This week’s recipe goes quite well with last week’s mashed potatoes. In fact, I made them together. I’ve actually made this Salisbury Steak twice now, but the first time I made it was when I had uncooperative camera batteries and couldn’t take pictures. Luckily, I enjoyed it well enough the first time that I decided to do a little bit of tweaking and make it again. I found the recipe at The Baking Beauties, and it is gluten-free if you use GF bread crumbs.

I like to serve my Salisbury Steak with mashed potatoes, as I’ve already mentioned. Because of this, I doubled the sauce so that we’d have enough to use as gravy for the potatoes. That’s the only change I made to the original recipe. The descriptions with my pictures are for the doubled sauce. The recipe posted at the end has the original measurements so you can make it however you like!

You’ll need:

1 1/2 lbs ground beef, bread crumbs, 1 egg, Lipton onion soup mix, cornstarch, ketchup, mustard powder, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce

Combine packets of onion soup mix in a bowl with 1 1/2 cups of hot water and let sit for 5 minutes.

While that’s resting, in a large bowl combine 1 1/2 lbs of ground beef

1/2 cup of bread crumbs

1 egg. It’s there, I swear… it’s hiding up there in the corner.

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

And finally, 1/3 cup of the onion soup mixture that’s been resting since the first step.

Get in there and mix it all together until it’s all very well combined. I suggest using your hands, it will be much easier. Divide the mixture and shape it into 6 oval shaped patties. I don’t have a picture of this step because, well, my hands were covered in raw meat.

If you can handle having several things going in the kitchen at once, you can go ahead and start browning the meat. If you’re like me though, and things on the stove generally require your full attention, set the meat aside and start on the sauce.

Take the remaining onion soup, and add two teaspoons of corn starch.

Stir until the corn starch is well incorporated.

Add 1/2 cup of water. And yes, I realize that this picture probably looks exactly like the last one.

Add 1/2 cup ketchup

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

And 1 teaspoon dry mustard powder.

Stir it all together, and set aside.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, brown the patties on both sides. As you can see in this picture, they are still very pink on the inside. That’s okay. You’re just trying to brown the meat, it will finish cooking with the sauce.

Drain off as much of the extra fat as you can.

Pour the sauce mixture over the meat.

Cover the pan, and cook for approximately 20 minutes. I don’t any pictures of the finished product because my company had arrived, it smelled SO good, and I was too eager to start eating. And I just plain forgot. But trust me, it was good! I served it over mashed potatoes and we all ate until we were stuffed.

Salisbury Steak
From The Baking Beauties

1 package of Lipton onion soup mix
3/4 cup hot water
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1/2 cup dry GF bread crumbs
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black ground pepper
1 tsp cornstarch
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp mustard powder

Combine onion soup mix and hot water in a dish & let sit for 5 minutes. OR, you can use a can of condensed french onion soup (not sure if that is GF though).
In a huge bowl, mix together 1/3 cup of the onion soup mixture with ground beef, bread crumbs, egg, salt and pepper. Shape into 6 oval patties.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown both sides of patties. Pour of excess fat.
In a small bowl, blend cornstarch and remaining soup mixture until smooth. Mix in ketchup, water, Worcestershire sauce and mustard powder. Pour over meat in skillet. Cover, and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

My camera has recently been very uncooperative, and has balked at performing the task of photographing my cooking sessions. Granted, I haven’t been cooking a whole lot, but I did make at least one dish I would have loved to share with you. I’m hoping it’s just an issue with rechargeable batteries that are on their last leg. In the meantime, I’ll share this Fiesta Taco Casserole that I made awhile back but wasn’t impressed with.

If you’ve been reading for awhile, you’ve probably guessed that I’m a big fan of tacos, and taco flavored things. I should have learned by now that if a dish has “taco” in the name, but does not have taco seasonings in the ingredients, I’m probably not going to be happy with the finished product. That being said… I do think this would be a decent casserole if I used a regular can of beans, and a packet of taco seasoning instead of relying on a can of chili beans to provide the flavor for the meat layer. It will probably be a long time before I get around to trying again, so you’ll have to let me know what you think.

I don’t remember where I found this recipe, but I’m thinking it may have been in my Betty Crocker cookbook. Here’s what you’ll need.

1 lb ground beef, 1 can chili beans in sauce, salsa, sour cream, tortilla chips, onion, tomato, shredded cheese, lettuce.

First, brown up your ground beef with the onions until the onions are soft and the ground beef is no longer pink. Drain off fat, if necessary.

Add your can of chili beans, undrained.

Plus one cup of salsa.

Mix together.

Layer two cups of broken tortilla chips in the bottom of a 2 quart casserole dish.

Layer your meat and bean mixture on top of the chips.

Spread 3/4 cup of sour cream on top of your meat mixture.

Followed by your tomato.

And finally, sprinkle on 1 cup of shredded cheese. I used a cheddar jack Mexican blend.

Look at the pretty layers!

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and everything’s hot and bubbly.

Serve with extra tortilla chips, shredded lettuce and salsa, all optional. This dish has potential with some changes, but the originally written recipe left a lot to be desired for me. I don’t think I even ate any of the leftovers.

Fiesta Taco Casserole
1 lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef
1 can (15 to 16 oz) spicy chili beans in sauce, undrained
1 cup salsa
2 cups coarsely broken tortilla chips
3/4 cup sour cream
4 medium green onions, sliced
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar or monterey jack cheese
tortilla chips, optional
shredded lettuce, optional
salsa, optional

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In 10 inch skillet, cook beef over medium heat 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally until brown, drain. Stir in beans and 1 cup salsa. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally.
In ungreased 2 qt casserole, place broken tortilla chips. Top with beef mixture. Spread with sour cream. Sprinkle with onions, tomato and cheese.
Bake uncovered 20-30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Arrange tortilla chips around edge of casserole. Serve with lettuce and salsa.

Back in January, I posted a recipe for taco soup, which I called Take One. It was alright, but didn’t quite have the taste I was looking for. So the search continued. Today, I bring you Take Two, which also happens to be the Final Take for me. I can’t say definitively that I’ll never try or post another taco soup recipe, but for now, this one was exactly what I was looking for.

Or it was the second time, when I bought the right tomatoes, and not the ones with the Italian seasoning. Italian seasoning and taco seasoning just don’t play well together. In any case, I found this recipe on the Crockpot 365 blog, which is AWESOME if you have never been there.

You’ll need: 1 lb ground beef, 1 packet taco seasoning, 1 packet ranch dressing dry mix, 2 cans kidney beans, 2 cans pinto beans, 2 cans corn, 1 can tomatoes with green chilies, 1 large can of diced tomatoes. Optional: cheese and sour cream.

Brown your ground beef, drain, and add to your crock pot.

Pour in your packet of taco seasoning.

Followed by the packet of ranch dressing mix.

Drain and rinse two cans of kidney beans, and add those to the crock pot.

Same with the pinto beans– drain and rinse, then add to the pot!

Add in 2 cans of whole kernel corn, this time without draining.

Add one can of tomatoes with green chilies, without draining.

Finally, add your large can of diced tomatoes, also without draining.

Give it a good stir, put the lid on and cook on low for 8-10 hours. This smelled absolutely amazing while it was cooking! I could hardly leave it alone in the kitchen!

When it was finally done, I dished it into a bowl.

And topped it with some cheese and sour cream. This was exactly what I was going for. I felt like this recipe hit all the points that left me disappointed in the last taco soup. It’s probably more of a chili that’s taco flavored than the other one was. Either way, I was happy with the results!

Taco Soup
From Crockpot 365

2 cans kidney beans
2 cans pinto beans
2 cans corn
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 can tomatoes and chiles
1 packet taco seasoning
1 packet ranch dressing mix
1 lb ground beef
cheese and sour cream

Brown meat, add to crockpot. Sprinkle the seasoning packets on top of the meat. Drain and rinse the beans and add. Add the cans of corn and tomatoes without draining.

Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours. Serve with cheese and sour cream, if desired.