teaching Zoie: shephard's pie

when we took our las road trip to the East Coast, and took Zo with us, we ate one night at an Irish Pub in Rhode Island...she got shephard's pie and ate the whole thing...so, she has been thinking of that dish and we decided to try to replicate it...
it was a very simple dish and she loved it...

it was not a tomato based pie so I was watching that...and I came upon a recipe on Kraft and decided to copy that one...

simple enough, it used jar gravy...

so we browned hamburger (used 2 pounds as we wanted a lot of hamburger) and only added 1 1/2 jars of beef gravy...added frozen corn...and a lot of seasonings...(garlic salt, pepper, onion powder, parsley)...
then we added Tim's famous mashed potatoes to the top, added some cheese and bacon to the top and baked at 375 for about 30 minutes...

so delicious, everyone loved it

monthly menu plans for the month of October

I am finding money to be a little tighter since my husband died and need to plan ahead...if I plan enough ahead and at least have the meat and most of the ingredients bought, I think it will be easier on me...
I also try to think of the next day's meal as I am cooking so I can get what I need out of the freezer and have it all ready when I get back from school...
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these are not in any particular order, in the next post I will sort them into weekly posts...

so...

homemade pea soup
chili (our Halloween tradition)
bacon hash
cheese fondue
porcupines
some type of breakfast, thinking pumpkin pancakes
rice bowls (Tim loves these)
tuna, noodle casserole
beef parmesan
foil packet chicken
potato soup
chicken pie, homemade
mac and cheese
chicken fried fingers
taco salad
john wayne casserole
sloppy joes
meatloaf
risotto with veggies
impossible pie
korean beef
chicken lazone
roast chicken
meatball stew with barley
slow cooker shredded orange chicken
pecan chicken with apple sauce
cheesy chicken doritos casserole
chicken and stuffing casserole
roast whole chicken
hawaiian pork chops
shepards pie
hamburger soup

now, hoping this will help me more...

teaching Zoie: chicken salad

she loves chicken salad and had 3 helpings...

I taught her how to roast the chicken breasts first and we roasted 6 breasts with the thoughts of keeping what we did not use for chicken fried rice later in the week...she seasoned the breasts and kept basting them while in the oven

she took the cooked breasts and cut into bite sized pieces, added cut up granny smith apples, cut celery, some dried cranberries and enough mayo just to coat all of the ingredients...

there was enough for Tim to take for lunch also...

great dinner

teaching Zoie: taco casserole

this recipe has always been one of her absolute favorites...

she browned 2 pounds of hamburger, and added it to a large can of tomato sauce, 1/2 package of taco seasoning, frozen corn, can of black olives sliced, tortilla chips crushed and some cheddar cheese...

put into a baking dish and sprinkled cheese to the top and bake at 375 for about 20-30 minutes...

little kids were still here and wanted to try dinner and they loved it...

teaching Zoie...her own version of bratwurst, corn and potato soup

teaching Zoie how to cook, she came up with wanting a brat soup and she looked it up on google and found several versions and combined them to make her own...

she took:

one package of Johnsonville brats and scored them browned them on all sides and then cut into bite sized pieces...

she added them to 6 cups of chicken stock, with a lot of seasonings (garlic salt, onion powder, pepper, parsley...)

she added 2 potatoes, cut into pieces, frozen corn and carrots and let boil till tender...

everyone loved it...

teaching Zoie to cook for a week with her own personal favorite menus

I told Zo that she could plan the menus for the week, we would shop together and she could cook for a week...

I think she had a good time and it seems that she is learning a lot...I want her to be a much more accomplished chef than I was when I first started out...

here were her menus for the week...and of course they were all her favorites...

taco casserole
creamy pasta, bacon and peas
chicken fried rice
chicken salad
spam pie
hamburger rice and gravy
this was a new recipe...she looked a similar one up on google and gave her own spin...bratwurst, corn, potato and carrot soup....and it was very good...
twice baked potatoes with ham...(she had these done even before I realized she was in the kitchen!)

she wants to keep making dinners and who am I to stop her?  besides it gives me a break...

my version of swiss steak

this recipe is the one my whole family loves and I have been making for 40+ years...


I found round steak on sale, which I was very happy about...(you can also use london broil)

I cut the round steak into serving pieces...then dusted them with flour...I braised them on both sides...
then stacked them in the slow cooker and inbetween meat I added sliced onions...season well with your choice of seasonings...(I used garlic salt, pepper, and onion powder...

over the top, I pored one large can of cream of chicken soup (you could also use cream of mushroom)...

cook on high for about 4-5 hours...

the soup makes a wonderful gravy...
paired with brown butter mashed potatoes...

my little grandchildren were here when I made this and they wanted to try it...now the last time my 4 year old tried my potatoes, she did not like them as she said there were lumps in them...(at home then only use boxed potatoes)...but she still wanted to try them this night...they won her over and both her and her brother had 2 helpings of meat and potatoes...Cj said he absolutely loves my cooking...LOL

weekly menu posts 9/10 through 9/16

it is still very hot here...with crazy storms and flash flood warnings...I cannot wait for the temps to be cooler and I can finally use my oven again...casseroles, please hurry up and get here...the 2 things that  when the cat was alive, were the first things I would cook in fall were chicken pie and my mock lasagna (2 of his favorites) and even now I cannot wait to make again...
ok for this week.............

sunday...........it is just Tim and me...one skillet hamburger stroganoff
monday.........baked potato bar
tuesday..........sloppy joes
wednesday....cheese fondue
thursday........breakfast
friday............chef's salad
saturday........hawaiian pork chops

good luck with cooking and happy eating