Looleh Kabob

I have this great love for anything BBQ... unfortunately, given our weather conditions, sometimes I can not use the grill outside, but still manage to  duplicate the BBQ flavor indoors, somehow.

Today I decided to make Looleh Kabobs, ground beef with a few spices, you can either choose to have  it with rice or make small sandwiches with Pita and fill with chopped onions and parsley, grilled vegetables or some salad.

What you will need:

Ground Beef

Onion or powder

Turmeric

Salt and Pepper

Tomatoes  

Sumac (optional)

Looleh Kabob

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Lbs. ground beef

1 small onion (grated and most juice removed

or use about 3 tbsp. onion powder

1 tsp. Turmeric

Salt and Pepper

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients 
• Separate into 4-5 parts
• Roll out like a cigar and cut into equal size patties 
• In a hot pan on Med. High (no oil needed) fry one side until a few minutes and turn.
• Meanwhile, cut a few tomatoes in large wedges and grill in pan with the Kabobs, I always place them on the sides of the pan, so the meat does not get soggy.

Makarone / Pasta with meat sauce

Too much to do today! Good thing I have some ground beef sauteed and ready to go...

Today I will be preparing some basic pasta and meat sauce with a twist.

Makarone

Things you will need:

Pasta 

(penne, spaghetti, elbow, shells etc.)

Ready ground beef

Tomato paste

Garlic, Turmeric or any other spices you like with your pasta (optional) 

Ingredients:  

1 LB. pasta or your choice

1 Lb. ground beef

1 small can tomato paste

1-2 cloves garlic (1/2 tsp. minced)

1/2 tsp. Turmeric or other preferred spices

Directions:

• Prepare pasta according to package directions
• If not already cooked, saute 1 chopped onion in oil till lightly golden 
• Add ground beef and cook until no longer pink
• Add some turmeric and garlic to beef
• Add tomato paste
• Once pasta is ready add to ground beef and mix until all pasta is covered with the paste and oil.
• Add a little salt and pepper to taste

Your meal is ready, one pot, under 20 minutes,  at a cost of around $5 to feed 4-6 people comfortably easy, easy, easy...

Caesar Salad and some garlic bread would make this a complete delicious meal. 

One item I truly love is Johnny's Garlic Bread and Seasoning, it is in powder form  and you can prepare garlic bread or other dips and meals in a minute, you just add it to softened butter, mayo, sour cream or breadcrumbs to give a great taste to bread, dip or fried foods.

Johnny's can be found in many Costco or Walmart  stores, but the advantage to having this on hand is that since it is a powder, it will keep for a long time, so no excuse about not having garlic bread on hand!!

I also add this to my pizza sauce,  Alfredo sauce, breaded chicken, bread sticks and so much more!!

Variations: instead of ground beef you can use sliced mushrooms, ground turkey or chicken.

Another way of saving time and money is to use the same type of meat for different dishes, one pot, one technique but many different meals.
I happen to come across some ground beef on sale but they were in large family size packages, I went ahead and made three dishes, one better and easier than the next...
What we will be doing today is browning the ground beef and making one of the dishes.
You will need about one pound for each of these so make sure to separate it three ways and either freeze the rest or make the whole dish and freeze for later use.

Today we are having a dish we call Karmir / Gharmir Pilaf, translated, it is Red Rice...

Karmir / Gharmir Pilaf, Red Rice

Things you will need

Ground Beef one pound
Onions
Rice
Tomato paste
Oil

Ingredients:

1 LB. ground beef

1 chopped onion (I use pre chopped frozen)

Oil 

3 cups rice

4oz. can tomato paste

1 tsp. turmeric (not mandatory but tastes good)

Salt and Pepper

Directions:

Saute the onions until golden and add ground beef and cook until no longer pink.

** as mentioned before, go ahead and double or triple this to have ground beef ready for your other dishes, refrigerate or freeze** 

Add about 3/4 of the paste to the beef and add the turmeric and mix

Wash rice, measure out the water (usually, one cup rice to 1 1/2 cup water) and add to the beef.

I usually use Basmati rice and after adding to beef I let the rice mixture to come to a gentle boil on high 

and then reduce to low and cover and wait about 20 minutes, but do follow the directions for your particular rice.

That's it, one pan, less than half an hour and delicious!!!

We love to sprinkle some crumbled Feta cheese on the rice or eat with a side of cucumber salad...

Cucumber Yogurt Salad,

8 oz. yogurt (Greek works best)

1 cucumber (peeled and diced)

1 clove garlic (or 1/2 tsp. minced)

1 tsp. dried Dill

Salt and Pepper

Broccoli Soup
Ahhh,  Fridays, the day I usually go through the refrigerator and try to use up everything that might not be looking so fresh anymore...As I mentioned before, we had a birthday party last weekend for about 20 teens and for some odd reason all the candy is gone but we  had a lot of vegetables left over from the platter I had set out for them!!! Very Surprising??
Since everything was already washed, it was a breeze to make some soup.
Here is a great easy and quick Broccoli Soup I whipped up this morning!

Before adding the milk and sour cream,
Saute and Cook in broth

Broccoli Soup

Thing you will need:

Butter

Broccoli Florets

Carrot

Green onions 

Garlic glove

Chicken broth

Milk

Sour cream

Flour

Feta cheese (optional)

Dill (or your choice of basil, parsley etc.)

Ingredients: 

• 2 tbsp. butter
• 3 cups broccoli, florets
• 1 sliced carrot
• 1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
•  1/2 tsp. crushed garlic glove
• 3 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tbsp. flour

• Feta cheese
• 1 tsp.Dill (or your choice of basil, parsley etc.)

Directions:

Melt 2 tbsp. butter in medium sized stock pot,and saute green onions and carrots until tender. Add broccoli, broth, garlic and cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Use an immersion blender ( or regular blender) to puree veggies.

Add milk, sour cream and flour and dill, stirring to get the flour smooth and continue cooking soup for a few more minute until the milk and sour cream are heated.
Add Feta or cheese of your choice at the end.
Please note that other vegetables can be used in the same manner, although I have not made it myself, celery would add a lot of flavor. Substitute cauliflowers for broccoli with some peppers or anything else you can thing of...

The soup is now ready and my veggie platter is all taken care of  Enjoy!!

Pizza with White Sauce

Well, it's day three with my Costco chicken!!! This recipe does not require a lot of chicken, so hopefully you have saved some from yesterday!  

After this recipe, it is officially time to stop eating chicken for a few days!!!! 

If you have any left over at this point, Please Freeze it!!

Gourmet Chicken Pizza 

Things you will need:
Left over chicken, shredded
Left over a la king sauce
Shredded cheese
Italian or French Bread or Pizza dough or Pita bread
Any other toppings you may like, of course this is when I go through the refrigerator
and try to find things to add to my Pizza, such as tomatoes, artichoke hearts,Feta cheese
onions, olives, spinach, broccoli etc.

Pizza with White Sauce 

Directions:

Cut Bread lengthwise 

Spread the A La king sauce (optional: sprinkle some garlic powder on sauce)

Top with shredded cheese

Place toppings on bread/dough

Bake in Over 375 degrees about 8 minutes ,

**Due to setting in different ovens make sure to  keep an eye on the pizza, when cheese is completely melted, it's ready!!

**Point about using Pita, always use the whole bread do not separate, use caution on how long you bake pita it dries out quickly ( I prefer using a toaster oven for this)

Point about using fresh dough: Bake it for a few minutes before placing the cheese and topping on, to avoid Soggy Dough Syndrome!!!