Lovely Shepherd's Pie

Tonight I made Lovely Shepherd's Pie. I've always wanted to make shepherd's pie, but I never really knew where to start. Apparently it's super duper easy to make!!! This will be a new staple in our meal plans for sure. I researched and read a LOT of episodes and basically discovered that you can put pretty much anything in shepherd's pie. So this is what I put in mine:

Ingredients:

4 medium/small potatoes

heavy cream (or some equivalent)

4 full sized carrots

1 lb ground beef

4 Tablespoons of butter

½ Cup Water

1 small onion

4 Peanut dog legs (just kidding)

Some type of shredded cheese

Cinnamon

dash of flower

Italian seasonings

salt

pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Boil the potatoes and make yourself some darn good mashed potatoes. Leace the peels, it's healthier that way. Use 1 tbsp. Butter, as much cream as you are comfortable using, and salt and pepper (don't be afraid of the pepper!)
3. Do the same thing with the carrots (they do take a bit longer to cook, just fyi). Add 1 tbsp butter, and some cream. Add one shake of cinnamon for good measure (secret key ingredient).
4. Set both bowls aside and work on the meat mixture.
5. Saute the onion, chopped, in butter. Add the meat and cook thoroughly, add salt, pepper, and italian seasoning. Add the ½ C water and flour and thicken (just a little). (it's almost impossible to over season ground beef.
6. Add the meat to an 8x8 pan. Add some shredded cheese over the top of the meat and onion. Then spread the mashed carrots across the meat (best use a spatula to keep it in an actual layer). Spread the mashed potatoes over the carrots. Then sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the potatoes.
7. Put on the top rack of the oven for 20-35 minutes. I forgot about it and went on to make tomorrow nights crock pot dinner and forgot about the Shepherd's Pie and it didn't even get ruined. Now THAT'S a win if I ever heard one.
8. NOTE: WITHOUT SALT AND PEPPER THIS WILL BE THE BLANDEST THING YOU EVER EAT. Seriously I mean, look at the ingredients. Meat, carrots, potato, onion. ADD SOME SEASONINGS PEOPLE! Have you ever hear anyone say “Ew, this has way too much oregano in it”...NO YOU HAVE NOT HEARD THAT EVER. SO USE IT.

Result: This was actually really delicious. The sweetness of the carrots, brought out the taste of the onion so the meat was not overpowering. The cream used in the mashed potatoes and the carrots tied everything together it it was surprisingly satisfying (because if I had anything to say about it, and type 2 diabetes didn't exist, every meal should include a side of mashed potatoes).

Will we make this again? HECK YES! On the scale of lowest effort for highest outcome, I would give this like a 9.5. For the amount of work put into this, it turned out FANTASTIC. Even Peanut wanted some. Okaaay. Peanut always wants anything that comes out of the kitchen, even if it's just used to decorate the living room floor. But seriously , try saying no to this face (P.S. Peanut LOVES snow):

See you later!-Charlotte

10 Minute Chicken Noodle Soup

Today we are making 10 minute Chicken Soup. The reason that it only took 10 minutes was because we had 2 people JIVING in the kitchen together (David may have been taking orders, but he said it was okay). So instead of giving it to you in a normal recipe instruction list, I'm going to do things a little different. This is officially a simple chicken noodle soup. We always argue over whether to do noodles (David's second favorite food of all time) or potatoes (my favorite food of all time). This time I surrendered before we even started talking so noodles it will be. As a mini life update, I have officially experienced -6 degree weather, so that's cold. And Peanut, our dog, is loving all this snow. I think he thinks of it as free water. So that's cute. David has started his second semester, and I have discovered a non-profit to be apart of. I'll let you know if anything cool happens but I don't want to get anyone's hopes up besides mine if I can help it. I'm feeling kind of funky today so I'll just give you the recipe instead of embarrassing myself with un-witty banter and documenting it on this blog.

Ingredients:

3 carrots

4 stalks of celery

1 medium sized onion

1 tablespoon butter

1/5 tablespoon minced garlic

1 frozen chicken breast halved (so it's skinnier)

1 48 oz of Swanson broth

1 15 oz can of Swanson broth

½ tsp salt, pepper, oregano, parsley

noodles

General directions:

PERSON ONE (more work):

get out the crock pot

chop all the celery and throw it in

chop the carrots and throw them in

add 2 pieces of frozen chicken breast (I guess it doesn't really have to be frozen, but whatever, chicken goes in)

melt butter in a sauce pan while you chop the onion up real small.

Saute onion and minced garlic until your eyes can't take it anymore / onions are sea through.

Throw it into the crock pot.

PERSON 2 (less work):

peel 3 carrots

Pour broth into crock pot

Get out chicken

add all of the spices to the crock pot

Last person to touch the crock pot sets it on high.

Tonight we will make noodles and add them. I heard it's good if you cook the noodles as you normally would, in water, and then add them to the soup later, that it causes them to over cook less. So I'll let you know how that goes.

Crock pot tip of the Day:

Unless you have a very steady hand, do not use a soft spatula with a crock pot. We often forget that inside the crock pot, things are hot, and if you accidentally flick any food from there on your face with the soft rubber spatula, it will hurt.

All for now! <3 char="" font="">

Num Nums Italian Soup with Kim

So Kim and I have actually never met. She is the mother of my roommate from my ventures in Spain. Kim and I mostly communicate via facebook about things like presidential elections, cooking, and Penn State. So when she said she was making Crock Pot Italian Soup, I told her to send me the recipe and I would feature her on my bloggy-poo! I'm always up for a little variety and I've been stuck in a soup-fail funk so I thought this might help free me from my troubles. So, without further ado, here is Num Nums Crock Pot Italian Soup with Kim:

Hi Charlotte!
Ok, as promised, here is the recipe of the soup I made today. It was sooooo good! Loved it!
Crock Pot Italian Soup (pinterest)
1lb. ground turkey
1 (15oz) can kidney beans or navy beans ( I used Kidney)
1 (14.5 oz) can or fresh diced tomatoes ( I used the kind with basil, oregano already added)
2 carrots, sliced
2 stalks of celery, sliced
2 small potatoes, diced
10-12 garlic cloves, minced ( I used 6)
1 Tblspn each dried parsley, dried oregano, dried basil
6 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
in large frying pan, brown the turkey meat and garlic. Transfer to the crock pot. add remaining ingredients, mix well, cover and cook on low 8-10 hrs or high for 4-5 hrs. you may have to add more water towards the end to get it to the consistency you like. (I did not need to add any)
The flavor was amazing and I would think its a pretty healthy meal? I made the frozen Pillsbury grand biscuits to go with for Tony. He likes his biscuits and honey!
Just thought you and David might like this soup on a cold Pa night

Jambalayayayayaya

Jambalaya

Hello friends! It's been a long month and some days. I was at training for a new job and then David was away for 2 weeks and I wasn't really in the food experimenting mood. It's nice to have someone around who likes everything I cook. This week we are making all kinds of new things, and I have a few on back log to update on too! I feel like I've spent so much time blogging, but I have like 5 recipes on here. So I'm going to try to be more effective. Between making my cards (See other tab) and loving my crock pot, I'll be quite busy in the next few months!

Weekly Groceries:

This week we spent $60 on groceries (actually 59.58, UNDER BUDGET!) ($60 not including coffee and baggies).

Meals this week include:

Jambalaya

Black Bean, Corn, and Chicken Salad

Chicken Soup

Quiche

Pulled pork with Turnip tops (they didn't have collared greens)

Hamburgers

Ranch Baked Chicken

Here is: Jambalaya!

Ingredients:

Group 1:

1 Diced Chicken breast

4 chopped spicy Italian sausages

1 chopped white onion

1 large green bell pepper, seeded and chopped $

3 stalks celery, chopped $

1 (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes with juice $

3 big scoops minced garlic

2 cups chicken broth

1 tablespoon Creole spice mix

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 pound shrimp, peeled and de-veined

Group 2:

1 package Uncle Ben's Mixed long-grain rice (without seasoning)

What I did:

STEP 1: Dice chicken breast, cut up sausage, and shell/de-vein shrimp. Set aside.

STEP 2: Chop onion and celery ( I usually cut celery in 3 long pieces and then chop across because it's easier to handle and be consistent in size.) Add to crock pot.

STEP 3: Add 2 C. chicken broth and big can of diced tomatoes.

STEP 4: Slowly add the meats, stirring as you go so that the meats separate and don't all cook stuck in big chunks.

STEP 5: Add all of the spices. And a few shots of Tabasco!

**Let sit on Low for 5-6 hours***

STEP 6: 30 minutes before you're ready to eat, add in the box of rice (save the seasonings for another night!) and set the timer. We ate oven toast with salt and pepper and butter on the side.

Notes: The original recipe says to add the shrimp at the very end but I was just so excited that I accidentally added it all at the beginning. I do know that from cooking shows and stuff, that cooking shrimp in the shells brings out the flavor way more, but David isn't really into pulling shells out of his food so I gave him a break on that one.

Funny Note: When I was at the grocery store, the fish man was very much interested in telling me how to cook shrimp. (David says that that is because I told him I wanted cooked shrimp and then pointed at the uncooked shrimp so he thought I was clueless, but I think it was something else.) I laughed, because I have been eating shrimp for at least as long as he has been working there I'm sure. I think it was like in the top 10 hard foods I ate or something. I'm just making that up, but I've literally been eating shrimp for as long as I can remember.

Happy Cooking!-Charlotte

My Ultra Awesome Super Proud Extra Efficient Weekly Shopping List of Healthy(ish) Meals

So this is my shopping list for the week. I've been feeling extra broke the past few days so I was SUPER excited and proud of myself when the cost of the meals was at exactly $40 for six meals. Some of the things that we already have are large amounts of individually frozen chicken breast, a big ol' bag of brown rice, and that's about it. I also tried to “re-purpose” some of the more expensive ingredients (if you will) like the cream which will be in quite a few meals. Also, it should be noted that these portions will be for 2-3 people because there are only 2 of us to feed. I hope to be adding more detail about the enchiladas and stuffed roasted poblano peppers since I have not made either of those before. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into the swing of writing consistently. See you later this week!

Quiche

-crust (make w/ flour, salt and water)

-cottage cheese (have)

-eggs (have)

-turnip tops 2.0

-deli ham 2.0

-shredded cheese 2.0

enchiladas

-chicken rice a roni mix (1.0)

-tortillas (have)

-chicken breast (have)

-1/2 one onion (1.30)

-1 jalapeno (1.50)

-1 10 oz. Can diced tomatoes with green chili peppers (1.0)

-1 14.5 can enchilada sauce (1.29)

-shredded cheese (have)

pesto, zuchinni and chicken over rice

-basil (3.0)

-zuchini (2.0)

-chicken (have)

-rice (have)

stuffed poblano peppers

-poblano peppers (2.0)

-rice (have)

-canned corn (.50)

-1 can black beans (.65)

-shredded cheese (have)

alfredo chicken and asparagus

-butter (2.29)

-cream (2.0)

-Parmesan cheese (2.79)

-chicken (have)

-asparagus (4)

Chicken Pad Thai from a box

-chicken (have)

-box (3.59)

-peanuts (have)

Extras

-coffee (2.50)

(Food for tonight and a work going away party:)

-manicotti (3.60)

-spinach (3.0)

-Cream (have)

-Chicken (have)

-sauce (.55)

-deli mozzarella cheese slices (2.00)

See you soon!-Charlotte