Easy Country Style Swiss Steak

Lately, I have been obsessed with my crockpot - making everything from pulled pork sandwiches to fajitas to Swiss steak! This recipe is super easy, and I usually have all the ingredients on-hand, not to mention, Chad and I both love mushrooms (or fungus as my brother calls them). I tend to use elk steak in this recipe, but it can easily be substituted with beef - and because the crockpot tenderizes the meat, I usually use the lesser quality cuts from the freezer.

Ingredients:
2 lbs. (approximately) steak (elk, beef, etc.)
1/2 cup flour
1 T garlic salt
1 tsp. butter
1 Spanish Sweet onion, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup water
noodles

Instructions:
Trim steak and cut into serving sized pieces. Mix flour and garlic salt in Ziploc bag. Place steak pieces into bag and flour on both sides. In frying pan, melt butter and lightly brown both sides of steak.

Meanwhile, peel and chop the onion. Combine mushrooms, cream of mushroom soup, and water - mix well. Place browned steaks in the bottom of crockpot, followed by chopped onions, and mushroom soup mix. Set the crockpot on low for 7-8 hours. Serve with noodles and enjoy!

Holy Guacamole!

I tend to get requests to make my Guacamole quit a bit. Granted most of them are from my hubby (weekly) but I also get hit up for any major sport watching event, whenever we grill out with friends, showers/engagement parties etc...

I have also had a few of my friends ask me how to make Guacamole. Which at first I thought was kind of funny because its basically mashed up avocados with some extra goodies mixed in but a lot of people think its some magical recipe. I am here to tell you it's super easy, anyone can do it and to STOP buying that green premade "guacamole" they sell at the grocery store...its not real...gag!!

First start with avocados, halved, seed removed and shelled into a bowl like so...

(this is 5 avocados - I usually will use only 2 if I am making it for just my hubby and myself)


Once all of the avocados are in the bowl I will run a knife through them to help break them up (pre-mixing) without actually having to stir them which makes my guac a little more "chunky" than smooth. The more you mix & stir the avocados the more they break down and will result in a smoother consistency. But beware...do not over stir at this stage. You will be mixing in the next few steps which will help create a "spread" like consistency.

The next step, add the extras! I tend to like things a little more spicy so I choose to add spicier ingredients. Here is the trick with spicy...spicy foods equal flavor. If you do not like spicy things it doesn't mean you shouldn't add some, or all of these ingredients. You should just add them moderately.

Added ingredients:

Red Onion

Jalapeno

Cilantro

FRESH Lime Juice

Tomatoes

Secret tool I LOVE!!! My "chopper". This one is from Pampered Chef but you can get them at any store that sells cooking tools. I use this thing all of the time! It is a HUGE time saver and honestly does a better job at chopping things like onions, jalapenos, cilantro, etc than I do.

Make sure to pre-chop/slice ingredients before adding to chopper for a better result.

Onions chopped and ready to be added to the mix. If you want them more fine...chop longer :-)



All the goodness in one bowl - pre mixed!

TA-DA!!! Yummy Guacamole!! ENJOY!

(the seeds help it from turning brown)

Sliders - Home Style

I was at the grocery store the other day and saw these cute little mini buns and the infamous Jack in the Box commercial instantly popped into my head.

I couldn't resist making sliders for dinner that night. I rounded up the remaining ingredients and headed home.

The secret to any good burger are these two ingredients. A few shakes (6-8 per lb) of each will give life to your beef without losing the "hamburger" taste we all crave and love.

Since we didn't have any propane for the grill I resorted to the skillet. To be honest, looking back I think I will cook them stove top from here on out. They are too small to really grill, and may cook to fast and dry out.

Yummmmm...Cheese....

The finished result....TA-DA!! This one is garnished with red onions and spicy guacamole. We also had mustard and pickles as finishing touch options.


These were a hit with hubby! We ended up eating TEN of them!!!!!

-Enjoy-
Jodi