Dan and Cara

Dan works with Thom, and Cara is his lovely girlfriend. Somehow we all managed to organise an evening around at ours, separately, before realising it would be a great idea...and so here they are!

Such a lovely evening, and I think we all drank a little more wine than we were expecting, and possibly ate a little more too! As I was not at work, I ended up doing all the cooking...and because Cara and Thom are both vegetarian I decided to make life easier for myself and make a vegetarian shepherds pie. Original recipe from the BBC Good Food Website, but I made a few changes!

For the filling:
1 large onion, halved and sliced
2 large carrots
2 tbsp thyme
225ml red wine
400g can chopped tomatoes
2 vegetable stock cubes
1 tbsp tomato passata
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
200g dried green lentils, cooked before
Salt and pepper to taste

For the top:
Four good size sweet potatoes, boiled and mashed
One normal potato, mixed in with the sweet potato (the topping can sometimes not be solid enough, the potato gives structure!)
Butter, salt, pepper as wanted, but I'd definitely season it!
Mature cheddar grated on top

Pop in the oven at 190 for about twenty minutes or so, or until bubbling at the edges.

I also made a banana and apple crumble...with the banana it means you need less sugar, which makes me feel a little healthier when eating it!