Philly Cheesesteak Skillet

Hello all,

I tried this new recipe last night, I found it on Pinterest. Here's the link to the blog it came from.... link. This was kid-approved which surprised me because I added broccoli to the mix and she staunchly believes she does not like broccoli. I believe the word used was hate actually. But she gobbled this up and said it was yummy. Will wonders never cease?!?

Philly Cheesesteak Skillet

Ingredients

• 2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese or 2 cups cheddar cheese
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1/4 cup milk, or as needed

Directions

1. Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the macaroni, and cook until tender, about 8 minutes. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, place the ground beef and onion into a large skillet, and cook, stirring to crumble, until meat is no longer pink, and onion is tender. Just before the beef is done, add the bell peppers, and cook until tender, but still green. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the cheese, condensed soup and milk to make a thick sauce.
3. Remove from the heat, and stir in the macaroni noodles. (Recipe adapted from All Recipe

 My notes

I didn't do 2 bell peppers as I thought that would be too much, but I wish I had. 2 peppers will not over power this. I used fat free cream cheese, 98% fat free COM, and the leanest ground beef I could find. So this was a relatively low fat dinner. Like I said earlier, I added broccoli to this for a little extra healthiness. I'm trying to find ways to incorporate more veggies into our meals. I also tossed in some Italian seasoning to the ground beef for a little more flavor. Everyone really enjoyed this and I'll be adding it to our rotation. I think next time I will also add mushrooms.

 

Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup

Today's recipe is courtesy of Lola Cooks. I had 3 heads of broccoli in my fridge that I needed to use and I remembered I had saved this recipe to try.

Yum broccoli pre-roast

Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup
The ingredients:

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• ½ medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 2 heads broccoli with stems / 450g
• ½ head of cauliflower / 450g
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
• 1 teaspoon fresh parsley
• 3 cloves garlic, cut in half
• 2 teaspoons coarse salt
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1  cup non-fat greek yogurt

The method:

1. Preheat oven to 425° F.
2. Cut broccoli and cauliflower into similarly sized pieces.
3. Place vegetables and spices in a large mixing bowl.
4. Drizzle oil over the vegetables and toss to coat completely.
5. Pour vegetables on a shallow baking sheet and roast for 25-30 minutes until somewhat soft and browned.
6. Allow vegetables to cool slightly.  Remove some or all of the garlic.
7. Place half of the warm vegetables in a blender with 1 cup of stock to puree.  Pour the puree into a pot.  Repeat with the other half of the vegetables.
8. Add the remaining stock and water to the pot.
9. Bring soup to a boil and then reduce to simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
10. If firm pieces of vegetables remain, process the soup with a immersion blender.
11. Stir in the greek yogurt.
12. Serve warm.

My notes:
I decided to roast the onions along with the broccoli and the cauliflower, I wanted a more mellow tone to the soup. I roughly chopped up the (whole) onion tossed it in a little bit of vegetable oil and added to the cauliflower, garlic, and broccoli about 1/2 way thru the roasting. I didn't want to roast the onion for the whole 40 minutes, I was afraid it would get too charred. I used 5 C of broth instead of 4C broth and 1C water as I had a bunch of homemade broth from the other day.
I also pureed all of the vegetables to make a nice thick soup. My immersion blender did a great job but I did find a rogue hunk of cauliflower floating around. Whoops.
I also put my new nutmeg grinder (thanks Erin!) to the test and added a little freshly ground nutmeg to the party. I think next time I will double the garlic, at least for the roasting if not for the soup. To finish the soup I also added 2 T of butter (of course) along with the greek yogurt. We haven't had this for dinner yet, so I have no idea if this will be kid-approved or not. But I will update later this week when we do eat it.