Sweet potato topped shepherd's pie

Since my wreck, I have craved nothing but comfort foods. Heavy foods that pay no mind to my waistline. Mostly, I've been indulging in take-out and super processed foods. While the desire for comfort food has not left, I decided to go for something a bit more nutritious. REAL FOOD! I had some beef stir fry meat (pretty much any minced beef will do...even ground beef) that I chopped up. The idea with all of this is to keep everything roughly the same size. At any rate this is real, unprocessed, comfort food. With veggies and the super food, sweet potatoes, this dish is high in Vitamin A and packs a taste punch!

Sweet potato topped Shepherd's Pie
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 lb. beef stew meat, minced (skirt steak or chuck roast also works, as does ground sirloin)
3 larch carrots, chopped
1 small onion, diced
1 cup frozen peas
1 bottle stout (Guiness is awesome in this)
1 cube beef boullion
salt and pepper to taste
2-3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
5-6 T. oil (or, to be honest, bacon grease is fabulous here), divided
1/4 cup milk (or half and half)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spread the sweet potatoes out on a cookie sheet. Coat with 3 T oil. Roast 15 minutes or until cooked through.
2. Heat 2 T. oil in a large pan. Add the veggies, and cook for 5-7 minutes on med-high heat. Add a pinch of salt to help them sweat a bit. Keep everything moving in the pan. If things start to stick or if you notice the pan browning, turn down the heat a bit.
3. Dump the cooked veggies into a baking dish, leaving as much of the oil in the pan as possible. If the pan is dry, add 1 T of oil. Toss in the beef and brown well.
4. Turn the heat up slightly and deglaze the pan with half the stout (about 6 oz). If you'd rather not use the stout, use coffee. They both add tons of flavor, don't skimp out with just using water!
5. Crumble the beef boullion cube into the mixture and stir well. Add the veggies back to the pan and stir until everything is coated. Simmer 5 minutes (med-low heat).
6. Put the meat mixture back in the baking dish. Mash the sweet potatoes with the milk. Cover the meat mixture with the mashed potatoes and you're done! Tear it up!

Lentil-Kale Soup

Baby, it's cold outside...let's eat healthfully! This satisfying soup is packed with protein, vitamins and flavor, no to mention being easy to make! As with any recipe, I would strongly encourage you to read the ingredient list before you start, just to make sure you have everything.

Lentil-Kale Soup
Serves 6-8 with leftovers

3 T. olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
4 large carrots, chopped
1 1/2 cups dried lentils (any color), rinsed
1 15oz can crushed tomatoes
1 t. ground mustard
1 t. paprika
1/2 t. ground cumin
1/2 t garlic granules
8 cups water
1-2 ham/soup bones
1 T chicken base
4-5 cups kale, chopped
1 large lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. In a large pot, add oil, onion and carrots. Saute for 3 minutes. Add a couple of big pinches of salt and about a teaspoon of pepper.

2. To the vegetables, add the lentils and seasonings, stirring until covered with oil.

3. Dump the can of tomatoes into the pot, then rinse the can clean with a portion of your 8 cups of water and add that liquid to the pot. Stir to combine.

4. Add the bone(s) to the pot, and cover with the remaining water. Add the chicken base and stir until it disolves.

5. Allow the soup to simmer for 20 minutes. This would be the time to taste the broth to see if it needs more salt. Remove the bones. Toss the kale into the soup and let it simmer another 20 minutes. Squeeze the lemon juice into the soup and stir just before serving.

This soup thickens nicely, and is quite hardy by itself, but for an extra treat, you can serve it with a cornbread muffin.