by jphilo | Feb 28, 2018 | Recipes
Shepherd’s Pie is on this year’s short list of freezer meals, compliments of Anne. I didn’t eat it growing up or fix it for my kids, but she tasted it somewhere and has been perfecting the recipe ever since. It makes a good, hearty dish with plenty of veggies and makes a complete meal. It’s naturally gluten and dairy-free and can easily be made dairy-free. So Shepherd’s pie for supper means everybody in our family can eat from the same pan. Win-win-win!
Shepherd’s Pie
1 and a half pound of russet potatoes, peeled and cooked
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons corn starch
2 teaspoons tomato paste
1 cup beef or chicken broth
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup uncooked lentils, cooked
whatever herbs float your boat (thyme, sage, and rosemary work well)
1 1/2 pounds frozen mixed vegetables
1/2 cup butter (or butter substitute)
milk (or milk substitute
1 egg, beaten egg
Preheat oven to 400°. Saute onions and garlic in a dutch oven. When they are transparent, add ground beef and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook ground beef until browned. Sprinkle cornstarch over the browned meat and stir until meat is coated. Add tomato paste, broth, Worcestershire sauce, cooked lentils, and whatever herbs you like. Cook mixture until thickened. Add in frozen vegetables and combine thoroughly. Spread mixture into bottom of casserole pan. (If you are making a freezer meal, cover the casserole dish with foil. Label and date the casserole and put in freezer once it’s cooled. Wait to cook the potatoes and mash them until an hour and a half before serving the Shepherd’s Pie.)
To prepare the potatoes, add egg and butter to cooked potatoes and mash well. Add milk a quarter cup at a time until the potatoes are the consistency you like. Spread on top of casserole. Bake in oven on 400 for 20 to 30 minutes.
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by jphilo | Feb 6, 2018 | Recipes
These dairy-free lasagna rolls made the Home Again Podcast short list of sanity-saving freezer meals. Anne created this recipe, and the non-dairy ricotta cheese substitute has the creamy texture that makes lasagna lasagna. If your family can eat dairy, just use ricotta in place of the almond/lemon juice/salt substitute. The ricotta freezes well, so no worries about making a double batch so one can go in the deep freeze.
Dairy-Free Lasagna Rolls
Ricotta Subsitute:
1 lb almonds
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt to taste
Soak almonds overnight and slip them all out of their skins. Puree with just enough water to keep your blender blending. (A Vitamix blender works best.) Once nuts are pureed to a smooth consistency, add lemon juice and salt until it tastes like ricotta cheese. Set aside.
Lasagna Rolls:
2 butternut squash
8 ounces fresh spinach, chopped
9 cloves garlic, crushed
salt
3 eggs, beaten
2 pounds cooked lasagna noodles
3 28 ounce cans of marinara sauce
Preheat oven to 350°. Cut squash in half the long way and scoop out seeds. Place squash halves, skins sides down on large cookie sheets. Bake in the oven until soft. Scoop out flesh, mash well, and combine with cheese substitute. Add the spinach, garlic, and eggs to the cheese substitute/squash mix. Add salt to taste.
Set out 3 9 x 13 (or smaller) casserole dishes. Spread cheese mix on cooked lasagna noodles and roll them up. Put 8 or 9 lasagna rolls in each casserole dish. Spread a can of marinara sauce over each pan of lasagna rolls. Bake 1 pan at 375° for about 30 minutes. Cover the other pans with foil after labeling the foil with a Sharpie marker.
These rolls are very filling. One pan feeds a family of five with no left overs. Add a green salad, and you have a complete meal!
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by jphilo | Feb 25, 2015 | Recipes
Today’s recipe falls into the this-looks-like-a-good-freezer-meal-to-take-to-my-daughter-when-her-baby-is-born category. And since that baby is due in early April, February is none to soon to test some new dishes before investing in double batches and freezer bags.
This recipe comes from the Eat at Home website, and it was unbelievably easy to put together. And because once it’s served, diners can add their own toppings, I could make mine non-dairy (as in the photo above) while the Man of Steel piled his high with cheese and sour cream.
I will do a few things differently before preparing it again. First, the chicken breast seemed a bit dry, so I’ll try hindquarters next time. Second, I’ll cook it on low rather than high as the meat was fall apart done long before the suggested cooking time. Third, I’ll spread my tortillas with refried beans to add another layer of flavor.
Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas
1 pound boneless, skinnless chicken breasts or 2 pounds skinless chicken hindquarters
3 peppers, sliced (green, yellow, orange, or red)
1 large onion, sliced
1 package taco seasoning
Place sliced vegetables in the bottom of the crock pot. Put meat on top and sprinkle with taco seasoning. Cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 3 hours. Remove meat from pot and cool. Shred with a fork and place back in crock pot. Stir everything well.
Serve hot on tortillas. Top with your favorite toppings: salsa, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, lettuce, onions, olives. Spread refried bean on the tortilla first, if you like.
by jphilo | Jan 21, 2015 | Recipes
Confession time…I’ve been doing a lousy job of remembering to photograph meals for the past 2 months. Blame it on Camp Dorothy frivolity in December. Blame it on the holidays. Blame it on being distracted by house guests. But wherever the blame may fall, recent food photographs leave something to be desired.
Like the above photo of Hearty Hamburger Stew. The picture is of a double batch. But you can see how much the Man of Steel, with a little help from me, managed to tuck away a good portion of it. This stew was hit and very, very easy to make. The original recipe comes from Once a Month Cooking by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg. The original cook book is out of print, but a revised version came out in 2007.
Hearty Hamburger Stew
1 pound lean ground beef or turkey (2 1/2 cups browned)
1 1/4 cups chopped onion
2 cups peeled and sliced carrots
1 cup chopped green bell peppers
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1 16-ounce can cut green beans, drained
1 16-ounce can cut corn. drained
3 stalks sliced celery
1 46-ounce can tomato juice
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon celery seed (I omitted this)
Salt and pepper to taste
Brown grown beef or turkey (I used a half pound of each) in a large dutch oven. Add onion, green pepper, and celery. Saute until tender.
Mix in remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Simmer covered 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool and freeze. Can be frozen and thawed for later.
by jphilo | Dec 24, 2014 | Reviews
Our second grandchild is due in about a month. The soon-to-be-mamma-again may or may not be in nesting mode already, but this grammy certainly is. My nesting consists of preparing and freezing meals to take to the new parents when the baby arrives.
That’s why many of our meals for the past week (and for several weeks to come) are large batches or double batches of freezer meal recipes. We eat some for supper, the Man of Steel packages some for lunch at work the next day, and the rest goes in the freezer.
This recipe for turkey-veggie Sloppy Joes is one we really liked. It comes from the Go Ahead and Snicker website. I used less ketchup and more tomato paste (because we were out of ketchup), substituted yellow pepper for the green and red (because that’s what was on hand), used regular-sized buns rather than sliders (because it takes too many sliders to fill up the Man of Steel), and made sure the buns were dairy-free (because life is just better that way).
This recipe will be used in our kitchen again for 2 reasons. First, they were really good Sloppy Joes. Second, no one at our house drinks beer so the rest of the six pack needs using up.
Turkey Veggie Sloppy Joe Sliders
1 pound ground turkey
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup corn
3 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 cup tomato paste
2 Tbls. Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup ketchup
1 bottle of dark beer
olive oil
salt and pepper
non-dairy hamburger buns
Fry turkey in a dutch oven, crumbling with a spoon or spatula until well-browned. Add onion, bell pepper, and garlic and cook until veggies are tender. Add chili powder and tomato paste and cook a few minutes, stirring constantly. Add ketchup and beer and cook, stirring until foam subsides. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes for a runny sauce, 30 minutes for a thicker sauce. (I did 30 minutes) Season with salt and pepper, add corn and cook until heated through. Serve on buns.
