Sloppy Joes

This recipe is my mom's. When we were kids she would make barbecue shape-ups (sloppy Joe meat and cheese on top of rolled out crescent roll with another crescent roll on top.) This meal was a favorite for some in our family and I frequently remember my sister requesting this meal for her birthday. The recipe below is just for the meat portion. Tonight I served David and Oliver these as barbecue shape-ups while I had mine on this white bread loaf I made.

Sloppy Joe Meat
Yield 6 servings

1.5 ground beef, turkey or pork
3/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup plus 1/8 cup barbecue sauce (I use Jack Daniels)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions: Heat ground meat over medium heat until brown and juices run clear. Reduce heat to low. Add ketchup, barbecue sauce, mustard, brown sugar and lemon juice, mix well. Serve immediately on top of bread with cheese.

Disclaimer: It is always important to read labels because brands frequently change their ingredients. These ingredients and brands work for my family but some may be processed in the same facility as wheat, soy, dairy and/or eggs and therefore depending on your severity may or may not work for your family.

Beef Taco Salad

We love tacos. We love them so much that we eat them at least every other week. They are such an easy meal and with my brother-in-law being a vegetarian, it's actually pretty easy to make this meal work for both him and I by just adding a can on vegetarian refried beans. The trick to this meal is the seasoning. I've made my own taco seasoning a few times but it just isn't as good as store bought in my opinion. Probably because that's what I grew up on. A normal person wouldn't think twice about taco meat containing allergens but fact is...finding taco seasoning that is free of all of my allergens can be hard! Many contain wheat and some contain milk products. While I used to use Old El Paso (they offer coupons frequently), I no longer can use this brand because it contains soy. Now the only seasoning I buy is Ortega and in an effort to reduce our sodium intake, we buy the lower sodium version. Tonight we were busy with friends so I cooked the meat ahead of time and had it warming in the crock pot for when we got home!

Beef Taco Salad
Yields 6 servings

1.5 pounds lean ground beef
1 packet Ortega 40% lower sodium taco seasoning
1 package shredded lettuce or shred your own
1 tomato, diced
1/2 bag Daiya pepper jack style shreds
1 bag Tostitos corn tortilla bite sized rounds (double check other flavors you want to try)
French Dressing

Directions: Place ground beef in a skillet and cook over medium heat until brown and juices run clear. Drain fat and return skillet of beef to medium heat. Add seasoning and water per package directions. Cook until water is completely cooked off. Serve meat along with other toppings. To assemble the salad, crush the desired amount of Tostitos corn tortilla chips and place on a plate. Top with meat, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: It is always important to read labels because brands frequently change their ingredients. These ingredients and brands work for my family but some may be processed in the same facility as wheat, soy, dairy and/or eggs and therefore depending on your severity may or may not work for your family.

Beef and Mushroom "Ramen" Noodles

I like stroganoff but right now I need to be soy free for Lola so no soy sour cream for me. I don't know of any other dairy free sour creams on the market so this dish was an attempt to capture some of those same flavors but with more of a "Ramen" noodle type flair to it versus the creamy milk and sour cream flavors in stroganoff. This dish doesn't taste like stroganoff but is still a tasty beef dish. A few ingredients in this dish to be careful about...Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce previously was manufactured with soy in it but more recent bottles are soy free so make sure you check your label. Beef bullion has been difficult to find but I just hate buying beef broth (or chicken broth) because I just end up paying for mostly water so I like to use bullion. It also takes up a lot less space in the pantry. Beef bullion was hard to find when it was only my allergies because so many of them contained gluten. I finally found a brand that is labeled gluten free, Orrington Farms. Their regular beef base and seasoning is gluten free but contains soy oil but the low sodium version does not for some reason. I was able to buy this at my local Cub Foods.

Beef and Mushroom Noodles

Serves 8

-1 box (12 oz) Barilla spaghetti noodles

-1 lb. stew meat, diced into bite sized pieces

-2 packages (8 oz each) sliced and washed fresh baby bella mushrooms

-1 medium to large onion, diced

-2 tablespoons fresh minced garlic

-1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

-1/2 teaspoon sea salt

-1/4 cup sherry cooking wine

-1/8 cup olive oil

-1/2 tablespoon Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce

-1 tablespoon ketchup

-1/2 teaspoon Orrington Farms Low Sodium Broth Base & Seasoning

Directions: In a large pot, cook noodles per package directions or until just barely done. Because they have rice flour in them, they can easily absorb the liquid in the dish and become mushy. Therefore be careful not to overcook the noodles. Rinse noodles very well and place in a large serving bowl a few minutes before serving. In a skillet, cook mushrooms and onions on medium heat until fully cooked and soft. Add garlic to the mushroom and onion mixture. Cook for 2 minutes. Place vegetable mixture in a separate bowl and set aside. Place diced stir fry meat in a skillet. Sprinkle sea salt and pepper over stir fry pieces and cook over medium heat, After the meat is fully cooked and no longer is pink inside, add the sherry cooking wine, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup and beef seasoning, mix well. Place vegetable mixture and meat and sauce mixture into the large bowl with the gluten free noodles. Mix together well and serve immediately.

Disclaimer: It is always important to read labels because brands frequently change their ingredients. These ingredients and brands work for my family but some may be processed in the same facility as wheat, soy, dairy and/or eggs and therefore depending on your severity may or may not work for your family.

Beef Roast Simmer Sauce

Beef Roast

Whether you have allergies or not you are going to want to check this out!! My house smelled AMAZING today. This simmer sauce tastes awesome and cooks my beef roast perfect every single time! I've always enjoyed a good beef roast but I made them wrong for the first 5 years of our marriage. Don't ask me how because I really don't know how. It has only been in the last 6 months or so that I have really figured out how to make the perfect roast. Before, our roasts were dry and never pulled easy or right. Now they fall apart so easy and are super juicy! After some experimenting and putting David through a couple nasty roasts, I finally have a recipe that works great. So great that we are usually fighting over the leftovers! This recipe calls for beef broth which you will want to make sure is gluten and other allergen friendly. I always look for one that carries a gluten free label. Pacific Foods carries one I can have but they are expensive. Aldi has a beef broth carton made by their Chef's Cupboard brand that is also labeled gluten free but you do have to be careful. It seems like whenever I've been there, Aldi has had a couple off brand beef broths, one is clearly labeled and the other is not. There's no reason to keep recipe a secret which is why I'm going to share with you what was for dinner at our house tonight! We served ours with some leftover rice and green beans that we had in the fridge as well as a fruit salad.

Beef Roast Simmer Sauce
Serves about 5-6 if you eat as much of it in one sitting as we do!

-One 3-4 pound beef chuck roast
-1/4 cup red cooking wine
-1/4 cup vinegar
-2 cups beef broth (ensure allergen friendly, see above)
-1 medium to large onion
-1.5 cups baby carrots
-1/4 cup minced fresh garlic
-1/2 teaspoon black pepper
-1 teaspoon salt
-1 teaspoon basil
-1 teaspoon marjoram
-1 teaspoon thyme

Directions: Place raw beef chuck roast in the crock pot. Finely chop baby carrots and onion in a food chopper or processor. Place chopped carrots, chopped onions and all ingredients listed, except for the roast, in a medium size bowl and mix well. Pour mixture over the roast in the crock pot. Make sure the mixture almost completely covers the roast. Our roasts are from the butcher so they are long and skinny. If you have a thicker roast you may need more beef broth. Cover and cook on HIGH for 6-8 hours. Remove from crock pot, scrape carrots, onions and fat off (discard) and pull apart with two forks. Serve immediately. If you want to keep the final product in the crock pot, remove roast from crock pot, scrape carrots, onions and fat off (discard) and pull beef apart with two forks. Take the crock pot full of remaining juice and vegetables and use a mesh strainer to reserve juices and strain off fat chunks, onions and carrots, discard. Place clean juices into crock pot along with pulled beef. Turn down to keep warm until ready to eat.

Disclaimer: It is always important to read labels because brands frequently change their ingredients. These ingredients and brands work for my family but some may be processed in the same facility as wheat, soy, dairy and/or eggs and therefore depending on your severity may or may not work for your family.