My family and I got to try some of the best beef we have ever had last night. We cooked up a couple of New York Strip steaks on our Foreman grill, and “awesome” is the only word I can use to describe them.  The directions said that they would cook quicker than a regular steak, and they definitely did.  What surprised me was how tender these steaks were.  Will (my 18 month old) is picky about meat.  If it has a weird texture or if it is too hard to chew, he won’t eat it.  However, he cleaned his plate off last night!

La Cense Beef is 100% grass fed, and I have to believe that is what makes these steaks so good.  Their steaks are  lower in fat and calories than conventional beef too.  It is also high in Omega-3 fatty acids (good for heart health) and low in the Omega-6 fatty acids (which can contribute to heart disease, cancers and depression).  It is also has much higher beta-carotene in it.  Lastly, La Cense Beef contains no pesticides, antibiotics or hormones.

Now, are you hungry yet?  If you are, I am giving away three prize packs of some of this awesome La Cense Beef.  Each prize pack will have 2 lbs ground steak and 2 petite sirloin steaks. Interested? Here’s what you need to do:

Each one of these gives you one entry:

1. Leave a comment on this post.  Check out the La Cense Beef website and tell me what you’d like to try.
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc.

Each one of these gives you 5 additional entries:

1.  Join the Grass Fed Party.  Please leave me your username.
2.  Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3.  Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
4.  Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
5.  Add my badge to your sidebar:

<a href="http://lisacooking.com"><img src="http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk258/blm03_photos/125ad.png" border="0" alt="Lisa Cooking" /></a>

Good luck! This contest will end December 31, 2008 at 8:00 PM CST and is for US residents only.

This is an easy to make recipe.  However, it does need a couple of tweaks.  This was the first time for us to make this recipe, and I would definitely not add as much beef broth.  It was super good, but very soupy.  Besides that, this is an excellent recipe that I got from the Kraft Foods website.

1 jar (16 oz) spaghetti sauce
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (10 oz) beef broth
1/4 cup Zesty Italian Dressing
24 oz of frozen ravioli (you can use fresh also)
1 cup Part Skim Mozzarella cheese

Preheat over to 375 degrees. Combine spaghetti, tomatoes, broth, and dressing in a 13×9 backing dish. Add ravioli and toss to coat. Cover with foil.

Bake 50 minutes or until ravioli is tender.

Remove foil and stir. Sprinkle with cheese and let stand 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

In these trying economic times, we are all looking to save money whatever ways we can.  One way to save money is what we are using in our kitchen.  Did you know that potatoes are one of the least expensive items in the produce department, andbone of the most nutritious? In most places, you can still get potatoes for less than 25 cents a spud. With only 110 calories in a medium potato and being naturally fat-free, sodium-free and cholesterol-free, the tater can’t be beat.

The US Potato Board has come up with a website to help us all out called Mom’s Dinner Helper.  You can find great recipes, dinnertime tip, and Nutrition information. There are even places for you to share your own recipes, comment, and rate recipes to win prizes.  They even have a blog called Tater Talk where everything from parenting to potatoes is discussed.

If you are looking for a way to save some money in the kitchen, incorporating more potatoes in your diet is a good way.

My husband loves spicy. The kids and I do not. It makes cooking at my house extremely interesting since I would like everybody to be happy.  Morton’s Seasoning Salt and Cajun Seasoning was a huge hit in my house.  We recently tried this seasoning on some wonderful thin sliced porterhouse steaks from our local grocery store.  The seasoning salt gave my steak an awesome flavor. I am not one for seasoning most things, so I was surprised how the seasoning brought out the flavor of my already awesome steak.  I shared my steak with the kids, and they also liked it.  My husband tried the Cajun Seasoning on his steak.  He liked the kick that his steak got from it.  When I make steaks, I hadn’t been seasoning them at all.  However, now that I have been turned onto the delicious flavors of Morton’s Seasonings, I am now going to be seasoning everything I grill out on my Foreman Grill (remember, I live in Chicago, and it is a tad cold to grill outside).  If you would like to try out these seasonings on your own, they can be bought at any one of the 80 Morton’s Steakhouse locations and their website.  I have to decide what to make for dinner tonight, and I think steak sounds good, don’t you?

BuyBarbeques.comis holding this awesome contest where you can win $400 for your favorite grill or bbq recipe.  They don’t care what kind of grill you are making your recipe on be it a gas grill or a charcoal grill. All you have to do is post that recipe to your blog/website AND include a link to iBuyBarbeques.com within your entry.  You also need to use the anchor text of barbeque or grill. The blog post needs to be over 100 words but no more than 200 words.  You also need to live in the United States and at least 18 years old to be eligible to enter.  To qualify for the $400 grand prize drawing, you must submit your entry URL to dan@ibuystores.com. This contest will end at 12:01 on November 1, 2008, so there is a little time left to get those recipes in! If you enter, let me know, so I can cheer you on (plus I’d love some good grilling recipes myself)!