Eating a proper diet is a bigger part of not being “fat” than anything else you do. If you workout 12 hours a week but eat an unbalanced and unhealthy diet you will not see the results you desire. There is a lot of advice out there on what the “right” diet it; you have surely heard all the diet types from the Atkins to Weight Watchers, everyone has an opinion on what the world should eat.
No matter what diet you choose, it is pretty much universally accepted that a home cooked meal is better for you than (most) take out meals. With this in mind, Digital Mustard and I have been doing a lot of home cooking from scratch. We have found that the Buzz Feed Food powered “Tasty” facebook page has a lot of interesting, but easy, recipes for us to try. I am going to try to show you my tries at making some of these recipes. Tonight, it is from “Proper Tasty” and is called “Shepherd’s Pie Stuffed Potatoes”. Here is the recipe:
Here’s what you need:
1/2 Onion
1 Carrot
500g lean beef mince
50 g frozen peas
worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp thyme
190 ml beef stock
1 Tbsp flour
salt
pepper
knob of butter
2 Tbsp Milk
6 Potatoes
Directions:
Prick the potatoes with a fork and heat on full power in the microwave for 10 minutes. Allow to cool while you make the filling.
Dice and fry the onion on a medium heat until it slightly wilts. Dice the carrot and add it to the pan, cooking for 3 minutes. Add the mince and break it up with a spoon. Cook until browned, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper.
Stir in the frozen peas and cook for a further two minutes.
Add a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, the thyme and the beef stock then sprinkle over 1 Tbsp of flour. Stir again, then cook for 5-10 minutes until the sauce is reduced.
Cut the microwaved potatoes in half and scoop out most of the soft filling with a spoon, leaving a thin layer of potato around the edge of the skin.
Add the butter, milk and some salt & pepper to the cooked potato and mash it until creamy.
Fill the hollowed out potatoes with the beef mixture.
Using a piping bag or ziplock bag with a small corner cut off, pipe the mashed potatoes on top of the beef mixture.
Bake in the centre of a preheated oven at 200°C/400°F for 15 to 18 minutes until the mashed potato has browned to perfection.
Proper Tasty (Click for video)And here is how it went for me:
First step was to cook the potatoes in the microwave which is easy enough if all the potatoes are the same size. The directions call for 10 minutes at full power; I used 11 minutes and still ran into problems with underdone potatoes. I’d recommend 12+ minutes for larger potatoes to make sure they are soft inside.
If they are not soft inside, the gutting of the potato can be a problem and you could end up damaging the potato. Do not let this deter you though, even if you end up with a broken potato they are still able to hold the meat mixture.
The meat mixture is REALLY easy to make. I would recommend cooking the carrots a little bit longer though as they came out a little crunchy for our liking. Otherwise this meat mixture is delicious. I also took some time to drain the fat because I used an 88-12 ground beef (or mince) and just thought this was a good thing to do.
Final Thought and rating:
I give this recipe a 4.5 out of 5, a definite repeat. I love mashed potatoes and I love meat. Mixing the two results in just deliciousness! I will remake this with larger potatoes, cook the carrots and potatoes a bit longer. It is a little potato heavy so the thinner you can hollow out the better off you are. Estimated nutrition information is below. I am not sure how great it will be as a leftover, but I will find out tomorrow.
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