Mini Tacos

Easy spin on Old El Paso Tacos with less mess while eating.

The Recipe:
Old El Paso Taco seasoning mix
1 lb ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 bag of Tostitos Scoops

Toppings
Shredded cheddar cheese
Shredded lettuce
Salsa
Sour Cream
Whatever you like!

1. Brown ground beef in large skillet; drain

2. Fry onions in a bit of butter on low heat (at same time as beef but in small pan)

3. Stir 1 cup of water and seasoning mix in with beef

4. Simmer for 7 to 8 minutes or until almost all liquid is absorbed, stirring often

5. Stir in onions after about 5 minutes



6. Place Tostitos Scoops on a baking sheet covered with foil

7. Spoon some beef mixture into each Scoop

8. Top each with some cheese

9. Broil until cheese is melted



10. Serve with all the toppings as a self serve!



My Experience:
I love tacos! But they make such a mess when you try to eat them (maybe I just don't do it right...). These mini tacos allow for bite size pieces and you can top them how you want: whether it's salsa, sour cream, lettuce, diced tomatoes or whatever else you choose.

Just make sure you use the non-broken scoops so that you can spoon in the meat and cheese. It's MUCH easier! Save the broken ones for later snacking.

The meat is also really good on day 2 because it allows for the seasoning to soak in so don't worry about the left overs. You can even use the left overs with the broken chips to make a taco salad (with the left over lettuce topping) the next day! I've done it and it is yummy :)

Philly Cheesesteaks

I love me some Rachael Ray and I saw this recipe on her show last week and I just had to try it! We had some cheap steaks in the freezer that we weren't crazy about so this was a great way to use them up and make them super yummy!

The Recipe:
For the Garlic Butter Bread
2 loaves baguette, halved and split or 4 crusty sub rolls 12 inches each split
6 tablespoons butter
4 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

For the French Onion Steak Filling
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 large or 3 medium onions, very thinly sliced
Salt and pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground thyme
1 large fresh bay leaf
1/4 cup dry sherry or 1/2 cup dry white wine
2 cans beef consommé or 3 cups beef stock
4 flat-iron steaks or 1 1/2 to 2 pounds flank steak
3 cups shredded Gruyère cheese

ONIONS
1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat then add butter.

2. When it foams, add onions and season with salt, pepper, thyme and bay.

3. Cook until caramel in color, about 30 minutes.



4. Add consommé and sherry/wine to onions.

5. Continue to simmer until consommé reduces by about half.

BREAD
6. Toast bread in a 375°F oven to golden.

7. Melt butter in a small pan over medium heat until it foams.

8. Stir in garlic 1-2 minutes then remove from heat and stir in parsley.

9. Brush toasted bread liberally with garlic butter and reserve.



STEAK
10. Heat griddle or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat; drizzle with oil.

11. Season room temperature steaks liberally with kosher salt and pepper.

12. Cook 10 minutes, turning once.

13. Let stand 5 minutes, thinly slice against the grain.



SANDWICH IT UP
14. Pile steak and onions onto toasted bread bottoms arranged on a baking sheet.

15. Top with lots of cheese and melt under broiler.

16. Set tops in place and serve.



My Experience:
So this recipe takes a really long time because the onions take about half an hour to 45 minutes but you only have to stir every once in a while so I just prepared everything else while the onions were cooking.

Instead of Gruyère cheese I used Provolone but you could also use Swiss. Just buy it in a block so that you can grate it.

When making the garlic butter, try grating the garlic. It may waste a bit if you don't want to destroy your finger tips but it works really great to mix in well with the butter.

These sandwiches were really really good and I highly recommend trying it at least once. It might be time consuming and make a good stack of dishes but it is easy to make!

Honey Garlic Pork

Not much of a recipe but it is still my favorite pork dish that my mom used to make me.

The Recipe:
Honey Garlic sauce
Pork
Rice

1. Cut pork into small cubes

2. Brown pork in frying pan on medium-high heat

3. Poor honey garlic sauce into pan

4. As sauce boils, stir often (scrapping the bottom of the pan to avoid sticking)

5. The sauce is caramalized when there is separation ss you scrape across the pan with a spatula

6. The longer you cook it, the thicker the sauce gets (and the bigger mess there is to clean up)

7. Serve pork and sauce over rice

My Experience:
Easy recipe right? I told you so.

I prefer the VH brand for the honey garlic sauce but I doubt that it really matters. I use most of the bottle of sauce so that I have tons for my rice since it tastes so good.

The kind of pork doesn't matter either, mom used to always use pork chops but this time I used pork leg schnitzel because it was on sale.

As I said above, the longer you cook the sauce to caramalize it, the harder it is to clean everything. But it is TOTALLY worth it (although mom didn't always think so). Just have patience and soak the pan after (as I write this I have yet to clean my own pans so I might regret that statement later). The caramalized sauce will still be on the liquidy side while warm but it will start to solidify as it cools. So if people plan on going back for seconds, keep the pan on the burner on min so that it doesn't harden.

Slow-Cooker Beef Stew

Slow-cooker recipes are awesome for exam period. Start it in the morning while still groggy, come home from a 2pm to 5pm exam and it is all ready to eat while you are detoxing from information overload!

The Recipe:
2 lb (1 kg) stewing beef cubes
4 potatoes, peeled and cut in wedges
3 carrots, cut in chunks
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 cups beef stock
1 can (5 oz/156 mL) tomato paste
1 bay_leaf
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp all-purpose flour

1. Trim and cut beef into 1-inch cubes

2. In 18- to 24-cup (4.5 to 6 L) slow-cooker, mix together beef, potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, beef stock, tomato paste, bay leaf and Worcestershire sauce

3. Cover and cook on Low for 10 to 12 hours (or on High for 5 to 6 hours) or until beef and vegetables are tender

4. Add peas, salt and pepper

5. Increase heat to High

6. Whisk flour with 2 tbsp water; stir into stew

7. Cook, covered, for 5 minutes or until thickened

8. Discard bay leaf

My Experience:
So I followed this recipe mostly. I didn't add peas (I don't like peas) but I added 1 turnip cut in wedges.

I'm also not a huge fan of tomatoes so I probably wouldn't have the tomato paste next time. It tastes more like tomatoes than I thought it would.

I didn't try it but the original recipe suggests to serve the stew in bread bowls (hollow out a crusty bun, leaving 1/2-inch thick shell) and have vanilla pudding with peaches for dessert. Benig exam period, I was too lazy to do the bread bowl and instead served warm pillsbury crescents.

I got this recipe from Canadian Living (I'm going to try to start posting where I get the recipe from)

Hamburger Casserole

Kind of like shepherd's pie, minus the veggies, plus cheese :) in other words, way better than shepherd's pie...

The Recipe:
1/4 cup fine dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup milk
1 pound ground round
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons minced onion (1/2 small onion)
1 large egg
prepared mashed potatoes, about 2 to 4 cups
3/4 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
paprika, optional

1. Soak bread crumbs in milk

2. Mix ground beef, salt, pepper, onion, bread crumb-milk mixture, and egg

3. Spread in a 9-inch pie plate. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes

4. While cooking, you have time to prepare the mashed potatoes

5. Top with mashed potatoes, paprika if desired, and sprinkle with cheese

6. Return to oven for 10 minutes longer, or until cheese is melted and potatoes are thoroughly heated

Serves 4

My Experience:
Quick and easy to make! Not too many ingredients to have to worry about. You could probably replace the bread crumbs with crushed up soda crackers if you don't have any. Other than that, most people would have all ingredients on hand.

I like shepherd's pie, I love this awesome twist!

The Ratings:
My rating: 8/10

Roast Chicken

So I don't really have a recipe for this one. It was a guestimation and creativity on my part but I will give you the ingredients I used and cooking instructions.

The Recipe:
Paprika
Poultry seasoning
Parsley
Thyme
Rosemary
Basil
Chili powder
Olive oil
Small whole chicken

1. In a small bowl, mix the seasonings together. I would suggest equal parts of everything (less for chili powder if you don't like spicy/hot)

2. Using your hand, cover chicken with a thin coat of olive oil

3. Rub seasoning mix onto chicken to cover skin. Salt and pepper to taste

4. Preheat oven to 375F. Cook for about 1 and a half to 2 hours, until meat thermometer reads 180 in the thickest part without touching bone

5. Let chicken stand 10 minutes before carving



My Experience:
I made a similar recipe a couple months ago and can't find the recipe I used so I just made my own up and thought I would post it anyways.

If you try it, good luck. This one tasted really good and the left overs will make for great sandwiches.

The Ratings:
My rating: 8/10

Sausage Stir-Fry

Wanted to try something new with sausages and this is what I found.

The Recipe:
1 lb smoked sausage
5 carrots, cut in strips
4 celery stalks, cut in strips
2 onions, cut in wedges
1 stalk broccoli, strips and flowerets
1/3 cauliflower, in flowerets
1 red or green pepper, sliced
5 pkg Ramen noddles
Soy sauce or sweet and sour sauce

1. Cut sausage into 4 long pieces, then slice through to make pie shaped pieces

2. Saute sausage in large serving pan

3. Add vegetables and saute

4. Cover and steam

5. Meanwhile, boil 2 to 3 quarts water in a second pan and add Ramen noodles. Cook no longer than 5 minutes

6. Pour noodles in with meat and vegetables

7. Serve with soy sauce or sweet and sour sauce

My Experience:
I actually just used Italian sausages rather than the smoked sausage because that is what I had. I also boiled the sausages for a bit to tenderize the skin a little, then I sliced it and sauted it.

Also, I diced all of the vegetables rather than cutting in slices and I didn't measure the amount since I was only cooking for 2 and estimated what we would eat, allowing for a bit of left overs.

Instead of Ramen noodles, I just used penne since I had some in the cupboard and did not feel like going to the grocery store.

I used the soy sauce and it was really good. It was a nice change to my usual fried sausage with rice routine.

The Ratings:
My rating: 8.5/10

Maple Salmon

If you are a true Canadian, you love maple syrup and you may just love this recipe.

The Recipe:
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 pound salmon

1. In a small bowl, mix the maple syrup, soy sauce, garlic, garlic salt and pepper.

2. Place salmon in a shallow baking dish, and coat with the maple syrup mixture. Cover the dish and marinate salmon in the refridgerator for 30 minutes, turning once.

3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

4. Place the baking dish in the preheated oven, bake uncovered for 20 minutes, or until easily flaked with a fork

My Experience:
Awesome new twist to baked salmon. It was easy to make and very yummy. Even my kitten loved the salmon.

I was concerned at first at what the maple syrup with soy sauce would taste like but it was fantastic.

When Sam found this recipe online and read me the directions, he had told me to preheat the oven to 200 (without reading the C part). This lead to a longer cook time (about half an hour) but it still turned out great. Probably would have been crispier if cooked at the 400F (I LOVE crispy salmon).

I also made steamed vegetables as a side (celery, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, red pepper, onion) and used the left over marinate as a dressing for the vegetables to tie in the flavours together. It worked wonderfully. The other side was garlic rice to bring out the garlic in the salmon.

The Ratings:
Sam's rating: simple said it was really good (he isn't as into the blogging as I am lol)
My rating: 9.5/10