Getting used to late night cooking

Posted in Two New a Week and tagged with , , , , , on 01/21/2010 05:59 pm by Kita

My two new recipes for this week come early in the week, and thank good­ness for it. By Tues­day our nor­mal sched­ule was thrown into a new rou­tine that will need some get­ting used to. My boyfriend went to the local col­lege to sign up for classes and as it turns out, they started that day too. Now two nights a week he wont be get­ting home until 10pm. They also hap­pen to be the two nights I don’t close my store, so two other nights a week I don’t get home til 8.

So really, I’m going to just have to make meals that we can have in the fridge ready for him when he stops home from work for 5 min­utes, and when he finally gets home at night. He’s going to be beat once this gets past the intro­duc­tion classes after work­ing all day so I want yummy, healthy food to be the last thing he has to think about.

Beef with Red Wine Sauce from Myrecipes.com

Ingre­di­ents

  • 3  pounds  bone­less beef chuck roast, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1  medium onion, sliced
  • 1  pound  fresh mush­rooms, halved
  • 1  (1.61-ounce) pack­age brown gravy mix
  • 1  (10 1/2-ounce) can beef broth
  • 1  cup  red wine
  • 2  table­spoons  tomato paste
  • 1  bay leaf
  • Hot cooked egg noo­dles or rice
  • Gar­nish: chopped fresh parsley

Prepa­ra­tion

Place first 3 ingre­di­ents in a 6-quart slow cooker.

Whisk together gravy mix and next 3 ingre­di­ents; pour evenly over beef and veg­eta­bles. Add bay leaf.

Cover and cook on HIGH 6 hours. Remove and dis­card bay leaf. Serve over noo­dles. Gar­nish, if desired.

Creamy Tortellini Soup adapted from from bhg.com

Ingre­di­ents

  • 1 1.8-ounce enve­lope white sauce mix ( I used gar­lic and herb)
  • 4 cups water
  • 1 14-ounce can chicken broth
  • 1–1/2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
  • 1 lb spicy ground sausage
  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 3 cloves gar­lic, minced
  • 1/2 tea­spoon dried basil, crushed
  • 1/4 tea­spoon salt
  • 1/4 tea­spoon dried oregano, crushed
  • 1/8 tea­spoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 7– to 8-ounce pack­age dried cheese tortellini (about 2 cups)
  • 1 12-ounce can evap­o­rated milk
  • 6 cups fresh baby spinach leaves or torn spinach
  • Ground black pep­per (optional)
  • Finely shred­ded Parme­san cheese (optional)

Direc­tions

Brown and crum­ble sausage in a skil­let and add onions to saute.

Place dry white sauce mix in a 3–1/2– or 4-quart slow cooker. Grad­u­ally add the water to the white sauce mix, stir­ring until smooth. Stir in broth, mush­rooms, sausage, onion, gar­lic, basil, salt, oregano, and cayenne pepper.

Cover and cook on low-heat set­ting for 5 to 6 hours or on high-heat set­ting for 2–1/2 to 3 hours.

Stir in dried tortellini. Cover and cook on high-heat set­ting for 30minutes.

Stir in evap­o­rated milk and fresh spinach. If desired, sprin­kle indi­vid­ual serv­ings with black pep­per and Parme­san cheese. Makes 4 servings.

Now, maybe its the crock pot aspect, but both of these didn’t have a huge amount of fla­vor even after tweak­ing from the orig­i­nal recipes. They weren’t bad and I think that a lit­tle sour cream added to both could really make a difference.

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1 Comment

  1. Tanya Says:
    January 26th, 2010 at 9:28 pm

    Glad to see you are tak­ing good care of my lit­tle brother! Love your blog, will have to try the recipes. I am always try­ing to cook new stuff for my boys. Hope­fully, I can meet you some­time soon? Maybe this summer?

    [Reply]

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