Week 5, Day 3

breakfast
low-cal english muffin (1 pt)
1 fried egg (2 pts)
2 slices turkey bacon (2 pts)
coffee (1 pt)
1/2 orange (0 pt)

lunch
big salad:
romaine lettuce (0 pts)
baby spinach leaves (0 pts)
beets (0 pts)
carrots (0 pts)
a couple spoonfuls of garbanzo beans (1 pt)
drizzled with balsamic vinegar (0 pts)
1/2 a 10" frozen cheese pizza (12 pts)

Dinner
two bites of nasty shepherd's pie (1 pt?)
1 naval orange (1 pt)

Total points = 21 points
Activity point = 1 (for shoveling snow)
Points used = 20 (used 2 flex points)

SNOW DAY!!!! :-)




I'm going to make this recipe tonight for dinner:



Turkey Shepherd's Pie
with Mashed Sweet Potatoes


POINTS® Value: 6
Servings: 6
Preparation Time: 20 min
Cooking Time: 40 min
Level of Difficulty: Moderate

Ingredients
1 large sweet potato(es), peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1/3 cup(s) buttermilk
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp table salt, or to taste
1/8 tsp black pepper, freshly ground, or to taste
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup(s) red onion(s), chopped
2 medium garlic clove(s), minced
6 medium baby carrots, chopped
20 oz raw turkey sausage, sweet Italian-variety, casings removed
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
10 3/4 fl oz canned tomato soup, made with low-fat milk
Instructions

* Preheat oven to 400ºF.

* Place potatoes in a medium saucepan and pour in enough water to cover potatoes. Set pan over high heat and bring to a boil; boil until fork-tender, about 8 minutes. Drain potatoes; return potatoes to pan. Mash potatoes with buttermilk and garlic powder until smooth; season to taste with salt and pepper.

* Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté until tender, about 3 minutes. Add carrots; sauté 1 minute. Remove vegetables from skillet; set aside.

* Add sausage to skillet; sauté until browned, breaking up sausage as it cooks with a wooden spoon, about 5 minutes. Return vegetables to skillet; stir to combine. Add oregano, thyme and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper; cook 1 minute. Add soup; simmer until liquid is absorbed and mixture is thick, about 2 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and spoon mixture into a 9-inch pie plate.

* Spoon mashed potatoes over turkey mixture and spread into an even layer using the back of a wooden spoon.

* Bake until filling is bubbly, about 25 minutes. Slice into 6 pieces and serve. Yields 1 piece per serving.

***************

I stopped by the grocery store last night after work and it was a ZOO!! People were going nuts in anticipation for the snow. I have never seen such empty shelves at the Safeway!

They were out of turkey sausage, but I had some ground turkey in the freezer at home, so I just bought some spices and am going to fake the turkey "sausage". They were also out of milk (MILK! yikes!) so I bought a can of tomato soup that was labeled "creamy tomato soup". I saw that it had milk in the ingredients list and each serving was only 2 pts, so I figured it was close enough. We'll see how it goes. Will update with pics later!

::::EDIT:::::
yuck. the recipe was NOT good. Maybe the recipe as-written is good, but my modified turkey sausage and milk substitute were big failures. I took two bites and decided it wasn't worth the points. Thankfully, John is not a picky eater and thought it was good enough to eat. Guess who will be eating turkey shepherd pie for the next two days? Hint: it won't be me. ;-)