Shepherd's Pie

I've had shepherd's pie a few times now and was never too crazy about it. It's good, but just kinda blah. Well I found this recipe and wanted to try it. It's a good way to use up left over mashed potatoes and the filling comes together really fast. Luke and Nick LOVE this so that's another bonus. It is definitely the best shepherd's pie I've had!This makes about 5 servings.


2-3 cups prepared mashed potatoes

For the meat filling:
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup chicken broth (or 1 cup water with 1tsp bullion)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
2 cups of veggies, (I usually do a bag of corn and peas from the freezer)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Brown the meat with the onion and drain. Sprinkle the meat with the flour and toss to coat. Add the garlic and stir to combine. Add salt and pepper and continue to cook for another minute. Add the tomato paste, chicken broth, Worcestershire, rosemary, thyme, and stir to combine. Add the veggies. (thaw them first if frozen) Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and simmer slowly until the sauce is thickened slightly.
 

Spread evenly into a 9x9 glass baking dish. Top with the mashed potatoes. Place on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 25 minutes or just until the potatoes begin to brown.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/shepherds-pie-recipe2/index.html?oc=linkback

Raspberry Cream Cheese Brownie Bites

First a warning, do not make these without muffin liners! I didn't have liners and didn't want to wait till I did to try this recipe. The result was a gooey delicious mess that I couldn't extract from the tin without making a mess.

My liner-free brownies...

And what they were supposed to look like...

Moving on...


Prepare your brownie mix as directed on the package.
Pour batter into prepared tin with liners
Do not fill more than halfway, you need to leave room for the cream cheese and raspberry

Cream Cheese Filling
8oz cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extravt

Blend together until smooth. Pour about 1-2 tablespoons on top of each brownie

Then top with raspberry preserves. I didn't measure this, I just used as much as would fit :)

bake at 350 for 25-27 minutes. It's a little hard to tell when these are done. I took mine out at 25 minutes, next time I might go for 27 as mine were pretty gooey! I also had left over cream cheese filling so I poured that into a little dish and baked it with left over raspberry filling :)

I can't wait to make these again, WITH a liner!

Mexican Chicken Skillet

I was going to make sloppy joes one night this week. About an hour before getting dinner started I checked my email and found this recipe from Kraft in my inbox. It was really good and really easy once I changed it up a little bit.

2 cups cooked rice, white or brown

       Prepare your rice using low sodium chicken broth instead of water. If you don't have reduced       sodium broth use 1/2 broth and 1/2 water in preparing your rice or this dish ends up too salty

 

1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

1/4 cup cream cheese or sour cream

1lb diced uncooked chicken 

1 jar of salsa, I used medium which was so good, but rendered this dish toddler/baby unfriendly

1/2 cup  KRAFT Shredded Cheddar Cheese

 

In a skillet pour another 1/2 cup or so of broth and add the diced chicken. Simmer until chicken is cooked through, 8-10 minutes. The smaller your chicken pieces the faster it will cook. Add more broth if needed to keep chicken from sticking to the pan. Add the cooked rice and salsa. Stir in the sour cream and cheese. Serve on a plate. I think this would make a very good filling for a soft burrito as well!

 

Mine didn't really look anything like the picture since I diced the chicken and used salsa instead of a boring old chopped tomato, but what's a recipe without a photo!

Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatori

Traditionally you would use bone in chicken pieces like drum sticks and thighs for this dish. I just cook with what's in the freezer. There is no quick dash to the grocery store when it's 35 miles away! I used two diced chicken breasts, about a pound and a half of meat. And since this is crock pot style and supposed to be EASY there is no dredging the chicken in flour and searing in a skillet of hot butter or oil... although I am sure that would be delicious if you're up for the extra work!


Thanks Google images for this picture. There are over 6 pages of chicken cacciatori pictures, so why take my own?? :P 

3 lbs chicken pieces, thighs and drum sticks
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 can of Italian style diced tomatoes undrained
6 ounces sliced mushrooms
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
2 -4 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil (we have basil in a squeeze tube, its amazing!!)
1/2 teaspoon celery powder
1-2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

Dump all into crockpot and cook on low 7 hours. Serve over spaghetti

Beef Stroganoff

Wow, now posts since October! Well seeing that we've eaten 3x a day everyday since the last time I posted its easy to say I am behind! Now that I think about it, morning sickness started in October and is finally subsiding. I'm finally in the mood for food again and lots of it! Dinner around here has been rather hectic. Nicholas is usually in his high chair hollering. By the time I get food in front of him he is too upset to eat. Usually then he screams through half the meal before realizing there is food right in front of him, if only he would calm down enough to eat it! The woes of being one.

Thanks Betty Crocker for the picture and recipe base :)

Beef Stroganauff is a new one for me, I have never made it before. I found I really like it! We had a package of stew meat in the freezer so that is what I used instead of sirloin. One thing Andy can't bring himself to eat is mushrooms. So I skipped those and used a whole green pepper instead.

1 pounds beef sirloin steak, 1/2 inch thick

8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced (I used 1 chopped green pepper)

2 medium onions, thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

2-3Tbsp butter or margarine

1 can beef flavored broth 

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sour cream ( I only needed about 1/2 this much, maybe I had less volume than the original recipe since I skipped the mushrooms)

3 cups hot cooked egg noodles

1. cut beef across grain into about 1 1/2x1/2-inch strips 

2. Cook mushrooms, onions and garlic in butter in 10-inch skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until onions are tender; If you used mushrooms remove the veggies from skillet so mushrooms don't get too "mushy." If using peppers leave them in the skillet to continue to soften while you cook the beef

3. Cook beef in same skillet until brown. Stir in 1 cup of the broth, the salt and Worcestershire sauce. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 15 minutes or until meat is cooked through

4.  Stir remaining broth with flour; stir into beef mixture. Add the mushroom mixture if needed. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in sour cream; heat until hot (do not boil). Serve over noodles.  

Meatloaf Cupcakes

Yesterday I had a lot of rare free time. Nick was sleeping off the shots he got at the pediatrician. He spent most of the day snoozing in his crib. I had ground beef in the fridge. Blah blah ground beef and I wanted to do something not boring with it. Then I found meatloaf cupcakes, PERFECT!!! We just so happened to have some cooked bacon in the fridge.  Andy considers bacon to be some sort of health supplement so I decided to use it as "sprinkles." Cute huh??? Yields 8 cupcakes

For meatloaf bottom:
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon Wostershire sauce
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 lb ground beef or turkey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg 
I had some McCormick hamburger seasoning so I threw in a teaspoon of that too! 

Meatloaf Glaze
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon Wostershire sauce
1/2 tablespoon brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Spray muffin tins with non stick spray
3. Mix together meatloaf ingredients. (my LEAST favorite part of meatloaf is getting cold meatloaf hands)
4. Fill muffin tins with the meat mixture to the top, but not overflowing
5. Mix together glaze ingredients and spoon over each cupcake
6. Bake for 30 minutes
7. Carefully tilt the tin over the sink to pour off the fat

Mashed Potato Frosting
 2 cups of mashed potatoes prepared however you want. I like salt, pepper, garlic powder, milk, and either a tablespoon of butter or cream cheese.

I happened to have some piping bags and tips to pipe the mashed potatoes on top. You can also just put it in a ziplock baggie and cut off a corner to use as a piping bag. Add crumbled bacon on top and you're done!

Raspberry Cream Pie

Last week the Mennonite grocery had Driscoll's raspberries for 50 cents! I was thrilled! Seeing raspberries for anything less than 3.50$ is thrilling! I bought 6 containers for 3$. There are still 3 in the fridge that are awaiting us. I found this pie on allrecipes and compiled it from two different recipes. It called for two cups of sour cream... Well it just so happens that Greek yogurt was 3 for a dollar this week. So I subbed the sour cream for Greek yogurt and saved about 500 calories :D So this is technically a "diet" pie... which is why I ate at least half of it!

1 (9 inch) pie shell

3 cups raspberries (about 12oz)

3/4 cup white sugar

1tbsp cornstarch

1/3 cup all purpose flour

2 cups fat free Greek yogurt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract  

Topping

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup cold butter

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Place raspberries in the bottom of the crust

3. Mix the sugar, cornstarch, flour, vanilla, and yogurt until blended and smooth

4. Pour over raspberries

5. Place pie uncovered into the oven (the topping comes later!)

6. Bake for 30 minutes 

Meanwhile cut the butter into the sugar and flour. I like to do this by hand, until you have course crumbs.

7. After 30 minutes remove the pie from the oven and sprinkle on the topping. Return to the oven for 15 minutes. Top will be golden brown and the pie should be pretty firm. Mine was a touch jiggly but firmed up nicely as it cooled.