Mongolian Beef

This recipe comes from my friend Petra, she got it from food.com. She posted it on her blog as a copycat recipe of P.F. Chang's Mongolian Beef. I knew it would be yummy since it came from Petra. The sauce is a dream come true. I ate some of the beef then loaded my plate with stir fry veggies and rice and poured the extra sauce over it. (I made extra sauce just for that reason)


Mongolian Beef

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon ginger, minced
1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
vegetable oil, for frying (about 1 cup)
1 lb flank steak
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 large green onions

Make the sauce by heating 2 tsp of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over med/low heat. Don't get the oil too hot. Add ginger and garlic to the pan and quickly add the soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches. Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce, then raise the heat to about medium and boil the sauce for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Remove it from the heat.

Slice the flank steak against the grain into 1/4" thick bite-size slices. Dip the steak pieces into the cornstarch to apply a very thin dusting to both sides of each piece of beef. Let the beef sit for about 10 minutes so that the cornstarch sticks. As the beef sits, heat up one cup of oil in a wok (you may also use a skillet for this step as long as the beef will be mostly covered with oil). Heat the oil over medium heat until it's nice and hot, but not smoking. Add the beef to the oil and sauté for just two minutes, or until the beef just begins to darken on the edges. You don't need a thorough cooking here since the beef is going to go back on the heat later. Stir the meat around a little so that it cooks evenly. After a couple minutes, use a large slotted spoon to take the meat out and onto paper towels, then pour the oil out of the wok or skillet.

Put the pan back over the heat, dump the meat back into it and simmer for one minute. Add the sauce, cook for one minute while stirring, then add all the green onions. Cook for one more minute, then remove the beef and onions with tongs or a slotted spoon to a serving plate.
Enjoy! :)

Quick Bean and Beef Burritos

Does this count as a recipe? Maybe more of a dinner idea. This can be thrown together in no time at all. My kids love it as well as my husband. I made too much so I wrapped and froze them indivudually and we had dinner for the next week all ready.

Bean / Beef Burritos

beans, I made my own pinto beans or you could use a can of refried
1 pound ground beef
taco seasoning
onion
tortillas
1 can enchilada sauce
shredded cheese

Cook or warm up beans and cook meat with onion and seasoning. Spread a small amount of beans and meat on each tortilla, sprinkle with cheese and roll up. Place in a 9x13 pan. When you are done rolling the burritos, top them with enchilada sauce and some shredded cheese. Place in 350 degree oven just until cheese melts. You could also jsut put each individual burrito in the microwave. Top with sour cream, cilantro and/or salsa. Also yummy with avacado.

Carne Asada Tacos (my new favorite)

This recipe came from my sister Aileen in an email last week and I new feel forever in debt to her. I will be making this meal at least twice a month during the summer. It took no time at all and I enjoyed it as much, or better, than any restaurant taco I have ever had. These are my most favorite meal to ever come off our grill, the meat is so thin that it is a piece of cake to get it just right and it cooks in minutes. Seriously, these are awesome!


3 pounds carne asada (The package labeled "carne asada" was in small little pieces, be sure to buy it as a large piece you can put on the grill. It wasn't called carne asada at the store I went to so I asked the butcher, it is the steak that is cut super thin)
1/3 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 limes, juiced
1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 white onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 lime, juiced
Lay the carne asada in a large glass baking dish. In a medium bowl, whisk together the vinegar, soy sauce, 4 cloves of garlic, juice of two limes, and olive oil. Season with salt, black pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, and cumin. Whisk until well blended, then pour over the steak in the dish. Turn over once to coat both sides. Cover with plastic wrap, and marinate for 1 to 8 hours.

Cook on the grill for just a few minutes each side, it cooks really fast since it is so thin. After done, slice into strips.

In a small bowl, stir together 1 chopped white onion, cilantro, and the juice of 1 lime. Set aside to use as a relish for the tacos.

serve with corn tortillas cooked in vegetable oil (if you want these to be like a restaurant, be sure not to skip this step, heat the oil over medium heat and dip the tortillas, turning once for just a second on each side. Blot on paper towels)

We also served with cheese and sour cream, add any of your favorite taco toppings.

French Dip Sandwiches and a perfect roast

Yesterday I was giving my husband several options for Sunday dinner and as soon as I said french dip sandwiches, he didn't care about any other options. The men in our family love this meal, come to think of it, so do us girls. It is one of the easiest meals I can think of. And only four ingredients!

French Dip Sandwiches

Roast, I used a cross rib roast
deli sub rolls
butter
au jus, found in a packet with the gravy mixes

1. To cook the roast to perfection - (this is my mom's method and anyone that has ever had roast at her house knows she makes THE very best roast. It is always cooked to perfection, falls apart and is so moist. ) The night before put your roast (I always put it on frozen, just becasue that is how I store them) in a dutch oven size pan with the lid on. Put it in the oven at 200 degrees and leave it in for twelve hours. If you take it out and it doesn't fall apart, put it back in for another hour. Take it out when it is done and put it in the fridge until dinner.

2. Butter rolls and put them under the broiler until golden brown.
3. Make au jus according to packet directions.
4. Place shredded beef on toasted roll, salt and serve with a side of au jus.

I told you it was easy!

Stuffed Green Peppers

This one is for you Breena =). I haven't made these in a while so thank you for the menu suggestion. I am sure there are many variations of stuffed peppers. This is the one my mom has always made and I love it, even my kids eat this one right up! It makes a regular appearance in my menu rotation.

Green peppers are my favorite vegetable so I really love these. This is my mom's recipe and really, any good recipe I have is probably because it came from my talented mom. My kids love the filling but not the pepper, which is just fine with me, I just eat their pepper and less filling. It is very, very easy. I think I threw it together in 15 minutes. These are really good as leftovers also.

Stuffed Peppers

(Printable version here)

4 green peppers
1 lb. hamburger
3/4 cup minute rice, uncooked
1 tsp. salt
1 TBS. worchestershire sauce
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 eggs
2 8 oz cans tomato sauce, divided
1 cup grated cheese
Cut tops off peppers and clean out seeds. Precook in boiling water for 5 minutes.
Mix all ingredients (only one can of tomato sauce) and stuff peppers. Bake at 350 degrees for
35-40 minutes. Put remaining tomato sauce and the cheese on the tops and bake for 5 or 10 more minutes.

I usually cut the pepper in half after baking them for the 35 minutes, then put the tomato sauce and cheese on each half, we eat them in halves anyway, especially the kids.

Hamburger Pie

This is the easiest recipe and it is good! My kids eat it right up. My mom made this often at our house growing up. I love it because it is all ingredients we have on hand, it can be thrown together in 30 minutes or so, it makes enough for my famiy to eat it two nights in a row, the recipe is easy to memorize AND it is cheap!

1 lb hamburger

1 can condensed tomato soup

1 medium onion

1 or 2 cans cut green beans

mashed potatoes

cheese

Brown hamburger with onion. Drain fat. Add tomato soup. Pour in a casserole dish. Top with green beans then mashed potatoes then cheese. Put in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.