A flavorful hearty main dish of ground meat and vegetables, seasoned with raisins, olives and sherry. Served over rice, this is a family-friendly way to stretch a pound of ground meat and use loads of vegetables.
My spouse eats a lot of olives during his deployments. He tells me it's a combination of wanting to eat more vegetables yet not trusting the safety of the raw veggies available. He returns from deployments dumping Tabasco on everything and asking me to fry eggs (only powdered "scrambled" eggs in theatre) and buy olives. Lots of olives.
If you had asked before my spouse ever deployed to the Middle East if I liked olives, I would have told you a resounding "No!". I'd tried but not liked black olives on a pizza, and I'd avoid green olives on a relish tray because I tarred them with the same
Insert your own Dr. Seuss reference here. I've already done a Dr Seuss-themed post.With my new-found love of green olives, their use in a recipe from my mom's old cookbook caught my eye. I thought I could change it up (brown 1 pound of ground beef in 1 cup of oil? really?) and it would be an excellent way to throw in extra put up veggies to stretch meat. The result is sort of like "weird sloppy joes" according to my kids. Unusual, but tasty all the same.
If you've waited until the last minute to file your taxes because you are not anticipating a refund, consider this recipe as a different way to stretch a pound of ground meat. It works with beef, chicken, lamb, turkey, probably even venison. Please note that this recipe calls for marinating the meat for a couple of hours before cooking. You could do this in the morning and leave it in the fridge for the day, or throw it together in the afternoon if you are around.