shepherd's pie... cottage pie...

A proper shepherd's pie is made with lamb. The same dish made with beef or other ground meat is a cottage pie. My take on this recipe is a little different because I add different vegetables than the standard carrot, onion, and peas.

I had the best shepherd's pie of my life in Prague, of all places. We visited Prague while studying abroad and went to an English style pub. Go figure. Anyway. It was delicious.

Caitlin's Cottage Pie

Ingredients:
1 pound ground turkey
1 16 oz bag frozen mixed vegetables (carrot, peas, Lima beans, green beans, corn)
2 cups prepared mashed potatoes (use leftover or make your own)
1 Tbsp and 1-2 tsp Worcestershire sauce, divided
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 cup chicken stock
Seasoned salt (or salt) to taste
Mrs. Dash (or pepper) to taste
1/2 cup shredded cheese (if desired)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350* Grease a baking dish and set aside.

In a large frying pan, brown ground turkey and season with salt and pepper and 1-2 tsp Worcestershire sauce. Add bag of frozen veggies to ground turkey and heat through. In smaller pan, melt butter and add flour. Cook together for 1 minute. Whisk in chicken stock and 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce. Cook until sauce has thickened a little bit. Should be the consistency of gravy and coat the back of a spoon. Combine sauce and turkey-veggie mixture. Pour into greased baking dish and top with mashed potatoes. Can top with shredded cheese or leave plain. Bake 25-30 minutes. Take out of oven and let sit for 10 or so minutes. Enjoy.

Chili

It's getting cooler outside and what does that mean? Soups and chili! I can't eat either one in the warm weather. It has to be cool and crisp outside for chili to sound appealing. I never liked chili growing up, because I don't like kidney beans/chili beans. My perfect chili is made with black and white beans and is very thick. Served with sour cream and cheese and cornbread on the side. Delicious.

I've never actually measured the spices I add, so I'm just giving an estimate here. Feel free to change amounts as you wish.

Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground turkey
1 can black beans
1 can great northern beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1.5 cups spaghetti sauce
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons cumin

Directions:
Brown ground turkey and season with half of the spices. Add beans, tomatoes, and sauce. Season with the rest of the spices to taste. simmer until heated through, about 20-30 minutes. Serve with sour cream and cheese on top. Add a spicy cheddar and jalapeno corn muffin on the side.

what's up chicken?

Ever have one of those days that is so hectic that you forget about supper? I do, all the time. That's where this little trick comes in handy. Any time I forget to take the chicken out of the freezer, I poach them from frozen.

Place chicken in a large pot. Cover with water and set on medium heat. Boil chicken until done to your liking. Remove from heat and shred or chop for any recipe.

I used my poached chicken to make buffalo chicken quesadillas. Delicious. Here's how...

10 ounces cooked chicken.
1/2 cup fat free plain Greek yogurt
2 tbs buffalo sauce
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/4 cup green onions, sliced
1 1/3 cup shredded marble jack cheese
4 tortillas

Mix together chicken, yogurt, buffalo sauce, and blue cheese. Fold in the green onions. Place 1/4 of mixture on each of the 4 tortillas. Cover with 1/3 cup of cheese and fold in half. Cook in a hot pan until crispy on the outside and cheese is melted on the inside.

This made 4 good sized portions. I had 1 and JT had 2. I'll probably have the other for lunch :)

Easy dinner tonight!

Baked Lemon Pasta

Ingredients:
1/2 pound whole wheat spaghetti
2 1/2 TB smart balance light buttery spread with flax
1/2 TB extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic
Juice of 1-1 1/2 lemons and zest from 1/2
1 cup fat free sour cream
1/2 tsp salt or more to taste
2/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Chopped parsley for garnish

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350*
Cook spaghetti to al dente. Melt smart balance and olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until fragrant. Take off heat and add lemon juice from one half of lemon. Stir in sour cream, lemon zest, and salt. Pour over drained pasta and stir to combine.  Pour into oven-safe dish and cover with foil. Bake for 15 minutes. Turn off oven, uncover and bake for 7 more minutes. Remove from oven and stir. Squeeze half a lemon over the top. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and parsley. Finish off with more lemon juice. Enjoy.

serves 4

I served this with a green salad and shrimp sauteed in butter with garlic and lemon juice . Wonderific.

Adapted from the pioneer woman.

Chickenbeans burrito salad (or my attempt at chipotle)

Chickenbeans burrito salad.

yum

Ingredients

For the chickenbeans
8 oz cooked chicken (I used leftover grilled chicken)
1 15-oz can black beans drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons salsa
1/4 cup water
garlic powder
cayenne pepper
salt & black pepper

For the salad
2 cups cooked brown rice
8-12 cups mixed greens (2-3 cups per person depending on how big you want the salad to be)
1 cup low fat shredded cheese (Colby jack or cheddar works well)
4-5 Tbsp plain fat free yogurt
1 cup salsa of your choice
1 avocado diced

Directions

For the chickenbeans... Put beans and chicken in saucepan over medium heat. Add salsa, water, and seasonings to taste, mix well, and allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes, until hot and all the flavors are incorporated.

Put 2-3 cups of mixed greens on 4 plates, top each plate with 1/2 cup rice, 2/3 cup chickenbeans, 1/4 cup cheese, 1/4 cup salsa, 1/4 of the avocado, and 1-1.5 tbsp yogurt. Add additional toppings (onions, scallions, jalapenos, crushed tortilla chips)  if you want. :)


*Update to this post, I have a butter baby!! We put a spoonful of butter in her apples last night and she gobbled them down like there was no tomorrow. So, we followed that up with some squash with butter and again, ate all of it!! What a girl, my butter baby :)

Too much to do

I've been super blog happy since getting back from vacation this week but I've yet to blog anything about it. Soon I will, have patience :-) Plus, there are so many blog ideas rolling around in my head, I think I may forget something... lol.

But since you asked so nicely, here's a quick recipe for you. I made this the other night and was pretty pleased with how it turned out...
 
Stuffed mini sweet peppers

8 mini sweet peppers (red, yellow, and/or orange)
8 tsp whipped cream cheese
Garlic powder
Mrs Dash table blend
Oregano
Cooking spray

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350*. Line baking sheet with foil and spray foil with cooking spray.
2. Remove stems from peppers. Slice each pepper in half the long way and remove seeds/ribs.
3. Spread each half with 1/2 tsp cream cheese. Place on prepared baking sheet.
4. Sprinkle each pepper with garlic powder, Mrs Dash, and oregano. Lightly mist with cooking spray.
5. Bake for 10-15 minutes until peppers are tender and cream cheese starts to brown. Let stand in oven (turned off but still hot) for 10 minutes.
6. Enjoy!

Grilled chicken with rice, green veggies, and mini stuffed peppers.

Happy 5th of May

 In honor of Cinco de Mayo, I made Bubble Up Enchiladas. I found this recipe through the Duchess of Fork originally, but i also found it on EmilyBites. This is a weight watchers recipe and can be tweaked however you like. I've even made it as bubble up pizza. :)

Recipe adapted from EmilyBites.

Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground turkey 
1 packet taco seasoning
1 15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 10-ounce can enchilada sauce
1 cup part skim mozzarella cheese, finely shredded
1 can reduced fat refrigerator biscuits, cut into quarters
1-2 cups low fat cheddar or Mexican blend shredded cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350*. Spray 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Brown ground turkey in large skillet.











3. Add 3/4 cup water and taco seasoning, stir well and simmer for a few minutes.
4. Add black beans and enchilada sauce. Stir to combine.
5. Mix in 1 cup mozzarella cheese.

6. Add the biscuit quarters and mix together.
7. Pour into prepared baking dish and bake for 25-35 minutes, (depending on how many biscuits you add. I added less biscuits and needed a little extra baking time)

8. Take pan out of oven and sprinkle with 1-2 cups cheddar or Mexican blend cheese.
9. Bake an additional 10 minutes.
10. Let stand for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

smells like fall...

Today feels like spring time but in my kitchen, it smells like fall. I made pumpkin cupcakes with pumpkin spiced cream cheese frosting... yum. :) and super easy. I still need to figure out how to evenly divide my batter into my cupcake tins because my cupcake/muffins are always random sizes. I can't seem to get them to be consistent.

I used this recipe from Gina at Skinnytaste.

plus my very poor attempt at frosting... lol


I want to make Pina Colada cupcakes for Easter so I figured I better practice with one of her other recipes first. Good choice. I think I'll have one for breakfast tomorrow too.

food

It seems like every blog that I read, all of the women are super good cooks who love it and can take practically nothing and make it great... I have yet to figure that one out.

I have been meal planning for the past 3 weeks and it seems to be working pretty well, except for the occasional days (Thursday most specifically) where I do not feel like cooking. That is the night when we have frozen pizza, if I've remembered to add it to my list. I'm not sure if this is saving us any money though because it seems like up to $100 a week, for just the two of us, at the grocery store. It probably is saving us from eating out though. We've made a deal not to eat out until Valentine's Day. Think we can stick to it?

This week is going to be an interesting one because getting JT's help with the menu added tacos to the super nachos I had already listed. Oh well. I forgot to get the chips from the store anyway. Whats the point of a list if I can't stick to it?
I don't have my meals listed for certain days because I never know how tired I am going to be when the evening rolls around, but here is my list for this week.

Chili
tacos
Super nachos
Juicy Lucy burgers
Chicken and Rice
Maple chicken
Pizza

I think we'll probably have the nachos on Sunday for the super bowl, and the burgers on Saturday night but the rest of the week is pretty much up in the air. I am looking forward to some juicy lucys though... my brother made the best for Christmas eve... hoping to duplicate. :)