Beef Teriyaki in Fifteen Minutes without Soy Sauce! (gluten free, low sodium)

Beef Teriyaki without Soy Sauce (gluten free)

Have you ever heard of a low-sodium Teriyaki sauce? Me neither.* A quick check of the jar labels in the store can be hair raising. When I went cruising for recipes I kept finding soy sauce, and lots of it. Hmmm.... what does soy sauce taste like, besides salty? Rich, earthy (from fermentation), and a bit tangy. I played around for a while with some things we had in the cupboard, and came up with a really good impostor!

The trick here is to have everything chopped and prepped to you do not overcook anything. Your steak will be tender, your veggies will have a bit of crunch, and the sauce will marry the tastes and textures together.

1 lb grassfed beef steak, thinly sliced

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt or lite salt
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 cup diced onion

1 tbsp sesame seeds
3 large mushrooms
3 carrots
3 stalks celery
1/2 cup chopped cabbage

In a stainless or glass bowl, mix the balsamic vinegar, molasses, garlic, salt, sesame oil, and diced onion. Add the sliced steak and let it marinate for a few minutes while you chop your vegetables.

Heat up a wok or sauté pan. (I like an Ultimate Pan, which is sort of a halfway between.) Add the meat and sauce mixture to the hot pan and cook, stirring, just long enough to heat up the sauce. Add the vegetables and sesame seeds, and continue to stir until the meat is cooked through. Serve over cooked quinoa or rice.


*Kikkomen's "low sodium" teriyaki sauce still contains 320mg sodium per tablespoon, and LaChoy's version contains 284mg sodium per tablespoon.  You'd need at least a couple tablespoons of sauce per serving.


I shared this post with Swap-n-Share Sunday.


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One Dish Wonder: Beef and Potato Bake (gluten free, dairy free, low sodium)

One Dish Wonder: Beef and Potato Bake

There were no cans of soup harmed in the making of this hearty bowl of manly-man fare. None opened, nor even purchased, actually. It is just as easy to make a quick beef and potato casserole, with its own creamy mushroom sauce, without the soup! As a bonus, when cooking with grassfed beef, you do not even have to brown the beef first. Just chop, layer, and pop it in the oven. Find something constructive to do for an hour, and return to find that dinner is done! (There is a serving of vegetables stashed in there, too.)

1 lb ground, grassfed beef
4 medium potatoes
1/2 lb mushrooms, finely chopped
3-4 stalks celery, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/4-1/2 tsp salt, or lite salt to further reduce sodium
1/4 tsp black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Chop the mushrooms, celery, and onions and put them together in a bowl. Mix in the salt and pepper. (This replaces the seasoning and moisture of a can of soup.) Chop the potatoes and set aside.

Layer the ingredients into a lidded casserole dish: First, put half of the potatoes, and sprinkle with a handful of the mushroom mixture. Next, spread half of the ground beef on top, followed by chopped mushroom mixture. Top with the remaining potatoes, then mushroom mixture, the rest of the beef, and the rest of the mushroom mixture. Gently press down on the top to fill in the gaps.

Put the lid on and bake for an hour. (If the oven is not quite preheated yet, pop it in as it is and add a couple of minutes to the timer.)


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Burger Assistant (Gluten Free)

Burger Assistant with Sweet Potato Noodles

"I don't know why they call this stuff Hamburger Helper. It's just fine by itself, huh? I like it better than Tuna Helper myself. Don't you, Clark?"  - Cousin Eddie, National Lampoon's Vacation

There must be millions of people who think highly of boxed noodles and sauce because it has been jumping off grocery store shelves and into consumers' carts for years. It is easy. Full of questionable things, but easy. This real-food version is pretty darned easy, too:

First, pick your noodles. If you are in a hurry, you can cook up store-bought noodles. If you have an extra, say, fifteen minutes, you can fix up:

Sweet Potato Noodles (gluten free) Skip the spices.
Tamale Noodles (gluten free)
Whole Wheat Egg Noodles

When put the water on for noodles, make the sauce. Note that grassfed beef is leaner than regular, store-bought beef, so you will not need to pre-brown it and drain off grease. If you do pre-brown the beef, mix the cold milk and tapioca starch together before stirring it in.

Stir these ingredients together in a large pan:

1 pound grassfed ground beef
1 cup milk
2 tbsp tapioca starch
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tbsp parsley flakes
1/4 tsp salt (or more to taste after cooking)

Stirring periodically cook everything together until the meat is cooked through and the sauce is thick. Allow at least fifteen minutes.

Add the cooked, drained noodles and stir them together. Cook together until the sauce is bubbly, then serve.


Need a smile today? Here is a clip from a classic movie:






I shared this recipe with Make Your Own Monday, Homestead Barn Hop, Hearth and Soul Hop, Real Food Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday the HomeAcre Hop,  Fight Back Friday,  Fat Tuesday,  Allergy Free Wednesday and Gluten Free Wednesday.


www.stealthymom.com

Beef, Cabbage and Potatoes Bake (gluten free)

Beef, Cabbage and Potato Bake

Beef, Cabbage, and Potatoes. It is hard to go wrong with that time-honoured combination. As a one-dish wonder, you can quickly throw this together, put it in the oven and have dinner ready in an hour. (If your kids aren't picky like ours you can even skip peeling the potatoes!)

2-4 medium potatoes, peeled (if necessary) and sliced
1/2 head cabbage, shredded
1 pound ground grassfed beef*
1/4 tsp black pepper
8 oz plain, unsalted tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 375F. Spray a pyrex dish (approximately 12" x 12") with olive oil.

Wash and slice the potatoes and cabbage. Mix the pepper into the ground beef. Mix the tomato sauce, water, and salt together.

Place the potatoes into the bottom of the pan. Layer a third of the cabbage on top of the potatoes. Place half of the beef over the cabbage layer, breaking off bits like little meatballs. Top with a third of the cabbage, the rest of the beef, and the rest of the cabbage. Gently but firmly pack everything down. Pour the tomato sauce over the top.

Bake for an hour.

*Grassfed beef is leaner than "mystery rolls" from the grocery store, so you will not have to pre-brown it. You can also try old-fashioned ground pork.


I shared this recipe with Fight Back Friday, a weekly collection of natural food recipes submitted by bloggers all over the 'net.

www.stealthymom.com