Beef & Barley soup (mom's)

Beef & Barley soup (mom's)

1.5/1.75 chuck steak with bone  (1740/2030 calories)
0.75 lbs turnip (1/4 of a small one) - Cut up into half the size of a cube of sugar  (26 calories)
0.4 lbs onion (~2 small) - Cut up ~ half the size of stir fry size
1/2 cup pearl barley
2 cups cabbage (1/4 a small one) - Shaved then cut in half like making cole slaw
0.5 lbs carrots - Cut up into stew size bites
0.5 lbs green beans - Cut up into stew size bites
2 stalks celery - Cut up a little smaller than stew size bites
16 oz beef broth - low/no sodium. This can be replaced with water + bouillon cubes


- Wash meat and cut into thirds. Add to deep pan, adding water to cover meat
- Put on stove on high. Once boiling, cover and turn to low. Cook for 1-1.5 hrs
- Add turnip. Cook for 0.5-1 hours
- Add onion. Cook for 0.5 hours
- Take out meat and put aside to cool
- Add barley. Put temp back to high
- Add cabbage, carrots, beans.
- Once boiling, turn down temp to med/low
- Cook for 20-25 minutes. Check barley, add time if needed
- Shred beef with hands.
- Once barley is cooked, add celery and meat.
- Add broth enough to cover everything in liquid.
- Turn temp to high, cover.
- Once boiling, turn to medium and cook for 10 minutes.
- Taste. Add more broth or salt if needed

* This recipe is 1/2 of the original recipe, which is approximately 6 servings.
** This can be a time consuming meal, as the cook time is a minimum of 3 hours. All of the food prep can be done while the meat is cooking.

** Made without onion, and quinoa instead of barley. Onion made no difference, slight taste change due to the lack of barley. Needed a little salt instead.
** Calorie count for double ingredients, no onion, and quinoa instead of barley - ~5200. Meat accounted for 76% and the quinoa was 12%. Better cut of meat cuts down on calories but also affects stock.

Meatball's & sauce (mom's)

SAUCE

2 cans Hunts Puree - 22 points total
1 can Pastene Ground Peeled Tomatoes - 7 per can * You can add 2 cans
1/2 can water per can - 0 points

SPICES - These measurements are per can of sauce added - 1/4 teaspoon (dried) of each spice, crush in palm before adding
Basil leaves - 0 points
Parsley - 0 points
Mint flakes - 0 points

1 medium onion, chopped - 0 points

4-5 cloves of garlic - (you can add the whole clove and remove later, or chop it up and leave it in) 0 points

Salt - To taste - 0 points
Pepper - To taste - 0 points

Sweet italian sauage links - 1 lb (6-8 links) - 40 points

Kraft Parmesan & Romano cheese - up to 1/4 cup - 8 points

- Pre-heat over to 350 degrees.
- In large pan, mix together: sauce, water, spices, onion, salt, pepper.
- Throw it in the oven, covered.
- Make your meatballs (see below)
- Add meatballs to the top of the sauce, spoon sauce over the meatballs, don't mix up the sauce (meatballs will fall apart)
- Put in over for a while (30-60 minutes)
- Add some grated cheese and mix up the sauce
- Cover, back in over
- Keep an eye/ear on it - Don't let it boil. It will get to the point where it is boiling. At that point, turn the temp down to 275-325, mixing periodically


MEATBALLS

1/2 pound ground pork - 8 points
1.5 pounds ground beef 93% - 22 points
2 eggs - 4 points
1 cup plain bread crumbs - 11 points

SPICES - These measurements are per pound of meat - 1/4 teaspoon (dried) of each spice, crush in palm before adding
Basil leaves - 0 points
Parsley - 0 points
Mint flakes - 0 points


FINELY chop 1 medium onion, set aside in a bowl - 0 points

Kraft Parmesan & Romano cheese - up to 1/16 cup - 2 points

Salt - to taste
Pepper - to taste

1/4 - 1/2 cup of sauce

- In a bowl add all ingredients EXCEPT bread crumbs and onion. Mix slowly with a spoon, and slowly add bread crumbs and onion. Add sauce to the mix. If not dry, add 1/4 cup. If dry, add up to 1/2 cup.
**Don't over mix!!

Fish (mom's)

FISH

Haddock

5-8 ritz crackers
2 tabs butter, melted
lemon

- put crackers in a bag, crush them (use a rolling pin or a can)
- combine crackers crumbs with melted butter
- wash fish, put in baking pan
- squeeze lemon on top
- add crumbs to top
- bake for 12 minutes at 350 degrees uncovered
- if you want crispy crumbs, put back in over with broiler on. Watch carefully




Salmon

- Wash fish, put in baking pan
- pre-heat broiler, broil for 4-5 minutes
- put butter on top of fish
- back in over for 5-6 minutes
- should be 10-12 minutes total


Swordfish

- Wash fish, put in baking pan
- pre-heat broiler, broil for 4-5 minutes
- put butter on top of fish
- back in over for 5-6 minutes
- should be 10-12 minutes total


Shrimp (26-30 count)

5-8 ritz crackers
2 tabs butter, melted
cut up garlic
lemon

- put crackers in a bag, crush them (use a rolling pin or a can)
- combine crackers crumbs with melted butter and garlic
- De-shell
- wash and put in pan
- squeeze lemon on top
- add crumbs to top
- bake for 7-12 minutes at 350 degrees uncovered

Potato salad (mom's)

5 pounds potatoes
6 eggs - Hard boiled
1 large vidalia onion - diced
1+ cup - mayo (Demoulas light mayo)
salt
pepper

- peel & quarter potatoes
- Add potatoes to pan and fill with water.
- Put on stove on high.Once it starts boiling, cook at least 30 minutes. Mix at first, after 5-10 minutes stop stirring. Check with fork, should feel like cantaloupe.
- drain. Air cool until you can handle the potato's

(repeat until all ingredients are used)
- Cut up a some of the potato's into a mixing bowl
- cut up some egg
- Add some onion
- Add some mayo
- season with salt & pepper
- mix

- Chill before serving

Lasagna (mom's)

To make 2 Lasagna's

2 throw away foil pans (washed) - 13x9x2.75
3 pounds - Dragone part skim ricotta
2 pounds - Barilla lasagna
2 packages - sliced Mozzarella
3 packages (12 oz) - Shredded mozzarella
Can of Parmesan/Romano cheese
Homemade sauce - 10 cups

* Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
* Remove cover from Ricotta to let it get to room temperature.
* If spreading Ricotta is difficult, you can nuke it for 10-20 seconds to warm it up
* Can mix Ricotta and sauce to make it even easier to spread

Cook lasagna as directed on box. When done cooking, put cooked lasagna into a bowl of cold/cool water for a minute. Remove and drape over side of colander for a minute. Put paper towels on counter top, and layer cooked lasagna on paper towels.


- put a layer sauce
- layer of lasagna (3)
- layer of sauce
- layer of shredded mozzarella
- sprinkle parmesan/romano cheese
- layer of lasagna (3)
- Layer of ricotta (.75 pound)
- Layer of sauce
- layer of lasagna (3)
- layer of sauce
- layer of shredded mozzarella
- sprinkle parmesan/romano cheese
- layer of lasagna (3)
- Layer of ricotta (.75 pound)
- Layer of sauce
- layer of lasagna (3)
- layer of sauce
- layer of shredded mozzarella
- sprinkle parmesan/romano cheese
- layer of lasagna (3)
** NO RICOTTA THIS LEVEL **
- Layer of sauce

Cover with one layer of foil. Cook in over for 30 minutes. Take out of oven, cool, and put in refrigerator or freezer. On day of eating, remove from refrigerator or freezer and allow to get close to room temperature. Cook, covered, at 350 for 20-40 minutes. Once it is hot and steaming, remove foil, cover top with sliced Mozzarella. Put back in oven. You can put on broil but you MUST watch it closely as the cheese will burn easily. Remove from oven once cheese is melted.

Meat Stuffing (mom's)

8 small brown potatoes
2 small onions
2 pounds ground hamburg
2 pounds ground pork ( try with turkey?)
half of 1lb box of Bell's traditional stuffing

- Peel and cut up potatoes
- Add to large pan, add up to an inch of water
- Put on burner on high
- Cut up onions, add to pan
- add a little salt and pepper
- Once boiling, turn down to low and cover
- simmer for 20-30 minutes
- Add meat - 1 pound at a time, breaking up with a spoon
- simmer for a long time
- Add 1/2 box of 1lb of stuffing mix
- Turn off burner and mash up with a potato masher
- Mix up thoroughly and let sit for a little bit
- Check if it needs more stuffing or salt/pepper (don't add more salt)
- Can add a little water or broth from turkey if dry or lumpy