Shepard's Pie

The boys are home on spring break this week.  They've been going a little bit nuts. 

I worked the past two days, and they decided to cook, clean and make dinner.

Last night, they made an awesome Shepard's Pie.  I'm sharing the recipe here, using their words...


Shepard's Pie

1 pound of ground beef (get the good stuff, Mom, the 93% lean)
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, diced
1 huge bag of mixed veggies (but make sure it doesn't have lima beans, I hate lima beans)
Mashed Potatoes (the kind from a box.  I'm a college student, you can't expect me to mash them from scratch.)
1 can of V-8 juice
3 of those funky little broth cubes you make in the muffin tin
Worcestershire sauce
thyme
rosemary
pepper - white and black

1) Brown the ground beef, garlic, and onion in a big skillet.
2) While you are browning the beef, follow the directions on the box of mashed potatoes to make enough to serve 8 people.  Use the microwave, because it's faster.
3) Once the beef and onion look done, add the bag of mixed veggies.
4) Stir the veggies in until they are mixed up really good with the meat.
5) Into the pan, add: 1 can of V-8, 3 broth cubes, 1 glug of Worcestershire sauce, a pinch of thyme, and a really small pinch of rosemary, crushed up.
6) Add white and black pepper.  I'm not sure how much - two shakes of white pepper, and then you just grind the black pepper over top of the meat mix until it smells like too much and then you mix it all in really good.
7) Put the veggie mixture in a 13 x 9 inch casserole.
8) Put the mashed potatoes over top.
9) Bake it in a 350* oven for 30 minutes.

This was actually really good.  I have no real idea how much black pepper went in.  I know that middle child stood over top of the pan and used the pepper grinder until the top was pretty much evenly coated with pepper.  I guess the best way to describe that is "season to taste".

Dinner in less than an hour, courtesy of my two college boys.  Life doesn't get much better than this!