{a home cooked meal}

It’s cooling off in southern CA {again} which means I’m craving stick to your ribs comfort food kind of meals. We had TONS of mashed potatoes leftover from Thanksgiving so I decided to make shepherds pie.

I had my mom send me the recipe she makes all the time, but it was a little labor intensive for me and since I’m lazy these days I needed a simpler option. I found a great recipe on the Kraft Foods site that I tweaked a bit. If you like simple cooking and haven’t checked out the Kraft Foods recipes…I highly recommend it! Simple and tasty is my kind of food. Here’s what I went with…

I think I’ll call this Easy Cheesy Shepherds Pie!

Ingredients:

1 lb lean groud beef

1 lb bag organic frozen mixed veggies, thawed

1 jar beef gravy (I used Heinz)

2 cups leftover mashed potatoes

1 cup cheddar cheese (I used sharp)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. Brown the beef, drain off the fat. Add veggies and gravy to beef in the skillet and mix well. Place beef mixture in spayed casserole dish. Spread your leftover mashed potatoes on top of the saucy beef an veggies. Sprinkle about a cup of cheese over the top. Bake at 375 for about 20-25 minutes until it’s bubbly and the cheese is all melted.

I served it with a green salad and garlic bread. My idea of the perfect salad includes a fruit, a nut and a cheese. Here I used romaine lettuce, bleu cheese, dried cranberries, and walnuts. The fruit, nut, cheese salad method gives you lots of tasty options! 

Typically I bake cookies or something when the college group comes over, but Trader Joe’s has all of their yummy Christmas treats right now so once again, I took the easy way out! Thanks Trader Joe’s!!!

Hope you have a happy day and enjoy this yummy meal!

Elizabeth