Traveling Tuesdays..England!

I initially had a really hard time trying to decide what to make on this Tuesday because of the fact that we have already done the whole British thing with baked fish and chips (which were amazing and I will post the recipe someday soon!). But I decided because it was the Queen's Diamond Jubilee that I needed to do something British. So I chose a shepherds pie! What?! How can that be low calorie??? Oh, it was my friends...it was. I had been WAITING to make this version and I'm so glad that I did...and that I get to share it with you!

UPDATED SHEPHERD'S PIE
Serves 6

Ingredients

1-1 1/4 lbs red potatoes cut into chunks
3 large cloves of garlic (yummm)
1 lb extra lean ground beef
2 tablespoons flour
4 cups mixed frozen vegetables thawed (carrots, corn, green beans, and peas--I used Pictsweet)
3/4 cup fat free reduced sodium beef broth
2 tablespoons ketchup
3/4 cup light sour cream (I used Daisy)
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I used the Mexican blend I had on hand..haha!)

So here's how I did it! :) The first thing I did was preheat the oven to 375 then I washed the potatoes, cut them into chunks, and got them boiling to cook until tender! The best part of this was that you mince the garlic and add it into the water with the potatoes and it cooks such a wonderful flavor into the potatoes it's crazy! In fact I've done this again just because!


While they cooked I went ahead and poured the 4 cups of veggies into a pot and followed the directions on the bag on how to cook them. I used two bags of the veggies (minus about 1/4 cup of them...which I cooked up the next day for lunch).




 Then I went ahead a browned the meat. I sprayed the pan with Pam (say that a couple times!) so that there wasn't any added oil. Meanwhile I whisked together the ketchup and beef broth and set it aside.

Once the meat was browned, you add the flour and cook out that flour-y taste for about a minute and then add your ketchup/beef broth mix along with your thawed/cooked veggies. The sauce will thicken up with that flour added in there.

After you have everything in the pan, it needs to cook and thicken for about 5 minutes. This gives you the perfect opportunity to drain your potatoes and whip them up. I transferred them to a different bowl only because you can't use metal on my pots and pans and I used a handheld mixer to get them perfectly mashed and whipped. While you are doing this, add your sour cream and once they are the perfect texture, add about 1/4 cup of the shredded cheese. Mix it in well with a spoon.

 So now everything is ready to assemble! The first thing is to spoon the meat and veggie mixture into an 8 inch square baking dish. I made sure to pat everything down with the spoon. You then spoon and smooth the mashed potatoes on top of the mix.

Stick it into an 375 degree oven and bake for about 18 minutes. It looks really bubbly and golden when you pull it out!

Bubbly bubbly!

Add the rest of your cheese (1/4 cup) on top and bake a little more for about 2 minutes or until its melted and gooey ooey (that's a technical term!).





It was absolutely yummy and it was only 310 calories per serving, which is pretty darn good considering the potatoes and stuff! :)  Matt really enjoyed it, which I was worried that maybe it'd be too dry...but he really liked it a lot! I served it with a nice salad. I hope you enjoy it just as much as we did if you try it out!! And of course, congrats to the Queen on her Diamond Jubilee! :) You know how I love England! ;-)

Recipe!!! http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/updated-shepherds-pie-69212.aspx