Crunchy Beef Tacos

My family participates in Taco Tuesday.  We loved the Lego Movie, as you can tell.  Good thing is, we're eating tacos on Tuesday for dinner and not trying to Kragle each other.  Tacos are one of my favorite foods.  Since Tuesday is taco night, I try to make a different type of taco each week to spice up our menu.  On a particularly busy night, a couple weeks ago, I introduced my children to Taco Bell's family pack of tacos with both soft and crunchy.  Well needless to say, the crunchy tacos were a hit.  Last week I tried to make my own crunchy tacos, and well they weren't as big of a hit.  This week I decided to try and re-create the Taco Bell flavor, minus the weird ingredients that I knew had to be in those tacos.  While researching the ingredients in Taco Bell crunchy beef tacos, I learned the main ingredients, the normal ones and decided I could use those as a starting point.  Here before you, for your viewing and maybe your eating pleasure, is the recipe I came up with.  These tacos were indeed delicious.  I actually used fresh ingredients and no dried or powdered substitutes.

 Oh my goodness, are those some beautiful looking tacos.

Ingredients:

12 Crunchy Taco Shells
1 1/2 lbs. Ground Beef
1 1/2 cups Whole Canned Tomatoes in Sauce
1/4 cup Water
1/4 Yellow Onion
2 Dried Chili Peppers
4 Baby Bella Mushrooms (You can substitute 1/2 beef bouillon cube)
1 clove of Garlic
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
1/2 teaspoon Cocoa Powder
1 head of Romaine Lettuce
1 Tomato
1 cup shredded White Sharp Cheddar or Monterey Jack Cheese

Using a blender blend the tomatoes, cocoa powder, onion, garlic, mushrooms, chili peppers,
and water until smooth.  I used my trusty Vita-Mix and created a very smooth sauce.
A little back story to adding the mushrooms.  Mushrooms are high in the molecule
responsible for the umami flavor or beefy flavor.  I used the mushrooms as a natural way to
 boost the beefy flavor of the taco meat.  If you want to, you could use bouillon instead.
Taco Bell uses autolyzed yeast to add beefy flavor.

 Smooth sauce, see how pretty it is?

Pour sauce into small sauce pan over high heat.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
Simmer for 15-20 minutes.  

Dice the tomatoes, cut the lettuce, and shred the cheese.  These will be your taco toppings.
You may also add sour cream and salsa.  We were out of sour cream.  I know, for shame.  

Cook the beef in a large skillet over medium high heat.  If you have a wok spatula, use that, or a
flat wooden spatula.  Cook and break up the beef into small chunks just until cooked through. 

Add the sauce and stir to combine.  Simmer for another five minutes to allow
flavors to come together.

I heated up our taco shells on a small cookie sheet in our toaster oven on low heat
before serving the tacos.  

Spoon some of the beef mixture into the shell and spread some lettuce tomatoes and
cheese on the beef.  Top with Sour Cream and salsa.

Enjoy!

Crunchy Beef Tacos

Ingredients:

12 Crunchy Taco Shells
1 1/2 lbs. Ground Beef
1 1/2 cups Whole Canned Tomatoes in Sauce
1/4 cup Water
1/4 Yellow Onion
2 Dried Chili Peppers
4 Baby Bella Mushrooms ( You can substitute 1/2 beef bouillon cube)
1 clove of Garlic
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
1/2 teaspoon Cocoa Powder
1 head of Romaine Lettuce
1 Tomato
1 cup shredded White Sharp Cheddar or Monterey Jack Cheese

Process:

Using a blender blend the tomatoes, cocoa powder, onion, garlic, mushrooms, chili peppers, and water until smooth.  I used my trusty Vita-Mix and created a very smooth sauce.

Pour sauce into small sauce pan over high heat.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.  Simmer for 15-20 minutes.  

Dice the tomatoes, cut the lettuce, and shred the cheese.  These will be your taco toppings.  You may also add sour cream and salsa.  

Cook the beef in a large skillet over medium high heat.  If you have a wok spatula, use that, or a flat wooden spatula.  Cook and break up the beef into small chunks just until cooked through. 

Add the sauce and stir to combine.  Simmer for another five minutes to allow flavors to come together.

You can also heat up the taco shells on a small cookie sheet, in a toaster oven or an oven on low heat, before serving the tacos.  

Spoon some of the beef mixture into the shell and spread some lettuce tomatoes and cheese on the beef.  Top with Sour Cream and salsa.

Enjoy!

Chili Macaroni & Cheese

We have been really busy, my family moved to another apartment here in Queens.  Moving is a huge undertaking here in NYC and add a baby and it becomes almost impossible without a lot of help.  I apologize for not posting sooner, but cooking is difficult when your kitchen is being packed or still being unpacked.  I made this recipe before we moved thankfully, but the pictures were on my external hardrive and so I had to get our computer set up and working before I could find them.  Did I mention my baby is super cute and likes to take 5 minute power naps?  Yes she isn't very helpful in my attempts to get anything done.  Without further ado, here is my recipe.

My dad makes something similar to hamburger helper without the box from the helper. He used a special blend of spices and herbs to flavor it (aka Lawry's Spaghetti Mix). My husband even liked it, I don't use dried flavor mixes very often, so I wanted to try to make my own version. This is a spicier version of my dad's hamburger helper, it even passes the husband and children test. This particular recipe does depend on a certain chorizo that is awesome. Yes my secret ingredient to this extremely simple recipe is chorizo. Sort of a chorizo flavored sausage, not really the typical dried chorizo.  You could make this recipe with ground beef and bypass the chorizo altogether, I wouldn't be offended I promise.

Cheese and just the right amount of spice and pasta, such a wonderful comfort food.

Ingredients:

3/4 lb. Elbow Macaroni
2 cups Crushed Tomatoes
1 lb. Chorizo Sausage (ground beef nay be substituted)
1/2 lb. Monterey Jack Cheese
Kosher Salt

The chorizo I use is a flavored sausage.  It isn't a dried chorizo.  This chorizo is the best!
Remove chorizo from the casing and brown in a large skillet. 

Beautiful browned chorizo, if you could smell this you would, well anyway, it is really yummy.

Pour the crushed tomatoes onto the chorizo and cook on medium heat until it boils.
 Reduce heat to low and simmer the sauce.

Bring a large stockpot full of water to boil over high heat and sprinkle with salt.  Start this
process just before cooking the chorizo.  Boil macaroni according to package instructions.
 I cooked the full pound of macaroni.  My sons are very picky eaters, who will only eat
buttered macaroni, so I separated the pasta accordingly after it was cooked.

Drain the macaroni.

Add macaroni and grated cheese to sauce.  Stir and cook over medium heat until cheese melts.

Serve in a big bowl, and 

Enjoy!

Chili Macaroni & Cheese

Ingredients:

3/4 lb. Elbow Macaroni
2 cups Crushed Tomatoes
1 lb. Chorizo Sausage (ground beef nay be substituted)
1/2 lb. Monterey Jack Cheese
Kosher Salt

Process:

Remove chorizo from the casing and brown in a large skillet. 

Pour the crushed tomatoes onto the chorizo and cook on medium heat until it boils.  Reduce heat to low and simmer the sauce.

Bring a large stockpot full of water to boil over high heat and sprinkle with salt.  Start this process just before cooking the chorizo.

Boil macaroni according to package instructions.

Drain the macaroni.

Add macaroni and grated cheese to sauce.  Stir and cook over medium heat until cheese melts.

Serve in a big bowl.

Enjoy!

Frikadellers

Two days after my last post, I went into labor and baby Gwendolyn was born on December 8.  She has been taking all of my time.  Maybe an apology is in order for not posting sooner, but she is so cute, and I'm kind of tired.  My mom made frikadellers when I was a kid, little meatballs in a sweet sauce. Traditional frikadellers are a Danish pork/veal meatball in brown gravy.  Now my mom's version is different.  I asked about the history and she said my grandmother made them with a sweet sauce and found the recipe and used it because it was Danish. My mom is the youngest of three daughters, so I decided to ask her older sisters about the recipe. The middle daughter, Julene, responded to my request and told me the history of the recipe.  My Aunt Julene's husband worked for Hunt-Wesson, and the company had a campaign promoting Hunt's Ketchup and a frikedeller recipe was created and shared.  My uncle Val changed the recipe to include apple sauce, which is the sweet element in the sauce.  This recipe is a family favorite thanks to my Uncle Val.  My fikedellers are a little different from frikedellers that my family grew up eating.

 Tender meatballs with a sweet tangy sauce, reminds me of my mom and childhood.

Ingredients:

1/3 lb. ground Veal
1/3 lb. ground Pork
1/3 lb. ground Beef
3 large Honeycrisp Apples
1 Yellow Onion
1 Egg
3 Slices of Bread
1/2 cup Ketchup
1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt
1/2 teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
Olive Oil

Wash, core and cut apples into big chunks.  Place in pressure cooker with 1/4 cup
ketchup and brown sugar.

Cook on high for 8 minutes.

Puree apple mixture with an immersion blender.

Chop onion in blender.  Remove from blender and put in a mixing bowl.  Chop bread
in blender.  Remove crumbs to bowl with the onions. 

Mix onion, bread crumbs, meat, salt, pepper, egg, and nutmeg together.

Heat 1/4 inch of Olive Oil in 12 inch skillet over medium heat.

Form meat into 1 inch balls and cook in skillet until browned on all sides.

Pour apple tomato sauce on frikadellers.  Cover pan with lid and cook for 8 minutes.

Enjoy!

Frikadellers

Ingredients:

1/3 lb. ground Veal
1/3 lb. ground Pork
1/3 lb. ground Beef
3 large Honeycrisp Apples
1 Yellow Onion
1 Egg
3 Slices of Bread
1/2 cup Ketchup
1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt
1/2 teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
Olive Oil

Process:

Wash, core and cut apples into big chunks.  Place in pressure cooker with 1/4 cup ketchup and brown sugar.

Cook on high for 8 minutes.

Chop onion in blender, remove from blender and put in a mixing bowl.  Chop bread in blender, remove crumbs to bowl with the onions. 

Mix onion, bread crumbs, meat, salt, pepper, egg, and nutmeg together.

Heat 1/4 inch of Olive Oil in 12 inch skillet over medium heat.

Form meat into 1 inch balls and cook in skillet until browned on all sides.

Pour apple tomato sauce on frikadellers.  Cover pan with lid and cook for 8 minutes.

Enjoy!

Unstuffed Bell Peppers

My mother in law Vereen reminded me of a recipe she would make, stuffed bell peppers.  I wanted to make a similar recipe, a homemade easier to eat version.  This recipe gives all the flavors of stuffed bell peppers, but it's all made in one skillet and easy to serve and eat.  Truth be told, I'm a sucker for flavors like the ones found in this recipe.  I bought the bell peppers in the discount bin, so I needed to use them for something.  If you happen to have a discount bin, then I recommend buying your peppers this way.   The other ingredients are pretty standard and not too expensive.

This is how stuufed peppers should be.

Ingredients:

1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Yellow Onion
1 1/2 lbs. Ground Beef
1 Pint Canned Whole Tomatoes
1 teaspoon Crushed Red Peppers
2 Teaspoons Smoked Paprika
2 cups Shredded Gouda (Monterey Jack, or Cheddar will also work)
3 cups cooked Brown Rice (white rice can be substituted)

Dice the peppers and onion.

Brown meat with onion and peppers in a large 12 inch pan over medium heat.
Sprinkle paprika and crushed red pepper on meat mixture.

Add tomatoes, and crush wish spoon.  Add rice.  Stir to combine.

Sprinkle cheese on top and cover pan and cook over low until cheese is melted.

Put the pan under the broiler and cook until cheese is bubbly browned slightly.

Enjoy!

Unstuffed Bell Peppers

Printable Recipe Found Here

Ingredients:

1 Red Bell Pepper

1 Green Bell Pepper

1 Yellow Onion

1 1/2 lbs Ground Beef

1 Pint Canned Whole Tomatoes

1 teaspoon Crushed Red Peppers

2 Teaspoons Smoked Paprika

2 cups Shredded Gouda (Monterey Jack, or Cheddar will also work)

3 cups cooked Brown Rice (white rice can be substituted)

Process:

Dice the peppers and onion.

Brown meat with onion and peppers in a large 12 inch pan over medium heat.  Sprinkle paprika and crushed red pepper on meat mixture.

Add tomatoes, and crush wish spoon.  Add rice.  Stir to combine.

Sprinkle cheese on top and cover pan and cook over low until cheese is melted.

Put the pan under the broiler and cook until cheese is bubbly browned slightly.

Enjoy!

Lasagna

My daughter likes lasagna, my husband likes it, and when I made it a couple of weeks ago, I was asked by a friend for the recipe.   So here it goes.  Today's lasagna was amazing, and really big.  You are welcome to make it as big as my friend's pan that I used, but you don't have to unless your feeding a crowd of ravenous long distance runners carbo loading before a track and field meet.  Well, it doesn't have to be a crowd of long distance runners, any crowd interested in lasagna will do.

 Garfield would envy this massive lasagna.

Ingredients for sauce recipe are: 1 #10 Can tomatoes (San Marzano if you can get them, my Costco
sells them), 2 lbs. ground beef, 1 lb. Hot Italian Sausage (Costco sells it), 2 zucchini,
2 yellow squash, 1 yellow onion, 1 head of garlic, salt and pepper to taste.

 

 Look at these beautiful tomatoes from Italy. Blend tomatoes with immersion blender, 

crush with hands, or puree in blender and pour into large non-reactive stock pot.

 

  Brown ground beef with salt and pepper, remove hot sausage from casing and brown with
diced yellow onion and garlic pushed through garlic press.  Add cooked meat to sauce in pot.
Place over medium heat until it boils, then reduce heat to simmer and cook for half an hour.

 Dice yellow squash and zucchini and add to sauce and simmer till squash is cooked.

Preheat oven to 375 Fahrenheit.

 Ingredients for lasagna recipe are: marinara sauce, sauteed mushrooms, 2 lbs. fresh lasagna pasta
(I made my own with the recipe I posted here), shredded mozzarella cheese, 5 cups homemade ricotta
(I made my own with the recipe found here), and shredded Parmesan cheese.

 First pour several ladle fulls of sauce in bottom of pan.

 Add pasta, more sauce, mushrooms, then ricotta and mozzarella cheese.

 Repeat three more times.  After the last layer of everything, add grated Parmesan cheese.

Place lasagna pan on large cookie sheet if you can or place aluminum foil on shelf below
middle shelf.  Put lasagna in oven above aluminum foil or cookie sheet, bake uncovered for
45 minutes, or until cheese is brown.

Look at that beautiful lasagna.   It was delicious, perfectly seasoned, not salty, delicious.

Enjoy!