Beef Stew with Carrots
This is the perfect fall meal. I have a Halloween bonfire in my front yard every year, and I make a big pot of this stew for my friends and family. There’s nothing quite like a steaming bowl of beef stew with thick gravy and warm carrots on a chilly fall or winter evening. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
2 pounds of bone-in beef roast, chopped into 1 inch cubes
6 cups of chopped carrots
1 T onion powder
1 T garlic powder
3 cups beef broth
sea salt
optional: 1 T tomato paste
optional: 2 T potato starch, in a slurry with 2 T warm water before adding to stew
optional: a couple handfuls of crimini mushrooms (baby portobello), halved or quartered
Instructions:
I like to make this stew in a large dutch oven on the stovetop, but you could easily make it in a slow cooker or an Instapot instead. The reason I use a stovetop is because the stew meat needs to simmer for 3.5 hours and the carrots (and optional mushrooms) only take 20 minutes, so I like to add them at the end. To start, add the beef, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and broth to the dutch oven or large pot on the stove and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 3 hours, until the meat is starting to become tender. Add the chopped carrots and any optional ingredients, and continue to simmer until the carrots are cooked through, about 15 more minutes. Serve hot and enjoy!
Ground Beef and Gruyere Zucchini Boats
This is a fun and super easy dinner that my kids love. It’s honestly one of the only ways I can get them to eat zucchini! You could use any cheese, although I’m in love with the Swiss Emmi-brand gruyere from Costco, which is raw and so delicious. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
4 large zucchinis, washed and ends cut off
2 lbs ground beef (lean for protein-sparing, or 80/20 for weight maintenance)
8 oz Gruyere, shredded
2 t dried italian seasoning
1 t onion powder
1 t garlic powder
sea salt
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Slice the zucchini lengthwise and scoop out the seedy insides with a spoon, leaving a little on the ends so the ground beef mixture doesn’t leak out during cooking. Combine the ground beef in a bowl with all of the other ingredients except the cheese and zucchinis. Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet and place all of the zucchini “boats” on the parchment, filling with the beef mixture, and covering with a layer of gruyere. Place in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until the cheese is brown and the zucchinis can be pierced easily with a fork. Enjoy!
How to Cook the Perfect Steak
Knowing how to cook the perfect steak is imperative to becoming animal-based! I love using cast iron pans for all of my kitchen cooking. Of course, nothing beats a steak on the grill, but if you want to cook your steak inside in cast iron, here is how!
Ingredients:
1 lb of steak for each person (ribeye for weight maintenance OR filet/lean sirloin/tenderloin for a protein-sparing day)
Butter for the pan
Sea salt
Optional: sprig of rosemary or sage
Instructions:
Make sure the steak is fully defrosted. It can be cold from the fridge or first brought to room temperature. Salt liberally with a high quality sea salt like Himalayan or Redmond’s Real salt on both sides. Place the cast iron pan on the burner and turn the heat to HIGH. Let the pan get good and hot for 1 minute, but not smoking. Add a small amount of butter to the pan, to just lightly cover the bottom with melted butter. Place the optional herbs in the butter, if using, and then push them off to the side of the pan. Place the salted steak in the hot pan as soon as the butter is melted but hasn’t yet browned. Turn the heat down to medium-high for a thinner steak (less than an inch), or medium for a thick steak (1.5-2 inches thick). Cook for 3-5 minutes until the bottom is nice and brown and a crust is beginning to form. Flip the steak and continue cooking on the second side and spoon some of the butter and juices from the pan back onto the steak as it cooks. You may need to continue flipping the steak every 3-5 minutes until it is done.
Optional: use a kitchen thermometer to check the internal temperature. I like to pull the steak out of the pan when the temperature is 10 degrees lower than the desired doneness because it will continue to rise about 10 more degrees. Rare is a final temp of 120, medium rare is 130, and medium is about 140. So, for medium rare, I like to cook my steak to about 120 degrees and it will continue to heat to 130 as it rests for 5-10 minutes on the cutting board. Resting also allows the juices to absorb so that they don’t run out when you cut into the steak. If you don’t have a kitchen thermometer, make a small incision in the middle of the steak in the pan to check for your desired doneness.