Sweet Potato Shepards Pie

*Casie Here*

 I don't know what made me want to make this dish tonight, but I guess it just popped in my head and we had all the ingredients, so I made it and it was really good. First I boiled 3 big sweet potatoes that had been chopped up in salted water. 

 Chopped up 4 carrots, 4 celery stalks, 1 parsnip, 1 onion, 5 fresh baby portabella mushrooms, 4 garlic cloves & 1 zucchini. I sauteed all of that in a little olive oil. At the end I added a little bit of frozen mixed vegetables (about 1 cup worth) that had corn, green beans, carrots and peas.

I added 1 cup of TVP. What's TVP???? Textured Vegetable Protein. It comes dehydrated. You re-hydrate it with hot water. It acts like your meat in any dish. We really like the taste of it in our house. It's fine and fluffy kind of like couscous.

 I also added a can of rinsed kidney beans.

 Spread the vegetable mixture on the bottom of a sprayed 9x13 pan.

I drained the water off the softened potatoes. Mixed it with a little earth balance 'butter' and cashew cheese that I had leftover from the other day, but you could use some original unsweetened almond milk, rice milk, coconut milk or soy milk (do not use vanilla flavored). Even some vegan cream cheese or sour cream would work. 

Place in the oven at 350 for 30 mins.

I ended up having so much extra I was able to make two pans and froze one to cook at another time. 

 *If you are putting one in the oven that has been frozen, put it in the oven before you turn it on. This insures that the dish will not explode from going from too cold to extremely hot. I would put it in for 60 mins. and check it. If it's still cold in the middle, put it in for another 10-15 mins and check it again. Repeat if necessary.

Seriously, EVERYONE loved this dish.