Quick Air Fryer Pesto Salmon
In need of a quick simple dinner? Look no further than this Quick Air Fryer Pesto Salmon.
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Lulu’s Beef Brisket
This recipe was passed down from my Mom, who her grandkids referred to as Lulu, giving it the name Lulu’s Beef Brisket.
In our family it was traditionally served every Christmas. It is a tried and true family recipe. The brisket marinates in italian dressing over night which really helps flavor the meat prior to cooking. The flavor combination of the tangy cranberries with the sweet hint of brown sugar mixed and the barbecue sauce come together to form a wonderfully comforting meal. Lulu’s Beef Brisket goes perfect with dinner rolls, some sort of potato like garlic mashed potatoes or roasted potato wedges and a simple spring mix salad. Whether your looking for a warm comforting meal for a cold day, or a special recipe to serve up on a holiday, Lulu’s Beef Brisket will not disappoint.
The picture below is the original recipe from my Mom that she included in a handmade recipe book that she created for me one Christmas. This is one of my favorite gifts I have ever been given from her and is quite frayed at the edges from the constant use it gets. I am so glad she took the time to make this handmade book that contains all of her most treasured recipes and holiday classics that I can refer back to and recreate for years to come and pass down to my own children one day.
Lulu’s Beef Brisket
This recipe features a marinated beef brisket baked in the oven with flavors of cranberry, brown sugar, and barbecue. Slowly cooked and juices reserved this brisket ends up tender, flavorful, delicious, and melts in your mouth!
Ingredients
- 5 lbs Beef Brisket
- 1 Bottle Italian Dressing
- 1 Cup Brown Sugar
- 1 Cup Barbecue Sauce
- 1 Cup Fresh Cranberries
- Salt & Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Marinate the brisket in Italian dressing over night
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees
- Remove the meat from the Italian dressing, place in baking dish and wrap in aluminum foil
- Bake at 300 degrees for 3.5 hours, remove foil and cook for additional half hour longer
- Remove from oven and let cool (reserving juices) place in fridge overnight (freeze if desired and save for later use, when ready to serve defrost meat and continue remaining steps below)
- Drain the juice from the pan into large mixing bowl and mix with brown sugar, barbecue sauce and cranberries
- Cover the brisket with this sauce and bake at 350 degrees until warmed through and pulls apart easily with a fork, approx. 30 mins.
- Slice meat against the grain or shred gently with forks (whichever you prefer) and pour sauce over top and serve!
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Beef Ragu
This Beef Ragu is cooked long and slow in a crock pot making it the perfect meal to throw together at the end of a busy day. With just a few quick simple steps beforehand you can have the meat cooking all day, developing loads of flavor and getting to that perfect fall apart melt in your mouth texture- all while your busy going about your day! After the meat has been braising all day in the crock pot, all you have to do is shred the meat up, boil the pasta, toss to combine and voila dinner is served!
To sear, or not to sear?
For this Beef Ragu, I highly recommend searing the meat first, as well as sautéing onions and garlic together before adding into the crock pot. This quick simple step not only adds flavor, but its main purpose is to lock in the juices to the meat making it more tender and moist at the end. Crunched on time, no problem! I assure you this Beef Ragu will turn out just as fabulous if you forego these 2 steps. Everything cooks slowly in the crock pot creating that delicious savory slightly sweet yet slightly acidic flavor from the tomatoes with the umami from the meat.
Sprucing it up
Want to make this Beef Ragu extra special? To make this Beef Ragu even tastier, get yourself some authentic Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, a whole block not pre-shredded, and micro-plane this on top of your pasta bowl with the beef ragu. On to that sprinkle some fresh herbs, like parsley finely chopped. This will take this dish to another level! But in a pinch, pre grated parmesean, (which my family refers to as “shakey cheese” ever since we heard one of my favorite chefs, Ludo Lefebvre, refer to it as that) will do just fine. If your a lover of heat like my husband, sprinkle some dried red pepper on top for a little extra kick!
Leftovers
Storing for later? Made too much of this Beef Ragu, or planning to make ahead and freeze for later. This Beef Ragu can be prepared and frozen for a later time. If thats the case I would buy the meat fresh not frozen. To help ensure the pasta does not dry out, I would reserve some of the pasta water you boil the noodles in and toss with the finished pasta and beef ragu as the noodles will absorb the extra moisture. Simply thaw under refrigeration and re-heat to serve.
Beef Ragu
Slow cooked, tender, fall apart beef in a savory tomato, garlic, and oregano sauce, atop a bed of broad flat Pappardelle pasta serving as the perfect vessel to sop up this savory and robust beef ragu. This Beef Ragu is a warm and comforting meal that is relatively simple to make considering the crock pot does most of the work for you. Come dinner time all you have to do is shred the meat, boil the pasta, and combine. You'll wow everyone with this delicious meal, the depth of flavors achieved from cooking low and slow all day will have your diners thinking you got take-away from the local Italian restaurant.
Equipment
- 1 Crock Pot
- 1 Cast Iron Pan large
- 1 Pasta Pot
Ingredients
- 1.5 pound chuck roast
- 2 tbsp oil, ghee, tallow choose your preference, highest smoke point preferred for searing
- 1 sweet onion
- 3 cloves garlic minced (or 2 teaspoons of already minced garlic)
- 1- 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 glass dry red wine (substitute beef broth)
- 2 tbsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp cracked black pepper
- 16 ounces pappardelle pasta
- grated parmesean cheese (per preference on top)
Instructions
- Pat dry chuck roast. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tbsp of oil of your choice over high heat in cast iron skillet. Once oil is hot and shimmering add the meat to skillet and sear each side until char develops on the meat. Rotating until all sides are browned. Approximately 5 minutes.
- Slice onions and mince garlic and saute these aromatics together in the skillet with remaining 1 tbsp oil.
- Place seared chuck roast in crock pot on low heat, add onions and garlic to slow cooker. Add can of crushed tomatoes with the liquid, tomato paste, red wine, dried oregano.
- Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or high 4-6 hours.
- Near the end of the meat cooking time, cook pasta according to package directions. Strain pasta.
- Serve the meat ragu over cooked pasta and top with parmesean cheese.
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Peanut Butter Banana Boost Smoothie
Smooth & Creamy
This Peanut Butter Banana Boost Smoothie is thick and creamy and loaded with protein. With ingredients like bananas, almond butter, oats and chia seeds it’s a perfect breakfast treat. It also can double as a protein filled afternoon pick me up to help fuel your body and give you the boost you need to make it through the rest of the day. The addition of the cinnamon adds a nice warm spice kick to the otherwise sweet smoothie.
Inspiration
This Peanut Butter Banana Boost Smoothie is inspired by my daughter’s favorite smoothie ever, from the LifeCafe at Lifetime Gym. We refer to it in our house as the “lifetime smoothie”. When we used to go there and she was a toddler she would always enjoy this smoothie as a sweet treat after I got my workout in and she played in the kids’ area for a while working up an appetite. She of course ended up wanting it every time we went, and my husband was determined to re-create this at home. With a couple test runs, we have now found our recipe for success. The kids now love this in the morning before school, and the protein in it helps keep them full! You can’t go wrong with the flavor combination of bananas and almond butter, and add in chocolate and you have an instant hit!
Ingredients
- Almond Milk
- Bananas (preferable super ripe bananas already frozen in small chunks)
- Peanut Butter (any nut butter will do, we just find good ol’ peanut butter to be creamiest)
- Chocolate Protein Powder
- Oats (the old fashion rolled oats for homemade oatmeal)
- Chia Seeds
- Cinnamon
- Cacao Nibs (for garnish)
Tips
A few quick tips to make this Peanut Butter Banana Boost Smoothie turn out exactly how you like, using your preferred ingredients!
Can I substitute my favorite milk instead of almond milk? ABSOLUTELY, I know there are so many options out there and this recipe is flexible- I think any type would be completely fine to swap out, my suggestion would be for oat milk as it is rich and creamy. But any dairy or non dairy preferred milk will do!
You might wonder the same for the peanut butter, can I swap this for a different nut butter? SURE! Again its very flexible, as long as you have a nut butter in your pantry go for it!
One trick we do in our kitchen is any time bananas are starting to go bad, if I don’t immediately plan on using them, I will peel them, roughly chop them into chunks, and place in a gallon size freezer safe zip lock bag and throw in the freezer for smoothies. So whenever we have a craving for this Peanut Butter Banana Boost Smoothie we just use the frozen banana and omit the ice. I find the ice makes it a bit thinner, and for lack of better terms, “icey”. The cinnamon in this recipe gives it such an unexpected warm spice kick, which we love in this house! So our portion of cinamon is a heaping generous amount. Trust me don’t skip out on this addition! We even love to sprinkle a little bit on top when serving along with cacao nibs. Let me know in the comments how it turned out. Don’t focus on the details with smoothies. Add what you have and see how it turns out! You’ll find your favorite flavor combination.
Peanut Butter Banana Boost Smoothie
This Peanut Butter Banana Boost Smoothie is thick and creamy and loaded with protein. With ingredients like bananas, almond butter, oats and chia seeds it’s a perfect breakfast treat. It also can double as a protein filled afternoon pick me up to help fuel your body and give you the boost you need to make it through the rest of the day. The addition of the cinnamon adds a nice warm spice kick to the otherwise sweet smoothie.
Equipment
- 1 Blender –Vitamix is a great blender!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Cup Almond Milk
- 3 Bananas preferably very ripe and pre cut into chunks and frozen
- 2 Tbsp Peanut Butter
- 1/3 Cup Rolled Oats
- 1 Scoop Chocolate Protein Powder
- 1 Tbsp Chia Seeds
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- Ice
Instructions
- Gather all ingredients.
- Add all ingredients into blender, except ice.
- If using frozen banana you may not need to add any ice depending on consistency you like. If you are using regular banana add a few handfuls of ice once other ingredients are blended together until you reach your desired consistency.
- Blend until desired consistency, garnish with cinnamon and cacao nibs and ENJOY!
Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese English Muffin
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