Garlic Butter Steak

Ok, folks, I'm a fan of steak, though I'm still trying to find the secret to picking the perfect cut (when you figure it out, let me know!) I'm also a fan of garlic! So this terribly simple recipe is wonderful.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 pounds beef top sirloin steaks
• salt and pepper to taste

Here's what you do:

1. Grill steaks like normal (for me, that's on the George Foreman Grill. Especially in the winter!)
2. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat with garlic powder and minced garlic (Fresh is always best!).
3. Pour delicious garlic butter over delicious steak. Let sit for a few minutes.
4. Enjoy!

Hamburger Heaven

I made this for the first time last week and we really enjoyed it.  A few things that I did differently were (1) I used less meat, (2) I left out the mushroom soup because we don't like it and the cheese because I'm nursing a lactose intolerant baby, and (3) because I used less meat, I used less of everything else too (except the cream of celery soup, because I wanted it to make up for the cream of mushroom).

Ingredients:
2 lbs hamburger
1 sm onion, sliced (I chopped into tiny pieces)
1 can mushroom soup
1 can celery soup
1/4 c milk
1 bag frozen peas
cheese, shredded
tater tots

Brown meat and onion.  Drain.  Place in casserole dish.  Mix the two soups with the milk and spread over meat mixture.  Cover with peas.  Top with cheese.  As a final layer add Tater Tots.  Bake in 350* oven for 1 hour.

First of all, please note that I copied this word for word, comma for comma, from a cook book my grandma's group of friends put together.  I take no credit for the way it's written (in fact, it bothers me).  Now that I've made that disclaimer, I feel better :)  Anyway, back to the meal.  Everyone, even the picky toddler, loved this.  My hubby ate seconds... and thirds... and leftovers!  That says a LOT!

We did not have any sides with this meal because the peas are already in it.  Same with the Tater Tots.  I figured it didn't need anything else.

J gave this meal an 8
I give it an 8.5

Yum Yum!

Once again, I will add the picture when I get it uploaded to the computer... hopefully later today!

Garlic and Herb Pork

My sister actually found this recipe, but since she hasn't posted it yet, I'm going to :)  She found it on Allrecipes.com.  My sister and I have both cooked this pork many times and we each had the same problem...it takes MUCH longer to cook that this recipe calls for.  We generally cook it for an hour, or until it's 160 (this recipe says 150, but I like my meat well done)

Ingredients

• 2 pounds boneless center-cut pork loin
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh sage
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary leaves
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees F. Pat pork dry with paper towels, place in shallow roasting pan. In small bowl, stir together garlic, salt, sage, rosemary, pepper and olive oil to make a paste. Rub garlic paste over all surfaces of pork loin; place in oven, roast for 15 minutes.
2. Turn oven temperature down to 300 degrees F., roast for 15-20 minutes, take internal temperature using an instant-read thermometer. When internal temperature of roast is 150 degrees F., remove from oven, tent loosely with foil and let rest 10 minutes before slicing to serve.

I would rate this meal an 8, maybe even 8.5.  The little guy eats it without any fight...usually.  Although, we do have to scrape off all of the seasoning.  My sister recommended Green Beans with this meal, and we like to add the garlic potatoes found in the Steam Fresh bags.  The picture added is of my gorgeous sister making this pork for the very first time a few months ago.

Outside In Burgers

Ok,  before I give you the recipe I have to explain - you will notice the meat in a lot of my recipes has stuff added to stretch it (in this one it's corn). I also sneak in veggies as much as possible :). My measurements may be off a little so season to taste, I rarely actually measure but I'm trying to give you as simple a recipe to follow as I can.

You can make these on the grill or in a skillet (I just use a skillet)

1/2 lb of ground beef
1/4-1/2 cup of Frozen Corn
1/4-1/2 tsp Garlic Powder (or a diced clove of garlic)
1/4 -1/2 tsp Onion Powder (or 1/2 a diced medium sized onion)
Sliced Cheese
Hamburger Buns
Anything else you like to top a burger :)

-Mix beef, corn, garlic powder (or diced clove), and onion powder (or diced onion) in a bowl
-For this burger you are actually going to put the outside (cheese, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, jalapenos...whatever you like on your burger) on the inside. I can get 3 1/2 full burgers out of this, so I form 7 big thin patties.
-Next fold your cheese so it fits in the center of one of the patty halves. If you want diced tomatoes, onions, mushrooms anything else, add this (make sure it is finely diced).
- Place another patty half on top and pinch the sides of the two patties together. You want to make sure it's REALLY sealed or it will split apart during cooking. I typically roll it into a ball again and then re-flatten it once the ingredients are inside to insure it won't split apart.
-Cook, covered until desired (we cook until well done so it's about 6 minutes on each side, I believe). Make sure you flip a few times to prevent burning. It is important to cover them if you use the corn, this makes sure all the corn is well cooked.
-C loves cheese so I always add an extra slice to the top of his burger as well
-While you are cooking the burgers, in another skillet brown the buns.
-serve with desired toppings (lettuce and pickles aren't very good inside so I would put it on the top)


Sides: Any veggie goes really well with this meal! Last night we had cauliflower, broccoli and carrots. I have made homemade french fries before (super easy, next time I make them I'll post how it's done)

Ratings:
C-10 (he loves hamburgers)
D-7 (I think burgers in general are only ok)
K-ate a different meal

This is just a plain burger, C lovingly refers to me as plain jane because I don't like anything extra. You get a really yummy surprise when you bite into it and the cheese spills onto your bun (and anything else you might have added to the inside).

BBQ Chicken on the Grill

We made this for dinner tonight, so I thought I'd go ahead and start the blog off with one of our favorite meals... BBQ Chicken on the grill.  Mmmm.  One of the reasons I love this so much is because my husband does most of the work ;)

Ingredients:
Chicken Breast
BBQ Sauce (we love Famous Dave's!  You can get it at Target or Wegmans)

Directions:
Grill chicken, slather bbq all over while still on the grill, then serve when cooked all the way.  As I said, my hubby cooks this meal and these are the directions he gave me :)  I asked what temp, he said there is no set temp.  I asked how long, he said until it's done.  Lol.

Rating:
J-8
L-8.5
T- he ate it without much of a fight...I consider that a good meal!

Sides:
We had green beans (which none of us like, but we're trying to eat more veggies, so we had them anyway) and cornbread.  Mmm Mmm!

Picture to come when I get it uploaded to the computer!

Yummy! Yummy!

Hello Readers!
    We are a group of friends who often share our family favorite recipes but often lose the recipe after making it.  Instead of constantly asking each other for recipes, we decided it would be great to start a blog together where we can share with each other and anyone else looking for easy, yummy meals.  Please enjoy our blog.  If you try one of our meals, we would love for you to rate it (1=worst meal ever! 5=indifferent. 10=my all time favorite) and share the side dishes you had along with it :)