biscuits and gravy train

This weekend is just me and my little dudes, and a fridge full of leftovers and partial items.  Half a box of mini portabello mushrooms, half an onion, half a pound of ground beef.  What's a girl to do?  Hack biscuits and gravy, of course!  Ok, so I'm not sure everyone's mind would go there, but mine sure did and it was basically a stroke of genius, if I do say so myself.

Sometimes I make biscuits from scratch, but in keeping with the theme today, I had less than 2 cups of Bisquick left (waste of space in that huge box), so I just went with it and added flavor.  So much flavor!  I'm trying to get better at writing down recipes, but I didn't do it this time so here's an idea of the comfort food party that went down in my kitchen this morning.

For the biscuits:
~2C Bisquick
~1C coconut milk (add more until you reach desired texture - should be soft and slightly on the wet side)
2T nutritional yeast (If you don't know about this miracle ingredient, you will!  I'll do a post about it very soon!)
Chives, fresh and as much or as little as you like
* Basically, I went for a rough knock-off of the amazing flavor of the Red Lobster Cheddar Bay biscuits.  Can you even handle that at breakfast time?

Preheat oven to 450.  Drop biscuits onto baking sheet in desired size and bake for 8 - 10 minutes.  

For the gravy:
~1/2lb ground beef (sub in whatever meat you like/prefer)
1/2 red onion, chopped
1C mini portabello mushrooms, chopped

Sauté the meat and veggies together, add other veggies as you desire.  My ground beef was 80/20, so I didn't need any cooking oil.  A leaner meat would require some sort of fat for cooking, my favorites are olive oil and grapeseed oil.  When cooked, add about 2T of your favorite flour (or about 1T if you use cornstarch or arrowroot), then add coconut milk (or other non-dairy milk, just make sure it's unsweetened) about 1C at a time.  I added around 2C total, but slowly so it doesn't get too runny.  Use the coconut milk that's made for drinking, not the canned stuff.  I think the canned stuff would be just a little too rich for breakfast, but if you're feeling like living on the wild side, go for it.  Let me know how it is!  Then spice it up as you desire.  We added some salt, pepper and garlic powder, plus a little bit (about 1/4t) of chicken bouillon to get rid of the sweetness of the coconut milk.  Even when coconut milk is "unsweetened", the coconut still has natural sweetness so you have to work with it a little more than you would dairy.  Of course, if you have no dietary restrictions or oppositions, go ahead and use dairy.   

So, it's not an exact science, this meal.  I managed a few photos from my phone, so I'll show you those and I hope that's a good start, but I'll try to actually write down my amounts and process next time.  It's not a very complex meal, it's flavors and comfort, and there is a lot of room for creativity.  Any leftover gravy would go great over potatoes as well!  Or just skip the biscuits and do potatoes in the first place!  Roasted potatoes, maybe a baked sweet potato, the possibilities are multiplying.  Happy Saturday friends!