Kimchi Beef Stir Fry

Holy crap! Tonight after work I had to go out and buy a replacement charger for my Surface tablet. Are they made out of gold or something? I was not expecting to pay 89 dollars for the dumb thing. However, since about 90 percent of what I do in my spare time, including this blog, is computer related I bought it anyway

It is a good thing I have a lot of quick, easy and relatively cheap meals planned for the next couple of weeks.

Kimichi Beef Stir Fry

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From I Heart Umami

16 oz Napa cabbage kimchi

1/2 lb ground beef

1 TBS olive oil

2 large cloves, minced

3 scallions, chopped, white and green parts seperated

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

3 TBS kimchi juice, or to taste

salt and pepper, to taste

sprinkle of sesame seeds, for garnish

Use a strainer to drain the kimchi over a small bowl. Use a spoon to press as much juice out of the kimchi as possible. Set the juice and drained kimchi aside.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil. Saute the kimchi for 1 minute. Spread the ground beef over the kimchi. Add 1 tsp toasted sesame oil over the beef and cook until cooked through. Add saved kimchi juice and salt and pepper, to tasted. If desired, garnish with the green parts of the scallion, additional toasted sesame oil and sesame seeds before serving.

Cranberry Orange Meatballs

I am starting to stock up on cranberries so I will have some during the off season. It isn’t unusual to have 12 plus pounds of cranberries in my freezer by New year’s day. It also isn’t unusual for to be completely out of my stockpile by August.

Orignally, these meatballs were used as an appetizer but I made them a little bigger so the could serve as a main meal over noodles or a baked potato with a salad.

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3/4 cup chili sauce

3/4 cup cranberry sauce

2 TBS orange juice

1 lb ground beef

4 TBS bread crumbs

1 tsp basil

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp oregano

In a small bowl, combine the chili; sauce, cranberry sauce and orange juice, mix well and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine ground beef, bread crumbs, basil, thyme and oregano, mix well. Using 2 tablespoons of the ground beef mixture, form into meatballs and place in a 2 quart baking dish. Pour the cranberry mixture ovet the top and bake for 60 minutes.

Note: To make enough cranberry sauce for this recipe place 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to boil; reduce the heat to a simmer Simmer for 10 minutes until the berries burst and the sauce starts to thicken.

Beef With Broccoli (Whole 30)

Hey Guys, I am back. Did you miss me? I always miss you when I take my blogging vactions but I need those vacations to recharge my creative culinary batteries.

I didn’t get nearly as far in my blog redesign as I hoped because somehow, while was redoing my index , I managed to delete my index entirely. Now I have to organize, type and link 536 recipes. Thats going to take a while to fix. Sigh.

While on my blogging vacation, I did a lot of experimenting with a bunch of small batch spice blends I found in a cookbook called the Frugal Paleo Cookbook. Each blend makes 1 tablespoon of spice blend which is enough to season 8-12 oz of meat and a bunch of vegetables. I am creating as many recipes as I can come up with using these spice blends.

The best thing I did over my blogging vacation was cook a lot out of ChiYu Smith’s amazing Asian Paleo cookbook. This recipe is so good, I ate the majority of it with my fingers while standing standing in front of the fridge. You know thats some seriously good stuff.

Beef With Broccoli

• Difficulty: Easy
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From the Asian Paleo Cookbook

Beef:

1 lb skirt steak

2 TBS coconut aminos

1/2 tsp kosher salt

2 to 3 tsp toasted sesame oil

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp arrowroot

1/2 tsp baking soda

Stir Fry Sauce:

2 TBS coconut aminos

1 TBS fish sauce

2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Additional Ingredients:

1 to 2 heads broccoli, broken into florets

1 1/2 ghee

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 TBS finely minced ginger

Thinly slice the beef about 1/4 inch thick. Place on a bowl and add the rest of the beef ingredients and mix well. Set aside in the refrigerator.

Meanwhile prepare the sauce. Combine the the coconut aminos, fish sauce, toasted sesame oil and black pepper in a small bowl; set aside.

Melt the ghee in a saute pan over medium-high heat then lower the heat to medium. Add the ginger, garlic and a small pinch of salt. Stir- fry 8 to 10 seconds. Be careful not to burn the garlic and ginger.

Increase the heat to medium-high. Spread the beef over the bottom of the skillet in a single layer and cook until the edges of the beef are slightly crispy. Flip and do the same thing for the other side, cooking the meat until its 3/4 done.

Add the sauce and the broccoli. Cook until the broccoli reaches the desired doneness and the beef is cooked through.

Chinese Pepper Steak (Whole 30) — A Review

I don’t usually get really excited about cookbooks. I love to look at them and try new recipes from them but very seldom does a cookbook make me want to try everything in it. Even more seldom does a cookbook make me want run out and tell people to buy a copy. ChihYu Smith’s book Asian Paleo makes me want to do both.

Things I Like:

1. Ever since my first Whole 30, I have turned to the crazy sauce lady. Sauces can take the most boring meal and turn into something special. There are tons of new sauces to try.

2. The recipes contain no added sugar and no grains, making them perfect for the Whole 30.

3. Her food tastes amazing.

Things I Don’t Like:

1. A few of the recipes require expensive or hard to find ingredients.

2. The recipes are s little prep heavy.

Although Asian Paleo isn’t a small batch cookbook, it is definitely worth adding to your cookbook collection.

Chinese Pepper Steak

• Difficulty: Easy
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From Asian Paleo

Beef:

1 lb sirloin steak

2 TBS coconut aminos

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp onion powder

2 tsp toasted sesame oiil

1 tsp arrowroot

Scant 1/4 tsp baking soda

Salt and pepper, to taste

Stir Fry:

Olive oil

3 – 4 cloved garlic, thinly sliced

1 large shallot, sliced into thin strips

Salt

1 green bell pepper, sliced into thin strips

1 red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

Thinly slice the beef against the grain and place in a bowl. Add the remaining beef ingredients and mix well. Place in the refrigerator to marinate while you prepare the stir fry ingredients.

In a stainless steel pan over high heat, add 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil and sear the beef in batched until the beef is slightly crispy. Remove the beef and any juices from the pan.

Add a little more oil to the pan. Add the garlic and shallot. Season with a little salt and saute until fragrant, about 10 seconds. Add the bell peppers and a little more salt. Saute until the peppers become slightly soft but still crunchy. Add the Worcestershire sauce and the beef back to the skillet. Give the meat and veggies a good stir to coat with sauce. Taste and add a little more salt if necessary.

Sausage Stuffed Mini Peppers

There is nothing like a blizzard to inspire me to get back into the kitchen. Yep, a blizzard in April. Sigh. Even I, who doesn’t usually complain about the weather, was complaining about this crap. Hopefully, this is the last if it.

I am still not wanting to spend a huge amount of time cooking when I get home from training but I know I can’t keep eating out as much as I have been so I am looking for easy dump and cook recipes.

The original recipe for sausage stuffed mini peppers had 4 ingredients, sausage, mini bell peppers, a jar of pasta sauce and cheese. You certainly can make it that way. I don’t keep sausage of any kind on hand but always have ground beef in my freezer so I needed to figure out how to use what I have on hand. Yes, I did have a jar of pasta sauce on hand thanks to last weekend’s visit to Aldi’s to research my next Whole 30. More on that in a few weeks.

• Difficulty: Easy
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Adapted From The Family Freezer Sausage spices by me

8 oz mini sweet bell peppers

8 oz ground beef

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp dried parsley

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/4 tsp fennel seed

1/8 tsp red pepper flack

1 1/2 cup pasta sauce

2 oz mozzarella cheese

Cut the top off each pepper and remove as many seeds as you can.

Take each pepper and stuff some sausage into it. You want to push the sausage all the way into the bottom of the pepper, do the best you can. The number of peppers you will need will depend on how big they are. I used 10 and still had some beef left over so I got out a few more peppers.

Place the stuffed peppers in a single layer on the bottom of a baking dish. Add the pasta sauce over the top of the peppers and cover the sauce with cheese. If you stuffed extra peppers, feel free to add extra sauce and cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.