Comfort Food

During the fall and winter months, many of us turn to comfort foods to ward off the dreary-weather blues. You know the food I am talking about: Macaroni and cheese, meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, casseroles. Even though the weather is beautiful this weekend, I was hankering for some comfort food. What could be better than warm beef, sour cream and some mushrooms? You all know this as Beef Stroganoff.

Dictionary.com defines stroganoff as a dish of meat sautéed with onion and cooked in a sauce of sour cream, seasonings, and, usually, mushrooms. Some people choose to make their stroganoff with chicken, but I feel this is blasphemy. Why would you ruin a perfectly good comfort food dish with CHICKEN? Go all out people! Use the steak. It doesn't have to be expensive cuts of meat. As a matter of fact, I use stew beef for mine. For less than $3.00 for a pound, you can have the goodness of red meat.

I used to serve my stroganoff the traditional way: Over egg noodles. When my husband and I started dating, he introduced me to the concept of eating stroganoff over rice. It sounded bizarre to me, but you know what? It's REALLY good. I won't go back to egg noodles again.

Enjoy the comfort food weather! And enjoy my Beef Stroganoff!

Beef Stroganoff
from allrecipes.com with some slight modifications

1 pound sirloin steak, cut into bite size strips (you can also use leftover steak, or stew meat)
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 (10 3/4 oz) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 1/4 cups fat-free sour cream
1 1/2 cups mushrooms, sliced
steamed rice

1. Brown the beef strips in a large skillet over medium high heat and drain excess fat. Add the onion and saute for 5 minutes, or until tender. Stir in the flour, salt, paprika and pepper.

2. Add the soup and mushrooms, reduce heat to medium-low and let simmer for 15 minutes. Then add the sour cream, stirring well.

3. Prepare the rice. Serve beef mixture over the rice.