Loving Paula Deen!

With an incredibly tight budget since marriage (almost 3 years!), cooking has always been a challenge. Roy and I have to eat cheap and usually what is cheap isn't always healthy. I prefer to eat fairly healthy (can't deny my sweet tooth!) but have found cooking healthy on our grocery budget next to impossible. Praise the Lord that we have never gone hungry and that Roy has NEVER once complained about my cooking. I am sure he has thought many things to himself about my lack of cooking abilities, but I am getting better.

Once seminary is over hopefully our grocery budget will grow so I will be able to cook actual meals more often. We can only eat so many pancakes and grilled cheese sandwiches :)

The other day I had some time on my hands so I whipped up a dinner menu and decided to put a few Paula Deen recipes to the test. I surprised Roy with some yummy beef stroganoff over egg noodles with a little side salad. He was indeed impressed and it wasn't difficult to make!

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb cubed round steak, cut into thin strips
House Seasoning to taste
all purpose flour
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion, sliced
8 ounce fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can beef broth
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup sour cream
cooked egg noodles

Directions

Season the steak strips with House Seasoning, then dust with flour. In a large skillet, quickly brown them on both sides in the olive oil and butter. Remove the steak from the pan. Add the onion slices and mushrooms to the pan drippings. Saute for a few minutes, until the onion is tender. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon flour. Put the steak back into the pan with the onion and mushrooms. Add the mushroom soup and beef broth. Cook over low heat for about 30 minutes, covered. Adjust seasoning to taste, adding salt and pepper, as needed. Stir in the sour cream the last few minutes, right before you serve. Serve over cooked noodles.

For dessert I made Paula Deen's Chocolate Chip Pound Cake and holy moly it was awesome!