Even though I always menu plan and I love it because it make my life easier, there are some nights when I look at what I have planned to cook and I think “I don’t want to cook that” or “I don’t want to eat that”. And as I am am the cook, I don’t cook it! I always have a well stocked pantry and some basic meat in the freezer for moments like this and then I just try and get a little creative in the kitchen.
These pies weren’t necessarily that creative, but the kids had asked earlier in the day about when we were going to have homemade pies again, so I thought we would make a cheats attempt at some individual ones. The only ingredient that would have been nice to have, that I didn’t have in the house was puff pastry, so we topped the pies with short crust instead. They certainly wouldn’t have passed on MasterChef, but the kids had fun making them with me and they did taste good.
Cheats Pies
The meat mixture for this recipe is the same as what I make for our large Homemade Meat Pie.
Ingredients:
- 3 large Carrots
- 1 tsp Garlic Minced
- 3 tbsps Tomato Paste
- 1 large Onion
- 5 sheets Pastry Short Crust
- 250 mls Stock Beef
- 2 tbsps lour Corn
- 750 grams Beef Mince
- 1 egg
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and take pastry out to thaw.
- Finely chop onion.
- Finely grate carrot.
- Make a paste from corn flour and some water.
- Heat oil in a large frying pan.
- Add onion and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes until onion soft.
- Add mince and break it up as it cooks.
- Once mince is browned, add tomato paste. Mix in well.
- Add corn flour paste to beef stock, mix, then add to mince mixture.
- Allow the mixture to simmer and thicken.
- While this is happening start cutting out circles that will fit the size muffin trays that you have.
- Lightly spray muffin tins with a cooking spray so that they won’t stick. Place the pastry into the tins.
- Fill the pastry with the meat mixture
- To make the tops of the pies, we simply cut the leftover of the pastry from where we had cut the circles into strips and made a pie top with them.
- Lightly brush the tops with beaten egg.
- Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
While they were cooking, I steamed up what veggies we had left in the house. It was Friday night and as we shop at the market Saturdays, there wasn’t much left, so we ate our pies with mashed potato and broccoli!
- 3 large Carrots
- 1 tsp Garlic Minced
- 3 tbsps Tomato Paste
- 1 large Onion
- 5 sheets Pastry Short Crust
- 250 mls Stock Beef
- 2 tbsps Corn flour
- 750 grams Beef Mince
- 1 egg
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and take pastry out to thaw.
- Finely chop onion.
- Finely grate carrot.
- Make a paste from corn flour and some water.
- Heat oil in a large frying pan.
- Add onion and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes until onion soft.
- Add mince and break it up as it cooks.
- Once mince is browned, add tomato paste. Mix in well.
- Add corn flour paste to beef stock, mix, then add to mince mixture.
- Allow the mixture to simmer and thicken.
- While this is happening start cutting out circles that will fit the size muffin trays that you have.
- Lightly spray muffin tins with a cooking spray so that they won't stick. Place the pastry into the tins.
- Fill the pastry with the meat mixture.
- To make the tops of the pies, we simply cut the leftover of the pastry from where we had cut the circles into strips and made a pie top with them.
- Lightly brush the tops with beaten egg.
- Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
- While they were cooking, I steamed up what veggies we had left in the house. It was Friday night and as we shop at the market Saturdays, there wasn't much left, so we ate our pies with mashed potato and broccoli!
The Family Menu Plan For This Week
Last week I tried to new recipes, the chicken noodle soup was a hit and my clow cooker chicken cassreole was a miss. I am not giving up on the slow cooker chicken dish though. I know what didn’t work well, so will give it another go in a few weeks.
Baking: Chocolate Balls
Monday: Chicken Noodle Soup
Tuesday: Beef Stroganoff
Wednesday: Left Overs
Thursday: Roast Vegetable Lasagne
Friday: Tuna Rice
Saturday: Chicken Wings, Baked Potatoes and Steamed Corn
Sunday: Marinated Steak and Garlic Mashed Potatoes
If you are looking for further recipe inspiration, check out my complete list of Family Friendly Recipes. All of these recipes are in the database of the Planning With Kids Free Menu Planner. You can use the menu planner to plan a week of meals for your family and then print out the associated shopping list.