1 lb ground beef
1 cup chopped onions (I omitted these because I don’t like onions)
1 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon mustard
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

In a large skillet, brown beef with onions (make sure to drain or rinse your meat after this step). Mix the rest of the ingredients together. Add to beef and onions. Cook for 1 hour over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Serve on warm hamburger buns.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced (I use a tablespoon of the bottled minced garlic available at Aldi)
2 tablespoons chili powder (adjust to your personal taste)
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt
1 pound ground beef or ground turkey
1/2 cup smooth canned tomato sauce
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons cider vinegar (not available at Aldi)
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
8 taco shells

Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onion and cook until softened, about five minutes. Stir in the garlic, spices, and 1 teaspoon salt and cook until fragrant about thirty seconds. Stir in the ground beef and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon until no longer pink, about five minutes. Stir in the tomato sauce, broth, vinegar, and sugar until thickened, about ten minutes. Season with salt to taste. Divide the filling evenly among the taco shells and serve passing any desired accompaniments separately.

Make-Ahead Version: The filling can be fully prepared, cooled, covered tightly and refrigerated for up to three days. Reheat over medium-low heat, adding additional water to adjust the consistency.

1 pound spaghetti
1 jar prepared spaghetti sauce
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato paste (minus 2 tablespoons for the meatballs)
½ cup beef broth
1 pound ground turkey
¼ cup breadcrumbs (directions for preparation to follow)
2 tablespoons paste
1 egg
3 tablespoons of beef broth
Handful of parmesan cheese
Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt and the spaghetti and cook as directed or until al dente. The spaghetti will continue to cook in sauce, later. To a large skillet add prepared spaghetti sauce, tomato paste (minus 2 tablespoons), and diced tomatoes, and allow to cook together. Add beef broth and allow the sauce to simmer while you make the meatballs. In a large bowl mix together turkey, bread crumbs, tomato paste, egg, beef broth, handful of cheese, and salt and pepper. Shape into meatballs (any size, just make sure they are all the same size for even cooking) and bake the meatballs for fifteen to twenty minutes or until cooked thoroughly. Carefully remove meatballs from the baking sheet and add them to the sauce. Drain and add cooked pasta to the pan and mix together with the red sauce.

Serve meal with a tossed garden salad.

Breadcrumbs Recipe

Making your own breadcrumbs can be easy and inexpensive. The flavor of fresh breadcrumbs versus the store bought variety is not even comparable. Store your breadcrumbs in your freezer and you will always have fresh breadcrumbs on hand. I keep mine in a freezer-safe container and when I get low, I simply make another batch. Breadcrumbs can be made out of loaf ends, stale bread, hot dog rolls, & hamburger buns- whatever you have on hand! Keep a bread bag with all of your bread in it and store it in the freezer. Once the bag is filled, it is time to make some breadcrumbs!

Set your oven to broil and then lay all of the bread out on cookie sheets. You only need to broil the bread a couple of minutes (keep one eye on it because it can burn quickly). This helps just to dry the bread out and make it easier to handle. Once the bread is toasted, put this bread into my food processor. You can just have only the bread in there, or if you like the Italian seasonings type of breadcrumbs add your own seasonings (I add garlic salt, and an Italian seasonings dry blend of herbs to mine for that variety). Run the food processor until the bread crumbs are of a fine consistency. Then put these crumbs into a freezer-safe container.

1 pound ground turkey
1 can chili beans, with liquid
1 can kidney beans, with liquid
1 can whole kernel corn, with liquid
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
2 cups water
1 package of taco seasoning mix

In a medium skillet, cook the ground beef until browned over medium heat. Drain & set aside. Place the ground beef, chili beans, kidney beans, corn, tomato sauce, water, diced tomatoes, & taco seasoning mix in a slow cooker. Mix to blend and cook on Low setting for eight hours.

Serve alone or can be topped with shredded cheese & sour cream.

Serve with tortilla chips.

Stroganoff Skillet

1 lb ground beef
1- 10 ¾ oz can cream of mushroom soup
3 c wide egg noodles (uncooked)
1 c sour cream
1 c beef broth,
½ c water

Brown ground beef in a large skillet over medium heat; drain and return meat to skillet. Gradually add soup and remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil; cover. Reduce heat and simmer for ten minutes or until noodles are tender. Makes four to six servings.

Doritos Casserole

Bag of generic Doritos, any kind (you can also substitute these with regular tortilla chips)
3-4 cups cooked ground beef (optional: cooked in a taco seasoning packet, following directions on packet)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cups shredded cheddar or taco cheese

Layer a 9×13 greased pan with the following. Layer of crushed lightly chips, layer of chopped meat, another layer of chips, a layer of cheese, a layer of the soups and tomatoes mixed together (heat them lightly), and then top finally with a cup of chips and another cup of cheese. Bake the casserole at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Yield: Six Servings

Serve with extra tortilla chips.

Saucy Mozzarella Patties

2 jars of your favorite tomato sauce
1 lb ground turkey)
1 cup breadcrumbs
2 cups breadcrumbs
1 egg
salt & pepper to taste
garlic powder to taste
butter or margarine
olive or veggie oil
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated or shredded Parmesan cheese

Yield: Four Servings 

Serve these on top of a bed of angel hair or thin spaghetti pasta.

Classic Baked Ziti (Serves Eight)

1 pound short pasta (ziti, penne, or elbow macaroni)

1 jar of plain spaghetti sauce

1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

1 pound ground turkey

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Brown the ground turkey in a skillet. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder and Italian seasonings. Drain fat from turkey. Dump in the jar of spaghetti sauce and 1 cup of chicken broth. Allow this to simmer while you cook the noodles. Cook noodles until al dente (make sure there is still a good bite to the noodle). Stir one cup of sauce into the drained noodles. Add 1/2 cup of sauce to the bottom of a 9×13″ dish and then pour in 1/2 of the noodles. Top these noodles with half the cheese. Repeat these steps with the remainder of the ingredients. Bake for twenty minutes covered and then remove foil and bake another ten minutes.

Serve with Texas Toast.

St

This dish was included in the Iron Chef Moms Challenge. Please visit today’s post to get the scoop on the contest. Don’t forget to visit Meredith’s blog too!

Meatloaf Muffins
Yields Four Servings

1 pound ground turkey (purchased in the frozen section)
1/3 cup breadcrumbs (the Italian variety work well or fresh breadcrumbs)
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1 egg
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
¼ teaspoon garlic powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, but only use about ¼ of the tomato sauce in the meat mixture. Press the meat into the muffin cups (you should be able to get eight out of this amount of meat). Top with a dollop of tomato sauce on each one. Cook for 30-35 minutes. Serve two per person.

This was served with freshly steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes (we like the butter-flavored variety).

1/4 cup spaghetti sauce
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 pound ground turkey
4 buns (use leftover buns from when you had the Chicken BBQ)
1/2 cup spaghetti sauce (meatless variety)

In a bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Curmble turkey over mixture and mix well. Shape into four 3/4-in.-thick oval shaped patties. Coat grill rack with nonstick cooking spray before starting the grill. Grill patties, uncovered, over medium heat for six to eight minutes on each side or until meat is no longer pink. Place each patty on a bun and top with spaghetti sauce.

Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals 306 calories, 12 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 92 mg cholesterol, 680 mg sodium, 24 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 25 g protien. Diabetic Exchanges: 3 lean meat, 1-1/2 starch, 1 fat.

(Amy’s Notes- I prepared these on my indoor grill. The patty is very delicate so you have to be careful when flipping these to make sure that they don’t fall apart. If you are worried, you could throw in a handful of bread crumbs to keep them together. These taste like a giant meatball!)

Italian Spiced Oven Fries

Prepare the oven fries as directed, but this time spice them up with 1/2 tsp garlic powder and 1-2 tsp oregano. These could be dipped in the sauce, but we just served them with a generous shake of Parmesan cheese.