Hamburger Rice Dish

This recipe was my mom's. I don't remember her making it a single once while we were growing up, but I found the recipe card written out in her distinct handwriting in a recipe box one day, so I know that at some point she made it for us and liked it. Truthfully though, this is basically homemade Hamburger Helper. Nothing fancy, pretty basic. In all of it's simplicity however, it was quite delicious. Beats the box off any Hamburger Helper any day. Probably cheaper too, and faster. I'll take it...

Ingredients...

...1 lb. ground meat
...1 can cream of mushroom soup
...1 can cream of chicken soup
...1 c. water
...2 Tbsp. worcestershire sauce
...1 c. instant rice
...1 c. celery (not pictured, sorry!)
...1/2 cup onion, chopped

Directions...

Combine all ingredients in an oven safe casserole dish and bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

To see more great recipes, be sure to check out Tempt My Tummy Tuesday over at Blessed with Grace, Tuesdays at the Table over at All the Smal Stuff and Tasty Tuesday over at Beauty and Bedlam!

Steak Stir Fry

I have professed my love for mexican fare before, but I have a confession.

Mexican food is not my all time favorite when it comes to ethnic foods.

Nope. Chinese takes the number one spot in my heart when it comes to ethnic foods. Which is lucky for me because Chinese food is so darn easy to make at home. Which saves us from paying an arm and leg for take out every time I have a craving.

Which is often at almost 6 months pregnant...

I've tried a lot of stir fry recipes before, and I'm surprised at myself that I haven't shared any of those recipes yet. I better get on the ball!! So here's a first...steak stir fry. Which was actually a first for me as well. I usually only use chicken when I make stir fry. But when taking inventory of my deep freeze last weekend I realized that I desperately need a good meat sale to come about. But until then we have more than enough steak to experiment with. I figured no time is better than now to make my first steak stir fry!

Ingredients...

...1 beef boullion cube
...1 cup boiling water
...2 T. cornstarch
...1/3 cup soy sauce
...1 pound steak
...1/8 tsp. garlic powder
...1 tsp. ground ginger
...1/4 tsp. black pepper
...2 T. vegetable oil
...1/2 green pepper, julienned
...1/2 yellow pepper, julienned
...4 stalks celery, chopped
...1 cup frozen peas
...Rice, cooked

Directions...

Dissolve boillion cube in boiling water. Combine cornstarch and soysauce until smooth, add to boullion and set aside. In a skillet, brown steak to desired done-ness in vegetable oil. Add peppers, celery and peas to skillet. Toss mixture with garlic powder, ginger and pepper until everything is well coated with seasonings. Stir fry mixture until vegetables are crisp tender. Add soy sauce mixture and bring to a boil. Let boil for 2 minutes and then remove from the heat. Serve over a bed of rice.

Cheesy Mexican Beans and Rice

I've been wanting to try a beans and rice dish for the longest time now. I've always held back though, because hubs is very anti-meatless. I can get him to eat a meatless meal every now and again, but to go meatless on a regular basis...unh-unh. I'd get called out on it sooo fast! I made the mistake last summer of telling him that we were having meatless Monday each week. Each Monday he would come home from work with a bad attitude towards the meal, and would of course "hate" it and end up eating a bologna sandwich. Kind of defeats the purpose of frugal cooking if he's going to make something else anyways. So now I just don't tel him what I'm making. And although I'm sure he notices the absence of meat, he never says anything negative. He actually told me that this was good. He didn't want it in our regular rotation, but he liked it. I, however, loved it! I thought it was great! So go ahead and whip this up for your next meatless meal, I'm willing to bet your family won't have any complaints!

Ingredients...

...1 cup uncooked rice
...1 can black beans (or 1 2/3 cup if you cook your own beans up)
...1 large onion, chopped
...1 T. olive oil
...14 oz. Pasta or Tomato Sauce
...2 tsp. chili powder
...1/4 tsp. salt
...Shredded Cheese

Directions...

In a saucepan, cook rice according to package directions. In a skillet, saute onions in olive oil. In a medium bowl stir together beans, sauteed onions, pasta or tomato sauce, chili powder and salt. Stir in Rice. Pour into a greased 2 quart oven safe baking dish and top with a few handfuls of shredded cheese. Cover and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes.

Curried Rice Ham Rolls

When I first found this recipe in my Taste of Home Cookbook (Annual Recipes 1997, in case your interested. Page 92 if you happen to have the book on hand) I was truly excited to try it. The picture in the book looks pehnomenal and It sounded so delish! Well, it was delish, it just didn't look it.

The ingredients...

...1/2 C. chopped onion
...2 T. butter or margarine
...4 C. cooked brown or long grain rice (I only ended up using 2 1/2 and that was more than plenty)
...1 T. dried parsley flakes
...1/2 t. curry powder
...12 slices deli ham (I used lunchmeat ham)
...4 hard cooked eggs

Curry Sauce
...1/4 C. butter or margarine
...2 T. cornstarch
...1/4 t. curry powder
...2 C. milk, divided

Directions...

Preheat oven to 375*. In skillet, saute onion in butter until tender (about 3 minutes). In a large bowl combine rice, parsley, curry powder and onion; mix well. Spoon mixture down center of ham slices and roll up. Place in 9x13 pan. Arrange eggs on top of ham rolls. To make the sauce, melt the butter in a sauce pan. In a seperate bowl, combine cornstarch, curry powder, and 1/3 cup of the milk; mix well. Add gradually to butter in saucepan. Add remaining milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Pour over the ham rolls. Cover and bake at 375* for 25 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes.

My Thoughts....

This went horribly wrong for me. The flavor in the rice was good. The ham rolls were good. The sauce just didn't turn out whatsoever. I think it's because I definetely didn't combine the sauce ingredients seperately, I just threw them in with the butter. So the cornstarch clumped and hardened that way. This was good, but if you do choose to make it, make it so there aren't any leftovers...because this doesn't refrigerate well. Hubs liked it though, which surprised me immensely, so I might make this again, but it won't be for a while :)