Kathy mentioned last week that we have partnered with Hen House markets this summer. It is such a treat to pick up our CSA (community supported agriculture) bag each Saturday. It is especially nice to be able to pick up my CSA when I do my weekly grocery shopping. This week I received a French baguette, a jar of honey, beef stew meat, brown eggs, cucumbers, zucchini, red beets and potatoes. Wow! It is a feast and I could hardly wait to begin dreaming about what I would do with the bag of locally grown and produced food.
The first thing that came to mind was to use the stew meat, zucchini and honey to make kabobs. Kabobs are a wonderful way to get my family to eat vegetables that they normally wouldn’t choose to eat. Pair the kabobs with a rice pilaf and we had a Sunday afternoon feast. This was an easy go-together meal. The only thing I needed to remember was to begin the marinade and marinate the meat the day before. This was an important step in order to tenderize the meat. Usually kabobs are made with sirloin but by cutting the stew meat into small bite-size pieces this was an economical way to enjoy kabobs, and of course, you can use sirloin instead of stew meat. If you enjoy kabobs as much as we do, you might want to try this recipe too. This is a retro kabob recipe and one that we love.
I have thoroughly enjoyed planning our menus this week around the CSA bag. I see a week filled with spicy marinated cucumbers, roasted beet salad, vegetable frittatas and stuffed zucchini–this is a win-win for my family. We have a variety of dinner ideas and plenty of healthy vegetable to enjoy.
Keep the living easy this summer and marinade beef today, then in a day or two, dinner is ready in a snap. Enjoy!
Marinated Beef Kabobs
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon coarse ground pepper
1 to 1 1/2 pounds stew meat, cut into 1-inch pieces**
Vegetables for skewers such as mushrooms, zucchini, grape tomatoes, onion, red or green pepper
In a medium bowl, whisk together olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, lemon juice, minced garlic, honey and coarse ground pepper. Pour into a ziptop bag or pour into a shallow baking dish with 2-inch sides. Add meat to bag or baking dish. Seal bag or cover baking dish with plastic wrap. Marinate meat for 24 hours in the refrigerator.
Drain meat, reserving the marinade. Skewer meat pieces and vegetables onto skewers. Place the reserved marinade in a small saucepan, over medium high heat. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
Preheat grill to medium high or allow coals to burn down to white ash. Grill meat over direct heat until meat thermometer registers 145°, or until beef is done as desired, turning skewers to brown evenly and cook vegetables. During the grilling, baste the vegetables and meat with the cooked marinade.
**Substitute sirloin or your favorite cut of steak for stew meat.
This post has been sponsored by Hen House. More information on their CSA can be found here. All opinions expressed in this post are our own. Thank you for supporting the brands that help make this site possible.
