Beef Stew

This stew takes approximately 2 hours to make.

Prep time: 1 hour

Cook time: 1 hour

Dig in!!!

I am not a big fan of beef but over the years I have picked up a few beef related recipes that my family enjoys. Years ago, when I was a newlywed. My mother in law called frequently to see that I was feeding her son properly and so I acquired many cookbooks along the way. I found a beef stew recipe in one of the books but it had a few ingredients that didn’t sit well with me. Over time I have made a few small changes to that recipe because it has less sodium and my kids love it. Soups/Stews are simple staples in our home since I can batch cook them for a few days.

Batch cooking has become a hobby to me since it not only saves me time, it also saves me money on our weekly food budget. Below is the recipe and I hope you enjoy. Please leave feedback on how it turns out for you. Thanks for stopping by!

Ingredients:

1. 2 pounds of Angus eye of round roast- cubed
2. 8 stalks of celery-diced
3. 4 medium carrots-sliced
4. 2 bell peppers- diced
5. 1 large onion- diced
6. 4 large baking potatoes
7. 1 bunch of green onions- chopped
8. 1/4 cup of olive oil
9. 3 teaspoons of seasoning salt
10. 1 teaspoon of turmeric
11. 1 teaspoon of black pepper
12. 1 teaspoon of ginger
13. 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
14. 2 tablespoons of cornstarch
15. 3 1/5 cups of vegetable broth

Directions:

1. Collect all your ingredients, wash your vegetables, rinse the beef, measure out all of your dry ingredients and place in a medium bowl.
2. Cut up the beef and to the bowl with dry ingredients except for the cornstarch then add the red vine vinegar and mix all together.
3. Cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator to marinate while you cutting up the vegetables.
4. In a large Dutch oven add the olive oil and warm up on low heat before browning the marinated beef.
5. Brown the beef for about 10 to 15 minutes.
6. Placed the browned beef aside and sauté the onions, green onions, bell peppers and celery for about 10 minutes.
7. Add the carrots, potatoes, browned beef and 3 cups of vegetable broth and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes.
8. In a small bowl mix up the cornstarch with the remaining vegetable broth and add the mixture to the stew and cook for another 30 minutes.
9. Serve by itself or with rolls.

Heating the olive oil for about 5 minutes on medium heat before adding the marinated beef

Browning the marinated beef for roughly 10 to 15 minutes, on medium heat

Saute the vegetables for about 5-10 minutes on medium heat

Banana Bread

Total time: 1 hour 5 minutes

15 minutes of prep time

45 to 50 minutes of bake time

I spent parts of my childhood in Sierra Leone and I remember my grandpa had a brick style oven where he made a variety of breads. I wish that I had slowed down to pay attention to what he was doing but I was too busy running around and playing my big brother and his friends.

My love of baking came about because of a boy. In high school, my first boyfriend made me brownies to apologize for not making a date. He said he baked the brownies and they were delicious. I started looking for ways to bake every chance I could. My attempts were pretty awful but over time I found my way.

In college, I baked cheesecake for our house dinners with my roommates. So it wasn’t a big surprise that I started running a small baking business after my first baby was born.

I love baking cakes, pies, cookies and breads. My favorite bread to make is banana bread and that’s because it’s also my mom’s favorite and best recipe. I have modified it over the years since hers has nuts and in my home we don’t eat nuts since we have allergies.

Below, you will find a recipe I have been tweaking for some time now. I hope you like it as much my kids and I do.

Ingredients

5 over ripe bananas

2 1/4 cups of protein pancake mix

3 large eggs

1 cup of 2% milk

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup of olive oil

1/2 cup of quick oats

1 teaspoon of ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of salt

*can of Pam spray for the pans

Directions

Preheat the oven at 375 degrees

I love this pancake mix, it is versatile and protein rich.

Peel bananas and mash them with either a fork or in your food processor.

Measure out the dry ingredients and place in a medium mixing bowl. Leave out the 1/2 cup quick oats and save them for the end.

Add eggs, milk, oil and mashed bananas on to the dry ingredients and mix on medium speed. The batter will be lumpy but that’s okay. Add the 1/2 cup of oats and gently fold them into the batter.

I’m a big fan of brown sugar when I bake. It adds color and flavor to my breads.

Use the Pam spray and grease your 9×5 pans. Pour half your batter into one pan and the other half into your second pan.

Baked for 45 to 50 minutes. Cool on racks and serve with either coffee or tea. We usually eat our banana bread for breakfast and we eat ours with tea.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you love this recipe as much as we do.

Cheesy Spaghetti Squash with Shrimp

So growing up in an African household we only ate African food. Out of curiosity I signed up for home economics in middle school and I quickly fell in love with cooking American food. Over the years, I have tried to reduce the amount of carbs that I feed my family since we have a history of diabetes. I love pasta, personally. Not to my surprise, my family also loves it. There are several different types of pastas, but noodles have always had a stronger appeal. So of course, I made it into another healthy masterpiece.

It took years of trial and error until I came up with a recipe that my whole family loves. I am sharing it with you all because I have a feeling that it will become a new family favorite for you as well. That is, if you like noodles and other foods of the sort. Without a doubt, the ingredients below will give you the answer to a healthy and tasty meal that everyone can enjoy.

INGREDIENTS:

1 Large spaghetti squash

1 packet of cooked jumbo shrimp- diced

1 large red onion- diced

1 container of mushrooms- finely chopped

1/4 head of cabbage- finely chopped

1 small yellow pepper- diced

black pepper

ginger powder

sea salt

2 cups of mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup of extra virgin Olive Oil

Turmeric (use to your liking)- the African in me rarely measures seasonings but I guess that I should start doing that since I have decided to share my recipes with all of you.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven at 400 degrees before washing the whole spaghetti squash, pat dry and cut in half. Clear out the seeds and season each half with black pepper, ginger, and olive oil.
2. Bake the squash facing down for 30-40 minutes.
3. While the squash is baking, pull out the onion, cabbage, bell pepper, mushrooms and shrimp.
4. Wash the vegetables and set aside, dice up the defrosted shrimp if it was frozen.
5. Diced all the vegetables and place in a heated skillet, add seasonings and simmer on medium heat for 15 minutes. Add the diced shrimp and cook for 5 more minutes.
6. Pull out the baked squash and set aside until it cools enough for you to scrape out the noodles onto a bowl and throw away the empty shell.
7. In a preheated dutch oven combine the shrimp mixture and cooked spaghetti and add the 2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese after 5 minutes of cooking on low to medium heat.
8. Cook for another 20 minutes on low heat or until the cheese has completely melted.
9. Set the cooked noodles aside and let it settle for at least 15 minutes before serving.
10. I ate mine with a mini naan as a side but my kids ate it just as and they were very impressed and that is all the praise I need. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did. Please leave your feedback or substitutes in the comments.