Easy Shepherd's Pie!

This is my version of Shepherd's Pie and it is soooo good! It's fast and easy too!

Doesn't it just look amazing?!

You will need: 

1 pound of carne beef taco meat

 (That is how my store labels it, it is just tiny chunks of steak. You can sub in ground beef or turkey)

1 cup of lima beans 

(You could also use peas or cut up green beans)

2 cloves of garlic minced

1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce

1 small white onion

1/2 cup of  roasted tomato and garlic spaghetti sauce

1 package of Idahoan instant potatoes Buttery Golden Selects flavor

1 cup of shredded Colby Jack cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Grease a 11X7 pan

Brown the meat and then add the garlic and lima beans, sautee until beans are tender. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce and spaghetti sauce. 

Pour the meat mixture into greased pan.

Make potatoes according to instruction on package

(boil 2 cups of water, add package of potatoes, stir and let set for 5 mins)

Spread mashed potatoes over the meat mixture making sure to seal edges

Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top

I sprinkled salt and pepper on top of the cheese but you don't have too.

Bake for 20-25 mins or until golden.

Let cool for 10 mins.

Cool Ranch Oven Fried Chicken Tenders

These are delicious especially when dipped into BBQ sauce or ranch.

Here are your contenders for the evening:

1 1/2 pounds of thawed and paper towel dried chicken tenders

6 cups of crushed Cool Ranch doritos

3 eggs

olive oil

salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees

Drizzle pan with olive oil

Add salt and pepper to crushed Doritos, I'd say about 1 tsp of both but you can do this to taste.

Dip each chicken tender into beaten egg and then the chips, then back into the egg and back into the chips

Lay them out on the pan like so and bake for 30-40 mins or until they look golden brown like below

Thats it you are done :-)

Here is a serving suggestion:

Broccoli Salad

I made this salad with my son for his Boy Scout BBQ. It was a hit!

Break up 2 small heads of Broccoli and steam until just tender. Do Not Over Cook!

Dice 1 red bell pepper and grate 1 carrot

Place the steamed and drained broccoli into a bowl with the carrot and bell pepper

At this point you could add 1 small minced red onion which I normally would but a lot of the kids did not like onion. 

Add a heaping handful of your favorite shredded cheese.

add about a 1/4 cup of mayo to this... my son is still chopping bell pepper :-) 

Mix it all together gently

Fry up 5 pieces bacon and break it into small bite size pieces after it cools. Add it to the broccoli salad.

You are now all done :-) Serve immediately or refrigerate until it is time to serve.

Note: This does not make a lot of salad so if you are having a big gathering you may want to double the recipe.

Peanut Butter Cookie and Butterscotch Ice Cream Sandwiches

I took the left over Peanut Butter Cookies I made last night and made ice cream sandwiches. They are so good!

Peanut Butter Cookies

Vanilla Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt

Butterscotch sauce

Put a scoop on the flat side of one cookie, put 1 tbs of butter scotch sauce over the ice cream, top with another cookie and gently press down. Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze until solid. Voila! You are done! The butterscotch slightly coats the cookie sandwich and become more solid, it is sticky and delicious.

Avocado Salsa topped Cheese Burgers

I dont really have a story for this recipe, it just came to mind one night. As we all know avocados and hamburgers just go together. This meal also pairs nicely with raspberry lemonade.

You will need:

1 lb of ground beef (or ground turkey)

Salt & Pepper

Garlic powder

Sliced cheddar cheese

2 large avocados

Juice of 1/2 a lime

 1/4 Green onion, chopped

Cherry tomatoes, quartered

Cilantro, minced (too taste I dont like a lot but my boyfriend loves it)

Jalapeno, diced

Note: My boyfriend does not like peppers so I left out the jalapeno and added a 1/4 tsp of ground cayenne pepper. It gave it a kick but without the pepper taste.

Make 2-4 patties out of the ground beef (This depends on how many people are eating or how big your appetite is etc.)

Sprinkle both sides of the patties with salt, pepper, and garlic powder (I do this by taste)

Fry over medium heat for 5-6 mins per side, flipping only once and try not to continually smash the burgers down, you want them to stay juicy!

Top each patty with a slice of cheddar cheese and allow to melt.

Top with the avocado salsa and serve either on a bun or on a plate of lettuce like the picture above.

To make the avocado salsa you will want to dice the avocado into bite size pieces and put into a small bowl, add the lime juice, tomatoes, green onion, cilantro, and jalapenos. Mix together gently. It will look like a chunky guacamole. 

5 ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

This is going to be the best peanut butter cookie you have ever had! Trust me on this one. I'm not the only one who says so ;-) It is so simple and it is gluten free for those of you who are bound by food allergies. There is a bit of sugar in this recipe and the addition of cinnamon not only adds a warm flavor but cinnamon is known to help metabolize sugar!

All you need is:

1 cup of peanut butter (I like crunchy)

1 cup of sugar

1 egg beaten

1 tsp of vanilla

1/2 tsp of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together. Drop by heaping teaspoonful onto a non greased cookie sheet, use a fork dipped in sugar to make criss cross design if you'd like. Bake for 8-10 mins or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 mins at least before moving, cookies will be soft.

Incredible Breakfast Casserole

I think this is one of the most delicious breakfast dishes I have ever made. Like most of my recipes it came out of looking through the fridge and cupboards wondering what to make and a hint of previous recipe knowledge but turned Jen style. I love doing breakfast for dinner it is simple and fun. I hope you enjoy this as much as my boyfriend and I did! It was great the next day too.

P.S.  Don't mind the crummy cell phone picture, I had to use a friend's phone and my camera was dead lol

I made a small version but I am going to post the full size version here. 

small amount of butter or butter spray

8 slices of a hearty sliced bread with the crusts removed (I used Udi's gluten free white bread)

4 smoked sausages diced (you can also use browned breakfast sausage)

1/4 cup of green onion diced

3 cloves of garlic minced (I love garlic you can use less)

2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese

8 eggs

2 cups of milk

seasoned salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9x13 baking pan then lay the crust-less slices of bread in the bottom. If the entire bottom is not covered use small pieces of bread until it is. Evenly sprinkle the sausage, green onions, and garlic over the bread slices. Cover this with the shredded cheese. Beat the 8 eggs, milk, seasoned salt and pepper together. Pour carefully over the cheese. Bake for 40 minutes or until top is golden brown and eggs are fully cooked. Slice into squares and serve. It is good even at room temperature but make sure to refrigerate left overs if you have them!

Buffalo Wing Sauce

I love spicy food. I was craving something spicy and flavorful and I thought why not buffalo chicken? I have also made the following recipe with half the hot sauce and it still had a nice burn, it may be good for those who need a more mild sauce.

 1/2 cup of butter (real butter)

 2/3 cup of hot sauce (you can use whatever red hot sauce you have on hand but I found Louisiana hot sauce to be the most authentic)

1 1/2 tbs of vinegar

1/4 tsp of Worcestershire sauce

 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper 

1/8 tsp of garlic powder

Mix all in a sauce pan on med until bubbles

You can toss a bunch of chicken wings in the sauce and bake them, brush it on chicken as a glaze while grilling, boil chicken and shred it then add the sauce to shredded chicken. OR you could cook a bunch of chicken strips in it and make a tostada like I did :-)

Honey Garlic Asian BBQ Pork Chops

While at the grocery store my boyfriend grabbed a pork loin roast and said we could slice it into steaks. I thought this was a great idea to make money and food stretch. When it was time to start dinner I knew exactly what I wanted to do! This would be my third time making these asian bbq style honey garlic chops. They were more delicious than the last time. 

In the photos you will see only 3 pork steaks and this is because it is just my boyfriend and I tonight. The sauce will stretch to glaze up to 6. I just made ours extra saucy :-) 

Sprinkle your pork chops with some seasoning salt on both sides.

Time for the sauce.  1/4 cup of ketchup, 1/3 cup of honey, 2-3 garlic cloves minced, and 1 tbs of soy sauce. Mix well.

Preheat a pan to medium high and drizzle a little olive oil in it. Cook chops about 5-6 mins each side until brown like the picture above.

Turn pan down to medium and glaze pork chops, cook another 5-6 mins then flip and glaze the other side cooking for 5-6 mins. 

Voila! You are done! It is delicious paired with a nice spring mix salad! You can also do this recipe on a grill. 

I hope you enjoy!

Cheesy Chicken and Spinach Pasta

This recipe came about when I was wondering what to make for dinner like most of my recipes do lol I was craving pasta and cheese but didn't want just a macaroni and cheese.

Just ignore the spoon lol I couldnt wait to take a bite! Here is the recipe:

16oz package of pasta, cooked (I used brown rice spiral pasta but you can use whatever you have on hand or prefer)

1 tbs olive oil

8 skinless chicken breast tenders cut into bite sized pieces or about 2 smaller chicken breasts

1 small red onion chopped

2.5 tbs of flour (I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose flour)

2 cups of milk

1 tsp of garlic powder

1 tsp of ground mustard

1/2 tsp of smoked paprika

Salt and Pepper to taste

2.5 cups of cheddar cheese shredded

1/4 cup of sour cream

1/2 cup of spinach chopped

Boil pasta according to packaged directions or until al dente. Drain and set aside. In a medium sized sauce pan add 1 tbs of olive oil and heat pan, cook chicken until light brown, add the onion and cook until translucent. Sprinkle flour over chicken and onion. Cook for 1 minute. Add milk and simmer until it starts to thicken. Stir in the garlic powder, ground mustard, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Take off heat and add cheese stiring as it melts. Mix in the sour cream. Add pasta and stir gently to coat. Mix in Spinach. Serve. Makes 4-6 servings depending on appetites :-)

Honey Dijon Potato Salad w/ Smoked Sausage

I should give some credit to my ex husband for this recipe, he was my inspiration in a way! We were talking about what I should make for our son's Boy Scout BBQ and he suggested potato salad. I declined the idea because that's the first thing everyone makes for BBQ potlucks. Am I right?

Well a couple hours later I was hungry and it was a really hot day. All of the sudden I was craving potato salad, but I didn't want the same old mayonnaise or vinegar based salad. I wanted something different. I also wanted to turn it into a meal. The recipe below is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it!

6 small red potatoes quartered

2-3 smoked sausages sliced diagonally into 1/2 in pieces

2 garlic cloves minced

2 1/2 tbs of olive oil

2 tbs of honey Dijon mustard

1 tbs apple cider vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup green onions diced small

Scrub and quarter the potatoes. Boil until just tender about 15 mins. Drain and set aside in a large bowl. Drizzle frying pan with 1 tbs of olive oil, heat pan to med-hi and brown sausage slices. Add garlic stirring frequently cooking for 1 min. Add the sausage and garlic to the potatoes. In a small dish mix together the mustard and vinegar, slowly stir in the left over olive oil to make a dressing. Add salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle the dressing over the potato/sausage mixture and toss until thoroughly coated. Sprinkle with green onions and give another light toss. Can be served warm or cold. 

This serves 2-3 people depending on appetite!