CHILE COLORADO BURRITOS

Shredded beef burritos smothered in meaty sauce and cheese.  That's all you need to know before you make this meal.  Oh, and the meat is cooked to tender perfection in a crockpot all day long.  If you aren't sold, I feel sad for you.

Now, this recipe adventure could be filed under failure AND disaster.  There are tons of recipes out there for homemade enchilada sauce, so I decided to give it a shot.  It was awful.  Not sure if it was that particular recipe, or I just love the canned stuff too much.  Anyone out there have a fabulous, homemade version to share with me?

Onto plan B.  Luckily, there are always several cans of enchilada sauce in our pantry, so this meal wasn't ruined.  It was the opposite.  This was amazing.  Please make this meal ASAP.   This made 8 burritos, but if you don't want leftovers or aren't feeding a crowd, just halve the recipe.

Quickly give the stew meat a quick browning in the skillet, then throw it in the crockpot.

Pour in enchilada sauce, chopped green chiles, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, bay leaves and salt.  Cook on low allllllllll day long.

Usually, flour tortillas get a weird, sticky and gummy texture when they get super saucy.  Luckily, Trader Joe's Trader Jose's exists.  My friend Kat served these amazing tortillas with tacos and I was instantly converted.  They keep their texture when smothered with sauce and taste like they're from a restaurant.  Do yourself a favor and get some.

You can stick with an all meat filling, or throw some beans in there as well.  These chorizo refried beans are deliciously flavorful and have a slight kick.  Found them at World Market.

The first night we had this meal, we did beans and meat.  The burritos were super filling and one was enough for a meal.  Spread on beans, top with drained beef.

Oh, hey feet.

OR fill with meat and cheese, like we did with the leftovers.

Roll them up burrito style, smother with sauce and cheese, then stick under the broiler for a few minutes.

Serve these with rice and beans or a side salad with sour cream and guacamole.

With white rice and chorizo refried beans.

With Uncle Ben's chicken rice and refried black beans.

Ingredients

3 lbs lean stew meat
3 cans enchilada sauce, 10 oz each
1 can chopped green chiles, 4.5 oz
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cumin
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon coarse Kosher salt

shredded cheese
refried beans
rice

Brown meat in skillet until browned on all or most sides.  Do not cook the meat all the way through.  Place in crockpot, and top with enchilada sauce, chiles and spices.  Stir, cover and cook on low about 4-5 hours.  Meat is done when it is falling apart.  Remove bay leaves.  You want your sauce to be almost gravy-thick at this point, but the meat juice has probably watered it down.  If your sauce is too thin to use as a topping, mix together 3 teaspoons of cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of water in a tiny bowl, then stir into crockpot.  It'll thicken up quickly.  Taste your sauce, add more spices or salt if necessary.

Assembling burritos:  scoop meat from crockpot using a mesh strainer, so the burritos will be meaty, not runny.  Fill each burrito with half a cup of meat (or beans and meat, or meat and cheese, or all three!) slightly fold in both sides, then roll up.  Place on baking sheet or baking dish, then smother with meat sauce.  Sprinkle with shredded cheese.  Place under broiler set on high for about 3 minutes, watching carefully the entire time until cheese is melted.  Serve with beans, rice, or additional sauce.

LENTIL SOUP WITH BEEF

 
Do you ever rip recipe pages from magazines that don't belong to you?  I do it all the time, especially with my mom's magazines.  She knows this and forbids me from tearing out any of her pages.  "Because, Katie, what if I want to make that recipe some day?!"  How dare she!  So I have to take tiny little pictures with my phone of the recipes I like.  Poor me.

Anyway, I saw this recipe in her Family Circle magazine and it sounded scrumptious!  I've always wanted to cook with dry beans, and this sounded like an easy introduction.  The recipe calls for sirloin steak, which is fairly affordable.  I couldn't find any at the store, so I ended up purchasing some other Angus boneless steak.  It's going to be cooked for 8 hours in a crockpot, so whichever cut you choose, it'll be cooked to tender perfection.

Cut your meat into equal sized pieces to ensure even cooking.  Brown in a skillet with olive oil, salt and pepper.  This will give your soup a richer flavor.  If you're short on time you can just throw raw meat in the crockpot.  The only change I made to the recipe was to add a can of petite diced tomatoes, dried oregano and salt.  I also upped the amount of all the veggies to boost the nutrition!  You can serve as a soup, or make it a filling meal and serve over cooked egg noodles.  I am addicted to pasta, so I chose the latter.

Ingredients

1 lb boneless sirloin steak
4 cups beef broth
1 cup water
1 cup lentils, rinsed and drained (1/2 a lb)
1 cup chopped sweet red pepper
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped celery
1 can petite diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 heaping teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt

Trim fat from meat and cut into equal sized pieces, about 3/4 an inch.  Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in nonstick skillet.  Add meat, season with salt and pepper then cook until browned.  Add meat to crockpot.  Add remaining ingredients.  Stir to combine.  Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours.  Taste and add additional salt as needed.  Serve over egg noodles or as a soup.  *Note: you may notice fresh parsley in the pictures and the original recipe, but I don't think it belonged in this soup.  It was an unwelcome surprise to bite into, and I will omit it next time.

PIONEER WOMAN BOWTIE LASAGNA

MAKE THIS RECIPE.  Seriously, make this now.  Even if you've never cooked before in your life, you can make this pasta.  It is foolproof.  The Pioneer Woman has a section of 16 minute meals on her website, and I am so glad this is the one I chose to make.  It was easy, quick and so flavorful.  I'm making it again this week!  It would be the perfect "leftovers lunch" to bring to work.  Original recipe here, including the always fabulous PW step by step photos.

This recipe calls for "your favorite" jarred pasta sauce, so make sure you don't choose blindly.  If you make your own sauce, definitely use it.  Someone recommended Rao's pasta sauce, but it had an $8.99 price tag at Target.  It was surrounded by several other brands which were selling for between $1-3 a jar.  I really do think Prego is delicious; it's what I always purchase.  But this meal was already a bargain, so I decided to splurge.  OH. MY.  Let me tell you, it was beyond worth it.  I don't think I'll ever purchase any other brand.  This sauce was legit.  I could actually taste and smell the herbs and it was a perfect consistency.

The jar was too messy to take a pic of; my sister dropped it in the skillet!

I followed the recipe, except for a few tiny adjustments.  I added a full cup of mozzarella, a tad more sour cream and I used the entire 16 oz box of pasta.  It was the perfect amount to feed four hungry adults.

Ingredients

1 lb bowtie pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lb ground chuck
1 jar spaghetti sauce (or 3 cups homemade)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 heaping teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1 cup sour cream

Boil pasta in large pot of salted water until al dente, drain.  In large skillet, brown and crumble ground chuck until fully cooked, drain fat and return to pan.  Pour cooked pasta on top of meat, then drizzle on olive oil.  Pour on jar of sauce, salt, garlic powder and Italian seasonings.  Stir.  Add cheese and sour cream.  Stir over low heat until cheese is melted and all ingredients are combined.  Taste and add salt and pepper, if necessary.  Serve with parmesan or additional mozzarella, if desired.

This pasta makes me so happy. 

CHILI

I've never made chili before.  I know, that's a shocking declaration from a professional chef such as myself.  I enjoy all types of chili: white chicken, beef, veggie, spicy, Hard Times Cincinnati, beany, etc.  I decided it was time to finally make my own, so I did some research and decided I just didn't LOVE any recipes, so I made one up.  I think it resembles Wendy's chili a bit, but is also just a simple meaty and hearty chili.  And dare I say, healthy?  It was super delicious and I feel comfortable using the L word now.  As with all chili, the longer you cook it, the better it tastes.  I cooked it 9 hours overnight then left it on warm for a few hours before serving.

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
3 cans petite diced tomatoes (I like Hunt's) undrained
2 cans Bush's Chili Seasoned Beans (medium heat) undrained
1 can light red kidney beans undrained
1-2 cups diced onion
1 cup diced green peppers
3 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons cumin
2-3 teaspoons fresh minced garlic
Tabasco sauce, chipotle smoked flavor, to taste (I used about 8-10 splashes)
salt to taste

Brown ground beef and pork in skillet, crumbling it as you go.  Stir in salt to flavor the meat, then drain off any liquid.  Pour in crockpot and add remaining ingredients.  Stir, cover and cook on low for about 8-9 hours.  Keep on warm setting until ready to serve.  Serve with cheese, sour cream, additional hot sauce and chips.