My family loves Shepherd’s Pie. It’s an excellent and inexpensive make ahead freezer meal, especially during the winter when you just need something piping hot, nourishing and filling after an exhausting day.

Shepherd’s Pie is easy once you get all the potatoes peeled. I just make my kids peel while I chop. I like to make this quadrupled recipe and use one right away, plus add three to my freezer-meal-stash for emergencies. This recipe will fill 4 9 x 13 aluminum foil pans, or 3, plus your own casserole dish, if you want to use one right away.

Ingredients

Mashed Potato Layer

1. Boil large stock pot of peeled, cubed potatoes until they are fork tender.
2. Meanwhile, brown beef, garlic and onions in a large, deep frying pan over medium heat, until onions are translucent and beef is no longer pink.
3. Add the frozen vegetables and stir in the worcestershire sauce and seasonings.
4. Sprinkle the flour over the top of the mixture and pour in the beef stock. Stir together until sauce has thickened, then spoon evenly into the bottom of each of the 4 pans.
5. Your potatoes should be cooked by now. Strain the potatoes and place them back in the hot pot. Add the milk, butter, salt and mash until creamy.
6. Spoon the mashed potatoes over top of the meat in each pan and top with a cup of shredded cheddar cheese.
7. Cover foil pans and be sure to write the cooking instruction on top in sharpie: thaw overnight the refrigerator, then bake at 350 F until heated through and potatoes lightly browned, about 40 minutes.

***Note: Shepherd’s Pie freezes well in individual containers, too. Just layer the ingredients in microwavable containers, then freeze them. When you want to use one, pull it out of the freezer in the morning and by lunch it will be thawed enough to microwave.