Irish Beef Pies

I love Martha Stewart freezer recipes. I think all of her recipes are great, but they are always so involved, so when a good/simple one comes along, I embrace it. These Irish Beef Pies are easy to make ahead and serve for dinner during the week. There are great ways to enhance this recipe by adding garlic or paprika. But this is the traditional "Irish" pie recipe. I also would want to add onions or corn. Maybe some other veggies like carrots or celery but that's your call. Great recipe, makes 8 at a time. 

Ingredients:

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 head of cabbage (won't need all of it)

1 lb ground beef sirloin

1/2 lb red potatoes

1 tbsp of tomato paste (you can use more, but i'm not a fan)

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 cup of water

1/2 tsp thyme

salt & pepper

2 pie crusts 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Shred the cabbage and cut the potatoes into tiny cubes.

In a sauce pan heat oil over medium heat.

Add cabbage & potatoes.

Cook for about 8 minutes until brown.

Then add beef and break up while cooking.

When they are no longer pink stir in tomato paste, worcestershire sauce, thyme, & water.

Cover, lower heat, and cook for about 15 minutes.

The potatoes need to be soft enough to mash.

After mashing with a fork season with salt & pepper.

Meanwhile, stretch out the pie crusts and split into 4 sections (use a pizza cutter).

Ideally you would want to make it more of a square then a circle, but I don't have time for that.

Place about 1/2 a cup of the filling on each square and seal up.

Crimp edges with a fork (if you're talented).

To Eat Now: Transfer pies to rimmed baking sheet (lined with foil) and bake for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. You can rotate the pies after 5 minutes for even cooking.

To Freeze: After the insides cool, wrap in tin foil and place in freezer bags. I kept them in my freezer for about a month and used them regularly. No defrosting needed. 

To Eat From Freezer: Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet.

BEFORE BAKING:

 AFTER BAKING:

Nutritional Information:

Carbs: 7.5

Calories: 362

Fat: 20

Points: 8.6

Points Plus+: 10

What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)

Open Faced Tuna Melts

Tuna Melts are one of my favorite meals from my childhood. My father makes the best tuna fish! I know that's a strange thing to say, but it's true. He puts so much effort into it. He drains it, dries it out as much as possible (we like it that way). Then thinly chops up celery & onions into tiny tiny pieces. It's just perfect. I tried to recreate the concoction the best I could, but I just went ahead and did it my own way. With a little inspiration from Good Ol' Gina. I used pre-chopped celery, onions, & carrots (from Darrenkamps of course). I also added some garlic salt, a little light mayo, and some vinegar.

My daddy makes the best tuna fish & my husband makes the perfect grilled cheese. So I entrusted him to cook the sandwiches in the pan. We used fat free oil spray instead of butter. We cooked them on the stove for a little while. But then we wound up putting them in the oven under the broil setting which made them even better.

I didn't have any sliced cheese so I used Mexican shredded cheese. Each individual sandwich was 2.5 points.

Turkey & Mozzarella Sandwich

Last year I was the Lean Cuisine/Smart Ones/Healthy Choice Queen when it came to lunch at work. First off, this slew low fat frozen meals aren't really that healthy. Sometimes they taste pretty good. But Second of all, they just get old after awhile. I don't know what I was thinking, really. I'm so much happy cooking meals and eating leftovers for lunch. They are healthier and taste better. Plus I'm saving money! So as I continue my search for lunch alternatives I've found a good-old fashion sandwich is the way to go.

I've been using sprouts -- which is something I remember eating a lot of when I was younger, fresh mozzarella (awesome!), slices of tomato, onions, sometimes carrots or zucchini. For some protein I've been using some tuna or Hillshire Farm Ultra Thin Cracked Black Pepper Turkey. Sometimes I use a little bit of Mayo. But my new guilty pleasure (which I don't really have to feel guilty about) is 1 or 2 ounces of fresh avacado used as a spread. AMAZING! The sandwich above is only 3 Weight Watcher Points and is still pretty filling with a side of fruit, crackers, or salad.