About once every two months I make a huge pot of pasta sauce. The thing I love about pasta is that it's very quick to fix, once you have the sauce. And there's quite a few variations.
In my sauce, I put
2 lbs hamburger meat
1 package hot (or mild) italian sausages
3 reg size jars traditional prego spaghetti sauce
1 onion chopped
1 green, yellow, red, and orange bell peppers, diced
garlic powder, salt and pepper, italian seasoning.
1. In a crockpot, pour the spaghetti sauce, add veggies and stir. (low heat)
2. In a large skillet cook the hamburger meat and sausages (skins off) til done. While cooking add salt and pepper and italian seasoning. When cooked thru, drain, and add to sauce.
3. I like to let my sauce simmer in the crockpot for 3-6 hours. Add the garlic powder to taste.
4. At the end of the day, turn off crockpot and let sauce cool. Once it's about room temp, I pour 3 cups of sauce into large gallon size freezer ziplock baggies. This will make about 5 bags. When i'm ready to make them, I just take out of freezer, plop bag in a bowl of lukewarm water to thaw for 30-45 minutes, then pour into a bowl with a can of tomato sauce and microwave.
Tonight we're having spaghetti, but on the menu for the next month is tortelli (the premade kind in the grocery store), rigatonni (penne pasta cooked, sauce, and 1 cup shredded colby jack cheese added in the last 5 minutes to melt), ravioli, and maybe some manicotti. It's great and cheap. The sauce costs about $20 total (that's $4 a meal), the pasta $1-4, so it's my fall back when i need to really stretch those pennies.
Showing posts with label beef. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beef. Show all posts
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Hamburger and My George Foreman Grill
I have a problem with kitchen gadgets. I have mroe than I have counter space. The food processor, blender, and several small hand held gadgets have a home in one of the bottom counter. On top are my rice maker, crockpot, and kitchen aid mixer (which I just love!!!). I try to avoid the kitchen section of most stores (as well as the shoe section) so I have heard of but never tried the George Foreman Grill. Emily, my best friend, swears by this thing. She says it's just perfect cuz on those nites where she's experimenting with a new recipe or just doesnt feel like cooking her boyfriend can fix himself a hamburger and viola, dinners done. Well, I try to avoid 1)adding to the collection and 2)following the trends (ha), so I was a bit surprised on my birthday when my parents got me a George Foremand Grill and a Pizzazz Pizza Oven by Presto.
They've both been sitting, still in the box, in the corner of the living room. I was afraid to open them because I have NO where to put them. But last night I decided to fix hamburgers. This decision was made because of the left over meat and hamburger buns from the previous nite of taco burgers. I hate wasting food and it was either that or the hamburger helper.
Now to say i'm a novice in the kitchen is incorrect. Blonde, yes. I couldnt cook a hamburger to save my life. Dont ask me how but I always find a way to either get it to stick to the pan or fall apart. So when I announced I was going to attempt, yet again, this feat, Vinnie suggested I try the GF grill.
I have found my new best friend. OMG this thing is awesome!! Just plug it in, let it warm up, put the burgers on, drop the lid, set the timer, and presto chango dinner is done. I am in love. I didnt get burned by popping grease, the burgers got completely cooked thru, and I was able to get the rest of the kitchen clean while they were cooking instead of standing over a (violent) stove. Can I have a Amen?
It comes with a handy dandy instruction book that has several recipes that look very yummy. But last nite Vinnie fixed the patties. (I have this thing about sticking my hands in raw meat. It's too cold and my hands go numb. Dont ask). He added 1 cup of chopped dried onions, 1 1/2 cups A-1 sauce to 3 lbs hamburgers and they turned out just delicious. Pop some french fries in the oven, slice a tomato and call it a day.
I love easy dinner days.
Ps. The pizza oven is still in the box. Update later.
They've both been sitting, still in the box, in the corner of the living room. I was afraid to open them because I have NO where to put them. But last night I decided to fix hamburgers. This decision was made because of the left over meat and hamburger buns from the previous nite of taco burgers. I hate wasting food and it was either that or the hamburger helper.
Now to say i'm a novice in the kitchen is incorrect. Blonde, yes. I couldnt cook a hamburger to save my life. Dont ask me how but I always find a way to either get it to stick to the pan or fall apart. So when I announced I was going to attempt, yet again, this feat, Vinnie suggested I try the GF grill.
I have found my new best friend. OMG this thing is awesome!! Just plug it in, let it warm up, put the burgers on, drop the lid, set the timer, and presto chango dinner is done. I am in love. I didnt get burned by popping grease, the burgers got completely cooked thru, and I was able to get the rest of the kitchen clean while they were cooking instead of standing over a (violent) stove. Can I have a Amen?
It comes with a handy dandy instruction book that has several recipes that look very yummy. But last nite Vinnie fixed the patties. (I have this thing about sticking my hands in raw meat. It's too cold and my hands go numb. Dont ask). He added 1 cup of chopped dried onions, 1 1/2 cups A-1 sauce to 3 lbs hamburgers and they turned out just delicious. Pop some french fries in the oven, slice a tomato and call it a day.
I love easy dinner days.
Ps. The pizza oven is still in the box. Update later.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Taco Burgers
Tonite we had two of my nephews over for dinner, Ian who's 8 and Michael who's 11. I had opted for a cheat nite of hamburger helper stroganoff. (besides having a horrible day at work, I got my first tattoo 3 days ago and my back is still killing me) Vinnie, on the other hand, had a bigger appetite. The rule in our house if you dont want what I have planned then you either have to cook or buy whatever it is that you want. (I got tired of planning a two week menu and having half of the food spoil because it wasnt what he wanted to eat). What a sweetheart I have that he stopped by the store on the way home and bought the ingredients. (I'm being nice because he also bought the ingredients for a fuzzy navel. Ahhh... I can hear the bubble bath calling me now).
So he was in the mood for taco burgers. Now of course this meal isnt complete without the story of when I first cooked them. We had been together about 4 months and he said 'i'm in the mood for taco burgers'. I had never heard of them before but figured heck how difficult could they be? So off I go to the kitchen and start cooking. I'm about done when Vinnie comes in and was like what the heck are you doing? Um... cooking? I guess I had a blonde moment in the planning department, and instead of cooking HAMBURGERS I had ground up the meat, like for a taco. Oh so you meant taco BURGERS, not TACO burgers. Sooooo... needless to say I didnt try to put the meat on a hamburger bun. So now everytime we have this meal Vinnie has to recount this story. I think for him it was an insite as to what to expect from me in the kitchen.
Serves 5 (me and 4 hungry boys/men)
Ingredients
3 lbs hamburger meat
3 packages taco seasoning
3 avacados
2 packages quacamole mix
1 block colby jack cheese
1 onion, chopped
1 tomato, sliced
ketchup, mustard
hamburger buns
corn chips
1. In a bowl mix together the hamburger meat, taco seasoning and onions until well mixed. Form into patties and cook in skillet til done.
2. Mix quacamole mix as according to package directions.
3. Serve burgers with sliced cheese, quac, and tomatoes. Let everyone fix burgers as they choose. (i like yellow mustard, cheese, quac and a tomato on mine, ian had his with ketchup, michael plain, and both Vinnie and Tony had theirs the same as mine minus the mustard)
So he was in the mood for taco burgers. Now of course this meal isnt complete without the story of when I first cooked them. We had been together about 4 months and he said 'i'm in the mood for taco burgers'. I had never heard of them before but figured heck how difficult could they be? So off I go to the kitchen and start cooking. I'm about done when Vinnie comes in and was like what the heck are you doing? Um... cooking? I guess I had a blonde moment in the planning department, and instead of cooking HAMBURGERS I had ground up the meat, like for a taco. Oh so you meant taco BURGERS, not TACO burgers. Sooooo... needless to say I didnt try to put the meat on a hamburger bun. So now everytime we have this meal Vinnie has to recount this story. I think for him it was an insite as to what to expect from me in the kitchen.
Serves 5 (me and 4 hungry boys/men)
Ingredients
3 lbs hamburger meat
3 packages taco seasoning
3 avacados
2 packages quacamole mix
1 block colby jack cheese
1 onion, chopped
1 tomato, sliced
ketchup, mustard
hamburger buns
corn chips
1. In a bowl mix together the hamburger meat, taco seasoning and onions until well mixed. Form into patties and cook in skillet til done.
2. Mix quacamole mix as according to package directions.
3. Serve burgers with sliced cheese, quac, and tomatoes. Let everyone fix burgers as they choose. (i like yellow mustard, cheese, quac and a tomato on mine, ian had his with ketchup, michael plain, and both Vinnie and Tony had theirs the same as mine minus the mustard)
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