After finishing my final exams and papers of the semester, I came home expecting to relax and to begin "vegging out." Unfortunately, what I got was something I'm sure many of us have heard before.
"Honey, can you make me something for a carry-in tonight at work?" Did I mention I only had an hour to make it?
So, I look in my fridge and find onions, celery and carrots. Okay, I thought to myself, these ingredients are the holy trinity of food -- now to perform a Christmas miracle.
What I came up with was a Vegetarian Shepard's pie. My mom used to make something similar with leftover pot roast. I was surprised to hear from my hubby that, although everyone at his office liked the dish, they had never heard of it!
Shepherd's Pie (or cottage pie) is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato. In my old Betty Crocker recipe books, the dish was a means of using leftover roasted meat - though it is a great way to use leftover mashed potatoes too. I substituted sweet potatoes for the meat, though a good variation could be chickpeas or tofu!