Veggie Heavy Sweet Potato Lamb Shepherd’s Pie

We got this really great pot for Christmas – not last Christmas, but the one before that – and ever since then, I've been wanting to make a Shepherd’s Pie. Trust me when I say that this pot is just begging to cook a Shepherd's Pie. 

I’m embarrassed to say that it’s taken me this long.

Since we decided not to do anything too elaborate for Valentine’s Day this year, I decided I wanted to (yes, finally) make a Shepherd’s Pie. 

Since this dinner was over a year in the making, I knew I had to make it good.

I decided to use lamb, a protein that feels special enough for celebratory dinners like this one, but also holds up so well in comforting, hearty dishes. And because a 3 ounce serving of lamb provides nearly five times the amount of the omega-3 fatty acid, ALA compared to the same serving of beef, incorporating lamb in our Valentine’s Day dinner, or such a heart-focused meal, felt appropriate. 

I added a carrots, celery, and peas, and then topped the lamb stew with one of my favorite vegetables, sweet potatoes. The result made me wonder why I didn’t make this sooner.

Veggie Heavy Sweet Potato Lamb Shepherd’s Pie

Packed with tons of veggies and made with lamb, this easy stew is special enough to make for a celebratory dinner, yet is comforting enough to make any night of the week.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

½ onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 carrots, sliced

2 celery stalks, sliced

1 pound ground lamb

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon oregano

½ teaspoon thyme

2 tablespoons whole wheat flour

½ cup low sodium vegetable broth

1 cup frozen peas

3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

2 tablespoons butter

Directions:

1.     Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.     Fill a large pot with water and add the sweet potatoes. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

3.     Meanwhile, in a oven-safe pot, such as a Dutch oven, saute onion, garlic, carrots, and celery in olive oil until softened.

4.     Add lamb, breaking apart until cooked through, about 7-8 minutes.

5.     Add tomato paste, oregano, thyme, and flour. Stir until mixture thickens, about 1 minute.

6.     Add broth and peas. Allow to simmer for about 10-15 minutes.

7.     Drain the water from the sweet potatoes, and mashed the potatoes until smooth and fluffy. Stir in two tablespoons of butter.

8.     Top the lamb, vegetable mixture with sweet potatoes. Bake for 20 minutes, and then broil at the end of baking time for an additional 1-2 minutes.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: While Lisa and I are consulting dietitians with the Tri-Lamb Group, we are sharing this recipe simply because we want to!

Red Beans & Rice

Growing up in Texas and Louisiana meant loads of delicious meals.  One of my favorite (and easiest!) recipes comes from Southern Louisiana.  Many current Cajun recipes are often thought of as unhealthy, being high in animal fats and a lot of rich dairy.  Traditionally, however, our Cajun ancestors used very wholesome, real foods in these dishes.  This recipe for Red Beans and Rice is a great example of a delicious, healthy Southern meal that emphasizes whole, real foods -- and is perfect for cold weather!

 

Red Beans and Rice

 

Ingredients:

4 cups dark red kidney beans

4  small links of organic Andouille or wild venison sausage (optional)

The “Trinity”:

·   2 stalks of celery, chopped

·   2 small green bell peppers (or 1 large), chopped

·   ½ medium yellow onion, chopped

4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon thyme
1 tablespoon parsley

 Instructions:

 1. Begin by rinsing and soaking your kidney beans overnight.  *This will shorten the cooking time, preserving many of the nutrients, as well as make them more digestible by helping to remove some of the indigestible complex sugars.

 

2. Rinse your soaked beans and, if necessary, boil them in water until completely softened.

3. Slice and cook sausage in a frying pan.  When you remove cooked sausage, place them on paper towels to soak up some of the extra grease.

4. Sauté chopped onions and garlic in the olive oil until onions become translucent (usually 5-10 minutes on medium heat).  Be sure to use a deep pan or dutch oven (cast iron works best to provide rich flavor!).

 

 

5. Stir in bell pepper and celery with onions.  Let cook for 5 minutes.

6. Add parsley, thyme, bay leaves, salt, cayenne pepper, and ground black pepper.

7. Add beans, sausage, and 2 cups of water.

8. Cover and let simmer on low-medium heat for 2 hours.

9. Stir every 30 minutes, adding water when necessary.  The water will thicken as it takes in the vegetables and red beans.

When it’s nice and thick and a deep red color, it’s ready!

Serve over cooked brown rice, and garnish with Tabasco for an extra kick. 

Cornbread goes great with red beans and rice.  Check out this great recipe for some delicious, healthy cornbread here!

Photo courtesy of Douglas P Perkins

 

Enjoy, preferably with those you love!

By our wonderful contributing Blogger, Amanda Breaux!

Sweet Potato & Bean Chili

With autumn in full swing, something about spending the night in and watching a good movie with a big, warm bowl of soup or chili sounds just so…nourishing. Soups, stews, and chilis are always a great go-to meal because they’re easy to prepare, you can load them with nutrition, and they make great leftovers.

This chili recipe comes courtesy of our friend and fellow dietitian, Marcy who made this for us last year. Ever since we had our first bite, we've been hooked! This recipe takes a nice spin on a classic chili by using sweet potatoes, one of our favorite seasonal veggies.

If you’re short on time, using canned beans as opposed to dried ones can make your life a whole lot easier. Just be sure to use low sodium varieties when available or rinse them off before tossing them in. You can also add all the ingredients to your slow-cooker in the morning of afternoon and by dinnertime, it will be ready to eat! 

Sweet Potato and Bean Chili

 Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large red onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon chili powder (optional)

2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon oregano

2 cups low sodium vegetable broth or water

2 medium dark skinned sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into ½” cubes

2   15-ounce cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1   15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed

2   14.5-ounce cans diced fire roasted tomatoes

Cooking Instructions:

1. Heat olive oil in large stock pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté until golden brown. 

2. Add garlic, spices and herbs and stir 1 minute. 

3. Add broth or water and potatoes. Cover pan; reduce heat to medium and simmer until potatoes are almost tender, about 15 minutes. 

4. Add tomatoes with their juices and beans. Simmer uncovered until chili thickens and potatoes are very tender, about 20 minutes. 

Ideas for topping are salsa, shredded cabbage, guacamole, a dollop of low-fat Greek yogurt  or cheese.

Copyright 2010, Marcy Johnson, Original recipe.

More Comfort Food

We’re a little ashamed to admit this, but we want to be honest with our readers (and, let’s face it—we’re only human, and sometimes-irrational women) -- this week has been filled with quite a few tears followed by uncontrollable spurts of laughter.

Waking up on Sunday morning, we plopped ourselves on the sofa in our PJ’s with our morning cups of coffee in hand, turning on something that makes everything right in the world again.  CMT’s country music videos.  Don’t judge us.  And we also cuddled with the cats.  Thank you, estrogen.

So, with that out of the way, let’s talk about food, shall we?  

Comfort food has continued to play an essential role in our menu this week.  With our emotions running high and the weather taking a sudden turn from sunny and glorious to rainy and overcast, we’ve been in need of some meals to nourish the soul.  With Lisa being a southern girl from Kentucky and McKenzie being a northern girl from Canada, our ideas of comfort food are different, to say the very least. 

When McKenzie’s feeling homesick for Alberta, she craves steamed carrots from her Grandma’s garden, paired with good old-fashioned meat and potatoes.  When Lisa envisions a meal at Granny’s house in Kentucky, it’s a big bowl of pinto beans with a hearty serving of warm cornbread.  McKenzie’s first taste of cornbread wasn’t until about four years ago when she sampled it at Big Sky Café in San Luis Obispo (and Lisa doesn’t even consider it cornbread – cornbread shouldn’t be sweet!), and her first taste of biscuits and gravy wasn’t until about three months ago at Emmer & Rye in Seattle.  Shocking, right? 

For McKenzie’s fellow Canadians, probably not.  For Lisa’s fellow Southerners, it’s appalling.  So, for a special comforting Sunday brunch, Lisa cooked up her own version of biscuits and gravy.  While it may not sound like the kind of meal dietitians would normally recommend, it was just want our bodies needed – and our portions were reasonable too.  For extra nourishment, the biscuits were made with whole grain flour and flaxseeds.  See, we really are dietitians.

Whole Wheat Biscuits

Makes 6 large biscuits

1 cup whole wheat bread flour

1 cup white bread flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons ground flax seed

1 teaspoon sea salt

4 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 cup kefir or buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In the bowl of a food processor, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, flax seed and salt.  Pulse a few times to blend.  Add the putter and pulse until the butter is in pea-sized pieces.

Pour the flour mixture into a mixing bowl and add the kefir or buttermilk.  Gently stir with a wooden spoon, just until moistened.  The dough will be loose.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 3 – 5 times, just until the dough comes together.  If you knead the dough too much, the biscuits will be tough.

Press the dough out into a disc, about 1 inch thick.  Cut the biscuits to your desired size (we use the rim of a drinking class to do this).  Place the biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet.  Brush the tops with melted butter, if desired. 

Bake the biscuits until golden brown, 15 – 18 minutes.  Serve warm, with sausage gravy.

As if that comfort meal wasn’t enough, we’ve been giving Martha Stewart a run for her money in the baking department.  Nothing is quite as comforting as a house that smells of freshly baked cookies or a warm pie out of the oven.  We love baking at home because we know exactly what we’re putting into the recipe, and subsequently, our bodies.

These are our favorite cookies.

Chocolate Cherry Walnut Oatmeal Cookies

Make 12 large cookies or 24 small cookies

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon sea salt

10 tablespoon (1 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup sugar

½ (packed) dark brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or the seeds from 1 vanilla bean)

1 cup old fashioned oats

½ cup dark chocolate chips

½ cup chopped dried cherries

¼ cup chopped walnuts (or other nuts of your choice)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl to blend. In a large separate bowl, beat butter and both sugars until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture and oats and stir until blended. Stir in chocolate chips, cherries, and walnuts.

Drop batter by rounded tablespoons onto the baking sheets.  Bake cookies until edges are light brown, about 16 minutes. Cool on the cooking sheet for about 5 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool completely.

Another great thing about baking at home is you can portion out an appropriate serving and freeze the rest or give the extras away.  What neighbor or friend doesn’t appreciate homemade goodies? 

Lastly, we’re firm believers in allowing yourself to have a treat now and then. If you banish all indulgences from your diet completely, you’ll be more likely to binge on them when you finally give yourself the go-ahead.

Our social calendar continues to stay busy this week, including fish tacos and chicken tortilla soup later tonight.  Hopefully, we can maintain our composure long enough to share more of our healthy tips and stories with you.