Easy Shepherd's Pie

I prefer to cook from scratch but during work nights it's often easier to reach into the freezer for something quick.

I whipped this up last night but ended up storing it in the fridge until this evening since the hubby ended up having to work late and we ate separately. Frozen veggies and mashed potatoes made it quick to throw together. I didn't follow a recipe and would make a few changes next time.

Here's the gist of what I did ( typing on my phone so please forgive any typos).
Chopped one large yellow onion and sautéed with a little olive oil until translucent. Add 1lb ground beef ( I used frozen grassfed beef from trader joes -- didn't thaw just threw in in frozen. Cook meat (**next time I'd cook the meat separately and drain the fat). Add fresh rosemary (1 small sprig) an thyme (3 sprigs) **maybe a little more of each next time. Add 1/2 tsp garlic powder and 1tsp dried oregano. Salt and pepper. **next time I'd add some tomato paste (tube type) and maybe a little Worcester sauce**

Add 1 cup of water, bouillon cube and 1 tablespoon flour cook until thickened a bit.

Transfer meat mixture to a casserole dish. Empty a bag of frozen veggies (carrots/peas/corn) on top of meat mixture (I used trader joes organic vegetable foursome). Top with mashed potatoes. To save time I used trader joes frozen mashed potatoes. Microwave until soft and spread on top of veggies. Top with some shredded cheese -I lightly sprinkled the top with a Swiss/gruyere mix. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. I ended up broiling at the end to finish browning the cheese a bit more.

What to plant...

I haven't had much time to think about the garden as work was pretty busy last week with a 2 day conference (yay for comp time)! Tonight, while cleaning up photos on my phone I came across the pumpkins we carved for Halloween last year. I had a lot of fun and hope we can do it again next fall. I'm also debating if pumpkins would do well in the dirt patch... Here are some photos from last year's pumpkins.

Garden

Now that we have a backyard I'm hoping to be able to grow some veggies. Our last apartment didn't get much sun on the balcony, had squirrels that ate or destroyed everything I tried to plant, and I wasn't very consistent in watering. I think the only thing that actually did well was a jalapeño plant.

The house we are renting has a big backyard but we are limited to what we can do. On one side there is a dirt patch that we were told we could plant stuff in but anything else had to be in containers. I planted some tulip and daffodil bulbs in one section of the dirt area in November and have been trying to decide what to do with the other. The soil is a little iffy. It looks like paint was dumped in one section and who knows what else so I'm hesitant to grow any edibles there.

Last week I decided that we should build a planter box on casters that we could set up in on the patio. The side yard is concrete too and the space isn't bring used so maybe we can do something there as well. I found plans online for a box on casters and we ran by Home Depot this weekend for the supplies. We got home and assembled it and it went fast but the only problem is that it is huge! I wasn't really thinking about the size until it was built!

I think next weekend we will unscrew two sides and cut the boards in half buy a bit more wood and make 2 boxes out of the 1. So instead of 1 4x4 we will have 2 2x4 boxes.

I'm trying to decide what to fill them with. A part of me wants to try a sub irrigation method but it has to be filled with potting mix. At our local nursery I could only find organic potting soil at $11 ( 2 cubic). I'm looking into how much it would be to make our own. Or we could try a lasagna style where you layer cardboard, compost, lawn clippings and soil down. I'm going to research it a bit more and will have to make a decision soon since I'd like to plant in early-mid April.

we also need to decide what to plant...