Shepherd's Pie

Last night, with my cooking seduction skills (HA!), I convinced Ryan that Shepherd's Pie is indeed delicious; and more importantly, comforting. Finally found a really good and simple recipe. Of course I had my tweaks. I've always had a soft spot for food like this: a warm meal, a mishmash of my favorite ingredients, and something you always want to pick at after dinner is over. 

Original recipe courtesy of Sarah's Joys blog.

• 2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks for boiling
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 6 oz cream cheese
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese plus more for sprinkling on top
• kosher salt, lawry's seasoned salt, and pepper (for potatoes, to taste)
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/4 pounds ground beef (1 lb is fine)
• 1 1/2 cups diced sweet onion
• 2 cups of carrots cut into half moons
• 1 cup diced celery stalk
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 3 oz tomato paste
• 2 tsp worcestershire sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Season a large pot of water with salt. Add the potatoes and garlic and bring to a boil. Cook for 15-20 minutes, until the potatoes are tender enough to mash with a fork. Drain well and place the potatoes back into the pot for 1-2 minutes to allow the residual heat from the pot to dry out any excess water. Mash well with a potato masher, add butter and cream cheese, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in 1/3 cup cheddar cheese. Set potatoes aside.
3. Heat about 1 tsp of extra virgin olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and cook, stirring, and breaking up, until browned. Drain fat from the pan. Remove beef from pan into a bowl or a plate and set aside.
4. Set the nonstick skillet back onto heat and add another tsp of extra virgin olive oil. Add onions, carrots, and celery and cook until softened, about 8 minutes.
5. Add the turkey, the chicken stock, tomato paste, worcestershire sauce, and thyme. Continue cooking and stirring, breaking up the tomato paste. Season with salt and pepper to taste. When most of the liquid is absorbed (about 5 minutes), pour the mixture into a shallow baking dish.
6. Top the meat and vegetable mixture with the mashed potatoes. At this point you can cool and refrigerate for use on another day, or sprinkle with desired amount of cheddar cheese and bake for about 30 minutes until it is bubbly and the top is slightly browned.

Looking forward to the leftovers of this tonight!

Chicken Enchilada Night

I made this delicious chicken enchiladas recipe last night, courtesy of Southern Living. Perfect meal for a night when Ryan comes home starved! I've included the recipe below the photos, along with a few tweaks I made. A serving is technically two enchiladas, but trust me, one will do the job.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients: 

• 3 cups chopped cooked chicken
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese with peppers
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 (4.5-ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 8 (8-inch) flour tortillas
• Vegetable cooking spray
• 1 (8-ounce) container sour cream
• 1 (8-ounce) bottle green taco sauce
• Toppings: diced tomato, chopped avocado, chopped green onions, sliced ripe olives, chopped cilantro

Directions:

1. Stir together first 5 ingredients. Spoon chicken mixture evenly over each tortilla, and roll up. Arrange in a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish. Coat tortillas with vegetable cooking spray.
2. Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown.
3. Stir together sour cream and taco sauce. Spoon over hot enchiladas, and sprinkle with toppings.

Apparently green taco sauce is nowhere to be found, so I replaced it with red taco sauce (thus the pinky appearance). I also just used an 8-ounce bag of Mexican cheese mix instead of the Monteray Jack with peppers. I also added some tomatoes into the filling. You can put whatever toppings on you want, so I added some fresh avocado, tomatoes, and green onions (there's no way I could get Ryan to eat olives). I served Goya yellow rice on the side, which was the perfect compliment, especially to use with any excess sauce. Next time I might try pouring some hot white queso sauce on top of them and really fatten Ryan up. :)

An Italian Quickie

A meal, that is. Ryan and I whipped up this make-dinner-with-what-you-got dish in about 20 minutes last night. And it was delicious! We had a box of penne pasta, a jar of Bertolli Vodka Sauce, turkey bacon, and some vegetables. First Ryan started cooking the turkey bacon to get it somewhat crispy. Then, while the pasta was cooking, we sauteed chopped onion (about a cup), a teaspoon of minced garlic, and a couple handfuls of mushrooms with the bacon until the veggies were tender. We then added the vodka sauce and a big handful of sun-dried tomatoes, and let that sit on medium until it started to bubble. Then we simmered it on low until it was warmed through and the pasta was ready to serve. We topped it off with a little (okay, big) sprinkle of parmesan cheese and a piece of bagette... and voila!

A glass of red wine to accompany it didn't hurt. :)

Meatloaf "Muffins"

We had another delicious weeknight dinner with this play on meatloaf (so much more practical!). Instead of serving them with potato wedges and green beans like the photo below, I opted for mashed potatoes and boiled carrots. Think they wouldn't fill you up? Two is a serving size, and Ryan went for three: His seams were busting. And best of all, it's light (under 300 calories/serving). Sorry, I forgot to take my own "finished product" photo this time, but I've included the recipe below.

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/2 cup finely chopped carrot
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup ketchup, divided
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef, extra lean (raw)
• 1 cup finely crushed fat-free saltine crackers (about 20)
• 2 tablespoons prepared mustard
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 large eggs
• Cooking spray

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion, chopped carrot, dried oregano, and minced garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Cool.
3. Combine onion mixture, 1/2 cup ketchup, and the remaining ingredients except cooking spray in a large bowl.
4. Spoon the meat mixture into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Top each with 2 teaspoons ketchup. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160°. Let stand for 5 minutes.

Recipe and photo courtesy of myrecipes.com. 

I used prepared breadcrumbs instead of saltines, and minced garlic (from the jar) to speed things along. I think mashed potatoes were the way to go with this. Taking a half-and-half bite of the meatloaf and mashed potatoes together was perfection! I'll definitely be making this again.

Chicken Broccoli Roll (Yum!)

Last night I made this chicken broccoli roll for dinner, a recipe courtesy of Pampered Chef. One word: YUM! And the fabulous thing about these Pampered Chef "roll" recipes is that anything can go into them. I considered making a Reuben Roll (with corned beef, sauerkraut, and so on). Maybe next time. I've included the recipe for this delicious dish below: You know you want to make it.

Ingredients:

• 12 oz. cooked chicken, chopped (about 2 cups)
• 1 cup broccoli, chopped
• 1/2 cup red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, pressed
• 4 oz. sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded (1 cup)
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 packages refrigerated crescent rolls (8 oz. each)
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten
• slivered almonds

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
2. Chop chicken, broccoli, red bell pepper and place into mixing bowl. Add garlic, cheese, and mayonnaise into bowl. Mix well.
3. Unroll the two packages of crescent rolls; separate into 16 triangles. Arrange triangles, slightly overlapping, in a circle on a large round stone with wide ends 4 inches from edge of baking stone (points will extend off the edge of the baking stone; put a large canned good under the stone to elevate it).
4. Using a large scoop, scoop filling evenly over center of dough in a continuous circle.
5. Bring points of triangles up over filling and tuck under dough at center to form a ring (filling will show).
6. Brush egg white over dough.
7. Sprinkle with almonds. Baked 25-28 minutes or until deep golden brown.

To lighten it up a bit, I used reduced fat Pillsbury crescent rolls, 2% cheddar cheese, and a reduced fat mayonnaise. I also used Perdue Short Cuts precooked chicken in order to save a little time. Great weeknight meal! The only problem with this recipe is that your husband may eat half the roll in one sitting. :)