Meat Pies

On Saturday, we babysat our friend's two of their three children while they busily moved house. Noel helped with the move and I did what I thought would be helpful and picked up their children along with my children at lunchtime as I worked in the morning. Needless to say with four children out of the house things should have been a lot easier. Well one would hope so anyways.

Saturday night was "Homemade Pie" night which the kids enjoyed as they got to invent their own fillings. I made a basic beef mince gravy filling and then they added to it. I have a Sunbeam Pie Maker so the actual making/cooking of the pies is quite easy.

Basic Meat Pie Filling

fills approx 8 pies

cooking spray

500g lean mince beef

1 onion chopped

2 tbs gravy powder

1 tbs beef stock powder

2 cups water

salt and pepper to taste

Coat a large frying pan with cooking spray and cook mince and onions until mince is browned and onions soft.

In a large jug combine gravy powder, beef stock powder and water mixing well. Add to frying pan and stir until all combined and slightly thickened (if mixture is too thick add a little more water but not too much as you don't want the pie filling to be too watery.)

Simmer over a low heat for 5 minutes. Use as desired.

Making the pies is very simple especially with the pie maker - I use frozen sheets of shortcrust pastry for the bottom and frozen sheets of puff pastry for the tops.

So with four children having their own ideas on "ACE" pies, it made for an interesting night. Some of the pies created were:

• mexican - adding 1/2 teaspoon taco seasoning and diced capsicum
• meat and vegetable - adding steamed diced carrots and peas
• curry - adding 1/2 teaspoon of mild curry powder and a few sultanas
• mushroom - adding a few fried mushrooms (fried in a small pan with cooking spray)
• italian - adding 1/2 teapsoon of dried oregano, some diced tomato, capsicum and a layer of cheese underneath the pastry.

To top of the meal these pies were not only smothered with tomato sauce but they were served with Homemade Wedges and lots of soft drink!


Talk about serving up a feast to suit any child (not too mention big kids too).

As you can see by the photos the "kid friendly" dinner went down well!