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Sunday, April 7, 2013

Barbecue Beef Bake Pockets

One night a couple of weeks ago I was lost as to what I was going to make for dinner. I had a ton of frozen ground beef all separated in 1 lb. food saver bags so I figured I should try to use some of that.

Typically I'm not a big ground beef fan, I'm much more of a white meat eater, chicken and turkey are my favorite. I think what helped ruin it for me was my best friend Becca, she lived with me at my dad's house when I was 18 when her parents relocated to TX and she wanted to finish high school here in CO. We always had a seriously good time! At the time she really wanted to pursue a career as a nutritionist so we did a lot of calorie counting. She refused to eat ground beef because of the occasional "gritty" parts you would bite into. Seriously just saying it makes me cringe! That kind of stuck with me forever and then while I was pregnant with my first son I found ground beef pretty repulsing.

I just realized I'm not helping to make this recipe sound appealing haha, sorry! This recipe is SERIOUSLY good I promise!

So I felt like I should use this ground beef for something good, not just hamburger helper or something that isn't overly appealing.

One thing you should know about me is I'm not a good stove-top cooker...at all. I tend to burn things. About a week ago I made breakfast for dinner and burned the bacon, my whole downstairs was covered in a thick smoke, it's just bad news. I'm much more of a casserole and slow cooker girl, big fan!

So casserole it was! I took to pinterest (of course) and looked up ground beef casseroles. There were some pretty good ones but as soon as I ran across this one I knew I had to make it! The first (and biggest) incentive for me was I already had all ingredients on hand, no trip to the store!

This is the Barbecue Beef Bake recipe that Adam and I became addicted to. How can you go wrong with crescents and cream cheese to begin with?!

Well last night I decided I wanted to put a little spin on it. I wanted to basically take this casserole and do a hot pocket style concoction. Sounds easy enough right? Wrong!

The thing is it really would've worked had I not made them so big! I took one 8-count package of refrigerated crescent rolls and quartered them with the intention of laying one quarter on top of the other and folding the sides over to make it a pocket. Problem was the pocket was way too big, not easy to transport to the pan and definitely not strong enough to just pick up and eat with your hands. So next time I do this (I will definitely be doing them again, they were still REALLY good and hubby was a huge fan) I will make the pockets half of what I did to try and make them easier to handle.

I still recommend you try this, even if it is just the original beef bake and not the pockets. So here is the recipe I did:

Ingredients
  • 2 packages refrigerated crescent rolls
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 cup corn (frozen or canned)
  • 3/4 cup ketchup
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons bottled Italian salad dressing
  • 2 teaspoons yellow mustard
  • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 3 ounces cream cheese (give or take)
  • 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Open and unroll the crescent rolls. Tear them into quarters (4) on the already cut seams. Pinch the crescent seams together to make a sealed rectangle.
  3. Microwave the cream cheese for 20 seconds or until it's easily spreadable. Spread on the crescent roll dough, not quite to the edge (leaving room to fold edges, I spread mine a little too far).
  4. Brown the ground been over medium heat. While the beef is cooking, combine the ketchup, brown sugar, Italian salad dressing, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce in a small bowl. Drain the beef when it's cooked through and add the sauce and corn to the pan. Stir to coat the meat in the sauce.
  5. Spoon the meat mixture onto HALF of one of the quarters over the cream cheese. Sprinkle the top with the cheddar cheese. (This is where I screwed up, remember to only do HALF of the rectangle, not the whole thing like me).
  6. Fold other half of quarter (without meat) over the meat, pinch sides together and folds them up to seal the seams.
  7. Place on a greased cookie sheet a few inches apart. You should be able to make 8 pockets from 2 packages of crescent rolls.
  8. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the crescent rolls are cooked through.
Once again keep in mind that mine are double the size of what yours should be. I'm going to go back through and do them again to replace these pictures but regardless these things are GOOD!!

I'm a huge fan of cream cheese period so this was already a winner for me! Let me know if you switch it up or have any pointers to make these different.

I can't wait for you to try these :) happy cooking!

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