Crockpot Latin Beef for Fajitas, Quesadillas, by itself - whatever youlike!

Crock Pot Latin Flank Steak for Fajitas, Quesadillas or just by itself!

Beef Fajita Night! Or Quesadillas...or Whatever - yum yum yum! I love mexican but again - it's full of gluten and dairy. No no's for everyday eating for us to stay happy and healthy. Also, I was looking for a flank steak recipe that didn't involve the grill - I am not a goddess with the grill at all. So after reading through a couple recipes and figuring out you can make more than soup or stew in the crock pot - I came up with this.

Crockpot Latin Flank Steak

Ingredients:
1/4C olive oil
2 lbs flank steak
1 bag frozen tri-color peppers and onions
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1 recipe for spice rub

for spice rub---
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

optional add ons:
gluten free tortillas
avocado slices
cilantro
your favorite salsa
limes
dairy free cheese (unless you can tolerate dairy. If so go for it use the real thing!)

Instructions:

Put olive oil into the crockpot. Then place your flank steak in there.

Mix together all spices for the spice rub in a small bowl. Using a teaspoon sprinkle the spice rub on top of the steak using the back of the spook to pat it down so it makes like a layer or crust on top.
Pour the frozen pepper and onion mix over it and then the chopped jalapeno.

Close up your crock pot and cook on low for 8hrs.

Now when it's done you're probably going to want to toss the peppers - they served their purpose to flavor and now they must go.

Take out the flank steak and shred with two forks.

Now you have meat for tostadas, quesadillas or fajitas. We made quesadillas.

On a flat pan that can go in the oven (or a cookie sheet) place a gluten free tortilla. Then top with the beef and some cheese (or cheese substitute) put it under the broiler for a minute - watch it so it doesn't burn. When it starts to melt - top with another tortilla and flip. brown on both sides and then it's done! You can stick fresh peppers or avocados and other veggies in there if you like.

The beef comes out great for fajitas or tostadas as well. We also had it as a main with a side of rice and cuban black beans (see recipe)

Check out our Quesadilla lunch - easy and YUMTASTIC!

Lower Carb Italian Meatballs for the Slow Cooker!

Slow Cooker Low Carb (but you'd never know it!) Grandma's Meatballs!

½lb ground pork

½lb ground beef

(or you can do a whole pound of your favorite – beef, pork, turkey, chicken, veal, etc)

1t garlic powder

1t onion powder

1 egg

½C parmesan cheese, grated (I use Trader Joe's b/c it is just cheese – no preservatives.)

1t baking powder

1 ½ – 2t Italian seasoning (depends on how strong you want it)

24oz – 1qt your favorite tomato sauce.  (I use Singing Tomato Sunday Gravy – you can order some if you live in Nashville made by ME!)

Take out your Slow Cooker.  Spray it with cooking spray (preferably a Misto or other non-chemical spray).  Turn it on low.  Pour in your tomato sauce.

You may want to do the following near your slow cooker if you have the counter space.

Put the rest of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and using your hands – mix it all together until well blended.  Then grab about 1 ½ – 2 T size of the meat mixture.  Using your hands form them into little balls and plop them into the slow cooker.  It should make about 12 of them.  When you're done – cover the slow cooker and cook for 8-10 hours.

I have to tell you – Darren HATES meatballs, meat loaf and the like because normally they have bread crumbs.  He LOVES these (ate seven of them the first time I made them) because they don't have bread crumbs and are not mealy.  Also, if you have a bread sensitivity and have avoided meatballs because of the bread – these are a great alternative!

You can make them on a weekend and freeze them for a quick, healthy weeknight meal as well.

What's in-store for foodies in 2012?

To my 2012 foodies like me, who LOVE American Italian food, are in for a treat!  Apparently, according to experts from the Today Show, it will be one of  the “in” foods this new year.  Which means it will probably show up more often at restaurants and on tables in America....  Since I was raised on it – it's been “in” for me since birth, and particular every Sunday as long as my grandparents were alive.

Sundays now are reserved for me to “make the gravy”.  In an American Italian family, “gravy” is tomato or marinara sauce.  Since I moved to the south nearly 15yrs ago, I have found “gravy” has a definition which I will call #2 here in the South – it's brown and I am not quite sure made from what. That said, we will stick with Italian gravy....tomato.

I make my gravy once a month on Sundays in extraordinarily large batches and then freeze it.  I generally use Darren as an alarm to let me know when reserves are low.  My boyfriend of English, Norwegian & Cherokee decent has become Italian by default and will inspect the freezer and exclaim, “WE ARE DOWN TO ONE THING OF SAUCE!!!”  Then I know .... it's time.

It's not as hard as one would think – since my great-grandmother's time things have changed.  She grew  tons of tomatoes in her back yard and then boiled, crushed and made them into paste and from there made the gravy.  Now – I still grow tomatos, I mean what self respecting Italian gal who has a patch of dirt doesn't?  However, I buy good crushed tomatoes and paste in the can and cut out about 5 labor intensive steps. 

A little garlic, onion, tomatoes and spices and you have something WAY better than anything you can buy in a jar in the grocery store.

I hope to share a ton of, what now I guess is trendy, family Italian American recipes that I have grown up with as well as some other things I might find in 2012.  Maybe I will even make my own pasta for the first time since I got the attachment for my kitchen aid mixer for Christmas...3yrs ago.  :)  I got a new camera this year so my food pictures will be WAY better!  And I got a new microphone, so I may let you hear some singing too!

Other foodie trends for 2012? Layer cakes over cupcakes – which is great for me because I now live in the South, the birthplace of the layer cake.  

Also, meatloaf of all varieties, homemade pickles, which I have yet to master but my cousin-in-law is FABU at,  carbon steel knives over Japanese ceramic ones, which is great b/c they are CHEAPER!  And for your wine glass – I guess our love affair with California is over...I was never really interested but that's me....  I understand from my reading that other US areas with vineyards are on the up and coming  like my home town on Long Island.  Long Island wines have been a well kept secret and if you can get your hands on a bottle please partake because you will not be disappointed.

Happy New Year to all my foodies  & friends and may everything you eat be worthy of the calories and taste FABU YUMMY!

Goldilocks Crockpot Chili (it's not too hot – not too mild but just right)

Goldilocks Crockpot Chili (it's not too hot – not too mild but just right)

• 1lb lean ground beef
• 1lb lean ground turkey
• 1 can black beans – rinsed & drained
• 1 can beans in chili sauce
• 1 can diced tomatos (if you can find in chili sauce all the better)
• 1 can tomatos and green chilies
• 2 packets mild chili mix
• ½ large jar of medium salsa

This is the only picture I have b/e it got eaten so fast when it was done!

Spray your crockpot with cooking spray.  Put everything in the crockpot stir together to mix well.  Cover and cook on low for 6-8hrs.

Super good!  Super Quick!  Super easy!

You can service this with some cornbread or tortilla chips.  FABU!!!!

Pork Chops in a Cranberry Thyme Sauce!

Pork Chops with Cranberry-Thyme Sauce

Ingredients

½ cup butter melted

4 boneless pork chops 6 ounces each

1 cup white wine

1 cup cranberry sauce

1 small onion(s) chopped

¼ cup fresh thyme chopped

Unit salt and pepper to taste

Who knew you could buy fresh thyme you didn't have worry about keeping alive?!  I got this stuff in a ziplock at Publix!

Directions

Lightly brown the pork chops in a skillet.

In a small bowl, combine the butter, cranberry sauce and white wine.  

Arrange the pork chops in the bottom of the stoneware. Sprinkle the salt and pepper, onion and thyme over the pork chops.

Pour the sauce into the stoneware and cook on Low for 6 to 8 hours or on High for 4 to 6 hours.

Review:

I could tell you this recipe was passed down through my Austrian step-grandmother but that would be a lie.  Honestly I was bored and was messing with my Sunbeam crock-pot app  on my iPhone (I actually am on my 2nd Hamilton Beech Crock-pot which I LOVE!) when I found this recipe.  It sounded WAY to fancy to be good – but let me tell you, it is crockpot FABULOUS!  Darren said it smelled like a stew – but I think he mean's Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon.  Let me tell you friends, I wish this blog was scratch-n-sniff because OMG! that stuff smelled SO good it was like pork chops slow cooked in a good port wine all day.  Fruity, buttery, onions and thyme and pork...I am not a big pork lover but good night this smells DEE-LISH!

My 2nd thought , after the euphoria of the sniffing, was what are we going to eat with this?  Rice is too blah...potatoes will suck up the juices and it will be a big mess.  I was thinking polenta but Darren doesn't like that because of the consistency....so I am making butter fried corn bread.  Heck no! Not from scratch – out of a box.  SUPER easy.  Just pre-heat the oven as directed on the box of mix you prefer, mix up the batch, when the oven is ready put 1/3 of a stick of butter in a cast iron skillet and put it in the oven for 5mins or till melted (don't burn the butter).  Then pour the batter in and cook as directed – great with chili and everything else.  My dear friend Charlotte Bethel Burbank of Louisiana taught this yankee how to make that and it is super yummy scrumptious!

Then I thought this fancy dish needed a fancy veggie and I suggested asparagus...but, Darren said, “No...it makes your pee smell funny”, so that was out.  Then I remembered I had frozen some fresh green beans from the Richland Park Farmer's Market, which I love to go to.  We will have those – steamed!

Sure does look yummy!

The tasting~

Oddly for the stick of butter it calls for, it was not as rich and heavy as I thought it would be - which for me is a good thing.  It does have a very German flare, so if you like that kind of food – here's to you!  Darren said he liked it even though he's not a fan of German food but that it was ok.  Not something he would want every week.  We both felt the corn bread and fresh green beans were a good pairing to the flavors.  The cool think is that the flavors married in the cooking but you could still taste everything in a good way.

This would make a good presentation to guests.  Also some tips:

• ●use ½ the amount of onion
•  use light butter instead of fully leaded
• ●cook no more than 7hrs – the meat stays tender but it gets a little dry.
• ●pair it with a white wine like a Pinot Grigio and even though I am not a Reisling drinker that might also work.  Maybe a fancy beer would do as well.

I am sure if I didn't cook it at long it would have tasted just as good as it smelled.  Onward and upward to the next adventure!  Have a recipe you want me to try - send it to me!

Easy Peasy HEALTHY Bolognese (Meat Sauce) - A Ragu you can do!

Well, its Sunday and that means one thing in an Italian household – TIME TO MAKE THE GRAVY!  Those of you who are not Italian, “gravy” translates to “tomato sauce”.  Today though, I am making an easy, peasy, HEALTHIER bolognese, or meat sauce.  

Normally, Bolognese is made in a saute pan ( a high sided fry pan like thing) and you have to let it sit, and babysit it, for like EVER.  And A. who has time for that and B. you can't leave the house with the stove on.  Plus full fat meats mean calories and cholesterol – who needs any of that?!  Well, this little Singing Tomato has come up with a FABU Ragu for you!

Get out that crockpot / slow cooker and spray it up (see crockpot tip #1).

Ingredients list:

• 1/4C EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
• 1lb – ground turkey (lean as you can find)
• 1lb – ground sirloin or super lean ground beef
• 1 large can crushed tomatoes
• 1 small can tomato paste
• 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatos
• 1 HEAPING teaspoon minced garlic (from the jar is ok with me but don't tell Auntie M!)
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning
• 1 carrot peeled and finely chopped to near mincing

It don't look pretty in pieces but once mixed together and slow cooked for 8hrs - OMG! SO YUMMY!

Tools that might help:

• measuring cups and spoons
• chopper – I HEART Pampered Chef and especially my chopper from them but if you have a similar brand or a good old fashions sharp chopping knife – that will do just fine – just watch your fingers!
• peeler
• knife
• wooden spoon
• of course your crock pot!

Instructions:

Put everything into the crockpot in the above listed order.  Stir everything together with the wooden spoon.  Cover your pot and cook on low for 8-9hrs.  Then enjoy your wonderful, yummy, Bolognese over your favorite pasta or in a lasagna or ziti!

Saucy Notes:

You will note unlike other tomato sauce-esque recipes I do not call for sugar in my sauce.  I am trying to avoid refined sugars – in this case you're going to use the carrot to create the sweetness needed without the sugar.  Also, this will make about 5 dinner's worth of sauce or 5 pints.  Make sure if you don't already have them to go get some plasticware to store your cooked sauce in – pint sizes should do.  You can then freeze it for later use during the week.

Other benefit – your house will smell like an Italian granny lives there!  Brings me back to our Sunday dinners with my whole extended family!  Mangi!

Here it is all done and ready for topping some al dente pasta!

Based on my WW recipe builder this (w/o pasta) is about 3pps.

Have questions?  Tried this recipe and loved it – leave me a comment to let me know!