Porterhouse

Dear guy from Fertile Plains:

This is what we did with your porterhouse:

This is what we did TO your porterhouse:

Thank you. That is all.

Whitney's Beef Mushroom Orzo Soup

Today, a guest blogger of sorts. Or rather, my sister sent this to me, and I made it today, and it was fabulous:

"I've been making this soup so long I can't remember the actual recipe. So bear with me.

Fry a small chopped onion in a soup pot in little bit of oil until translucent. Add about a pound of very lean ground beef and break up while cooking. Then add some mushrooms--white, baby bella, whatever cheap mushrooms you have. I usually buy a package of already-cut-up mushrooms and use most of it, but it's really to taste. When the mushrooms get small, add about a tsp of sage and a tsp of thyme. Cook until fragrant, a few minutes.

This is where we break off OAMC from dinner tonight. If this is dinner tonight, add about 6 cups of beef broth, bring to a boil, and then add a cup of orzo or other soup pasta. (I used wild rice last time.) Cook until done.

If this is for freezing, cool the mixture and put it into a freezer bag. Add enough beef bullion cubes for 6 cups of broth. (My cubes each do 2 cups, but others do 1 cup each.) Freeze. On the day you want the soup, defrost the bag slightly under warm water, then put the frozen mixture into a pot and add 6 cups of water. When boiling, add the orzo."

I also added some salt and pepper, and I used a whole box of baby bellas for the mushrooms. They were not sliced and I was lazy so I used my Pampered Chef chopper and just chopped the heck out of them. I used Laura's Organic ground beef, which is 93% fat free. At 8 servings, weight watchers calls it 4 points per serving. We had a quart left after making it (we made it for immediate use and not for a freezer meal) so I froze the remainder so that the orzo would stop expanding. This was a quick meal and would be great for a "home late from work" quickie dinner. From the time I walked into the house to the time we were eating, less than 1/2 hour went by.

Multi-day Cooking: Beef

With the exception of making a chicken and having chicken, then chicken salad, enchiladas, and soup, I am not usually one to make one meal and turn it into many meals. I'm more of a "let's freeze the rest" person, or a "let's eat this for lunch" kind of girl.

Yesterday I made a pot roast in the crock pot, and it was delicious. It was from Dinner Zen and it was marinated in, of all things, cranberry sauce and beef broth. Delicious over noodles with broccoli on the side, but it was a whole order (which should feed 6) and we are 3 people, so it looked like it would be dinner again tonight.

Then I read my friend Maggie's Facebook status that said she was turning leftover pot roast into beef stew, and it sounded completely inspired. Here's mine:

1 onion, chopped coarsely

3 carrots, in nice-sized slices

2 potatoes, cut into bite-sized chunks

4 stalks celery, again sliced into nice sized chunks

1/2 a bag of frozen corn

1 boullion packet

2 cups water

left over pot roast, cut up as best you can, or not, because it will fall apart, together with remaining gravy that got made in the pot when you first made it

salt/pepper

your favorite seasoning (I used Pampered Chef Moroccan Seasoning)

splash of apple juice, or not (mine already had cranberry flavor so the apple went well)

1T corn starch in 1/2 c cold water

Spray your pot with cooking spray and start the onions, carrots, and celery. When the onions start to soften, add the rest of the ingredients with the exception of the seasonings. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low. Cook at least an hour. Taste and then season with your salt/pepper and favorite seasoning that will go with whatever you cooked your beef in. Serve with biscuits (I made Bisquik ones but whatever you'd like).

So now, we have enough STEW for another day's worth of eating. My plan is to get some Pillsbury pie crusts and additional frozen vegetables and make pot pie with it! But my plan is to throw it in the freezer and eat it another time. There's only so much beef you can eat in a week, and I've pretty much hit my limit.

So, to recap: Pot Roast -->Beef Stew --> Beef Pot Pie

I'm fairly certain that the Pot Pie will also leave us with left overs, but I'm also fairly certain that they will just get eaten for lunch and not repurposed. I mean, there's only so much repurposing you can do with a single pot roast, right?