"Egg Pie"

So far in 2013, I've been doing fairly well with my weekly meal planning and grocery shopping. Last week's meal plan took a detour though, because when Wednesday night rolled around and I informed Ash I was making frittatas for dinner, he suggested we go out on a date because he didn't want "egg pie" for dinner (you know, because it tastes like eggs). The plan wasn't a total loss, though, because we made frittatas for brunch on Sunday.

What I like most about frittatas are that they're like making a pizza or going through a salad bar: same base, but you can add just about whatever you want so that you never have eat the same combination twice. That's also what makes a frittata great as a last-minute meal idea. As long as you have eggs, I'd be willing to bet you have a few other things in your pantry or fridge that you can chop up and toss in to make your meal.

Here are some of the ingredients I like to add: cheese (any kind), asparagus, broccoli, black beans, potatoes, onions, peppers, scallions, sausage, bacon...the list goes on.

Ash and I, at times, have very different ideas about what "good" food is. He can go for basic meat and potatoes while I like loads of veggies. Sometimes that makes preparing one large dish difficult because it can leave one person unsatisfied with their meal or forceone to eat what they don't like. The solution? Two adorable Fiesta miniature pie plates. Their 6-3/8 inch diameter makes them perfect for individual servings. (We recently purchased really fun dishes from Terrain...they're blue, red and yellow with designs like dancing cows and roosters and pigs. Since then, I've been picking up pieces in coordinating solid colors to fill out the set.).

What You Need:
Olive oil or cooking spray
Eggs
Other ingredients (cheese, potatoes, peppers, sausage, etc.)
Seasonings (salt, pepper, Old Bay, paprika, etc.)

What You Do:
1. Give each pie plate a light spray of olive oil or cooking spray.

2. Crack the desired number of eggs into each dish, and beat (3 for Ash, 2 for me).

3. Wash, chop, peel, etc. all of your extra ingredients and add desired amount to each dish with any seasonings, then mix it all up. When using potatoes, I chop into small pieces and cook in a frying pan with olive oil and Old Bay seasoning until soft before adding them to the beaten eggs.

4. Bake uncovered at 350º for about 25 minutes or until the egg is cooked all the way through (you'll notice the frittata will cook from the edges of the plate toward the middle, so when there is no longer a puddle of egg in the middle, it's done).

Over the years I've developed a sort of love-hate relationship with eggs. Some mornings I can't wait to dig into freshly scrambled eggs with cheese. Other mornings, well, the thought of eggs kind of makes me want to vom a little. I realized after making the frittatas that this was one of those no egg mornings for me...sigh. The dogs were pretty happy about that.

This is not a sponsored  post. All products and brands mentioned were purchased by my choice with my money. 

Shepherd's Pie

In elementary school, my cousin and I were in a Girl Scout troop led by her mom. Every year we'd do a "practice" camping trip or two in their back yard and another one or two "real" camping trips at large Girl Scout camps a state away. One meal that always showed up on the menu was shepherd's pie. It's one of those easy to prepare, one-dish meals that packs in your meat, vegetables and carbs.

Those days being distant memories, I haven't had shepherd's pie in about as many years. It wasn't until I was browsing Pinterest one night and found this recipe that I thought about shepherd's pie as a viable, not-eating-dinner-in-the-woods dinner option. I remember our Girl Scout version having peas and corn in the "pie," so I adapted the recipe a bit for my own tastes, and scaled down the ingredients to make just two servings.

How great are these mini bags of frozen veggies?

What You Need:
-Ground meat (my choice: turkey)
-Olive oil
-Lipton Recipe Secrets - Onion
-Carrots
-Frozen peas
-Frozen corn
-Potatoes (my choice: russet baking potatoes)
-Shredded cheese (my choice: Mexican blend)
-Milk (my choice: skim)
-Butter (my choice: Land 'O Lakes spread with Canola Oil)

What You Do:
1. Begin by washing and then boiling the potatoes in water. I used two smallish (about 3 inch) Russet baking potatoes, since that's all that was available at my grocery store. I left the skin on while boiling.

2. Using my Misto oil mister, I sprayed a large frying pan with extra virgin olive oil and began browning the ground turkey. I used about 1/3 of a 1.3 lb package of turkey.

3. Wash, peel and chop the carrots and add them to the meat.

4. After the meat has browned, add the Lipton Recipe Secrets, frozen corn, frozen peas and water to the frying pan. I used half of one pouch of the Lipton Recipe Secrets and about 1/2 cup of water. Turn up the heat and continue to stir until the water has boiled out. Beware - this is when it starts smelling really good.


5. Once the potatoes are soft enough to pierce with a fork, remove them from the water and mash with milk, butter and cheese. My measurements here aren't exact. Just enough milk to get the consistency of somewhat thick mashed potatoes, less than 1 tbs of butter and about a handful of shredded cheese. Stir together until the cheese melts. I mashed the potatoes with the skin on them.

6. In your serving dish(es) - I opted for those great little 6-3/8 inch Fiesta pie plates again - layer the meat and vegetable mixture, then a layer of mashed potatoes on top.

7. Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. The potatoes should be a little golden around the edges.

And now the question - to eat it with a fork or a spoon?

Going, going, gone! This was so good, I wanted to eat both plates!

This is not a sponsored  post. All products and brands mentioned were purchased by my choice with my money.