Taco Shepherd's Pie

Sometimes my Simple & Delicious magazine (and I DO feel like it's mine...) will have a feature where you cook a bunch, and eat some right then and freeze the rest.  I love doing that because I love having my freezer stocked for zombie nights.  So that's what caught my eye on this recipe.  Plus it seems like something we would really like.

Taco Shepherd's Pie
1 pkg refrigerated pie crust (or top & bottom crust from your own recipe)(I actually skipped the pie crust steps because I never use crust for shepherd's pie...only for pot pie, and I didn't want to confuse my mouth)
6 large potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
2 lbs lean ground beef
14 green onions, chopped (white portion only)
1 1/4 cups water
2 envelopes taco seasoning
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
2 tsp garlic powder (that seemed like too much; I only used 1)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese (I used 4 cups shredded Mexican cheese)

Roll out pastry to fit two 9-inch deep dish pie plates.  Transfer to pie plates; flute edges.  Line unpricked pastry with double thickness of heavy duty foil.  Fill with dried beans, uncooked rice, or pie weights (this is so you don't get bubbles in the crust when it bakes).  Bake at 450 for 8 minutes.  Remove foil and weights; bake 5 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.  (Do you see how much time and work I saved by skipping the pie crusts?)

Place potatoes in a Dutch oven and cover with water.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; cover and cook for 15-20 minutes or until tender.  Meanwhile, cook beef and onions in a large skillet over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain.  Stir in water and taco seasoning.  Bring to a boil; cook until liquid is evaporated.  Spoon into pastry shells.

Drain potatoes.  Add the milk, butter, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Mash until smooth (I had to add a few instant potato flakes because 1 cup of milk was too much milk).  Spread over meat mixture.  (I added a layer of corn before the mashed potatoes because I always put corn in my shepherd's pie, and corn is good with mexican stuff, too).

Sprinkle one pie with half of the cheeses.  Cool.  Cover and freeze for up to 3 months.  Bake remaining pie, uncovered, at 350 for 35 minutes.  Sprinkle with remaining cheeses.  Bake 5-10 minutes longer or until heated through and cheese is melted.

To use frozen pie:  Thaw in fridge overnight.  Remove from fridge 30 minutes before baking.  Cover and bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hrs.  Uncover and bake 10-15 minutes longer or until heated through.

My original plan was to make one of these to eat and one to freeze.  Then our plans changed and we wanted to take the kids out to Family Date Night (which was fun--Ground Round).  Then my neighbor's back went out and she was practically immobilized.  So I made these, froze one, and gave her the other one.  So I can't even tell you (yet) if this was a good recipe!  If anyone tries it and wants to give feedback, please do.  I will update when we eat the frozen pie.  Well, we won't eat it frozen.  You know what I mean.