Easy Beef Bourguignonne

Okay I swear that I have other sources for recipes, but Real Simple is the star of my kitchen right now! Typically I tweak their recipes just a little bit, but this one I made straight up. It takes 30 minutes and involves very little prep work. This is perfect for a Friday night dinner or Sunday lunch. You can serve it with rice or potatoes. Or really whatever you like.

1.25 lbs sirloin steak cut into one inch pieces (I used london broil)
10 oz of fresh sliced mushrooms
16 oz pk frozen cocktail onions (I used the jarred ones because I couldn't find frozen)
2 cups of red wine (if you don't drink a lot of wine, buy the singles so the rest doesn't go bad; also I used cabernet sauvignon)
1 10.75 oz can of Campbell's Golden Mushroom soup
olive oil
salt and pepper

I used my enameled cast iron pot for this.  If you have one, or a dutch oven you should use it!
Heat 1 tbs of olive oil until shiny. Drop in your meat and brown it until its not pink.  It's tempting to keep stirring it, but really just let it brown on one side then turn it over.  Brown food tastes good!
Move your meat to a separate bowl and drop in your mushrooms and onions. Cook until the moisture evaporates. Pour in the red wine, reduce the heat and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half. BE PATIENT! Add the can of soup and 1/4 cup of water. Bring to a boil. Return the meat and juices from the bowl to the pot. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for two more minutes, and serve over rice or with potatoes and a green vegetable.
Serves 4.

I packaged up the leftovers and frozen 1/2. Real Simple says the frozen leftovers will be for 3 months.

Spicy Noodles and Pork

This is another modified recipe from realsimple.com. I find their recipes to be inspiring! Also, I love Asian food of all kinds, and this is one of my favorites to cook at home. I will warn you that this is a messy recipe, but it is worth the mess .

32 ounces of Kitchen Basics chicken stock
1.5 in piece of fresh ginger peeled and sliced (please do yourself a favor and use the fresh stuff)
1 package of rice sticks/noodles
1 package dried shiitake mushrooms
1 red jalapeno sliced (green is okay if you can't find red)
4 thin sliced boneless pork chops
1/4 cup AP flour
1 egg beaten
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs

Soak the mushrooms and rice sticks/noodles according to the package directions. In a large pot, bring chicken broth and ginger to a boil. Add the mushrooms and jalapenos and simmer until tender. Meanwhile,  season the pork chops and coat with flour. Then dip them in egg and then into the panko. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Cook the pork chops 2-3 minutes per side until thoroughly cooked. While the pork is cooking, add the rice noodles to the chicken broth. Slice the pork and serve over noodles and broth.  Sprinkle with the scallions.

Turkey and Sweet Potato Turnovers

Hey! It's been a while since I've had a chance to cook anything exciting enough to post!
I took this recipe from the realsimple.com website and tweaked it a tad.  It originally called for ground beef and cheddar cheese, which you are more than welcome to use in place of the ground turkey and goat cheese.

 olive oil
1lb ground turkey
1 medium sweet potato peeled and shredded
2 cups baby spinach
2 puff pastry sheets thawed
4 ounces goat cheese
2 cloves of garlic chopped 
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat olive oil in a saute pan. Brown the ground turkey until completely cooked. Do not over cook it. Stir in the garlic, sweet potatoes, and spinach. Cook over medium heat until the spinach is slightly wilted.  Salt and pepper to taste. Cover baking sheet in aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. Lay the puff pastry sheets out separately on the baking sheet and cut each one in half with a pizza cutter. Fill half of each puff pastry strip with the meat, spinach, and potato mixture leaving a 1/4 edge all the way around.  Top with goat cheese crumbles; fold and seal the dough to make turnover pockets. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. 

Dustin is working out a dipping sauce for these.  He wasn't happy with his first attempt! I'll update when I have his dipping sauce :)