Food & Recipes
SLOW COOKED GUINNESS STEW
Roy stumbled upon a Guinness Stew recipe a while back & the other day I thought I’d finally check it out & see about making it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of the ingredients the recipe called for so I Googled some other Guinness Stew recipes & altered things a bit to suit what I had on hand for available ingredients.
It turned out AMAZING. So incredibly flavorful. It doesn’t taste like beer at all but the Guinness seems to of enhanced all the other flavors making it a crock pot full of awesome. Seriously, I just want to suck on every mouthful for a while because it’s just that tasty. Weird… I know.
Ingredients You’ll Need:
* Stewing Beef (as much or little as desired)
* Diced Carrots (as much or little as desired)
* Diced Celery (as much or little as desired)
* Diced Onion (as much or little as desired)
* Diced Red Potatoes (as much or little as desired)
* 1 Can Guinness
* 2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
* 2 Bay Leaves
* 1 Packet Lipton Beef & Onion
* 1 Tbsp Tomato Paste (I just used Ketchup)
* 1/4 Cup Flour
* A Few Twists Salt & Pepper
* 1-2 Tbsp Olive Oil
* Fresh or dry Parsley
What To Do:
* Put flour in a zipper bag with the beef & add a few twists of salt & pepper then shake it all up.
* Heat Olive Oil in a skillet & saute the meat till browned
* Put all the diced veggies in the bottom of your crock pot & top with the browned meat.
* Mix remaining ingredients in a bowl with the Guinness & pour over the meat (I also added about a 1/4 cup of water because I had a LOT of meat & veggies in the crock pot).
* Cook on high for about 5-6 hours (stirring occasionally) then on low for an additional 1-2 until veggies reach desired level of tenderness (I like my veggies to be VERY soft).
* Sprinkle each serving with Parsley, serve with a dinner roll & enjoy!
MARVELOUS MEATLOAF
Don’t let the picture fool you. It might look like a semi boring slab of meat but this recipe is truly marvelous.
I’ve never been a huge meat loaf fan & had never really even made one (intentionally) before but I stumbled upon this recipe over at Eating Well… Living Thin & since every recipe I’ve tried of hers has yet to disappoint I thought I’d give this one a try too.
It was soooo worth it!
I’ve made some minor modifications to suit my own style but here it is: (for the original version head on over to the link above)
Ingredients You’ll Need:
* 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
* 1/2 cup diced onion
* 2 stalks celery, diced small
* 3 slices cooked bacon, diced small
* 1 egg
* 1/3 cup skim milk
* 1 teaspoons salt
* 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
* 1/4 teaspoon sage
* 1 slice bread, diced really small
* 3/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
* 1 lb lean ground beef
* 1 lb ground pork
* 1/3 cup ketchup
* 1/3 cup Splenda
* 1 tablespoon syrup
* 1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard
What To Do:
* Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
* Greece 1 large square baking pan, 2 regular loaf pans, or 4 mini loaf pans and set aside.
* Saute olive oil over medium low heat. Add the onion, celery, and bacon. Cook 10-15 minutes or until soft. Set aside to cool a bit.
* In large bowl whisk egg, milk, salt, pepper, and sage. stir in bread crumbs, cheese and onion mixture.
* Add ground meats & mix well (I get my hands right in there to work it all).
* Divide among pans.
* In small bowl whisk ketchup, Splenda, syrup, and mustard. Scoop & smooth over meat.
* Bake 30-35 minutes for mini loaf pans, or 45-50 minutes for regular loaf pans or a large square pan.
* Let sit at least 10 minutes before slicing.
Great served with just a side salad if you want to go (mostly) carb free but also good with potatoes, rice, buns, etc. It pretty well goes with anything!
S’MORE COOKIE BARS
I’ve always been a big fan of S’mores & have also always had a weakness for cookies so when I stumbled across this recipe, somewhere on the net, I began salivating at the pure thought & knew I just had to try making them.
This is NOT a weight loss friendly recipe & They are truly as delicious & “Ooey Gooey” as they look!
Ingredients You’ll Need:
* 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
* 1/4 cup brown sugar (I use a Splenda mix)
* 1/2 cup sugar (I use Splenda)
* 1 large egg
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
* 3/4 cup graham crackers crumbled
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 2 king-sized Hershey’s milk chocolate bars
* 1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (7 1/2 oz jar & NOT melted marshmallows)
What To Do:
* Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
* In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light.
* Beat in egg and vanilla.
* In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt.
* Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.
* Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan.
* Place chocolate bars over dough. 2 king-sized Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if needed) to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick.
* Spread marshmallow creme or fluff over chocolate.
* Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff (most easily achieved by flattening the dough into small shingles and laying them together). Spread it around gently.
* Bake for 25 to 35 minutes until lightly browned.
* Cool completely before cutting into bars.
* Enjoy!
YORKSHIRE PUDDING
I think I make the best Pot Roast I’ve ever tasted… Seriously!
I have memories when I was growing up of going with my gramma to The Bay (now belly up I believe) on Wednesdays for their Roast Beef dinner. We loved it & my favorite part was that it came with a nice fluffy Yorkshire Pudding too. They are light & soft, a lil flaky, a lil eggy & bake to end up hallow inside. Sounds a bit weird I’m sure to anyone who hasn’t tried them but they are great & I love them.
Unfortunately, since those days I hadn’t had a Yorkshire Pudding again but I noticed recently that a friend of mine seemed to know how to make them when I spotted a Facebook photo of hers so I asked for the recipe & was shocked at just how easy these lil joys are to make.
I’ve modified it slightly because I don’t actually own any large muffin tins, only 3 of the mini ones, but in all seriousness these go excellent with a delicious roast. I personally like to just make these instead of potatoes & use them as the starch but for those with bigger appetites you might want to just have these as an additional side like you would a dinner roll.
Ingredients You’ll Need:
For 6 Count Regular Muffin Tins or 24 Count Mini Muffin Tins:
1 Cup Flour
1 Cup Eggs (about 4 large ones)
1 Cup Milk
Pinch of Salt
For 12 Count Mini Muffin Tins:
1/2 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Eggs
1/2 Cup Milk
Pinch of Salt
What to Do:
Preheat oven to 400
Add a drop of cooking oil to each tin (I just use a straw, dip it into the bottle of oil while plugging the other end & then let a drop drip into each tin making it easy)
Wisk ingredients together in a bowl until well combined & flour stops being too clumpy
Spoon even amounts into each tin
Bake at 400 for 10 minutes (big muffin tins) or 5 minutes (for the mini ones) then reduce heat to 375 & continue baking another 15-25 minutes.
They’re ready when they get to be a golden brown & I recommend checking them every 5 minutes or so after the first 15.
Serve with your favorite roast & enjoy!
SHRIMP & AVOCADO SALAD
It’s currently Thursday evening as I write this post but I have it scheduled to publish tomorrow morning since it’s for “Favorite Food Friday“.
I’m currently on a liquid only diet & trying to choke down a gallon bottle of a most disgusting “Miralax & Gatorade blend” in order to clear out my system for an Intravenous Pyelogram (IVP) Test that I have scheduled for tomorrow morning to determine whether I have one or both of my kidneys.
Because I’m not allowed to eat anything until after my test (which is at 8am) & haven’t been able to eat anything for the past 9 hours, it’s of course all I can think about! So hense forth comes this post….
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One of my favorite meals since having my Gastric Bypass surgery has been salads. They’re easy to eat (as in I don’t feel like my belly is going to explode after only a few bites) & they’re incredibly tasty & satisfying.
I love Shrimp & they are super high in protein (which is important to all RNY post ops) 4 ounces of shrimp equals 23 grams of protein.
I also love Avocado’s & the combining of the two over a bed of lettuce just tastes awesome!
A while back I went for dinner with a friend of mine during one of the Give Parent’s a Break Nights offered at our bases CDC. It was before Roy came back from Iraq. So anyways, we went to this fine dining restaurant called Scotts of Fifth & part of my order was this Shrimp & Avocado Salad that was drizzled with what tasted similar to Thousand Island’s Dressing although I don’t think that’s actually what it was. It was however delicious & my initial introduction to having Shrimp & Avocado together on my salad. So, on my next grocery trip I gathered up the necessary ingredients to try to recreate it as well as a few extras like a package of Glazed Walnut & Cranberry Salad Topping.
Throwing together a salad is pretty self explanatory but just in case there does happen to be someone reading this that needs further details I’ll give a simple explanation on what to do should you want to try to recreate the deliciousness pictured above….
Ingredients You’ll Need:
* Your favorite type of lettuce or lettuce blend
* Half an Avocado
* 10-20 Small to Medium Sized Cooked Shrimp
* A package of Glazed Walnut & Cranberry Salad Topping or any other type topping you might like
* Kraft Fat Free Thousand Island’s Dressing or other dressing of choice
* 5 Grape or Cherry Tomatoes
What To Do:
* Place a few handfuls of your freshly washed or pre packaged lettuce onto a plate of desired size
* Slice up half the Avocado & the Tomatoes into thickness of choice.
* Lay out Avocado slices nicely over lettuce & sprinkle tomatoes on top.
* Lay out cooked shrimp nicely on top of everything else & sprinkle Salad topping of preference
* Lastly, drizzle desired amount of dressing on top & enjoy!
