Quickie Shepherd's Pie

Merry Seasonal Festivities everyone!
Our holiday was full of family and food and fun... we're still riding out the aftermath. So in the spirit of post christmas appetite, here's something that doesn't even remotely resemble Turkey, Fruitcake, or eggnog.


Total prep/cook time under an hour! Whee!

You'll need

• 1lb lean ground beef
• salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
• 3+ medium potatoes
• Margarine/butter
• sour cream/milk

Peel (or don't peel) and cut potatoes. Add to salted water and boil until ready to mash (they'll fall apart when you stick a fork in). Meanwhile, brown 1lb ground beef in pan, cook thoroughly and drain excess grease. Mix together 1 can mushroom soup with 1/4 cup of milk, (water will do in a pinch) pour over ground beef. Salt and pepper to taste, add Worcestershire and soy-a dash each. Add vegetables and cover with lid. Simmer on low heat until vegetables are tender. Drain and mash potatoes, adding butter and or sour cream to taste.


Top your fluffy yummy mashed taters with your tasty saucy meat mix. This can also be served over rice (the littlest mouth prefers rice to potatoes) or even pasta. Top with Ketchup (if you must), bbq sauce, ranch dressing, sour cream... whatever floats your boat.

The meat sauce freezes well, so if you're ambitious and find this particularly tasty, you can make more and freeze it for convenient meals.

This might just be my last post of 2007! if that's the case, Happy New Year Everyone, and plan a safe ride home!

Roast n' toast (more of that 'man food')

Yup, that's what it is. Roast beef, on toast.

The best part about this particular dinner is that at 3 pm, I had no Idea what I was gonna make, so I took a 5lb beef roast out of the freezer and it was ready to eat by 7.

To make this magic, you will need

• A frozen beef roast (anywhere from 3-6 lbs). (I really don't recommend pork for this, because 'slight underdone-ness' may be an issue)
• A slow cooker with "High" setting (4 hours)
• Beef soup base.
• 1 onion
• 3+ cloves garlic
• Gravy mix (or cornstarch)
• Pepper & Salt to taste.
• Whole wheat bread.

Take your frozen roast out of it's wrapper, plunk it in the crock pot. Add the garlic and onion (cut the onion in quarters), Salt and Pepper, and prepare 2-3 cups of beef soup base according to package directions, use hot water. Add the hot soup base to pot, put the lid on and go away for 4 hours.

When you come back, your roast will be done. Remove from cooker, and using a regular saucepan and some of the liquid from the cooker prepare gravy mix (according to package instr.) or add 3-4 heaping tablespoons of cornstarch to 1/2 cup of COLD water. Heat the liquid from the cooker in a pot to simmering, and slowly pour in the cornstarch mix- stirring constantly. Continue heating until thickened, and season to taste.

Toast up some bread (rye bread is really good for this) and slap on some sliced roast and spoon on the gravy. mmmmm.

Oh, and you might want to eat a carrot or something. lol