• 3 pounds ground beef
• 1 small onion (chopped)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cups ketchup
• 2 Tbsp. BBQ sauce
• 3 Tbsp. honey
• 3 tsp. Garlic powder
• 3/4 of a small can of diced tomatoes

Cook beef in large skillet with onion and salt and pepper. Once beef is throughly cooked and browned mix all other ingredients in. Spread on buns and enjoy.

• 1 Teaspoon Seasoned Salt
• 1 Teaspoon Garlic Salt
• 1 Tablespoon Onion Salt
• *A Pinch of pepper
• 1 lb Hamburger Meat^

Mix all of the seasonings together in a bowl. Add the mixture when your one pound of meet is cooked, stir in well and enjoy.

*Add as much pepper as you would like, you do not have to add any. || ^ You may also use ground chicken meat.

My Italian Spaghetti recipe with meatballs is not only authentic – it’s much better tasting than traditional spaghetti! I think people forget sometimes how easy it is to make your own sauce and make homemade meatballs to go along with it! Forget about those over processed crappy meatballs in the bag at the store, get the kids involved and have them help you make meatballs for spaghetti from scratch! They will love helping you make them, but more importantly they will love helping your family EAT THEM!

Ingredients needed for Italian Spaghetti Sauce:
Sauce

• 1 large onion
• 1 can tomatoes
• 2 cans tomato paste
• 1 qt. water
• teaspoon sugar
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Fry onion in oil until brown. Mix all other ingredients with onion and cook down until thick.

Ingredients needed for Italian Meatballs from scratch:
Meatballs

• 2 cups bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated italian cheese
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 small onion, grated
• 2 pounds ground beef
• 2 eggs
• fresh parsley, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Mix all ingredients together adding a bit of water while mixing, which will make the balls light and fluffy. Brown the meat balls; drop into the sauce. Let the sauce cook down slowly until done. Cook spaghetti according to package directions and mix with sauce when done. I hope you like these as much as my family does!

This Loose Meat Sandwich Recipe will be a surprise to you if you haven’t had one before, because it seems like it would be so much like a sloppy joe, or hamburger – but it’s not! I loose meat sandwich is a sloppy joe WITHOUT the sauce, a hamburger that’s “LOOSE”, etc. Although the actual inventor of the loose meat sandwich is debated, it’s roots that trace back to rural IOWA are not. I can only imagine that this sandwich recipe was created because somebody wanted to actually taste the meat, without a tomato base, but cook it in a way (in a diner) where you could cook mass quantities of it in batches without having to make it to order like a burger. In any event – try this recipe, and you will probably be as shocked as I was how good it is (as simple are the recipe is). I didn’t even want to make it, and my oldest son wouldn’t shut up until I did…now I want to make it again!

Ingredients for loose meat sandwich:

• 1 lb GOOD ground chuck (not cheap hamburger)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsb yellow mustard
• water to cover the meat

You want a heavy skillet, cast iron is best.  Cheap pan = bad recipe.  Put a little salt in the bottom of the pan, add the ground beef – cook on med-high heat.  Add the onion once it’s about half cooked.  Chop meat up with a spatula finely.  When fully cooked, drain meat in a strainer in sink (don’t rinse), then place back in pan on low heat.  Add your vinegar, sugar, mustard, and just enough water to cover the meat – and cook 15-20 minutes by simmering, until the water has cooked away, but DO NOT cook so long that meat sticks to the pan or the liquid is complely gone.

Traditionally these are to be served on steamed buns, or at least lightly toasted in the oven.  You eat them with the meat alone on the bun and some mustard – and it’s sheer BLASPHEMY to add ketchup (or cheese)!  Trust me, try this recipe one time, and you will love it!

I call this “Hancock’s Huge Meatballs Recipe”! Earlier this month my wife and I finally got around to seeing the Will Smith movie “Hancock”. It’s a great movie and we both recommend it. In the movie Will Smith is eating at a families house when they are having spaghetti and meatballs, something they said they do each week on the same night. The very unusual thing was that the bowl of spaghetti was huge, and the meatballs were the size of a small fist (literally). I mean there was probably only a half dozen meatballs in the bowl. During the movie my wife actually turned to me and said “those are the hugest meatballs I’ve ever seen!”. So on the way home from the movies, true to fashion I told her that I was just going to have to make them!

I remembered that a few years ago I made an Italian pan-fried meatloaf from a recipe that I found. In fact, cooking a huge pan of meatloaf on the stove was kind of how I learned to cook and based the recipe for my Best stovetop hamburgers in the world! My family may have had their doubts at first, but I knew that there would be no problem cooking huge meatballs that size all the way through.

So the first thing I had to do was figure out what kinds of things I wanted to have in the meatballs. What came to mind was the fact that good (huge) meatballs need moisture, flavor, consistency – and I wanted them to be the feature of the dish, far and above the sauce. I was just going to use a good premium jar sauce (cop out I know!).

This is the list of ingredients I ended up using:

• 5 lbs ground chuck
• 1 med green pepper, chopped
• 1 med vidalia onion, chopped
• 2 cups fresh chopped spinach (reg, not baby spinach)
• 1/4 cup chopped flat leaf Italian parsley
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups freshly grated day old french bread (you can use seasoned breadcrumbs if you like)
• 2 cups fresh grated Fontina cheese
• about 3-4 cloves freshly chopped garlic (depending on size)
• a splash of extra virgin olive oil
• about 2 lbs of spaghetti noodles
• about 2 jars of spaghetti sauce

You’re probably looking at the recipe thinking – 5 lbs of meat, are you kidding me? I wanted to make sure each person got about 2 meatballs and there was plenty left over to share with anyone else in the family who heard about them and wanted to try. You can easily halve this recipe to make less. This version could easiy feed 8-12 people depending on portion size.

To get started place the ground beef in the largest mixing bowl you have. Then chop the onion and pepper and dump them in. I chose to use regular spinach rather than baby spinach because I knew it would cook better in the meatballs and not fall apart. Add your freshly grated breadcrumbs (or regular ones), garlic, chopped spinach, grated fontina cheese, and chopped parsley. I specifically used fontina cheese for it’s sharp taste and higher moisture compared to parmesan or romano cheeses. Now, you have to mix it up really, really well with your hands (it’s just impossible to do with nearly any utensil). To get everything mixed well you just might have to act like you’re kneading dough, turning it over and over again while mixing. Once mixed, make meatballs about the size of a small fist. I have an oversized frying skillet with lid (maybe 14″? I’m not sure – it’s big!) and I made about 16 meatballs out of the 5 lb+ meat mixture. That means that each meatball was roughly about 1/3 lb. You can see why each person only needs 1-2 meatballs.

Once I made all the meatballs and placed them in the pan, I spashed the tops with a bit of extra virgin olive oil for good measure and a little bit of sea salt – they I tightly covered them and turned the burner on to med-high.  On my gas stove these only needed to cook about 20 minutes, and be turned 3 times (5 minutes each time). This way they get cooked evenly and they get a little crispy on the outside but they are sooooo juicy and tender on the inside! Your mileage may vary for cook time depending on your stove and where you live – 20 minutes worked for me.

Once the meatballs were about half done I started cooking the noodles and sauce so they would be ready. I served these by using big serving bowl, and put the plain noodles in first, then a meatball or two (depending on adult or child), then I sauced it, and put a little bit more fresh grated Fontina cheese over the top!! I have to say, this recipe turned out even better than I had expected – and these were definitely the best meatballs ever!

Have you ever created a recipe or cooked something because you saw it in the movies or on TV?

My Nacho Taco Salad Recipe is quick, tasty, AND filling!

The other day I got a comment on my Easy Tasty Taco Salad Recipe, and “Kerrie” said that she adds the chips to the bottom of the bowl and adds layers of meat, cheese, lettuce, etc. I had seen this done once before, and we created something new that I call my “Nacho Taco Salad Recipe”!

This is pretty easy to make, and could have a million variations – but here are the ingredients (recipe is for about 6 people):

• 2 lbs lean ground beef OR ground chicken (which WE LOVE)
• salt, pepper, cumin, and chili powder to taste
• 1/2 large vidalia onion chopped
• 1/2 med-large green pepper chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper chopped (if you like hot)
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh garlic
• about 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 cans fat free refried beans
• 1 pack (about 10oz) of shredded taco cheese
• 1lb+ bag of Tortilla chips (baked, fat free, organic, blue corn – all good)
• 1 head chopped lettuce
• 2 large or 4 med diced tomatoes
• 1 small can sliced black olives

I chop the onion and peppers first, and add them to a large skillet on med-high with about 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. Mix well, stir every 60 seconds for about 5-6 minutes. Open your cans of refried beans, put in a saucepan and thin a bit by mixing in some water (or sour cream, or milk). They should be thin enough to drip off the spoon, but not thin like soup. Cook on medium while the meat cooks. Add your meat to the other pan, cook on one side for about 5 minutes, flip over, chop, season with salt, pepper, cumin, and chili powder (or a taco seasoning pack), cook 5 minutes, flip with spatula and chop again, and then add the chopped garlic and cilantro, cook 3-4 more minutes and it your meat should be done. Stir the beans every few minutes while the meat cooks. When the beans start to bubble and boil, turn the heat down to low until the meat is done, and then turn them off.

While you meat is cooking, you can be chopping your lettuce and dicing your tomatoes. When the meat is done start to make up the bowls. Place a layer of chips in the bottom, then refried beans, then meat, then cheese, then lettuce, then tomatoes, then black olives! When we serve ours we usually drizzle a bit of lite ranch dressing over the top and that added touch of flavor!

Doesn’t this pic of my Sausage, Peppers, and Potato Recipe look Yummy?

I seem to have the uncanny ability to take ingredients that need to be used up and create really tasty dishes! We had a cookout awhile back and my son demanded those all beef Kosher Hebrew National hot dogs. We had never purchased them before – but it’s what he wanted, so we got them for the cookout. We had a lot of people so I had purchased a big 32 pack of the all beef Polish sausage variety. We had a half dozen left, and this is what I did with them.

To make this recipe you will need these ingredients:

• 6 small-med potatoes (red, white, or gold)
• 1/2 lg Vidalia onion, sliced
• 1/2 lg green pepper, chopped
• 6 Hebrew National All Beef Polish Dogs sliced in 1″ pieces
• salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
• 2 cloves chopped garlic

I started by dicing the potatoes skin-on and placing them in a large skillet on high with about 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil. While they cooked, I sliced the onion and diced the green pepper. If you like, you could always chop and add a small hot pepper to mix as well! Add the onion and green pepper to the pan and mix well to coat with oil. Then slice the Polish dogs, add to the pan and mix well. Last add the garlic, and mix well.

Let me explain the order of things. I get the potatoes in the pan right away – they would take 20 minutes to cook alone, so I try to let them cook (by themselves) for 8-10 minutes before adding the pepper and onion. Turn the heat down to med-high and about 5 minutes later I’ve chopped the polish dogs, so I add them. I reserve the garlic until about 5 minutes more. Then it really only needs to cook a few more minutes and as long as the potatoes are soft.

Even though this dish looks really good in the pic above, the thing that really makes it incredible are those polish dogs. I’ve had LOTS of hot dogs and TONS of different sausages in my life, but I’d never had Hebrew National. Their all beef texture is distinctive, but the thing that sets them apart is that they appear to be packaged in vinegar – which gives them this bit of “pickled” flavor I just can’t describe, but couldn’t get enough of. It permeates the onion and pepper, and once it matches up with the garlic – it just made this very simple dish come alive! There were in fact more than one in the house making fun of it – but the finished taste was unmistakable! Once you try this, you may never buy regular polish dogs again!

There are lots of ways to make tacos, and sometimes it’s hard to come up with something different, unique, and still tasty. With this version of what I call “Fiesta Tacos” I tried to create a rich and flavorful meat-mixture that screams flavor! Once you add just a little lettuce and tomato you won’t need to add any sour cream or salsa at all – because these will be the juiciest tacos you will ever eat! I’m going to give you the exact recipe I used, but you can substitute the ground beef with chicken strips if you prefer, or the soft shells for corn.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 2 lbs ground chuck
• 3-10 packs of soft taco shells
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 3 tomatoes
• 1/2 head lettuce
• 5 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 can whole or sliced black olives
• 1 can cream corn
• 1 can black beans
• 4 tbsp ground Cumin
• 3 tbsp chili powder
• salt to taste
• 1 lb Mexican or Farmer’s white (Queso) Cheese
• 1/2 green pepper
• 1/2 Vidalia onion

I start by dicing my onion, green pepper, and 1/2 bunch of the cilantro and set all 3 aside in a bowl. Next I drizzle a little bit of extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet, turn the heat up to med-high and add the 2 lbs of ground chuck. I salt the meat a little bit. While it cooks (about 5 minutes) I start to dice my tomatoes and lettuce to place in a medium bowl. After about 5 minutes, add the onion/pepper/cilantro mixture on top of the ground beef, chop in a little bit with your spatula, flip over, and chop up a bit more. Let it cook 5 more minutes and finish up your lettuce and tomato. When chopped place the lettuce and tomato into a medium bowl and sprinkle a bit with some olive oil and wine vinegar (just a bit to keep it from browning). I also add in a tbsp or so of minced garlic. Now add the spices (Cumin and Chili Powder) to the ground beef, chop in, flip, and chop a bit more with your spatula. Add the cream corn and (rinsed) black beans to the chop, and cook uncovered another 5 minutes (with those just resting on top).

I use whole canned black olives, so at this point I usually chop up 1/2 the can and add to the ground beef skillet, and the other half I add to the lettuce and tomatoes. Get another medium bowl out and your grater to grate the Queso mexican cheese. Chop up, flip, and chop your ground beef mixture (mixing in the corn and beans and black olives) for the last time, chop up really good and reduce heat to medium. Go back and shred your cheese while the meat cooks the last 5 minutes. Then turn off the heat for your skillet, microwave each pack of flour shells for about 90 seconds, and you should be ready to serve! I usually just place the flour shells and 3 bowls (meat, cheese, lettuce/tomato) out for everyone to make their own plates.

This recipe can feed 6-8 very hungry people! These tacos are very unique because of the rich juicy meat sauce, and the cilantro, cream corn, and beans blends together in the best way with the mexican cheese! One you make these, you may get stuck making them over and over again for years to come!

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Some of the best things take time, and my slow cooked sloppy joe recipe is no exception!

Well, I had to visit the dentist the other day, and my mouth is still a bit sore. So I was looking for something a bit meaty, but easy on my teeth. That’s when my “sloppy joe recipe” came to mind! I thought about some of the best Chili I’ve made, and the fact that it’s best when it cooks for a long time and all the ingredients break down and meld together in one distinguishing flavor! So I set out to make “slow cooked sloppy joe”, and I guess that you could call this my “homemade manwich”!

Ingredients you’ll need for my sloppy joe recipe:

• Â 2 lbs ground chuck
• 1/4 large Vidalia Onion
• 1 clove “elephant” garlic
• 1 medium carrot
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 3 tbsp mustard
• 2/3 cup Honey Barbecue sauce
• 1 1/2 cups Ketchup
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 3 tbsp Cumin
• 1 tbsp Chili Powder
• 1 tbsp garlic powder

Now there are two ways you can make this. One is on the stove, and the other is in slow cooker or “crockpot”. In the crockpot for 4-6 hours is admittedly best, but we don’t always have 4-6 hours (as I didn’t today). In any event, if you use the crockpot you have to cook the meat mixture on the stove first, and then transfer to the crockpot with the rest of the ingredients. In addition, if you’re going to use the crockpot for an event or large family gathering, you may want to double this recipe. A huge crockpot of sloppy joe can easily feed 20+ people.

So as I said – today I’m going to cook the sloppy joe on the stove. I drizzle a large skillet with extra virgin olive oil and then add the ground chuck and chop it up with a spatula on high heat. Let cook for 3-4 minutes, then divide the pan into 4 sections and flip the meat over. Season with the cumin, salt and pepper, garlic powder, and chili powder. Let it cook about 4 more minutes while you dice the onion and peel and grate the carrot. Yes I said “grate” the carrot. Use a fine grater that shreds about the same size as shredded cheese.  When you’re done toss both the onion and the carrot in the pan and chop up the ground chuck finely in the pan grinding all the seasonings and veggies in. Another 3-4 minutes and the meat will be done. At that point you can choose to drain it or not. If you don’t care if your sloppy joe is a bit greasy – don’t bother. Else you can just place in a strainer in the sink and quickly rinse with hot water, and return to the skillet. Note – I’m not a big fan of this since it rinses some of your seasonings off.

Now open your can of chopped tomatoes and add to the pan (don’t drain) with the heat on med-high. Stir it up a bit in the meat. Now add the barbecue sauce, the ketchup, the mustard, and a bit more salt and pepper to taste if you want.   Chop it up with the spatula real good, and then chop and mine your garlic clove finely. I personally love the use “elephant garlic” which is this massive clove of garlic you can get at the store almost as big as a small fist. It can “spice” things up a bit, so YOU may want either a regular garlic clove or no garlic at all. Once it’s minced add it to the pan and the meat mixture should be bubbling pretty good. The last “touch” is to drizzle the top of the mixture just about (like 3-4 tsp) with A1 Steak sauce if you have it handy. Sweeeet! So – now turn the heat down to med-low and tightly cover. For cooking on the stove like this I highly recommend cooking at least an hour like this covered. The mixture gets really thick and the carrots and onion and garlic break down and meld with the meat as one!

My secret is – these sloppy joes taste great at the one-hour point. But what “I” do is at about the 45 minute mark I peel a dozen large russet potatoes, and I have this great little slicer (kind of like an apple corer, but for potatoes). You just push the potato through it and it makes instant fries! Just put them on a baking sheet at 450 degrees for about 20-25 minutes (flip halfway through and salt) and you’ve got healthy fries to go with your sloppy joe. Oh – yeah, I let the sloppy joe cook a little bit longer of course until the fries are done. Serve the sloppy joe on a big kaiser or onion bun with a nice big slice of american cheese! You’ll be thankful you waited the bit of extra time it took to make these!

Have you ever made Mexican Food in the Crockpot? I’ll show you how to make something better than any roast or stew you’ve ever had!

Last night where I live we got 7 inches of snow. So, since we were “shut-in” it was a great day to cook something in the crockpot and let it simmer all day. I think this was the “best crockpot recipe” I’ve made in years! This, like so many other recipes – came from wanting to use some leftovers and certain ingredients up. Sometimes the best meals are created out of things you need to “get rid of” or use up.

Ingredients needed to make my “Mexican Beef Stew”:

• 1 lb thin cut round steak
• 1 can beef broth
• 3-4 cans water
• 1/2 Lg Vidalia Onion
• 1 medium green pepper
• 5 medium potatoes
• 3-4 Jalapeno peppers (ONLY if you like heat)
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can sweet corn
• 6 corn tortillas
• 4 tbsp fresh or jarred minced garlic
• 2 tbsp fresh ground pepper
• 2 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp Italian seasonings
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 6 tbsp ground Cumin
• 3 tbsp chili powder
• 1- 8oz package shredded Colby-Jack cheese or Mexican Melting Cheese
• 1 small container light sour cream
• Saltines or tortilla chips

I always keep some really thin cut round steak in the freezer for things like fajitas and beef fried rice. The first thing I did was to put a 1lb frozen block of thin sliced round steak in the microwave on defrost for about 6 minutes. Then I plugged in my crockpot on high, and add in 1 can of beef broth, 1 can of sweet corn (dont’ drain), 1 can of black beans (don’t drain or rinse), the garlic, and all the seasonings – then mix well and cover. Wash, seed, peel, and dice your pepper(s) and onion – add to the crockpot and mix well again. Dice the potatoes (skin on) and add to the crockpot and mix again. Take your steak out of the microwaveand cut into 1″ strips with the grain, and then in about 3″ strips. Add to the pot, and mix well. Then add enough water to bring the level up to about 1″ below the top of the crockpot, which usually takes me about 3-4 empty (corn or bean) canfuls of water. Cover, and stir about once per hour. Cook on the “high” setting of your crockpot for 6 hours.

When your “Mexican Beef Stew” is done, turn off the crockpot, stir well, and serve! Now – you’ll notice a few ingredients you haven’t yet used from the list. Once you place the stew in bowls, add about 4 dollops of sour cream on top, cover with a handful of shredded Colby Jack cheese and serve! Sometimes I use mexican melting cheese instead of colby-jack. Serve and eat by dipping either saltines or tortilla chips! After 6 hours this stew has some of the most incredible flavor because of the ingredients. The corn tortillas over the 6 hours will break down and disintegrate and thicken up the stew (which is actually one of my secrets). That why this stew recipe doesn’t require any flour or cornstarch at all. The tortillas with the sweet corn give the stew an uncanny sweeter tastse that brings out the beef flavor that much more. The seasonings, the meat breaking down, the potatoes soaking up the broth – it all contributes to a melded flavor at the end you won’t soon forget.