Comfort Food With a Twist

One of the reason I love reading through blogs is for all the inspiration and recipe ideas.  I am a pictures kind of gal.  I don’t much care for recipes books that don’t have pictures.  Why is that even aloud? A perfect recipe book, is one that shows me a picture of every recipe. Blogs are just that.  I look around, see photos and recipes; it’s all gravy! So, The other day while I was searching for a dinner idea I saw shepherd’s pie here and macaroni & cheese here. I so, I did what any fellow foodie would do, I improvised.  I made do with what I had and I combined both dishes.  Plus, for an added challenge, I made it dairy free. Wanted to share with someone who is avoiding dairy right now

Here we go:

Cut and boiled 2 sweet potatoes and took the lazy way out and mashed them in the food processor. Then I added about 4 tbsp. of corn meal.

Sprayed some non-stick in a casserole dish and spread half of the mixture down in casserole dish.  Baked at 350 for about 30-40 minutes. (the time it took to prepare the rest of the dish)

Prepared the cheese sauce.  I made measurement changes, otherwise the recipe for the sauce was found here. I wanted about half as much as the recipe calls for, so I pretty much cut the ingredients in half.

Pretty boring here.  I just heated some frozen veggies.  The exciting part is when I added a bunch of fresh kale.  I took a phone call during this step and blew right past the photo taking step.  Sheesh people, can’t you see I am trying to take photos of my food like a crazy girl! Don’t bother me when I am cooking. Anyone else get distracted when they are in the kitchen? I have a hard time talking and visiting when I have company and am still trying to cook.

sauce is complete.

Just a little over half a can of rinsed kidney beans.

veggie mix went over the beans and sauce followed.

I should have mixed the sauce with the veggies before making that layer.  So, I mixed it best I could while already in the dish.

Last layer was the rest of the  mashed sweet potatoes and bread crumbs. Baked in oven for about 45 minutes. Done!

Topped with some salsa for good measure.  This bowl then was mixed with more arugula a tasted super! It was a fun dish to make and is super filling.  I will definitely make this again.  It is one of those dishes that doesn’t need a step by step recipe to follow.  You just make it how you like with what you have.  I know that each time I make this it will be different.  Maybe next time I will only use 1 sweet potato for the topping and polenta for the bottom layer.

TGIF peeps!