Beef Stew

On those hot summer days where the outside temperatures are 80+ degrees, the last thing I want to do is use my kitchen oven. One way you can still serve hot cooked dinners to your family is by using stove-top recipes.
All of these recipes take less than 45 minutes from start to finish. The first two utilize lean ground beef and the third one uses beef strips. You could serve the main dish with a healthy fresh garden salad to make a full meal.
Beef Stroganoff
2 lbs. lean ground beef
2/3 cup water
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons flour
cooked pasta noodles
In a large skillet, brown the ground beef, drain grease. Stir in the water and soups. Reduce heat to low. In a small bowl combine sour cream and flour until blended, add to meat. Cook on low stirring often until sauce thickens. Serve over cooked pasta noodles.
Optional: If you don't have any pasta on hand, you can serve it with cooked rice.
Hamburger and Chili Macaroni
1 lb. lean ground beef
6 oz. can tomato paste
3 1/4 cups hot water
1 cup onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
In a large skillet, brown the ground beef and onions; drain grease. Stir in the tomato paste, water and seasonings. Bring to a boil, reduce heat. Stir in macaroni, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
Pepper Steak with Rice
2 green peppers, cut into strips
1 can stewed tomatoes
1/2 stick of butter
1 lb. round beef steak
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tsp. sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
pinch of salt and pepper
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
cooked rice
Trim fat and cut round steak into thin strips. In a large skillet, melt the butter. Add garlic, salt and pepper. Add beef strips and brown on all sides. Turn heat to medium-high, add sugar and soy sauce, cover and cook for 3 minutes. Add green peppers and tomatoes. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Mix cornstarch with water and add to skillet. Simmer for 2 minutes or until thickened. Serve over cooked rice.

Shelly Hill has been working from home since 1989 in Direct Sales and is a Manager with Tupperware. Shelly enjoys cooking and baking for her family and friends. You can visit Shelly online at: http://www.workathomebusinessoptions.com or her recipe blog at: http://wahmshelly.blogspot.com

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One of the best things about slow cooker recipes is that so many of them are really simple. There are literally hundreds of one dish dinners you can make in a crockpot. If it is important to you to feel your family healthy, nutritious and varied meals, the crockpot could well turn out to be your best friend.

This handy piece of kitchen equipment is economical to buy, comes in many different styles and sizes and does not overheat your kitchen the way an oven can.

If you have a busy day ahead of you, making a one dish dinner probably sounds very appealing. All you need to serve with such meals is some salad and perhaps a few breadsticks. One dish dinners can be as plain or as complex as you like.

Perhaps a meat and vegetable stew sounds like a nice idea or a chili con carne. You can make quite a few different international slow cooker recipes too, if your family is adventurous and enjoys tasting new cuisines.

Tips for Making One Dish Dinners

With simple slow cooker recipes for one dish dinners, you can usually alter them to suit the tastes of yourself and your family. You might want to alter the types of meats, seasonings or vegetables, spice the meal up or leave the spice out.

It is important to follow the slow cooker recipes carefully as regards layering. This is because dense ingredients like carrots cook far more slowly than fish or meat. The densest ingredients or those that take the longest to cook usually need to go on the bottom of the crockpot and then the other ingredients will go on top.

If you do not follow these instructions, your meat might be mushy and the vegetables might come out half raw, which is really not the way to win your family's favor at dinnertime when they are all hungry!

Examples of One Dish Meals for the Slow Cooker

Beef stew with dumplings is a wonderful recipes for the slow cooker or you could spoil your family with a hearty pot roast. If you want to use chicken, dishes such as chicken curry or chicken Alfredo are popular. Turkey and bean cassoulet is great too. Pork comes out well and you might fancy pork chops with apple, stuffed pork roast or a thick and chunky carrot and pork sausage stew.

Seafood and fish are other crockpot options. A mixed fish stew or seafood chowder could be a good idea if you want something aromatic and refreshing rather than too heavy. You can make spaghetti sauce in a slow cooker as well, which means you would need to cook the spaghetti on the stove. The good thing about making sauces in a slow cooker is the way the flavors combine so well when they heat up so gently. Obviously this is not a one dish dinner, unless you have some leftover cooked spaghetti.

One dish dinners in the crockpot really do free up your time for other things. Once you find a good slow cooker recipe, combine the ingredients in the crockpot and flip the switch that is all you need to do.

Whether you are cooking for a busy family, looking for new meal inspiration or you just want to learn some new slow cooker recipes, you will find this cooking method to be great. Not only are crockpots easy to use but you can make literally hundreds of delicious meals in there which your family will enjoy very much.

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