Turkey Shepherd's Pie

Another winner from Apron’s. I’ve made a great Shepherd’s Pie from a Paula Deen recipe. The most time consuming part of making a pie is making the potatoes (if you do it from scratch). This recipe uses the refrigerated mashed potatoes. And you are putting everything together hot and then you broil it, so there’s time saved by not having to heat the whole pie through.

The other pie recipes I’ve seen also include a TON of butter. That Paula Deen recipe above included 6 tablespoons of butter in the potatoes, not to mention what you might use to make the gravy. This recipe uses no oil, except for a little cooking spray and uses ground turkey (7% fat) instead of beef (not a huge fat difference, but not red meat). The interesting thing was that it used a package of the dried mushroom gravy for seasoning. I’ve never tried that before and it worked great!

One comment I’ve noticed with different recipe collections. Each one seems to have its own stock ingredients…ingredients that seem to show up in lots of their recipes. The Apron’s site has been using a lot of garlic butter in various recipes. I bought one stick of Irish herbed butter and have been using it over and over with some of these recipes. As I mentioned, Apron’s also uses the frozen prepped veggies too. So, at least I’m not feeling like I’m wasting food.

Turkey Shepherd's Pie
Ingredients
cooking spray
1 cup frozen seasoning blend (diced onions, bell peppers, celery)
1 1/2 pounds ground turkey breast
1 (.75-ounce) packet mushroom gravy mix
1 (8-ounce) can mushroom pieces (undrained)
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon quick-mixing flour
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (24-ounce) package refrigerated mashed potatoes
1 tablespoon garlic butter

Steps
1. Place oven rack 6 inches from broiler, then preheat oven on broil. Preheat large sauté pan on medium-high 2–3 minutes.
2. Remove pan from burner; coat with cooking spray. Add seasoning blend to pan; cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until vegetables begin to brown.
3. Add turkey and dry gravy mix. Cook 5–7 minutes until meat is brown and no pink remains. Stir frequently and break meat up as it cooks.
4. Stir in mushrooms, pepper, flour, and tomato sauce. Cook 6–8 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until gravy thickens.
5. Meanwhile, place potatoes in microwave-safe bowl; microwave on HIGH 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated and softened.
6. Stir butter into potatoes until melted. Spoon turkey mixture into 2-quart baking dish. 7. Spread potatoes evenly over turkey mixture. Coat potatoes with cooking spray; broil 6–8 minutes or until golden. Serve. (Makes 6 servings.)

CALORIES (per 1/6 recipe) 370kcal; FAT 19g; CHOL 110mg; SODIUM 1120mg; CARB 22g; FIBER 2g; PROTEIN 23g; VIT A 10%; VIT C 6%; CALC 6%; IRON 15%

Baked Pa-sghetti

I made this last night on our Easy night – softball. I found it on the Apron’s site. I’m really encourage with this site because the recipes call for ingredients that are already prepped, like diced carrots, onions, etc. Some of these you can buy frozen, and some you can buy in the produce section. Costs a little more, but I definitely buy the frozen, cut up veggies since I’ll use them eventually. Sometimes, convenience is worth the cost!

This was an absolute fabulous mix of “easy” and tasty! Surprisingly, it required no pre-cooking of ingredients. Everything went into the pan as is and then into the oven. Loved it!!

Baked Spaghetti
Ingredients
1 pound lean ground beef, 7% fat
1 cup frozen diced onions
1/4 cup frozen diced bell peppers
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
8 ounces spaghetti
2 cups shredded Italian cheese blend, divided
1 (26-ounce) jar tomato and basil pasta sauce

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Fill large saucepan 1/2 full of water. Cover and bring to a boil on high for pasta.
2. Meanwhile, mix beef, onions, peppers, 1 egg, garlic powder, oregano, and seasoned salt in large bowl. Mix by hand (or in food processor) until thoroughly blended. Spread mixture evenly in 9- x 13-inch baking dish. Wash hands.
3. Stir pasta into boiling water. Boil 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender.
4. Drain pasta thoroughly (do not rinse). Whisk remaining 2 eggs, in medium bowl, until well blended; stir in 1/2 cup of the cheese. Add pasta and toss to coat until eggs and cheese are well blended into pasta. Spread pasta evenly over meat mixture.
5. Spoon pasta sauce over top. Sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 cups cheese. Bake 30–35 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 165°F and meat is fully cooked. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. (Makes 8 servings.)

CALORIES (per 1/8 recipe) 360kcal; FAT 14g; CHOL 130mg; SODIUM 660mg; CARB 32g; FIBER 3g; PROTEIN 27g; VIT A 15%; VIT C 10%; CALC 25%; IRON 20%

Pepperoni Bread Roll

Here's another easy and yummy one I found on the Apron's site. The meal set was for ravioli and pepperoni bread. However, I won't even comment on the pasta recipe since what we ended up making was NOTHING like the recipe.

The reason I'm posting, is that the pepperoni bread was a great new find, especially for kids! It was very easy and could probably be modified to add other flavors, though I'm not sure how uncooked veggies would fare. But maybe saute some onions, mushrooms, and garlic and roll it up. We used turkey pepperoni in ours. Kind of calzone-like. Mapgeek cut a hunk and served it up with pasta sauce for lunch.

Verdict - great easy snacky thing

Pepperoni Bread Roll
Ingredients1
tablespoon garlic butter
1 (13.8-ounce) container refrigerated pizza crust dough
24 pepperoni slices
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan/Romano cheese
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Place garlic butter in small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on HIGH 30 seconds or until butter melts.
2. Lay pizza dough flat on work surface. Spread butter evenly over dough. Sprinkle evenly with remaining ingredients.
3. Fold over one side of dough (about 2 inches wide) and gently pat down folded side. Continue to fold over until seam is on bottom. Cut 1/2-inch slits in top of dough about 2 inches apart; place on baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes or until golden. Serve.

CALORIES (per 1/4 recipe) 440kcal; FAT 15g; CHOL 60mg; SODIUM 880mg; CARB 61g; FIBER 4g; PROTEIN 17g; VIT A 20%; VIT C 10%; CALC 20%; IRON 15%