Pulled Pork Shepherd's Pie

BBQ Pulled Pork Shepherd's Pie

Source: Delish

Ingredients

(Ranch Mashed Potatoes)
2 lb. red potatoes
1/2 packet ranch seasoning mix
2/3 c. sour cream
(Filling)
1 lb. pulled pork
1 bottle barbecue sauce
1 can corn, juices drained
1 c. shredded Cheddar cheese
1 bunch scallions, diced
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Directions
Preheat oven to 400°.
Make the ranch mashed potatoes: Peel potatoes and cut into 1" pieces, then place pieces in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring water to boil and cook until potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork, about 10 minutes. Drain and place in a large bowl.
Add ranch seasoning and sour cream and mash potatoes until the mixture is thoroughly combined and most of the lumps are gone. Set aside.
Make the rest of the dish: Toss pulled pork with barbecue sauce (as much or as little as you'd like to use). Add it to a large casserole dish, smoothing it to create one even layer. Top with corn, then add a layer of mashed potatoes. Cover with shredded cheese and scallions.
Bake in the oven for 14 to 16 minutes, or until cheese has melted.

Easy Round Steak and Gravy

My Grandpa Walker owns an Angus cattle ranch in Wyoming. He and my Grandma have always been very generous and shared an abundance of meat with us (both my family growing up, as well as David and I after we were married). If they didn't actually fill the freezer with meat, they would send meat money. We've been so incredibly blessed. A couple of months ago, my Dad showed up to my house to fill our freezer with a shelf-full of freshly packed meat. A variety of ground beef, roasts, steaks, etc. Not only is it the best quality meat you can find, but everytime I open the freezer to make tacos or some other dinner I am filled with gratitude for my Grandpa.

This story is going somewhere. Tonight I made this new recipe using a couple of round steaks from my freezer and again- not only was it so delicious but I was so grateful to just have the meat stocked up in my freezer. I guess that's where this is going.

My favorite thing about this, other than the flavorful gravy and tender meat, was that the way to prepare the meat made it easy for me to split it into two pans and add mushrooms to one and not to the other. David doesn't love mushrooms, and has recently reminded me that mushrooms soak into everything that they touch with their mushroom-y flavor, but I love them and so it worked out perfectly.

Easy Round Steak and Gravy

Source: Clark's Condensed 

Ingredients:
1 1/2 to 2 pounds thin cut round steak
Steak Seasoning and Seasoning Salt

1/3 cup flour
1/2 C cooking oil
1 C diced onion
1 small can mushrooms
2 cans beef (or chicken broth + one cube beef bullion)
1 T worcestershire sauce

Directions:
Cut each steak into desired serving sizes. Salt and Pepper to taste.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the cooking oil. Brown the steaks on both sides and set aside.
Pour off most of the oil, leaving about 1/3 of a cup. Add 1/3 C of flour to the oil and stir over medium/low heat until light brown. (For a gluten-free option, add cornstarch with chicken broth below.) Stir continuously so it doesn't burn. Add onion. Cook and stir for about a minute.
Slowly add the beef and chicken broth, stirring constantly. Add the worcestershire sauce and simmer for about five minutes.

Season steaks with steak seasoning and seasoning salt. Place in oven-safe baking dish, separating into two seperate dishes if you need a mushroom-free option. Pour half the gravy over one pan, then return to the stovetop while adding the mushrooms to the remaining gravy. Pour mushroom gravy over second pan. Bake at 275 degrees for one hour. (Or 200 for two hours)

Serve with mashed potatoes. 

Steak Bites

I had some leftover sirloin steak to use and I came across this recipe from the pioneer woman. Oh my good gracious. She calls them her gourmet steak bites and they taste better than the last 5 steaks I've bought at a restaurant put together. Melt in your mouth goodness. (I didn't even use A1 sauce when eating them if that tells you anything.) I paired this with some garlic mashed potatoes and you would have thought that David was in H-e-a-v-e-n.

Steak Bites
Source: The Pioneer Woman (check out her page for beautiful pictures and some great tips)

Ingredients:
1 pound sirloin steak
Salt & pepper, to taste

Season salt, to taste
2 Tablespoons Butter

Directions:
Cut steak into 1-inch cubes cutting off any fat or gristle as you go.Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper, and season salt. Toss the meat around a bit to thoroughly coat with the seasonings.

Heat a skillet over medium high to high heat. As the pan heats, add about 2 tablespoons butter to the skillet. Allow the butter to melt, then brown, before you add the meat.

Place some of the meat in the pan in a single layer. It should sizzle loudly when it hits the pan – if it doesn’t, the pan isn’t hot enough. Don’t stir or disrupt the meat for 30-45 seconds. You want it to sizzle and brown on one side. Scoop as many steak bites as you can with your spatula and flip them over. Repeat until all the meat is turned. Cook for an additional 30 to 45 seconds—just long enough to sear the outside of the meat but NOT cook the inside.

Remove the meat to a clean plate. Add a little more butter to the pan and repeat the cooking process with the next batch just as before. Lastly, when all the meat is nicely browned and removed to the plate, pour all that browned/blackened butter all over the meat.

Serve with a side of garlic mashed potatoes. 

Loaded Mashed Potatoes

There isn't much that needs to be said about this dish except: YUM! We love potatoes, bacon, cheese, ranch, etc... basically every ingredient that goes into this recipe is in our list of favorite things. This was a perfect side for some simple BBQ chicken, but probably could be a meal on it's own if I was feeling like keeping it simple. It would go well with pretty much anything! (I've also read that you can make these ahead of time and then just keep them in the crock pot on warm to keep them until dinner time.) 

Loaded Mashed Potatoes

Source: The Peaden Kitchen

Ingredients:
6-8 medium russet potatoes
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoons parsley flakes
1 teaspoon garlic salt

1 tablespoon ranch seasoning 

salt and pepper, to taste (ample amounts)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
4-5 pieces bacon, cooked and crumbled

Green onion, optional

Directions: 

Peel and cut potatoes into cubes. Place in medium/large pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil them simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until potatoes are soft. Dump potatoes into a large kitchen-aid. Add butter, sour cream, parsley, garlic salt, ranch seasoning, salt and pepper. Mix on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Using a spoon add most of the cheese and bacon, reserving a small amount of each. Scoop onto plates and top with remaining cheese bacon and green onion. Serve immediately. 

Optional continued directions:
Spoon into a greased 9x13-inch pan or casserole dish and sprinkle with cheese and bacon. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

We love potatoes at our house. Especially David. We love to eat them with pretty much anything. Most of the time we eat mashed potatoes with gravy, but sometimes we like to simplify and just eat some yummy garlic mashed potatoes. We have two recipes: an easy-instant recipe, and then a from-scratch recipe. The recipe we choose depends on our time limit, ingredients available, and energy level. Both are delicious! 

Easy Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients: 

8 servings instant mashed potatoes

1 1/2 tsp. Garlic Salt

2 tbs butter. 

Green Onions

salt and pepper to taste 

Directions: 

Make instant mashed potatoes according to directions on the box. After potatoes are ready to go, add garlic salt, butter, salt and pepper. Top with green onions/chives. 

Real Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Source: Adapted from Steamy Kitchen

Ingredients: 

1 head garlic

1 teaspoon olive oil

4 medium russet potatoes or 6 large red potatoes

3-4 tablespoons butter

1/4-1/2 cup milk or heavy cream 

1/4 cup sour cream (optional)

3/4 teaspoon table salt

1 teaspoon green onions

Directions:

Roast your head of garlic. Cut off the top 1/2-inch of the head of garlic. Place on tinfoil and drizzle olive oil into opening in garlic cloves. Close the tin foil over the top. Roast in an oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until the garlic has softened completely and is very tender. Let cool and squeeze out the roasted garlic cloves, making sure that all papery skins are discarded. Coarsely chop. 

Make potatoes. Peel skins for creamy potatoes, or scrub well and leave skins on for restaurant style potatoes. Cube, then place the potatoes in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil then cook for 25 minutes over medium heat, until potatoes are tender. Drain potatoes.

Place potatoes into kitchen-aid and add butter, milk, salt, pepper, and garlic. Using the paddle attachment, mix on medium speed until you reach the desired consistency. (Mix longer for creamier potatoes, but be careful not to mash for too long or else potatoes will break down and become glue-like.) Top with green

For an extra step, put the potatoes into an oven safe dish and then place under a broiler for just a minute, to brown the tops.

David's Chicken

This is one of the meals that David makes for us, and I love it. (Not only that David is the one doing the cooking, but that it is so darn delicious.) The recipe came from the back of a Betty Crocker Scalloped Potatoes box, and was called "Herb-seasoned Chicken Breast" - but we call it David's Chicken. Yum!

David's Chicken
Ingredients:
4 boneless chicken breasts
2 Tbs olive oil or melted butter
3/4 tsp seasoned salt
1/2 tsp dried thyme

Directions:
Place chicken in baking dish. Brush with oil or butter. Mix seasonings together then sprinkle over chicken. Bake chicken about 30 minutes at 425.

About 10 minutes before dinner, cook frozen broccoli florets as tirected. Toss with 1/2 tsp lemon-pepper seasoning. Serve dinner with mashed/scalloped potatoes and broccoli.

Meatballs and Gravy

I've been looking for a meatball recipe like this for a long time. I love sweet and sour meatballs, but David doesn't love them as much - so I wanted to find a meatball recipe that we could both enjoy. I love the meatball-ness and gravy-ness and mashed potato-ness. And lucky for me, David loves it, too!

Meatballs and Gravy
Source: Howe to Cook

Ingredients:

Meatballs
1 lb. hamburger
1 egg
1/4 c. bread crumbs
2 T dehydrated or minced onion
salt and pepper, to taste

Gravy
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 pkg. brown gravy mix
milk

Directions:
In a bowl, combine raw hamburger, egg, bread crumbs, and onion.  Add salt and pepper.
Using your hands, mix the meat mixture together, roll into golf ball-sized balls, and drop onto a baking sheet. Broil meat for 8-10 minutes, turn meatballs over, and broil for another 8-10 minutes. When the meatballs are browned, transfer them to a casserole dish.

For the gravy, mix together soup and gravy packet. Add some milk to thin it a little bit. Pour gravy mixture over meatballs, and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until soup is bubbly.

Serve over mashed potatoes or rice.

Mashed Potato Heaven

a.k.a. KFC's Mashed Potato Bowl

Around this house, we love us some good mashed potatoes. We esecially love KFC's mashed potato bowl. Naturally, we decided to try to make it at home - and let me tell you - it is just as delicious as the original and it's super easy!

Interestingly enough, I found that there is some major controversy over whether cheese and gravy go together. All I know, is that this dish is so good that David dubbed it Mashed Potato Heaven - so we love the combination.

Ingredients:
4 cups mashed potatoes
1 shredded chicken breast
1 can corn
2 cups chicken gravy
1 cup shredded cheese
4 pieces bacon

Directions:
Boil chicken breast for 1/2 hour and shred. Meanwhile fry bacon. Cook mashed potatoes, corn, and gravy. Shred cheese. Assemble all ingredients and serve.

*Note: this is a great recipe to use up some extra leftovers. If you have extra mashed potatoes and gravy, just cook up some chicken and serve. I love recipes like this.