Kid-friendly Shepherd’s Pie

Usually I use Wednesday for craft stuff and save recipes for Food Friday, but I’m crafted out today and we had a good supper tonight that I wanted to share.

You can find a ton of recipes for Shepherd’s Pie (or Cottage Pie if you’re in the UK) that use lamb, chopped beef, all kinds of ingredients, and they’ll taste great. However, if your kids prefer a simple meal without too much in the way of overwhelming ingredients, a simple Shepherd’s Pie recipe might be just what you need. Here’s the one I made tonight. Not only did both my kids clean their plates (and didn’t even ask for dessert afterwards), my youngest climbed up on my lap to “help” me finish the rest of mine and my oldest asked if she could please take some for lunch to school tomorrow even if it will be cold.

And I do mean simple.

• 1 lb ground beef
• Garlic powder
• Finely chopped onion or half a pouch dry onion soup mix
• Worcestershire sauce to taste<.li>
• One can of kernel corn, drained
• Hot, mashed potatoes

Brown your meat with the garlic and onion/onion soup mix. Drain any fat. Add a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce and stir. Transfer to a baking dish. Smooth out corn into an even layer on top. Top with potatoes. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350F, then broil about two minutes to brown.

Depending on your famliy’s tastes, you can modify a bit. You can add some grated cheese, but I was all out. As for the potatoes, I used a ton of those little red potatoes, leaving the skins on. If your kids are suspicious of “bits” you’ll want to peel them but mine liked having the pieces of peel in the potatoes (and thank goodness for that, because I *hate* peeling potatoes with a fiery passion).

Once it was all served, my husband and I added lots of nice, freshly ground black pepper to ours.

It went over so well that my oldest already asked when I can make it again.

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