Not Your Mama's Tuna Noodle Casserole

I should preface this post by saying that as a child, I would never have eaten tuna noodle casserole. As an adult, I would most likely not bother to waste my calories on a tuna noodle casserole made from condensed soup - I really try to avoid the fat, sodium, and preservatives that compose this "pantry staple". I'd much rather make a simple bechamel in its place. Despite my reservations, when I came across this recipe about a year ago, I decided I had to try it. I've since made it a few times, much to our satisfaction.

Most recently, I recreated the recipe and calculated my own nutrition facts using the ingredients/measurements I was actually using. This recipe has just over 250 calories per serving, a nice savings over Eating Well's  already super healthy 406 calories. This is a great option in the "creamy comfort food" category that doesn't wreak havoc with your nutrition. If you're not watching fat or calories as closely as Andrew and I are, you can add more cheese and/or breadcrumbs to the top but honestly, it doesn't need it.


Not Your Mama's Tuna Noodle Casserole
adapted from Eating Well
makes 4 servings

6 oz. no-yolk egg noodles
2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
4 oz. mushrooms, diced
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 c. dry white wine
3 tbsp. AP flour
1-1/2 c. skim milk
1 c. frozen peas
1 - 5 oz. can of tuna (white albacore packed in water), drained
1 wedge Laughing Cow Light cheese
1/4 c. shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese


Cook egg noodles according to package directions, drain, and set aside. Lightly spray an 8"x8" baking pan with non-stick spray and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and mushrooms to the pan, add salt, and saute until onions are translucent, about five minutes.

Add the wine and cook until it has evaporated. Sprinkle the flour over the veggies, then add the milk and bring to a simmer. Stir sauce as it thickens.

Add the peas, tuna, and Laughing Cow cheese to the sauce and stir until cheese has melted.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and top with the mozzarella cheese. Broil for five minutes or until cheese is melted, browned, and bubbly.

Cut into quarters and serve with a nice green salad.

It's easy to get your lean protein and veggies when they're wrapped up in such a cozy dish. This is the perfect hot meal for a cool autumn day - easy to put together, warm, and comforting.

Cold Curry-Peanut Noodles

It's Labor Day weekend here in the States, and for a lot of us, that means backyard barbeques, picnics, and camping. I thought I'd share a yummy side dish I made this summer. From the June 2010 issue of Food Network Magazine, Cold Curry-Peanut Noodles are a fantastic twist on tired old pasta salad. They're something different, yet not so out there that unadventurous eaters will be wary.

Cold Curry-Peanut Noodles

adapted from Food Network Magazine, June 2010

p. 104

12 oz. whole wheat spaghetti

2/3 c. crunchy peanut butter

1-2 tbsp. red curry paste

2 tsp. rice wine vinegar

juice of 1 lime

1/3 c. fresh parsley leaves

2 green onions, thinly sliced

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, cut into thin strips

1 large carrot, peeled and cut into thin strips

Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water, drain pasta, rinse under cool water. Set aside.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the peanut butter, curry paste, vinegar, lime juice, parsley, 1/2 cup water, and 1 tsp. salt. Puree until smooth.

Toss the spaghetti, vegetables, and peanut sauce in a large bowl until well combined. Season with salt (you'll need it) and stir in some of the reserved pasta water to loosen the sauce if necessary.

If serving immediately, transfer to serving bowl and top with red pepper flakes and fresh parsley. We brought this along with us as a camping side dish, so I packed it into an airtight container and into the cooler.

 

A lovely camping meal - cheeseburgers, chips, coleslaw, and this awesome pasta salad!

Those of you who know me are aware that I'm not much of a camper - I mostly do it to make my husband happy. I'm also not much of a fisherwoman, but every once in a while, I'll do that too, just to make Andrew happy. 

As you can see in the picture below, this city girl in borrowed waders does not appreciate the moment being recorded for posterity!

We're not in NYC anymore, Toto!

Have a Happy Labor Day weekend!

Macaroni & Cheese, Take Two

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I was putting together some freezer meals, including Meatballs Stroganoff.  One of the other meals I made was Macaroni & Cheese.  At the last minute, I opted to try a new Mac & Cheese recipe, so I wanted to share my notes on that with you, as compared to my old standby.

A shot of my "usual" recipe - a take on Alton Brown's mac & cheese, this one has three different cheddars and is topped with buttery breadcrumbs.

For comparison's sake, here is a photo of the finished version I made this time.  This is adapted from the Pioneer Woman's Mac and Cheese.

Major differences between these two recipes - no breadcrumbs in the PW recipe.  I topped the PW version with bacon instead, since I had it in my fridge.  I used radiatore for this version, and I loved the way the cheese clung to every nook and cranny!  Much better than elbows, in my opinion, and this shape is stout enough to stand up to cooking in the cheese sauce without getting floppy.


Macaroni & Cheese, Version 2
adapted from The Pioneer Woman

1 lb. radiatore or your favorite pasta, cooked al dente
1/2 stick butter
1/4 c. AP flour
2-1/2 c. skim milk
2 tsp. dry mustard
1 egg, beaten
1 lb. cheddar, grated
1 c. mozzarella, grated
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper

Melt the butter in a large (I mean it, LARGE) saucepan over medium heat.    Whisk the flour and mustard into the butter and cook the roux over medium-high heat for five minutes.

Pour in the milk and whisk to combine.  Cook about five minutes, until very thick, then drop the heat to low.

In a small bowl, combine the beaten egg and 1/2 c. of the milk mixture.  Whisk vigorously to avoid scrambling your egg.  Pour mixture back into the sauce and stir until smooth.

Add cheddar cheese, salt, and pepper.  Stir slowly until cheese has melted and sauce is completely combined.  Add cooked pasta and stir to coat. 

Pour into large greased baking dish (I used cooking spray), top with mozzarella and crumbled bacon, and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

This dish is a crowd-pleaser that's easy to put together - comfort food at its best!

Meatballs Stroganoff & Notes on Freezer Meals

It's been a very busy week, as I've been trying to put together some freezer meals to bring to family.  What's been saving my sanity is that I've been making a double recipe of each meal - we eat one for dinner and then I freeze the other portion.  I've done two chicken pot pies (one for dinner tonight), and tomorrow will be a double batch of homemade macaroni and cheese. 

I also made a lasagne this afternoon as a bonus freezer meal.  Yum!

In the midst of all these classic comfort foods that I've made a million times, I wanted to try a new one.  Something I'd never made, but that I couldn't mess up too badly, since I wanted to eat it for dinner and then give it away to other people.  Man, did I hit the jackpot with this recipe! 

Meatballs Stroganoff is an easy and delicious meal you can put together any night of the week.  Make the meatballs in advance so you can pull them out of the freezer the day you're ready to make them - I made 3 pounds of meatballs, rolled them very small, and ended up with about 110 meatballs.  If you don't have a tried and true meatball recipe, click here to borrow mine!  The recipe below is NOT doubled - it's for a single batch of Stroganoff.

Meatballs Stroganoff
adapted from SparkPeople

1.5 lb. meatballs - about 50

2 tbsp. butter
2 small onions, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
14 oz. beef broth
1 tbs. lemon juice
3 tbs. AP flour
8 oz. low-fat sour cream
16 oz. "no yolks" egg noodles - cooked and set aside

Melt butter in a large saucepan.  Add onions and garlic, cook until translucent. 

To the pan, add all but 3 tbsp. of the beef broth and the lemon juice and bring to a boil.

 In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and the reserved broth until smooth.

Turn the heat down to low.  Whisking vigorously, stream in the flour/broth mixture.  Raise the heat back up and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. 

Add the meatballs to the pan to heat them through.  Cover saucepan and cook on medium heat for another five minutes, stirring occasionally.  Turn the heat off and let stand for a few minutes, then stir in the sour cream.  Serve over the cooked egg noodles.

Look at all this creamy sauce!

Hello little meatballs!

All right, I'm done now. 

This is a delicious, comforting meal that your family will thank you for.  To give it as a freezer meal, I packed about 50 small meatballs into a plastic container, smothered them in the sauce, and froze it.  The plastic container will be joined by a bag of egg noodles when I give it to someone else.

Throw Together Pasta: Version 3

We do love our pasta around here, and I'm all about putting together meals with food we've already got on hand, even when we have house guests.  My mom and aunt were visiting again, and last time, I made butternut squash risotto.  To please my carb-loving relatives without being repetitive, I opted for a pasta dinner one night.  I had pesto left over from the panini, so I opted to turn it into a sauce.  I needed to use up some random veggies in my fridge, so I paired those with some frozen shrimp and the pesto cream, and TTP #3 was born.


Throw Together Pasta: Version 3
The Farmer's Market Version

1 lb. pasta (I used rigatoni) 
1 bunch spinach, washed and trimmed
1 bunch asparagus, washed
1 lb. shrimp, cleaned and deveined
4-6 slices bacon
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c. chicken stock
2/3 c. pesto, leftover
1/2 c. fat-free half & half
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
salt & pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat.  Salt the water liberally, then add the pasta and cook al dente (according to package directions).

In the meantime, chop the bacon into 1" pieces.  Cook in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Remove to a paper towel-covered plate using a slotted spoon.  If you have an excessive amount of bacon grease, pour it out.  I had less than a tablespoon, so I left it in the pan.  Add the olive oil to the skillet.  Once the oil is hot, in goes the diced onion and garlic.  Cook until onion is translucent, being careful not to let the garlic brown.

Chop the asparagus into pieces about 2" long and add to the pan.  Add chicken stock and bring to a simmer.  Cook two minutes, then add shrimp and spinach to the pan and cover.  Once spinach has wilted, stir in cooked pasta.

In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together pesto and half & half.  Pour over the pasta and toss to coat.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with grated cheese - we like asiago!

Prosciutto & Spinach Panini with Pesto & Yogurt Cheese

I love panini!  Somehow, eating meat on bread becomes less of an issue for me when it's pressed, hot, and cheesy.  Also little grammar lesson for you?  Do not try to pluralize it as "paninis".  It is already plural, kind of like "pizelle" or "moose".

These were simple panini - I made pesto, then smeared it on lovely fresh Pugliese bread, topped with prosciutto, fresh spinach, and yogurt cheese.  Delicious!  For any of you who want specifics - it was two pieces of prosciutto, maybe 1/3 cup spinach, two slices (about 1" x 4" x 1/4" thick) of yogurt cheese, and maybe 1/2 tbsp. pesto on each sandwich.

I gave you some pesto advice a while ago, but I thought I'd add a more detailed "recipe".  I put that in quotes because I'm pretty flexible when I make pesto - you never know what it will be like texturally, and you will most likely have to add and subtract quantities in order to get the perfect consistency for your recipe.

My favorite thing about pesto is its versatility.  It works great as a spread on sandwiches, a topping for grilled meat, to brush on kabobs, and of course, as a pasta sauce.  It's nice to make pesto in big batches, then freeze it for later use.  You can use up your summer basil and enjoy it all year round.  At this time of year, if basil is super expensive, you can use part basil and sub other herbs in for the rest of the quantity.  Flat leaf parsley is my go-to substitute, but you can experiment with other mild herbs too.

Pesto!

1 c. fresh basil leaves, packed
1/4 c. pignoli (pine nuts) or walnuts
2 cloves garlic, peeled
salt & pepper
1/3 c. extra-virgin olive oil

Place all ingredients except olive oil in the bowl of a food processor.  Process until mixture stops moving (mine typically gets stuck to the sides once it's been minced).  Scrape down the sides, then while running the food processor, stream olive oil in through the feed tube.  Stop, scrape down the sides, and taste the pesto.  Depending on its consistency, you may want to add more basil and nuts (to thicken it) or more olive oil (to thin it out).  Remember to season it to taste with salt and pepper.  The pesto I made this time was very thick - I wanted it to spread nicely on sandwiches and not be watery at all.  When I turned it into a pesto cream for pasta later in the week, I thinned it out with milk and a bit of heavy cream.

Store pesto for a couple days in food storage containers as pictured above, or ladle into ice cube trays and freeze.  Store the frozen cubes in a zip-top bag.  Each cube is 2 tablespoons of pesto - the perfect amount for four panini or one bowl of pasta.

Chicken Piccata

Chicken Piccata is an Italian restaurant staple.  A buttery, lemony sauce with capers, a thin piece of chicken, served with pasta...what could be bad about that?  The problem for me is, most restaurants use way too much lemon in their Chicken Piccata.  I'm not a fan of lemon in food, mostly because people tend to overuse it, overwhelming their dishes with tartness. 

Have I turned you off of the idea of Chicken Piccata yet?  I hope not, because done right, this dish is a delicious meal to serve the next time you have guests for dinner.  I used Giada's recipe, but dialed back the lemon juice just a hair.  My version below shows my changes.  I purchased "chicken breast filets" at my farmer's market - already butterflied, cut in half, and pounded thin.  Talk about eliminating the legwork!  Of course, you pay extra to have the work done for you, but the way I see it, I paid about $10 for meat that fed 4 people with 2 servings of leftovers.  So $10 / 6 servings = $1.67 per serving.  Not bad, huh?




Chicken Piccata
adapted from Giada DeLaurentiis 

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, butterflied, cut in half, pounded thin
2/3 c. AP flour, for dredging
salt & pepper
8 tbsp. unsalted butter
6 tbsp. olive oil
1/4 c. + 2 tbsp. lemon juice
2/3 c. chicken stock
1/4 c. brined capers, rinsed
1/3 c. fresh parsley, chopped
1 lb. capellini pasta
garlic powder
Italian seasoning


Set oven to "warm" or "100 degree" setting.

Season chicken with salt and pepper.  Dredge in flour, coating both sides, then shaking off excess flour.

In a large saucepan, melt 2 tbsp. of butter with 3 tbsp. olive oil.  When butter is sizzling, add two pieces of chicken to the pan.  I was only able to cook one piece at a time, so I sauteed two chicken breasts in this time.  Cook the chicken 3 minutes on each side, then remove to an oven-proof serving plate and put in the oven to keep warm.  Repeat with the second piece if necessary.

Add 2 tbsp. of butter and 2 tbsp. of olive oil.  When butter is sizzling, add two piece of chicken to pan (or one at a time again, if necessary).  Cook chicken for three minutes on each side, remove to serving plate and keep warm in the oven.

Add the lemon juice, stock, and capers to the pan to deglaze.  Scrape up all the yummy brown bits with a wooden spoon, then add 2 tbsp. butter and whisk vigorously. 

In the meantime, boil a large pot of water over high heat.  Add 1 tbsp. olive oil and a generous sprinkle of kosher salt.  Cook capellini according to package directions.  Drain and return to pot.  Add butter, stir to coat.  Season to taste with garlic powder and Italian seasoning.

Make a "bed" of pasta on a plate.  Top with chicken and spoon sauce over the top.  Garnish with fresh parsley.

Tortellini Soup with Sausage & Escarole

This soup has so many delicious Italian ingredients - cheese tortellini, spicy sausage, escarole - that you know it's going to be fantastic!  What I like best about this is that it comes together in half an hour and it doesn't require any long simmering times.  This comforting soup is something different from your old standards, but after one bowlful, you'll want to add it to your regular winter meal rotation.

If you can't find fresh escarole, you could substitute fresh spinach in this recipe.  The original recipe doesn't contain sausage, so if you were to omit that and swap in vegetable broth for the chicken broth, you could make this a vegetarian meal.  If I only have half the liquid as chicken stock, I supplement with water.  No matter what small changes you make, Tortellini Soup with Sausage & Escarole is a hearty, savory soup that will please your whole family.


Tortellini Soup with Sausage & Escarole
adapted from examiner.com 


1 lb. bulk ground spicy Italian sausage
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 c. white wine
8 c. chicken stock
2 lb. cheese tortellini
1 head escarole, washed and chopped
pecorino romano cheese (optional)

Saute onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat until translucent.  Add the Italian sausage and cook over medium high heat, breaking up large clumps, until sausage is cooked through.

Deglaze the pan with the white wine - the liquid will steam a bit and pull up all the brown bits stuck to the pan (ie. the flavor!) - and allow to simmer and reduce for about 2 minutes.  Add the chicken stock, cover, and bring to a boil.

Once stock is boiling, add tortellini and escarole.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Cook for five minutes, or until tortellini is heated through.  If you like, serve with a sprinkling of pecorino romano cheese.

Chicken with Lemony Egg Noodles and Peas

 I have become a fan of MSN's food website - it's called "Delish.com", and there are tons of recipes that are easy to search and easy to make.  Each recipe includes nutritional information, reviews, and when available, other versions of the dish.

The first recipe I made from Delish was this Chicken with Lemony Egg Noodles and Peas.  Now, I'm not a huge fan of lemon in savory dishes.  I tend to think it outshines chicken, and I love the flavor of seafood so much that I hate to mask it with lemon.  I definitely scaled back the lemon in this dish, but you could follow the original recipe if you are a fan of lemony flavors.

I needed to feed five people with this recipe, and it didn't indicate how many servings I'd get, so I doubled the original.  Below you'll see the recipe exactly as I made it.  For the record, I'd say my version could have fed 8 people, because I had TONS of leftovers.  Luckily, this creamy dish is delicious, so I was happy to eat it leftover!

Chicken with Lemony Egg Noodles and Peas

adapted from Delish.com

4 chicken legs

2 lemons

16 oz. extra-wide egg noodles

8 oz. sugar snap peas

2 c. shredded carrots

2 c. frozen peas

2 c. chicken broth

1/2 c. heavy cream

1/2 c. skim milk

1 c. shredded cheese (I used 3/4 mozzarella and 1/4 parmesan)

The original recipe calls for a leftover rotisserie chicken, but I had chicken legs in the freezer, so I opted to use those instead.  I cooked them in the crockpot with a squeeze of lemon juice and the halves of the lemons.  When I put the pasta together, I skipped the zest that the original recipe calls for.

Once the chicken is cooked, remove from the slow cooker and allow to cool slightly.  Use two forks to shred the meat from the bone, set aside.

From here on out, this is pretty simple.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Salt the water, then add the egg noodles.  Cook as instructed on the package.  With one minute left to go, add the snap peas to the water.

Put the carrots and frozen peas in a colander.  Drain the noodles and snap peas over these vegetables.  The heat from the boiling water will heat the carrots and peas.

Return the noodle pot to the stove.

While the noodles and veggies drain, combine broth, milk, salt, and pepper in the pot over high heat.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium.  Stir in cheese and cream until cheese is completely melted.

 Add shredded chicken, noodles, and vegetables to the pot.  Stir thoroughly to combine, serve while hot.

Buffalo Chicken Lasagne

I have made several of the recipes on the blog "A Year of Slow Cooking", and have even tried a "buffalo" recipe from that website. I often tweak the recipes, and they always come out delicious, so I'm always game to try another one.

I've had my eye on the Buffalo Chicken Lasagne recipe for a while. I'm so glad I made it - Andrew and I both loved this one. If you'd like the recipe, click the link to find it on the Crockpot Lady's blog.

As I said, I make changes to most recipes I make, and this one is no exception. The original recipe calls for marinara sauce. Since I dislike tomatoes, I opted to use a vodka sauce instead, and I was extremely pleased with the results. I think it goes much better with the buffalo flavor than a tomato sauce would. The vodka sauce is lighter, richer, and less acidic, making it an ideal pairing for the spicy buffalo flavor. Additionally, the recipe calls for "buffalo wing sauce". Rather than buying a special wing sauce, I mixed up my usual buffalo sauce, combining melted butter and hot sauce. The last change I made was to use all green peppers instead of the assortment of colors the recipe called for.

Enough talk, let's see some action, shall we? I started by assembling all my ingredients and getting my Crock Pot ready.

A dollop of sauce in the bottom of the pot prevents sticking. Then, start layering. Uncooked noodles first, then blobs of ricotta, a handful of peppers, and a sprinkling of the shredded cheeses.

Look at the fluffy ricotta! I used a "light" brand, and didn't notice any difference at all.

I thought the peppers were a nice addition. The green provided little pops of color, and the flavor of the peppers added some freshness and light to an otherwise heavy, cheesy, creamy dish. (Um, not that there is anything wrong with all things creamy and cheesy!)

I used a mixture of shredded mozzarella and shredded cheddar, as recommended in the recipe. We liked the creaminess the mozzarella lent the lasagne, and the sharpness of the cheddar matched the buffalo flavor beautifully.

Oooh, now it's time for my favorite part! Look at this gorgeous wedge of blue cheese I got at West Side Market:

If you use a wedge like I did instead of the pre-packaged crumbles, you'll need a quarter pound to equal the half cup the recipe calls for.

I didn't get any pictures of the finished product, but it looked pretty similar to the photo on the Crockpot Lady's blog. Mine was actually more "buffalo-y" looking than hers because of the vodka sauce - the overall color was very orange-pink, extremely reminiscent of good buffalo sauce.

Overall, I found this recipe was easy to put together and the resulting meal was the ultimate in comfort food. I will definitely make this again - the irresistible combination of buffalo sauce, shredded chicken, and delicious blue cheese were enough to solidify this recipe as a keeper.

Seafood Linguine

Andrew and I have been married since June 2008. Even though we now have a wedding anniversary to celebrate, I think it's fun to celebrate our "dating anniversary" too. There are so many sad days in life, don't you think it's nice to celebrate every happy occasion you can think of?

Monday marked six years that Andrew and I have been together. Instead of going out to dinner, we decided to make a dinner we both love - seafood linguine. We stalked the seafood section of our local grocery store, then put together a simple scampi sauce. The meal turned out beautifully, and the anniversary was pretty great too!

Seafood Linguine

1 medium onion, diced

5 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 lb. sea scallops

1/2 lb. large shrimp

2 cans minced clams

1-1/2 lbs. mussels

1 lb. linguine

1 c. white wine

1 bottle clam juice

olive oil

salt

red pepper flakes

To start, drizzle olive oil into a large saucepan. Saute onions, garlic, and red pepper over medium heat unti onions are soft. At the same time, put a large pot of salted water on to boil for your pasta.

Clean mussels by washing them and removing their beards and any loose barnacles. The nice lady at the seafood counter was kind enough to pack the mussels on ice for me, since I wasn't planning to use them until the next day.

Add wine, clam juice, and mussels to pan. Bring to a simmer and cover.

While the mussels are cooking, prepare the other seafood. Don't forget to put the pasta into your boiling water!

The sea scallops we bought were really big, so I cut each one into six small chunks.

I like canned clams. I LOVE fresh clams, but they are tough to get at a decent price here in Ohio, and honestly, it would take SO much work to get the same amount of fresh clams that you get in a can.

So anyway. Crack the two cans. Drain one. Add both cans of clams, one with juice, to the saucepan.

Andrew helped me peel and devein the shrimp. This is NOT a pretty process, so I did not photograph it for you. I'm trying to entice you with my food, not gross you out. I chopped the shrimp, then added the shrimp and scallops to the pan. These only need to cook for two or three minutes, until the shrimp turn pink and the scallops turn opaque white.

Drain the pasta whenever it's done cooking. If the timing isn't perfect, just let it sit in the colander for a moment while you finish prepping the seafood.

Pile your cooked pasta into the pan.

Get your husband, neighbor, local superhero, or weightlifting pal to lift up that super heavy pan and dump it into a large bowl. Make sure you scrape out all the onions, clams, and other yummy goodness.

Get your garlic bread ready. You can find my recipe here. If you're comfortable with the broiler, you can prep your bread in the two minutes that the shrimp and scallops are cooking and broil it while you are mixing the linguine and serving it.

All in all, it's a pretty simple recipe that yields fantastic results. If you're a seafood fan, this is one that's definitely worth adding to your list of "special occasion" menus.

Braised Beef

This is another recipe from Samantha - when I get a recipe from her, I always know it's going to turn out delicious, and this was no exception. After being braised, the meat is incredibly tender and flavorful. You could serve it any way you like - I decided to serve it over egg noodles. You can see that I made this recipe my own by omitting ingredients that I didn't have (or that we don't care for!) - I know that Samantha's recipes are never exact, and they're usually pretty flexible in terms of measurements and required ingredients.

Braised Beef

One huge ass beef roast (Samantha's words, not mine!)
5-6 cloves minced garlic
1/2 c. diced onion
1/2 c. diced carrot
1/2 c. diced celery (I omitted)
1/2 c. diced mushrooms (I omitted)
3 tbsp. tomato paste
Half a bottle of red wine
3 c. chicken broth (or beef if you prefer)
1 tbsp. each basil, oregano, tarragon
1/2 tsp. each rosemary and thyme (I omitted because I didn't see this line until I was retyping this recipe just now)
a bay leaf (I never have one, so I skipped it)

Season all sides of the roast with salt and pepper. Go a little heavy on the salt - you're going to need it. As Andrew said - "That's a big piece of meat!"

Heat a little bit of olive oil over high heat in a large soup pot or Dutch oven. Sear the meat on both sides until brown. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add veggies and garlic and saute until onion is translucent. You may need to add a bit more olive oil - I did.

Add the tomato paste and stir.

Now, pour in the wine, chicken broth, and spices.

The original recipe calls for 2-3 cups broth - I used 2 cups to start, then ended up adding another cup to cover the beef.

Of the spices listed in the recipe, I used basil, oregano, and tarragon. I missed the line about rosemary and thyme - oops!

Add a bit more salt and plenty of pepper. Bring to a boil and taste. It should be just slightly under-salted. Yummy!

Submerge the roast in the liquid. If it is not covered, add more wine and broth until it does and reseason to taste. Cover and simmer for at least 45 minutes. The longer it simmers, the more tender the beef will be. As Samantha says, "It's done when you get tired of waiting or when it falls apart when you try to lift it."

I braised the beef for right around the recommended 45 minutes. It wasn't falling apart, but it was beautifully tender and rare. The edges were cooked all the way through, but the middle was a gorgeous bright pink.

I sliced the beef and served over buttery egg noodles. Once the noodles were cooked, I added a little bit of butter and garlic powder, Italian seasonings, salt, pepper, and parsley.

To serve, make a bed of noodles:

Then, top the noodles with the sliced beef:

Ladle the veggies and broth over the beef and noodles:

This is a hearty, comforting meal that is easy yet impressive. It's a perfect Sunday night dinner, reminiscent of Grandma's pot roast, but more flavorful and even more delicious.