One Every Wednesday

I made this dish yesterday--pulled it out of the oven just as I was heading out the door to a meeting. Later, when I got  home, half (I'm not exaggerating here, folks--we're talkin' a full 50%) of it was gone. No one had been home except for my husband! When I asked him what happened to the Shepherd's Pie, he simply responded, "I was hungry." You know what that means? DING! DING! DING! WE HAVE A WINNER!

SHEPHERD'S PIE (FOOD STORAGE STYLE)

Ingredients:

2 cups ground beef, drained (I canned this myself in pint-sized mason jars.  See:  Canning Meat.  Who knew you could do this?  It's perfect for tacos, sloppy joes, casseroles, and recipes like this one.  It's good for up to three years on the shelf and tastes great!)

1/2 cup dry minced onion 

1 Tbsp. minced garlic

1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves

1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

1/4 cup canned carrots

1/4 cup canned peas

1/4 cup canned grean beans

1/4 cup canned corn

1 package brown gravy mix prepared with 1 cup water

2 cups mashed potatoes (made from 1 cup potato pearls and 2 cups water)

1/2 cup freeze dried shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.  (This recipe can also be warmed in a solar oven if no power is available.) Make gravy according to package directions. Combine all ingredients except potatoes and put in baking dish. Prepare mashed potatoes by adding pearls to boiling water.  Plop servings of mashed potatoes on top of meat and vegetable mixture (I use a Pampered Chef's "Easy Accent Decorator" 'cause it looks pretty!). Sprinkle with cheddar cheese.  Bake 25-30 minutes or until heated through.

Cooks Note:

If you have a can of mixed vegetables, that would definitely be better than 1/4 cup out of four different cans (corn, green beans, carrots, and peas).  I didn't have any on hand so I'll be adding a case of that to my food storage specifically for this recipe. 

  This is a pic of some ground beef I have canned.  I know...it looks like some kind of science experiment, but I'm telling you...it's AWESOME!  Just to know that we can have REAL MEAT in our food storage instead of some funky TVP stuff makes me giddy!  It's so easy to do too.  You gotta' try it!