Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup)

Kevin and I first had Pho a couple of years ago when my cousin had her rehearsal dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. It wasn't until sometime last year that we Kevin attempted to make it. It was so yummy! We were craving it today and even though it was hot outside we decided to make it and just turn the AC down. This recipe is a little more complex than I normally prefer, but it's worth it!

Gather it:
3-4 cloves of garlic
Small handful of whole black peppercorns
5-6 star anise pods
2-3 bay leaves
2 inches of ginger, cut into thin pieces)
1 jalapeño, diced
Small bunch of fresh cilantro, leaves only
2 stalks of scallions, sliced
Bean sprouts
1 lime, cut in wedges
4 soup bones (if it's not in the fresh meat section, look in the frozen section)
2 large boxes of beef broth
1/2 lb roast beef from the deli, shredded into bite sized pieces
Rice noodles, found at Asian store, but my Publix had it too in the International aisle
~ 6 Tbsp of fish sauce (found at local Asian store)

Make it:
1) In a large pot, over medium heat, "toast" first 4 ingredients for 4 minutes.
2) Place soup bones in pot and brown for 4 minutes. Then place about 1/2 cup of beef broth in pot
and simmer for about 5 minutes.
3) Pour remaining boxes of broth in pot and simmer over medium high heat for 20 minutes.
4) Add 5 cups of water, ginger, fish sauce and return to a boil then simmer on low heat for 45 min.
5) Place a fine mesh strainer and pour 2 ladlefuls of the broth in a smaller pot. Fill additionally with water and cook rice noodles according to package directions.
6) Using strainer and ladle, remove the garlic, peppercorns, star anise, bay leaves and ginger from the large pot and throw away.
7) In a bowl, place noodles, jalapeños, sprouts, and roast beef. Pour hot broth over it, top with cilantro and scallions and squeeze lime juice.

The garlic, peppercorns, star anise, bay leaves, and soup bones browning together.

Mini Sliders

Kevin ran errands while the kids napped and I worked at home. He decided to go ahead and do our grocery shopping and planned dinners for the week as well. Yeah, I think he's pretty amazing too. When he got home he told me he was going to make mini sliders for dinner...similar to what we had at our friend Mike and Sarah's house a couple of weeks ago. These were so yummy and so easy (of course it was...I just handed him bottles of herbs/seasonings and watched. lol).



Gather it:
1 lb of ground beef
3 mozarella cheese sticks, cut into about 1/2" pieces (I suggested using Baby Belle cheese, but the chef vetoed my idea...still think it would have been delicious)
white onions, diced
1 whole egg
garlic powder
black pepper
dried parsley flakes

Toppings/bread:
Hawaiian rolls
sliced cheddar cheese
sliced tomatoes
lettuce

Make it:
1) Combine all ingredients in bowl except for the cheeses, toppings, and bread and mix together.

2) Make a small patty, place 1/2" piece of mozzarella , and top with another small patty and press both patties together to seal cheese in the middle.

3) Grill patties to desired doneness and top w/ sliced cheese and allow it to melt on the patty.

4) Cut Hawaiian rolls in half horizontally and place patty on bred, top with tomatoes and lettuce and gobble it up!

We served ours with macaroni and cheese (what else?!?) and fruit. For dessert Parker and I made funfetti cupcakes (without icing). We had lots so we shared some with our neighbors b/c let's face it...we don't need to eat all those cupcakes especially after all the cake we I ate from Avery's bday.

Crockpot Beef Stew

I threw this meal together before work yesterday...in the 10 minutes I had to chop and dice everything. It was so easy and I got a text from Kevin while I was still at work saying that it was really good. Both kids gobbled it up too! I made a large meal out of it so that we could have leftovers and dinner tonight too since I knew it would be crazy hectic tonight.

Gather it:
2 lbs of cubed beef stew (or you can cube up your own large hunk of meat)
4 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
4 large red potatoes, quartered
1 medium sweet potato, quartered
4 celery stalks, large half moons
32 oz carton of chicken stock (beef probably would have been better, but I didn't have any)
dried parsley
freshly cracked black pepper

Make it:
1) Place all veggies, parsley, and black pepper in crockpot and cover with stock.

2) Place beef on top of veggies.

3) Cook on low for 8 hours.

We ate it with rice and it was delicious. Make sure to scoop up some of the broth to go over the rice...YUMMY! Oh and Kevin and I added a bit of salt and more black pepper to our dishes.

Note: Next time I will add onions and garlic, but I'm all out. Also, the sweet potatoes cooked a lot faster than the other veggies so next time I'm going to cut it into larger chunks since it kind of fell apart.

Korean Beef

Ok, so it should really be called Korean Turkey since I used ground turkey instead of ground beef. And no it's not your typical Korean "Beef" b/c the recipe calls for ground meat instead using steak, but the flavor was there. Of course you can use steak to make it more authentic. But the ground turkey version made it a cheap meal, especially since I had most of the ingredients already.

This was another Pinterest recipe, but of course I made my own little additions. Just tiny ones. One change that I would make next time is probably double the soy sauce and brown sugar so that I have more of a sauce. Kevin and I love extra sauce to put over our rice. Here's my version:

sorry the presentation isn't the prettiest...Kevin dished my bowl up for me. lol

Gather it:
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 cup (unpacked) brown sugar - use 3/4 to 1 cup if you want extra sauce
1/4 cup of soy sauce - use about 1/2 cup if you want extra sauce
1 Tbsp of sesame oil (you can use vegetable oil or olive oil, but sesame def adds a different layer of flavor)
1/2 tsp of freshly grated ginger
1 small white onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
scallions, diced for topping

Make it:
1. Heat oil over medium/high heat and brown turkey.

2. The original recipe says to drain it, but I'm lazy and NEVER drain the meat so I just crank the heat up to high and add the onion, ginger, and garlic and let extra liquid cook off. It only takes a few minutes to cook off the liquid.

3. Add the sugar and soy sauce and simmer for a few minutes to allow all the flavors to blend together.

Serve it over rice and top with scallions. We also had it with steamed broccoli.  Everyone loved this dish! Parker even asked for seconds and Avery kept waving her spoon and asking for help b/c she was having a hard time getting a big spoonful. We also had it with egg drop soup - post to follow!

Here's the direct link from Pinterest:

Crockpot 3 packet Pot Roast

I LOVE this dinner! It's so easy and yummy...I know I say that all the time, but seriously those are pretty much my requirements when cooking. I especially love crockpot meals b/c I don't have to do much. I'm not a fan of crockpot meals where you have to pre-cook the meat then dump it into the crockpot. There are many crockpot pot roast meals where it tells you to sear the meat on a pan first. Umm, yeah...no thanks!

This meal came from Pinterest (surprise!), but I've made my own changes. Here's my version:

Ingredients:
2 lb beef roast
1 packet of ranch dressing
1 packet of Italian dressing
1 packet of brown gravy mix
carrots
frozen peas
1/2 cup of water

Directions:
1. Empty all 3 packets into crockpot with water. Mix until well incorporated.

2. Place meat in crock pot. Roll around in mixture until all sides are covered in the mixture.

3. Cover and cook on low for 6-8hours.

4. Add carrots (I used microwaveable carrots which are smaller and thinner than baby carrots and cook pretty fast) and frozen peas about 30 minutes before the end of the cook time. You can probably use regular carrots cut into smaller pieces and put it in the same time as the meat, but I usually only buy microwaveable carrots b/c that's what the kids snack on).

And that's it! Serve with rice or mashed potatoes. I promise it is delicious! My whole family gobbles it up! ENJOY!!!!

This is the original recipe.

Beef Stroganoff turned Pot Roast

I had to work last night and wanted to make an easy crockpot meal. I had bought a huge chunk of meat last week to make beef stroganoff...only I slacked and never made it. Besides I didn't have the "golden mushroom soup" that the recipe called for. Apparently this soup is hot commodity b/c I've gone to 3 different Publixes (uhhh, is that grammatically correct?) and 1 SuperTarget and none had it! I had added it to our grocery list on Sunday and I thought Kevin had picked it up when he went shopping. I rummaged through our cupboards before frantically calling Kevin asking where the darn soup was. I stared wide-eyed at the 2+ lb of meat I just cubed up and the diced onions as Kevin tells me he couldn't find any at the store.

What the heck was I supposed to do with this cut up meat and onions?!? Well I went to Pinterest of course! I realized I had all the ingredients to make a crockpot pot roast. Only "problem" is that my meat was cubed. Oh, well! Cubed Pot Roast...it's what's for dinner!

Ya'll I've made this pot roast before and it's super yummy and super easy! I pinned it through Pinterest, which led me to this blog for the recipe. As always, I tweaked mine a little bit, but not a lot. Here's my version:

Ingredients:
1 beef roast - I typically buy 2+ lb of meat, those suckers shrink a lot! Next time, I'll buy a bigger roast b/c we don't really have enough for leftovers for lunch (best part!)
1 package ranch dressing mix
1 package Italian dressing mix
1 package brown gravy w/ mushrooms
1/2 cup warm water
1 large onion
black pepper
dried parsley

Directions:
Place roast in crockpot. In small bowl, mix together all 3 seasoning packets, black pepper, and parsley. Sprinkle mixture all over meat. If you don't mind getting your hands dirty, then rub mixture into the meat. Add onions. Pour 1/2 cup warm water into crockpot. Cook on low 6-7 hours. You can thicken the gravy, but I never do - too lazy!

I usually serve it with mashed potatoes with gravy slathered all over the meat and potatoes and a side of veggies. However, since this was supposed to be a beef stroganoff, I had egg noodles to go with it. I have added some frozen mixed veggies or carrots and peas into the crockpot about 30 minutes before the time is up to warm up the veggies, but tonight I decided to go with broccoli.

Sorry, ya'll, I did not take any pics since I was in a rush trying to get everything in the crockpot so it would cook in plenty of time for me to eat it before work. Then the whole dishing out a serving was difficult b/c Avery was wrapped around my leg or trying to push me away from the counter. Avery ate some of my dinner then ate more with Kevin and Parker after I left. Apparently Parker slurped his meal down too. Make this easy meal...trust me, it's a delicious meal!

My next crockpot meal will likely be chicken and dumplings...just waiting for cooler weather, which we may get this weekend! Stay tuned for another Pinterest meal!

These are the seasoning packets I use. I've started to buy a small box of the Ranch and Italian mixes b/c I have a handful of recipes that call for these ingredients. Also, the gravy I normally buy has mushrooms in it. I like the extra texture, but Kevin went shopping and when I say buy brown gravy, he takes it literally and does not deviate...so then why did he come home with a 12 pack of Yueng Ling?!? I'm 100% positive that was not on MY grocery list!