A Healthy Shepherd's Pie - 11g

It may be no where near St. Patty's day (oh how I wish it was), but this dish is still delicious! When I was thinking about the ingredients in my fridge - cauliflower and ground beef - and how I could blend the two into a savory dish, cauliflower mashed 'potatoes' and a meatloaf came to mind. But I'm not too keen on meatloaf, plus it uses a lot of ketchup (therefore, sugars) and I had to think twice.

That is where this lovely idea came along:

It makes 4 hearty searvings, which ends up being a lot of meat. I used some of the meat in this recipe to fill my Zucchini Cups, which also lowered the carb count by one or two.

Ingredients:

1 lbs 94% fat free ground beef
olive oil
1 medium onion - 15g
1 clove garlic - crushed
Fresh spices (I used basil, rosemary and oregano) - about 1 1/2 tsp chopped
1 Tbsp Worstechire sauce - 1g
1 medium zucchini - 6g
3 Tbsp tomato sauce (spaghetti, or whatever you have) - 4g
salt to taste

1 lbs raw cauliflower - 18 g
2 Tbsp butter (I used smart balance)
2 Tbsp whipping cream - 1g

1/3 C shredded cheddar cheese - 1g

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Chop the onion and add to a pan with olive oil - saute at medium heat until translucent. Add the garlic and ground beef, and brown. Next, add the worstechire sauce and spices.  If you don't have fresh, sub with dried. You can play with your flavors a bit, here.  Mine had a dominant rosemary flavoring to it, which I loved with this dish.

Dice your zucchini and add to the ground beef mixture on the stove, as well as the tomato sauce and any salt you deem necessary.

Turn the heat down to low, and move on to fix the 'mashed potato' topping.

Cut the flourets off your cauliflower - I used about a pounds worth (not including the stems). Place in a microwave safe container and add a little bit of water, then cover with syran wrap and microwave for 5-7 minutes. 

Drain any excess water from the cauliflower, and add to a food processor, along with the butter and cream.  Process until you have a smooth, creamy consistency.

Transfer the meat to an 8x8 baking dish, and smooth out.  Next, top the meat mixture with the mashed cauliflower, and spread evenly across the top. 

Place in the oven for 10 minutes.  Remove, and top with shredded cheese. Put back in the oven and cook for another 20 minutes. 

When you take it out of the oven, I would suggest letting it set for 20 minutes or so, for a 'clean' serving attempt, and to let all the flavors settle. 

Cheers!