Beef Tips Recipe

I made Beef Tips for dinner tonight and they were pretty tasty! I found the recipe over at allrecipes.com. It had 4.5 out of 5 stars as a rating, 388 reviews and 9,041 people had saved it. So, I was thinking this would be a good one.

Here is the recipe directly from allrecipes. The modifications I made will be posted below the recipe.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 pounds cubed beef stew meat
• 2 cups water
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 (.75 ounce) packet dry brown gravy mix
• 1 cup water

Directions

1. In a large skillet heat oil over high heat. Saute the onion until almost translucent.
2. Add the stew meat and cook on high heat until meat is browned on all sides; about 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Pour 2 cups water, soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce into the skillet. Stir in garlic powder, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
4. Meanwhile combine the gravy mix with 1 cup water. Mix thoroughly and stir into the meat mixture. Bring to a boil stirring frequently until slightly thickened.               

Notes:
*After reading numerous reviews, I omitted the additional salt and was glad I did.
*I didn't have quiet 2 pounds of beef, but it ended up being enough. I used bottom round because it was what I had/what was on sale.
*I used fresh garlic instead of powder, 1 clove.
*The dry brown gravy mix was 30% less sodium
*I let it simmer for a little over an hour and my meat was tender.
*When adding the gravy mix, I first added the dry mix to my beef mixture. After it thickened up a little I added a little water at a time. I probably only used about 1/2 cup. I think the full cup of water would have made it a little runny. Lots of reviewers mentioned having to add cornstarch to thicken it up.
*I served this over brown rice with a side of broccoli.
*I used 3 beef bouillon cubes in my 4 cups of water for the rice.

Breakfast for Dinner Southern Style

I love breakfast! I think I would be happy eating it for every meal. It would sure pile on some calories though! Last night I made homemade biscuits and gravy. I'm not a biscuit or gravy maker, so this was going a little out of my comfort zone. I made two things on one night that I normally don't make.

I found the recipe for the biscuits on Pinterest. If you've never checked it out before you, have to do it now! There are so many creative ideas, recipes and all kinds of other stuff.

The recipe for these butter dips biscuits came from Plain Chicken. The reason why I'm not a biscuit maker is because I don't like rolling and cutting the dough. I always make the biggest mess with it. With these little darlings you don't have to. These are baked in a 8x8 baker, and the recipe instructs you to cut into 12 biscuits. So, these are not going to be your normal size biscuits, they are a little smaller.

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/4 cup flour
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
2/3 - 1 cup buttermilk or milk

Heat the oven to 450°F. Cut the butter into pieces and place them in a 8-inch square microwave safe baking dish. Put the dish in the microwave and melt the butter. You can also put the baking dish in the oven to melt the butter as it pre-heats. (The dish in the microwave is just faster.)

While the butter is melting, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Stir in 2/3 cup buttermilk; continue to add more buttermilk until a loose dough forms. (I used about 2-3 Tbsp more than the 2/3 cup)

Remove baking dish from the microwave/oven and press biscuit dough in the pan over the melted butter (It helps to put a little flour on top of the dough or your fingers). Using a knife, cut the biscuits into 12 squares. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden.

These things are great! I will be making them again very soon.

NOTES:

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to use all-purpose flour or self-rising since the recipe didn't say. I went with self-rising and it worked great.

I used 2% milk, because it's what I had.

I didn't have kosher salt, so I just used regular salt.

Also, I went with what another reader had suggested and sprayed one of my hands with cooking spray. I tried the flour on my hand and my hand still stuck to the dough. This worked like a charm!

The gravy I made, I found on Paula Deen's Facebook. You can also find the recipe over here. I just love Paula Deen, don't ya'll? I did revise the original recipe a little bit and I'll post the revisions below. I first of all decided that I would half the original recipe. I used 2% milk instead of half and half because I didn't have any of it. Half of the original recipe would have only been 1 cup of milk and that wasn't enough for me, so I added much more.

1/2 lb ground sausage
2 slices thick-cut bacon
2 tsp Tastefully Simple Onion Onion
1 tsp Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic 
1 1/2 Tablespoon all-purpose flour 

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 cups 2% milk

In a large skillet, combine sausage, bacon, onion, and garlic. Cook over medium heat, until sausage is browned and crumbles. Stir in flour, salt, and pepper; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Gradually stir in milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture is thickened.

NOTES:

When I make this again I will not add the additional salt, the sausage and bacon has enough salt that you don't need to add more.

There was enough oil/grease from the sausage and bacon that I didn't add the additonal butter which the original recipe calls for.

I used Tastefully Simple products just because it's easier for me and I have them on hand. If you don't have them on hand, substitute the Onion Onion for 1/4 Onion diced and the Garlic Garlic for 1 garlic clove minced.

While the bacon in the gravy has a good flavor, I think next time I will omit it and just go with the sausage.

If you would like to check out the Tastefully Simple Onion Onion and Garlic Garlic seasonings, you can go here.