Dinner??? Yeah, it is the evening meal. We usually get something through the drive-thru. I have been known to serve peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. Dinner??? Not my forte.
{side note, dinner has been my forte before, but not when I get in one of my funks...and I am apparently in a funk here of late}
Big Daddy took a Ziploc bag of frozen hamburger meat out of the freezer and asked me what I thought about hamburger meat.
I looked at him (like a deer caught in the headlights) and said "what are we going to do with frozen hamburger???". His answer, hamburgers or meatloaf.
No. Neither sounded all that good to me. I love Big Daddy, and will admit that he does the majority of the cooking. I strongly dislike it when he makes hamburgers. He cooks them on HIGH, and it stinks and smokes up the whole house. I swear, the next day my robe smells like hamburgers (ick). The same goes for meatloaf. I buy 96% lean ground beef, yet when he makes meatloaf, it swims in grease (???). It is tasty, but no good for the waistline.
So, I let him set the frozen hamburger out to thaw and figured we would work with it later. {hoping that he would forget about the hamburger and I could go through a drive-thru after Little Man's swimming lessons}
Well, I was playing around on Pinterest (surprise, surprise). When I came across this little gem...
 |
| photo courtesy of "A Taste of Home Cooking" |
Looks, delish...right???
So simple. The pin takes you to a blog called "A Taste of Home Cooking" . I had just about all of the ingredients required to make such a delicious looking meal. Brown up the hamburger meat??? I could totally do that. Cook with onions and green peppers??? Sure!!! I went to the grocery store to pick up the few things I needed (beef broth and steak sauce) and left Big Daddy at home to make this while Little Man and I were at Swim Lessons. We came home {Little Man was starving, and so was I} to a house that smelled wonderful!! We all made big, heaping plates {everyone was starving, after all} and sat to eat.
The verdict???
Meh.
Oh, I had such high hopes for this meal. So quick, so easy, we had most of the stuff on hand. I won't let this dampen my "love" of cooking. I will admit, we tweaked the recipe a bit. {I am lazy} We didn't make the cheese sauce, opting to melt slices of provolone over our meat. Maybe making the cheese sauce, and mixing it all together would have "held" the meat together better. It was just cooked, crumbled meat on buns. We ended up eating them "open-faced" with forks rather than like sandwiches.
Here is the recipe, courtesy of "A Taste of Home Cooking". There are a lot of easy recipes on this site, and I hope to try more of them out!!!
Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes
Adapted from Rachael Ray
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground beef
1 softball-sized onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 tablespoons steak sauce
1 cup beef stock
Salt and ground black pepper
4 dinner rolls
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup milk
1 cup provolone, shredded
In large skillet over medium-high heat add the oil and then brown the ground beef, about 5-6 minutes. Add the onion and green pepper and cook another 3-4 minutes, until the vegetables start to get tender. Stir in the steak sauce and beef stock, season with salt and pepper, bring up to a bubble and cook about 2 minutes.
Split open rolls and remove most of the soft insides, leaving a bed to hold the meat mixture. Toast the rolls and set aside.
While the meat is cooking, melt the butter in a medium-size pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the flour and cook about 1 minute. Whisk in milk, bring up to a bubble and let thicken, about 2 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in the cheese.
To serve, place a scoopful of the meat mixture onto the bottom of the rolls, then top with the cheese sauce and replace the top of the roll.
Adapted from Rachael Ray
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground beef
1 softball-sized onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 tablespoons steak sauce
1 cup beef stock
Salt and ground black pepper
4 dinner rolls
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup milk
1 cup provolone, shredded
In large skillet over medium-high heat add the oil and then brown the ground beef, about 5-6 minutes. Add the onion and green pepper and cook another 3-4 minutes, until the vegetables start to get tender. Stir in the steak sauce and beef stock, season with salt and pepper, bring up to a bubble and cook about 2 minutes.
Split open rolls and remove most of the soft insides, leaving a bed to hold the meat mixture. Toast the rolls and set aside.
While the meat is cooking, melt the butter in a medium-size pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the flour and cook about 1 minute. Whisk in milk, bring up to a bubble and let thicken, about 2 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in the cheese.
To serve, place a scoopful of the meat mixture onto the bottom of the rolls, then top with the cheese sauce and replace the top of the roll.
Again, we tweaked it a bit, so your results may vary!!!
The lowdown...
- Most of the meat remained on Little Man's plate. I even gave him a spoon to eat it with!!!
- I don't care for Steak Sauce, and it tasted like Steak Sauce (I didn't think it would overpower the meat the way it did)...would probably reduce the amount next time.
- That being said, it was overall pretty bland. Next time, when we brown the meat, we will add some McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning to kick it up a bit.
- Next time, I will make the cheese sauce, and mix it all together. It won't look pretty, but it might hold together better.
- Next time, I will reduce the amount of onion and green peppers...perhaps a smaller onion (the one I bought was about 3/4 lb!!!) and half a green pepper.
I will make this again. I'm not scared!!!
Love to All.
