meat? gooood. potatoes? gooood. veggies? goooood.

as you may have seen on facebook yesterday I was inquiring about delicious shepherds pie recipes. I definitely wanted to make some for dinner last night because I had leftover mashed potatoes from jon's birthday dinner the night before, and we all know that doing the mashed potato part of SP is the most annoying and time consuming part. i decided to go with rachael ray's 30 minute meal recipe (tina, next time i'll be trying yours to compare the two). i improvised quite a bit since my mashed potatoes were already made. i'll post rr's original recipe with my changes next to hers. either way I know it would have been a super tasty outcome. this was so yummy, quick and it's all you need (protein, starch, dairy and veggies) all in one dish. makes clean-up a cinch too! enjoy. 

Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Shepherds Pie

Total Time: 40 min

Prep: 15 min

Cook: 25 min

Yield: 4 servings

Level: Easy

Ingredients

2 pounds potatoes, such as russet, peeled and cubed

2 tablespoons sour cream or softened cream cheese

1 large egg yolk

1/2 cup cream, for a lighter version substitute vegetable or chicken broth

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan

1 3/4 pounds ground beef or ground lamb (i used ground beef)

1 carrot, peeled and chopped (i used probably 1-2 cups of frozen mixed veggies, which included carrots and lots of other things)

1 onion, chopped (i would suggest more like 3/4 of an onion)

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup beef stock or broth (all i had was a tiny bit so I used the rest chicken stock)

2 teaspoons Worcestershire, eyeball it

1/2 cup frozen peas, a couple of handfuls (again, frozen veggies which had peas worked wonderfully)

1 teaspoon sweet paprika 

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves (didn't have/didn't use)

Directions

Boil potatoes in salted water until tender, about 12 minutes. Drain potatoes and pour them into a bowl. Combine sour cream, egg yolk and cream. Add the cream mixture into potatoes and mash until potatoes are almost smooth. (since my mashed potatoes were already made, they obviously aren't used with these ingredients. i used potatoes, a little bit of milk, probably 2-3 Tbsp butter and salt to taste). 

While potatoes boil, preheat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add oil to hot pan with beef or lamb. Season meat with salt and pepper. Brown and crumble meat for 3 or 4 minutes. If you are using lamb and the pan is fatty, spoon away some of the drippings. Add chopped carrot and onion to the meat. Cook veggies with meat 5 minutes, stirring frequently. In a second small skillet over medium heat cook butter and flour together 2 minutes. Whisk in broth and Worcestershire sauce. Thicken gravy 1 minute. Add gravy to meat and vegetables. Stir in peas.

Preheat broiler to high. Fill a small rectangular casserole with meat and vegetable mixture. Spoon potatoes over meat evenly. Top potatoes with paprika and broil 6 to 8 inches from the heat until potatoes are evenly browned. (I wanted cheese on top so i grated about a cup of cheddar cheese to sprinkle on top of the potatoes.)  i also didn't use the broiler because i didn't bake this right away. it sat in the fridge for a few hours so when i was ready i baked it at 375 for 20 minutes and it turned out perfect!