Cheree's Beef Stew

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1-2 lbs beef stew meat, cut into 3/4 inch cubes
2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
4-5 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch cubes
5 medium carrots, sliced
1, 14 ounce can petite diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato sauce
2 cups beef broth or 2 cups water and 2 beef bullion cubes
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary


DIRECTIONS:

1. Place flour, garlic powder, thyme, basil, salt and pepper in a plastic bag. Add meat pieces, a few at a time, shaking to coat. In a large skillet, brown meat, half at a time in hot oil; drain fat.
   
2. In a 5 quart crockery cooker layer meat, onion, potatoes, and carrots. Add garlic, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, beef broth, and rosemary.
3. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 10-12 hours or on high heat setting for 5-6 hours or until meat and vegetables are tender.
   

Michelle's Corn Bread

This is yummo! I made up my own corn bread recipe a while back, but this beats it hands down. My old recipe tastes more like yellow cake, and this recipe tastes like the corn bread I remember being served at Frontier Pies (they've since gone out of business where I live). It's sweet, dense, and delicious! It also worked well with my substitutes for my allergic kid.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup butter, melted
1 1/3 cup sugar
4 eggs, beaten (I used the Ener-G Egg Replacer)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups buttermilk (for my allergic kid, I used 2 cups goat milk + 2 tablespoons lemon juice, let it sit for 5 minutes before incorporating into the recipe)
2 cups yellow corn meal
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1. Melt butter.
2. Combine flour, cornmeal, and salt. Stir well.
   
3. In a separate bowl, combine melted butter and sugar.
4. In a 4 cup glass measuring cup, combine the 2 cups of buttermilk and 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Set aside.
5. Add eggs to the butter and sugar mixture. Stir. Add buttermilk mixture to egg and sugar mixture. Stir.
   
6. With a wooden spoon add flour/cornmeal/salt to wet ingredients. Stir until just combined. The mixture should be lumpy.
7. Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 30-40 minutes.
   

Quick Chickpea Curry

I got this out of the Everyday Food Magazine this month (thanks, Angela for the AWESOME Christmas gift again!). I wanted to try it for 2 reasons. 1. I love Indian food, and 2. It was allergy-kid friendly. It was delicious and very filling! My husband said this is a definite do-over. The other reason I like this meal is because it's inexpensive. You can buy the two cans of chickpeas for roughly $1.40. Add that plus an onion, rice, and what you use of your spices and you can feed your entire family for under $3.00! I served this over rice (1 and 1/2 -2 cups rice to 3-4 cups water). I also buttered and sprinkled garlic salt over pita bread and warmed that in the oven on 350 for 10 minutes. The pita bread is a nice side to use for scooping the curry!

Serves 4-6

INGREDIENTS:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced small
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 cinnamon stick, 3 inches (I substituted this with 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon)
1 pinch of ground cloves
2 cans (15 ounces each) no-salt-added chickpeas, rinsed and drained
3 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon course salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
2 cups water
chopped cilantro and lemon wedges (optional), for serving

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large straight-sided skillet, heat oil over medium0high. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until dark brown around edges, about 6 minutes.
2. Add garlic, curry, cinnamon, and pinch of cloves and cook, stirring until fragrant, 30 seconds.
3. Add chickpeas, ketchup, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 2 cups of water.
4. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook 20 minutes.
   
5. Uncover and increase heat to medium0high; cook until sauce is slightly reduced, 5 minutes.
6. Serve topped with cilantro, with lemon wedges along side if desired.