Irish Food with a Mexican Twist

It can't be done you say? Ah, but it can, and that's one of my favorite things about cooking and food. I absolutely adore taking things that are familiar and putting them in a different format. It's one of my favorite categories on the blog.

Today's entry is Mexican Shepherd's Pie, the perfect rendering of Taco Tuesday during St. Patrick's Day season. This is an easy recipe that uses some shortcut foods to produce a yummy result. Here's how mine looked a little different than the recipe described.

1. My grocery store didn't have Betty Crocker Instant Mashed Potatoes and the brand they did have was two less ounces in size. I kept the water, butter, and milk amounts as listed and they turned out just fine. 
2. I used a combination of regular tomato salsa and salsa verde since that's what was already open in the fridge. I'd say use whatever salsa you normally eat, as it just acts as the "gravy" in this version of shepherd's pie.
3. I was not paying attention and stirred the corn in with the ground beef and salsa. I don't think the layers matter since traditional shepherd's pie is all stirred together.
4. I skipped the tomato and just added cheese and green onion to the top.

This was so good. Although I skipped the tortilla chips on top, they are tasty as "scoops" for the pie mixture. You may think you don't need carbs on top of carbs, but I recommend giving it a try at least once. You'll thank me.