from me 2.5, from Callen, probably a 4.5?

Chili

• 1
  pound lean ground beef
• 1/2
  cup chopped green sweet pepper (1 small)
• 1/2
  cup chopped onion (1 medium) (omitted)
• 4
  cloves garlic, minced
• 1
  15 ounce can tomato sauce (only had 8 ounces, it was fine)
• 1
  15 ounce can red kidney beans, undrained
• 1
  14 1/2 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 - 3
  teaspoons chili powder
• 1/2
  teaspoon salt
• 1/2
  teaspoon dried basil, crushed
• 1/4
  teaspoon ground black pepper
• Shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
• Chopped onion (optional)
• Dairy sour cream (optional)
• Crushed red pepper (optional)

directions

1.In a 3-quart saucepan cook and stir ground beef, sweet pepper, 1/2 cup chopped onion, and the garlic over medium heat until meat is brown and onion is tender. Drain off fat.

2.Stir in tomato sauce, undrained beans, undrained tomatoes, chili powder, salt, basil, and black pepper. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. To serve, ladle chili into bowls. If desired, top each serving with cheese, chopped onion, and/or sour cream and pass crushed red pepper. Makes 4 main-dish servings.

Beef and Broccoli

When I've had too much Mongolian Beef, we try this recipe of beef and broccoli.  This one I got from my mom...

Make the following marinade:
2 T soy sauce
1 clove minced garlic
1 T orange or pineapple juice
1 t sugar

Marinate 1 lb chopped flank steak for at least 30 minutes.

Heat up some vegetable oil for frying.  Dump in the meat (with the marinade) and cook the meat through.  When fully cooked, add some cooked broccoli (a whole package of frozen broccoli or an entire clump of fresh broccoli).  Heat.

Mix together a sauce thickener:
1/4 c. water
1T cornstarch
1 beef bouillon cube

Add to pan, stir and heat until sauce thickens.

Serve over rice.

4.9 stars (delicious, but not quite as good as the Mongolian Beef recipe.)

Mongolian Beef

Once again, forgot to take a picture.  But here's a recipe so I don't forget it.  I got this out of a book, entitled something like Famous Restaurant Copycat Recipes.  The blue one. (There are 2 that I know of).

Mongolian Beef (like P.F. Chang's Recipes)

2 t vegetable oil
1/2 t. ginger, minced
1 T garlic, minced
1/2 c. soy sauce
1/2 c. water
3/4 c. brown sugar
vegetable oil, for frying

1 lb flank steak
1/4 c. cornstarch
2 large green onions, sliced on the diagonal into one inch lengths

1.  Make the sauce by heating 2 t of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over med/low heat.  Don't get the oil too hot.  Add the ginger and the garlic to the pan, don't let the garlic burn. (I normally use powdered ginger for this, this last time I didn't have any kind of ginger.)

2.  Add the soy sauce and water before the garlic burns.  Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce, then raise to medium heat and boil the sauce for 2-3 mins or until the sauce thickens. (I've never gotten the sauce to thicken at this point).  Remove from heat.

3.  Dip the steak pieces into the cornstarch to coat.  Let the beef sit for about 10 mins to soak in the starch.

4.  Heat up the oil to fry the beef.  Add the beef and saute for about 2 mins, until cooked through.  Remove from oil, throw away oil.

5.  Put the pan back over the heat, dump the meat back in and add the sauce.  Simmer for 1 min (this is where my sauce starts to thicken a little.)

I like to serve this with broccoli or rice, or both!   One of Callen's most requested meals.  5 stars!

Smothered Burritos

Tonight's dinner was simple.  Smothered burritos.  I love me a good crock pot recipe.  Something easy to make.  Especially now with two children.  (Seriously, who knew having TWO kids would be so difficult!  Being outnumbered is seriously a joke!)  This recipe was perfect.  It took maybe 2 minutes to throw in the crockpot this morning and maybe 15 minutes of prep this afternoon for a delicious dinner.  And it was even something my 2 year old would eat!

I took some stew meat and threw it in the crockpot.  Then pour over 2 10 ounce cans of mild enchilada sauce.  I added 2 tablespoons of beef bouillon (or you can use two bouillon cubes).  Cook on low for 7 hours.

When it was almost done, I heated up a can of refried beans and cooked my tortillas (seriously, after trying the cook yourself tortillas, I will never got back to buying ready to eat tortillas.  Look in the refrigerator section of your grocery store for these, they're amazing), and grated some cheese (that I then to had to fight off my two year old from.  She loves her cheese).

Then simply build the burritos.  Using a slotted spoon, remove the meat, put in the tortilla.  Spoon some beans over the top, then roll them up.  Once they're all in the pan, spoon over sauce from the crockpot and sprinkle, I mean smother, with cheese.  (Brooklyn's favorite part).  Broil for a couple of minutes to brown the cheese and your'e done!  Delicious and hopefully somewhat nutritious.  (I did use low sodium beans, that helps, right?)

Ready to eat!

Rating:  4.1 stars.  Next time I would probably add a little spice to the meat.  If I got a big chunk of meat, it didn't have a ton of flavor.