Beef and Mushroom Tart

So keeping with the lower carb meals tonight I present something mildly experimental.  I got this recipe from my mom a long time ago.  It's actually an hors d'oeuvre that we make for parties, but tonight I thought I'd try a bigger version and just make it into a meat pie/tart type of thing.  I think it turned out pretty well. 

Since I'm trying to keep the carbohydrate count low so I can pass this next 3 hour gtt I had to make a few changes to the recipe.  I don't actually know where she got the recipe for this, so hopefully it's okay that I'm posting a modified version. 

In the original recipe if you were going to make these as  hors d'oeuvres for a party you would smash slices of bread into muffin cups to use as tart shells and use a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup along with the other ingredients in the filling. 

For tonight's recipe I made my own whole wheat pie crust (so that'd be about 10-12 grams of carbs for 1/8 of the pie).  I didn't use the cream of mushroom soup, but used real mushrooms and thickened up some milk with some parsley and a bit of added garlic powder and onion powder instead.  If I had used the cream of mushroom soup 2 things would have happened:

1.  It would have tasted better.

2.  It would have had 6.75 more grams of carbs per slice (assuming you had 1/8th) of pie. 

Since I was planning on eating more than 1/8th of the pie I decided to skip the soup.  If you're not so worried about carbs I'd definitely say use the condensed soup (get the organic kind without msg!!). 

Otherwise, on it's own this was pretty good!  I had the flavor of the hors d'oeuvres in my head, so this pie wasn't as amazing as those, but not too shabby for a low carb, weekday meal. 

Here's the recipe if you want to make it!


Beef and Mushroom Tart

Ingredients
(Pie Crust)
1 1/3c whole wheat flour
1/2c butter cubed
1/2 tsp salt
3tbsp cold water

(filling)

1lb ground beef

1cup mushrooms diced

1/2 green pepper diced

1 small onion diced

3large cloves of garlic minced

1tbsp butter

1cup milk

1tbsp flour

1tbsp parsley

salt and pepper to taste

garlic powder and onion powder to taste

1/3cup cheddar cheese grated

For the filling:

1.  Brown the ground beef. If you're not using lean meat drain off some fat.

2.  Add the mushrooms, green pepper, onion, garlic and butter and saute on medium heat until the onions are translucent and the green peppers are soft. 

3.  Sprinkle the flour over the beef and veggie mixture and stir it in. 

4.  Add the milk and bring everything to a boil over medium heat.  Allow the sauce to get thick and bubbly.

5.  Add the parsley, salt and pepper, and garlic powder and onion powder if you think it needs a bit more kick.  Stir everything to combine well.

6.  Take the mixture off the heat and cool down a bit.

For the crust:

1.  Combine the flour and salt in a food processor.  Just pulse it a couple times.

2.  Add the cubes of butter slowly while pulsing. 

3.  When the flour and butter look like coarse crumbs add the cold water slowly.

4.  When it comes together into a ball it's ready to roll out.

5.  Roll out the dough on a floured board until it's larger than the pie plate. 

6.  Carefully place your dough in the pie plate.  Roll the edges over and if you want to be fancy flute the edges. 

7.  Prick the bottom of the crust and bake in a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes.

Bringing it together.

1.  When the pie comes out fill it with your beef and mushroom mixture and top with cheddar cheese.

2.  Bake in a 350 oven for 20 minutes!



Before it went in the oven!





The finished product.



 Hope you enjoy it!

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for the Christmas Season and all of the joy that comes with celebrating your son's birth.  As we begin this New Year help us all to remember the gift you have given us in your son and the gift of our lives.  Help us to remember not to squander what we've been given and appreciate it and cultivate it every day.  Amen.