Shredded Beef Ragu

The slightly overcooked egg noodles and the lack of natural light when I took this photo do not do this simple, but delicious dish justice!
I had some stewing beef thawed with just a bit of time to throw something in the crock pot to ensure that hungry, studying teenagers had fuel for the long night ahead by the time I returned home from work. This ragu literally took me less then 10 minutes to assemble.

I tossed about a pound of stewing beef, a large, finely-chopped onion, 3 large cloves of grated garlic, a 19 oz can of petite-cut diced tomatoes, a cup of red wine, a beef bouillion cube and large spoonful each of tomato paste (likely 2 spoonfuls of paste) and pesto into the crock pot, turned it to high, and left it to simmer for about 4 hours or until the beef could easily be shredded apart with two forks.  After pulling all the beef apart, I added some salt and pepper to taste and a spoonful of brown sugar to mellow the acidity of the tomatoes and served the shredded beef over buttered egg noodles with some grated parmesan cheese.

This was very hearty and likely would also be really yummy over potato gnocchi or polenta.  It was somewhat reminiscent of the Beef Short Ribs and Gnocchi served at the Bauer Kitchen in Uptown Waterloo served over buttery gnocchi with heaps of mushrooms that would be a tasty addition.  I think a dark beer in place of the red wine could work here too.

Some fresh baked crocodile bread from the City Cafe Bakery and this was a warm, satisfying meal that came together effortlessly.

Edamame Grain salad

I have not posted anything for a while despite the fact that, of course, most nights we make and eat something. So, in theory, I should have plenty of material to post, but I have lacked time and inspiration lately.  A friend said they had been on to look up a soup recipe and it nudged me to get back to it and post something good today! So thank you for that!
I am always on the look-out for make-ahead meals, meals that keep well in the fridge or freezer and meals that produce leftovers that can be taken for lunches or morphed into "second dinner" at some point later in the week. I searched the internet for some grain bowl-type meal and, after looking at several recipes, came up with this Edamame Grain Salad.  It meets all of the above criteria and it is going to be a new favourite in my rotation.  It turned out really, really delicious!  It is chock-full of fresh, healthy ingredients, it was relatively quick to prepare, it tasted good at room temperature or warmed, and it made a generous quantity which, of course, can be altered to suit your purposes (but if you are going to be chopping any way, I say make lots for later!).
 I started by preparing about 6 servings of Uncle Ben's 7 Grains. A combination of barley, rye, oats, spelt, wheat grains and wild and long grain rice.  I really like this particular product as there are no additives or flavorings; just the grains.

It takes about 25 minutes to cook, but it just simmered away while I mixed the dressing and chopped my veggies.  Once fully cooked, drain, rinse under cold water and set aside.
You of course can add whatever add-ins you like; I chopped a handful each of green onion, grated carrot, slivered snap peas, chopped broccoli florets and finely chopped red onion and mixed them into the cooled grains.  I also steamed about a cup of edamame and tossed them in as well.

I found my dressing inspiration here.  I really did not make any modifications to the dressing recipe.  I whisked a 1/4 cup each of soy sauce and unseasoned rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons of honey, 3 tablespoons of sesame oil, a large clove of grated garlic and a tablespoon of grated fresh ginger.

I poured the dressing over the grains and veggies and done! A sprinkle of chopped peanuts or chopped roasted almonds would work really well here, but I was planning to send this for school lunches tomorrow so I did not add any nuts.  I added a sprinkle of chow mein noodles for some crunch instead.

This was tonight's side along with some oven-roasted sticky chicken, but for a completely vegetarian meal, some broiled tofu or veggie dumplings would be really good as well.

We recently tried the PC Vegetable Potstickers Dumplings and they are excellent.  Very flavourful, vegetarian filling and they hold their shape once steamed without falling apart or sticking to the steamer.