Beefy Shepherds Pie

Shepherd's pie is one of my favorite comfort foods... Flavorful ground beef in a rich gravy, vegetables, sauteed onions and garlic, baked in a casserole dish topped with yummy mashed potatoes. Even though it's the end of May, it rained here today! So I thought, why not make a nice comforting shepherd's pie for dinner? And why not use some of that Twisselman Ranch grass fed ground beef that I just bought to stock my freezer with? 

https://www.twisselmanranch.com/mercantile

So I reached into the freezer and got the meat out to defrost and I saw some frozen peas and corn that I figured I'd I can take out to make more room for more good beef! I mean right now my freezer is stuffed! Usually, I chop up all the fresh vegetables to put in my casseroles, but today the frozen ones will do. Of course, I augmented with a nice white onion that I sauteed in the skillet before adding the beef. Then I looked through the fridge and saw some fresh snap peas, so I figured why not dice up those to add a little bit of crunch? Also, there was a few green onions in a little container that I was saving for just something like this. I mean, if you can't clean out the fridge while you're making a casserole, you're doing something wrong. One thing this casserole didn't have added was diced celery. Why? Because my husband hates celery. Weird, I know...

I diced the onion and smashed the garlic to sautee in some avocado oil in the skillet. Then I crumbled in the ground beef and seasoned it with our Big Daddy's BBQ beef seasoning. I noticed as this beef cooked, there was very little liquid coming out -- very lean ground beef! So after the meat was browned, I sprinkled on some flour and stirred in a little beef broth to make a sauce. 

Once that had cook down a little bit, I stirred in the vegetables and let it cook a little while till the snap peas began to soften. This would also be a good time to add in some herb seasoning like parsley, oregano, or marjoram. It didn't look colorful enough for my taste, so I opened up a can of corn and put in half. 

Now Shepherd's Pie can go right in the casserole, but I kind of like it to have a little crust on the bottom to hold it all together. I didn't have any frozen pie crust and I wasn't up to making a pie crust, so I just use some flour tortillas to line the bottom. I poured the meat mixture over the top and then dolloped on the mashed red potatoes. Dinner is ready to put in the oven!

I will bake this casserole for about 45 minutes at 350° until the mashed potatoes start to slightly brown on top and the meat mixture is bubbling.