Making Do.

Sometimes the tastiest dinners are the result of desperation & creativity. I made the mistake of heading to Westbrook without a list today. We bought a hodegpodge of: 3 kinds of berries for snacking, a red pepper, a pound of mushrooms, lemon yogurt and very lean ground sirloin. My original menu plan was to make a whole wheat crust pizza with roasted chicken , peppers, onions, BBQ sauce and a little colby jack.
But mushrooms always remind me how much my family enjoys stroganoff, so stroganoff it was. Unfortunately, I was out of key ingredients (namely lean stew meat, egg noodles & sour cream!!) so we "improvised". The results were wonderful and C & E each had two servings.
Desperation Stroganoff
1 1/2 pounds lean ground sirloin
1 pound mushrooms, cleaned, sliced
2 large shallots, minced
2 cups beef broth/stock
2 Tbs. Worcestershire
1/2 cup dry white wine or sherry
2 oz. lowfat cream cheese (quarter of a brick)
1 stale baguette

Brown meat in large, heavy skillet. Remove from skillet and drain off excess grease. Add shallots to meat dripping and saute until soft; add mushrooms. Pour over wine, broth & Worcestershire. Let mushrooms cook down until liquid is reduced by about half. Remove a bit of liquid & add flour to make a loose slurry. Whisk into hot pan and cook sauce until thick. Add cream cheese and turn heat down or off. Stir until melted. Add beef back to pan. I sliced the baguette into VERY thin slices, placed in bottom of each serving bowl and pored sauce over to soften bread. Yum.