No Peek Beef Tips

We all know that the beef prices are way way up. I hesitated writing this post because of that fact. I was totally shocked when I purchased a pound and a half of beef stew meat. Stew meat was once the cheapest cut of beef you could buy. If you had a large family beef stew was a good hearty dinner with usually leftovers and the cost was minimal...not today. My small amount of beef stew meat was $10.88. YIKES!!! It was $8.99 per pound. 
I decided I would leave it up to my readers to decide if they want to try this recipe. Actually, it is really, really good and easy to make too. It only calls for four ingredients and a cup of water. I call that a great recipe. I guess you could look at it this way my total cost for this dinner was around $15. There are only two of us at home now, and this recipe actually made four servings. So we had it yesterday and have enough leftover for another evening. So the cost per serving, including potatoes, broccoli and Italian bread was $3.75. Compared to eating out, I would say this was pretty reasonable.

My Mother-in-Law made a family favorite which our whole family still makes. She called it Hungarian Goulash. The beef tips recipe is very similar, only she used round steak. Round steak is also pretty expensive, but once again her recipe fed a family of six, five of them being boys...and we all know how much boys eat. I'll add her recipe  at the end of this post.

Ingredients to Make "No Peek Beef Tips...
  • 2 lbs. beef stew meat
  • 1 can cream of mushroom soup (you can use any creamed soup to make this recipe)
  • 1 packet brown gravy mix
  • 1 packet French onion soup mix
  • 1 can water
Like I said there are "4" ingredients needed to make this delicious dinner. 

Let's Make No Peek Beef Tips...
Mix together the cream of mushroom soup, the brown gravy mix, French onion soup mix and 1 can of water. Place the beef stew meat in a casserole and pour the soup mixture over the top.
Cover the casserole tight with aluminum foil. Place in the oven and 3 hours later, you have beef tips and gravy. Make sure you don't peek!
When I purchased the beef stew meat, it was already cubed in very small pieces. Next time, I'm going to purchase larger cuts of beef stew meat. When this cut of meat is cooked slowly, it shrinks a lot. So keep that in mind when you purchase your stew meat.

A Great Idea for the Left Over Beef Tips...
I think the small cuts of beef stew meat would work great in making beef pot pies. I might try doing that with the left overs. Make a pie crust, cook a package of peas and carrots, add some diced canned potatoes and and the meat and gravy from this recipe and bake. Now I have an idea for a dinner for sometime this week.

Beef Tips Recipe...
Ingredients:
  • 2 lbs. beef stew meat
  • 1 can cream of mushroom soup (you can use any creamed soup to make this recipe)
  • 1 packet brown gravy mix
  • 1 packet French onion soup mix
  • 1 can water
Directions:
  1. Mix the cream of mushroom soup, brown gravy mix, French onion soup mix and water
  2. Pour over beef stew meat in either a casserole or a 9X13" pan (depending on how much meat you have)
  3. Cover with tin foil tightly.
  4. Place in a 300℉ oven and cook for 3 hours. (Remember, don't peek)
Note: I think this recipe could also be cooked in a crockpot. Do exactly the same thing above, but place in crockpot and cook for 8 hours on low heat. The whole idea is to cook slowly to tenderize the meat.

Grandma Lorraine's Hungarian Goulash Recipe...
I mentioned my Mother-in-law's Hungarian Goulash in this post. This recipe also uses only four ingredients and is so delicious. Here is the recipe.
Ingredients:
  • 2 lbs. round steak (cut into approximately 2"x2" pieces)
  • 1 large yellow onion
  • 2 cans tomato soup
  • salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
  1. Cut round steak into approximately 2"x2" pieces and place into crockpot
  2. Dice the large yellow onion and add to the meat in the crockpot
  3. Add 2 cans of tomato soup
  4. Salt and pepper to taste
  5. Mix all ingredients, cover the crockpot, and cook for 8 hours on low.
  6. Serve over mashed potatoes
Mom's Carrot Casserole...
You can also add baby carrots to the crockpot. Last week I wrote a post on my Mom's carrot casserole. This recipe goes great with Grandma Lorraine's Hungarian Goulash. I placed a link below for the carrot casserole. It is also so delicious. A perfect compliment to this dinner.

Well, that's it for this week...No Peek Beef Tips, possibly Beef Pot Pies, Grandma Lorraine's Hungarian Goulash and Grandma Helen's (my Mom) Carrot Casserole. All of these recipes are comfort food at it's best. I do hope you try them. You won't be disappointed!



Mongolian Beef
Slow Cooker Pot Roast


Always remember..."Life's short...eat dessert first!"...words to live by! 

Mom's Carrot Casserole

As a child I didn't like vegetables very much. My Mom would try to disguise them any way she could so I would eat them. But, as I got older and because of Mom taking the time to make veggies delicious, I became a huge fan of any kind of veggie. The one thing she would always say to me, is just try one, if you don't like it, you don't have to eat them. Fast forward to me becoming a Mom. Like my Mom, I would say the same thing to my kids. Amazingly enough, my kids also became big fans of any kind of veggie.

The one veggie she made that I really didn't like was asparagus. We always had asparagus in a can. If you have ever had them out of can, you know what I mean. They were very mushy. Once again when I started cooking I purchased raw asparagus and cooked them in a microwave. My husband loves veggies, but would rather eat them raw instead of cooked. I also had to use my Mom's saying when cooking new veggies for him...I would say the same thing...just eat one, if you don't like it, you don't have to eat them. He had never had asparagus growing up and once he tasted mine he loved them. Now we have asparagus all the time. I cook it to crisp tender and the microwave makes them perfect.
Now back to Mom's carrot casserole. I wouldn't say that carrots are my favorite, but with this recipe they are absolutely delicious. My Mom has been gone for many years and all I had for the recipe was ingredients with no measurements, no baking time, no nothing. So I recreated her recipe the best that I could. You would think that in this day and age this recipe could be found on the internet. Well, no such luck, although I came across one that was pretty close. My recipe doesn't call for onion or celery. But, I might try that one in the future. When you add onion and celery to anything, it gives the veggies more flavor. Actually, if you think about it, carrots, celery and onion are natural teammates. The French call  this combination Mirepoix. When making soups, like chicken noodle, I always use carrots, onions and celery. The combination wakes up the flavor of the soup. So I am adding both recipes and I'll let you be the judge.

What you will need for Mom's Carrot Casserole...
  • 3 cups carrots (cooked) - I used baby carrots, but sliced works well also
  • 3-5 slices of bacon (diced and fried crisp)
  • 1 medium green bell pepper (chopped)
  • 1 can tomato soup
  • 2 T. water
  • 4 T. vinegar
  • 1 T. sugar
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley
  • salt and pepper to taste
Please note that my Mom's recipe did not include celery or onion. I've seen a few other recipes like this one except they have onion and celery. My Mom's recipe didn't call for them. I have added the recipe that contains celery and onion at the bottom of this post. I haven't tried it, but I'm sure it's very good...but I like my Mom's recipe best!

Let's Make Mom's Carrot Casserole...
First you will need to cook the carrots. It usually takes about 10 minutes after they boil to soften them up.
Next combine the tomato soup, cooked bacon, diced green pepper, water, vinegar and sugar and mix well.
Next, you will combine the tomato soup mixture to the cooked carrots. Once mixed place the mixture in a casserole dish and cover. Bake in a 350° preheated oven for 40 minutes.
And here is Mom's Carrot Casserole... If you have picky veggie people in your family, I think this casserole will change their minds about carrots. 

We just had Mom's carrot casserole the other night with meat loaf and augratin potatoes. It was a great comfort food dinner.

Mom's Carrot Casserole Recipe...
Ingredients:
  • 3 cups carrots (cooked) - I used baby carrots, but sliced works well also
  • 3-5 slices of bacon (diced and fried crisp)
  • 1 medium green bell pepper (chopped)
  • 1 can tomato soup
  • 2 T. water
  • 4 T. cider vinegar
  • 1 T. sugar
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley
  • salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
  1. Cook carrots in boiling water until tender.
  2. Chop bacon and fry to crisp
  3. Dice green pepper and place bacon and green pepper in a bowl
  4. Add can of tomato soup, 2 T. water, 4 T. cider vinegar, 1 T. sugar, and chopped parsley to bacon and green pepper and mix.
  5. Add in the carrots.
  6. Salt and pepper to taste
  7. Bake at  350° for 40 minutes (covered)
One Final Thought...
That's it for today...I do hope you try this recipe especially for those picky veggie eaters. Remember to say to them, just try one, if you don't like it you don't have to eat it...a great saying to change minds on eating their veggies...But, I have a feeling they will love them!



Always remember..."Life's short...eat dessert first!"...words to live by! 

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