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!

After a long search, I finally found one!

I am embarrassing myself a bit here and admitting that I never had Indian food till I met my fiance. Yeah, I know - a Cincinnati native where there are Indian restaurants on every corner downtown and on the east side... But somehow I never got around to trying it.

For our first official date out (2 years and 9 months ago - crazy how time moves), Matt took me to Clifton's Ambar India on Ludlow and ever since then I have been completely hooked! Seriously, I feel like I could eat there at least once a week, but my pocketbook won't allow it as the prices aren't that cheap! So, not too long ago I thought I would try preparing Indian food myself. My first attempt went horribly wrong and it was a long time till I tried it again. Trying recipe after recipe, I could never get the authentic taste to happen in my own kitchen. Then I found this recipe: Spicy Vegan Potato Curry. Not only does this recipe give me that Indian flavor that I have grown to love, it is also SUPER easy (it's almost no prep - you only chop potatoes and onions), and SUPER tasty! I serve the curry over rice and have nan bread on the side for the extra sauce!!!

To start out, I cube about 5 potatoes and boil them in salted water for about 15 minutes.

While the potatoes are cooking, I heat some olive oil in my wok (woks: not just for Chinese food!) and add 1 medium chopped onion and a couple spoonfuls of minced garlic.

Here is something kind of different I like to do, when preparing a recipe that requires a lot of spices, I like to get them all measured and mixed together in a small dish so I am not reaching for different things in my cabinet while also trying to measure and stir. It just seems to make the job a lot easier for me when I am trying to do 7 different things at once. Here you'll find all the different spices that make this curry wonderful: cumin, cayenne, curry powder, garam masala, ginger, and salt. It really is a perfect combination for a homemade curry!

Once the onions are tender, I add the entire mix of spices. I let the spices cook together for about 5 minutes before I add the remaining ingredients. Be sure you keep the mixture moving in the pot, otherwise it starts to stick and burn, which is never good!

The first addition to the curry in an undrained can of diced tomatoes.

After the tomatoes have been mixed in, I add in a can of drained and rinsed garbanzo beans, and about 3/4th's cup of thawed and drained frozen peas. This is also about the time I drain my potatoes in the colander...

And then I dump those into the curry mix! Mmmm - potatoes! The kitchen is really starting to smell good as everything starts to cook together. Also - while all of this is going on, I am cooking some rice as well (didn't think a picture of cooked rice was necessary).

I mix everything quite well, and some of the soft potatoes start to mash a little - you want this! It helps make the curry have a nice creamy texture!

And now for the final touch - I add a 14 oz can of coconut milk. If you are planning on making this (and quite frankly you are silly if you don't) DO NOT, and I repeat DO NOT substitute regular milk. The coconut milk is key to the curry's texture and flavor. I let this all simmer for about 10 more minutes and then it is time for dinner!!!

As I stated before, I serve this curry over rice with some nan on the side. This particular recipe makes a HUGE batch. Enough for Matt and I to have dinner and lunch the next day, along with freezing some for later. I cannot be more serious when I say this dish is FABULOUS! If you are like me and have failed at Indian cuisine before - try this tonight and I promise it will be a win!!!

Next post, a truly original Luckey's Lunch sandwich - Jalapeno Melts!!! See ya soon! (And wish me luck! I started the new term at Cincinnati State yesterday!)

Feeling a Little South of the Border

If there is one thing my family can agree on when it comes to food, it's that Mexican food is GOOD! Mexican is also one of the easiest food genre's to veggi-fy! Just replace the meat with some veggies or beans (or both) - and you are good to go! This post is no exception. I stumbled upon something similar on (you guessed it) allrecipes.com, and I decided to change things up a bit and try it. To be honest, Matt loved this so much it completely made his crappy day into rainbows and unicorns... LOL! So if that's not enough to convince you to try it - I don't know what is. To start out I chop all my veggie's for the filling: onions, mushrooms, broccoli, and zucchini.

The original recipe called for roasting the vegetables, but unless it's the weekend - I absolutely cannot be wasting time to get dinner on the table before 7:00 PM! So, instead of roasting the veggies, I used my wok and stir fried them. Letting some olive oil heat up, I add minced garlic to the oil.

Once the olive oil is hot, I add the vegetables. At this point I also add in some chili powder, cumin powder, and fresh ground pepper to the vegetables. My kitchen starts to smell like awesome-ness at this point!




All while the vegetables are in the wok cooking, I am also boiling water, some butter and milk to make instant mashed potatoes! To be honest, I have never made instant mashed potatoes before! Maybe it was my Dad's persistence that my mom make the real ones every time, but it was just something I never ate or made. If I was making this on the weekend, and actually roasting the vegetables, yeah - I would make real mashed potatoes. But to get dinner on the table quickly - I went for the boxed stuff! These potatoes are ALSO going to be for my enchilada filling!

Now that the veggies and the potatoes are done, I combine them in the wok.

Now it's officially time to start assembling the enchiladas. I used canned enchilada sauce and pour one can onto a big plate. I then dip a tortilla into the sauce on both sides. This is usually a pretty messy process and I always have a towel on my shoulder so I can wipe excess food off my fingers.

I then place the tortilla on a plate and add my vegetable mixture and a bit of shredded cheese.

To be honest, if it wasn't for the enchilada sauce, these would be more like burritos. So really, if enchilada sauce isn't your thing, you could easily just make these into burritos and serve with some salsa and sour cream! But, I AM making enchiladas here - So I assemble my filled tortillas into my 9X13 pan.

Once all the tortillas have been assembled, I pour a second can of enchilada sauce over the tortillas and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes.

When they are ready to come out, I remove the enchiladas from the oven and let them sit at room temperature for about 5 to 10 minutes. I then scoop them out onto a plate and serve with a dollop of sour cream and some sliced black olives. Like I said before - these turned out FANTASTIC! A great and easy dinner for sure! To make a complete meal serve with some guacamole and chips on the side!!! Also - these are filling!!! And they made a PERFECT lunch the next day at work!

As I stated last time, I am making a stir fry - well I actually did and I took pictures - so that will be my next post for sure! Till then - HAPPY COOKING!

allrecipes.com, Will You Marry Me?

So, I don't know what it is... I have been a bit of a slacker in the kitchen. Not so much the actual cooking part, but more like the taking pictures/creating my own food part. The family get-together (almost) two weeks ago was a SUCCESS! We ended up making a Buffalo "Chicken" Pizza, a Veggie Ranch Pizza, the Pizza-Without-The-Red-Sauce, and a meaty pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms, and onions. But alas... The busy day kept me from taking pictures. Then, just last weekend, we had friends from Columbus stay with us, I made lots of yummy food like a spicy hot Mexican spinach dip and artichoke/eggplant sandwiches, but once again, pictures were not taken.

Maybe it's all the coming and going, maybe it was my son being sick last week (he is MUCH better now - thanks!), but one thing I have been doing - cooking from allrecipes.com and OF COURSE taking pictures of the final product to upload on the site. If I have said it once, I have said it a MILLION times, allrecipes.com is my favorite food site! The recipe database is HUGE and I love the fact that you can upload pictures, rate and review recipes. The reviews are especially handy because you can see what other people have experienced during their attempts to make the recipe.

So, as to not leave my faithful and AWESOME readers waiting any longer, I decided to upload and blog about a few things I have made recently from allrecipes.com. The first recipe I am sharing is the Original Blue Cheese Cole Slaw. For all the meat eaters that read my blog, this recipe was originally paired with a buffalo chicken sandwich (and I thought that sounded really tasty - if it wasn't for the whole vegetarian thing, I would be on that bandwagon!) I served this slaw one Settlers night with jalapeno melts (veggie burgers on sourdough bread with sauteed onions, sliced jalapenos, and pepperjack cheese - a burger that is made quite often at the Luckey-Meyer home). I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out really good! There is only one thing I would caution people about - the next day the blue cheese had taken over the slaw! That is all I could taste at lunch the next day and it was overpowering for my own tastes (which - you know it was strong because I LOVE cheese!) So, my suggestion would be to eat it all the same day!!!

That same Settlers night I also made these Twice-Baked Mashed Potatoes. They are a take on twice-baked potatoes, only instead of putting the potato filling back into the skin, you put it in a baking dish and let it bake with some cheese on top! I did not follow this recipe exactly, as I thought some adjustments were needed to please my particular crowd. Instead of using the green pepper and onion mixture it called for, I used about 5 green onions. I sauteed some garlic with the onion, and of course used fake bacon instead of the real stuff. These turned out better then expected and I will DEFINITELY be making these again and again and again. A bit time consuming, but they do take a little less time than real twice-baked potatoes (because you don't have to stand there stuffing however many individual potatoes), so if I were you, I would give these a try!

Finally, earlier this week I made this Really Creamy Fettuccine Alfredo. I have never attempted a homemade alfredo before, and this one seemed easy enough. Because of my lack of experience with this sort of food, I followed the recipe exactly, only adding some steamed broccoli at the end. Next time (and there will be a next time because this was like one of the easiest dinners ever!) I will cut back on the cream cheese (and by cream cheese, I mean neufchatel of course). Maybe add some more parmesan or try to substitute some with sour cream. I would only do this because the cream cheese was the main flavor in this dish, and that's not really the alfredo flavor I was looking for. Also - another word of caution on leftovers - the next day the sauce had turned clumpy and the taste was almost null. I didn't even finish it to be honest because I felt like I was eating just plain, clumpy noodles.




Next post I will have a complete meal! PROMISE! Till then - Happy Cooking!!!



***Also - QUESTION for all my computer geek friends... So - I am having trouble figuring out how to evenly space my photos, paragraphs and the like on my blog. I am only using the generic posting tools for blogger, but it's funny, because I will evenly space everything on my template, but then when I publish it, everything is all uneven again (as I am sure you have noticed! I promise I am trying to keep a clean blog!!!) HELP!?!?! Anyone?

A German Veggie

Along with pizza, Mexican food, and breakfast, another food I LOVE to make are sandwiches. They are versatile and are great for both lunch and dinner! The following dinner consists of a veggie-take on a classic sandwich, the Reuben! Instead of using corn beef, I use tempeh and the results are delicious! My corn beef-loving-fiance still devours this swap-out! Sometimes, depending on how high you stack your sandwich, a fork and knife is necessary to eat this mean-guy! But as Matt always says, the messier the sandwich, the better! I paired the sandwich with some rosemary red potatoes. These are a simple and delicious side that can compliment almost any meal!

I start by scrubbing and quartering the red potatoes. No need to peel the skin for these! I then mix the potatoes with some olive oil.

Next comes the flavor - a simple mixture of a quartered onion, minced garlic, dried rosemary and a bit of salt and pepper. See - I told you it was simple!




I then spread the potato mixture out in a 9x13 pan that has been lined with foil. It makes clean-up so much easier! The potatoes are then placed in the oven for about 40 minutes. *Tip - the smaller you cut your potatoes, the shorter the cooking time will be!*

As the potatoes are cooking in the oven, I begin my work on the Reubens. I took a picture of the tempeh package in case some of you were unaware as to what tempeh is / looks like. Tempeh is a fermented soy bean loaf that has a bit of a nutty taste. You can fry it, bake it, grill it, crumble it, slice it, marinate it - anything your heart desires! It is usually found in the produce section of the grocery store, close to the organics and other "fake meat" products.

As you can see, the tempeh comes in a long block. All I simply do is slice it for this particular recipe. Other times I will crumble it - like when making tacos or a chili.

After everything is sliced, I transfer the tempeh to a Ziploc bag that I fill with about 2 tablespoons of soy sauce. Similar to tofu, tempeh will take up whatever flavor you are cooking with and marinating it is especially rewarding. I use soy sauce for this particular sandwich because corn beef has a salty flavor. This makes for an excellent substitute! I let this marinate for about 15 minutes, flipping the bag over every few minutes to evenly distribute the soy sauce.

It is not suggested that you eat raw tempeh, so my next step is to fry it up a bit. It doesn't take long, just a few minutes on each side till it starts to brown.




On my griddle, I start to assemble the sandwiches. I butter one side of some rye bread and place it on the hot griddle (buttered-side down). I then spread some 1000-island dressing onto the bread.

Next up, the marinated and cooked tempeh.




The tempeh then gets topped with a slice of swiss cheese.

And to finish the sandwich off, sauerkraut and a bit more 1000-island dressing. I use canned sauerkraut, it's easy and it all kind of tastes the same to me...




And of course I top the sandwich with another slice of buttered rye bread. I flip the sandwich several times until the bread is browned and everything inside is nice a gooey!

I pull the rosemary red potatoes out, plate them, and slice the sandwiches and dinner is served! As I usually will do, I HIGHLY recommend you try out this normally meaty swap! I think you will be quite surprised by the great flavors! Unfortunately, Ronnie won't eat this sandwich; maybe it's the sauerkraut? I don't know. But otherwise, this sandwich is a regular enjoyment of Matt and myself!

Cool kids BBQ post has been postponed (obviously). As soon as I get everyone's pictures uploaded to my computer - I'll get crackin' on that! Last night I made another tempeh dish that includes BBQ and burritos! I am super-excited to share it as it turned out DELICIOUS! Coming soon! I promise!!!