Moussaka... kind of.

...and the photo will be the NEW
Moussaka thing.

Right, 2 versions of one of my favourite comfort foods - the first version is the new improved setup, after which I'll make a note of the not so healthy version that I ate on detox eve.

Prep time 15 minutes... cook time 1 hour. (serves 4 to 8 depending on what you serve with it)
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 f)

Required:

• Baking crock with cover (I use a deep-ish  glass baking dish with lid)
• Frying pan.
• 500 grams of Meat - ground (minced)
• Beans
• Mushrooms
• Tomatos
• Sweet potato.
• 1/2 a brown onion
• 1 chillie (or more if you like)
• Spices
• Vegetable stock cubes (or whatever stock you have)

Getting the meat cooked - get a frying pan hot and...

• Dice half a brown onion and one small green chillie and add to a hot frying pan with a dessert spoon of olive or canola oil.
• Add 500 grams (1/2 pound) of good quality ground beef. (or chicken, or lamb... provided it is minced) cook until brown, busting it up as you go. 
• Add just about any spice you like to the mince - I add pepper, a little salt, a vegeteble stock cube, teaspoon of madras curry powder and garlic. (fill you boots though, whatever you have handy)
• Add a quarter cup of water and reduce heat.

To the baking dish add:

• enough chopped beans to cover the bottom of the dish.
• enough mushrooms to cover the beans.
• enough sliced tomatoes to cover the mushrooms.

Back to the meat.

• Simmer the meat until the water you added has evaporated. Don't let the meat dry out though, just the added water. OR if you can't be bothered, just spoon the meat out in the next step and just try not to pick up too much of the broth that is probably left in the pan.
• Add cooked meat to the bowl and distribute it evenly over the tomato layer.
• Slice up the sweet potato and add that as the final layer, sprinkling a vegetable stock cube over the top.
• Sprinkle a couple of table spoons of water (literally 2 spoons - we don't need too much moisture, it's already there in the vegetables) OR a couple of spoons of meat broth from the pan if you were of the spoon out brigade.

Bringing it all together.

• Cover the dish and put it in the preheated oven and leave it alone for 45 minutes
• After the 45 (which you spent tidying up the kitchen... or watching TV or.. stuff) take the dish out of the oven, remove the lid, and place the dish back IN the oven and leave for 15 minutes.

That's it. Serve with Monster Salad. Serving size is about 2 heaped serving spoons full.

Not so healthy version.
Exactly the same as above except use regular potatoes instead of sweet potato.
At the lid off stage add a sprinkling of cheese and return the lid to the dish and the dish to the oven for 15 minutes.
NOW take the lid off and add another sprinkling of cheese and put the dish back in the oven uncovered for 15-20 minutes, and add a little more heat to brown the cheese a little.

That's it. Not great for you. Won't kill you long term either. I actually prefer the healthy version more now... who'd have thought.


Again... I had a starting weight more than 100 kilograms (220 pounds) if I was starting at 90kgs (200 pounds) I might consider splitting this in to 5 or maybe 6 serves.


Start thinking about how much you REALLY need and adjust accordingly.


It doesn't work the other way though... this is a maximum serving size for the experiment. If you have a starting weight of 200 kilograms (440 pounds) that doesn't mean you have to pile on double this amount.