Posted on February 1st, 2008 by Amanda
Subscribe to my RSS Feed To Keep Up To Date.
Thanks For Visiting Try New Meals.
I love shepherd’s pie but normally do not make it a lot because it can be a bit of a time consuming dish to prepare. I have cheated and just bought the powder seasoning mix, instant potatoes and frozen veggies. Still tasty but not the healthiest meal out there. This recipe falls right into that category as well, tastes pretty good but you still have the powdered gravy mix (at least that is what I used ) which is so full of sodium. I would prefer to make this recipe without any packaged mixes but if you do not have the time or energy after dealing with children all day this shepards pie recipe works nicely.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 lb. (450 g) lean ground beef
- 2 cups hot mashed potatoes
- 60 g (1/4 of 250-g pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Brick Cream Cheese, cubed
- 1 cup KRAFT Mozza-Cheddar Shredded Cheese, divided
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 cups frozen mixed vegetables, thawed
- 1 cup beef gravy
DIRECTIONS
- PREHEAT oven to 375ºF. Brown meat in large skillet. Meanwhile, mix potatoes, cream cheese, 1/2 cup of the shredded cheese and the garlic until well blended.
- DRAIN meat. Return to skillet; stir in vegetables and gravy. Spoon into 9-inch square baking dish; cover with potato mixture and remaining 1/2 cup shredded cheese.
- BAKE 20 min. or until heated through.
Recipe Alterations
Surprisingly I only made one small change to this recipe and that is that I added more potatoes than what was originally called for. I personally like there to be a thicker layer of mashed potatoes on top.
Family Taste Test
We all liked this recipe but found it to be a bit bland and dry. You could add more gravy than called for but what we added that I really liked was some bbq sauce. It added a bit more moisture and more flavor at the same time. We used a hickory one because that is what we had in the fridge at that time but I think pretty much any flavor would work just fine.
My Thoughts
I would make this again for sure but next time I will be adding some more spice, and probably some onion to the hamburger as well. Still will add bbq sauce but will do that after its cooked so everyone can add however much they choose. I was just thinking that its kind of funny that I say I don’t like adding packaged mixes because they are not so healthy but hey! dump on the bbq sauce because it doesn’t have way too much salt and sugar in it! Anyways, I also had to use a bigger pan than what was called for in the recipe I guess because I used more potatoes but I think the pan they called for would have been a pretty tight fit to begin with. Other than that this recipe was pretty enjoyable and we will be using it again for a quick weeknight meal.
No Comments »
Filed under: Main Dish
Posted on January 27th, 2008 by Amanda
A friend of mine just bought me a Company’s Coming cookbook for my birthday, which was at the beginning of this month. It is a stews, chilies and chowders cookbook, perfect for the chilly winter weather. I found a recipe in there for a stew that you bake in the oven first. I had never heard of doing it that way before and it sounded good so I gave it a try. First of all I have to say the taste of this stew was delicious! I absolutely will be making this again, however with that being said I will be changing a few things because this did not turn out as it should have.
INGREDIENTS
- 4 Medium potatoes, quartered
- 4 Medium carrots, cut lengthwise and crosswise into chunks
- 3 Medium yellow turnips, cut lengthwise and crosswise into chunks
- 3 Medium onions, cut into wedges
- 3 Medium celery ribs, with leaves, cut into chunks
- 2 lbs Boneless inside round (or blade or chuck) steak, trimmed of fat and cubed
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil
- ½ tsp fresh ground pepper
- 1/3 cup pearl barley
- 4 cups water
- 14oz. Can of stewed tomatoes, with juice
- 2 Tbsp beef bouillon powder
- 1 Bay leaf
- ¼ tsp dried thyme, crushed
- ½ cup water
- 3 Tbsp flour
DIRECTIONS
- Combine first five ingredients in large roaster.
- Sear beef in cooking oil in large frying pan until browned on all sides. Add to vegetable mixture.
- Add pepper and barley, stir.
- Combine first amount of water, tomatoes with juice, bouillon powder, bay leaf and thyme in large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Pour over beef mixture. Cover. Bake in a 325 F (160 C ) oven for two to three hours until beef is tender. Remove and discard bay leaf. Use slotted spoon to remove vegetables and beef to serving bowl. Keep warm. Pour remaining liquid into medium saucepan. There should be about 1 ½ cups. Stir second amount of water into flour in small bowl until smooth. Gradually stir into liquid in saucepan. Heat and stir on medium until boiling and thickened. Pour over beef and vegetables.
Recipe Alterations
As usual I have made some changes to the recipe and this is what I have changed:
- Only used one turnip instead of three
- Only used one onion instead of three
- Added more pepper than called for
- Used pot barley instead of pearl barley as that was what I had on hand
- Instead of stewed tomatoes in juice, used diced tomatoes in juice. I like them better.
- Had to make my own gravy as there was no liquid left by the time this came out of the oven. Used some beef broth I had in the cupboard.
Family Taste Test
I really enjoyed this stew, thought it tasted great. My husband and son liked it but were not overly impressed by it. They found it just ok, nothing memorable. With there being as many vegetables as there is in this recipe I am surprised that my son ate as much as he did anyway. Speaking of vegetables, when I went to the grocery store to get the turnips, which I have never cooked before, I could not find them. I know what they look like but when I went over to the area where I thought they were it said rutabaga. I asked the guy working in the produce area and he said that he thought they were turnips as well but had just started working there so he would go ask someone else. When he came back he said they were turnips and the sign must just be wrong. As soon as I started peeling the turnip though I remembered the smell. I had forgotten that I used to eat rutabaga’s when I was younger and that is exactly what they smelled like. Now I was confused, were they turnips or rutabaga’s? Even trying to find the answer online I am still not too sure, some sites say they are the same thing, some say they aren’t. The point of that long winded story was to say that if you are like me and have never cooked a turnip before, and all you can find is a rutabaga they are apparently interchangeable, if not the same thing.
My Thoughts
As I said I would make this stew again, although a few things would be done differently. The first being that I would keep the amount of meat the same but cut the amount of vegetables in half. This made way too much. Along those lines were two other problems I had. I did not have a roaster big enough for all the food so I had to divide everything among two roasters, but cutting the vegetables down should solve that problem. Also when I took this out of the oven there was absolutely no liquid left in the pans, that being why I had to make my own gravy. With less vegetables this might help but I do not think it would hurt to add some more liquid at the beginning of the cooking time anyway. This recipe would work as just vegetables and a roast as well, not making a stew at all. Just add enough liquid to cook everything, I think it would be very good that way.
No Comments »
Filed under: Soup
Posted on January 21st, 2008 by Amanda
Even though this has not been a very cold winter so far I am still on the lookout for some good soup and stew recipes. I came across this recipe and thought it sounded pretty good. I also liked that I could do a roast chicken one night and use the leftovers for this soup the day after that. This recipe is incredibly fast and simple but still has a very good flavor to it. I did make a few adjustments to it but even with them it was still almost effortless to get this ready for supper.
INGREDIENTS
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups water
- 2 cooked, boneless chicken breast halves, shredded
- 1 (4.5 ounce) package quick cooking long grain and wild rice with seasoning packet
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 cups heavy cream
DIRECTIONS
- In a large pot over medium heat, combine broth, water and chicken. Bring just to boiling, then stir in rice, reserving seasoning packet. Cover and remove from heat.
- In a small bowl, combine salt, pepper and flour. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in contents of seasoning packet until mixture is bubbly. Reduce heat to low, then stir in flour mixture by tablespoons, to form a roux. Whisk in cream, a little at a time, until fully incorporated and smooth. Cook until thickened, 5 minutes.
- Stir cream mixture into broth and rice. Cook over medium heat until heated through, 10 to 15 minutes.
You can find a printable version of this Creamy Chicken And Wild Rice recipe by clicking here
Recipe Alterations
I did adjust this recipe according to some of the reviews I read and ended up changing the following:
- The packages of chicken broth that I purchased were 946ml, so just under 4 cups, each. Instead of using any water I added two containers of the chicken broth which put me up over 7 cups of liquid while the recipe only calls for 6.
- The package of quick cooking rice that I bought was Uncle Bens Country Mushroom instead of the long grain and wild rice.
- Used more salt and pepper than called for.
- Used half the flour that was called for.
- Cut up celery,garlic and onions to add. Was also going to add carrots but they had gone bad on me. Saute them for a little bit first as this is not a long cooking soup.
Family Taste Test
This soup, especially for how quickly and easily you can make it, is really good. My whole family enjoyed it. Other than my son picking out the celery we had no complaints. Ok maybe I have one tiny little criticism, I found that with the heavy cream it was almost a little too rich for me and maybe next time I would use half heavy cream and half 2% milk.
My Thoughts
We liked this recipe and will make it again for sure. Next time though I think instead of adding celery and carrots I will add some fresh mushrooms and peas along with the garlic and onions. I would still use the country mushroom rice as that added a really nice flavor to it. Both of those changes together and I think it would make a very enjoyable mushroom chicken soup. Definitely will be hanging on to this recipe.
No Comments »
Filed under: Soup
