Hamburger Stew

It's Tuesday, so get out your recipe boxes and join your favorite blog mistresses for another yumtastic night!

Evening guys and dolls! Dinah here, well in the typing sense but Ma's here as well in the background sense, ha! Back to fill your tummy's and those empty recipe box cards. It's super nice to be able to take a break from filling up my droid phone with all my tune age to write the blog. It's been 2 weeks and I'm still working on it. We're off to Frankenmuth on Sunday so I need some definite music therapy. Geoff and I are not equals on which bands rule our hearts. He's more Slipknot while I'm a lover of The Weepies and Amy Winehouse. So this is a nice breath of internet air for a bit. Let's get to this week's recipe. My pick, and as always kiddies I'm looking to change up the game on a weekly basis and this week I went in a different direction. Let's be honest, I'm always off in a different direction than everyone else but that's what makes me...me. HA! With my different direction in mind I went a tad out of my food comfort zone and stumbled across this:

Hamburger Stew


Ingredients:
Servings:
4-6

1 1/2 lbs hamburger
1/2 tablespoon instant minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
4 potatoes, cubed
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 (14 ounce) can carrots, undrained
2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (14 ounce) can green beans, undrained
1 (14 ounce) can corn, undrained
1 (14 ounce) can peas, undrained
1 (4 ounce) can tomato sauce

Directions:
Prep Time: 15 mins
Total Time: 45 mins

1 Brown hamburger, garlic, salt, black pepper, and oregano in a Dutch oven over medium heat; drain.

2 Return meat to pot.

3 Add Worcestershire sauce, potatoes, onions, carrots, tomatoes, green beans, corn, peas and tomato sauce.

4 Stir to combine.

5 Over medium-high heat bring to a slight boil; reduce heat to low; cover.

6 Continue simmering stew, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes.

7 This stew can easily be tweaked to your family's tastes. I have added cabbage, okra, zucchini and various spices.





So how did this come out? It was surprising good. Nice little walk out of the comfort zone. My only complaint was the peas. I LOATHE PEAS! They're like little unflavorful pests. I'm sorry for the hatred on this mini veggie for anyone who is a lover of these things but they need to be put in their untasty place. Besides those annoying little green bits this recipe is a definite keeper. I can't wait to make it again and mix it up.


Tid Bits:

*In this recipe we went with no salt added tomato's and no salt added tomato sauce and you can too.

*If you click on the name of this recipe it'll take you to (SAFE! Virus free, for those who were wondering lol) the website I got this recipe from. A lot of people wrote amazing ways to change it up, check out their comments on how to make this a few different ways.



Ma's Spot: Tonight was Dinah's pick and I was totally surprised when she picked this recipe. She doesn't really like vegetables and this seems more like I recipe I would fix usually but I loved it. I did add a little more Worcestershire sauce because I think Worcestershire sauce in any kind of tomato based dish is delicious. For those of you who watch your sodium intake (like myself) I recommend you purchase no salt added veggies and sauce. The next time I make it I'm going to try it with some beef but this dinner was a definite keeper for me. I made enough to put in freezer bags so I can pop it in the microwave the next time I'm in the mood for this dish.




*SNACK CORNER:*

It's time for snack corner! Where we take new snacks in the grocery store and break it down for you. We tell you which are hot and which are not. Let's get to this week's picks:



Dinah: This week's product was a request from my hunny. At his store they sell these cookies that look amazing but are on the tad expensive side. They come 9 in a box for $3.99. So here at Tuesday's With Dinah and Ma we aim to please. He wanted to know if they were worth it. So I picked up a box of Simply Indulgent Gourmet Ultimate Chocolate Chunk Cookies. Geoff wanted to try the carrot cake cookies they sell but carrot cake and myself are not friends so I opted for the chocolate chunk flavor and he didn't mind. While these cookies are on the expensive side I gotta say they were an extreme hit for me. I loved the chocolate layer on the bottom of the cookie as well as the chocolate chunks hanging out on the top. I thought for a second how could I justify spending so much cash on such a small amount of cookies and I found it! Whenever you buy Pepperidge Farms Milano (or any other kind of Pepperidge Farm Cookie) cookies you usually pay around $4 to $5 for 9 or so cookies and these cookies were bigger than say a milano based cookie. So blog readers for me this was a nice treat and I could see buying it again. So hunny this is a definite buy!


Ma: These cookies were good but for the price and what you get I have to disagree with Dinah. I think the taste was excellent but you can find better cookies for a cheaper price.


That's it guys for this week, aw no sad faces we'll miss you all too! No worries though, we'll be back next Tuesday same time and same channel and next week's Ma's recipe and it involves orange and chicken? WHAT! Are we nuts? haha. Come back and see what we are up to next. Have a great week guys!


Spoons & Spatula's
~Dinah & Ma

Summer Spiral Salad

Evening guys, it's Tuesday which means we have another yumtastic recipe for you. This week's recipe is Ma's pick and it's a summertime dish. It's that time of year where grilling is 2nd nature and side dishes served cold are what's normal for week nights. So with that mind set we bring you an antipasti from Ma's "Taste Of Home: One Dish Meals" book. Most people think "Bleh, it's probably like a macaroni salad type thing" and trust me no mayo is in this dish. I swear on my blog mistress heart. So keep your Miracle Whip in the fridge for this one.

Here's what you need:

Summer Spiral Salad
8 servings

4 cups cooked spiral pasta
1 can (15 ounces) garbanzo beans/chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
4 ounces mozzarella cheese, cut into thin strips
2 ounces turkey salami, cut into thin strips
1/2 cup pitted ripe olives
3 tablespoons canola oil
1/3 cup tarragon vinegar
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
4-1/2 teaspoons minced fresh oregano OR 1-1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
4-1/2 teaspoons minced fresh basil OR 1-1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1/8 teaspoon pepper

In a large bowl, combine the first 6 ingredients in a jar with a tight fitting lid. Combine oil, vinegar, and seasonings; shake well. Pour over pasta mixed and toss to coat. Cover, refrigerate for several hours or overnight.




So how was this? It was fantastic! It was even better (in my opinion) than last week's recipe. I am even guilty of going back a few hours after dinner and having a small bowl while I was watching "Switched At Birth" (If you haven't seen it you're missing out!) Aw come on, it was only a small bowl and I couldn't help it that's how good this dish is. It was light & tangy. This one is a definite keeper for us. :D.



Tid Bits:
*This recipe calls for the cheese to be cut into strips and placed in the pasta. We didn't do that because when you put cheese in a salad like that for a long period of time it becomes slimy. Slimy cheese = gross blog recipe. So may we suggest that you buy shredded mozzarella to sprinkle on top when you are ready to serve.

*Please do as the recipe says and keep this in the fridge for as long as you can because the colder the pasta the better it tastes but only by fridge standards. No freezing, that would make it...well gross. ha.

*It calls for cherry tomatoes, I really suggest you stick with cherry tomatoes because it has a different taste and texture. When you slice your tomatoes hollow out the seeds because leaving that part in will always make your salad slimy.



Ma's Spot: Now that the weather is warmer we're trying to do a lot more cooler dishes and I think this one is perfect for the summer. It's also perfect to take out on an outing because there is no mayo (Dinah: LIKE I PROMISED! See, ha!). So I cooked it ahead and put it in the fridge overnight. When I got home from work on this hot Tuesday it was a nice cold dish to have. I also buttered up some pita bread and grilled it up and it made a wonderful companion to this dish. So have this dish with a nice tall glass of cool lemonade and enjoy!




*SNACK CORNER:*

It's time for snack corner! Where we take new snacks in the grocery store and break it down for you. We tell you which are hot and which are not. Let's get to this week's picks:



Dinah: This week we are putting the spotlight on Nestle's Skinny Cow Dreamy Clusters. Being a fan of the Weight Watchers plan I've become very familiar with Skinny Cow. Her and myself have become good friends. I can already hear the diet haters booing at this item but I beg of your diet hating hearts give this one a chance cause it's quite a treat. The chocolate is creamy, the caramel is salty, and they come in a package with just enough to give you your fill of chocolate without all the guilt later. 120 calories? Sign me up! Also, I left the price in the picture. Tacky? Yes, but I wanted to show you can get healthy snacks for not a lot of money. I picked those up at Kroger's checkout (next to the candy bars). They also sell them in the box form but I haven't picked those up yet so I don't want to give out a price or quantity without the actual knowledge of it. So these are a definite good buy.


Ma: I have been buying this Skinny Cow items for quite a while now. I absolutely love them. I even buy them when I don't have a coupon. Let me tell you ladies for me to buy something without a coupon or even a sale tag means I like it a lot. I also encourage you to pick up their peanut butter bars. They also have Skinny Cow ice cream which I'm addicted to as well. With these I loved the caramel and I like the bite size feel about them. You can just pop them in your mouth and enjoy.



Another week over guys, aw no sad faces. We'll be back here same time same channel next week. It'll be my pick and I'm fresh out of ideas but fear not blog readers I'm on the hunt for something different. Have a great week guys!

Spoons & Spatula's
~Dinah & Ma

Caesar Chicken Wraps

Evening guys and dolls from all around this lovely internet world! Your food blog diva's are back to bring you another yummy dish and chit chat with you about food. Let's take a moment and check out the new layout. New for summer with a sky and bee theme. Cute eh? It was done by yours truly, *round of applause!* Aw, you guys are too kind ;D.
It's been beautiful outside lately, well here it has been (here as in Michigan) so I'm guessing it's been pretty awesome all around weather wise for everyone reading this blog? With that in mind this week I took my recipe to the grill and we made something on the healthy side. It's got romaine lettuce and lemon pita bites and we dusted off that grill and placed a boneless skinless chicken breasts on it to become reacquainted with it's old friend. Let's get this week's party started!


Caesar Chicken Wraps

Prep Time: 10 Min
Total Time: 10 Min
Makes: 4 wraps

1 bag (7.5 oz) complete Caesar salad mix
1 cup chopped cooked chicken
4 garden vegetable-flavor flour tortillas (8 to 9 inch)
2 tablespoons shredded fresh Parmesan cheese (1/2 oz)


DIRECTIONS

1) Crush croutons from salad mix; set aside. In large bowl, combine remaining Caesar salad mix ingredients and chicken; mix well.
2) Wrap tortillas in moist microwavable paper towels. Microwave on High 15 to 20 seconds or until warm.
3) Spoon salad mixture evenly onto center of warm tortillas; spread to within 1 inch of edges. Sprinkle each with shredded cheese and crushed croutons. Fold bottom of each tortilla up over filling; fold sides over.



You can use any type of flour tortillas--plain, whole wheat or flavored--in place of the garden vegetable tortillas.
Secure the wraps with picks and olives.
Use chopped cooked chicken from the freezer section or leftover chicken from your refrigerator to speed this recipe along. Or try chopped cooked breaded or grilled chicken.




This was good, I wasn't knocked off of my feet by it (I've had better chicken wraps) but honestly it was super filling and it was tasty. Enough for me to make it again? Absolutely BUT we have to come clean on this one. It wasn't cheap. It turned into this over $20 fiasco and it put our wallet's on life support as far as groceries go. Honestly, who has the cash or want to spend on this dinner for one night only? It's a tad on the expensive side. I dunno who invited Donald Trump or Vince McMahon but fellas this blog isn't for you guys but this dish sure may be with the price tag that came with it. We even broke it down, we could've got gourmet wraps for the same amount and saved the time outside as well as inside on making these things. So, we decided to show you how to get it for a tad cheaper than we did. The main expensive item was the Hidden Valley Caesar Salad Kit. It's nice for a small lunch but we thought it would save money and time with this dish. It ended up only having a tiny amount of the items we needed with this big price tag. Not good times.



Tid Bits:
*So wanna make this dish without handing over all your hard earned money to your local grocery store? You're in luck! Here's how:
First buy just a head of romaine lettuce, store brand Caesar salad dressing, croutons, chicken (Doesn't have to be breasts. You honestly can get whatever cut of the chicken you prefer), Parmesan cheese, & tortilla's. Simple, and no bagged salad kits needed.

*You can go really healthy and choose whole wheat tortilla's


Ma's Spot: I really enjoyed this dish. The chicken needed for this recipe, you can make a few different ways. You can put it in your slow cooker, grill it, or oven bake it just to name a few. I used the whole wheat tortilla's and really found it delicious. It's filling, we had fries with ours. It wasn't needed but I didn't know how filing the wraps would end up being. Like we said earlier I prefer to omit the salad kit so you can control how much dressing you put on these wraps. As for me, I'll definitely making these again. Great summer dish! What I would like to do is on one of my days off from work put a bag of chicken in the slow cooker, season it up, let it cool, put it in freezer bags, and then next time you want wraps you have chicken already prepared.




*SNACK CORNER:*

It's time for snack corner! Where we take new snacks in the grocery store and break it down for you. We tell you which are hot and which are not. Let's get to this week's picks:



Dinah: This week was also my pick for snack corner and we went with 2 of the new flavors courtesy of my fave ice cream duo Ben & Jerry. We chose "Last Night Snack" (inspired by one adorable, late night host Mr. Jimmy Fallon) and "Red Velvet Cake". Now, Ben and Jerry's can be a tad on the expensive side not only high on the calorie side but it's cool to splurge every once in a while. How did these play out? They were pretty awesome! Especially the Late Night Snack. The chunks of chocolate covered potato chips were odd but a freaking amazing kinda odd lol. I'm not a fan of red velvet cake. Yeah, I know the baker chick isn't a fan of a type of cake? Hey, it happens. I just don't think it has much flavor to it but good ol' Ben and Jerry have changed my mind...well at least on the ice cream part. The cream cheese frosting swirled in really makes this pint. So for me it was huge thumbs up. Try both!


Ma: I'm with Dinah, I never really liked red velvet cake but I have to say in their ice cream version it is DELICIOUS! I enjoyed both of them but my fave was the Late Night Snack. Anytime you put chocolate, Carmel, and vanilla ice cream together I'm there. So with or without a coupon I would definitely buy them both again.




And that's all she wrote guys, HA! get it? That's all she wrote....no? Aw, come on it was funny! Alright, that one was for the cheap seats in the back then lol. We'll be here next Tuesday with Ma's pick and it's another summer dish. Gear up guys, it's that time of year. We'll see you back here. Same time, same station. Have a great week guys!

Spoons & Spatula's
~Dinah & Ma

Skillet Beef & Macaroni (With Cornbread)

It's hotter than hell outside! So why not come into the nice cool central air and read this weeks blog entry?

Hello hello hello good people of the blog universe! Dinah here, back for another week of treats for your tummy. As I mentioned above it's like Hell's sauna outside this evening so we decided to hang out in the cool house and make something in the kitchen. No booing! We'll be hitting the grill soon enough but we have to pace ourselves guys. Summer is a pretty long season.

Before we get into the hoopla of tonight's recipe we here at Tuesday's cookers.(Okie I totally just made that sound like we're a huge group or corporation)...meaning Ma and I (ha, that's better) are always looking to spice things up and change the game. So Ma had an idea to dabble into something else for this blog. Granted we are no experts nor neither of us have an culinary training (well unless you want to count the Italian women in our family whom showed us the right food path) but we like to think we're pretty savvy chicks so each week we're going to start a new segment called....*DRUMROLL* "Snack Corner". Ah, yes. Snack corner. What is that all about?

Well have you ever been at the grocery store and saw something amazing (snack wise that is) but either A: It was way too expensive (cause grocery store prices are now made for people like Donald Trump) or B: You just don't do snacks on a weekly basis?

No fear, the snack corner diva's are here to save the food day. We'll be buying a new item each week to test out and give you the good and the not so good feed back on what you should spend your cash on and what you should just turn up a snob nose to in the grocery store. So stick around at the end of this week's recipe for the first "Snack Corner" segment!

Now, that I have written a page on the upcoming fun it's now time to bring on this week's recipe. It's Ma's pick and we're going with something hearty. The recipe is in the Taste of Home's: Meals in Minutes book.

Let's get started follow me:



Skillet Beef and Macaroni

Prep time: 30 Minutes
Yield: 4 to 6 Servings

1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cans (8 ounces each) tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 package (7 ounces) macaroni
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

*In a large skillet, cook beef and onion until the meat is no longer pink and onion is tender; drain. Stir in the remaining ingredients; bring to a boil.
*Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20 - 25 minutes or until macaroni is tender stirring occasionally. Add additional water if needed.
*Cornbread is a perfect complement to this tasty dish. Make either a pan of corn bread or corn bread muffins from a mix.




We ended up making my famous cornbread. What! Dinah has a recipe of her own??? Yeah, it's my recipe and even I am shocked a bit.

Now, there are two groups out there. One is the side who loves cornbread and the other side who isn't a fan.

Dinah's cornbread:

Prep time: 5 minutes...I guess? I don't really count lol
Servings: 4 - 6

1 box Jiffy cornbread mix
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup cheddar cheese

*Preheat oven to 400
*Spray 8X8 pan with nonstick cooking spray
*In a medium size bowl mix by fork (yes fork lol) all the above ingrediants together until no lumps are left.
*Pour into greased pan and place in oven for 30 - 35 minutes or until golden brown.










So how did these two do? Did they marry in the food world?? It was a beautiful wedding! haha
These two were amazing. Absolute keepers! :D.


Tid Bits:

* We used half turkey and half ground chuck so if you fancy that, give it a whirl

* We cooked the macaroni separately than the recipe calls for because when it cooks with the ingredients it can become too starchy.

* Take the simple way out and buy the frozen onion & pepper mix. Put them in a bowl and chop them up with kitchen scissors.



Ma's Spot: Tonight's dish was really simple and let's face it after a day of work simple is what I'm all about. I like this recipe

because you have most of the items in your refrigerator or cabinet. The cornbread Dinah Jane made actually complimented the meal deliciously. I enjoyed the meal so it's a keeper for me.

Ladies & Gents....It's time for.......

*SNACK CORNER:*

It's time for snack corner! Where we take new snacks in the grocery store and break it down for you. We tell you which are hot and which are not. Let's get started:

This week's snack is Edy's Smoothies. I had the Strawberry and Ma had the Sunrise Blend. Which you can find in the freezer section of your local grocery store.







Dinah: I was a bit worried when I saw this. I thought "What the heck is this? Smoothie is a small carton...okie." Once I added the milk and it was ready to enjoy I was totally into it. Very smooth and creamy. The strawberry taste was excellent. Not too strong and when it was gone I wanted more, ha! So my verdict is it's a definite buy.

Ma: When I first bought these, I didn't realize you were supposed to add milk. I added it and this product was delish. Very smooth and well worth money. I got them on sale at Kroger's 4 for $5. So anybody who knows me knows I love ice cream and think it should be it's own food group. So next time you're in your freezer section pick up the Edy's Smoothies.


That's it guys, we have kept your eyes moving long enough for tonight so meet us back here in 7 days for more eats and treats. Next week is yours truly pick and we're going with veggies and wraps. AHHHH! I know right? Awesomeness! Have a great week guys!


Spoons & Spatula's
~Dinah & Ma