Shortcut Supper with Home Cooked Taste

  While we are without a kitchen, on month 3 mind you, I am learning to cook with short-cuts. 

  Kitchen update: Finally got the missing cabinets in, and the next day, the countertops came in.  Annnnnnd, one was wrong.  By 3/4 an inch.  Do you know how our hearts sunk when we saw that little bitty, yet oh so HUGE gap that meant another 1-2 week delay????  So close, yet SOOO far.
I will upload a pic this morning, when the light is better.  I need some sunshine coming in the windows, since there are no lights in there currently. Just use your imagination until later…..

{pretend photo of maple cabinets, black island and pretty shiny counter tops}  😉

Never mind. It’s raining and it’s pitch black out there.  Maybe another time!

  Anyhow, I typically prep supper during nap time, and then still work on it later in the day. I love cooking, and I love making everything possible from scratch, when time allows.  No worries, you will find a variety of recipe types on this site, from shortcut, to middle ground, to totally time-consuming deliciousness.    

I think meals like the one I am sharing today, would be perfect for a busy night where you have to get right back to school for meetings, or for a working momma that needs homemade taste AND speed.

  It had been a super cool and rainy couple of days, overcast and just begging for a pumpkin something or other, and a home cooked supper.  I looked around my kitchen, no stove, no oven, no sink, no electricity…..Home cooking is not so easy these days!  No pumpkin anything for a while, but we could do something about dinner at least.
I had just gone to my favorite bulk food store and purchased spices, dried mushrooms, and my favorite, homemade noodles.  I also had a can of beef on hand from Dale’s Uncle and Aunts farm.
We are blessed to live in a farming community, where homemade short cuts are easy to find.

  I decided on beef and noodles with whole wheat bread and butter, and sauteed green beans. Mmm! 

Shortcut Beef & Noodles

• 12 ounce bag of homemade noodles
• 14 ounce jar of beef with juice
• .10 lb sliced dried mushrooms
• 18 ounces Progresso Recipe Starters Cooking Sauce: Roasted Garlic
• 14 ounces of beef broth
• Heaping 1/2 cup of celery/onion chopped
  {I went to the salad section and got already chopped fresh ones, told you this was shortcut!}
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoon celery salt
• 2 teaspoons parsley flakes
• Generous amounts of salt, fresh cracked pepper and garlic powder

  I did everything in my electric skillet:

  Cook and drain noodles, watch them, homemade noodles don’t’ take as long.  Rinse and set aside.  Sautee onion and celery in a little bit of butter or olive oil, until tender and fragrant.  Add broth and mushrooms, allow to hydrate before continuing.  Stir in Roasted Garlic Cooking Sauce, and let it all cook down about 10 minutes to reduce its excess liquid.  Turn down heat and add sour cream, salt, pepper, garlic powder, celery salt, and parsley flakes.  At this point it should be at a nice creamy sauce consistency.
If it’s too thin, add a can of cream of mushroom soup, or more sour cream, until reaching your desired creaminess, or continue to cook down the liquid with no lid, allowing the excess liquid to cook off.  Taste and re-season, with salt, pepper and garlic, before stirring in noodles.  Heat through and serve hot.

  We scraped this into a giant glass bowl, cleaned out the skillet, and used it to stir fry our green beans.  I used Wildtree’s Smoky Bacon Grapeseed Oil. YUMMO!  You can read more about Wildtree and their amazing, all natural products here.

 

  Destiny is such a good helper! 
Gotta love food clearance!  We got our whole green beans from Dillons for a buck, woot woot!

   Enjoy this amazing home cooked, short cut supper!
~T