Beef & Cheese Cobbler

While out shopping at one of my favorite discount department stores recently, I came across a really fun cookbook for a song called 1 Ground Beef, 100 Meals.  I couldn't pass it up.  I mean, hamburger is the cheapest thing you can buy in the market and the possibilities are endless. 

The first recipe I wanted to make from this book was Beef & Cheese Cobbler.  The recipe as it appears in the book has a nice cobbler topping; pretty much a homemade cheese biscuit.  But at 35 weeks pregnant, I don't want to mess around with cookie cutters.  I'll give you my shortcut version of this dish.

Beef & Cheese Cobbler

2 tbsp olive oil
1 lb ground beef
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 lb onions, cut into wedges
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 cup beef stock
milk, for glazing
salt and pepper
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 can instant biscuits (like Grands or Simply Buttermilk Biscuits)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Heat oil over medium heat and add ground beef.  Cook, stirring frequently and breaking the beef up with a wooden spoon, for 8010 minutes, until evenly browned.

2.  Remove skillet from heat and spoon ground beef into a casserole dish, then stir in the flour.  Add the onions, ketchup, thyme and bay leaf and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Pour in the stock and stir well, then cover and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour.

3.  After the hour, remove the casserole from the oven.  Sprinkle with half the cheese, then place overlapping biscuits on top of ground beef mixture.  Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and put back into the oven for an additional 30 minutes, or until biscuits are golden brown.

The Verdict:  We all loved this, including Mr. Picky, the toddler in residence. 

It wasn't the healthiest choice, but it sure was a nice comfort food.  The ingredients in the ground beef are simple but work well together to create a pleasant taste.  The hamburger stays juicy without being gloppy like a sloppy joe.  The biscuits are the perfect accompaniment. 

Since onions are a current part of my son's "no-eat" list, I was initially worried.  I didn't want to leave them out; onions are a fragrant and integral part of cooking.  But a-ha!  Because they were chunked, I could easily pick them out of his portion.  They still flavored his food, but he never knew they'd been there.  (And by the way, we started the meal with carrot sticks.  That way, he got a serving of vegetables before we started eating the family meal.)

Maybe someday when my energy levels are waxing toward normal I'll make this the way it's described in the cookbook.  For now, this is easy enough to prepare with little hands-on time and everyone liked it as is.  I'd make it again.