Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Shredded Beef Tacos



1. I finally get myself to actually post on this blog after going back and forth in my brain for a while and now I can't even keep up with it.

2. As you've probably noticed, I'm not a chef. For as long as it takes for me to learn how to create recipes myself, this blog will consist of recipes I find online at random food blogs.

Anyway, I found this recipe and had to try it. I love the crockpot. I love tacos. I don't have any step-by-step photos because I woke up late this morning and was rushing to get this done before I had to be at work. I think the onions are my favorite part about this. They're SO soft, they melt in your mouth. The beef was also the softest I've ever experienced out of all the times I've made any type of beef in the crockpot. It was completely falling apart when I was trying to take it out of the pot. You can dress them up any way you want. We just used cheese and a green bell pepper that we grew ourselves in our garden!

Shredded Beef Tacos
From Elly Says Opa!

Ingredients:
1 (2 lb.) boneless beef roast
1 Tbsp. canola oil
1 onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 Tbsp. tomato paste
3/4 cup beef broth
1/2 tsp. parsley
2 tsp. chili powder
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. cayenne
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. oregano

Instructions:
Heat a large, heavy bottomed skillet over medium high heat, and add the oil. Sprinkle the beef roast liberally with salt and pepper. Once the oil is hot, add the roast to the pan and brown on all sides, about 2 minutes per side. Place in the crockpot.

To the pan, add the onion and cook for about 2 minutes before stirring in garlic and tomato paste. After another minute, stir in the beef broth and spices. Scrape up any browned bits, and then pour the seasoned broth and onions over the top of the roast.

Cook on low for 8-10 hours. Shred with a fork. (To soak up any extra liquid, you can turn the crockpot to high for a little bit after shredding the beef.)

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Frozen Hot Chocolate



I was browsing Food Gawker one day last week and clicked on some links. Click, click, click and eventually I ended up here, at a recipe for Frozen Hot Chocolate. This recipe calls for white chocolate and I just so happened to have some that I had been meaning to use up, but I want to try it again with regular chocolate. It was so easy and so good and I definitely suggest trying it out.

Frozen Hot Chocolate

From Dine & Dish

Ingredients
6 half-ounce pieces of high quality white chocolate
2 Tbs half and half
1 envelope store bought hot chocolate mix
1 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
3 cups ice
Whipped cream (optional)
Chocolate shavings (optional)

Directions
Place the white chocolate pieces and the half and half into a microwave safe bowl. Heat for 1 minutes, stopping to stir half way through. Continue to heat until melted and smooth. Add the cocoa and sugar, stirring constantly until thoroughly blended. Remove from heat and slowly add 1/2 cup of the milk and stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

In a blender place the remaining cup of milk, the room temperature chocolate mixture, and the ice. Blend on high speed until smooth and the consistency of a frozen daiquiri. Pour into a cup and top with homemade whipped cream and chocolate shavings.