Barb's Shepard's Pie

This is a recipe that I mostly made up a few years ago and I now consider it to be my version of shepard's pie. I've never had actual shepard's pie, but I've read recipes for it. From what I can tell I added an ingredient or two and flipped it upside down.

It doesn't look too amazing, but it is very good. Most ingredients are added "to taste". I'm not positive how much I usually add of those so I'll just estimate. Feel free to adjust it to your tastes! I also make this in the easiest ways possible, which means I use instant potatoes for the mashed potatoes and Bisquick for the biscuits! The order of making the layers will vary depending on how you make the potatoes and biscuits. This also reheats very well so be sure to refrigerate any leftovers.

Barb's Shepard's Pie

1/4 onion, chopped
1 lb ground beef
Salt & Pepper to taste
4 cups mashed potatoes
1/2 T garlic powder
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 lb bag of frozen diced veggies (I recommend a bag with carrots, corn, and peas)
8 biscuits

Chop the onion and preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Brown the meat with the onion, salt, and pepper.

Make your mashed potatoes. Stir in the garlic powder. Adding cheese to the mashed potatoes is also delicious!

Start baking your biscuits. You want to only cook them halfway. If you skip this step, the final baking step will take a very long time and the bottom of the biscuits will remain gooey.

Once the meat is browned, stir in the cream of mushroom soup and Worcestershire sauce.

Also add the frozen veggies and warm them in the meat mixture. This helps reduce the baking time.

In a 13" x 9" baking dish or pan, spread the mashed potatoes into a nice and even layer.

Next spread all of the veggie and meat mixture on top of the potatoes.

By this time the biscuits should be half baked, so place those on top of the meat and veggies.

Bake this in the oven for at least 15 minutes or until it starts to bubble.

Enjoy!

Porcupines

I have no idea where the name of this recipe comes from. Nothing of it resembles a porcupine and it sure isn't made from porcupines. The flavor of this actually reminds me of the filling for stuffed cabbage. These are really easy to make and go well with mashed potatoes and corn, as pictured. This working out so lovely gives me hope for the other main dish recipes in this mess of recipes I have.

The recipe for Porcupines didn't give specific amounts for most of the ingredients, so I'll just guess at what I used. Feel free to adjust amounts to suit your tastes. You probably don't even have to measure anything to make this. I do recommend using a lean ground meat or it will end up a greasy mess (I know this from a failed attempt at meatloaf not too long ago...). You can most likely assemble the meat part of this dinner in advance and refrigerate or freeze it.

Porcupines (Printer-friendly PDF version)

1 pound lean ground beef

1/2 C long grain white rice, uncooked

1/4 C onion, chopped

1/2 t salt

1/2 t pepper

1 can Tomato puree, 29oz (the large can)

Salt and pepper, to taste

Place the ground meat in a bowl with the rice, onions, salt, and pepper. Mix together until well combined.

Roll the mixed up meat mixture into balls, approximately the size of golf balls.

In a casserole dish, mix the tomato puree with the salt and pepper.

Place the meat balls into the tomato mixture.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 1/2 hours.

Serve with mashed potatoes.

Enjoy!