It's Pinspired Friday! {Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie}

Happy Friday all! It's Pinspired Friday!

Let's talk about healthy dinners today. Dinners are one of those things that can be completely based on mood. You know what is nice sometimes? Getting your cooking out of the way so that tomorrow, you can reheat and still have an awesome meal that doesn't taste reheated. In fact, I completely recommend that you make this one a day before you want to eat it and then don't touch it until tomorrow. It's kind of like a pan of lasgana - better the next day, as it gives all of the flavors time to settle and come together (or so they tell me, I hate lasgana. haha!) But really. Make this one today and eat it tomorrow. When it comes time to figure out what to make tomorrow for dinner... you'll thank me. ;)

It all started when I ran across this recipe from Skinnytaste.com.

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/11/sweet-potato-turkey-shepards-pie.html

I was able to modify her original recipe to get rid of all of the dairy, and also to modify it more with what I usually have in the pantry and freezer (I can't say I ever have parsnips!), and it still tastes great!

So let's gather our ingredients. This will make plenty for two people.

• 2 small sweet potatoes/yams
• 3 tablespoons of minced garlic - I use the kind that is in a jar, it saves a bit of time.
• 1 3/4 cup of chicken broth
• 1 lb of ground turkey
• 1 tsp of olive oil
• Onion powder
• 10 oz of mixed vegetables. I use the green bean, corn, carrot, and pea mix from Meijer.
• 2 tbsp of flour
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 tsp rosemary
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Optional: paprika

Preheat your oven to 400.

Get a pot of salted water going until boiling, you'll want enough water to completely cover your sweet potato chunks. Add 1/4 cup of chicken broth to the water and 1 1/2 tablespoons of minced garlic. Peel and chop your sweet potatoes, and add the sweet potatoes to the boiling water. Cook until soft, about 20-25 minutes. Drain and mash. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over your sweet potato mash, set aside. I usually mash right in the colander and let it sit in there until it's needed again.

This is the garlic I use!

In the same pan you used for the sweet potatoes, cook your ground turkey until browned, season with salt and pepper. Once cooked, drain and set aside on plate.

In that same pot, add your olive oil and saute the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoon of minced garlic with a generous amount of onion powder. Saute for a few minutes, until some garlic pieces brown. Add your flour, salt and pepper (yes, this recipe takes quite a bit of both), remaining 1 1/2 cup of chicken broth, Worcestershire sauce, and rosemary. Mix well. Add your frozen vegetables and cooked turkey, mix. Let simmer for 5-7 minutes.

While the mixture is simmering, spray a 2.5L glass dish with cooking spray or oil of your choice. After the mixture has simmered, add the mixture to the bottom of the dish, and top it with the sweet potatoes.

You can add paprika here if you want, but I leave it out. Bake for 15 minutes. Let it cool for 10 minutes or so, then put tinfoil on top of the entire pan and put it in the refrigerator. Enjoy... tomorrow! :) You can eat it the same day, but I prefer the taste the next day.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe! :) It's nice to be able to modify something to your tastes and what you have in your pantry, AND have it taste great.

Share it with your friends! Thank you for following along and have a great weekend!

Sunny-Side Up Breakfast Casserole - A great Christmas morning casserole!

Update: My Sunny-Side Up Casserole recipe was featured in a recipe feature blog post over at the blog View Along the Way! It was very exciting and quite the honor. Please check it out and check out View Along the Way if you're looking for a great DIY/Home blog!

Good morning! I just wanted to take a second and say "hello!" to some of my newer readers - I am seeing on my stats (which is such a cool tool, by the way) that I am having readers come in from Australia, Russia, Germany, Canada, and a few others and that is very cool! So hello to my international readers!

It looks like most of my readers are from the US so good morning and hello to you as well! :)

On to the recipe!
I've got a good one for you this morning - it's a gem in my little dancing bear recipe book (you might remember the mothership from one of my very first posts). This one was passed on to me from Mama LOC before I was married and before I could really even cook anything more than quesadillas and beans from a can. I remember Mama LOC made me a copy of her recipe on the fax machine (technology!) and I have made it multiple times since then. The most I know about this recipe is that it originates from a newspaper insert or magazine from about 1997, so it's not super old, but let's just say that I wasn't super old when it was printed. haha! ;) It's a great recipe that I know I will pass on to future generations.

This is a great recipe to feed a crowd or a family, and this casserole would especially be yummy and easy to prepare on Christmas morning!

Wipe that drool off your keyboard and start assembling your ingredients! ;) You'll need:
• 1 pound sausage
• 1 cup cheese-flavored croutons (I used Caesar as that was all I had on hand - it was fine.)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 6-8 eggs
• paprika (optional)

You'll also want a 9x13 glass dish, a saucepan and some Crisco or Pam type spray. 

Preheat your oven to 350. This is one of the changes I made to the original recipe - the original recipe calls for 325 but after the suggested time and original temp. the eggs were not even close enough to edible so preheat to 350, not 325.


In this time, brown your sausage on the stovetop in a sauce pan. If you're like me and forgot to take the sausage out the night before and it's frozen solid, defrost in microwave. ;)

While your sausage is browning, grease up a 13x9 glass dish. I used Crisco. Make sure you get the sides well - this dish has a tendency to stick quite badly otherwise.

Take your croutons and measure them out. You'll see I used closer to 2 cups than 1 cup as suggested - we like ours extra crouton-y. Smash the croutons up using a wooden spoon or something of the like. You don't want them completely turned into powder but instead more like smaller squares.
*A note on the croutons - the original recipe does call for cheese-flavored croutons. I usually make this with cheese flavored croutons, but I only had Caesar on hand when I made this. Both work fine. The best ones I have ever used for this are the cheese flavored croutons from Save-A-Lot. I do suggest using the "large cut" croutons over the teeny ones.

Put your semi-smashed croutons in the bottom of the pan and 1 cup of cheddar cheese on top of the croutons. Your sausage should be completely browned at this point, remove from heat.

Now, mix your 3/4 cup sour cream and 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard in a separate bowl. Dollop about half of the mixture on top of the casserole. Don't spread it around - you're making pockets of flavor.

If you haven't already, drain your grease from the sausage and once drained, sprinkle it on top of the cheese/sour cream/croutons.

This is another variation of mine from the original recipe - the original calls from 8 eggs but I made this one time for a crowd that had someone who didn't care for eggs very much, so I reduced it to 6 - and 6 seems to be the perfect amount of egg in this recipe. 8 seems like a bit much in my opinion but if you're making it for a lot of people, 8 eggs may make more sense. It's really up to you. Make 6 little indentations in sausage and break open an egg in each indentation.

Now, top that with the remainder of the sour cream, the remainder of the cheddar cheese, and sprinkle it with paprika if you like. It just adds a hint of zesty-ness that plays off the croutons but it's not necessary.

Your oven should be preheated at this point, so stick the casserole in there for 25-30 minutes (another alteration - the original calls for 20-25, but it's just not enough.) 25-30 minutes later...

*drool*
The eggs should be slightly runny. If you have someone in the crowd who doesn't care for runny eggs, you may want to cook it a little longer, or this recipe could be easily adapted into scrambled eggs on top, just whisk your six eggs in a dish and pour the eggs over the top of the casserole.

There you have it! One of my favorite recipes to "inherit" from Mama LOC (my other favorite Mama LOC recipes is a Shepard's pie that is to die for, you'll see that here eventually!) and it's something just slightly different from your normal, everyday breakfast casserole.

Just for kicks, here is my copy of the original recipe! :)

Thanks for following along! Let me know how this turns out for you. I know you're out there readers, let's hear some comments! ;)

Sunny-Side Up Breakfast Casserole
 • 1 pound sausage
• 1 cup cheese-flavored croutons (I used Caesar as that was all I had on hand - it was fine.)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 6-8 eggs
• paprika (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 350. Over medium heat, brown sausage. Drain drippings; set aside.
2) Grease bottom of 13" x 9" glass baking dish. Cover bottom with coarsely crumbled croutons and sprinkle with 1 cup shredded cheese.
3) In small bowl, combine sour cream and mustard; place half of sour cream mixture over cheese and croutons in evenly spaced spoonfuls. Spread sausage over top.
4) Make 6 indentations into the sausage. Break each egg into each of the indentations.
5) Spoon on remaining sour cream mixture on top and sprinkle casserole with 1 cup Cheddar cheese and paprika.
6) Bake 25-30 minutes until egg yolks are slightly runny. Remove and enjoy!

I'm linking up with the Holiday Heirloom Recipe Collection party!

   

I'm also linking up with the "What's Shakin" Link Party!