Pretty Beef Stew

1 lb beef stew cubes, slightly thawed or thawed
1 Tb butter
1 onion, diced
1/4 C gr pepper, diced
1 C hot water

4 med potatoes, peeled & chunked
1 sweet potato, peeled & diced
1 C tomato, diced (canned or fresh)
2 carrots, diced
salt
pepper
Lawry's seasoning salt
1 pinch of Parsley
2 C hot water

1/2 C cold water
2 Tb flour

-Melt butter in pressure cooker over med/high heat and brown beef, onions and gr pepper.
-Add 1 C water and close cover securely. Place pressure regulator on vent pipe (I use a Presto 8Qt Cooker), and cook 8 (thawed) or 13 (partially thawed) minutes with pressure regulator rocking slowly.
-Cool cooker at once by running cold water over it (it will make strange noises that are a little scary, but really, this is what the company recommends and my mother-in-law has done for years and years - don't be frightened:)).
-Add hot water, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, pepper and salts (to taste - go easy...can always add more later). Place pressure regulator on vent pipe and cook 5 minutes once regulator rocks.
-Cool cooker at once.
-Mix flour in cold water well. Stir into stew, and stir until thickens.

Recipe adapted from Presto's Instruction manual.

Y: 4-6 servings

I really like the sweet potato in this and the color the stew turns out...so pretty! Add any veggies you have sitting around...as a friend in Africa called it...anything that must go you can turn into "Mustgo" Soup. :)

Round Steak Sandwiches

2 round steaks
~1/4 C Worcestershire Sauce
Pepper
Dried onions
Mini-sub buns
Cheese (flavor of choice)


Cut each steak into two pieces. Lay in 9x13 pan (will overlap each other). Sprinkle with dried onions to taste. Splash worc. sauce over meat. Add 1/4-1/2 in. water to bottom of pan, pouring a little over steaks to spread out sauce, but not to rinse it off. Sprinkle with pepper. Cover with foil, bake at 350 for 2 hours.

Break meat up with a fork into shredded pieces/chunks. Serve on mini-sub buns (we like wheat) with desired cheese of choice on top!

Y: Approx 12 mini-subs

We have recently been using this recipe to eat up our round steak and really like it! Very simple and really softens the tough steak. Of note, I can't eat cheese right now, so I crushed a few potato chips into the sandwich and enjoyed the crunchy variety! My vote 8/10 for simple, filling, tasty food.

Lasagna

1 lb hamburger, fried with a little salt/pepper
24 oz cottage cheese
2 1/2 C mozzarella cheese, shredded and divided
1/2 C parmesan cheese, divided
2-3 Tb dried parsley
26 oz can spaghetti sauce
1 C water
12 lasagna noodles, uncooked

-Let cottage cheese sit in strainer to drain juices some.
-Mix cottage cheese, 1 1/4 C mozzarella cheese, 1/4 C. parmesan cheese and parsley. Set aside.
-Mix hamburger and spaghetti sauce. Add water to empty sauce jar and shake well. Add to meat mixture and blend well.
-Spread 1 C sauce mix to bottom of 9x13pan; top with 3 noodles; top with 1/3 cot cheese mix and 1 C sauce. Repeat twice. Top with 3 remaining noodles and remaining sauce.
-Sprinkle with 1 1/4 C moz cheese and 1/4 C parmesan cheese. Cover with greased foil.
-Bake 45 min at 350. Remove foil. Bake additional 5-15 minutes, until heated through and cheeses lightly browned. Let sit 5min or so before cutting.

Yield: 12 large servings

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com Pretty good, especially since I don't like runny lasagna - this was on the drier side. 7/10
*Note to self, do not skimp on water or recipe will be too dry. Cot cheese amount increased a little from original recipe. Cheese got too hard after foil removed - would not leave in full 15 minutes.

Beef Roast with Veggies

Roasts are always an experiment for me - I usually just add to them whatever veggies are around and vary the spices/sauces depending on my mood. This recipe I actually wrote down once, so we must have liked it:). My mom taught me that you can throw a frozen roast in the oven, and my planning ahead was all over from then on...the only difficulty is getting the wrap off of the roast!

1 frozen roast (sirloin, chuck, pot, etc...)
veggies (red potatoes with skins on, green/yellow fresh beans, green pepper, onions, carrots)
garlic salt
pepper
paprika
dried parsley
butter
worcestershire sauce

Place frozen roast in roaster pan. Liberally squirt with worc. sauce to coat. Add hot water to pan to lightly cover bottom and a dash over the roast. Sprinkle spices over roast. Cover and bake at 400 for 10 min, then turn oven down to 350. Bake for approx. 1 1/2 hours, then add veggies around roast. Dot with little bits of butter. Sprinkle some more spices over veggies. Bake another 45 minutes (covered) or until roast is done to your desire.