Cheeseburger Soup Recipe

  

CHEESEBURGER SOUP

This soup is insanely delicious!

Ingredients

½ pound ground beef (use 1 pound)

¾ cup chopped onion

¾ cup shredded carrots

¾ cup diced celery

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

4 tablespoons butter, divided

3 cups chicken broth

4 cups peeled and diced potatoes

¼ cup all purpose flour

2 cups of Velveeta processed cheese cubed (I used 16 ounce)

1½ cups milk

¾ teaspoon salt

¼ to ½ teaspoon pepper

¼ cup sour cream

Instructions:

-Brown the ground beef in 3 quart saucepan. Drain and set aside.

-In the same saucepan add 1 T butter and add onion, shredded carrots, parsley flakes, basil and celery. Saute until tender.

-Add the broth, potatoes and beef and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 10-12 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

-In small skillet melt remaining butter (3 T) and add the flour. Cook and stir for 3-5 minutes or until bubbly. Add to the soup and bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low.

-Stir in the cheese, milk, salt and pepper. Cook and stir until cheese melts. Remove from heat and blend in sour cream.

xoxo,

Elizabeth

Spaghetti Meat Sauce in Instant Pot

The catch with good spaghetti is in the sauce and you have to simmer it low and slow for HOURS to get that Italian Grammy feel! I have loved Italian food all of my life and I can't blame that on any ancestry I'm just a pasta junkie. So I spent years perfecting my meat sauce recipe to what it is now and the only thing that ever differs is which SURPRISE VEGGIE I'm sneaking in for my kids! hahahaha!

So what this recipe entails is making the sauce in an instant pot, combining both ground beef and sausage, several herbs and spices and cooking it low and slow! The best way to cook almost anything actually!

Here's what you'll need:

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb of ground beef

1 lb of ground sausage (any flavor you like)

1 large can of prepared spaghetti sauce (any brand, traditional/plain flavor is best, I use Ragu)

3 small cans of tomato sauce

2 cups of water

4 tsp of garlic powder

3 tsp of onion powder

2 tsp of pink Himalayan salt (link)

4 tsp of black pepper

2 tsp of Avocado oil (link)

1 package of spaghetti noodles

1/2 cup of diced onion (any color)

1/2 cup of diced bell pepper (any color)

2 garlic gloves diced

1/2 cup of any veggie diced (I usually go with squash, zuchinni or something with a very mild flavor)

2 tbsp of butter

1 cup of cheese (either mozzerela, colby jack or any type you prefer)

1/2 cup of Ricotta cheese (optional, if you prefer a creamier sauce)

INSTRUCTIONS:

-Dice your onion, pepper, garlic cloves and surprise veggie into small pieces and put in a sauce pan with the 2 tbsp of butter and caramelize them. You want to cook them on about a 7 heat for 3-5 minutes, don't burn them.

-Add your ground beef and sausage both at the same time to the caramelized veggies, add 1 tsp of salt, 2 tsp of pepper and the 1 tsp of Avocado oil to the meat mixture and break up and cook down the meat mixture.

-After the meat mixture is cooked through, add your can of prepared spaghetti sauce, all your tomato sauce cans and give it a good stir. Then add 1 tsp of salt, 2 tsp of black pepper, 4 tsp of garlic powder and 3 tsp of onion powder. Let this combine and simmer on the stove top at about a heat of 5 for maybe 10 minutes.

-Pour your meat spaghetti sauce into your instant pot and put it on the "stew/meat" setting for 5 hours, adjust it down to the lowest pressure and turn your pressure valve to sealed.

-Once the timer goes off on your Instantpot, start your stock pot of boiling water for your noodles, add 1 tsp of avocado oil to help the noodles separate as they cook and get that turned up to high to bring it to a boil.

-While you're waiting for the noodle water to come to a boil, open your Instant Pot, give it a good stir and add in 2 cups of water, stir it again and then add your 1 cup of cheese of your choice. Mozzarella makes a good compliment to the tomatoes but so does Colby jack and I've tried Gouda in it as well and it was nice! If you want to go for a creamier sauce (less chunky and meaty) you can add 1/2 a cup of ricotta cheese to the sauce at this point as well.

-Put the lid back on the InstanPot and put it on the "stew/meat" setting again and set it for 15 minutes.

-Once your water comes to a boil add your noodles and cook based on package directions, usually 8-10 minutes, pulling the noodles apart and stirring them around every 2-3 minutes. Once done, drain the water off the noodles. Then put them in a big bowl with 1 tsp of butter and stir them around to let the butter coat the noodles.

-Open up your InstanPot when done, stir your sauce and give it a TASTE before you do anything else. At this point you might want to add a touch more salt, pepper, garlic powder or onion powder. Make it however you like it. Once you feel it's perfect you can serve up your spaghetti in separate or combined, in whichever fashion you choose! Enjoy!!!

xoxo,

Elizabeth

#spaghetti #spaghettirecipe #gramasrecipe #instantpot #instantpotrecipe

Homemade Dog Food Recipe, for $6 a week!

Fur babies are very important to many people who have them! Some people just have their outside farm or huntin' dogs while others keep their dogs inside and spoil the tar out of them! I fall into both of those categories as we have an indoor yellow lab who sleeps with me, runs errands with me and travels with our family! And then we have a basset hound outside who is an outside dog, she's our alarm and Riley's dog!

No matter where your dog lives, if you're looking to make sure you're giving them as healthy of a diet as you can, then I've got a recipe for you! I've been making this homemade dog food for years and it's a good enough quality that it could just be "people food", it closely resembles the inside of chicken pot pie! But I use it to supplement and give it WITH their bagged, store bought dog food to give them added carbs and protein! They love me for it and it only costs me about $6 per week, sometimes cheaper if you can catch chicken on sale! So let's get to the recipe!

If you don't have an Instant Pot yet but have been thinking about getting one you can find it on Amazon right here --> https://amzn.to/2CYLhl0

 INGREDIENTS:
4 chicken leg quarters
1 lb of rice (preferably wheat, unrefined)
6-8 cups of water
1 tsp of Avocado oil (this oil isn't cheap but it's a super clean, healthy fat and worth the cost! You can find it on amazon here: https://amzn.to/2CY7TBY )
1 tsp of salt; I use pink Himalayan salt, you can find it on amazon here: https://amzn.to/2PMaxgT
2 tsp of black pepper
2 tsp of garlic powder
1-3 cans of any canned veggie you can find on sale that your dog will eat

COOK TIME: About 2 hours.

INSTRUCTIONS:
-Put your chicken leg quarters in an Instantpot, add salt, pepper, garlic powder, the rice and then cover with water until the chicken is almost covered but not entirely. Put the instant pot on the "meat/stew" setting for 90 minutes. Change the valve to seal the pressure. This will cook your chicken and rice both perfectly.
-When the timer goes off turn the valve to release the pressure and wait 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes open the Instant pot and your rice should be perfect, your chicken cooked and falling off the bone and a tiny bit of liquid left in the pot.
-Pull out your chicken pieces and put onto a plate so you can remove all the bones. I save all the bones and put them in a small pot to simmer on the stove in water for an hour or two to make homemade chicken broth, or you can just discard them.

-Put your chicken back into the instant pot, add your canned veggies (strained) and then add water up to the 10 cup line on the Instant pot and put the lid back on. Put it on the "meat/stew" setting again but just for 20 minutes and turn the valve back to seal it.

-When the timer goes off this time, change the valve to open it and wait another 5 minutes. Then your recipe is complete! I store this is an airtight container in the fridge up to 7-10 days and serve about 1 cup at a time mixed into my dog's food bowls once a day.

Xoxo, Elizabeth

#littlefarmbigdreams #dogfood #homemadedogfood #dogfoodrecipe #recipe