A New Twist on a Favorite - Southwestern Shepard's Pie

So, I'm pretty much a terrible blogger.  I've been doing plenty of cooking, but not much in the way of posting.  I've got a back load of pics I've taken and I'm going to try to get caught soon with some of the yumminess that's been happening in my kitchen!

Shepard's Pie is one of my favorite comfort food meals, I think I've posted about it before.  I saw a couple recipes for Shepard's Pie with sweet potatoes, and as I'm trying to move away from eating *so* many white carbs, I thought maybe trying a Shepard's Pie with a Southwestern flair might be tasty.

What I did:

I browned about a pound of ground beef with about a half an onion and some garlic.  Drained.  Added some frozen mixed vegetables (probably 2 cups) and a can of drained diced tomatoes.  To this mixture I added what I'd usually use for taco seasoning - chili Powder, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, salt and pepper. (I can't tell you exactly how much because I really just keep adding spices until it tastes "right".)

I put this mixture at the bottom of a deep casserole dish.  On top of the beef/veggie layer I sprinkled about 1.5 cups of sharp cheddar cheese.  On top of this, I spread out a layer of mashed sweet potatoes and sprinkled it with paprika.  I cooked it for about 45 minutes at 350.

It came out fabulous.  The flavors I used in the beef an veggie layer really complimented the sweet potato topping well.  The only complaint I have about the experiment has to do with the mashed sweet potatoes. sweet potatoes seem to hold on to more liquid than regular white potatoes.  So even though I drained most of the liquid before I mashed them (which I just mashed with a little butter and some of the water I used to boil the potatoes), you can see from the picture that there was some extra liquid once it baked and the sweet potatoes were a little watery.  If I try this experiment again I have two ideas - either I'll bake the sweet potatoes first and mash them like you would for twice baked potatoes, or I'll omit *any* additional water when I mash them.  I'm leaning more towards baking the potatoes first, though, I think that will probably give me the desired effect, though I'm open to suggestions!

Moroccan on a Saturday Night

Tonight I made North African Meatballs with Cous Cous.  This was an extremely tasty dish.  The sauce is tomato based with white wine, onions, and garlic.  The meatballs are super flavorful, full of ginger, cinnamon, cilantro, cumin, and more!  Served with cous cous with dates, this made for a filling delicious meal.

I made a couple of modifications to the recipe - It actually calls for olives in the sauce, and I omitted them.  I really hate olives, so more than likely I significantly altered the taste of the meal. It was still great.  Biscuit wanted less cinnamon, as he's not a big fan of cinnamon with meat (I love it in dishes like this), but still said that he would add this to our regular meal rotation. 

If you're interested in trying this it can be found here: North African Meatballs with Cous Cous.  One thing I'd recommend if you're making this on a work night is to cook the meatballs in the oven, instead of doing them in batches in a skillet.  I know the taste is a little bit better because they were browned in a skillet, but you can save a *lot* of time by oven cooking.  Sometimes we have to make small sacrifices to make life easier!

I would definitely recommend this if you are looking for something different!