This Tuesday, I made a cottage pie. Mainly because I had mince in the fridge and I had tons of potatoes that needed using. But also because on Tuesdays and Thursdays Roger and Ben have soccer practice, and they normally get back at about seven, which is quite late.

So food needs to be done and dusted for them.

I normally take Ben and then my husband. We do like a tag team. They'll come halfway through the game and stay till the end, and then I go home and just finish up dinner and get things ready for the evening and the next day.

Otherwise, if we all hang around there till seven o'clock, by the time we get home it's half past seven, and it's just too late for Ben.

A Childhood Golden Oldie With a Tomato Base

This recipe is just a golden oldie that sort of changes a little bit every single time depending on what I have. It's just essentially something that I grew up eating. And I've always made it with a tomato base.

The mince is quite sweet.

It normally has peas, but there were no peas this time. I'd say it probably comes from my childhood, and since then I've sort of just changed it each time I make it. It's a very easy go-to dinner for both my husband and my son because both of them absolutely love it.

I know there's never gonna be a complaint when there's cottage pie in the oven. So I have been making this for them for many, many years. When they have a cottage pie, I normally make myself a chicken salad or chicken wings and salad.

Last night I actually had ostrich and salad.

Lean Organic Mince and Whatever Was in the Pantry

What goes into my cottage pie is good-quality mince. I never skimp on mince. It must be organic, preferably, and lean.

Then you have tinned tomatoes and onion that I just took from the pantry. Also, I use tomato paste. I also like to use onion powder and garlic powder.

Sometimes, if I have the energy and the time, I will make a miracle out of carrot, celery, and onion and just blitz that up in a blender. But this time I didn't do that. It was mince, tinned tomato, tomato puree.

I have Italian herbs in the cupboard, salt, white pepper. I used Worcestershire sauce, then a little bit of sugar, and I just let that go and boil, and then, of course, potatoes, milk, butter, and finely grated white cheese on top.

Two Sets of Pots and a Labor of Love

It's a bit of a labor of love because you're doing two different sets of pots here. You have to make the mash and the mince. So there is a lot of cleaning up, I suppose.

But actually, it is quite easy to make.

Start with chopping an onion and garlic. And you fry that off in some good olive oil in a nice big pot. Then I add my lean mince, and I let that brown and cook nicely.

I then add my spices here. So I like to add some onion powder, garlic powder, and Italian herbs. I actually added brown onion soup seasoning to this.

Let that cook for a little bit, then I add my tinned tomato. I like to use a good quality tinned tomato, but honestly, it's whatever I have in the pantry that gets chucked in there.

About 10 grams of tomato paste, salt and pepper, and then I let that just simmer away for about 10 minutes, making sure it's on a low heat. And I stir so it's not sticking to the bottom of the pan. I taste to see if it needs any seasoning.

Obviously, not the mince, but I'll taste the tomato part, and then I set that aside and pour it into a nice baking dish. And then I actually popped that in the oven before going out.

Then I came back after doing a few chores, and I started my mash. I just cut up four potatoes, even-sized, and put them into some salted water. I let that boil on low for a bit until they were soft.

I strained it, and then back into the pot it went. I added a big blob of butter and some milk. Then I mashed it with a masher and spooned it on top of the mince.

And by this time the mince was cold, so it made my life easier instead of trying to get that mash onto hot mince. Sometimes it's a bit hard to do that.

And then I just forked the potato on top, so it gets all those nice ridges, and I grated a little bit of white cheddar on top, which isn't traditional. I think normally, you should put some melted butter on top there just to get your mash nice and crispy. But my boys love the melted cheese on top, so I actually grill it right away in the oven so that it's all melted and ready, and then I turn the oven off.

When they are ready for dinner, all they have to do is take it out. I will portion up just my son's, heat it in the microwave, and my husband will portion up his later on and also just heat it in the microwave. It's a very convenient dinner to make, especially when we're all eating at different times and there is soccer practice on.

Cream in the Mash and a Lentil Version

Sometimes, if we have cream in the fridge, I will make the mash with cream instead of milk. It just gives your mash a much fluffier, lighter feel. But we don't always have cream, so milk is normally what I use.

You could also, if you wanted to make this vegetarian, obviously not use mince. But you could swap it out and make a lentil-based cottage pie, which I actually do quite often, and it's delicious. You just make soy mince and lentils, add carrots and celery, just like you would with mince.

This is always a nice way to get lots of vegetables into your child. I typically don't make it with this version, but as I did mention, I make a mirepoix of carrot, celery, and onion. I sometimes add mushrooms or courgettes, even grated butternut, and I just cook that into the mince, and no one is any the wiser.

Just make sure you cook the vegetables nicely before adding the mince so it doesn't become watery. In my recipe, I do make my mince quite rich by adding all the Worcestershire sauce and garlic and tomato paste and all of that. You don't have to make it as rich if you don't fancy it being so rich, but it just has always worked with us.

If you also are looking at your carbohydrate intake, you don't have to use mash, and you can use cauliflower mash instead, or even sweet potato mash because sweet potatoes are low GI and better for you. Either way, it all depends on what you feel like doing.

Roger and Ben Never Complain

My son and my husband ate it: Roger and Ben. And I never have any problems getting this into them because they both love it.

Big Batches for Lunchboxes and the Freezer

I like to make quite a big amount of this because it works really well for a lunchbox the next day for my husband and me. I then freeze it individually into little portions for my son because it is such an easy dinner to whip out of the freezer on a Sunday evening at 6 o'clock and pop in the microwave to defrost. I would definitely make a bigger batch.

And that's it.

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