Phew, this whole last-weekish-of-pregnancy has completely wiped me out. It’s much worse than the first trimester for me. Poor Theo has been putting up with so much the last week or so, and he has also been the main food provider, as I have no energy by the end of the day for cooking.
But tonight I decided I would do something about that…and I MADE DINNER!!!! This dinner is rather time-consuming, but not difficult. Trust me, if I can do it in my current state…you can do it.
I turned to trusty Pinterest for a scalloped potato recipe, and found this one. As with most recipes I find online, I tweaked it a little bit. I doubled the recipe and added some hamburger and some zucchini to it.
Ingredients:
1 lb hamburger
8 cups sliced potatoes
3 c sliced zucchini (one monster zucchini from our garden…I’m sure 1-2 zucchini would be fine!)
6 T butter
6 T flour
3 c milk
2 t salt
dash of crushed red peppers
2 c grated cheddar cheese
extra grated cheese, to sprinkle on top
paprika, to sprinkle on top
Directions:
1. Peel and slice potatoes, thinly. (Remember that the more thin the potatoes are sliced, the faster they will cook in the oven). Dice the zucchini.
2. Meanwhile, brown the hamburger in a pan. When finished browning, drain off excess fat.
3. Melt butter in a saucepan. As soon as butter is melted, mix in the flour. Let sit for one minute, then stir in all the milk. Stir until mixture is smooth, then add salt and crushed red pepper. Turn heat down, then add cheese, stirring until cheese is melted.
4. Spray a 3 qt saucepan, and layer half of the potatoes, half the zucchini, and half the hamburger in the bottom. (You can do this like a lasagna, with layers, or mix it all together!). Pour half the cheese sauce over this layer. Repeat with remaining ingredients.
6. Bake uncovered for 1 hour (or until potatoes and zucchini are tender) at 350. This is a perfect time to sit down with an iced chai and a book. Or do the dishes and allll the other household chores that piled up during the numerous nap times that you may have taken today. Oh, wait…is that just me?
Enjoy!