dinner

Shepherd’s Pie

~ nancyruth ~ 8 Comments

This is another food item that does not require a recipe, in my opinion. You may have a family recipe tradition with particular herbs and spices or quantities but I do not. I did not grow up eating this dish although Mom served us a lot of casseroles. I have seen a variety of recipes for this and I know that I have Americanized this dish as I do not use lamb. I have made this vegetarian using lentils but Hubby does not like that much. At a restaurant in Boston recently the chef made this with a tomato based meat mixture. My step-daughter and I thought that was odd, or at least, rather unique. That chef also put a piece of puff pastry atop the mashed potatoes for an interesting presentation.

The church I attend has a rotation of serving a weekend meal at our local soup kitchen. For simplicity they serve Shepherd’s Pie as the main dish and not have a potluck by the parishioners. The recipe suggested is as follows:

  • 2 pounds ground beef, browned
  • 1 large onion, chopped and sautéed with the meat
  • 2 cans creamed corn
  • 2 cans green beans, drained
  • Mashed potatoes to cover, instant or real (about a 2 /1/2 pound bag)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

The meat and onion is put in a 9 x 13-inch pan. Spread vegetables over meat and mashed potatoes on top. Bake at 375 degrees F for 25-30 minutes.

I indulge in a delivery service of locally sourced meat and I receive a pound of ground beef each month. This month I made a Shepherd’s pie, pictured below. I do not use the above recipe although it does make a tasty dish. Mine is a mixture of ground beef with sautéed vegetables in gravy. This is topped with mashed potatoes and baked until the top is crusty but not brown. The insides will be bubbling. Cool for a short while, serve, and eat.

The type of vegetables can vary. For me it depends on what I have around but mostly consists of a bag of frozen mixed vegetables added to sautéed chopped onion. This is cooked with the browning of the meat. I then add a half cup of broth and then another half cup mixed with a tablespoon of cornstarch. This makes a moist but not loose meat mixture under the mashed potatoes. Cheese and sour cream can be added to the mashed potatoes as desired. Although it is a hardy meal Hubby and I usual have two serving each! We won’t be losing weight this way!

From liquids to solids…

~ nancyruth ~ Leave a comment

Two weeks after starting the ketotic diet I had surgery. The post-op diet was full liquids. Initially this was fine as I was not all that hungry after surgery but when I began feeling better/ more normal after four or so days it got very tedious.

I am so tired of all things vanilla! My meals have consisted of vanilla protein shakes, vanilla yogurt, vanilla pudding, vanilla ice cream with an occasional fruit popsicle and butterscotch pudding. When on solid food I will not be able to have chocolate or fresh fruits or vegetables but more flavors and tastes will be allowed. Then in two weeks I can resume my regular diet. But I’ll start slow because my stomach will not be used to eating as much as was normal.

I began dreaming about meals to make and eat after my two weeks of full liquid diet. I will have to grind or shred meats and eat them in a gravy sauce. I must have very cooked vegetables like green beans, beets, and carrots and must avoid gas producing ones such as broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, onions, and cabbages. I’m dreaming of a soft scrambled egg and piece of toast. Interestingly one can have toast but not plain bread.

The solid food comes with a caveat that it must be easily chewed to baby food consistency. For my first breakfast I had a softly scrambled egg with a piece of toast smeared with a smidgen of butter. This sat in my chest for a while. I had tea to wash it down over the course of the morning. In the early afternoon I had lunch comprised by one half can of tuna, one teaspoon of mayonnaise, and four saltine crackers. This seemed to go down more easily than the morning’s meal. At this rate of calorie consumption I may continue to lose weight.  I do not feel hungry but eat because I know one must have nutrients to keep the body and mind healthy.

Thoughts on day one of solid food: my planned meal of roast chicken, finely chopped with gravy did not go down well but I did enjoy my sweet potato and baby green peas. The grape flavored Popsicle made with real fruit was savored slowly like a fine glass of wine.

No Halloween candy for me this year. For day two I prepared a beef stew in the crockpot with stew beef, potatoes, baby carrots and green beans cooked with beef broth. I shredded my portion of beef with the immersion blender and this went down nicely. it was also quite tasty for such a simply prepared stew. I am eating more slowly than usual but this is a good thing. Today’s supper will be leftover beef stew and then the leftover roast chicken.  I will mush the chicken in its gravy so that I can swallow it more easily than the first time. Then I will make hamburger gravy which is a dish my mother made when we were growing up as a means to extend the meat to a family of six. But for me I added chopped spinach for a vegetable.

This is what my meals will consist of for two weeks. I am beginning to adjust to the lesser food amounts. However I am starting to crave the restless and mindless eating while watching TV in the evenings. I need to pick up my embroidery projects while watching the TV to occupy my hands and thoughts.

Ginger Beef

~ nancyruth ~ Leave a comment

Well I seemed to have lost momentum for writing. So I’ll try again. It’s not like I don’t have time. My time is my own as I am retired. There are some demands on my time such as Stepdaughter’s wedding, Easter celebrations with grandkids complete with burnt cinnamon rolls, attempts to keep an exercise routine going, various healthcare appointments, etc.

And I am cooking and baking just not writing about it partly because I don’t always make something new and I try other bloggers’ recipes. And some of those are very worthwhile to make over and over again!

I was gifted by a friend several (actually a lot) packages of frozen meats. I have ground pork from which I will be trying to make younger Stepdaughter’s pork pie. But what to do with ground beef? There is just so much chili my aging stomach can tolerate. Hubby will be making his fancy meatloaf at some point, and we have preformed burger patties ready and waiting already. So I perused a few of my many cookbooks, looked at the NYTimes Cooking app, and decided to make Stir-Fried Beef with Onions and Ginger from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything but with ground sirloin instead of flank steak. My ingredients are as follows:

  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • Olive oil for sauteing the onion, and then some more for the pan to brown the meat
  • 1 inch ginger root, minced
  • 1 pound ground sirloin beef
  • 1/2 cup vegetable broth, homemade
  • 1 Tablespoon soy sauce

First, brown the onion on high heat until beginning to char, then I added the garlic just at the end. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and remove from pan. Add more oil, most of the ginger and the beef. Stir cooking this until the beef is no longer pink. Add the rest of the ginger, the broth, and the soy sauce. Cook and stir until most of the liquid is gone, but leave some. This process took less than 20 minutes with the ingredients prepped already.

I served this with rice and a cucumber/carrot salad with sesame dressing.

Thoughts: the fat in the ground sirloin (90/10) and the onion overpowered the ginger. The sesame dressing on the salad had more flavor. It also needed a sauce. Very thinly sliced flank steak would be the choice of meat as in the original recipe. For the leftovers I will douse this with teriyaki sauce. It could then be served over more rice or in a wrap.

Until next time…thanks for reading!