Recipe Re-do's - Shepherd's Pie

I am not someone who likes waste, especially when it comes to food. My parents taught me to clean my plate on behalf of all the starving children in Africa. As a side note, I surmise that this may, just may, have something to do with me ending up at 304 pounds at one point. But I digress. We cleaned our plates and the plates of others if within arms reach and sometimes those people were actually indeed done with their meal. So as I grew older and paid for my own groceries I learned the value of leftovers. For some people they aren't very tantalizing but for me? I love to wrap my brain around new ideas of what to make with them! We actually got snow here on the Outer Banks and it has been wickedly cold so I was trying to think of something rib-sticking. I searched my freezer and found leftover meatloaf and a bag of mixed veggies for soup. My brain clicked into high gear and came up with Shepherd's Pie. Yeah I know, usually you brown ground meat of some sort to make this recipe but just go with me here...the meatloaf already has a bunch of flavor from the spices and veggies that it was made with so it would just be extra yummy as the filling. How to get it back from loaf form to ground beef looking? Thank God for the food processor! I broke up the pieces and pulsed a couple of times and ta-da! Ground meat! So, now that we're ready, let's make some Shepherd's Pie and give thanks for leftovers!

Shepherd's Pie

2 Lbs Ground Meat, browned in butter (or leftover meatloaf, pulsed in a food processor)

2 Tbsp Butter

1/3 C Flour

1 Bag Frozen Mixed Veggies

1/3 C Ketchup

1 Can Beef Broth

2 tsps Worchestershire Sauce

2 tsps or 2 Cloves Minced Garlic

Salt and Pepper to taste

2 C Shredded Cheddar (for later)

Heat oven to 350 degree. In a large pan, melt butter and add meat and cook to reheat on medium high (or if using fresh beef brown the meat without the butter, saving approx 2 Tbsp of the fat when done). Add flour and cook for one minute to get rid of the raw flour taste. Add the broth, worchestershire sauce and ketchup and cook until thick. Lower heat to medium low and stir in veggies, garlic, salt and pepper.

Cover and cook, stirring often, until veggies are soft. Remove from heat and set aside.

Mashed Potato Topping

6 Large Boiling Potatoes (Red, White or Yukon Gold) peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces

1/3 of an 8 oz Block Cream Cheese

3 Tbsp Butter

1/3 C Milk or Half and Half

Salt and Pepper to taste

Put potatoes in a large pot and cover with water. If you want to add salt (which I do) add it now, otherwise if you try to salt it later after the potatoes are cooked it will take twice as much salt to get the desired taste. Boil potatoes until tender and drain. Either put potatoes back in pot or in a large mixing bowl. Add cream cheese, butter and pepper and mash together. Whip the potatoes with a hand or stand mixer, slowly adding the milk or half and half until you get the desired consistency.

Place the filling in a large baking dish and spread evenly. Spread the mashed potatoes over the top using a cake spatula or a butter knife making sure that the potatoes seal in the filling all the way to the edge of the dish.

Cover with the cheddar cheese and bake in oven for approximately 20-25 mins, watching for the cheese to melt and the potatoes to get slightly brown.