I love a good family-friendly recipe, meaning my kids clean their plates with a smile and the food is healthy. I found this recipe the other day on Eat at Home and I was convinced I should make it when Tiffany said: "I found this recipe stuck in my tattered recipe binder, jotted on a calendar page from 1998. I used to make it quite a bit, but somehow forgot about it. "  With those two sentences I was sold! We made this today for Sunday dinner and everyone loved it!

 We served this with penne pasta since we have eaten a lot of potatoes this week. My only comment is that the round steaks shrink, a lot, so plan accordingly.

Round Steak with Vegetable Gravy in the Slow Cooker 

Recipe from Eat at Home

   * 3 carrots, peeled and diced
    * onion, diced
    * small green pepper, diced
    * 2 stalks celery, diced
    * 2 lb. round steaks
    * 1/2 cup ketchup
    * 1 Tbs. vinegar
    * 1/3 cup water
    * salt and pepper
    * 2 Tbs. flour
    * 1/2 cup water

Place the meat in the crockpot.  Put the diced veggies on top.  Mix the ketchup, vinegar, water and salt and pepper together.  Pour over the meat and veggies.  Cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 5-6 hours.

Remove the meat from the slow cooker.  Turn it up to high.  Mix the flour and 1/2 cup water together in a container with a tight-fitting lid.  Shake it to combine until smooth.  Whisk into the broth in the slow cooker and let it cook just a few minutes until it’s thickened a bit.

Chili Seasoning Mix

I love a warm meal on a cold winter's night. This past week we've had a lot of rain and chilly weather so for Sunday dinner I decided to make some yummy chili. I have tried so many different chili recipes and purchased mixes and this recipe compares with the rest. This was a tasty chili mix that we all enjoyed and plan to use again. I found this recipe on 'Our Best Bites' as a bulk mix recipe to give in gift bags as cute holiday gifts.

Chili Seasoning Mix Recipe from OurBestBites.com
This makes one gift serving, so multiply by however many you'd like to package up. **You only need 4 Tablespoons for a normal-sized chili meal so I quartered this recipe my first time. Now that I know we like the flavors of this mix I'm going to mix a larger batch and save it for future use.

1/2 C chili powder
1/4 C ground cumin
2 T garlic salt
2 T dried oregano leaves
1 T ground coriander
1 t cayenne pepper or chipotle chili powder (add more if you like spicy chili)

If you are making a big batch, make sure to mix it very well so all of the spices get evenly distributed.




Hearty Chili

1 lb ground beef, turkey or sausage (you can leave out the beef to make it a vegetarian chili)
1 onion, diced
1 red or green bell pepper, diced
4 T chili seasoning mix
2 16oz cans pinto beans (I sometimes even use black beans)
2 16 oz cans kidney beans
1 28oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 14oz can beef broth

Drain and rinse beans and set aside. Combine meat and onion in large pot over med-high heat and cook until browned. Drain and discard fat. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.


*I made this by soaking and cooking kidney beans on low over night in the crock pot. This morning I put the remaining ingredients in and let them all cook on low until dinner. I just love a Sunday dinner that cooks itself!