Homemade Soda Bread, Beef and Guinness Stew

The March 2010 issue of Cooking Light came in the mail late last week, and we immediately starting picking out recipes to make.

Nate decided on beef and Guinness stew, and I'm glad I didn't put up a fight. It was delicious! I wouldn't stop talking about how good it tasted. Plus, we got to have some Guinness for sipping while we were cooking. Be warned that it does take a while to cook, but the finished product was well worth the almost 3.5 hours of prep and cooking. Here is the recipe. We followed it exactly, and the cooking times are spot on.

I also made some soda bread, also from this issue of Cooking Light. It's a healthy version, and is super tasty. I made one plain loaf and one loaf with raisins to have for breakfast. Here is that recipe:

Brown Soda Bread

cooking spray

2.5 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 steel-cut oats (such as McCann's)

2 tbs. brown sugar

1 tbs. wheat germ

1 teas. baking soda

1 teas. baking powder

1/2 teas. salt

2 cups low-fat buttermilk

1 large egg, beaten

1. Preheat oven to 325.

2. Coat 9x5 inch loaf pan.

3. Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups, and level with knife. Combine flours and next 6 ingredients (through salt). Combine buttermilk and egg; add to flour mixture. Stir until just combined.

4. Spoon mixture into prepared pan. Bake at 325 for 1 hour 5 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Invert bread onto wire rack; cool completely. Should produce 12 slices.

Serve with beef stew. YUM!