Beef

Easy Meatloaf with Onion Soup Mix

January 11, 2022 by Lindsay 5 Comments

DELICIOUS, savory homemade meatloaf with Lipton onion soup mix! Simple ingredients and some time in the oven make this one of the most foolproof homemade meatloaf recipes out there. The almighty packet of onion soup gives us another winning recipe!

close up image of plate with meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

Ok, let's talk about shortcut ingredients.

Seasoning packets, canned cream-of-xx soups, bottled sauces for slow cooker meals? THEY ARE ALL AMAZING.

And yet, there's a little pocket of humanity that's all "I prefer to make my own, use natural ingredients, shit all over your shortcuts in the name of my clean-eating ego."

Well, no offense to those folks, but pre-made ingredients are AMAZING and can coax some really yummy flavors out of very regular foods.

Example: ranch dip seasoning sprinkled all over chicken before grilling. Definitely do that.

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Whole30 Beef Stew

September 27, 2021 by Lindsay 8 Comments

This easy beef stew is whole30 compliant, gluten free, and DELICIOUS. One of the most delicious beef recipes for dinner, make a big batch of this and serve it all week for a delicious meal prep dinner! If you AREN'T avoiding gluten, a batch of no-knead Dutch oven bread should be in the plans as well!

white bowl with beef stew, potatoes, and carrots in front of a yellow dutch oven.

OK, here's your plan for the next snow day, sick day, chilly day, comfort-needing day:

This beef stew works with all of those situations and then some, why don't we have more beef stew on Christmas Eve? For Halloween dinner right before or right after trick-or-treating? I adore it; the simplicity of the flavors with the "well, yeah, I simmered it for awhile" satisfaction that makes it feel slightly fancy but totally unpretentious.

The method is simple: sear a bunch of beef chunks until they're really crispy on the outside. Toss some veggies in those drippings, then everything goes back into the pot together with tomato paste, garlic, spices. Broth makes it soupy, then it simmers covered for a bit, then uncovered to finish the dish and thicken the sauce.

The potato here breaks down a bit to thicken the sauce (so we don't need flour), and the end result is just SO delicious. I adore super soft cooked veggies in dishes like this, soaked in the broth mixture and just YES. Someone please make this for me asap, I think I feel a sore throat coming on (not really just want food brought to me).

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Pan Seared NY Strip Steak

August 16, 2021 by Lindsay 9 Comments

The easiest way to make steak in a cast iron skillet! NY Strip Steak with easy, buttery shallot sauce is the most delicious date night at home steak method. Pair this with your favorite sides for a delicious, easy steakhouse dinner at home!

close up cast iron skillet with cooked sliced steak and shallot sauce over steak

Hi! How is your week going? I think the older we get the more we say it, but what a week. We're struggling to stay afloat in a very busy season, and with a lot of in and out, dinners together to reconnect are definitely part of that plan.

I love a Nice But Very Easy mid-week meal when we're super busy, and this is by far our favorite way to eat steak. We eat it with some kind of roasted veggie that can cook while the steak works, and dinner is DONE in 30 minutes, maybe less.

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Easy Mexican Ground Beef

April 26, 2021 by Lindsay 3 Comments

Delicious Mexican ground beef that can be used in tacos, burritos, or over nachos! This is one of those foolproof recipes that is delicious, and features your own homemade taco seasoning, hard shell tacos with no seasoning packet! This ground beef is extra delicious with sour cream guacamole.

For Taco Tuesday hard-shell tacos, DUH.

We are a week away from Cinco de Mayo! This is excellent news because MEXICAN FOOD OBVS. Mexican and Indian are my true all the time, tried and true, even love the leftovers, favorite cuisines of all time. We eat a variation of each at least once per week, and I love that Mexican food specifically lends itself to so many different types of foods, uses for extra veggies, all of the good stuff. Plus: flavor. condiments. cilantro.

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15 Minute Hibachi Steak

January 26, 2021 by Lindsay 11 Comments

Steak in just 10 minutes! This recipe for hibachi steak has just 6 ingredients and cooks in about the same amount of time it takes to steam some rice. I use sirloin steak cubes for a super affordable option, but this is also delicious with ribeye steak.

YEAH YEAH YEAH!! ..is my reaction to hibachi steak bowls early in the week in January.

Since the dawn of this blog (you're like, calm down), hibachi recipes and Asian-fusion recipes have been some of our favorites to make, and your favorites to read. The top recipes of all time (and, kind of by a lot) are hibachi shrimp and spicy crab salad (like in sushi!), and honestly they're some of my favorites too.

I think with the hibachi method in general, the hot pan + quick cooking nature of things make them really attractive to us: real people trying to feed our families good food in a reasonable amount of time.

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Cabbage Roll Soup

January 20, 2021 by Lindsay 17 Comments

Cabbage roll soup is a low carb soup version of traditional cabbage rolls; ground meat, cabbage, sweet, tangy tomato sauce. This recipe has just a few ingredients and comes together in half an hour or so. It's a great soup for freezing or meal prep - leftovers are delicious!

It's time for a super easy new cabbage and beef soup recipe.

One of those recipes that is comforting, cozy, filling (with bread dunked into it obviously), but requires no last minute rushing around to get food hot + crispy. It's 2021 on the last day of DJT's presidency in the middle of a pandemic and honestly we need food that just stays, you know? No emotional fortitude necessary, just an easy soup recipe.

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Best Spaghetti Meat Sauce Recipe

December 28, 2020 by Lindsay 9 Comments

My favorite slow cooked Sunday sauce recipe! This is a version of Sam the Cooking Guy's Bolognese recipe featuring tons of veggies, beef, and a few special ingredients. The recipe is super simple and simmers for a long time to develop a perfect Sunday gravy flavor and OMG the house smell. Best ever.

Hello and hi, let's finish this year with an uber bang. I've been talking with a lot of people recently about things that I make that never change, staples that I think are so handy for everyone to be able to make all the time. A good salad dressing, one kind of bread, that sort of thing.

This easy Bolognese sauce is a new-to-me recipe that I've been working on for a few months. I watched Sam the Cooking Guy make this Bolognese on YouTube, and I loved the method, ingredients, all of it. The key to the flavor in this Bolognese is that we use stock, wine, and milk to flavor and enrich the sauce so that it's super hearty without being creamy by the end.

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Ultimate Mediterranean Hummus Board

June 24, 2020 by Lindsay 4 Comments

This ultimate Mediterranean hummus board has your favorite cheese board elements with the best ever hummus with spiced meat, tzatziki, grape leaves, pickles, olives, and pita. It's mostly no-cook and make-ahead for the perfect party meal!

IT FEELS LIKE CHRISTMAS MORNING. I just love this so much.

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Spiced Ground Meat and Hummus

June 17, 2020 by Lindsay 1 Comment

Yummy spiced ground meat (use beef, lamb, pork, or even venison!) that goes over hummus for a protein-packed, savory appetizer or main dish. Use this for dipping, to stuff into pitas, or to make yummy grain bowls!

Spiced Ground Meat with Pine Nuts over Hummus Recipe

Spiced ground meat with pine nuts and hummus, just so ya know.

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Chinese Ground Beef and Zucchini

June 10, 2019 by Lindsay 1 Comment

Perfect for summer garden zucchini or year round, these Chinese ground beef and zucchini bowls are SO good. Quick and easy, make-your-own-takeout style, and who doesn't love a rice bowl? No one is the answer.

This recipe was first published in June 2019 and was last updated February 2021.

Oh hey, easy dinners that light up my life.

Are bowls over, or are we still good with everything we make going in shallow bowls with lots of toppings? Please say bowls aren't over.

These particular bowls are exceptionally delicious. We're working with a yummy brown sauce that comes together so quickly thanks to a Microplane grater that eliminates chopping of teeny things AND can get little kids involved.

Then, we have ground beef, zucchini from your summer garden (or, like, the store), and crunchy water chestnuts mainly because I adore them. This is one of those "regular" meals that is also highly flavorful and a perfect weeknight dinner.

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30-Minute Beef Minestrone Recipe

October 29, 2018 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

This minestrone recipe is done in just half an hour and features a perfect all-in-one combo of veggies, ground beef, and pasta. The broth is tomato-based, super savory, and almost all of these ingredients can be stored in your pantry or freezer for minestrone in a minute! Note: A loaf of no-knead bread never hurt a thing with this one.

Happy week of Halloween! We have to have a soup this week, right? I adore soup all the time for one very good reason: leftovers are the best of all the food groups. Anything fried gets mushy, bread-based stuff never reheats well, microwaved leftover veggies are satanic...you get it. Soup always works fresh or reheated, so in these little-kid years if I have time to cook extra on the weekends or early in the day I make soup and then am DONE for a meal later on, usually in the evening when everything has gone to hell, toddler-behaviorally-speaking.

Last year our go-to soup was this sausage kale number, which is still probably one of my favorite things I make ever. This basic minestrone recipe is on the same playing field with the combination of veggies, meat, and noodles that work so well together. Green beans and beef to me are super delicious, and the base of the soup is tomatoes, stock, and garlic for extra flavor. You could absolutely make this vegetarian with beans instead of beef, or use both for an extra shot of protein.

Let's soup!

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Weeknight Meatball Bolognese

September 4, 2018 by Lindsay 4 Comments

HI.

How was your Labor Day? Our was GREAT minus a few things. 1. my back stopped functioning on Sunday morning so I'm on day three of super painful spasms and no I can't stop picking up my toddler and no I can't take medicine because of the fetus and no I refuse to stop wiping my ass or any other normal thing that hurts. Because everything hurts. 2. Beck peed on our bed last night because she giggled too hard so we had to wash the sheets at 8pm after a long weekend but also we got clean sheets out of it? There was also a criminal incident on our street in the middle of the night last night that yielded us sleeping about three hours total.

OTHER THAN THAT. The holiday was great. We did some fun family things but mostly hung out just us, watched enough TV that it felt lazy but did some cleaning and organizing and walked a ton. I also made an entire Thanksgiving dinner which was suuuuuper delicious but weird because it's still 90 degrees here. But! It's done and the fall decorations are out, which I'm not mad about.

It's during holiday weeks that I often find my self really craving things that don't taste like traditional American food, if that makes any sense at all. Asian flavors, Mexican flavors, and hell yes to Italian food all the time. This is that! It's on the weeknight train of things that are easy to make but is a teensy bit special because we're calling it bolognese instead of spaghetti. This was inspired in real life by two things: we came home from vacation with a half bag of frozen meatballs from my sister-in-law, and then we celebrated our anniversary at a fancy Italian place. I ordered bologese there and it had these big chunks of carrot that were cooked down in meat sauce and I LOVED them because veggies should be with pasta in the name of balance. So meatballs instead of meat sauce, extra carrots for your health. Everything simmers super quickly and you can definitely eat in under an hour OR make this on a weekend or random free afternoon and it'll keep great in the fridge for several days, so dinner can be done in the time it takes to cook pasta.

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Marinated Thai Steak Bites

August 20, 2018 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

Happy first day of school! For public school kids in our area. Not anyone in my house or most people reading this, but happy Monday anyway! Let's eat some beef.

Since school is starting now-ish, I've been working on some new dinners that are quick, easy, and delicious. This comes from my obsession with kid sleep - they need to sleep more than they do, they can't sleep until they eat, dinner can't take five hours to make, that kind of thing. Tons of sleep for kids yields better moods and better focus in school plus more time in the evenings for grownups, so once the dirty work of getting small people to sleep is done I really only see benefits to the situation.

But we've got to eat early enough to make it happen! Enter, easy Thai steak bites. They cook way quicker than a whole steak and don't require resting time, and while they marinate you make the rest of dinner - in this case, rice and raw veggies that get a quick slaw treatment with lime juice and salt. Then, the steak bites cook for maybe five minutes total, and dinner is ready!

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Irish Stew with Crispy Smashed Potatoes

March 12, 2018 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

For St. Patrick's Day!

Ok so clearly this is a dumb fake holiday that only a small subset of the population actually celebrates for its intended purpose (see also: many holidays in the US that somehow turn into drinking holidays). Not that there's anything wrong with that, necessarily, but shamrocky things and green beer and random Leprechaun gear isn't my cup of tea (beer) at all. Stew, however, is. So, whether you're planning to drink all day like a true Irishperson on Saturday or will have to keep it low key because of toddlers and life and responsibility, this can definitely be your meal.

It's super simple + cozy: Potatoes boiled then crisped in the oven with PLENTY of butter. No hesitation with that one. Then a super simple stew with ground beef, onion, carrot, and cabbage. Light gravy with some beef stock + extra butter and flour, then we top the whole thing with extra sharp cheddar because it's a holiday, and some fresh herbs serve as the green here instead of some kind of chemical in your sad light beer.

Fresh herbs > sad green light beer, no offense.

It's easy! AND, can be made ahead then easily warmed up when you get home from any and all fun St. Patty's activities. The flavors are super simple and familiar, and the whole dish is just so cozy in these last few chilly weeks before spring finally breaks.

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Burrito-Style Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

February 28, 2018 by Lindsay 3 Comments

It's a baked sweet potato that tastes like the inside of a beef burrito!

This is definitely one of my new favorite dinners; stuffing anything into a sweet potato. We first did this in January when Jay was doing Whole30, and it somehow feels fun to stuff a meal into a potato and call it a health food. Sweet potatoes are one of the Whole30 go-tos for filling but compliant meals, and we happen to love them. Specifically, I love the sweet+spicy combo of topping these with jalapenos, and the filling is super simple with ground beef and fajita veggies.

You can swap out the meat for ground chicken or turkey, or make these all vegetarian with extra veggies. DEFINITELY add cheese and/or sour cream if you aren't avoiding dairy; I love topping these with all sorts of things just like a burrito or taco.

These do take a bit of time because the potatoes themselves take some time to bake, but you get the rest of the meal done while the potatoes work and the whole thing is ready in about an hour. You can also roast a bunch of sweet potatoes on the weekend for extra prep help, then just warm them back up when you are making the filling for your potato.

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Whole30 Beef Chili

February 15, 2018 by Lindsay 2 Comments

Because winter just keeps on trucking.

Actually, it's going to be 75 degrees here today, but climate change is a MYTH because it's still super cold some places, that's how that works. So! If you are in a colder climate or just love cozy foods (me), here's your new chili for the season! Jay finished Whole30 in January, but this is something we've made a few times mainly because I don't actually love beans, so having extra veggies and beef in chili is GREAT for me. The liquid aminos here substitute Worcestershire sauce, and truthfully COCONUT aminos would be even better to be truly Whole30 compliant, but this is what we had so we went with it.

I'm not a massive soup person, but I'm a massive stew/chili person (or maybe I'm just massive). I find them to be so hearty and cozy, and they work so well when made in advance. We've been working three or more nights a week recently, so cooking "for" dinner ends up with us eating at 9pm or so, which is just ridiculous. Exhausted doesn't begin to describe how we're doing, so dishes like this that can be made well in advance but not feel like leftovers are my favorite thing right now.

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Beef Bulgogi Lettuce Boats

January 22, 2018 by Lindsay 1 Comment

Or lettuce wraps, or low carb tacos, or whatever.

HAPPY MONDAY! Here's your answer to a Monday: highly flavorful, super tender beef, wrapped in veggies because health, but steak because sometimes we need steak on a Monday.

I've talked a ton here about how Jay and I love Korean BBQ, we even went out just the two of us on Christmas Day this year for Korean BBQ in San Diego while Beck napped. It was a fun and strange date, and we had a great time. The combo of sweet+spice+salt+tang all in one marinade is just more than I can manage, and I've been playing around with a few variations recently that we've used over beef. This particular version is a super thinly sliced ribeye marinated in a Korean-style sauce that we make in the blender so it takes zero time. Then the beef is seared in a HOT skillet (or on a grill!) for just a minute or two, then we load it up into lettuce boats with some extra veggies and avocado for creaminess.

The result was just PERFECT. I made this for lunch on Saturday and we both loved it so much. I've also used the beef over a salad, but I think it would be great over rice with stir fried veggies or in regular tacos because OBVIOUSLY. Some of my favorite taco places have a Korean-style taco, and I get it every single time without fail.

There is really nothing to these - they come together so quickly and are super delicious. They AREN'T strictly low carb because there is soy sauce in the recipe (I subbed liquid aminos for Jay) and a little bit of sugar, which honestly the dish needs. But, there isn't a ton of sugar and this definitely fits a low carb diet, and in general meals served in and under veggies are a good idea, even if there is a little bit of sugar involved.

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Easy Beef and Mushroom Stroganoff

December 20, 2017 by Lindsay 1 Comment

...it's always beef and mushrooms, right? Or just mushrooms for vegetarian? So maybe we just call this stroganoff.

Anyway. HAPPY WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS. We are currently barreling toward San Diego for a week, and I can't wait slash am nervous for the flight with Beck because the whining. Please follow our trip on Instagram, we'll be posting a ton while we are gone!

I'm giving you a meal today that has nothing to do with Christmas per se, but is warm, comforting, and easy, which is so important this time of year. There are other meals besides major parties and gatherings, after all, and we still have to feed our families but now is NOT the time to be a hero with elaborate meals. I actually have another pasta for you NEXT week, so I'm really psyched to get all of our carbs in before January. It feels necessary in the cold, right? You know it does.

Easy Beef and Mushroom Stroganoff

So this easy beef and mushroom stroganoff! It's made with ground beef and teensy tiny mushroom pieces, which means my mushroom-hating husband loves it. I like it because it feels like more beef than you're actually using, and the mushrooms cook way down and get brown and toasty and just EARTHY in the best possible way. Onions, garlic, and spices bring it all home, and buttered egg noodles are a must for serving.

Also you can a thousand percent make this in advance and then cook noodles right before you'd like to serve. The stroganoff reheats so well!

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Ruby's Potato and Beef Curry

October 26, 2017 by Lindsay 4 Comments

I'm like a damn broken record with the "it's finally cold, need cozy food" repetition, but heartier foods all of a sudden taste so much more satisfying, comforting, necessary. Speaking of comforting, this dish finds a way to cram potatoes, naan, and rice into a single meal without it feeling terribly indulgent (Jay is like, yes it does please stop), and I'm not mad about it one little bit.

This curry is a total knockoff of my brother in law Joe's mother Ruby's standard, this-is-what-we-always-eat curry. Jay's sister Elizabeth and Joe have been together since long before I was around and got married just a few months before we did, so I've been lucky enough to eat Ruby's curry on several occasions. I'm not going to talk about what type of curry this is, because Ruby is Indian (but I don't know where in India she is from and there are a gazillion regions of cuisine to factor in here) AND has lived many places in her life, so I'm calling this a fusion curry. For the purpose of using actual words to describe food, it is a Madras curry, very mild but very flavorful, stewed for several hours with tomato paste until beef chunks fall apart like any good stewed beef does.

So, you'll imagine my disappointment when I made the plan to cook this and discovered that I had used all of my Madras curry powder but also the time to cook was NOW because of nap time and daylight. So I improvised, making this an even more fusiony curry than the usual fusion Ruby rocks. The spice blend that I used is an equal combination of garam masala and yellow curry powder, and I alllllmost couldn't tell a difference besides obviously that I'm not an Indian mom and my curry will never be as good as one.

But, I've learned a few tips and tricks from my sister in law and Joe, who blessedly texted me through this whole process, and the approximation we're left with here is still damn good. So let's curry!

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Garlic Beef Fried Rice

July 31, 2017 by Lindsay 1 Comment

Because beef and rice, because Monday, because all of the things.

HOW WAS YOUR WEEKEND? We did the kid birthday party thing, went to a splash park with a friend who lives about an hour away, and Jay got home from Ireland last night! He was there for almost a week for a comedy festival and to golf, and to say it was the trip of a lifetime is probably an understatement. I'm asking him to write all about it for you, so stand by for some pretty serious travel journalism coming up.

First, though, fried rice. When I lived in Japan for a semester in college the host family I stayed with ate a ton of fried rice. It's not really a traditionally Japanese dish, but it served as a catch-all meal: one dish, protein + veg + carb, use whatever you need to use up. My host mom, Keiko, was a great cook, and I loved that the fried rice we had was different each time. This is just an example - once you master the method fried rice becomes a great no-recipe quick dinner, especially if you have leftover rice. I find that takeout from Indian and Chinese places always give more rice than is needed for the main dish, so fried rice is a great use-up for the rice a few days later.

This version has very basic veggies and tender juicy ribeye. You can use any steak you like, or swap out chicken or any other protein you like.

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