Ingredients

• 2 lbs of ground deer burger
• 2 cups of mixed vegetables
• 2 cans of cream of celery
• 1 can of cream of chicken
• 6 cups of mashed potatoes
• 1/2 cup of finely shredded mild cheddar cheese or cheddar cheese blend of your choice (optional)

Instructions

1. Put the ground deer burger in a large frying pan. Crumble it as it fries. Once it’s done–about 10 minutes, drain the excess fat from the burger. Add the cans of cream of celery and cream of chicken soups into the burger. Stir well, and then add the mixed vegetables, and stir well again.
2. Preheat the oven to 350. Pour the deer shepherd’s pie burger mixture into a 9″ x 13″ casserole dish, and spread the mixture evenly. Make sure to leave head room for the mashed potatoes.
3. Then try to say “deer shepherd’s pie burger mixture” five times in a roll–I bet you can’t LOL!
4. For the potatoes that go on top of the deer shepherd’s pie, you can make your own–what I call “real mashed taters” or you can use instant potatoes. There’s no shame in using instant potatoes! As a matter of fact, my all-time favorite mashed potatoes are Idahoan four cheese. I use three packs for this dish and they are so easy to make. It’s a real time saver, plus they are delicious. But whatever potatoes you use, just make them as you normally do.
5. When done, dip mashed potatoes out of the bowl one tablespoon at a time and spread them evenly on the deer shepherd’s pie.
6. Once you are finished with the potatoes, sprinkle mild shredded cheddar cheese on top of that. You don’t want too much cheese. Make sure you can still see a little of the potatoes under the cheese. You can omit the cheese if you want and it’s still delicious!
7. Place the dish in the oven and let it bake for about 30 minutes. The best way to tell if it’s done is when the cheese melts and it starts to brown. If you didn’t put cheese on yours, the mashed potatoes will start to crack and brown when it’s done.