At the moment I’m noticing a lot more people asking for meal inspiration on social media sites. I love reading everyone’s ideas and sharing a few of my own too. Since Lockdown 3.0 began in January I feel like more people are enjoying cooking so I thought I would share a few of our favourite beef dishes.
We tend to eat meat only at the weekends. I like to buy our meat from a local butchers. The meat isn’t organic but it is grass fed and pasture raised. The butchers we buy our meat from allow the cows to roam free on the fields around their farm. They rear all the animals with the highest ethical standards using sustainable methods.
The meat is more expensive than the supermarket, but as we only eat it at weekends it is affordable for us. I realise not everyone has this luxury and it’s not affordable for so many people. During this pandemic I also have noticed more people becoming conscious of what food they are putting into their bodies. If you can afford to eat locally grown food I would highly recommend it. It’s much better for the planet and everyone on it. Here are my top 5 beef recipes.
Last Christmas I bought far to much meat from an organic online butchers. My little family and I were left munching our way through it in January. I decided on New Years Day to cook Roast Beef and Yorkshire puddings. The piece of beef I bought unfortunately turned out to be quite chewy. Then I had lots of leftovers too.
As I’m not one for waste I decided to see if I could make the beef more palatable. I did a bit of digging on the internet and found ways to make leftover chewy beef easy to eat. My answer was in my cupboards and it’s my favourite piece of kitchen equipment, my slow cooker. I got to work right away and found the internet doesn’t lie. When I served this dish the beef was very tender and soft. If you have any leftover beef, or even if you don’t, the slow cooker is definitely the way to go.
My Dad’s Cottage Shepherd’s Pie
Now I know there are people who would disagree with me and say this dish is a Shepherds Pie. However, I have ‘Googled’ it and it is definitely a cottage pie. Cottage Pie is traditionally made with beef so yes it’s definitely a Cottage Pie. Originally, meat and mashed potato served together was called a Cottage Pie.
It is believed that the name ‘Cottage Pie’ was first used at the end of the 18th century. It was around the time that the poorer people who lived in cottages in the UK, started using potatoes in every meal. A pie was once made with any kind of meat. In today’s world this dish is usually made with beef. If it is made with lamb it is usually called a Shepherd’s pie. (A shepherd looks after sheep).We love a great tummy warming meal in this house, especially on cold winter evenings and Cottage Pie is one of those we enjoy the most.
Baked Beef and Parma Ham Spaghetti Bolognese
When the weather is cold outside, the one place you want to be is in front of the hob. You may have a hungry stomach or a ravenous little family to feed. At this time of year my slow cooker is well used. I’m always ready to pull the slow cooker from the cupboard for any meal.
On this occasion I had forgotten to take the mince beef from the freezer. So I removed it in the morning. But that meant I couldn’t cook this in the slow cooker. So I let it defrost and I decided to make a mini slow cooked meal in the oven. The results were amazing and I just had to share this with you.
Chilli con Carne is one of our favourite meals and we are eating this dish in a variety of different forms nowadays. We have a meat version, a vegan recipe and a vegetarian recipe too. However, we have never tried chilli in a burger so I thought I would use the spice mix from my meat version of the recipe and a few other ingredients and we were not disappointed. For me, making it into burgers and serving the dish with sweet potato chips and salad just made the recipe different. We love trying new foods and flavours in this house and we all enjoyed these burgers too. Well worth a try.
Corned Beef Hash is a popular American dish that is often eaten as a breakfast, but in the UK we tend to eat it as a dinner. The hash has been available in America since at least the 19th century. There are various recipes and in America they have ‘hash house’ restaurants that sell this dish very cheaply.
My husband really enjoyed this meal even though he looked at me strangely when I told him what we were having for dinner. I knew he enjoyed it when he told me he was looking forward to his leftover lunch the next day. We ate this meal on a cold winters night and it was the ultimate comfort food. Definitely one for a cold winters night.
These 5 beef dinners are our favourite meals but there are lots more on my blog. The meals above are great meals to keep in the deep freeze too. They can be made into big batches and frozen for another occasion. Plus they can be taken with you as a packed lunch as well. We have enjoyed these meals on many different occasions and plates are always cleaned. However you decide to eat these meals, as always, please enjoy. Thank you xxx
Googies Kitchen Life 