Healthy Shepherds Pie: A Recipe. (And Ido am terrible at taking photos of food)

I know many of you have been experiencing fall like weather for a few weeks now. For us in Texas, it was in the 90's last week. But, the temperature has finally dropped for us. Now that its getting colder, I thought it was time to bring out the crock pot and make one of our favorite meals, Shepherd's Pie. 

This is not my recipe, but I have been making it for years. (I cannot remember where I found it either)

This is a great meal, its healthy, easy, and delicious! 

Ingredients:
Ground Bison (Can substitute group turkey or chicken)
1/2 Onion
3 cloves minced garlic
2 sweet potatoes
1 bag frozen vegetables
Garlic power
Onion powder
Salt Pepper 
Beef Broth

1.Soften the sweet potatoes. This can be done either by boiling them in water for about 15 minutes or steaming them. 
2.While the sweet potatoes are softening brown your meat in a hot skillet. Once browned, drain any excess liquid, and set aside. 
3. In the skillet cook the onions until translucent then add the garlic. Cook for 2 minutes. 
4. Add your protein back to the skillet and season to taste and mix well.
5. Transfer everything to the crockpot. 
6. Next, add your bag of mixed veggies. No need to defrost them. Once you add them to the crockpot the heat from the protein will do that for you. Mix everything well. 

7. Add your beef broth to the mixture. Add only enough to fill the crock pot just below the food line. Don't over fill because it will get soupy. 
8.At this point, the sweet potatoes should be soft enough to put in your food processor. Give them a whirl until they are fully creamed. 
9. Using a spatula, spread the whipped sweet potatoes over the meat and veggies. 

10. Turn on the crock pot and let it cook.
11. Take the lid off for the last 30 minutes of cooking to allow the top layer of the potatoes to crisp up slightly. 
12. Eat and enjoy!

We eat this meal at least twice a month every winter. Its healthy, filling, and we love it! 

Hope y'all like it too! 

Clean Eating, Week 1

 

One of our resolutions this year is to clean up our eating. We decided to start the new year with a 30 day cleanse.

 

We have decided to cut out all processed foods, grains, and dairy. Our meals and snacks have been based around organic/grass fed meats, chicken, and fish, tons of veggies, and tons of fruit.

 

Snacks are no longer chips, cookies, crackers, or cake. No donuts, no coke, no small bags of candy.

 

We are one week in and things are going well. P and I have been making detailed meal plans, shopping together, and keeping each other accountable. There was a dark moment on Friday night when I was jonesing pretty hard and started listing all of the foods I was missing to P. Skittles, donuts, and chips. I kept asking him to run to the store and get them for me. But, he remained strong and would not go. Thank goodness, because I was ready to cave.

 

But, its been a few days and I am actually feeling better. I feel like my cravings for sugar are starting to subside.

 

We both have found that we are feeling better already, and are so happy to be doing something good for ourselves and our lives.

 

How have you done this first week with your resolutions?

I just could not help myself

A few weeks ago I wrote a guest post for Leslie over at The Dream Tree and I wrote all about how much I adore Pinterest, but how everything I have ever seen and tried from Pinterest has been an epic failure. I swore that I was not going to try anything I saw from Pinterest, I refused to partake in any crafts or cook anything that I saw.

Alas, I am a liar, I got my Pinterest all kind of on this weekend. And, to make matters worse, everything I tried turned out great. Crap.

I told P that I was getting in touch with my creative side. He responded by saying "I think you are just now developing a creative side." My type A personality that likes everything at right angles, and nothing to be messy hates this. When you do crafts, which I normally call "arts and craps," you have left over parts and pieces, and I guess you are supposed to save them and turn them into another crap, I mean craft. But, I am not going to focus on that right now, I am going to focus on the fact that I did some Pinterest activities that turned out great!

Have you tried anything that you saw on Pinterest that turned out well?

Im in a food rut

Hi friends. I feel like I have been a terrible blogger these past few weeks. Everything seems to be speeding up, and I feel further and further behind.
But, my goal for this week is to get caught up, and even get ahead. This weekend was nice, slow, and restorative for me.

These past few weeks, I have been in a major food rut, and because I don't like what I have cooked, I end up going out and spending money on food at lunch or breakfast, which I hate. These past 3 weeks, P has really stepped up and began cooking more than before, and its made a difference for me, not only in my food choices, but in time. I used to spend about 4 hours in the kitchen on Sunday afternoons getting ready for the week. I make breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks. It is so nice during the week to come in and all I have to do is steam some veggies, and heat up dinner.

I have been trying to make sure that I use the crock pot more because its so easy. But ya'll, I need help because I am in a food rut. I am tired of the things that I am cooking because I make the same thing over and over again. I make tacos for taco salads, I make chicken in the crock pot for shredded chicken, I make eggs for breakfast every day. Predictable and boring. This week won't be so bad because P made us some grilled chicken, bison burgers, and a big pot of soup, that is amazing.

Can you guys give me any recipes? I am trying to do a low carb style diet because I went to the nutritionist and I have been diagonsed with Candida, which is a fungus. It is nothing terrible, we all have it, but I have a little bit of "over growth." I have cut out a lot of the sugar, candy, and cakes that I had a bad habit of snacking on, which is a good thing. I found that when I eat sugar, I crave more of it. I thought I just had a sweet tooth, but it turns out, the fungus loves sugar, and feeds of it, which causes you to want more...hmm. The fungus (fungi??) also are attracted to carbs, which is why its a good idea to stay way from carbs on this kind of "diet."My problem of late has become my dependence on processed foods for my caloric intake because I have not been eating like I am supposed to. I am hungry so I have been supplementing with Doritos (bad) and diet coke (soo bad).

I need help. What we have a few weeks until Thanksgiving, and I want to clean up my act, a sort of cleanse. While I am getting back to eating right, do you guys have any tried and true recipes that you can suggest? Again, I am looking for crock pot recipes, or stuff that I can make and freeze and pull out during the week?

Thanks peeps!

Do this tonight

Turn off the T.V.

Play this song loudly. Put it on repeat and dance around the kitchen.

Make the following meal from Ellie Krieger. I am cooking my way through her cookbook, So Easy.

Each week, I pick one or two of her recipes and cook them on the weekends, then eat on them through out the week, and I am on number 5 right now, and she has not let me down once. At first glance, this meal appears to be heavy, and honestly, not very good for you. But, when you eat it, it is refreshing, and yummy, just like everything else she has done that I have tried.

After it was done, I held the plate in my hand, danced around the house eating with my fingers. A great night.

So grab a beer, play some tunes, and cook this ASAP.

Sirloin Steak with grainy mustard sauce and Parmesan steak "Fries"

Steak:
4 teaspoons canola oil
1 small shallot, finely chopped
1 tablespoon flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 sirloin steak
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons whole grain mustard
2 beefsteak tomatoes, thickly slices
Directions:

heat 2 teaspoons of oil over medium heat. Add the shallot and cook until softened. Stir in flour and cook for 30 seconds. Stir in the broth, bring to a boil, and cook until reduced to 1 cup. (About 10 min)

Cook the steak. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Cook steak, turning once for 6-8 min. Transfer to cutting board and cover with foil.

Discard fat from pan. Add sauce and bring to simmer. Stir in mustard and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Steak Fries
2 russet potatoes
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 450.
Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
Cut potatoes in half lenthwise. Cut each 1/2 into 4 slices lenghtwise.
Put potatoes in a bowl and coat with oil.
Place in over and bake for 20 min.
Sprinkle with cheese and bake for another 15 to 20 min.
Eat, dance, enjoy.

It has begun

So were here, we have entered into the opening lines of our new adventure. Currently we are living in a tiny one room "bungalow" don't let the description fool you, this is no life of luxury. We are at camp and this is the first time today that I am not sweating buckets. P and I have come back to his old job for the summer to cook 3 meals a day for 300+ people for 3 months. And we moved out of our house on Saturday. So, as of right now, this "bungalow" is our home, 98% of our worldly belongings are locked up in a storage unit, and here we are. 2 days in, 8 weeks to go. We are doing this for several reasons. First, we felt like God was calling us back here to serve for some reason. At times I am not sure what the reason is, but I trust that he will reveal that to us at some point. Secondly, we are here, all but homeless in order to save some money. P has subbed at my school for a few months, and we purchased a car with cash, so our e-fund took a big hit. By getting rid of the house, and living as cheap as possible for the next 8 weeks, our e-fund should be fully funded by the end of the summer.
So once again, here we are. 3 meals in and its been fun, but it is a lot of work. Last night we made lasagna, green beans, bread, and cake for dinner. This morning, eggs, biscuits, and sausage. Lunch, tacos, queso, salad. Tonight, pineapple chicken and sweet rice.
I am resting for a few more minutes then it is back to the brutal Texas heat. And, its not even June yet. Yikes.

Cooking Lessons Learned

Last night cooking with my friend was a ton of fun. She chose the recipe and all we had to do was pick up the ingredients. She chose Beef Bourguignon because there were a lot of components and there was a lot to do in order to make the dish, which gave ample opportunity for teaching and learning.
Before I get to the tips I learned, I must say that my favorite part of the whole process was learning to get the full flavor from some basic foods. The dish had a huge dept of flavor and with each bite, I could pick out the individual flavors, which came together to make an amazing dish.

Here is what I learned:
1. How to hold a knife properly. When you hold a knife your knuckle should be over the bottom of the blade itself. That way you have more control over your knife and less chance of slipping and cutting yourself. (She told me they spent 2 whole weeks just learning to chop veggies, wow!!!)
2. That you can never chop fresh herbs enough. In school her instructor told them that if you have to ask if it is fine enough, it is not, so don't ask!
3. I learned how much flavor you can get from cooking foods correctly.
4. Mis en place is the basis for many dishes.
5. When cooking onions, they need to be cooked longer than any other veggies to get their full flavor
6. Cooking with a small amount of fat is ok, it really brings out flavor
7. When you add good wine to food, you can really pick up the flavor of the wine in the sauce
8. Reduction-- cooking out the water to get the full flavor of the sauce
9. Adding a small amount of flour to meat before you cook it protects the meat
10. Cooking can be so much fun!!!

Once again the thing that struck me the most was how much flavor you can get when cooking whole foods correctly. We cooked onions, carrots, and celery as the base of our dish for flavor, and the intensity of these really basic foods was intoxicating. We did not have to throw in any spices from our spice rack because we let the fullness of these ingredients do the talking.

We all had fun, and we decided last night we will have to do it again. If anyone wants the recipe let me know. I will be happy to post it!!

Cooking Lesson

In the last few months I have found a new interest, cooking. I started watching this show called top chef and have become obsessed. I get so excited every Wednesday night to watch these top chefs make some amazing food. It looks so good and I want to know how to do that.
So tonight I have a friend coming over to our house to give P and I some cooking lessons. She graduated from culinary school about a year ago and has been managing a restaurant since then. I can not wait to learn some tips that will help me become a better cook. I will defiantly have to share all I learn with yall.