When I was asked to develop the recipes for Florida Beef Month by the Florida Beef Council the first thing I thought of was a nostalgic recipe.  One that maybe needed a little TLC.

Some dinners get a bad rap.  Some that I can think of are tuna casserole, meatloaf and pot roast.  I am not sure why they have a stigma around their titles.  Maybe because people include them in their weekly meal rotation and never switch it up.  Or maybe because those meals are just ugly to look at.

In my opinion, you can take an old recipe, one with a bad rap, and turn its reputation right around.  Let’s take pot roast, shall we?

Some people just take a slab of chuck roast, throw in some veggies and turn the slow cooker on for 8 hours.  You know what that means?  It means mushy, colorless vegetables and flavorless meat.  And it sure doesn’t look very appetizing when you serve it.  I have taken your everyday boring pot roast and turned it into a visually appetizing and taste bud tantalizing meal.

One key to a meal with a lot of pep is to “build the flavors.”  This basically means to cook each component separately, to give the dish a deep depth of flavor.  In my recipe you will notice I build the flavors by searing the meat, deglazing the pan, caramelizing the onions, adding the extra flavorings and then cooking for a nice amount of time.

Remember how I talked about colorless, mushy vegetables?  You can avoid this by adding the veggies during the last hour of cooking.  This allows them to cook fully without losing color or taste.

So, if your family balks at the sound of pot roast for dinner, make my recipe and they will ask for it all the time!

Oh, date night.  Where have you gone?  After having kids, date night is pretty much a thing of the past.  It’s not that my husband and I can’t go out and have a fancy evening to ourselves, because we can.  You see, we actually love hanging out with our kids.

At the ages of 7 and 9, they are pretty neat little people.  We are well aware that in just a few short years, our kids will want to have nothing to do with us.  So, while they think we are still kind of cool, we choose to spend all of our time with them.  It’s fun, but to be honest, I do miss nights out alone with the hubby.  No worries though; once we are embarrassing to our children, we will have all the time in the world to ourselves.

You can still have a semi-date night at home.  Or you can at least cook a fancy meal.  When I think of the words romantic, fancy and food, I think filet mignon.  Just because you read the word “fancy,” that does not mean difficult.  I do not cook anything difficult.  A filet mignon is very simple to cook.  You just need a nice pan and some high heat.  Cover the filet with a scrumptious sauce, and, well, you have just put the romance meter over the top.  Easy peasy.

The Hungry Housewife

“Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner.” It became the phrase we all knew in the early 1990’s. You think beef, you think that catchy slogan. Pretty genius if you ask me; great advertising.

I know when some people think beef, they think fat. This thought process couldn’t be more wrong.

Did you know there are 29 cuts of lean beef? 29! If you need some help remembering what cuts are considered extra lean or lean, you can download this handy wallet card that you can carry with you to the grocery store to help you choose smart – http://www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com/leanbeef.aspx. Before I started really cooking, I had no clue what cut of beef was what, so this card would have come in very handy for me back then.

Flank steak falls under the lean cut of beef department. This makes me very, very happy because flank steak is so versatile. The flank can be found on the underside of the cow, around the abdominal muscles. It is a tougher cut of meat, so it benefits from marinating. Marinating is always fine by me because it not only tenderizes the meat, but makes it wonderfully flavorful.

A nice marinated flank steak makes the perfect addition to a salad. Not only does it add texture and body, it adds a substantial amount of protein that you need to have a balanced diet. Just 4 ounces of flank steak boasts 25 grams of protein and just 7 grams of fat. Not too shabby.

I hope you enjoy this recipe that I developed for The Florida Beef Council. My husband went back for seconds, that says a lot for a salad!

If you are in the mood for a deliciously fresh and light salad, look no further than my Asian Beef Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette. The steak is marinated in an easy homemade marinade and then quickly grilled. It is the perfect topping for a cold, crispy salad.

I just love when I get the steam coming of a dish when I snap a shot!

So, what is your go to meal when you are in a rush? In my opinion, there is nothing easier than a nice pasta and sauce dish. I usually make my own sauce, but when you are knee deep in baseball, blogging, science projects and deadlines, you tend to reach for the convenience foods. I always have a jar of pasta sauce on my shelf. You can take a few extra yet simple steps to make it your own. Add some spices, meat and cheese. You can instantly make it taste homemade. And they best part is you don’t have to simmer your sauce for hours.

Yep, this is another $10 EASY family friendly meal!
It’s basically a deconstructed lasagna. It’s quite delicious I tell ya.

Don’t you just love lettuce wraps?
You can eat a plethora of them and not feel guilty or feel like you need to go purge.
I honestly don’t remember the first place I had them, put I remember the coolness of the crispy lettuce against the piping hot filling. It was pure heaven. And very low in carbs. Yeah, I could probably live on lettuce wraps for the rest of my life. And the fact that this meal serves a family of four for $10 means my grocery bill would be pretty cheap for dinner for the remainder of my years. However, I am sure my offspring might object on the lettuce wraps for the rest of their lives.

This is another easy and family friendly meal I created for Sweetbay Supermarket’s $10 meal Challenge. Do you think you have a great $10 meal that feeds a family of 4? You can click here to submit your recipe!!!

When I was developing my $10 meal recipes for Sweetbay Supermarket, they gave me the idea of developing a different type of Shepherds Pie. While my Guinness Shepherds Pie is wildly popular, I didn’t want to use beer in their recipe and wanted to take the step of making mashed potatoes out of the equation. So I made an easy Shepherd Pie Filling and put it over baked potatoes and topped it with cheese! YUM!

I love serving “different” meals to my family. And yep, it’s only $10 to make this dinner.
It might come in under if you run to Sweetbay Supermarket this week because 80% lean ground chuck is $2.79 lb.

I think I professed my love for hamburgers in my last Favorite Things Thursday Post.

There is nothing better than a big fat juicy hamburger. A big fat juice hamburger on a toasted bun, slathered with aioli sauce, melty cheese and a creamy avocado…..oh pinch me now!

Like I said last week, I like my hamburgers with lots of coarse Kosher salt and lots and lot of freshly ground pepper. And I like them on the rare side of medium- rare! If there is juice dripping off my elbow when I am eating it, well then  I know my work as the master hamburger griller is done!

You get this delicious hamburger and a side of homemade sweet potato fries all for $10! Yup.

I remember as a kid having Sloppy Joe’s A Lot.
I’m pretty sure they were the canned variety.

Until I created this recipe for Sweetbay Supermarket , I always used the canned Sloppy Joe sauce too.

But let me tell you, making the sauce from scratch is not only WAY better than the can, but it is also really really easy!!!

And how fun is it to make those Sloppy Joe’s opened faced? And on some cheesy Texas Toast!!! Much better than a boring ol’ bun.

In my opinion, you just can’t serve these old school sandwiches without corn on the cob. That would be like having grilled cheese without tomato soup. It’s illegal I think.

What really put this meal over the top is that is feeds a family of four, takes less than 20 minutes to cook AND it’s only $10!!!!!!!

Love me some Chili. However I am not a big fan of chili with Kidney Beans.
My Mom would cook chili with beans, I would eat it and not complain, because I was a good kid like that. I would sift the chili in my mouth and spit out the kidney beans in my napkin. Ewwwww.

When I created this recipe for SweetBay Supermarket I wanted a different take on the normal chili.

A taco take!  This would be perfect to have on the stove for “The Big Game” coming up!
This is a chunky chili filled with corn, black beans and taco seasoning. YUM
Serve it with some easy to make Boxed corn bread with some corn thrown in there.
Perfect!

Here is this weeks installment of $10 meals.

Italian Meatball Stromboli with salad.

This is a huge hit with kids. Kids love anything rolled up.

You can even make the meatballs ahead of time to save you some time the night you want to prepare this delicious dinner. And using pre made refrigerated  pizza dough saves a huge amount of time!

Recipe created for Sweetbay Supermarket.