Individual Shepherd's Pies

After Thanksgiving, we got to share in the wealth of the leftovers and they were delicious as is for a few days, but today I thought I'd love to use the potatoes in a new way.  Suddenly it came to me--Shepherd's Pie!  I knew that we didn't have that many potatoes, so I wanted to make just enough food to fit into our small individual serving sizes--which actually turned out to be plenty of food and quite satisfying!

I chose a recipe from the Epicurious Iphone App while at the store and then found I pretty much had all the ingredients already.  On a whole, the only things I had to pay for at this time for this meal was the ground beef and the peas.  I bought Organic beef that was vegetarian fed because it came in a smaller package, I didn't think there was  much of a taste difference if that's something you have always been wondering but were too afraid to try (I have).  This took about an hour to prepare from the chopping to the baking but I don't know why, I felt like I got home and dinner would be on the table in minutes but I guess I dilly-dallied more than I thought.

Ingredients (I changed the recipe to have less meat because I knew I had less potatoes but I kept the spices and liquid the same)
1 T canola oil (or similar)
1/2 one small onion, diced
1 carrot, diced (I don't peel carrots anymore, I can't taste the difference)
0.6lbs of lean ground beef (this would be good with lamb which the original recipe called for or even turkey)
6 T frozen peas
1 C+ leftover mashed potatoes, or make your own, or buy some already made
1 T tomato paste (I recently bought a tube of paste because recipes are always calling for too little of the can to keep around, it's really handy even though it initially seems like a bad value)
1 Cup broth (I used vegetable)
1 t Rosemary, crushed a little (I used dry)
1 clove garlic smashed
1/2 t Oregano (I used dry)
Salt & Pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. In a large skillet brown beef, onion and carrot over medium high heat--about ten minutes
3. When the meat has browned, drain and return to pan.
4. Add all other ingredients EXCEPT the peas
5. Bring to a simmer and cook about 10 minutes until mixture has thickened slightly (honestly my mixture didn't really thicken but I still removed it after 10 minutes
6. Divide mixture between two individual oven-proof dishes. Add 3 T peas (straight from the freezer is fine) to each dish
7. Top the dishes with leftover potatoes and try to cover as much surface as possible, as you can see I was a little short on potatoes but it still tasted good
8. Bake dishes at 375 for 30-35 minutes until the potatoes are golden brown on top
9. Dishes will be very hot right out of the oven.  If you can wait, hold off 5 minutes before eating.