Mince and Lentil Pie

We're like most families. We try and stick to a tight budget and we plan meals around what we can buy. This results in us not eating a lot of meat and when we do I usually try and stretch it further by shredding chicken here or adding lentils there. This is one of those cases. And it's delicious. I based the recipe off a steak pie recipe that I inherited from Phil (He's a really great cook, you know). I added a little of this and changed a bit of that. This mince and lentil pie is amazing and SUPER filling. Both Phil and I commented on how much more filling it is vs. just a mince pie. Did I mention it's ridiculously delicious? I'll be honest and say that you don't even really notice the lentils. They just blend right in making this a great choice for picky eaters.

We'll be making this again soon!

Mince and Lentil Pie

2/3 cup of dried lentils
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 onion (I sometimes use more depending on the size of the onion)
1 pound of ground beef
1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 tablespoons oil (I just eyeball it)
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp celery seed
black pepper
pinch of chili pepper
1/8 cup of worcestershire sauce
1/8 cup of soy sauce
2 cups of beef stock

2 Frozen pre-made flaky crusts

Rinse lentils and boil on medium heat for 10 minutes (you want them to be partially cooked and still have a bite to them, they will finish cooking with the pie filling).Drain and set aside. In a hot pan add the oil, garlic, and onion and saute until soft. Add the ground beef and brown the meat. Add the lentils and mix. Sprinkle the mixture with flour and mix again. Add the spices, worchestershire sauce, and soy sauce and cook until liquid is almost gone. Add the stock and cook until the meat is coated in a thick gravy (I usually add more flour here to thicken it up nicely to go in the pie. It needs to be thick so you can cut slices). Transfer to container and cool.

Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Roll out your pie crusts to your desired thickness and place one in pie tin. Fill the pie with the lentil mixture and top with the other pie crust. Pinch the crusts together and trim around the sides. Score the top and brush with a bit of oil. Bake until golden brown.

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt

Honestly, what's better than creamy, soft frozen yogurt? (nothing) A bit of tang balanced with a hint of sweetness. Sometimes you just NEED frozen yogurt and ice cream just won't cut it.

This one is for you. ♥


Tiny toddler hand couldn't wait while mama took photos...
Vanilla Frozen Yogurt

1 cup greek style yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 firmly packed powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Mix together the greek yogurt, milk, powdered sugar, and vanilla until completely smooth. Refrigerate for 1 hour (or don't, because I didn't this time. It was a frozen yogurt emergency, yo).
Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the ice cream maker's instructions.

Notes: It was sweet but not tooooo sweet. That said, next time I may use less sugar (just for some more zing) and serve with fresh berries. ALSO, you don't have to use powdered/icing sugar, but it's all I had on hand aside from raw sugar. I didn't have the patience to dissolve the raw sugar beforehand. Cravings are not to be messed with.

We both had seconds. Because, obviously.

On Making Grapfruit Juice

Yes okay, so it's another post about fruit. I know, I know! I can't help it!

The other day we were driving around looking at some houses (yes! you heard right!). While we were driving around we saw so many neglected fruit trees. The fruit trees were laden and there was fruit all over the ground. Sadness! We shook our proverbial fists at them and wished for fruit trees of our own. We really wanted some grapefruit. So we did what any normal people would do. We bought them! We stopped by our friends house and begged to grab some grapefruit off their trees. They gladly obliged and gave us some plastic bags to bring our bounty home in. Boy did we ever! We came home with two bags full of the juiciest sweetest grapefruit I ever did taste! Actually, to me the flesh looked more like oranges but Phil assured me they were grapefruit. Well, all right then.

We squeezed out the juice, added a bit of water and gave it a try. Ahhh! Incredible! I could really get used to this. I think we're onto something.













Today we juiced up a lot of them and put the juice in containers to freeze for later. It will be a delicious treat for any time of year! Fresh fruit juice is the way to go.

Seriously. Yum.

xoxo
Talia Christine