I needed a quick throw together recipe and I had little food in the house. So I talked to the hubs and found some cheddar cheese, steamable mixed vegetables, 2 lbs of ground beef, and mashed potatoes. The first thing I thought of was a pie. I was going to make an open face pie with a pie crust, meat and vegetable filling and a mashed potato/cheese top. But I just didn't want to have to make a crust and go through all that today. So I thought shepherd's pie would be a great. But I didn't want to do the traditional way. Instead of Mashed Carrots and Peas I left all the vegetables whole. I created a great homemade gravy along with the ground beef and some really good instant mashed potatoes with cheese and voila! My version of Shepherd's Pie! So here we go:

Ingredients:
1 box Idaho Instant Mashed Potatoes
Milk
Melted Butter
2 Whole Bell Peppers (chopped)
2 Onions (chopped)
2 Garlic Cloves (minced)
3 cups of Flour
3 Bags of Steamable Mixed Vegetables
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
2 lbs of Ground Beef
4 tbsps Salt
2 tbsps Pepper
2 tbsps Paprika
1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper
1 tsp Basil
1 tbsp Parsley

Instructions

Brown off the ground beef in a skillet. Drain beef in a colander.  Place in a big bowl. Add some oil to the pan and cook the bell peppers and onions until soft and translucent. Place in a bowl with the ground beef. Cook the vegetables per the instructions but cook them only half way. Example: If the vegetables call for 10 minutes on high, cook for 5 minutes on high. Stir the mixture up in the bowl so that everything is incorporated. Now start the gravy. In the same pan used to cook the bell peppers and onions brown off the 3 cups of flour. Keep moving the flour around until the flour cooks and begins to brown. Add 3 cups of water, whisk and season with the seasonings mentioned above or a seasoning mixture of your own. Stir and watch until the gravy thickens. Once you have a thick substance that is full of flavor add the gravy to the bowl of meat and veggies. Stir until everything is mixed together. 

In a bowl mix together the mashed potatoes, milk, and butter. You want to potatoes to be thick but spreadable. Pour the meat and vegetables mixture into a casserole dish and pat down flat. Spread the potatoes over the meat and potatoes mixture and make sure the potato layer is thick and high. Add the cheddar cheese to the top and place in the oven on a 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Serve after 15 minutes. 

This serves 10 people.


*Alternatives*
Instead of making a traditional gravy try making a red gravy with tomato paste and sauce. Here's what you'll need:

2 tbsp of Tomato Paste
1 Small Can of Tomato Sauce (or Jar whatever you like)
2 cups of Chicken Stock
1 tbsp Italian Seasoning
1 tbsp Oregano
1 tsp of Salt
1 tsp of Pepper
1 tbsp corn starch.

In a sauce pan saute your aromatics (onions, bell pepper, and garlic). Once translucent and soft add the tomato paste. Cook until it caramelizes in the pan. Add the tomato sauce and chicken stock. Then sprinkle in the corn starch. This will help the filling to tighten up. Stir it in and cook until its reduced and thick. Combine with your partially cooked veggies and fully cooked meat. Top with Potatoes and cheese. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes until cheese is bubbly and brown. Then remove and wait 10 minutes then serve.

*Enjoy your meal folks!

Don't Know How to Serve This?

This is a one pot meal but it can be served with a side salad w/ your favorite vinaigrette!

I came up with this recipe for my Mother's birthday party. I needed a light caesar dressing without all the extra preservatives and fat. I researched Caesar dressing, I knew it had eggs but I had no idea that it had anchovies and dijon mustard. I didn't want the egg I felt like it was too much and I opted for mayo. The mayo already has eggs in it and it has the creaminess that you want and need in the dressing so I killed two birds with one stone. The recipe is easy and quick and it gets better with time in the fridge.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Helman's Mayonnaise
*1/2 cup Greek Yogurt
*1/2 cup Low-Fat Sour Cream
1/4 cup of Milk or Buttermilk
Salt & Pepper (Plenty of Pepper) to taste
1 tbsp Garlic Powder
1 tbsp Onion Powder
1 1/2 tbsp Dijon Mustard
1/4 cup of Parmesan
*Mediterranean Lowry's Seasoning
*1 Egg
*1 tbsp Anchovy Paste
1 1/2 cup of Seasoned Croutons
Chopped Romaine Lettuce

Directions

In a Mason Jar or a jar that you can shake up with a top, add all the ingredients. Then shake, shake, SHAKE! Shake the mixture until it is fully incorporated. If for any reason nothing is combing then add the mixture to the blender or use a hand mixer. Blend until smooth. Give it a taste see if it has the desired taste (right seasoning, etc). Place in the fridge for a little more than an hour to get really good flavor. Trust me this is necessary. These flavors need to mix and combine. If you eat this dressing before it sits for a while in the fridge it won't have best flavor.

 *Substitution #1: If you want to get technical Caesar dressing has eggs and anchovies in it. I'm not a fan of anchovies and I wanted to cut as much fat as possible so I cut out the anchovy and egg altogether. And it still tasted GREAT!

*Substitutions #2: To have more of a ranch flavor instead use the Lowry's Mediterranean Seasoning. It's so good and has the flavor of ranch dressing with this recipe cut out the Parmesan cheese and you've got your very own ranch dressing. I promise you won't be disappointed. Add some dill and parsley and it'll taste even better.

*Substitutions #3: Instead of using mayo to cut the fat down significantly use greek yogurt or low fat sour cream. It will still have its creamy consistency but an added tangy flavor that is distinct to each of them. Try it out for yourself and see what recipe works for you in terms of flavor.

In my home there are 8 to 10 people constantly around. Immediate family and extended family included. We cook huge batches to last for a week or two. I come from a home of 5 kids and 2 to 3 adults so yea we needed all the food we could get. Anyway I came up with this idea for pizza one night after a week of eating home cooked meals. But I had no money and we lived in a neighborhood that didn't deliver. My mother ate naan bread for breakfast with a cup of coffee like toast (she's weird like that). Well I needed a base for my pizza because I had everything else sauce, cheese, pepperoni, veggies the whole nine. And the idea came to me that if I use the naan bread it'll be fast and easy pizza without the cost or added calories and preservatives of store bought pizza. So here's my recipe for Naan Bread Pizza. Enjoy!

Naan Bread Pizza is a easy easy easy recipe that even children can make without having the costs of buying pizza from a fast food place or a store. The ingredients are cheap and easy to find, all things that you have in your home already, well except for maybe the Naan Bread. *Side Note - This recipe makes 10 pizzas scale it back if you have a small family.

Ingredients:

2 pks of Naan Bread
1 jar of any Spaghetti Sauce (or Pizza Sauce if you prefer)
-1 tbsp of Basil
-1 tsp of Sugar
-1 tbsp Parsley
-1 tsp of Red Pepper Flakes
-Black Pepper and Salt to taste

I came up with this recipe on the fly actually. I wanted some homemade cranberry sauce, I was tired of eating the canned stuff. So I started researching online for some recipes for homemade sauce. I found some but they ddin't really include the cranberries as the focal point. So I decided to go rogue. Lol I keep a lot of frozen fruit in my fridge because I drink smoothies for a quick meal. I had some cherries and I decided to use that to stretch my bag of cranberries. When I saw these two together I came up with this recipe.

*Made these beauties with my sisters on mother's day. It was an easy quick recipe and didn't take long for these little bites to cook up and DISAPPEAR! I set it for intermediate because of the way each part has to be made. Baking is a science and you have to be precise so to a non baker this recipe would be slightly difficult. Great for tapas parties or a cocktail mixer.*

Ingredients

This is what it looks like in the burrito. It has a minimal amount of cheese in the mix. If you add more cheese it will be thicker and lighter in color. The cheese is at your discretion. You can always add more or less of each ingredient it is totally up to you.

Ingredients:

Set up an assembly line. With everything lined up for you to begin the layering process. Lay it however you like. Here's how I layer my lasagna:

1. Sauce

2. Noodles

3. Ricotta Mixture

4. Pepperoni

5. Cheese

In this blog you find recipes that I have tried and created. And will you also see recipes that I have not tried yet. But if that occurs I will post in the beginning that the recipe has not been tested but its in the works. I want this blog to be interactive and easy for everyone. I will post recipes regularly every week at least 2 a week. 1 will be a recipe that I have tried and the other will be one that I haven't tried but will in the near future. You may also see other posts pop up on this blog throughout the week. So just follow Easy Creative Cuisine and you'll catch all the latest.

Easy Creative Cuisine will provide recipes for every level cook. Beginner, Intermediate, and Hard. I'm a big advocate of understanding your limitations and going above and beyond to push past that. Cooking can be a great release and the joy of people enjoying something you created...there's nothing like that type of satisfaction in the world!

So stick with Creative Cuisine we have some really great recipes, cooking tips, and more. If things go well then maybe we'll expand to a YouTube channel specifically for cooking!

*On Holidays You May Get Two or Three Recipes a WEEK