Crock Pot - Shepherd Pie

Not all my recipes are going to turn out looking good or working well for the kids.
But, you have to experiment to find amazing recipes that work well for your family.

ACTUAL RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
(Slow-Cooker Cookbook, pg 41)
2 lb ground beef
16-oz bag frozen mixed vegetables
2 c. cheddar cheese, grated
4 potatoes, shredded
salt and pepper
1 cube butter, sliced

MY RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 lb ground beef
20-oz of frozen mixed vegetables
2 c. cheddar cheese, grated
6 small potatoes, shredded
salt and pepper
1/2 cube butter, sliced

RECIPE:
Brown and drain ground beef. Pour 1/2 cup water in bottom of slow-cooker. Layer vegetables, ground beef, cheese, and shredded potatoes. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and butter slices. Cover and cook on high 2-3 hours or low 5-6 hours. You can substitute vegetables of choice.

OUR OPINION:
I usually buy ground beef in bulk, cook it all up with some minced onions, salt and pepper, then store in freezer bags in one pound amounts. But, I thought that 2 pounds of meat was way too much for one meal, so I cut it down a bit but not too much to change the recipe. In it's place, I added a bit more vegetables and potato on top.

I am thinking that the potatoes needed to be blanched before this because of how they ended up looked gray-black. They tasted okay to us adults, but the kids didn't want to have anything to do with them. I figured they wouldn't hurt us because I put them in the slow cooker immediately after shredding them and cooked them on high. I didn't want to use an entire cube of butter either - I'm a bit health conscious and I just couldn't do it. There also ended up being a pool of water down at the bottom of the pot. So, I don't think a 1/2 cup of water needed to be added because the frozen vegetables provided their own water. The bottom of this dish tasted just fine but the potatoes looked gross, so I scraped off the potatoes in order to save the left overs. And when we ate them a few days later, we just crumpled Ritz crackers on the top and the kids ate it just fine. To satisfy them that night, I didn't feel like I could force them to eat something that didn't look good, so I made them some peanut butter sandwiches.

Not every recipe will be great, but in the future I think I will continue to make my own shepherd pie in a casserole dish in the oven.