Today’s recipe in the Cooking Light Ground Beef Series is Chili-Corn Chip Pie. This recipe is based on the Fritos Chili Pie often seen at county fairs and festivals. Have you ever had a Fritos Chili Pie? The concessionaire slices open the side of a small bag of Fritos, ladles chili on top of the Fritos and allows you to garnish as desired with cheese, sour cream, or onions.

I had my first (and only) Fritos Chili Pie a few years ago at a small county fair. I will admit to you that I was seriously underwhelmed. Thinking back, the problem was that the chili wasn’t great and I let that one experience keep me from ordering another Fritos Chili Pie or attempting to re-create it for my family.

Consequently, I was having a tough time mustering up any enthusiasm. Then I looked at the recipe again and realized that although the chili was simple, the ingredients were flavorful and should make a good-tasting chili. I pulled out my skillet and went to work.

It took me a little over thirty minutes to get on this table and I let everyone fix their own bowls, adding their favorite garnishes. I watched as the kids started eating, curious what their first reactions would be. I think my oldest son’s comments summed it up for all of them, “This is even better than the Chips & Chili they serve at school!”

High praise, indeed.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Chili-Corn Chip Pie

Total time: 40 minutes

Serves 4

 Cooking spray

1 lb. ground sirloin

1 ¼ C. chopped onion

6 garlic cloves, minced

½ tsp. ground cumin

½ tsp. ground red pepper

1/8 tsp. kosher salt

1 T. no-salt-added tomato paste

1 C. fat-free, lower-sodium beef broth

1/3 C. water

1 (10 oz.) can diced tomatoes and green chiles, undrained

4 oz. lightly salted corn chips (such as Fritos)

1/3 C. (1 ½ oz.) shredded sharp cheddar cheese

¼ C. fat-free sour cream

½ C. diagonally sliced green onion tops

1. Heat large skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add beef to pan; sauté 5 minutes, stirring to crumble. Remove beef; drain. Wipe pan clean with paper towels. Add onion to pan; sauté 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in beef, cumin, pepper, and salt.
2. Stir in tomato paste; cook 1 minute, stirring occasionally. Add broth, 1/3 C. water and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, and simmer 15 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.
3. Place 1 ounce chips in each of 4 bowls, and top each serving with about 2/3 cup beef mixture, 2 tablespoons cheese, and 1 tablespoon sour cream. Sprinkle each serving with 2 tablespoons green onions.

I was forced to make two substitutions: I did not have Fritos on hand, nor could I find them at the grocery store in my small town (apparently there was a run on Fritos this week!), so I used regular corn chips instead. And I would have sworn I had green onions, but when I went to get them out of the fridge they were no where to be found. I finally decided to add a little romaine lettuce for the color. Oops!

 

 

The third installment of our Ground Beef Recipes from Cooking Light magazine is Classic Meat Loaf.

 

I have to admit that meat loaf is not a dish that I get too excited about cooking. I seldom make it for my family. When glancing through cookbooks or cooking magazines, rarely do I flag a meat loaf recipe.

 

My Mom always made meat loaf and it was always yummy. Her meat loaf and scalloped potatoes is a meal I remember fondly. The few times I have made it for my family the kids have loved it. But, for whatever reason, I haven’t added it to my menu repertoire.

 

I made this meat loaf for my family last night and I was quite surprised at how delicious it was! It is a basic meat loaf recipe with a couple of tweaks. First, it calls for panko instead of the traditional bread crumbs. Panko is Japanese bread crumbs and is widely available in most grocery stores. The second tweak is sautéing the onions before adding them to the meat loaf mixture.

 

I truly enjoyed this meat loaf. My kids licked the platter clean. My husband was working late last night and I had to beg the kids to leave some for him!

 

 

The only alteration I made to this recipe was to place the meat loaf on my broiler pan to bake. This allowed the drippings to fall to the bottom of the pan. You could also use a cooling rack placed on a rimmed baking sheet.

 

Give this meat loaf a try!

Classic Meat Loaf

The October 2011 issue of Cooking Light features an article about Ground Beef. It gives a brief tutorial explaining the different types of Ground Beef. Here is a quick summary of the three most popular ground beef products:

• Ground Chuck: Ground from the chuck (shoulder section) and contains 15-20% fat.
• Ground Round: Ground from the round (rump section) and contains 10-15% fat.
• Ground Sirloin: Ground from the front of the hip and contains 8-10% fat.

In addition, the article provides six recipes all starting with a pound of ground beef (ground sirloin, to be precise). I don’t know about you, but I get excited about new ways to use ground beef. The beauty of ground beef, in my opinion, is that it is affordable, it is easy to freeze and keep on hand, and kids love it!

I thought it would be fun to try out each of these new recipes and then share them with you. I will also give you my family’s review of the dish, rating the most important part of the recipe: Will kids eat it?

Our first recipe is Thai Beef Cabbage Cups. The first thing that appealed to me after reading through this recipe was the total time it took to get this dish on the table, 27 minutes. Score! I was pleased to discover that it was 27 minutes for your average cook (me), not just your average chef (definitely not me).

This dish is very flavorful and won rave reviews from the crowd around my table. The kids enjoyed it and I caught my husband taking the leftovers for lunch the next day. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Thai Beef Cabbage Cups

Total time: 27 minutes

Serves 4 (I doubled it to serve my family of six)

 

2 1/2 tsp. dark sesame oil, divided

2 tsp. minced peeled fresh ginger

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 pound ground sirloin

1 T. sugar

2 T. fresh lime juice

1 1/2 T. fish sauce

1 T. water

1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper

1/2 C. vertically sliced red onion

1/2 C. chopped fresh cilantro

8 large green cabbage leaves (I didn’t have cabbage on hand, so I used iceberg lettuce. Oops!)

2 T. finely chopped unsalted, dry-roasted peanuts

 

1. Heat large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 tsp. oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add ginger and garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add beef; cook 5 minutes or until nicely browned, stirring to crumble.

 

2. Combine remaining 1/2 tsp. oil, sugar, and next 4 ingredients (through pepper) in a large bowl. Add beef mixture, onion, and cilantro; toss well. Place 2 cabbage leaves on each of 4 plates; divide beef mixture evenly among leaves. Top each serving with 1 1/2 tsp. peanuts.

 

What would I change about this recipe? I did think this dish was a little salty and that comes from the fish sauce. Personally, I didn’t find it too salty, but if you have a low tolerance to salt I would suggest reducing the fish sauce to 1T.