Beef Stroganoff

I absolutely love beef. However, it doesn't love me. It's so sad. I just end up turning it into dust, usually. The last recipe was a beef recipe that turned out rather nicely, so when tonight's dinner defrosted in the frig (From the freezer - 24 hours of defrost) I had high hopes for another savory keeper!

And a keeper it is! Hurrah!

What I like about this recipe is that it's pretty simple for the freezer. Trim your meat, throw your veggies and broth in, then seal and freeze!

Now when I found this recipe, I was a little worried about the post prep, after the crockpot. I don't like dirtying pans in addition to a crockpot not to mention it looked like it had a lot of steps to get to the sauce, so I almost didn't make it. I'm glad I took a chance. Just one extra pot. Then back in the crock.

So here we go. 

For freezer - Ingredients in your ziplock:
2 pounds beef chuck, trimmed of excess fat and cut into slices
1 large onion, chopped
1 pound cut mushrooms
1 cup beef broth
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper

I know what you are thinking, "Really, that is it?" And yes, that is it. And let me just say right now, before I made the sauce this had an AMAZING flavor and I could have eaten the whole crock without the noff.

Once your ziplock is sealed stick it in your freezer with the following label:

Cook on high 4 hours or low 6 

Needed for day of prep:
4 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons flour (I used quinoa flour)
Broth ladled out of the crockpot2 cups sour cream
1-3 Tablespoons Dijon Mustard
Salt Pepper to taste

After the meat is done: Melt butter in sauce pan. Add flour. mix well. Add broth and mix well. Bring to boil just for a second, add sour cream and Dijon. Salt and Pepper to taste. Add to crock and turn crock to warm until you are ready to eat.

Serve over a starch. We will use quinoa or corn noodles. Oh so good. Sooo good. I'm so glad I made a second meal of this. So glad.

Curry Beef with Quinoa

I've always steered clear of curry. I'm not sure why, maybe the other ingredients that you put WITH the curry made me nervous. I mean it's not every day I'm asked to add a spice in a foreign language to my crockpot. Nor anything resembling elmers glue! So, I'm sad to say I'd never tried to make curry anything until today.

Now I'm happy to report that it was not only a successful dinner, but a successful freezer meal as well! Hooray! Which means, of course, it will be chronicled here. So I can make it again and again.

Ingredients:

3lbs of tri-tip cut into large chunks (or some other meat you want to curry. I'm quite certain this will work splendid with chicken, which I will try!)
1 1/2 tablespoons curry
1 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
Lots of garlic. I used about 1/4 cup of chopped garlic (or one WHOLE large head of garlic chopped or pressed thru a garlic press) It looks like too much, really it does. But it's not.
1 large onion, diced
1 (13.5oz) can coconut milk
2 Gallon sized freezer bags

Freezer Directions:


Add coconut milk (everything in the can! Even the glue stuff-- lol) to one gallon sized zip lock bag. Smoosh it up with your hands and mix up all the yummy milk.

Add to the same bag all the onions and garlic and smoosh it up good. See the theme here? No dirty dishes!

Next add some cut meat then some of the spices. Then more meat, more spices, until you are done with all the meat and all the spices.

Immediately press the air from the bag and seal it up. Place in additional zip lock (to prevent leaks when it defrosts).

Cooking:

The day before you want to stick it in your crockpot, take it out and allow it to thaw in your refrigerator. Just before you stick it in your crockpot, run the bag under some warm water to get the hardened coconut paste off the sides of the bag then pour it into the crockpot. If you still feel like you were cheated on bits sticking to the sides of the bag, run the closed bag under hot water again until they all shake free. Then cut a tip in your bag and pour the bits into the crock.

Note, it won't look very good. But it will smell and taste amazing.

Cook on low 8 hours or high for 4-6 hours.


I made beef Quinoa with my Curry Beef, which also tuned out delish! So here is that recipe.

1 cup quinoa
2 cups beef broth
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Rinse quinoa well. Heat sauce pan on med-high with olive oil. Dry out the quinoa in the olive oil as best you can. This gives it a little more nuttier of a flavor and my kids said they loved it far more then plain quinoa. Add beef broth and bring to a boil. Cover and cook on medium about 15 minutes or until most of the broth is absorbed. Take off the burner and let sit for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.

Wheat Free Biscuits and Gravy

Today's recipes have become a family favorite and definitely a keeper! I had a hankering for biscuits and gravy and by golly, I was going to make it happen.

However the only recipes I could find were ones with sorghum or some obscure flour I did not have. Since I'd just made my own batch of oat flour, I decided what the heck. I would try this with oat flour and gauge my results.

Which turned out fabulous!

Oat Flour Buttermilk Biscuits

 Ingredients
1 cup oat flour
1 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon baking powder, gluten-free
3/4 teaspoon salt, kosher
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 egg white
4 tablespoons cold butter
1 cup cold buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line your baking pan with parchment.

Combine oat flour, corn starch, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum and mix well.

Cut the butter into tiny squares and work into dry ingredients with a pastry cutter or your fingers. I found fingers get the job done best. Mix until somewhat crumbly.

Add egg and buttermilk and mix with a fork until just combined. Your dough will remain sticky, it's the nature of the beast.

Drop dough onto baking sheet. If you want more shapely biscuits, wet your palm and press them into neat stacks. Otherwise, drop biscuits work peachy!

Back 425 for 12-15 minutes, or until the slightly golden (don't overcook!).

Oat Flour Gravy 

Ingredients
1lb mild sausage
1 tablespoon of butter
3 table spoons of oat flour
3 cups of milk
Salt and Pepper

Cook sausage until no longer pink. Add in the butter and melt (you might need a little more butter if your sausage was lean). Once melted, add in your oat flour. Combine well and then start to whisk in the milk. Cook until your desired thickness and serve over your hot biscuits.

SOOOO GOOD! I couldn't even get my camera out fast enough to snap any of the finished products besides what was on my plate. I will make this again. And again. And again.

As for freezing, I know this will freeze awesome. Enough said.

Oat Flour Bread (Gluten/Rice/Soy/Nut Free)

As a newly diagnosed allergy sufferer, it has become my life's goal to find bread that is wheat/rice/soy/nut free that I can enjoy and that my family doesn't turn their nose up at.

I've been trying a lot of bread recipes and I'm hoping, even as the smell wafts through my house, that I have finally found it.

DRY MIX:
2 ½ cups Oat flour
½ cup Sorghum flour
½ cup Tapioca flour
1/4 cup millet flour
1/4 cup corn starch
1 ½ teaspoons xanthan gum
1 ½ teaspoon salt

YEAST PROOF MIX:
2 teaspoons sugar
½ cup lukewarm water (120-130 temp)
1 ½ tablespoons yeast granules

WET MIX:
¼ cup honey
¼ cup melted butter or veg oil
1 cups warm water or  warm milk
3 room temp eggs

I usually proof my yeast first. That way it's nice and frothy and awake before adding it to my ingredients. This just insures that I don't kill the yeast before it can do it's rising. To proof your yeast, add 2 teaspoons of sugar to water that is 120-130 temp. Usually I stick my thermometer into the water and allow it to get to about 135 before I add the sugar. Then I monitor it closely and add my yeast when its under 130. I then fill a small bowl with warm tap water and set the measuring cup with my rapidly growing yeast, inside it to help keep it warm while it froths.

While my yeast is proofing, I usually work on the flour. I make my own Oat Flour, which may or may not add to the success of my bread. I've made it with quick oats and old fashion and I can say I like the old fashion's texture better in the bread, but it's so close you could really use either. But, for this recipe, I used OF. I stick 2-3 cups of oats in a blender and whir until it's powder or flour. That is it. That is the secret to oat flour.

Mix all the dry ingredients in your bowl, and use another bowl to combine wet. If your using butter, make sure it isn't too hot before mixing in the eggs! Mix well. I then make a hole in my dry mix and pour in all wet ingredients including the yeast. I mix well until things look good. Note, the is not your average bread dough, it will be sticky. Very sticky and it won't look right to you traditional bread makers, but it's right. It just doesn't look right.

Cover and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes. It should rise nicely and look less sticky but don't let it fool you. Still a sticky mess. But you want to mix it up again and get the air out, the spoon into buttered loaf pan.

Allow the bread to rise again for another 30+ minutes then Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until your knife comes out clean. Don't be afraid of the dark brown crust, just make certain your bread is cooked through.

Cool and enjoy!

This recipe is KID APPROVED!

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT A BREAD PAN: Now, I made this bread in a very large metal bread pan and had issues with the crust getting too dark before the bread was cooked. So I bought a smaller glass bread pan and the results have been consistent and wonderful.