Category Archives: Carnivorous Recipes

Much against my will, I occasionally will cook meat dishes because all my children now eat meat.

Double Cheeseburger Ring

Oh my goodness! I clipped this recipe out of the Vancouver Sun a gazillion years ago and made it quite often when the kids were growing up, though minus the Mushroom Sauce. ( I have two kids who have a strong dislike for mushrooms…one, because the underside looks like gills! ) No worries there though because you can easily sub in another flavour of condensed soup: Cream of Celery, Broccoli Cheddar, Cream of Asparagus, Cream of Broccoli.
Don’t eat meat? No worries there either; sub in Yves Just Like Ground Round.
Don’t do Dairy? Sub in Soy Cheese, Salsa for the Cream of Mushroom Soup, add a few Tablespoons of Sliced Black Olives, a Tablespoon of Adobo Seasoning omit the Chopped Celery and sub in some Corn Niblets and you have yourself a Mexican Style Fiesta Ring! Too easy!

Now the original recipe called for the biscuit ring to be made from Bisquick mix….I think I bought that stuff once! I just use my resourceful Baking Powder Biscuit Recipe! Especially easy if you have a Kitchenaide Mixer! Throw everything into the mixer (by everything I mean all the powdery stuff) Mix on low to incorporate; add cubed, cold shortening or butter and turn on low again for about 2 minutes until mixture resembles coarse crumbs, then add milk (soy milk) and stir on low speed JUST until combined. Turn out onto floured surface and knead gently about 10 times and roll out dough. Easy peasy.

Oh, and you will see in the photo that I cheat and add Frozen French Fries right on the same baking sheet as the Cheeseburger Ring…just make a salad while this is baking and call dinner preparation Done!

Cheeseburger Ring - A nice twist for using Ground Beef
Cheeseburger Ring – A nice twist for using Ground Beef

Biscuit Dough using Baking Powder Biscuit Recipe or:
3 cups Bisquick Mix
1 cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese (Soy Cheddar)
3/4 cup Milk (Plain Almond or Soy Milk)
Filling:
1/2 pound Ground Beef (1 package Yves Just Like Ground Round)
1/4 cup finely chopped Celery
1/4 cup diced Onion
2 Tablespoons each finely chopped Green and Red Pepper
1/4 teaspoon Salt
Pepper, to taste
3/4 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese (Soy Cheddar)
1/4 cup Cream of Mushroom Soup
Mushroom Sauce:
Remaining Mushroom Soup
1/2 cup Milk (Plain Soy or Almond Milk)
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce (Omit if Vegan)
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Biscuit Dough:
Mix Bisquick and cheese together.
Gradually blend in milk, stirring with a fork to make a soft, slightly sticky dough.
Turn out onto a floured surface and knead gently 8 to 10 times.
Roll into a 14″x10″ rectangle.

Filling:
In a large skillet, with a bit of olive oil, saute onions until soft.
Add chopped celery, finely chopped peppers and ground beef (Just Like Ground Round) breaking up meat with a wooden spoon.
Cook and stir frequently until evenly browned.
Stir in remaining ingredients and heat until cheese melts.

Turn oven on to preheat to 400F.
Line a baking sheet with Parchment paper or spray lightly with vegetable oil spray and dust lightly with cornmeal.

Carefully spread onto prepared dough.
Roll up like a jelly roll, starting from the longer side.
Shape into a ring.
Place on prepared baking sheet.
Slash with a sharp knife, 3/4 of the way through ring, at 1inch intervals.
Bake in 400F. oven for 15 – 18 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve hot with Mushroom Sauce.
Serves: 6

Mushroom Sauce:
Combine mushroom soup, 1/2 cup milk, salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce in a small saucepan and heat through. Oh, I often add fresh Sliced Mushrooms to the sauce.

If Vegan, omit Mushroom Sauce altogether and serve with a Salsa and Avocado Slices.

Salisbury Steak

I definitely did not want to cook dinner tonight but since I already took LAST night off from cooking I HAD to get in the kitchen tonight! There was a pound of ground beef thawing in the fridge so at least I had a starting point…I hate it when you are racking your brain trying to suss out what to cook for dinner and you don’t even know where to begin so you start going through the entire contents of your fridge and pantry in your mind. For one, it usually gives you a huge headache.
Alright, so knew I had to cook that ground beef (by the way, I take zero pleasure in cooking poor ol’ Bessy ); I started thinking about the things my mother used to cook with ground beef besides Cabbage Rolls, Meatloaf and Spaghetti Sauce…I was about to search google for ideas when I remembered Salisbury Steak! Not sure why they call it “steak” but whatever.

Salisbury Steak
Salisbury Steak

1 package Onion Soup Mix
1 lb Ground Beef
1 slice Bread, crumbled
1 Egg
1/3 cup Milk
Salt and Pepper, to taste
1 small Onion, sliced

1/4 cup Ketchup
1 cup Water
1/2 teaspoon Dry Mustard Powder

In medium mixing bowl combine 2/3 of onion soup mix, ground beef, bread crumbs, egg, salt and pepper, and milk.
Form into 6 oval patties.
In large skillet over medium-high heat, brown both sides of patties, about 4 -6 minutes per side.
When you flip the patties over to the second side, add sliced onions; stir onions around occasionally while browning second side.
In measuring cup combine ketchup, water; whisk in flour, remaining onion soup mix and dry mustard powder.
Pour over patties in skillet and bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serves 4 – 6

 

Hamburger Stroganoff

After a long day all you want to do is veg-out  in front of the fire.  This is a super easy and super quick meal to throw together to get you back in front of the fire in no time at all.

Quick and Easy Hamburger Stroganoff
Quick and Easy Hamburger Stroganoff

1 lb Ground Beef
1 small Onion, chopped
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1/4 cup Butter
2 Tablespoons Flour
Salt and Pepper, to taste
15 Mushrooms, sliced
1 (10 1/2 oz) can condensed Cream of Celery or Mushroom Soup, undiluted
1 cup Sour Cream or Greek Style Yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoon Tarragon leaves, crushed
Hot Cooked Pasta

Saute ground beef, onion and garlic in butter over medium heat in a large skillet.
Stir in flour, salt, pepper and sliced mushrooms; continue cooking for another 5 minutes, stirring often.
Stir in  soup, add a bit of water if you feel it is too thick, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes.
Stir in sour cream and tarragon;  heat through.
Serve over pasta.

Serves 4 – 6

Simple Meatloaf

Simply delicious meatloaf! So we ordered a 1/4 of a grass fed cow from one of my husband’s co-workers and were instructed to ring the butcher to let him know what kind of cuts we wanted. The butcher asked if we wanted any Ground Beef or All-Beef sausages…I said very little ground beef and no sausages at all. They got the No Sausages bit right, but oh my, they messed up on the Very Lil ground beef! So, now I have oodles and oodles of ground beef and well, you can’t glue poor Ol’ Bessy back together to get different cuts, soooooo when given a mess of ground beef? Make Meatloaf! And Burgers. And Hamburger Stroganoff. And Meatballs. And Chili Con Carne.

Oh, yes, I was talking about Meatloaf, wasn’t I? So I made a couple of meatloaves, cooked them, cooled them, cut them into meal size portions and froze them.  I took a package out of the freezer one morning before heading to work, came home, boiled up some ‘taters, steamed some veg, made some gravy (okay, that was a stretch! but I did it) heated the thawed meatloaf and had dinner on the table in a half hour.

Now you have to understand that when I usually make “meat”loaf, it is actually Lentil Loaf; so my smart aleck husband says…”Oh yea! Now that’s a beefy meatloaf! I am not saying that I don’t like your other “meat”loaf, but hmmmm this is GOOD!” Whatever. Without further ado, the super simple recipe that I used to make such a delectable meatloaf.

Super Simple Meatloaf
Super Simple Meatloaf

1 1/2 lean Ground Beef
1 cup Milk
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 teaspoon Salt
Pepper, to taste
1/2 teaspoon Ground Mustard
1 teaspoon Ground Sage
1 small Onion, chopped
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1 large Egg
3 slices Bread, finely chopped (1 1/2 cups, lightly packed)
[I just tore a bunch of bread into rough bits]
1/2 cup Ketchup, Chili Sauce or BBQ sauce

Preheat oven to 350F.
Do not grease a 9X5″ loaf pan.

In large bowl, combine all ingredients except Ketchup.
Spread into loaf pan.
Spread Ketchup over top.

Insert meat thermometer so tip is in centre of loaf.
Bake, uncovered 1 hour to 1 1/4 hours or until thermometer reads 160F.
Drain meatloaf. (Our grass fed beef was so lean there wasn’t anything to drain!)
Let stand for 5 minutes.
Slice and serve.

I doubled the recipe and made two meatloaves, cut them into slices when cool, put four slices into three containers and put them in the freezer for Weekday Madness Dinners.

Thanks Betty Crocker for such a simple recipe that is sure to please!

 

 

Polynesian Pork Chops

Fraser Valley Meats often has a sale on Maui Pork Chops at 4 for $5; they make fabulous Polynesian Pork Chops…or so I am told as I don’t eat meat.

Polynesian Pork Chops

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 Maui Pork Chops
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

4 cloves Garlic, minced
1 medium Onion, chopped
1 (284ml) can Mushroom Soup
1/4 cup Water
1 (398ml) can Pineapple Chunks, undrained
3 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Honey
1 teaspoon grated Ginger
1 teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Sliced Green Onion to garnish.

In small mixing bowl combine garlic, mushroom soup, water, pineapple with juices, soy sauce, honey, ginger and pepper; set aside.

In heated oil in electric fry pan brown each pork chop on both sides.
Add chopped onion cook for a few minutes until onions are slightly softened.

Add soup mixture; bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to low, cover with lid and cook for 20 minutes or until ‘chops are no longer pink.

Serve on a bed of Rice, garnish with Sliced Green Onions.