Shepherd's Pie, Lura style

So I never had a Shepherd's Pie I actually liked, until Lura moved to town and had us over for dinner.  Super simple to throw together, inexpensive, and easy to tweak, I just LOVE her way of doing it. 

I use 1.5-2lbs ground beef.  If I have them, I throw in some garlic, bell pepper and onion, but it's okay without them too.  Brown that up.  When you've got it cooked through and have drained the fat off, add BBQ sauce to the desired level of sauciness.  I like mine about like sloppy joes.

You can use frozen or canned veggies if you like, and you can use whatever kind you like.  I prefer to use steamed carrot slices and cooked, frozen sweet peas.  Green beans and carrots are popular too-I'm pretty sure that's what Lura served.  Anyway, slice, dice, steam, saute, boil, nuke your desired veggies so they are tender and ready.

Finally, taters.  This dish needs mashed taters.  I, of course, prefer to make fresh mashed taters-russet taters, sour cream, real butter and some garlic and onion powder (sometimes I even throw in some BBQ dry seasoning).  The instant stuff from a box works too, it just doesn't add the same texture and flavor that fresh will.

Assembly in a deep pie pan, casserole dish or something like that--saucy meat on the bottom, then the veggies-I have been known to just spread the carrots in a layer and then do a layer of peas, then smooth the taters over the top of the whole thing.  Some folks, I honestly don't remember if Lura is one of them, like to add cheddar cheese sprinkled over the top.  I don't.  Even though my family would like it that way, I am trying to help us eat healthier, so I leave off those extra calories that we don't miss. 

Throw the whole thing in the oven on 350 for about 45 minutes--really you just want it all warm through and all melded together into comfort food goodness.  I like to serve it with homemade biscuits.

For a fun, but more labor intensive variation, cut biscuits to fit the bottom of a muffin pan, then do your pie layers on the top and bake for 15-20 minutes.  My kids love this serving size version!