Beef Stuffed Tomatoes

Have you noticed that when you can't have a food, you crave it all the more?  During Lent when my husband and I gave up meat, I just CRAVED these beef stuffed tomatoes, which I found here.  And (gasp!) this is one of the very few recipes that doesn't require any alterations!  Here's what we did:

 Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup brown rice
• a couple tablespoons oil
• 1 lb. ground beef (I used 96% lean)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/3 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper (I don't like black pepper, but if you do, use it instead!)
• 6 large tomatoes
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs (these are a bit more crunchy than the traditional bread crumb)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Cook the rice according to package directions.  In a large skillet heat the oil on medium heat.  Stir in the beef and cook until barely pink.  Add the onion, cinnamon, salt, pepper, and half of the mint until the onion is soft and transparent.  While the beef is cooking, cut the tomatoes in half and scoop out the pulp with a grapefruit spoon (or melon baller) and put in a large bowl.  Remove 1 cup of the pulp and cut up any big chunks.  Discard the remaining pulp or save it for another recipe (tomato soup maybe?).  Add the beef mixture, feta, rice, and the rest of the mint to the tomato pulp.  On a large cookie sheet place the tomato halves, cut side up.  Fill the tomatoes with about 1/2 cup of the beef mixture and sprinkle with the panko.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until the bread crumbs are browned.

Who would have thought that beef, cinnamon, and mint would go well together, but let me tell you, this combination is heavenly!  In the future I might try using a goat cheese instead of feta to add a little extra punch, but frankly, it's pretty darn good with feta!  Also, one thing to be aware of is the cooking time.  The original recipe had you bake it for 25-30 minutes, but when I cooked it that long the first time I made this recipe, the tomatoes started to disintegrate, spilling the beef mixture all over the place, so I reduced the cooking time for this attempt.

Baked Spaghetti with Cream Cheese and French Fried Onions

I'm getting behind on my blog posts! Carl and I have been cooking up a storm lately, and so I have a few recipes I'm dying to share with you, but with all these tornadoes we've been having, I haven't gotten the chance! However, I have a bit of time while supper is in the oven, so I'm going to share what we made last night for dinner. I found this recipe here, but of course we made some changes. Here's what we did:

Ingredients:

• 8-oz whole wheat spaghetti
• a couple tablespoons oil
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons pasta sprinkle
• 1 24-oz jar spaghetti sauce (I used Ragu's Sweet Tomato Basil because it was on sale)
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tomato, diced
  
• 1 2.8-oz can French fried onions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cook the spaghetti according to the package directions, drain, and set aside. In a large skillet heat the oil and add the beef. Cook until no longer pink. Add the onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Add the cream cheese, pasta sprinkle, and spaghetti sauce, and stir until the cream cheese is melted. Stir in spaghetti and mix completely. Pour the spaghetti into a greased 2.5 quart baking dish. Sprinkle the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses on top and then top with the diced tomato. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and top with the French fried onions. Bake for no more than 5 additional minutes.

This was pretty tasty. I think next time we make it, I'd want to make some additional changes. I had some spaghetti in an opened box, so I really didn't know how much would have been 8-oz, so I included the whole thing, and it was way too much spaghetti. The noodles kind of took over everything else. I originally only included 1 tablespoon of pasta sprinkle, but it needed more spice, so next time I'd include 2. I'd consider adding a couple more diced tomatoes and mixing them in with the spaghetti to make it more chunky. I really liked the tomatoes on top, though, and I will definitely keep doing that! I also would include a pound of sliced mushrooms and maybe some fresh basil next time and possibly increase the amount of veggies in general.

Another thing I might want to consider is using a 9 X 13 baking dish instead of my 2.5 quart one. Our's was filled with date bars, so I had to substitute. I think I'd use the 9 X 13 because the amount of cheese and French fried onions with each serving made this dish very salty, so I think I'd either want to use less cheese and French fried onions or a 9 X 13 to spread them out a bit more and reduce the amount per serving.

Grandmama's Strawberry Pie

First and foremost, Lent is over so we can now eat meat again! Carl and I had bacon on Easter morning, and it was so good! But I'm not going to share a recipe with meat quite yet. For Easter the past few years I have made my grandmother's strawberry pie. This is the best strawberry pie I have ever had, and I think it's great for Easter. So this year, I'm going to share this wonderful strawberry pie with you!

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs. fresh strawberries (this would be 3 of the small packages)
• 1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened
  
• 1 baked 9 inch pie shell (I know the crust in the picture doesn't look that great; I don't know why, but it just crumbled, and it took all I had to try to keep it together for the photo shoot!)
  
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 cup sugar
• whipped cream (optional)
  

Spread the cream cheese on the bottom of the pie shell. Pick out the smallest strawberries, and after you chop the stems off, place them upside down in the cream cheese until the pie shell is full. Juice the remaining strawberries until you have 2 cups of strawberry juice. The easiest way to do this is to puree the strawberries in the blender and then put the mashed strawberries in a strainer and stir them in order to get all the juice out. Discard the remaining strawberry pulp (I personally like to add a couple tablespoons of sugar to the pulp and then put it on my waffles or bagels in the morning for breakfast). Once you have 2 cups of juice, put the juice in a medium saucepan and sift the cornstarch into the juice, stirring continuously (you MUST stir in the cornstarch slowly because otherwise it will clump in the juice and it's a huge pain to un-clump it; if it does clump, you may need to strain it). On medium-low heat gradually stir in the sugar. Stir continuously until the juice thickens and changes from a light, opaque pink to a dark clearer red, about 20 minutes. Pour the juice into a pie shell and chill for at least two hours, preferably over night. Can decorate with whipped cream if desired (I never put whipped cream on it; I think 8-oz of cream cheese is plenty of dairy!).

I love this recipe, not only because it's the best strawberry pie out there, but also because it's like having a piece of my grandmother, who passed away 12 year ago, with us during the holidays. Do you have any great family recipes you'd like to share? Send them along! I'd love to try them out!

Spring Recipe Contest: Black Bean Burgers

Another wonderful friend, Ashlee, recommended these black bean burgers. Going into it, I didn't think they would be anything to write home about, but I must say that they were extremely tasty. We made a few substitutions (as always!), so without further ado, here's what we did:

Ingredients:

• 4 cups black beans, rinsed
• 1 green bell pepper cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1 onion cut into wedges
• 6 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
  
• 2 teaspoons hot sauce (we used chipotle Tabasco sauce)
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 3/4 cup bread crumbs
• 3/4 cup oatmeal

Preheat grill to medium heat. In a large bowl mash the black beans with a potato masher until thick and pasty. In a food processor finely chop the bell pepper, onion, and garlic. Mix into the beans. In a small bowl mix together the egg, chili powder, cumin, curry, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. Stir the egg mixture into the bean mixture. Mix in the bread crumbs and oatmeal so that the mixture is sticky and holds together. Shape the mixture into 8 or 9 patties and place on a greased piece of aluminum foil. Grill on medium heat for about 5 minutes per side.

With this recipe, we were supposed to have 2 tablespoons of cumin, but we ran out of cumin, so we substituted curry for our second tablespoon. With the curry and the Tabasco sauce, these burgers had a little edge to them, which made them quite tasty. Also, the original recipe just used bread crumbs and didn't include oatmeal. However, when my mom makes meat loaf, she uses oatmeal instead of bread crumbs to make it a little healthier, so I thought I'd give that a try in this recipe too, and I think it turned out well. To be perfectly honest, neither my husband nor I even noticed the oatmeal when we were eating them. I think next time I'd make it solely with oatmeal and not include any bread crumbs. One thing that I need to make very clear is that you HAVE to grease the aluminum foil!! We forgot that step, and they stuck terribly. Overall, this was a very yummy recipe and one that we'll definitely make again! Thanks for the recommendation, Ashlee!