I found a recipe for ‘Fry Pie’ in the ‘Real Simple Meals made Easy’ cookbook and I thought “pah, what a terrible idea, chips on top of minced beef, never”.

However the idea took up a seat in my head and got comfy, it began to have it’s own ideas….what about a shepherd’s pie base? Same idea, meat base, potato top…not so bad..

I mentioned it to my kids who thought it was a genius idea of course. So, I grabbed the Fry Pie by the hand and we decided to collaborate.  What harm can come of it?

I didn’t have the ingredients for a shepherds pie base, so I decided to go out on a limb and make a chilli base and pile on the fries. Honestly, I didn’t really have much for chili either, so I made my famous (ahem) ‘Make it up as you go Chilli’ recipe.

I chucked in some garlic, cumin, cinnamon (just a tad), cooked for a second or two, added half a jar of salsa (ideally would have added more, but I didn’t have more). Stirred it all together with a tin of tomatoes chopped up, black beans, vegetarian ground ‘meat’, cubes of sweet potato and enough water to stop it sticking while still cooking the potatoes.

Cook and stir until the potatoes are cooked.

In the meantime cook the fries in the oven, I used Trader Joe’s Handsome Fries, which are so much healthier because they have the skin on…..  Am I right?  Am I delusional?  Hey, there are veggies in here and there would have been more if my fridge had been more helpful!

I put the chili into a shallow oven proof dish and piled the fries on top and put the lot back into the oven and cooked it for 10 mins.  You could melt some cheese over the whole lot if you fancy.  In my opinion cheese and chips is just wrong, but I do not judge.  Sour cream is also an option.  Treat yourself!  Or just use low fat sour cream (not low fat cheese, that is so wrong).

The chips did not go soggy as I feared and it all went into our family of tummies!  A new dinner to add to my repertoire.

So, if you are not sure you like the idea of a recipe, let it move in for a while and you may end up friends.

What is your go to dinner recipe?  Do you adapt it if your fridge isn’t providing what you need?