Easy Shepherd's Pie

Just as I like to keep certain products in my pantry, I also like to keep certain items in my freezer. Two of those items are ground beef and frozen peas.

The reason I always like to have beef and peas around is that when I occasionally have to go out of town to read grant proposals, my husband has to stay home and make breakfast, take boys to school, buy their poster board, get their new Lacrosse cleats, sign their communication envelopes (don't ask) and go to their practices--on top of doing his regular job. So when I come home from such grant reading extravaganzas and ask, "What did you pull out of the freezer for dinner?" he often replies, "Oh, I didn't think about that."

That's fine. Because I have ground beef. And peas.

I can always figure out some kind of dinner from those ingredients. Tonight, I made easy shepherd's pie. This is a tasty one-dish meal, especially for kids who resist eating vegetables. There's something about mixing the vegetables with ground beef and then covering them with mashed potatoes that makes those little green morsels as delectable as candy.

I got my shepherd's pie recipe from a Weight Watchers cook book. But I modified it to suit my cooking tastes. The Weight Watchers recipe called for instant mashed potatoes. I'm sorry. I just can't go there. So I use real potatoes.

Ingredients:
4 or 5 medium potatoes (Any kind will do, but I use white potatoes)
1 pound lean ground beef (I use the leanest I can get)
1 16-oz. bag frozen peas (When I have them, I use frozen peas and carrots)
1 16-oz bag frozen corn
1/2 can consomme' (which I always keep in the pantry)
1 cup fat free sour cream
1 heaping tbsp margarine
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions:
Peel and cut the potatoes and put them in a pot and cover with water. Put on stove and boil for about 30 minutes or until they're soft. While the potatoes are boiling, brown the ground beef in another pot. When browned, drain the fat and then return beef to pot. Add frozen peas and frozen corn. Mix with the beef, stirring in the pot until the vegetable are soft. Add the consomme'. Bring to a boil. Turn off stove. Drain water from now soft potatoes. Return potatoes to the pot and add margarine, sour cream and salt and pepper. Using a mixer, mash and then mix the potatoes to a creamy goodness. Place the beef/vegetable mix in a 9 x 12 inch casserole dish. Spread mashed potatoes over the beef/vegetable mix. Top with shredded cheese. Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

This is a versatile recipe. For instance, if I don't have frozen corn, I used canned (of course I drain and rinse it to remove as much sodium as possible). I'm rarely out of peas, but sometimes just for kicks (like tonight), I use mixed vegetables instead. If I don't have shredded cheddar on hand (Tonight I had only a couple of tablespoons), I take some sliced American cheese and cut it into little shreds.

Tonight I served shepherd's pie with asparagus, simply because I had the asparagus in the fridge and needed to cook it before it went bad (which would be a crying shame with asparagus selling at $3.99 per pound). But this pie can easily be a meal in itself. In fact, my sons like shepherd's pie so much that they ask me to send it to school with them for lunch.

On the other hand, my sister in-law Kelley and my dear friend Beth are likely to turn their noses up to my shepherd's pie because they don't like green peas. But one day I want to serve it to them anyway. When they say no thank you, I'll have the opportunity to reply, "All I'm saying is give peas a chance."

I've always wanted to say that.