Tag: recipe

Cast Iron Skillet “Shepherd’s Pie”

My girls love “shepherd’s pie.”  Well, they love the shepherd’s pie that I make for them which has no vegetables in it.  Which, to me, is not really shepherd’s pie.  No matter what they say.

However, the “shepherd’s pie” that I make for them is an adaptation of one of my favorite things my mom would cook for us when we were growing up.  I’ve taken her base recipe and melded it with a shepherd’s pie recipe to create something of a hybrid of the two.

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Mom’s was mostly ground beef and mashed potatoes – with a lot of seasonings, of course.  I took that, along with the shepherd’s pie recipe that I learned from an old work chum who was from Britain and made something that my girls would eat.

Personally, I love shepherd’s pie. I love the amalgamation of meat, veggies and a hearty broth topped with mashed potatoes.  Comfort food at the very best.  But the girls would turn their noses up at the veggies and I would never get my shepherd’s pie.  So, I compromise – make this hybrid that they love and everyone is happy.

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This one I made in my cast iron skillet. It was genius – one less pot to wash – and I think it turned out really well.  You can certainly add some frozen mixed veggies to this to make it more of a true shepherd’s pie. If I was making it for grownups, I’d do that for sure.

Cast Iron Skillet “Shepherd’s Pie”

1 1/2 pounds ground beef
2-3 cups beef broth
1 cup finely diced carrots
1 cup finely diced onion
1-2 tsp minced garlic (about 1-2 cloves)
1 packet brown gravy mix
5-10 large potatoes
Worcestershire sauce
milk, butter, sour cream for mashed potatoes
salt & pepper
bay leaf

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Peel, cut, & boil potatoes
  3. In a large cast-iron skillet, add some oil (about 1 tsp) and sauté the carrots & onions until the onion is translucent.
  4. Add the ground beef, seasoning with salt & pepper and garlic.
  5. When the beef is browned, sprinkle about 1-2 tsp of Worchestershire sauce over the mixture.
  6. In a separate small bowl, mix beef broth, gravy packet, to make a gravy.
  7. Pour the gravy mixture in the beef.
  8. Put one bay leaf in the mixture (remember to pull it out when you’re serving or someone will get a surprise)
  9. Mash potatoes, using butter, sour cream and milk. Season with salt & pepper.
  10. Top beef mixture with mashed potato.
  11. If you want, layer some cheddar or American cheese slices on top.
  12. Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted & bubbly. (about 15-20 min)

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A few notes: you want your mashed potatoes a little dry as they will absorb some of the gravy while cooking in the oven. If they are too most to begin with they get runny.

I snuck the carrots in on the girls (they had no clue) and would probably even try some other finely diced veggies if I thought I could get away with it in the future.

I hope you enjoy!!
Linking up here:

Spinach Artichoke Pasta with Grilled Chicken

This was one of my recent recipe experiments thanks to Pinterest. I stumbled across the recipe and thought it was worth a try given that we all love Spinach Artichoke appetizer at restaurants.

I have to say, this one didn’t disappoint.  It was really, really good. So much so that Big Girl decided to have leftovers for dinner the next night instead of what we had already planned for dinner… and she ate two helpings. of leftovers.

Yeah, it’s that good.

This makes A LOT of food. So much so that I shared a healthy portion with our neighbors for their dinner the night I made it and we still had some leftovers.  So, save this for a meal when you’re having folks over or make it and give some away like we did. Your friends will love you if you do.

I don’t have a picture – it didn’t last long enough for me to get one – but here is the one on the Pinterest link:

I used ziti pasta instead of the bowtie you see here.  I don’t think it really matters. You could even use linguine if you wanted. Whatever you have on hand. It’s merely a vehicle to get the luscious sauce into your mouth. Smile

I also added some grilled chicken that wasn’t in the original recipe. I marinated it in some Italian dressing and then grilled it, cut it up and added the bite-sized pieces to the mixture as I added the pasta.

It was a hearty and filling dinner, a one-stop cornucopia of goodness for your mouth and your body.

Spinach Artichoke Pasta with Grilled Chicken

Ingredients:

2-3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup Italian Dressing
Houston House Seasoning

1 12 ounce box of pasta

1 tsp butter
2 Tbs minced garlic (about 2-3 cloves)
1 8 oz package reduced fat cream cheese
1/2 cup milk (I used 2%)
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
1/2 lemon, juiced (I used about 1-2 tsp of lemon juice)
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of red pepper flakes
1 14 oz can artichoke hearts (packed in water) drained & chopped
10 oz chopped frozen spinach, thawed, with as much water squeezed out as possible
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
Additional parmesan for serving

Instructions:

  1. Marinate chicken breasts in Italian Seasoning & sprinkled with Houston House Seasoning for about 1 hour.
  2. Cook pasta.
  3. While pasta is cooking, grill chicken. (or sauté in a skillet)
  4. Cut cooked chicken into bite-sized pieces and set aside.
  5. In a large skillet, over medium heat, melt butter and add garlic. Cook for about 30-45 seconds, being careful not to scorch garlic.
  6. Add cream cheese, stir until melted and combined with garlic.
  7. Slowly add milk, whisking it gently into the cream cheese.
  8. Add sour cream, lemon juice, salt & pepper flakes. Combine, being careful not to boil the mixture as the sour cream can curdle.
  9. Add in the artichoke hearts, grilled chicken, parmesan cheese. Mix to combine – you can turn off the heat here.
  10. Drain pasta.
  11. Add the pasta (if your saucepan is big enough) and stir to combine.
  12. Season with additional salt & lemon juice as desired (I needed both)
  13. Serve topped with additional parmesan.

Bourbon Street Chicken

 

With the new schedule for the girls’ schools and after-school activities, I’m on the hunt for some new, easy recipes to cook. The after-school schedule is different enough that I’m having to get creative with some dinner routines. I’m shooting for 6:00 for suppertime, but that doesn’t work on the nights that Big Girl has dance classes because they are later in the evening. I think she and Super Man will be eating late dinners together those nights and Little Bit and I will eat together earlier. It’s a juggling act and we’re just going with the flow for right now.

Last night, we tried something relatively new for dinner.  I’ve made it once before, but no one seems to remember eating it and I can’t remember if everyone liked it or not!  As I cooked, I was wondering if I was making something I was just going to throw in the garbage because of this, but it turned out to be a success and everyone loved it.

This will definitely go into my list of regularly-cooked menu items, I think.  It’s a sweet and tangy glazed chicken dish – reminiscent of some of the chicken dishes I remember having at the quick-cook Asian restaurants when I worked downtown.  It’s not technically Asian in origin and I think the original recipe hails from Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

Regardless, it is really good and worth a try!

(sorry for the grainy cell phone picture – I forgot to take a “real” one before we ate!)

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Bourbon Street Chicken

4-6 servings

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts; cut into bite-sized pieces
1-2 Tbs olive oil
1 heaping tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 pinch red pepper flakes (more if you like it spicy)
1/4 c apple juice (I just used an apple/grape juice box I had in the fridge for kids’ lunches)
1/3 c brown sugar (or 1/4 c Splenda brown sugar blend)
2 Tbs ketchup
1 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1/2 c water
1 Tbs corn starch (to thicken sauce)

  1. In a large skillet, sauté the chicken pieces in the olive oil.
    (I seasoned mine lightly with Houston House Seasoning)
  2. While chicken is cooking, whisk remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
  3. Once chicken is browned, pour in the sauce. Stir to coat chicken and bring to a rolling boil.
  4. Reduce heat and simmer on low, uncovered, for about 15-20 minutes. (Until sauce thickens)
  5. Serve over rice.

I also served mine with some steamed veggies.  It was a huge hit – Big Girl even ate two helpings!

I think next time I might even toss some sesame seeds on the chicken right before serving.

 

Pesto Palooza

Happy Monday!

I hope you all had a good weekend. We did. It was full of friends and fun – and a little date night for SuperMan and I as well. So nice.  We went to a local German restaurant and the food was incredible.  We enjoyed our dinner so much, lingering over our food with just one more glass of wine and some great conversation, that we totally missed our movie!  It was just as well. I told SuperMan I’d rather sit and talk with him than watch a movie any day.

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Sunday afternoon the girls and I spent a few hours with our good friends – they invited us over to make homemade pesto!  Cindy and I both have prolific basil plants and we had been talking about making some pesto with the leaves.

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I had never made pesto, so Cindy offered to give us a lesson.  Our other good friends joined in on the fun and we had PESTO PALOOZA!

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All of the kids got involved, from mincing the garlic to loading up the food processor, measuring the ingredients and spooning the finished pesto into the storage containers.

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Many helpful hands make small work …

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Our junior chefs –

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The house smelled SO GOOD – one of Cindy’s sons came home as we were in the middle of a batch and he said the house smelled like spices. And it did! Such good spices…

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I think we ended up with ten or eleven cups of pesto by the time we were finished.  Each family took a batch home to freeze and enjoy this fall – and I know whenever I take a container out of the fridge to use for cooking this winter I’ll remember the fun we had on that Sunday afternoon.  Good friends and good times.

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We enjoyed our first batch last night for dinner. I grilled some chicken and served it with some sun-dried tomato pesto pasta. SO good.

Here is the recipe in case you want to make some of your own:

Basil Pesto

from Family Fun Magazine

Makes about 1 cup of pesto

2 c firmly packed basil leaves (fresh)
1/3 c walnuts of pine nuts
3 Tbs grated Parmesan cheese
2 small cloves garlic (or 1 large)
1/4 tsp each salt/pepper
1/2 c extra-virgin olive oil

  1. In a food processor, combine all ingredients except the oil. Pulse until a thick paste forms.
  2. With processor on, drizzle in oil in a slow stream until mixture is well combined. You may need to clean the sides of the processor to ensure all ingredients are mixed in.
  3. Transfer to an airtight container. Cover with lid, refrigerate up to 4 days or freeze up to 2 months.

Four-Bean Salad = YUM

In my efforts to get back on track eating-wise, I’ve been looking for some new recipes to spice things up a bit. Something new to excite my palate, yet something low-fat and low-carb to stay in line with the way I need to be eating.

I stumbled across a recipe for a bean salad on Pinterest and thought it looked pretty yummy. This in and of itself is rather remarkable because bean salad is something I would’ve never eaten a few years back.  But this one looked good and I happened to have the ingredients on hand so I gave it a try.

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The results were simply marvelous. I have been munching away on this for a few days now and it only gets better with time.

As usual, I made a few modifications so I thought I’d share my recipe with you here. It’s basically the same thing, with a little more seasoning & veggies thrown in.

The combination of crunchy veggies and creamy beans is just very satisfying and the coolness of the salad is great on a hot summer day. I’ve served it alongside dinner as a side dish the last couple nights. SuperMan and I have really enjoyed it.  The kids didn’t care too much for it, but  I’m sure they will warm up to the idea over time. Their palates are drastically improving this summer and they are trying all sorts of new things. I’m so proud of them.  So this bean salad will stay on the rotation for us and I hope they’ll learn to like it in time.

Four Bean Salad

Ingredients:

1 can black beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can chick peas (garbanzo beans)
1 can black eyed peas
1 can sweet corn
1 yellow bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
2 ribs celery
1/2 Vidalia (sweet) onion

Italian dressing (about 1 1/2 cups)

Houston House Seasoning
Mrs. Dash Garlic Seasoning
salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:

  1. Thoroughly rinse & drain the beans and corn.
  2. Finely dice the vegetables.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the beans and vegetables.
  4. Pour the Italian Dressing over the top and mix thoroughly.
  5. Season with about 1 tsp of the House seasoning, 1-2 tsp of the Mrs. Dash and salt & pepper to taste.
  6. Chill for about an hour before serving.

You may need additional dressing and/or salt/pepper at serving.

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Houston House Seasoning

1 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup garlic powder (not garlic salt)
1/4 cup onion powder

Mix all thoroughly. For storage, reuse a large seasoning bottle (I reused my leftover garlic powder jar) or a Ziploc-type baggie.

Fajitas!

Fajitas are one of my family’s favorite dinners. I could probably serve it once a week without anyone complaining. They love it that much.

I’m not sure why – I don’t feel like I do anything special – but they absolutely love them.

I thought I’d share my recipe with you –  just in case you’ve never made these yourself at home before. I think they are better than the restaurant version.

The secret, to me, is two-fold: lots of seasoning and time. Time makes the meat tender. Seasoning makes it flavorful.  I don’t use any fancy ingredients; no special spices or exotic foods. You can buy any of this at the grocery store:

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I cut my chicken tenders into smaller, thinner slices.  Sometimes I do the same for the meat (depending on how thick it was cut at the store). I slice my onion thin and the bell peppers I leave a little thicker because I like that taste when I bite into my fajita. The refried beans I don’t put in the fajita meat when they are cooking, but I do heat them and serve them on the side to put in the fajita when it’s made at the table.

So, let’s get this recipe going here:

First, brown your meat in a little oil in your skillet:imgp4167

I put all the meat in together. It’s probably not how the Food Network folks would do it, but I (am lazy) don’t have time to cook each part separately and put it aside while I cook the rest. Just toss it all in, I say.

When the meat is cooked, I add the tomato and seasoning:imgp4168

Once I get that incorporated and let a little of the juices from the tomato cook off, I add the peppers and onion: (I don’t normally do yellow, just happened to have them on hand)imgp4169

Let it all simmer for a while – until the veggies are tender and you’re ready to serve. I love this skillet I inherited from my mom – I can set it to “Low” and let things stay warm under the lid until we’re ready to sit down to eat dinner together.

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Serve with warm tortillas, sour cream, cheese, lettuce, tomato, salsa, etc.

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Ingredients:

2 pounds steak, sliced thin
1-2 pounds chicken tenders, sliced very thin
2 bell peppers, julienned
1 large onion, julienned
1 can Rotel tomatoes with chiles
1 packet taco seasoning
Cumin
Chili Powder
Garlic Powder
Salt/Pepper

Instructions:

  1. Slice your steak & chicken into thin strips. Season lightly with salt & pepper & set aside.
  2. Slice your peppers and onion into thin strips. Set aside.
  3. Heat your skillet with some oil and add the meat.  As the meat is cooking, sprinkle liberally with cumin, chili powder and garlic powder.
  4. Sauté the meat until it is browned and then add the can of tomatoes and the taco seasoning.
  5. Simmer until most of the juices from the tomatoes has cooked off.
  6. Add the vegetables and cook until the onions are translucent.
  7. Serve with warm tortillas, sour cream, cheese, lettuce, tomato, salsa, etc.

It’s Monday… again.

Hello, all, and happy Monday (I think – it is probably too early to tell just yet)

After a happy, but busy, weekend, we’re kicking off the week with a countdown to spring break… the girls and I can hardly wait.  Not waking up at 5 AM is certainly something to look forward to! We have not finalized our plans yet… they have changed several times in the past week or so and so I’ve just about decided to not worry about PLANS and just roll with the tide. Maybe we’ll stay home, maybe we’ll go somewhere. Just not sure yet.

Planning some grill cooking this week – the weather is so beautiful, it is hard to resist dinner on the grill. On Saturday, we cooked our entire meal on the grill. I made these yummy three-cheese potato pockets. They were so good. Although, next time I make them, I’ll probably only put the onion in the pocket for SuperMan. Too much onion for the girls and me. But yummy nonetheless.

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We grilled ribs, corn (wrapped in foil and slathered with butter) and the potato pockets. It was a yummy, yummy dinner. Made especially good because there were very few dirty pots to wash. (my dishwasher is dead)

Sunday night we had guests for dinner – our friends from our Bible Study group at church.  I made a nacho bar. I have to say that this is a terrific idea when you are feeding a crowd. I would think it would be great for a bunch of teens, too.

I made shredded “taco” chicken in the crock pot on Saturday and then browned ground beef on Sunday for a second crock pot-full.  We had toppings galore – cilantro, onion, lettuce, olives, cheese, jalapeños, three kinds of salsa, and on and on and on.  I also made a cheese dip with some Velveeta and salsa.  Yeah, not the healthiest, but it sure was good. Smile

I served this warm bean dip as a side item, but most of us just put it on our nachos. It was a huge hit (another one of my finds from Pinterest)

Everyone was able to fix their own plate of nachos to their liking. I have to say, there were very few leftovers and I like it that way!

This week I’m still working out my menu plan – so far I know we’ll be doing the following:

Monday: Creamy chicken & rice (crock pot)

Tuesday: Leftovers from Sunday – probably turned into quesadillas

Wednesday: Asian Chicken Salad (new recipe for us) – I’ll share this recipe later this week. It’s a yummy salad recipe shared by a friend. After I’ve made it, I’ll let you know all about it!

Thursday: Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak (new recipe for us) Big Girl has a doctor’s appt for her tummy so we will go with slow cooker recipes to make it easier for mama.

Friday: Pizza night

Saturday:  Grilled goodness (not sure what yet)


NEED MORE IDEAS?

You can find more yummy recipes on orgjunkie.com where you can find some great recipes and menu plans.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some updates to my Project Life pages.

Related articles

Six New Recipes to Try Soon

 

The weather is changing, and so is my palate – out go the heavy soups and stews and in come the lighter foods – grilled fare and salads.

Here are a few recipes that are on my list of things to try out soon:

  1. Asian Chicken Salad – this one was served by a friend at a get-together last week. It was soooo good. We all enjoyed it and the guys went back for seconds! She serves it “buffet style” so that everyone can put the things they want in there and leave out the things they don’t.  I will definitely be adding this to our menu plan soon.
  2. White chicken enchiladas – this is another one a friend made and we fell in love with. I actually made this one for dinner last Saturday. The girls loved it – as did SuperMan and I.  However, the tortillas get gummy when warmed over so this is not one to plan for having tons of leftovers. Freshly cooked, it’s delicious, though. And super easy. Deutsch: Tortilla-Chips, salsa, und guacamole ...
  3. Warm Bean Dip – thinking I may try this one night for a meatless dinner option. The girls are not much for beans, so it will be interesting to see how they like it. But, smothered in cheese may make it worth trying. We will see. I may serve it with some type of salad or just make it a “dip” dinner and serve with some tortilla chips and salsa.
  4. Another easy dinner idea (and a favorite around here) is baked potatoes and salad.  Here’s a nifty baked potato idea I may try one night.
  5. Grill cooking means hamburgers at some point in the month, too, but I always have a hard time with the bun – breads like buns and I don’t get along anymore. So, when I found this recipe, I decided it is also a must-try-soon recipe – Hamburger Wraps – where the “bun” is a tortilla! I love, too, that we can fix each one to suit everyone’s tastes.
  6. The girls have recently discovered the chocolate-chip granola bars at the grocery store – I have let them have them as a treat but have been on the lookout for my own version of this treat so that I can better control the contents and (lack of) additives that they have. I stumbled across this recipe on Pinterest and think I’ll give it a go one day soon.

How about you? Have any good recipes you’ve been wanting to try – or that you have tried and would like to share?

Menu Plan Monday

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you are having a good week so far. The girls and I are counting down the days until Spring Break – we’re ready, truthfully, for school to be out for the year. It’s these last couple of months that get really hard – the weather gets pretty and we stay outside later and later. It makes bedtime slip later and then we don’t want to get up in the mornings.

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It’s so pretty outside right now – it’s like nature is just showing off, revealing more and more beauty as the weeks progress. Dormant plants turn to buds. Buds turn to blooms, erupting in color and delighting our eyes.

Of course, there’s the pollen and allergies that go with it – but I think that the girls and I are getting a handle on that – thanks to Allegra!

Here’s what we have on our menu for the week this week. Trying to finish off some leftovers we had from the weekend and last week… along with some requests from the family.

  • Monday: Chicken Parmesan (with leftover spaghetti sauce)
  • Tuesday: BBQ chicken, mac & cheese & veggies (leftover from Sunday dinner)
  • Wednesday: Rotel Chicken Pasta bake(Big Girl’s request)
  • Thursday: Asian chicken stir fry (Little Bit’s request)
  • Friday: Seafood (SuperMan’s request) –maybe low country boil or salmon croquettes
  • Saturday: Hamburgers & Hotdogs (if the weather is nice)
  • Sunday: Ham, rice & black-eyed peas

I also made some beef stew in the crock pot last night so that SuperMan has something warm to eat for lunches this week.

NEED MORE IDEAS?

You can find more yummy recipes on  orgjunkie.com where you can find some great recipes and menu plans.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some updates to my Project Life pages and then later this week I’ll be sharing a recipe for something new we tried over the weekend that was a huge hit with the family, thanks to Pinterest!

Related articles

Just a little muffin, man

I have a new favorite muffin recipe. One that my friend Cindy shared with me.

If you know Cindy, you know that there isn’t anything that she makes that isn’t yummy-yummy-good. I love going over to her house for get-togethers. I know the food is going to be good and, most likely, there’s going to be something I’ve never tried before.  Cindy is not afraid to experiment and to share the benefits of her experiments with her friends.  And I am lucky to be one of those friends who gets to eat her goodies.

Like these muffins.

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She said they are called something like “six week muffins” which sounds like they are pregnant, so I don’t think I’ll call them that.

I think I’ll call them yummy muffins.

To disguise a few of the ingredients from my children and emphasize the fact that they are so, so good.

(I won’t tell you how many I have eaten today… but it is >1 and <10 Smile – not really… well, yes, really, but no where close to 10.  that would just be crazy…and I’m not crazy… well, not much, anyway)

I made some in a monster muffin tin – one that makes those jumbo sized muffins. (another reason why eating 10 would just be nuts – and unhealthy)

Those big mamas are going to the kids’ teachers at school tomorrow.  It’s teacher appreciation week so I’m sharin’ the love with some breakfast muffins.

The regular sized ones I’m keeping around here for us to have for snacks, and breakfast, and snacks…and whenever-we-feel-like-we-need-a-muffin-treats.

They’re so good.  And Cindy says they are good for you, too.

I can’t wait to play around with the recipe a little. I was thinking I might substitute applesauce for the oil and maybe add some diced apples next time.  And some apple pie spice.  Or pumpkin pie spice. Or chocolate chips. 

Who knows.

What I do know, though, is that I will be making them again. 

You need to try them. 

Seriously.

Oh, and I guess I should warn you, this makes A LOT of muffins.  I made 12 “regular” muffins and 12 “jumbo” muffins and I still have about enough batter left to make at least another 12-24 muffins.

But, Cindy says that she keeps the leftover mix in the fridge in a sealed container and keeps it to bake with all week.  I guess that is why it is called “six week muffins” but we will never know because the mix has never made it that long at her house and I know that it won’t at mine, either.

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Okay, enough chatter.  Here is the recipe:

Six Week (Yummy) Muffins

1 15 oz box Raisin Bran cereal (I used the store brand)
5 cups self-rising flour
2-1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 quart (4 cups) buttermilk
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup raisins or cranberries (or both)!!
1 large can of pumpkin
2 Tbsp cinnamon (I used 2 1/2 Tbsp)
1 – 2 tsp vanilla

Bake at 400 degrees for about 12 to 15 minutes.

note:

With the jumbo muffins I made, I dropped the oven temp to 350 and baked them for 30 minutes, just to make sure they cooked inside without burning on the outside.

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