Beef Stew

Why celebrate comfort foods? Why not? At Plugged In Parents, we love a good, hearty bowl of soup that warms the body inside out and a slice of crusty bread followed with a mug of hot cocoa while cozying up on the couch. If you're like us, then you'll love these wintery meal ideas. They're great as leftovers and the ingredients will keep you on budget.

VEGETARIAN WINTER STEW

Ingredients:

5 cups chicken or vegetable broth

2 sweet, peeled and diced

2 large zucchinis, diced

1 large onion, diced

1 cup cooked rice

1 can kidney beans

1 can garbanzo beans

1 cup peanut butter

1 tbs cumin

salt

pepper

1 large jar of medium salsa (Pace is my favorite for this recipe)

Brown onion on hot oil, add sweet potatoes and fry for 10 minutes on low heat. Add zucchini. Fry stirring occasionally until the zucchini is crunchy-soft. Transfer vegetables to hot broth. Add beans and salsa. Stir in cumin, and salt and pepper to taste. Add peanut butter and stir well. Add rice.

TIP: The rice will absorb some of the broth overnight and the stew will be deliciously thick.

PERFECT WINTER BEEF STEW

Ingredients:

2 lbs beef, cut into 1-inch chunks

½ cup of Italian dressing

4 cups beef broth

1 cup chopped onion

3 cups diced carrots

4 medium potatoes, diced

3 cups sliced mushrooms (optional)

1 medium can stewed tomatoes

Mix beef with Italian dressing. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

Add onions and mushrooms and sauté for ~10 minutes. Add the broth, carrots, potatoes, meat without the dressing, and tomatoes with their liquid. Bring to boil stirring occasionally. Let simmer for 1 hour. Uncover, and let simmer for additional 15 minutes until the meat is tender and the sauce has thickened.

Garnish with parsley or green onions.

Serve with fresh bread, toast, or pita chips.

For more health and budget-wise recipes visit us at http://www.pluggedinparents.com

For more winter recipes and other health- and budget-friendly recipes visit us at http://www.pluggedinparents.com

Thanks To : kitchenaid gourmet essentials 12-piece

If you love crock pot recipes, your taste buds will be in for a treat with the 6 top toaster oven recipes. Each of these recipes for crock pot offer a unique alternative to a classic recipe.

Flavorful Crockpot Roast Recipe

You must place French onion soup and pot roast in a slow cooker under LOW heat for 6 hours. Add basil, white or green onions, and chives. Place cover on the pot roast and let it simmer. To serve, place white onions along the sliced beef and drizzle the juices on top. This is one of the simplest recipes for crock pot that you can try.

Yankee Pot Roast Recipe

Use a Dutch oven to brown the meat on all sides. Add water, salt, and sliced onion. Make sure to cover the pot for 3-4 hours until it brings to a simmer. You must add the vegetables and wait for another 30 minutes for the rest of the ingredients to be done. You can thicken the sauce by adding flour or water paste. Season toaster oven recipes with salt and pepper.

Barbecued Pot Roast Recipe

To begin Yankee Pot Roast, you must brown the meat and taste with salt and pepper. You can also sprinkle with other ingredient such as tomato sauce, sliced onion, minced garlic and water. Cover the pot for 2 ½ hours until it comes to a simmer. Wait until the roast is completely tender before you remove it or skim excess fat.

Pot Roast Recipe

In preparing this recipes twist to a classic crock pot recipe, you must dredge the pot roast with flour. Make sure that all sides have turned brown before you place a rack under the roast. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour in water and onions, then cover the pot for 2 ½ to 3 hours to let it simmer. After 3 hours, add the vegetables and wait for another hour.

Oven Beef Stew Recipe

Here is another one of those classic oven recipes. You must boil the vinegar, water, and allspice in a saucepan. Once it comes up into a boil, you can add the meat and cover. Turn frequently over a 2-hour period. You must drain the marinade and place the meat in a toaster oven over medium heat. At this point, you can add the marinade, broth, sage, and salt. Let it cook for about 1 ½ hours and add the vegetables until they turn tender.

Pot Roast with Beef Broth, Onion, and Mushroom

Begin preparing for crock pot on a large skillet. Heat oil using medium heat setting and use flour to coat the pot roast. Make sure all sides have turned brown before you transfer it to a baking dish. Add onions and mushrooms to sautee. You can also incorporate the other ingredients such as beer, salt, pepper, and beef soup into the mixture. You must bake it for 3 hours on a 350-degree temperature. You can serve with a mashed potato.

Want to make your cooking easier? Why not take a look at how convection toaster ovens and the delonghi convection oven can help you cook up different recipes!

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There really is nothing better then a good beef stew. Throughout the summer the barbeque is the king of dinner. As the weather cool the crock pot comes out and the beef stew start too cook.

This is really a basic stew however it can be modified to suit your taste. This will get you started in the right direction and you can take it from there.

Start by getting the crock pot set up and heated. Fill the pot with hot tap water and start to heat it up. I don't like to heat up the crock pot without liquid in it. I don't want to crack it.

Then in a large saucepan add some oil to the pot and let it heat up add the beef and start to brown it. The goal is to seer the meat and lock in the juice. Keep turning the cubes so all the sides get browned. Keep an eye on the heat, you don't want to burn the beef to the pan. I generally use about 6 on my stove. The meat should cook about half way then remove it from the pot.

Add a little oil if needed and start adding your cut carrots, potatos and onion. Get everything moving around so everything gets covered in the oil. You also want to scrape off the bits left on the pan from seering the meat. There is a ton of flavor left in the "pan drippings".

Allow these veggies to start to cook down. You don't want the saucepan to get too hot or to have the veggies start to dry out and stick. You can add a half a cup of soup stock to cool things down. Add the meat once the veggies have heated and started to cook through. Add about a half teaspoon of salt now also.

Time to add a liquid to this. It is ideal to use beef or vegatable stock for this but hot water will work also. Add enough liquid to cover all the veggies and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cover with a lid. Let simmer for about 15 minutes.

By this time the crock pot is ready. Pour out the water and add the soup, be real careful. I have been spashed and it hurts so I have started to use a laddle until almost all of it is in the crockpot.

I let the stew cook for an hour or so on high and then I taste it and start to season. It will need some salt, pepper and garlic powder. I also add some beef bouilon cubes and some onion soup mix as well. At this point you can also add some frozen corn and green beens or whatever else you want.

Let cook in the crock pot for about 5 hours on low and 2.5 or on high. Just before you serve it will need to be thickened. I use about 3 table spoons of flour mixed in 3/4 of a cup of milk. Pour in and stir. Let cook for another 20 minutes or until thickened.

Let leftovers cool and put into the fridge or freezer and enjoy when ever you fell the need for some comfort food.

You can print a copy of this beef stew recipe plus the recipes of many other original delicious meals. Go to http://kitchen-helper.com for more.

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Beans (or black-eyed peas) are a common staple in West Africa and are second only in popularity to rice and its many uses. From plain cooked beans to more elaborate meals like moin-moin (bean cake), it's a healthy vegetable with a flavor all of its own. The meal moin-moin (bean cake) is one of the more popular dishes, and although it takes a while to prepare, it's worth the taste once ready to be served. Traditionally, brown beans are used and are soaked in water for a while to make the skin soft. It is then washed by hand (rubbing between palms) to get rid of the skin. Using a sieve (with preferably tiny holes), it is continuously washed until all beans look white (skinless). This process can be time consuming, so for this recipe, we will use pre-washed, packaged beans (this can be purchased at any tropical food store near you).

Preparation Time: 2 hours

Ingredients [Serves 4-6]: I medium sized bag of pre-washed beans, I large onion (chopped), 3-4 medium-sized chopped tomatoes (optional), 2 small yellow/red peppers, I cup of dry ground crayfish, 4-5 hard-boiled eggs (optional), ½ cup of groundnut oil, seasonings of choice (usually Creole/Greek), 3-4 Maggi cubes (beef flavor), salt and pepper to taste.

Note: Traditionally, plantain/banana leaves are twisted into 'cups' where the bean mixture will be poured into and steamed or cooked. Those can be purchased in a local farmer's market. But to improvise, aluminum foils can also be used. These must be folded into pouches, so the mixture can be scooped into it without leaking, as well as have room for it to be sealed tightly.

Preparation: Soak beans in warm water and wash carefully, draining water once done. In a blender, combine beans, chopped onions, tomatoes, peppers and some water. Blend thoroughly until you get a fine, smooth thick paste (do not make it too thick). If you can still feel hard chunks of beans between your fingers, then you should continue blending until the right texture is achieved. Pour paste into a bowl and add groundnut oil, crayfish, hardboiled eggs (if you're adding this, be sure you mix carefully so you don't crush the eggs), and seasonings.

Since moin-moin is cooked mostly on the steam generated, line the bottom of your pot with an aluminum foil and pour about two cups of water into it. Once you've carefully scooped the paste into each pouch and sealed tightly, place gently into pot. Cover the top of pouches with a grocery bag (within the pot) this helps to generate more steam that enables the moin-moin to cook faster and better. Cover the pot tightly and allow to simmer on medium-heat for about an hour - adding water at various intervals so it doesn't dry out.

To know when your moin-moin is ready, you can stick a fork into it gently. If it comes out 'dry', it's done, if not, allow to cook for a while longer. To serve, simply unwrap the foil and place moin-moin on plate. Garnish with beef stew or it can be eaten with white or Jollof rice.

Enjoy!

KiyaSama is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Writers.

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