Beef, zucchini and sweet potato casserole

Attempt number one:


Olive oil
500g chuck steak, diced and dusted in flour
1 brown onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 teaspoons cinnamon (or a cinnamon stick cut in half)
1 medium sized sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1cm chunks.
2 zucchinis, cut in quarters lengthways then cut into 1 cm pieces
2 apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
2 - 3 tins of tomatoes (whole or crushed, doesn’t matter)
Apple juice (optional)

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius

Heat oil in heavy bottomed saucepan (with a tight fitting lid) .
Brown steak on all sides, remove with slotted spoon and set aside.
Add a splash more oil to the pain and add onions and garlic. Cook over low heat until soft.
Add cinnamon and stir to combine allowing to cook for a minute or so until your kitchen is cinnamon scented (should that please you as much as it does me).
Add sweet potato and stir until coated with oily, cinnamon onions.
Same again for zucchini.
And apples.
Then add two tins of tomato along with the browned beef. If the tomatoes generously cover the beef and veg mix that’s enough. If in doubt, add the third tin.
Bring to the boil, put the lid on and stick in the oven for an hour, or until the beef easily comes apart.

Serve with carb of choice : brown rice, white rice, millet…. I used brown rice.

Making it work for the whole family

Adults: this is too light on seasoning for me, so stir through some flat leaf parsley and a bit of salt and pepper. Serve with brown rice on the side. Wouldn’t recommend this for a dinner party, but is rather tasty for a school night supper.

Toddler: same as above, but stir through some apple juice if you think it needs to be a bit sweeter.

Baby: Stir well cooked brown rice into the mixture and puree to a consistency suitable for your child. Spoon into freezer trays and 3 - 4 cubes will make a decent portion.

The consumption reality
Grown-ups enjoyed it.
Baby ate it all up.
Toddler spat it out. VERY annoying.
But as I couldn’t be bothered cooking something new for dinner, decided a rebrand would suffice.

So I:
• Toasted some mountain bread (pitta is fine) to resemble tortilla chips;
• Arranged them in a bowl and spooned 3 – 4 tablespoons of the baby puree onto top;
• Sprinkled some grated cheese on top and grilled it until cheese melted.

Voila. Beef Nachos. He LOVED it. Nutritious and frankly, freezer ready for future meals.

In this instance it was three birds, one stone. Hurrah!