Shepherd's Pie

It is standard that my family go out to eat on Friday and Saturday nights.  Since the Whole30 makes going out to eat a little tricky, I knew I had to make Friday night dinner at home something special.  Seeing as though I worked this past Friday, a nice dinner would involve some prep! 

*Cue the Shepherd's Pie!*

So on Thursday, I prepped a Shepherd's Pie.  I used to make a vegetarian version of this, so making a Whole30 version would be super easy!  Since I have doing a lot of research on the Whole30, I have stumbled across the blog The Whole Smiths.  I found this particular recipe and decided to try it.  I did make a few changes, nothing too dramatic, and it was more out of necessity of things I had on hand.

Onto the cooking!

While baby bella mushrooms sautéed in ghee, I chopped carrots, onions, and asparagus.

Once the mushrooms were done, I removed them from the pan and added the asparagus and some dried thyme to sauté until they were crisp-tender.

While this is going on I am also making mashed potatoes.  I boil the potatoes, drain, and mash.  I then add salt, pepper, and some ghee.  This Trader Joe's ghee is quickly becoming a delicious staple to my Whole30 lifestyle.

In my Dutch Oven, I begin to cook the carrots and onions until the onions become translucent.  I then add three garlic cloves minced and cook for another 2 minutes.  The veggies are all moved to one side of the pot and I add the ground beef.  The ground beef is cooked until browned.

Once the ground beef is cooked, I mix everything in the Dutch oven.  I then added arrow root powder and horseradish.  After that is well mixed, I then add vegetable broth and tomato paste.  I salt and pepper to taste and let it cook until thickened for about 15 minutes. 

After everything has thickened I add the asparagus into the meat mixture.

The meat mixture is then transferred into a baking dish and topped with the baby bella mushrooms (you forgot about those didn't you!)

Finally I spread the mashed potatoes over the mushrooms and viola!  We have a shepherd's pie ready for the oven!  At this point I covered the pie with wrap and put it in the fridge for the next day.  We cooked ours for 35 min in a 375 degree oven. 

This meal was delicious!  Even Ronnie ate it (minus the asparagus, he picked all of those out).  Matt was very happy with the meal too.  We also had plenty of leftovers for work lunch this upcoming week! 

This is a great meal for everyone, and I highly recommend it!

Today is my fifth day on the Whole30.  It's been going great!  The second day was rough, but I think that also had to do with the fact that Cincinnati's poor sinus weather was in full effect and I had the worst headache.  There was a couple of points yesterday that I was tempted by cookies and chocolate covered pretzels that someone brought into work.  But I resisted and went along the day just fine.  I would have LOVED to have a few drinks after work yesterday.  But honestly, I was so tired after working close to 14 hours, by the time I came home, I didn't even care anymore.

Since it's the weekend, I'll be doing more prepping for the week ahead.  I also plan to post a run-down of my first week including recipes.  Stay tuned!

September = Tempeh Month! I'm callin' it!

Well, apparently September is Tempeh Month because my first September post was a tempeh sandwich, the current post involves a tempeh burrito, and I already know what the next post's main ingredient is - that's right - TEMPEH! I guess I go through spurts with the stuff. Sometimes making it multiple times a week, then going a month without using it at all. And so it goes...

This particular recipe is borrowed from Ken Haedrich's cook book "Feeding the Healthy Vegetarian Family". It's been a while since I have read the opening chapter of the book, but if my memory serves me correctly, Mr. Haedrich was originally a food critic and a cookbook writer, and over the years his family began using less and less meat in their daily meals. He then wrote this wonderfully written narrative cookbook and the rest is history! I will have to give this book 5 stars!! Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING I have ever made always comes out absolutely fantastic! Another reason why I enjoy this cookbook so much, it doesn't read like your average cookbook. Before each recipe, Mr. Haedrich gives a little insight about the recipe - how it came about, who in the family likes it the best, and/or what small changes you can make to please a picky eater. It's like you are looking into the window of another vegetarian family's kitchen. Kind of what my readers do here - and I think that's cool! If there was ever a vegetarian cookbook to have - this one is it! Read the reviews on Amazon yourself and you will see that I am not the only one who feels so positively about this book!

So... This particular evening, I made the BBQ Tempeh Burritos! To start out, I brown some chopped onion and minced garlic in a bit of olive oil. When the onion has browned a bit, I add in 1/2 cup of water and a bit of tamari sauce (soy sauce) and bring it to a boil.

I then add in my sliced tempeh. I turn the tempeh every few minutes and I let this simmer for several minutes.

After almost all the water has evaporated I poor in about 1/3 cup of BBQ sauce. I then let this simmer and cook, turning the tempeh every few minutes, for about 10-15 minutes. This is when it starts to smell really good in my kitchen!





While my BBQ tempeh is cooking, I start to prepare the burrito fillings. If you never knew how to cube an avocado, here is your chance to figure it out. You simply slice the avocado into two halves, remove the pit from whichever half, and then slice grid lines down and across the flesh. Make sure you take your knife all the way to the skin. After you have finished your grid, you take a spoon and simply scoop out the cubes.




As you can see here, you are left with perfect little avocado cubes. This really is the best way to prepare avocado. You could even slice the flesh long ways and then scoop it out to have strips of avocado - perfect for a pretty salad! I am not a prep-cook and I have never been, but I am pretty sure this is exactly how they do it at restaurants.

Along with the cubed avocado, I also chopped up a tomato...

A red onion, shredded some carrots, and also got out the low fat sour cream. These burritos were gonna be YUMMY!

By now the tempeh is ready and all my fillings have been prepared. So on a lightly sprayed, warmed pan, I add a flour tortilla and a bit of monterrey jack cheese. I let it sit for a few minutes, just enough to get the cheese melting.

I take the cheesy tortilla out of the skillet and place it on a foil-lined plate. I top the tortilla with some of the BBQed tempeh, red onions, and the shredded carrot.

That then gets topped with the sour cream, tomatoes, avocado, and a shake or two of dried cilantro.

And finally, where the foil comes in - I wrap my burrito in the foil and as I am eating it, I rip the foil down. Somehow, I always over-stuff my burritos. Wrapping it in foil allows me to eat my overstuffed burrito gracefully without all the good-stuff falling out everywhere!

This burrito is TO-DIE-FOR! As I said, everything I have made from Mr. Haedrich's cookbook has been better then the best! I love it!

This weekend I am having my entire immediate family over for dinner (both sides - minus Jake). We are making pizzas!!! Hopefully I'll have time to snap some pictures and share them with you all! Till next time!!!

Fancy Tia Wrap

For a quick snack or a light meal these fancy Tia Wraps can't be beat. This is a recipe that I got from Veg Web. It's a huge database of recipes from members of the site. You can join for free or you can just browse as a guest. It's great because these are recipes from the vegi's themselves. This site has been a great companion for my new lifestyle.

The wrap contains a whole wheat tortilla, peanut butter, raisins, shredded carrots and sunflower seeds. Yumm!!!

Broccoli, Carrot, & Tofu Stir Fry

Last night was nice and relaxing. Ronnie was staying with his dad. I got home and went through the mail in peace. Yay, the new Design Within Reach catalog came in. I can't afford a darn thing in there, but it's fun to browse. (So I guess it's not really "within reach", at least not for myself.) I then proceeded to make dinner. But what to do when you're cooking for one? STIR FRY! I found a recipe in my favorite vegetarian cookbook, "Student's Vegetarian Cookbook" by Carole Raymond. I cook out of this book more than any others. It's not at all just for students, it's great for any beginner vegetarian on a budget. I stir fried some broccoli, carrots, and tofu and at the end dumped (by mistake) some soy sauce on. I also cooked up some Uncle Ben's Instant Brown Rice. I then toped it all off with some slices of green onions. The recipe calls for cashews for a garnish also, but I didn't want the added fat. I was just about to dig in and I thought, 'Why not do what all the other food-bloggers do?'. So I took out my camera and snapped a picture of my dinner. (You like my Martha placemats? I do.) I then proceeded to eat. Mmmmmm... It was yummy. After the dishes were done I sat on the couch for a minute. What to do, what to do. I went for a walk. It was close to dark already, and getting cool outside, but it was a perfect evening. I'm glad I got up and moving. The TV was still there when I got home...