Poor Man's Steak

My mom has some bookkeeping she needs to get caught up on tomorrow, so I'm not going to her house to help her. That means I'll need to cook dinner. I went through the freezer and pantry waiting for something to jump out at me but nothing did. I'd like to have something different, something we haven't had in awhile. I pondered a few ideas (spaghetti? nope! swiss steak? nope!) and finally gave up, figuring I'd just make soup or stew.

Later, I read this MPM entry from the Frugal Domestic Goddess and in it she mentions Poor Man's Stroganoff, which is really good, but a little too high in carbs for us. But the name of the dish brought to mind a dish I haven't prepared in quite awhile - Poor Man's Steak, from the More-With-Less Cookbook.

We haven't had that in quite awhile and it's a very tasty and easy to make main dish. It's also pretty thrifty and uses ingredients we always have on hand.

We like it with a salad and steamed green beans.

So, here's the recipe:

Poor Man's Steak

Combine and mix well:

1 1/2 lbs ground beef (I use ground turkey or a combination of beef and turkey)
1/2 cup fine bread crumbs or crushed crackers
1/2 cup water
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Pat out about 3/4 inch thick on cookie sheet. Refrigerate overnight. Cut into pieces, dip in flour, and brown in small amount of hot fat. Preheat oven to 300. Lay pieces in baking dish or roaster and pour over:

1 to 2 cups mushroom or tomato sauce

Bake 1 1/2 hours.

The meat is in the fridge now. I make a double or triple batch as it freezes well and the leftovers are also very tasty for lunch the next day.

If you ever want to make this and forget to prepare the meat the night before, it's worth a try doing it the day you want to eat it. We don't like the results nearly as much when it's prepared that way but it's still very edible. :)