Crustless Shepherd's Pie Recipe with Real Mashed Potatoes

This one’s “lazy” because it has no crust (which also means less preparation time AND fewer calories), as well as easy to make gluten-free. You can also make it lazy by using boxed mashed potatoes, but I don't prefer this recipe that way. Lately I've been using pre-made refrigerated crust from the store and I make the recipe in a couple of pie pans so there's more to go around and it's more filling.

Ingredients:
Box mashed potatoes (even though this is faster, my husband is not a fan, so I actually peel, boil and mash about 6 medium potatoes)
1 stick of butter for potatoes
2 cups frozen mixed veggies
2 lb. ground beef
1 T. garlic, pinch onion salt, pinch thyme, pinch white pepper
2 packages brown gravy mix (yes, I DO know how to make real gravy, thank you very much) or two cans of beef gravy
Melt a couple of frozen zucchini cubes into gravy (or not!)
1/2 cup cheddar cheese

Process:
1. If you use real mashed potatoes, add at least 1 stick of butter and some white pepper. Otherwise, make the boxed variety as directed. Set aside potatoes.

2. Brown 2 pounds of ground beef in 1 T. minced garlic. Drain the fat and put the beef in a 10” x 8” pan, or whatever you have around. Add some onion salt and thyme and mix. You can skip the onion salt, but don’t skip the thyme!

3. Cook the brown gravy mixes according to the directions, sneaking in a couple of frozen zucchini cubes, if you had a few baseball bat-size zucchinis over the summer, like I did. Dump the gravy over the ground beef and stir it around.

4. Boil frozen mixed veggies according to the package directions and add to beef mixture. If your kids hate veggies, puree some and sneak them into the beef mixture.

5. Spoon potatoes over beef mixture.

6. Cook at 350 degrees for ½ hour.

7. Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top and cook another couple of minutes.

8. Smile to yourself that you snuck veggies into dinner!

By the way, I’m usually the anti-Martha Stewart, so if you have problems with this recipe, please contact her because she will know what to do.

If you liked this recipe, you'll love my book, The Tater Tot Casserole Cookbook! It's available in print and ebook versions (free if you are a Kindle Unlimited member so you can try it before you buy it in print!).