Recipe--Shepherd's Pie

This is what we had for dinner this last week:

It's unbaked at this point, though.

Shepherd's Pie. 

Yummy goodness of meat, veggies, and mashed potatoes, all thrown together into one baking dish.

Yum.

2/3 of the kids loved it!  The other one is picky and his opinion doesn't really count on how good something is.  Unless he loves it, of course.

It's a Cooking Light recipe I got from myrecipes.com, though I modified it.  It has quite a bit of prep work, but it's totally worth it.  Try making more than one and freezing the rest.  It makes all the work even more worth it.

Cozy Shepherd's Pie

(actual recipe through the link; modified recipe below)

Ingredients

Potato topping:

2 pounds peeled baking potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces

1/2 cup low-fat sour cream

1/4 cup 1% low-fat milk

1/2 tsp dried rubbed sage

1 tsp butter

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp black pepper

Filling:

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

2 tsp olive oil

2 cups diced carrot

6 cups quartered mushrooms (about 1 1/2 pounds)

1 tsp dried rubbed sage

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups low-salt beef broth

1/2 cup dry red wine

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp paprika

Preparation

To prepare potato topping, place potatoes in a saucepan; cover with water.  Bring to a boil; cook 20 minutes or until very tender.  Drain.  Place potatoes, sour cream, and next 5 ingredients (through pepper) in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth.  Keep warm.

Preheat oven to 375°.

To prepare filling, brown beef in a large nonstick skillet and drain off fat.  Remove from pan and set aside.  Heat oil in same skillet over medium-high heat.  Add carrot; sauté 7 minutes.  Add mushrooms; sauté 5 minutes.  Add 1 tsp sage and garlic; sauté 2 minutes.  Sprinkle with flour; cook 2 minutes, stirring until well-blended.  Add broth and wine; bring to a boil.  stir in tomato paste and vinegar.  Add beef and mix thoroughly.  Spoon meat mixture into a 2-quart casserole.

Spread potato topping over meat mixture; sprinkle with paprika.  Bake at 375° for 45 minutes or until golden brown.

If frozen, thaw in fridge overnight then bake according to directions above.