We recently hosted a dumplings, ramen, and games night and thought we wanted something…well, not wrapped in a dumpling wrapper or part of a noodle bowl. Or really, I saw these, thought they looked awesome, and they were. 😉 We kept these warm in a slow cooker during the party, which worked well but I’d advise making sure you stir them now and then, which I forgot to do. I would definitely make these again, especially for a party – I might double the recipe next time as well. Leftovers were pretty good. 😉
Beef
Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Taco Bowls
While this recipe was underwhelming, it really has potential if seasoned correctly. In retrospect, I really should have thought out how much seasoning I was using for a slow cooker recipe. It was pretty good once it was mixed with all the taco toppings, but it would have been excellent if it had more seasoning. I doubled the spices in the recipe below, which originally came from Gimme Some Oven. Or, you could use a homemade taco seasoning mix – that’s what I will do next time. I think a large flank steak might do well, too. I used a chuck roast and wouldn’t again.
Slow Cooker Ropa Vieja
Wow, we loved this! I got this recipe from the really fun “My Big Fat Cuban Family” website. I’ve had her recipes bookmarked to try forever and finally got around to this one – we’ll be doing more of Marta’s recipes soon. This was easy and honestly, we actually liked it better sans rice (good for me and low-carbin’ it). My only mistake was over-salting and it was still great.
Spiced Roast Beef
We loved this spice crust – probably one of my favorite roast beef meals I have ever done. I changed nothing except that orignal recipe (from Bon Appetit) called for all root veggies, and I roasted carrots and brussels sprouts together – excellent with the pan drippings. This was a great winter meal and you could conceivably do any mix and match of roasted veggies that you like.
Five-Spice Steak with Rice Noodles
This is another stir fry-type recipe from CL – we really only used the sauce and went with our own veggies and shirataki noodles. That said, it was great and may be one of my favorite new stir-fry options. Any veggies you have on hand would be great with this, so it’s a good clean-out-the fridge option.
Spiced Braised Beef and Sweet Potatoes
Great slow cooker recipe for a cold day. This was a little twist on beef stew that we liked a lot – I turned down the heat on it by cutting the cayenne in half, so you could easily adjust however you like. Made a lot – leftovers even better the next day. This came from Real Simple, and though it suggested serving over couscous, we actually skipped that, just ate it as a stew, and it was great that way.
Mustard-Peppercorn Rib Roast
We decided on a standing rib roast for Christmas dinner this year, and I don’t have much experience with them – but this was a winner. Nice cut, easy to do, and found a rub recipe that we really loved! This came from Chow and we were thrilled with it – only change is that I only put the rub on the outside – didn’t cut into the roast. We served this with garlic blue cheese mashed potatoes and green beans…I think this goes down as my favorite holiday dinner I have ever done.
Traditional Meatballs
We don’t do pasta very often, but I really, really love spaghetti and meatballs. I made these guys with my usual Classic Tomato Sauce and it came out well. I cooked 3-5 meatballs in the sauce and baked the rest, which worked out well for us since I didn’t bust out the huge stock pot this time. I have a long-standing meatball recipe I have used (along with my Uncle’s stock pot!), but modified it a bit this time using an Ina Garten recipe and was pleased. Great, tender meatballs…makes about 12-15 of them, unless you like big ones.
Flank Steak with Cucumber and Pepper Relish
First dinner in our new house! And add to that the fact that I am a first-time homeowner and this is all pretty exciting. 🙂 Coming from a small (understatement) kitchen in our rental, it was pretty awesome to be back in a large, relatively modern kitchen again. After weeks of eating out with our kitchen packed, it was also excellent to have homemade food again. This was a recipe I saw in Cooking Light and modified a bit. The original called for pickled pepperocini, but I couldn’t find any. Instead, I used roasted yellow peppers and olives to get some brine/tang. We really enjoyed this – I served it with yellow wax beans tossed with some toasted almonds.
Picadillo
I really enjoy Cuban food, but this was not something I have tried before. When I saw it on Skinnytaste, I thought perhaps it was worth a try, as it was pretty healthy when made with very lean ground beef (in this case I used 96%, but 93% would fine). I checked out some other recipes and will modify a few things next time because we like a lot of flavor, but this was quite good! Definitely a keeper recipe, and the great thing is that it can be made in the slow cooker! Directions for both below. We served this over brown rice with steamed broccoli on the side.
Om nom nom! 