Whole 30 - Scandinavian Woman's 'Shepherd's Pie'

I recently made a meatloaf using only Whole 30 approved ingredients:

1# ground chicken, 1# ground bison, lots of chopped celery and onion, 2 extra large pasture-raised eggs, 12oz. marinara sauce, Himalayan pink salt, black and cayenne pepper, granulated roasted garlic.

Nothing grain-based to hold it all together, but even without that, although this was looser than usual meatloaf, it worked out well. I baked this at 350° about an hour. Originally, I served it as is, with potatoes and vegetables, then decided to crumble it for this recipe.

Whole 30 Shepherd's Pie:

First, scrub, chop and simmer several baby red or Yukon Gold potatoes. Drain, mash, add a little ghee, Coconut-Almond plant milk (see previous post) salt and pepper. This went into the bottom of a 9"x9" glass baking pan. For the next layer, crumble the meatloaf mixed with a little marinara and the plant milk. Spread this over the mashed potatoes. Then top with lightly cooked vegetables sauteed in ghee. I used sliced Brussels sprouts, sliced carrots and cubes of green cabbage. Heat in the oven or microwave, cut into squares and serve.
This would pair nicely with a crispy green salad. . .Lin

Shepherd's Pie

I've never made one of these.  My sweet, tiny little Grandma, whose maiden name was Shepherd, was from England.  I think she may have made this once or twice when I was very young, but my memory of that is foggy.  I wasn't sure I even had the right idea about what they are.  I did a quick Google search and found that my idea was far more complicated, but decided to go with it anyway.  I made a meatloaf base, separate from the vegetables and topped, 'frosted' it all with mashed potatoes, so 3 layers total.  This mades a lot of food, which was a good thing for today.  The largest container is for a big family I know.  I gave one of the little ones to a friend who stopped over earlier, and the other one is for me.  This made 20 servings, so it's a good thing to make for a hungry crowd.

MEAT LOAF LAYER

Start with the vegetables.

Chop the vegetables, then break up all the meat and mix everything together in a giant bowl, with your hands.

a BIG handful of fresh spinach

tops from a bunch of green onion

1 med. yellow or white onion

1 colorful sweet pepper

5-6 lg. cloves of garlic

½T Himalayan pink salt

½T Tellicherry black pepper

2# lean ground beef

1# ground turkey

1# ground pork or chicken

In a medium bowl, mix together what I call 'the glop.'

1½c rolled oats
-or- quick steel cut oats

3 lg. eggs
6oz. sour cream + 6oz. water

After 15 minutes or so, the oats should absorb enough that a spoon will stand up when the perfect level of gloppiness is achieved 😉

Bake this in well greased or parchment paper lined baking pans, in a 350° oven for 50-60 minutes.  Drain off any accumulated grease.  Prepare the vegetables and potatoes next.  When the meat is cooled, cut it into individual size servings.

VEGETABLE LAYER

Chop or slice, then cook your vegetables so they're crisp-tender. Drain and save the cooking water for soup, give it to your dogs or pour it in a cup and drink it. Cover the
meat layer with the vegetables. Today I had a colorful mix of:

1½# scrubbed carrots

2-3c cauliflower florets

12oz. frozen French cut beans

some radishes

MASHED POTATO TOPPING

Scrub 3# of potatoes.  The Yukon Gold's were nice, so I didn't peel them.  I just cut away any bad places and cut them into ½" cubes.  Steam-cook them until they're mashable.  Drain the water, season with salt and pepper, add butter and sour cream.  Put the cooked vegetables on top of the cut meat layer, then cover everything with the mashed potatoes.  Sprinkle the top with seasonings if you want and broil on low, until the top browns.  Remove from the oven and sprinkle on some shredded cheese.   Comfort Food! . . Lin

Meatloaf Potatoes and Carrots

BISON, TURKEY and PORK MEATLOAF

1# lean ground bison (lamb or beef)
1# ground turkey (or chicken)

1# pork sausage

2 lg. or jumbo eggs

1c quick cooking rolled oats

1 lg. onion - chopped

6oz. sun-dried tomato pesto*

6oz half & half* - may not need

1t fresh ground garlic sea salt

1t fresh ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients *(or 8oz. tomato sauce and 8oz. half & half - the half & half last, after mixing, only if needed) in a large bowl, using a heavy wooden spoon or very clean hands 😊 Form into 2 loafs and bake at 350° for one hour.  Only slice what you need while the meatloaf is hot.  Once chilled, it cuts nicely into thin slices for meatloaf sandwiches.  You can also cut it a little thicker and into cubes and serve with spaghetti and red sauce, for Spaghetti and Meat Cubes. 😀 . . . Lin

*            ~            *            ~            *            ~            *

ROSEMARY BUTTERED POTATOES and CARROTS

2# baby assorted fingerling potatoes
2 lg. carrots - scrubbed & sliced
1/4c butter - and/or - Italian Herb Olive Oil
2 sm.-med. sweet potatoes - scrubbed & sliced
1/2 lg. purple onion - rough chopped
1-2t Rosemary Seasoning *

Scrub the potatoes well, leave them whole and combine them with the carrots in a 2-4 qt. heavy bottomed pot.  Add a little water, partially cover and simmer over low-medium heat on the stove, for about 10 minutes to steam and evaporate about half the water.  Add the remaining ingredients, partially cover once again, and continue to heat another 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are still a little crisp tender.  Serve with some of the seasoned butter cooking 'sauce' spooned over the vegetables. . .Lin


A POSTSCRIPT - - LEFTOVERS

Have I mentioned how WONDERFUL meatloaf is - in regard to 'leftovers' of ANY sort?  Dinner, sandwich, spaghetti, covered in cooked vegetables and mashed potatoes - then broiled to brown the potatoes....sort of a Meatloaf Baked Alaska....  hash when combined with chopped potatoes and vegetables and browned. . .or whatever else you can dream up.  Today I did some town errands.  I cut that short, saving some for another day since it turned rainy and damp.

I came home, put the sweaters on the dogs 😊 then decided to have an early dinner and maybe just a simple salad later.  I quick sautéed 4oz. white mushrooms with ½ a large purple onion, both slice-chopped, in 2T butter.  Then I cubed two slices of meatloaf.  Added those just before the mushrooms and onions were done cooking.  At this point a splash of steak sauce or ketchup and a little water, or just Vodka (!!) This is a great way to get all flavor of the pan brownings into the food Mmmmm. . .It was ready in minutes.  Happy Leftovers 😀