XL Beef Enchilada image by Cris via Flickr CC license.
I don’t remember where I got this recipe. As with most of the recipes I use, I’ve tweaked it a bit. My son (now 20) will request these every once in a while. It is probably because they are HUGE and have plenty of cheese. He has lived in Wisconsin since just before his first birthday so he is a native Cheesehead.
Beef and Rice Enchiladas
1 pkg. 6.8oz Spanish rice and vermicelli mix (such as Rice-a-roni)
1 lb. ground beef (or pinto beans)
20 oz. enchilada sauce (large can – I’ve used red or green)
10 large tortillas, warmed (could use corn)
4 c. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (can use less)
Sliced black olives, cilantro, sliced green onions – garnish as desired
Prepare the rice mix according to package directions (The brand I use calls for a 14oz can of diced tomatoes). Brown the beef in a skillet and drain. Combine the beef with the cooked rice mix; add 1 ¼ c. enchilada sauce to this mixture. Save the rest of the sauce for later.
Into each tortilla put:
½ to 2/3 c. rice/beef mix
¼ to 1/3 c. shredded cheese
(and anything else you want to add in there)
Put a little of the enchilada sauce in the bottom of a 13x9x2 baking dish. Place the filled tortillas in the dish. Pour the rest of the sauce over the enchiladas and top with the remaining cheese. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.
Makes at least 10 large enchiladas.
We usually eat these with refried beans, sour cream and sometimes guacamole and tortilla chips.
Enjoy!
Image of Wisconsin Cheese by Shihmei Barger via Flickr CC license
I have a couple more favorite chili recipes, believe it or not. Here is one that I created by combining several of my favorite recipes and adding some of my own flair, too.
Ingredients:
1.5 ground beef (85% lean)
1 onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic (run through garlic press or use the kind in a jar)
3 T. Penzeys Chili 3000
1 T. Penzeys Medium Hot Chili Powder
1/2 t. cumin
1 t. salt
1/2 t. sugar
25 grinds black pepper
1 large can (28 oz) whole tomatoes, drain and chop
1 small can (6 oz) tomato paste
2 cans (14 oz) dark red kidney beans, drain and rinse
2 c. water
4 c. tomato juice
Brown the ground beef; drain. You can add the garlic and onion while you brown the beef or add it after you brown it; if after, cook a few minutes more. Add the rest of the ingredients bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Cook, covered, at a simmer for an hour if you can. Less will be okay, but it will taste better if you cook it longer.
This makes a pretty large batch and is soupier than some of the other chili recipes I make.
Image by Annie Mole, cooked meatballs via Flickr CC license.
This Make Ahead Meatballs recipe is originally from the 1999 Quick Cooking cookbook, but you can find it online now.
The magazine had a feature on getting more than one meal from an original item. For example there was an easy recipe for making Roasted Chickens (2) and then you could make chicken enchiladas with the extra chicken for another meal.
This meatball recipe made it into my “Family Favorites” notebook, though. My semi-picky eater daughter has always eaten these meatballs.
I cook pasta or tortellini and then heat up some sauce in a separate pot. People can combine it to please themselves. Meatballs on the side? Or on top of the sauce? Or with no sauce at all?
Here is the recipe with my tweaks. The original recipe is for 4 pounds of ground beef, but I very rarely make that many.
My recipe is for 1 pound of meat.
Combine in a large mixing bowl and stir together the following: 1 egg 1/2 c. fine breadcrumbs (chopped up dry toast is fine, but I often use packaged bread crumbs) 1/8 c. finely chopped onion (I use Penzey onion powder, about 1/2 t.) 3/4 t. salt 1 t. Worcestershire sauce (the original calls for 1/2 t., but I like more) 1/4 t. white pepper (black pepper is fine) 1 lb. 85% lean ground beef (or leaner if you prefer)
Using a scoop to make meatballs: Adventures of Pam and Frank, via Flickr CC license
Mix. Shape into small meatballs or use a scoop. Brown in a skillet with olive oil, turning until nicely browned and cooked through. Alternatively (and much easier if making more than a pound at a time), bake the meatballs on a tray in the oven at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes, turning at least once.
A good way to make a lot of meatballs quickly is to flatten the meatball mixture out about 1 inch think into a square or rectangle on a clean surface. Using a knife, cut the meat into squares about 1 inch wide — cut 1″ strips in one direction and then cut 1″ perpendicular strips. Roll the squares quickly between your hands as you put them onto the baking tray so they look a little more meatball-ish. Bake as directed in the recipe. Done!
1JLS meatballs via Flickr CC license
Tweaks:
I often add some garlic, either to the meatball mixture or at least to the olive oil in the skillet. I sometimes add 1 t. or so of Italian Seasoning (Penzey, of course!). Chopped fresh parsley would be fabulous if you don’t happen to have a picky eater at your house who immediately turns up their nose at anything green. I do happen to use the white pepper for this recipe most of the time just because I have some, but it really isn’t a necessity. I think they taste best topped with some shredded Parmigiano cheese.
Oh — here are the partner recipes that were published with this meatball recipe:
“Willie’s Chili” by Lon Farenwald Some Rights Reserved
This recipe reminds me of Azar’s Big Boy Restaurant’s Chili Spaghetti that I loved to eat as a young girl growing up in northern Indiana. I don’t know how far the Azar’s chain reached, but there were several within an hour of my hometown. We often ate at the one in Glenbrook Mall (later it became Glenbrook Square) in Fort Wayne. Their signature sandwich was the Big Boy, a double-decker cheeseburger with cheese and a special sauce (similar to a Big Mac but with a unique Azar’s taste). I also remember their delicious strawberry pie! I will share my mom’s recipe for making that pie in a future blog post (when strawberry time arrives!).
Ingredients:
1 lb. 85% lean ground chuck
Brown the beef in a dutch oven or other large pan with a lid.
Measure all these spices into a small dish:
4 t. chili powder 1 t. cardamom 1 t. ground (or grated) nutmeg 1/4 t. allspice 1/4 t. cayenne pepper 1/4 t. ground coriander 1/4 t. garlic powder 1 1/4 t. salt 1/4 t. ground black pepper
When the beef is browned and drained, use a potato masher (old fashioned utensil) to smash and break up the meat into very small pieces.
Add: 2 T. cornstarch to 1/2 c. cold water.
Stir. Add this to the beef in the pan. It should thicken up pretty quickly.
Throw in the small dish of spices and stir. Heat this mixture for a minute or so until you start to smell the spices.
Add: 1 box of beef broth (32 oz.) 1 small can of tomato paste (6 oz.) 1 can of dark red kidney beans, drained 1 T. white vinegar
Do not forget the vinegar! It really brings the flavors together.
Stir to mix thoroughly. Bring to a boil, then lower heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes or longer as needed.
Meanwhile, toward the end of the sauce cooking time — heat a large pot of boiling salted water and cook 1 lb. of pasta. To recreate my childhood memories, I use spaghetti but you could use any shape of pasta.
I sometimes add two cans of kidney beans, but that is up to you.
To serve, spoon the sauce onto the hot pasta. Top with powdered parmesan cheese (the kind with the green lid). Real Parmesan is good, of course, but again — my childhood memories dictate powdered Parmesan. Azar’s was not a posh place. 🙂
SO GOOD! I hope you enjoy this recipe. Please leave a comment if you try it. I’d love to hear from you.
This is a unique twist on chili and on spaghetti. I have heard that this is sometimes called Cincinnati chili and people eat it with onions and cheese (and other toppings).
As always, I use Penzey’s spices. Quality makes a difference! (I do not work for them, I just love their spices.)
Recently I was at a loss for ideas of what to cook for dinner one evening.
I decided to use my Facebook status to ask friends for ideas.
This is what I said:
Let’s play “What’s for dinner at the Hasker Haus?” A pound of hamburger and a fairly well stocked pantry and fridge. Ideas? Go!!
I got lots of good ideas, so I decided to turn the list of replies into this post.
Sunchild57 Photography via Flickr CC
My “usual suspects” for a pound of hamburger would be tacos, spaghetti and meat sauce, spaghetti and meatballs, chili, or chili spaghetti (aka Cincinnati Chili). I requested that my friends not suggest any of those “usual” ideas.
From Lynette: brown the hamburger – boil and mash 3-4 med to large potatoes – put hamburger in bottom of casserole dish, place 1 can of vegetable beef soup over the hamburger – then place mashed potatoes over that to top off the casserole – then garnish with shredded cheddar cheese – bake at 350 for 30 minutes – yummy
From Lynn: Hamburger stroganoff. Flour, garlic salt, pepper, cream mushroom, sour cream. Over noodles.
From Jeff: Hamburger helper!!
From Pat: Goulash the easy way. Med onion diced, a can of Kidney beans, Macaroni, hamburger, dice or whole canned tomatoes, salt, pepper and basil.
From Rachel: My go-to hamburger easy recipes are pretty basic, but when I don’t feel like doing much they’re perfect. We do hamburger, peas and rice with soy sauce. It’s yummy. Steam the rice, Brown the hamburger, add rice to the drained meat, add in soy sauce, throw in a bag if frozen peas. Easy. Or I do hamburger ramen noodle casserole, a big favorite. Brown hamburger, drain. Add in jar of spaghetti sauce and halve up 4 ramen noodle packs, cover the noodles with the sauce. Use two seasoning packs, add a little less than a cup of water and whatever bag of frozen veggies you have. Corn, peas, mixed veggies, whatever. Simmer for about ten minutes. Add shredded cheese to top and cover so cheese melts. The kids LOVE this one. Or I do hamburger soup – whatever stock or broth I have, browned meat, carrots, potatoes diced, celery, onion, corn, garlic. Season with salt and pepper, soy sauce, basil, a bit of cumin, paprika.
image by Jacob A Walker via Flickr CC. Maid-rite loose meat sandwich.
From Marianne and Stacy: This is the recipe I wanted when I started all of this!1# gr. beef, 1 egg, 3/4t salt, pepper to taste, 1/2c milk, 1c crushed cornflakes, 2T minced onion, 1T Worcestershire, 1-2 cloves garlic. Form into 4 patties, 1″thick. Broil 3-5″ from heat 10-12m, turning halfway through. Addendum from Laura H: To me it has to have cornflakes or it won’t taste like Mom’s… Knowing you like info, I add this. Mom got this from a magazine in the 50’s. It was called Budget Porterhouse Steak . When I wrote out the recipe for the kids, I called it Good Broiled Hamburger.
From Bert: I do a potato bake – brown the burger with a diced onion, add a can of tomato soup, add a lot of raw sliced potatoes. Stir together and bake 375′ for an hour or so…
I really appreciate all the choices and recommendations. Now I have many new ideas for the next few weeks of family dinners, and you do, too!
This is my mom’s chili recipe. The original recipe was called “Chili Concoction” and it came from a children’s cookbook.
I threw this together in less than 15 minutes tonight. Then it just needs to simmer for a bit.
Ingredients:
1.5 pounds ground beef (85 percent lean)
1 medium onion, diced
1 t. chopped garlic (or 2 cloves finely chopped)
1 can ( 1 lb. 12 oz. petite diced tomatoes)
1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
1 can (15 oz.) dark red kidney beans
1 t. sugar
1 T. chili powder (I use Penzey’s)
1 t. salt and black pepper to taste
In a dutch oven or 5 quart or larger pan, brown the ground beef until no longer pink. Drain. Put the beef back in the pan with the chopped onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Open the can of tomatoes and the tomato paste. Drain and rinse kidney beans. Add all of this to the beef pan along with the sugar and chili powder. Simmer for 15 to 30 minutes or longer if you have time. If it gets too thick you can add water.
You can add more spice by adding some cayenne or crushed red pepper flakes. You could add more chili powder if you wish. You could add cumin and/or oregano. You could add another can of kidney beans. This chili is fairly thick and very tomatoe-y.
Enjoy! Please let me know if you try this recipe. I’d love to hear your feedback.
My mom often made this soup on New Year’s Day. She doesn’t make it anymore, but I usually do. Usually I end up making it a few days late, as I did this year.
Ingredients:
2 lbs. chuck roast or any kind of beef stew meat, cut into cubes
1 large onion, diced
1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables (corn, green beans, carrots, peas — some mixes have limas)
2 white potatoes, peeled and diced
2 carrots peeled, cut in half and sliced
1 T. Penzey’s Northwoods Seasoning*
2 or 3 bay leaves 1 large bottle or can of tomato juice (like you find with the fruit juices and V-8)
1 (14 or 15 oz) can of petite diced tomatoes, drained (optional, but I usually add it)
The most basic version of this recipe is to throw all of the first seven ingredients in a crock pot and then fill the pot up with as much tomato juice as you can leaving about an inch or so at the top so it doesn’t bubble over while it cooks. Cook it 8 hours or more on low. There you go! It is that simple.
My mom’s version usually had fresh potatoes, carrots and onions and then cans (drained) of green beans and corn. My dad hated peas, but if he was not there we would add a can of peas, too. I eventually switched all the cans to a bag of mixed frozen vegs and kept the fresh potatoes, carrots and onions.
A fancier version would be to sear the beef cubes in olive oil in small batches, then add the onion, carrots and potatoes (and more oil probably) with salt and pepper and some thyme. Instead of the frozen veggies, you could use all fresh vegetables (corn, green beans, etc) and slice or dice them (add to the onion/potato already cooking in the pot). But hey, I live in Wisconsin as I believe I mentioned in my first post — so I tend to use frozen veggies as much as possible. They often taste better than what we can get fresh here in the winter time. You could add other veggies that you love, too, of course. You could add chopped celery. (I’m not a big fan of celery in soups). You could add shredded cabbage. If you don’t have the spice mix, see my suggestions below. I add freshly ground black pepper on each bowl. Sometimes black pepper gets too bitter if you cook it too long.
If you have seared the beef and gone the stove top route, just add everything in there with enough juice to cover all the ingredients by a couple of inches. It will cook down. I usually cook it at least 1 1/2 hours. It can simmer for as long as you need it to, really.
I highly recommend Penzey’s spices. They taste better than other spices.
*Northwood’s Seasoning has coarse flake salt, paprika, black pepper, thyme, rosemary, garlic and chipotle. If you don’t have the spice blend add as many of these things as you have in your cupboard. Salt and pepper is mandatory! I have added chili powder in a pinch. Watch that you don’t get it too salty, though. Northwoods seasoning has salt in it, so I usually don’t add any salt other than that.
I love this served with freshly made warm cornbread and a cold glass of milk.
The Tromp Queen COOKS! 