Sweet Potato Cottage Pie
Spoiler Alert: There’s nothing I love better than a one dish meal now that I have children. This sweet potato cottage pie is quick, easy, and delicious. And guess what? It is my youngest son’s favorite meal! SCORE!
Before I had children, my lackadaisical trip home from work went something like this: search the internet for a new tasty looking recipe; stop by the grocery store on my way home; pour a glass of wine; have a couple neighbors / friends over; and all cook something amazing for dinner.
And then I had children. You can see where this is going, yes?
Feeding children killed my delight in finding and cooking new recipes. If they like that today, they won’t like it tomorrow. My kids are great eaters, but they like things pretty bland and not particularly mixed up. And at five and eight years old, some days it seems as if they are already set in their ways. Boys, meet sweet potato cottage pie. Sweet potato cottage pie, welcome to my home!
What is Cottage Pie with Sweet Potatoes??
Cottage pie? I’ve heard of Shephard’s Pie, so what’s cottage pie? Traditionally, Shephard’s Pie is made with lamb and Cottage Pie is made with beef. I’ve used beef here, but feel free to switch that out and use any kind of meat you like – a chicken cottage pie sounds awesome!
There’s nothing in here that kids don’t typically love, so I decided to give it a try. For my youngest, it was love at first bite! It’s now his favorite meal. Evah. It tops pizza and burgers. Go figure!
He loves it so much, that I send this to school as a hearty warm lunch whenever I have leftovers. He loves that his thermos keeps it warm and ready to eat! It isn’t always easy to find healthy lunch ideas for kids. I’m not wrong – you know it. And they will gobble this up!
This recipe also freezes well. Once you assemble the sweet potato cottage pie, let it cool. Then cover it tightly with cling wrap and foil. It will freeze well for several months. When you are ready to serve it, remove from the freezer and bake for one hour at 375 degrees. Uncover it after the first 30 minutes. If you thaw it before cooking, you can cut the cooking time in half.
If you’ve followed any of my other recipes, you know that I love things that can be described as “methods” instead of recipes. To me that means they can be easily switched up with little or no risk of messing anything up! I think this would be awesome with ground turkey with the addition of creamed spinach and other great veggies – then topped with white or sweet mashed potatoes.
I’d love to hear any of your ideas about switching up this sweet potato cottage pie!
If you are a fan of sweet potatoes and would like to make an extra tasty treat since you’re mashing sweet potatoes anyway – check out these sweet potato muffins that are so magical, they have their own fairy tale!
