Shepherd’s pie is my favourite Western-style comfort food, so it is amazing how long it took for me to make it for myself. All along, I thought it was so difficult to make, but now I know the tricks! ;-)
Next time, I would consider using instant mashed potatoes but it wasn’t, in retrospect, so hard to make my own mashed potatoes once I stopped mashing with the cooking spoon and used a fork!
It was tremendously fun, too, to make the beef+vegetables base. Canned peas+carrots make the bulk of it but I added colour with grape tomatoes, mushrooms, and green peppers that were unused veggies from other dinners. I admired the multi-coloured base for a moment. Preparing the gravy was fun and easy; while it simmered for one minute, I “made it my own” by throwing in extra spices and sauce. Then it was a matter of making a layered savoury pie: base, then gravy, then the (chunky) mashed potatoes. Then bake!
Costs…….
4 potatoes (2.4 lbs) $1.60
300g lean ground beef $2.31
canned peas+carrots $1.00
2 mushrooms, 1/3 green pepper, 10 grape tomatoes ~$0.75
300mL prepared gravy (French’s onion) $1.67
paprika, thyme, Worcestershire sauce, ground black pepper, salt (to gravy)
Total cost…… $7.33 (for 6 generous servings)