(non)Recipe- Shepherd's Pie

I realized on Saturday night that I hadn't posted a recipe in awhile, & I tried to rectify it then, but Blogger was being annoying. Part of the reason for the lack of recipes is that the hubby has been cooking a lot lately (yea for me!) and the other part of it is that when I cook, I don't really use a recipe. I'm one of those people who can just know what they want to cook and go from there. I don't really ever use a recipe (unless I'm baking, & then it's essential, but baking is not cooking), and I quite enjoy it. Things turn out a little different every time, which is fun. It might make things a little difficult for those of you who would like to attempt to make whatever it is that I'm describing, but hopefully my directions will be clear (although somewhat un-recipe like.) So here goes:

• Cook three small chopped onions over med-high heat until translucent. Add about 3 lbs of ground beef (mine cost $5.54 and I paid $1.88/lb for it, so you can figure out how much I had) and cook until brown.
• Add a bunch of chopped carrots, a small bag of frozen peas (mine were Green Giant baby peas) and a can of corn kernels. Also add a package of Lipton's onion soup mix and about 3/4 c. water, lots of salt & pepper, and some dried thyme.
• Simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated and the carrots are getting tender.
• In the meantime, make up about 10 servings of instant mashed potatoes (mine were Idahoan.)
• Divide mixture between two deep baking dishes, top with mashed potatoes, and sprinkle with finely grated cheese (whatever you've got on hand- I used mozzarella, 'cause that's all we've got.) I have one big & one small baking dish, so I end up with one two-person size and one four-person size, which goes in the freezer for another night. (these are really big servings, too.)
• Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes or until the potatoes are brown on top. You might want to put your baking dishes on a cookie sheet in case the juices start to boil over.
• Let sit for about 10 minutes after you take it out of the oven so that the juices can thicken a bit and it can stop bubbling.
• Eat!

So that's my fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants-but-damn-it-tastes-good non-recipe recipe for Shepherd's Pie. You can't mess it up. Enjoy!