Go-to Recipes part 3: Paleo Shepherd's pie

This is part 3 of my 5-part series, "Go to Meals". These are recipes I do on a weekly basis that I find easy, quick, cheap, and healthy.
Part 1 - Roasted veggies
Part 2 - Easy Fritatta

Ingredients

• 1 lb grass fed ground beef
• 1 large onion
• 1 jar tomato sauce
• basil, oregano, garlic powder
• 1 large winter squash (such as butternut squash) OR 3 medium sweet potatoes. In the pictures here, I have used a Kabocha, a type of Japanese pumpkin.
• Grass fed butter
• frozen spinach 

the orange pumpkin-looking thing is the kabocha, but it can also be dark green

Instructions

First of all, the squash or sweet potato has to be cooked. The best way to cook the squash is to bake it in the oven for an hour on 350. this can be done a day or two in advance if you want.

If you are using sweet potato, you may chop them up and boil them until soft, which usually takes 20 minutes.

​In the meantime, we will make the tomato-beef mix

Let's start with turning the stove on to medium with your favorite large pan. Put about a tablespoon or so of grass fed butter in it, and while you wait, chop uo the onion into thin slivers, or dice it if you want.

When the pan is nice and hot and the butter is all melted, put in the chopped onion and let it caramelize for a few minutes, stirring regularly.

And once the onions look a little browned and are sizzling niceley, you can put in the ground beef and break it up into little chunks, mixing it around with the onion. 

Let this brown too for a few minutes, stirring regularly.

Now is when you can add your jar of tomoto sauce. Alternativeley, you can add one of those small cans of tomato paste. Then stir in the dried oregano, garlic powder, and fresh or dried basil. A few shakes of the oregano and garlic, and aout 5-10 chopped up leaves of basil.

​Alternativeley, you can buy these "italian seasoning" blends which are basically herbs.

Cooked squash

Let the beef-tomato mix simmer on medium-low for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, take a masher and a few tablespoons of that grass-fed butter and mash the cooked squash/sweet potato in a pot on low heat. It shoud already be cooked. We just need to melt the butter and make sure its served hot

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Once the beef mis has done simmering, push it to one side of the pan and get out your frosen spinach. Put it in the empty part of the pan and let it all defrost and cook. Stir it around every few minutes, but don't mix it in with the beef.

If your pan is too small to do this, just use aother pan. I'm just showing you a way you can reduce pan usage and have less cleaning up at the end.

And when everything is hot, it is time to serve! Make 3 layers in each plate - beef on the bottom, spinack in the middle, and squash on the top. Even sprinkle some cheese on top if you'd like!

Enjoy! This keeps well in the fridge or freezer as leftovers for a few days, and makes a perfect pre-made meal for those busy days.