I have been doing a lot of the dinner cooking in recent years as my wife works outside of the home while I work from a home office. I've gradually built up a collection of recipes that meet these criteria: easy to prepare, taste good, use fairly basic ingredients, and can be prepped in advance so I can enjoy happy hour.

I recently added a shepherds pie to this list. I looked at a bunch of shepherds pie recipes on the net, took cues from them, but came up with a totally new and very much simplified recipe. It turned out great and has been getting rave reviews from my extended family after I shared it with them.

I'll append it to this post in the hopes that you will like it. But even more, I am also hoping that you will post some recipes on this thread that meet my criteria.


Simple Shepherds Pie

1 pound lean ground beef
1 medium onion
1 medium carrot
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup beef broth
2 tbspn flour
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbspn parsley
2 tbspn Worcestershire sauce
1 tspn pepper
2 tbspn ketchup
Two envelopes of instant mashed potatoes, any flavor
Optional : shredded cheese and paprika

Makes about 6 servings. Leftovers taste just as good when re-heated.

Pre-heat oven to 400. Chop the onion, grate the carrot, and microwave the peas on high for 5 minutes.

Brown the ground beef, onions, carrot and garlic until the onions are translucent. Drain. Add flour and pepper and stir until mixed. Add the ketchup and beef broth and simmer until mix thickens a bit. Add the peas, parsley and Worcestershire sauce and mix. Place meat sauce in a casserole. (Note: the meat sauce can be made ahead of time and refrigerated, if desired.) Prepare the mashed potatoes and spread over the meat sauce. Can garnish top with shredded cheese and sprinkled paprika, if desired. Bake for 25 minutes, or longer if meat mix was refrigerated.