Slow Cooker Beef and Mushroom Stroganoff

Sorry, but every time I cook Beef Stroganoff I always think of an old joke from my school days.

What do you call a heard of masturbating cattle……beef stroking off!

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system here is the recipe!

As usual, with all my recipes, it’s really easy to make.  I tend to serve it with something green and some garlic bread.

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 TBSP of oil (whatever you have at hand)

455 grams of stewing steak chopped into bite size pieces

Salt and Pepper

1 large onion chopped

150g of fresh mushroom thickly chopped

1 can of cream of mushroom condensed soup

200 ml of milk

2 TBSP of Worcestershire sauce

150 g garlic and herb cream cheese

Pasta

60 ml of sour cream (optional)

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a frying pan.  Season the beef with salt and pepper; brown the beef for about 5 minutes.  Chuck in the onion and mushroom.  Sauté for 2-3 minutes.  Just till they start to soften.
  2. Transfer to slow cooker
  3. Mix the soup, milk and Worcestershire Sauce in a jug.
  4. Pour over the beef mixture in slow cooker.
  5. Cook for 6-8 hours on low or 4-5 hours on high.
  6. One hour before it finishes mix in the cream cheese until it melts.
  7. Serve on pasta.  I tend to use Tagliatelle but you could use anything and if you don’t have pasta you could use rice.
  8. Garnish with a dollop of sour cream.

If you do decide to try it do let me know what you think.

Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

A tasty tomato and chicken dish, which is great for those cold winter nights.

Ingredients

2 TBSP of olive oil

1 onion

1 tsp of Easy Garlic or two cloves of crushed garlic

455 g of chicken breast cubed

Salt and pepper

250 g of sliced fresh mushrooms

750 gram jar of pasta sauce (I used Dolmio)

1 green pepper, seeded and cubed

Method:

  1. Preheat the slow cooker
  2. Sauté the onion and garlic in the oil for 2-3 minutes.  Add the chicken.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook until chicken is sealed.
  3. Add the mushrooms and cook for a few more minutes.  Until they soften a bit.
  4. Add the pasta sauce and green pepper.  Mix well.
  5. Transfer to slow cooker and cook on low for 7-9 hours.

Serve on a bed of pasta and sprinkle parmesan on top.  Caesar salad and garlic bread finish it off nicely.

Enjoy.

Pasta in a flash!

Quick Creamy Tomato Pasta

As a busy mum, I sometimes get so wrapped up in things I forget about organising meals for Madame until she says ‘mummy I’m hungry’.  Quick check of the watch and realise, yes, it’s dinner time and I need something quick.  This is one of those recipes that you can throw together in about 10 minutes.

Ingredients

2 TBSP olive oil

½ an onion chopped

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

2 TBSP of cream cheese

1 tsp of dried basil

50g of pasta per child (any shape will do)

Method

  1. Start cooking the pasta.  I’m not going to tell you how as the instructions are on the back of the pack.
  2. To make the sauce.  Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the onions until soft (approx 3-5 minutes).
  3. Tip in the chopped tomatoes, bring to a boil, turn down add the cream cheese and basil.  Heat through.
  4. Drain the pasta a mix into the sauce.

I tend to serve it with sweet corn or cucumber slices on the side.  If I have a bit more time to preheat the oven, as ours takes about 30 minutes to heat, I serve it with garlic bread.

5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake!

OMG this was so much fun and so easy! I was planning on doing a bit of baking today with Madame, but as usual I fell at the first hurdle as I didn’t have the ingredients I needed to make brownies. What the hell is Vanilla Sugar anyhow? Anyway, the lovely @jinks67 suggested I Google 5 Minute Mug Cakes so I did and this was the result!

They were so simple a 3 year old could make them. Honestly, they weren’t too my liking, bear in mind I don’t normally eat chocolate, but Madame wolfed them down. I think they’d be much more inviting with a dollop of cream or vanilla ice-cream.

If you want to have a go here’s the recipe.

Easy Christmas Decorations

If you’re snowed in and the kids are climbing the walls you could make some Christmas Decorations.  Madame and I’ve been making them over the last couple of weeks.  I’m not crafty and she’s only 3, if we can manage you can too.  Have fun.

The template for the Smiley Snowflake can be found here!

The Santa Stars were inspired by redtedart.com.

It’s fairly straightforward but here are the instructions for the Layered Tree

The Felt Presents were dead easy.

Happy Christmas and all the best in 2011!