It’s prime comfort food time of the year and in my house we love our comfort food! One of our favorite comfort foods is Sheppards pie. But of course I never make anything just “plain” or as one would expect, I have to add a little something to make it just mine! But then I love sharing it with others so they can enjoy it too. I have a bunch of different ways I make Sheppards pie, but last nights was super delicious and I wanted to share it with y’all! I always try to make my recipes as healthy as possible, but don’t cringe!!! Food can still taste good with healthy alterations, I promise! Here is my recipe from last night:

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs of ground turkey

1 small onion diced

2 cloves of garlic minced

1 14oz can of no salt added diced tomatos

1 bag of mixed frozen vegetables of choice (I used a mix of carrots, green beans, lima beans, and corn as that is what I had on hand)

Crushed Red Pepper

Italian seasoning

Ground pepper

1 5lb bag of potatoes good for mashing

shredded sharp cheddar cheese (about 1/2 cup, or what is desired)

I fry the ground turkey with the onions until no longer pink, drain grease. Add garlic and can of tomatoes. Saute for a couple of minutes. At this point I add a good amount of Italian seasoning, some ground pepper and we like spice so a few good shakes of Red Pepper! When this is done I put it into my casserole pan while I wait for the rest to finish. While the ground turkey was cooking I was peeling and dicing potatoes and boiling them for the mashed potatoes as well as I was cooking. the frozen vegetables as stated by package. When the frozen veggie are done, layer them on top of the meat mixture. The final step is those potatoes. When they are done boiling, drain them. Add about 3 tbls of whipped butter, and a whole bunch of skim milk (can you tell I don’t believe in measuring??, it’s all about the texture and taste as I go along!) Mash (I used an electric beater, you can do it by hand if you like) until smooth. Add milk until desired texture. Layer on top of Veggies, top with Sharp cheddar cheese, sprinkle with Italian seasoning and bake at 350 for about 25-30 mins! It’sbest if you can let it set for about 20 mins to settle, cool a little and absorb more of the great flavors!

Now you don’t need the whole 5Lb bag of potatoes, you could leave about 3-4 or so in the bag uncooked, I cook the whole bag because…sadly, somehow, my husband and I who live to eat and love most any food, have 2 children who eat, well, I’ll just say it, THEY ARE PICKY!! We’ve served everything a million times and they still won’t eat it, especially if “the food touches the other food!!”ahhh!!! So in this case I make extra potatoes as I’m already making them and they LOVE mashed potatos!!

As you can see, I have snuck in sodium free tomatoes, we don’t need all that extra sodium in our bodies that so many canned foods offer, and most always  use skim milk. You can and I have before used 75% fat free cheddar, however I did not with this recipe. We love red meat but try to really eat it less frequently than other meats as it really is not all that healthy for us on a regular basis, that is why I use ground turkey, I use ground turkey in many recipes.

I hope that you will try my recipe and love it!! If you do, please let me know what you think! I hope you have a happy Monday:-)