Beef Sirloin Tip Roast

Ever have a roast turn out tough and chewy?  Want that deliciously tender and moist meat to fall apart with a touch of a fork?  Well, here's the recipe for you. 

 

Mind you, I've made plenty of roasts.  However, lately I've been buying sirloin tip roast because that's what's been on sale, and they just turn out tough and chewy no matter how 'low and slow' I cook them.  So after the second time this happened, I got smart and googled "how to cook a sirloin tip roast."  I figured it couldn't be any worse than cookin' it to death in the crockpot.  It turned out beautifully!  We omitted the mushrooms, but other than that I followed the recipe exactly.

 

Beef Sirloin Tip Roast

Prep: 10 min. Bake: 2-1/2 hours

Ingredients

• 1 beef sirloin tip roast (3 pounds)
• 1-1/4 cups water, divided
• 1 can (8 ounces) mushroom stems and pieces, drained
• 1 envelope onion soup mix
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions

Place a large piece of heavy-duty foil (21-in. x 17-in.) in a shallow

roasting pan. Place roast on foil. Pour 1 cup water and mushrooms

over roast. Sprinkle with soup mix. Wrap foil around roast; seal

tightly.

 

Bake at 350° for 2-1/2 to 3 hours or until meat reaches desired

doneness (for medium-rare, a thermometer should read 145°;

medium, 160°; well-done, 170°).

 

Remove roast to a serving platter and keep warm. Pour drippings and

mushrooms into a saucepan. Combine cornstarch and remaining water

until smooth; gradually stir into drippings. Bring to a boil; cook

and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Serve with sliced beef.

 

Yield: 10-12 servings.

 

Recipe and photo from www.tasteofhome.com.  Click here for recipe.

Recipes

I apologize for the lack of recipe posts.  I was without a computer for a few months.  As I have time, I would still like to post recipes, so check back often!

Italian Beef Hoagies (Slow Cooker)

This is something I've made quite a few times, and we really enjoy it.  When you find roast on a BOGO sale, this is a great meal to make -- easy crockpot goodness!  We like to melt provolone cheese on our sandwiches in the broiler.  The recipe book also suggests spreading garlic butter on the bun before toasting it.  Mmm! Mmm!

 

Italian Beef Hoagies

 

3 to 4-lb beef chuck roast

2 .6-oz pkgs zesty Italian salad dressing mix

2 c water

24-oz jar pepperoncinis, drained and liquid reserved

15 to 18 hoagie rolls, toasted and split

Garnish: shredded provolone cheese

 

Slice roast across the grain into 4 pieces and trim any fat.  Place in bottom of a slow cooker.  Mix together dressing mix and water; pour over beef.  Cover and cook on low setting for 8 to 10 hours, until tender; use forks to shred beef in slow cooker.  Slice pepperoncinis into rings and add to slow cooker along with reserved liquid from jar.  Cover and cook for a few more minutes, until heated through.  Serve beef on toasted rolls, topped with cheese.  Serves 15 to 18.

 

Photo from bing.com and recipe from Gooseberry Patch Slow Cookers, Casseroles & Skillets.

Pumpkin Chip Mini Muffins

A box of spice cake mix has been lurking in my pantry for a while now.  Unfortunately, I can't remember why I bought it!  So off I went to Allrecipes.com.  I saw a recipe for pumpkin chip mini muffins that sounded good.  Friends of mine from college raved about their pumpkin chip cookie recipe, but the comments I read on other recipes that used the cake mix for cookies, said they were very cake like and not the greatest.  So I decided to stick with the muffins.  Glad I did.  They turned out yummy!

 

Pumpkin Chip Mini Muffins

1 box spice cake mix
1 - 15 oz can pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Mix spice cake mix, pumpkin and egg until well mixed.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Line mini muffin pan with paper liners or spray lightly with cooking spray.  Scoop in a tablespoon of muffin mix into mini muffin pans.  Bake for approximately 15 minutes. Test with a toothpick.

Yield: 36 mini muffins

Apple Fritter Cake

I don't like to post a lot of dessert recipes, but it's been bugging me that I haven't been posting ANY recipes lately . . . SO dessert recipe it is.  Well, I guess I could say it's a breakfast recipe.  It was breakfast for the college class this week!  It received rave reviews, so I'll share it.

Since this blogger does such a great job showing and describing the steps, I'll just link you to the recipe.

Apple Fritter Cake

As always, I have a comment or two.  This cake batter is VERY thick and difficult to spread.  I added another 1/2 cup of applesauce to make it a little more spreadable.  (I was in a hurry, so maybe I did something wrong.  You can try as written, and when you get to the "spreading" part, you can make your own decision.)  Also, make the glaze thick or possibly add a layer of glaze, let it set and add another layer.

Monterey Ranch Baked Chicken

Have you ever seen those packages in the dairy section of the store that have shredded cheese on one side and seasoned bread crumbs on the other?  I had a couple coupons, so I tried them.  We really enjoyed the flavor the seasoning and cheese gave the chicken.  (And I may or may not have tried the cheddar jack & bacon on pork chops.  I had planned to use it on chicken, but how can you go wrong with pork on pork!?!)  They are pricey if you don't have a coupon, and I hated throwing away the unused portion.

 

A couple week's ago, I came across this recipe on Pinterest that used bread crumbs, seasoning and cheese.  What made me like it even more was it was homemade, less expensive, made-to-your-desired portion -- perfect!  Not to mention, my family devoured it!

 

 

Monterey Ranch Baked Chicken

 

1 cup dry bread crumbs

1 cup finely shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1 (1 oz) pkg ranch dressing mix

1/2 cup milk

6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Combine the bread crumbs, Monterey Jack cheese, and ranch dressing mix in a large bowl; set aside.

3. Pour the milk into another bowl, then dip the chicken breasts into the milk. Gently press the chicken into the bread crumb mixture. Arrange the chicken in a 9x13-inch baking dish.

4. Bake the chicken breasts in the preheated oven until no longer pink in the center and the juices run clear, 40 to 45 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 165 degrees F.

 

Recipe source: Allrecipes.  Photo source: Bing -- This picture looked closest to the real thing since I didn't take a picture.

Brussel Sprouts With Bacon

My family has a very limited list of veggies they like to eat.  I'm thankful they eat salad; however, alternating that with corn and peas becomes very boring, very quickly.  That, and I hate serving so many starches!  Mind you, they do eat some raw veggies -- carrots, cauliflower and celery -- as long as they can have some ranch dip.  Just seems strange to me to serve raw veggies as a side dish with dinner, so I've been on a hunt to find other veggie side dishes or new ways to present veggies to my family.

 

Last week, we tried brussel sprouts!  I think maybe once in my life I've had a brussel sprout.  Probably the time my parents said, "You need to at least try something before you say you don't like it." Since that's how I grew up, I figured my kids should have the same experience. Hey! I didn't die!  Well, only my oldest daughter and I liked them.  The hubby would rather do without them, but he said they wouldn't be too bad with more bacon and onion.  Whatdoyouknow?!?  Everything (even brussel sprouts) taste better with bacon!  And the younger two thought they were "disgusting"!  Personally, I think they taste similar to cooked cabbage.  I happened to like cooked cabbage, so brusssel sprouts are okay in my book.  Kinda strange to think I might actually go to the store and buy brussel sprouts on purpose though!

 

Brussel Sprouts

Ingredients

• 3 slices uncooked bacon, chopped
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts, trimmed, small spouts left whole, larger spouts halved
• Salt and pepper, to your taste
• 1 cup chicken broth

Directions

Brown bacon in a medium skillet over medium high heat. Remove bacon to a paper towel lined plate. Add extra-virgin olive oil to the pan, 1 turn. Add shallots to the pan and saute 1 to 2 minutes. Add Brussels spouts and coat in oil. Season with salt and pepper. Cook Brussels sprouts 2 to 3 minutes to begin to soften, then add broth. Bring broth to a bubble, cover and reduce heat to medium low. Cook 10 minutes, until tender. Transfer sprouts to a serving dish with a slotted spoon and top with cooked bacon bits.

Receipe from Food Network.  Photo from Bing.com.

Hearty Breakfast

First of all, I apologize for not posting recipes for such a long time.  I honestly hadn't realize it had been that long . . .

 

This week, I decided do something special for Valentine's Day.  The kids really enjoyed it, and it wasn't too difficult.  Here's a picture of our breakfast.

 

 

Heart-shaped Bacon

 

Instructions: Fold bacon into a heart shape.  Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 18 mintues.

 

 

Heart Pancakes

I found this recipe here.  I adapted it a little bit since I didn't have a squeeze bottle.

Instructions:  Make your favorite pancake batter and heat your griddle.  Seperate about 1/3 of the batter and add pink or red food coloring.  Place the colored batter in a squeeze bottle or in a resealable bag and clip off a small corner of the bag. (NOTE: Make sure there are no lumps in the batter.) Pour the non-colored batter onto the griddle to form a pancake as normal.  Fairly quickly "draw" a heart on the top of the poured pancake.  Flip carefully when ready. Serve and enjoy!

 

It was a little tricky to flip the pancake without smearing the heart design.  Next time I might try drawing the heart first and pouring the other batter on top.  My 5 year old was slightly confused.  He asked if I had put icing on the pancakes and then cooked it.  He kept trying to figure out how I made them.  I finally had to show him the bowls I mixed the batter in before he understood.  He was too cute.

This is another idea I found . . . if you follow this link, you'll find some pretty amazing breakfast ideas!

Cream Cheese Danish

In my quest for new breakfast ideas, I came across a recipe a cream cheese danish.  I made it.  Everybody liked it (especially my mother-in-law), and it was yummy.  Seemed like it needed a little tweeking to become even yummier, so I looked around for similar recipes.  I pinned another recipe to make Christmas morning since we were spending it with my inlaws.  Horror of all horrors, Pinterest wasn't working Christmas morning, so I had to make it from memory!  (Always a scary thing with my sketchy memory.)  We LOVED how it turned out.

Here's what I did (since I couldn't remember the recipe exactly) . . . I used one package of cream cheese (on purpose - two is too much) as well as cut the sugar back to 1/2 cup in the filling.  The first recipe I made had a cinnamon sugar topping, so I did that . . . Instead of brushing with the egg white, I melted 1/4 cup (or less) of butter and brushed it on top of the uncooked danish.  Then generously sprinkled with cinnamon sugar before baking.    I'll also add that I used Pillsbury's Crescent Sheets.  SO much easier than using the rolls and having to pinch all the seams together!  (Photo from Chocolate Therapy.)

Recipe and photo from The Adventures of Kitchen Girl although the plate in the picture is the same plate I have in my kitchen.

 

Ingredients:
2 cans ready to use refrigerated crescent rolls
2 - 8 ounce packages cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg white

Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:
Preheat oven to 350* degrees and grease a 13X9-inch baking pan. Lay a pack of crescent rolls in the pan and pinch the openings together. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and egg together until smooth. Spread the mixture over the crescent rolls evenly and then lay the second pack of crescent rolls on top of the cheese mixture and brush with egg white. Bake for 35-45 minutes until the top is golden brown. Top with glaze after cooling for 20 minutes.

Kitchen Notes:
I have made this danish using low fat cream cheese and splenda (sugar substitute) and it was delicious! Also, the amount of filling the original recipe calls for makes a VERY heavily filled danish. I have halved the filling using 1 package of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 whole egg, and a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract and it was still very good. If you use the half filling method, bake for closer to 30-35 minutes.