Shepherd's Pie

So today I had Parent Teacher Conference's for both of my children. I WANTED the conferences to be tomorrow since I have the day off for Good Friday, but I also had to have a meeting with the Speech Therapist for my daughter, and she doesn't work on Friday's. So I left work early today, which is always okay, to go do 1 1/2 of conferences. My son had early release, but my daughter's Kindergarten class still had a normal schedule, so after conferences were done, Levi and I got to sit around for another 45 minutes before we took Adelei home.

So after we had been home for over an hour and I was SO tired and SO hungry, I realized that due to conferences falling during lunchtime, all I had to eat today was half a box of Samoa's and a cutie. No wonder I wasn't feeling it! I jumped into action immediately, and did what any starving mother would do. I poured myself a glass of wine;) Haha, and then munched a couple crackers and started to work on dinner.

I had a half a block of gruyere left from a comfort meal for myself earlier in the week, and since it's a hard cheese, I have been occasionally feeding it in small proportions to my kids. I have heard that hard cheese's have less lactose, and thus far have not noticed any bad reactions the few times I have given it to them. Anyway, while grading it into the pan, I ate a chunk. There is nothing I love more than cheese with a glass of wine, especially when it's my favorite cheese! Man, just one bite of that cheese put me back into perfect working order.

I decided that I would make a Shepherd's Pie for dinner. It's one of my favorites, and it's something you can practically make with anything as long as you have potatoes and a few vegis. I usually use chicken, onions, garlic, frozen peas and corn for the filling, and will add whatever else I have in the fridge that sounds good. Today, I had broccoli, yellow peppers, and kale in the fridge, so I thought I would add those as well as the gruyere. I also usually use chicken broth to make the gravy, but we were out, so I added extra herbs and the gruyere for more flavor.

Here is tonight's recipe, but like I said, this recipe is supposed to be a garbage collection of whatever is left of your food supply.

Shepherd's Pie(Gluten Free, Egg Free):

8 red potatoes, boiled with a dash of red pepper, rosemary and garlic salt, and mashed with butter

6 chicken tenders
1/4 yellow onion
3 carrots
6 mushrooms
1/2 yellow pepper
1/2 head of broccoli
1 bunch of kale
1/4 cup garbanzo bean flour
Thyme
Sage
Garlic Salt

Start by cooking the chicken in a pan with butter until both sides are browned. Place on a plate for later. Put the onion and the carrots into the pan along with the herbs. Saute for a bit, then add the mushrooms. When the mushrooms are tender, add the yellow pepper and the broccoli. Stir to coat with butter, and more butter if needed, then sprinkle the flour over all of it. Mix the flour into coat into the butter, then add about a cup of water. I added the kale in at this point and just let simmer until the sauce started to thicken. Then I chopped up the chicken and added it to the pan for another minute or two.

In a casserole dish, add about 1/4 cup of frozen peas and 1/4 cup frozen corn. Pour the vegi/chicken mixture on top of this and stir it all around to mix in the frozen stuff. Put the mashed potatoes on top of that and spread around with a spatula so it forms an even crust on top.

Place in the oven at 350 and cook until the mashed potatoes are starting to get a light brown color along the peaks and edges. You can cook longer if you like, too. This will take roughly 30 mins.