Recipes for Gamers #2- Shepherd's Pie

I thought I'd share a delicious (and really easy- I promise!) main dish recipe that will fill and satisfy your hungriest players. Make this up when the hordes are tired of pizza AGAIN, or don't want burgers and fries. This would also be a great meal for cold winter days (useful if your group gathers in the basement- it can get chilly down there!).

The following recipe is actually a double batch, so if you need to make less, just cut all the ingredients in half. (Also, I forgot when I was digging through my cabinets that I was going to be taking photos of tonight's dinner for the blog, and found a small can of plain spaghetti sauce that I don't remember what I was going to use it in. So, the photos actually show Shepherd's Pie with spaghetti sauce mixed in the meat and topped with dried oregano. It was really yummy!)

Super Easy Shepherd's Pie
Box of Instant Mashed Potatoes (and whatever is required to make them on the box directions)
2 lbs of Ground Beef
2 cans of vegetables (Whatever you like. We use mixed vegetables or vegetable medley, but corn, peas, or most anything else would be good too.)
1 bag shredded cheese- any flavor that you like. My favorite is Sharp Cheddar.

Brown the ground beef and drain it. Dump the browned meat into the bottom of a deep glass baking pan- I use a 3 QT Pyrex dish. Prepare about 8 servings of the instant mashed potatoes according to the directions on the box. Open the canned vegetables and drain the liquid, then dump them on top of the ground beef and spread them out. Spread the mashed potatoes over the top of the meat and veggies, then top with the shredded cheese.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes.

You could also add a can or two of brown gravy to the meat as well, if you wanted. I also made this with garlic mashed potatoes once and it was awesome. Of course, REAL mashed potatoes are best, but if you want to make this fast and without a whole lot of extra work, go with the instant- it creates less mess for you to clean later, and gets you out of the kitchen and back to the gaming table faster! What gamer doesn't want that?