Meat Pie

My mom was careful to keep the tradition of her family's meat pie. Today's mom tries to keep a close proximity to that recipe but addresses the health concerns of her family.

These are some of our concerns: The beef must be at least 93% lean, or 7% fat. If your used to using a mix of ground pork and ground beef, this will increase the cooking time. Also pork is fattier, so we use a healthy substitute.

My mom used to roll milk crackers, but I've found a quicker method. We use seasoned bread stuffing.

The result is that you can easily make this meat stuffing for your pies in a jiffy.

I don't recall mom having a food processor, which is handy and facilitates the cooking time. Hers took a good part of the day, between the straining, and cooking down the pork in water with celery and onions, rolling crackers, and slow cooking, it took her days to prepare for the feast. Her stuffing was outstanding! You can add this recipe to your Quickie ones.

Laura's Heart-healthy Meat Pie
1 oz. Bell's seasoning
14 oz. chicken broth, low sodium, fat-free
7 oz. Arnold's Herb Seasoned Stuffing
14 oz. Gimme Lean Ground Sausage Style
2 1/2 lbs. 93% Lean Ground Beef
2 medium-sized onions, chopped
1/4 cup smart balance spread

Saute chopped onions in a large pan, using the spread, add ground beef and ground sausage, mix thoroughly cooking on medium heat, stirring constantly. In your processor place chicken broth and stuffing, (let stuffing soften in broth). Add Bell's seasoning to meat in the pan, (remove extra fat with a paper towel if necessary), blend broth and stuffing in the processor and add to the meat, stirring thoroughly until well blended. Cool down before placing prepared stuffing in your pie shells. Makes (2) pies. Bake in a preheated oven 400 degrees for 20 minutes, turn down heat to 350 degrees. Cook to heat 30 minutes, maximum. Important! Make sure the stuffing mix is completely cooled before placing it in the pie shell.

A healthier pie. You can substitute mashed potatoes instead of the stuffing/broth, or use crackers. This makes the consistency perfect for pie cutting. I've tried the recipe without pork using just ground beef, that works as well.

Today, I'm using prepared pie crust. (Mrs. Smith's) Pies cut in 1/8 sections equal 7G of total fat. (We make sure that they have zero trans-fat and no cholesterol). Sodium another concern is only 135 mgs. I don't care for the bleached wheat flour in this product. Another substance I try to avoid is MSG.

No matter where you are tomorrow, enjoy the day, and when we bow our heads in prayer, we will be thinking of you, and are most grateful for the many prayers and blessing bestowed upon us through you, our friends.