Dinner Swap

So our dinner swap was awesome.  We had the Curried Shepherd's Pie tonight and man, it was easy to put together.  It was so fast I put a a milder Shepherd's Pie together for Miss M since her tummy has been bothering her and she needs to eat a bit blander.  Also the only thing I added to our potatoes was a bit more butter.  I'll use petite diced tomatoes next time also. But soooo yummy!

I boxed up leftovers for later.  Can't wait for that night!

Dinner out tomorrow but will post my recipe for Friday.

My recipe list starting Monday.

So these are the recipes starting on Wednesday or tomorrow. It is a new month.  Some are familiar, some are new.  Let's see how it goes.

2/1  #37 Curried Shepherd's Pie

2/3  #38 Coal Miner's Pies

2/6  #2 Salisbury Steak

2/8  #3 Baked Curried Chicken

2/10 #4 Keema

2/13 #38 Meatballs & Creamy Rice

2/15 # 7 Kofta Kari

2/17 #8 Turkish Pilaf

2/20 #9 Oven Fried Chicken

2/22 #39 Indian Lentil Stew

2/24 #40 Keftedes ~ Greek Meatballs

2/27 #12 Swedish Meatballs

I will also plan March since it's so easy to replicate the calendar.

3/1  #14 Curried Chicken with Rice

3/3  #41  Bulgur Mini Meatloaves
3/6  #16 Rogan Josh
3/8  #17 Curried Meatballs with Rice
3/10 #18 Dopiazah
3/13 #21 Meatloaf
3/15 #24 Pastichio
3/17 #26 Curried Beef in Pastry
3/20 #29 Beef Barley Soup
3/22 #30 Chicken Korma
3/24 #32 Curried Meatloaf
3/27 #41 Danish Sailor's Stew
3/29 #42 Seasoned Baked Chicken Legs
3/31 #43  Pork Lo Mein 

Now to load these to the calendar...

The recipe for Curried Shepherd's Pie...

This is the recipe for Wednesday, but I'm making it tonight.  It is actually from Woman's Day Magazine, Dec 1, 2009.  I have made the following changes to it:  I use 2 pouches of Idahoan Baby Reds.  I will used Tikka Masala sauce from Aldi of all places.  I would use my own curry sauce recipe instead if I have time to make it.  We do not as a general rule eat sweet potatoes in our house.

Curried Shepherd's Pie

1 bag (24 oz) Ore-Ida frozen Steam n' Mash cut sweet potatoes
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
16 oz bag mixed vegetables
15 oz jar jalfrezi or other curry cooking sauce
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
1/2 c. water
2 T. each butter and sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. ground ginger
Heat broiler.  Microwave the sweet potatoes as directed.  Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat.  Add ground beef and onion; cook, breaking up the meat, 5 minutes or until browned.  Stir in the vegetables, curry sauce and tomatoes with the juice.  Simmer, covered, 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.  Mash the sweet potatoes with the remaining ingredients until smooth.  Drop spoonfuls of mashed potatoes on top of the meat mixture., spreading to cover most of the top. Broil 3-5 minutes until top is lightly browned.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving.  Serves 6.

I need to work on my calendar...

So I need to work on my calendar.  I'm in the process of figuring out how to make things work better.  I'm going to repeat our favorites that worked, but I'm adding some new recipes as well. This week will have the Curried Shepherd's pie we missed last week and I made the Biryani tonight.  It was yummy.

See, we eat green beans, too.  Miss M did not join us as her tummy was not feeling well.  I made a fridge dinner for her for later.  

I will post Fridays' recipe tomorrow.  I'm actually going to do two dinner swaps this week.  Wednesday we are going out with friends and Friday we have a track meet.  I'll cook tomorrow and Thursday.  I'm also evaluating if I want to cook 3 nights a week during track season.  I'm frequently not home til 6:15, so time is tight, especially if we need to run errands.  That's where the freezer dinners are helpful.  We'll see if I can be my own Sous Chef the night before so I can just throw dinner together.  It could happen.

Until tomorrow...

What a strange week...

What a strange week.  The same week I mention Mary Tyler Moore, she is back in our hearts as she's passed away.  We did have Poor Man's Beef Stroganoff on Monday.  It was great!  Just as I remembered.  Miss K stopped by and tasted it and decided that she'd probably use sour cream because the Greek Yogurt was too tangy for her taste, but otherwise it passed muster.

Man, it really does look like all we eat are peas.  Really we do eat other things.  It's just Miss M's favorite. 😄

The next thing was we had a dinner swap on Wednesday to Thursday since we were going out with friends on Wednesday. Chicken Pot Pie was supposed to happen, but life happened.  Well, realizing how fragile life is happened.  You see, a very dear friend of DH and I passed away.  It happened Tuesday, but we found out Thursday.  Needless to say our weekend was going to shift and we needed to accomplish errands and things so we could be at the visitation and funeral.  That did in yesterday's planned dinner as well.  So I'm having Miss K and Mr. J over for our usual Sunday dinner with DH and Miss M.  We will then have the Pot Pie.  Monday is when I'll have the Curried Shepherd's Pie and I'll post that recipe tomorrow.

The next thing is to figure out how to proceed with the rest of my weeks.  Do I just repeat my calendar? Do I dump the things that didn't work?  Do I work with the all of those recipes or become a "Test Kitchen" to perfect the minor flaws of those that just needed a bit of help?  So many questions, but I'm tired and need to just be for a bit.  I'll tackle that tomorrow.  Right now, I just need to sit and maybe cross stitch for the rest of my evening.  A bit of self care as it were.

Until tomorrow...

Recipes this week.. Two kinds of pie... Mom's Chicken Pot Pie and Curry Shepherd's Pie

My recipes this week end with two kinds of pie...Mom's Chicken Pot Pie and Curry Shepherd's Pie.  We are starting the week with Poor Man's Beef Stroganoff.  I'm going to date myself here, but I do remember when I first acquired this recipe, I remember the opening credits of the Mary Tyler Moore Show where she is in the grocery store and is agonizing over the ground beef as if to say "Should I or shouldn't I?"  Agonizing a bit more and tosses it in  anyway as if to say, "What the heck!".   Not sure why I have that image, but I do.  Anyway this is super simple and I use Greek yogurt for sour cream at this point in my life.  It's great with either one.

Poor Man's Beef Stroganoff

2 T. butter
1 small can mushrooms (again this would never fly in our house)
1 medium onion, minced
1 lb. ground beef
garlic salt
1 c. sour cream

Melt the butter in a large frying pan.  Add the mushrooms and saute 3 minutes.  Add the onion and saute until yellow.  Add the hamburger, and season with the garlic salt.  Fry until well done and no pink remains.  Add some of the meat mixture to the sour cream.  Incorporate the sour cream mixture into the meat mixture and cover.  Simmer 5 minutes further.  Serve over hot cooked noodles.  Serves 4.
This recipe is gluten free...I really never thought about it.  You could serve it over arepas or rice to maintain it's gluten free-ness.

Wednesday we are having dinner with friends, so a dinner swap will happen and I'll cook on Thursday.  This is a favorite of Miss K and Miss M. DH doesn't like the topping, but I'll make him a couple of Banquet pot pies and he's happy as a clam. (What does that really mean?  I often wonder how happy clams really are...)

Mom's Chicken Pot Pie

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can milk

1 c. frozen veggies

1 c. cooked chicken, chopped

2 c. biscuit mix

1 1/3 c. milk

1 c. shredded cheddar cheese

Dash garlic salt

Mix the soup, milk, frozen veggies, and chicken together in a 9” x 13” baking dish.  Mix the biscuit mix, milk, cheddar cheese and garlic salt in a bowl.  Spoon the batter over the soup mixture.  Bake at 400° for 35-40 minutes.

** The shape of your dish will determine how thick the topping will be.

Serves 4
I've used cream of celery soup or cream of onion as well.  Both work well especially if the cooked chicken you are working with is well seasoned.

I'll post the Curried Shepherd's Pie tomorrow or Tuesday.

Italian Chicken Dinner Swap last week

Wednesday's Italian Chicken legs were dinner swapped since we went to our friends for dinner.

It turned out well, but it still needs something.  I basically drizzled the 8 drumsticks with olive oil and sprinkled them with Italian seasoning, garlic salt, and a bit of extra thyme.  I popped them in a 375 oven for 50 minutes.  I'm thinking I'll up the seasoning and add additional rosemary as well as more olive oil. It didn't crisp up as I had hoped.  Oh well, the next round from the freezer should be better.  It will have another chance to brown up. 

Be back later with recipes for the week.  The are Poor Man's Beef Stroganoff, Chicken Pot Pie and Curry Shepherd's Pie. That rounds out my 37 recipes so far.  Technically there should be one more for Monday next week to end the month, but we are really doing this by the week.  And I did start the cooking adventure on Halloween and took Thanksgiving off.

I'm trying to decide which recipes bear repeating and will look for more to replace the ones that didn't work well.  I'll also adjust things to see if some of them will work better.  I already know that I'm adjusting One Pan Chicken Curry to freeze differently.  Pork Chops and Pilaf have to be overhauled...I don't want to eat leather again.  Just sayin'!