Healthy Picadillo

I served this with a big salad of romaine topped with a black-eyed pea and roasted corn salsa. We've been eating less and less beef around here, but this was good. We had leftover rice from Sunday's meal and served the picadillo over that. Thanks Beth!! Will try it with ground turkey sometime too...and maybe add some chili powder next time to spice it up a bit. I only made half the recipe for just us 2 and there were plenty of leftovers for lunches.

Healthy Picadillo:
(a favored Cooking Light recipe of Beth's submitted in answer to my plea for help :-)

8 servings (serving size: 1 cup)

• 2 pounds ground round
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups thinly sliced onion
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 1/2 cups (1/4-inch-thick) slices yellow bell pepper, each slice cut in half
• 1 1/2 cups (1/4-inch-thick) slices red bell pepper, each slice cut in half
• 1 cup finely chopped carrot
• 3/4 cup golden raisins (we're not huge fans of raisins, but I'll deal with the golden ones...the Monster, not so much. I'll have to use craisins next time)
  
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 cup sliced pimento-stuffed manzanilla or green olives (about 15 olives)
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (I used more)
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added stewed tomatoes, undrained
• 1 (8-ounce) can no-salt-added tomato sauce

Cook beef in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until browned; stir to crumble. Remove from pan; drain well.

Add oil to pan. Add onion and garlic; sauté 3 minutes. Add bell peppers and carrot; sauté 3 minutes. Return beef to pan. Stir in raisins and remaining ingredients; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Discard bay leaves.

Quickie Chili and Veggie Pancakes

This recipe is from my special-est of friends Debbie (who just happens to have written this beautiful cookbook). Not sure she'd be caught dead putting beans in hers though. ;-) I'm just one of those weirdos that happens to live in Texas AND likes beans in her chili. This cooks up in a flash making it a cinch for a quick weeknight meal. It's one of our favorites!

Quickie Chili:

1lb lean ground beef (or turkey)
1/2 onion minced finely
~2 cloves garlic, minced
1- 15oz can tomato sauce
about a 1/2 or more of your tomato sauce can of water
2+ TBS chili powder
1/2 TBS chipotle chili powder
~1 TBS cumin
~1 TBS tomato paste
a squeeze of agave (or sprinkle of brown sugar)
salt to taste (depends on how salty your tomato sauce, tomato paste, and beans are)
1 can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Optional toppings:
Greek yogurt
grated cheddar cheese
cilantro
minced green onions
diced avocado
a squeeze of lime

Brown beef with onions, then drain fat.
Add minced garlic, tomato paste, chili powders, cumin, salt, and agave (or brown sugar), and water.
Simmer 10-15 min. adding more water as necessary.
Add beans in last few minutes.
I usually serve this with tortilla chips, but tonight we're giving the veggie pancakes a try.


Veggie Pancakes:
(Adapted from The Real Food Co.)

1 cup grated carrots (a food processor shredding plate makes quick work of prepping this and the zuke)
1/2 cup grated zucchini
2 green onions, chopped fine
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
a dash of garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg white
1/4 cup low-fat milk of choice (I used Silk unsweetened soy milk)
canola oil for the pan (I used Spectrum high-heat canola spray)

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and pepper. Beat together egg, milk, carrot, zucchini and scallion. Stir wet ingredients into dry until just combined. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Pour batter by tablespoonfuls into pan, making a few pancakes at a time. I had to spread them out in the pan with a fork since it makes a really thick batter. Cook until golden, about 3 minutes on each side. Add remaining oil to pan as needed to cook remaining pancakes. Serve immediately.

Recipe claims to serve 4 people, but Monster and I ate them all by our wee selves. :-) I'll be making these yummy guys again.

Greek Pinwheel Steaks, Mashed Potatoes, Chili-Spiced Asparagus

Central Market sells a Greek pinwheel steak at their meat counter that is really delicious. We treat ourselves to it when we have a 10 buck free steak coupon. Only problem is, The Monster thinks there are too many pinenuts in the filling. I tend to agree, sometimes they go a little overboard. The other stuffing ingredients include a mix of chopped fresh spinach, and feta. All quite yummy when rolled up in a tenderized piece of fajita meat. I had the $10 coupon yesterday, and when the cut of meat I wanted for a beef daube wasn't part of the deal, I looked to the pinwheel. I could make one of those...I think...maybe...
To the butcher I promptly blamed my husband for the reason I wanted to try to make my own...too many pinenuts...he just doesn't like 'em...yadda, yadda, yadda.
He was quite helpful in pointing me towards the cut of meat they use for theirs...I'd have thought it was flank steak, but they use sirloin fajita meat. He even ran the meat though a killer tenderizer machine for me, so all I'd have to do is roll it up and slice into rounds.

We've been eating way more beef than usual it seems to me. But when Central Market gives you free steak, what are ya gonna do?? This is a winner...super easy, little muss, or fuss.


Greek Pinwheel Steak:
This made 7 steaks, not all of equal size...

1 slab of tenderized sirloin fajita beef (mine was 1.5 lbs)
1 1/2-2 cups baby spinach, chopped (next time I'm going to pack a lot more spinach in...)
the better part of a block of domestic cow feta, crumbled
as many pinenuts as you like
pepper spice mix (ours has black pepper, crushed red pepper, and who knows what else in it)
kosher salt
wooden skewers
clippers to trim skewers
plastic wrap


In the morning, lay out the beef. Schmear a layer of the feta over the entire surface of the meat and press it in, leaving ~1" at the end that will be on the outside.

Sprinkle some pinenuts over the surface, and then top with the chopped spinach.

Roll the entire puppy up and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Place the whole roll in the fridge to chill, and until ready to cut and cook.

Preheat oven to 425.
Remove the meat from the plastic and place on a cutting board.
Skewer the steaks by slowly twisting a long bamboo skewer all the way through, snipping off the ends with clippers. Just put one skewer in about 1/2" in from the end, then cut a 1" steak, then another skewer, and cut, and so on.

I wrapped the steaks we wouldn't be eating tonight in plastic wrap and then into a freezer bag for the next meal.

(Am I the only one that gets all wiggly from knowing there are all kinds of yummy meals in my freezer that won't take any extra effort to prepare??)

Salt the steaks on both sides.

Sprinkle a pile of pepper mix onto a plate and dredge the steaks in it. Both sides.

Place steaks on a oiled foil-lined baking sheet and pop into the oven for about 15 min if your steaks are about 4" across. Use a meat thermometer (~170 for ours) to determine when they're done to your liking. My steaks were considerably smaller than the ones they make at CM, which was perfect. Just right for individual servings instead of having to messily carve up a large one. They seemed much more tender too, for whatever reason.



Chili-Spiced Asparagus:
I halved all ingredient amounts except for the oil and water amounts to make enough for 2.


This might be my new favorite way to cook asparagus! Quick, easy and tasty...thanks to Culinary in the Desert's blog for the recipe.

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 bunches asparagus, tough ends removed, cut diagonally into 1-inch pieces
1 tablespoon water
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar (can sub. balsamic or red wine vinegar)

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add asparagus and water - cook for about 4 mintes. Stir in chili powder, garlic powder and salt - continue cooking until the asparagus is crisp-tender, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in the vinegar until well coated.

Makes about 4 servings.

We had good old mashed potatoes to cap off this great meal.

Beef Empanadas...I hope

This is the game plan. Thaw out the extra cornmeal crust from making my Green Eggs and Ham quiche and use it to make beef empanadas based on a recipe from Gourmet's Sept. '07 issue. Plan of attack: Make the filling. Roll out the dough and build one lonely little empanada. Bake sole empanada. Taste test the empanada. If it's a go, use the rest of the filling to make more. If it's even a so-so response, plop the rest of the filling unceremoniously atop a plate of goodies that constitute our usual taco salad and be done with it!

Alright...so the empanadas were good. But, oh-so frustrating to make with the cornmeal dough. It just wasn't flexible enough to pull over the filling without creating Frankenempanadas. Good thing I was enjoying a bout of patience (not the norm!), since I had to patch all the holes and be very delicate in placing them on the baking sheet for fear of making more splits. The one in the photo is the purtiest one I got out of 5. I did have lots of filling left over, since I really didn't have enough dough to make the whole batch. I'm just going to use the rest of the filling to make enchiladas for the freezer. Several of the recipes I found call for using frozen empanada dough disks. Just do that if you can find them, a store bought pie dough like Pillsbury, or use a recipe that creates a pie dough that can be stretched a bit more readily. We did really enjoy the cornmeal in the crust though. Maybe if I'd made the pastry recipe as it was written with mostly unbleached white flour instead of all white whole-wheat, it would have made it a lot easier to work with. I'm sure you could sub ground turkey meat for the beef.

Beef Empanadas:

1 recipe for double crust pie dough, or 1 package frozen empanada disks, thawed
~1 lb tenderized round steak, chopped finely (or you could use already ground, but I liked the texture of the chopped steak)
1-2 Tbs olive oil
1/2 large onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, minced
~1 tsp ground cumin
~1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder (no recipe I found called for this, so use it only if you want)
~1/2 tsp dried oregano
red pepper flakes to taste
1- 14 oz can of stewed tomatoes, drained with juice reserved...chopped
~2-3 Tbs reserved tomato juice
~1/3 cup chopped green olives with pimentos
2-3 Tbs raisins (I used dried cranberries)
~1/2 tsp salt
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped (we used fresh duck eggs from Frank :-)
Optional: I happened to have a wee bit of shredded cheddar that needed to be used up, so I sprinkled a bit over the filling in each empanada before closing them up.

Heat a non-stick skillet over med., add a little oil and brown beef for about 4 minutes, or until you no longer see any pink.
Remove meat from skillet and drain off any fat.
Add some olive oil to the skillet and cook onions until soft...about 5 min.
Then add back in the meat along with the spices, tomatoes, olives, and raisins and cook to blend the flavors, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the eggs.
Allow mixture to cool.

If using your own homemade dough:
Preheat oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with foil, or parchment paper and oil lightly.

Divide dough into 10 pieces. I rolled out the cornmeal crust between sheets of plastic wrap and then put them back in the fridge to firm up again. I only took them out of the fridge one at a time. But, you probably won't be playing the martyr with cornmeal dough, so just carry on as written. :-)
Roll and then cut one piece into about a 6" circle, lay on prepared baking sheet, and spoon about 3 Tbs of filling onto half of the circle, leaving about a 1" border. Brush the edge of the pastry with an egg wash or a little warm water, fold over the empty half, seal remaining edges. Cut a small slit to vent steam. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until browned. I turned mine over after about 15 minutes in an effort to crisp up the tops.

If you're using frozen empanada disks:
Another recipe I found had you heat the oven to 425. Brush the empanadas with oil, and bake until golden, in about 10 minutes.

Thai Beef Braised in Coconut Milk with Ginger

Yet another Cooking Light recipe. I made it almost as written, but used a mix of lite and regular coconut milks for a slightly richer flavor. Next time I think I'll bump up the spices, not the cayenne, but I think I'd like more curry flavor to come out of it. It's good just like it is...I just like to tweak at stuff. :-)

Thai Braised Beef with Coconut Milk and Ginger:

1 (2 1/2-pound) boneless chuck roast
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided
3 cups chopped onion
1 cup diced carrot
2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 (16-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 cups light coconut milk (I used a combination of lite and regular for more coconut flavor)
2 tablespoons sliced peeled fresh lemon grass. Use a microplane grater or it can be fibrous when you eat it and just grate the first 2 or so inches of the stalk from the trimmed root end. Recipe says you can sub 1 tablespoon thinly sliced lime rind, but try to find the lemongrass.
3 bay leaves
6 cups hot cooked Chinese-style egg noodles (about 12 ounces uncooked...I only cooked half a package of noodles for 2 and we still had leftovers)
chopped fresh cilantro

Trim fat from beef. Cut beef into 2-inch pieces. Combine salt and next 6 ingredients (salt through black pepper) in a small bowl. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of spice mixture over beef, and toss to coat; reserve remaining spice mixture.

Preheat oven to 325°.

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add beef; cook 5 minutes, browning on all sides. Remove from pan. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in pan. Add onion, carrot, ginger, and garlic; sauté 8 minutes or until tender. Stir in broth, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Return beef to pan. Add remaining spice mixture, coconut milk, lemon grass, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil. Cover and bake at 325° for 2 hours. Remove beef from pan using a slotted spoon; shred with 2 forks, set aside, and keep warm. Bring vegetable mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook 10 minutes or until slightly thick. Discard bay leaves, then add beef back to pot. Serve beef and vegetable mixture over noodles. Sprinkle with cilantro.