This is a fantastic way to get the kids (and other annoying picky eaters) to eat vegetables and the use of canned soups makes this quick and easy! You can make this as one large pie, or use single-serving aluminum pie pans for simple serving and freezing.
Ingredients
- 5-7 potatoes (Not all potatoes are created equal.)
- 1 full stick butter or margarine
- 3/4 c whipping cream
- 1 pound ground beef, lamb, turkey, or whatever!
- 3/4 cup chopped onions
- 16 oz. frozen mixed vegetables
- 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
- 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of celery soup
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Coat deep pie pan, baking dish, or single-serving tins with cooking spray. (Don’t huff the fumes!)
- Cook potatoes in a large pot of boiling water until tender, about 20 minutes.
- Drain potatoes completely and mash with butter or margarine and whipping cream. Then whip it like Devo. Add additional whipping cream if needed to get a frosting-like consistency. Set aside.
- In a large skillet, cook ground meat and onions until brown over medium-high heat.
- If you’re trying to pretend that this is a healthy dish, drain fat from pan. (I don’t.)
- Stir in mixed vegetables and cook until just warm.
- Stir in mushroom soup, celery soup, garlic powder, and salt and pepper. Heat through.
- Pour into prepared baking dish(es).
- Pipe with mashed potatoes. Make ’em pretty!
- Spray tops of mashed potatoes with butter-flavored cooking spray, or mist with melted butter or margarine.
- Optional: Sprinkle with chopped parsley, chives, cheddar cheese, or a mixture of all. Or get creative! Try paprika, cayenne pepper, finely minced onions or pimentos, or whatever you have handy. (I recommend you avoid chocolate sprinkles, though.)
- Put baking dish(es) on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil. THIS WILL LEAK while it cooks. The cookie sheet will keep the smoke detector from going off and the foil will keep you from having to use a chisel to clean the cookie sheet.
- Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until potatoes are golden and meat and vegetable mixture is hot and bubbly.
- If potatoes don’t brown at all, move the oven rack up and flip on the broiler for just a minute or two. Watch it like a hawk! The potatoes can go from golden to charcoal in a heartbeat.
(Sneaky trick: When freezing single serve aluminum pie pans, put an empty pan upside down on top of a cooled pie, and staple the pie pans together on either side. Then wrap in foil before putting it in the freezer. This will keep your piped potatoes all fancy.)