Kitchen Adventures || Elk Shepherd’s Pie & Amy Myers!
Hello friends! I hope all of you lovely people are doing well! I’m back with another recipe and another feature of an amazing human being!
This week’s recipe came very much from a place of needing to use some veggies before they went bad and desperately wanting to avoid going to the grocery store. I’m surprised at how great this turned out considering I basically just threw a bunch of stuff in a skillet and hoped for the best!
Y’all… this soap looks good enough to eat. Imagine how amazing her chocolate is 😉
Before I get to the recipe, I want to introduce this week’s feature, Amy Myers! Amy is a friend who I met in the dance community here in Austin, but that is just ONE of the many amazing things she does. She’s a performer/choreographer, massage therapist, a creator/maker of many things, and owner of Amy’s Apothecary! (where she sells some of the things she makes 🙂 )
In a never ending effort to reduce the amount of unnatural/toxic ingredients we put into/onto our bodies, she has some products that I not only trust, but can tell you from personal experience that they are excellent! Over the years she’s done everything from natural deodorant, to bug spray, to organic chocolates! Currently on her website she has options to customize whatever type of bar soap you’d like, she organizes chocolate making classes, and for those of you who get eaten up by the mosquitoes at the gym (*cough cough* looking at you weightlifters) her all natural bug spray works better for me than any of the commercial stuff I’ve used and actually leaves my skin feeling soft and smelling good!
Check out her site and follow her FB page , order some stuff, keep an eye out for special new products when she releases them!
Ok, so now that you’ve put your order in for a batch of her chocolates, let’s make dinner! Basically, I really didn’t feel like stopping at the store and I needed to make dinner so I gathered up all the things I had in my fridge/pantry and it came together beautifully!
Obviously, not everyone just has super high quality elk in their freezer, but guess what?!? You can snag it at the gym! I know I talk about it a lot, but Force of Nature is truly an amazing company. They put out a product that is not only incredibly clean and tasty, but their regenerative farming practices are actually GOOD for the planet. Anyway, recipe below. I hope you enjoy!
INGREDIENTS
1 package ground elk
3 carrots – peeled and diced
1 parsnip – peeled and diced
2 stalks of celery – diced
1 medium yellow onion – diced
1.5 lb bag baby rainbow potatoes – washed and skin on
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen okra – sliced
1/2 cup frozen corn
3-4 cloves garlic – minced
3 TBSP grassfed butter
1 TBSP grassfed butter – melted for brushing on top
3/4 cup milk of your choice
2 TBSP Italian seasoning
1 tsp Garlic Powder
Salt Pepper to taste
Oil for cooking – I used avocado oil
INSTRUCTIONS 
As always… those are approximate amounts… I don’t measure exactly when I cook so adjust to your liking!
In a large pot, cover potatoes with salted water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until tender. Once tender, drain and let sit for a couple of minutes. Add the butter, milk, garlic powder and some salt and pepper and mash well. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 400. In an oven safe skillet (I used enameled cast iron) over med/high heat, heat about a TBSP of oil. Add the elk and cook, crumbling as you go, until mostly cooked through. Leave just a tiny bit under so it doesn’t dry out when it goes in the oven. Remove from skillet and set aside.
Add a little more oil if necessary. Add all your veggies to the skillet and cook until they begin to soften. Add the garlic, Italian seasoning, and salt and pepper to taste. Add the elk back to the skillet and mix everything well.
Top the meat and veggie mixture with the mashed potatoes and brush with a thin layer of butter. Put the whole skillet into the oven and bake until potatoes are golden brown on top. I actually baked for about 20 minutes and then broiled on high for about 3 minutes to finish off the tops.
Dish it out and enjoy!