The Skinny Shepherd

As all of you parents know, coming up with dinner ideas to keep the fam excited, is hard to do.  it is even harder if you have someone who has food restrictions, or, like me, is just trying to eat healthier.

Almost every day, Evan says "what's for dinner?" and 1 of two things happen.  I irritably reply "I don't know Evan, why don't you help me think of something?"  Or, I say "I'm not sure, baby, let me find something that looks good." and then this leads into a 2 hour sort through Pinterest - the black hole of all websites, followed by a 3 store grocery shopping extravaganza to find all the right ingredients. 

The question came up the other night, and as I was milling about my "food fantasies" pin board, I found a Shepherds Pie that looked like a big warm hug.  Big warm hugs of food are what make me pack on weight like a bear heading into hibernation, so I thought I'd try a lighter version.  The good news is - it was AMAZING.  The bad news is, because it was a "lighter" version, we both ate twice as much.  uggh. 

So here it is.  I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of it, hindsight is 20/20.  

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey

1 package frozen mixed veggies

1/2 yellow onion

garlic

1/2 pack of cream cheese (room temp)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 head cauliflower

Instructions

brown the turkey and the onion and one clove of garlic.  add in the mixed veggies until soft and warm, then mix in the can of cream of mushroom soup.  Pour this mixture into a dish (I don't know what size, I'm not Martha Stewart)

Boil the whole head of cauliflower.  Drain and mash.  I don't have a masher, so I oversteamed it and mashed it with a fork.  Mix in the cream cheese, use a microplane to grate 1 large clove of garlic into the cauliflower mix.  Salt and pepper to taste.  (at this point it should look like mashed potatoes)

Pour the cauliflower mix on top of the meat and veggie mix and smooth the top.  Throw this whole thing in the oven for 20 mins at 350 degrees to warm it all together.

There you go!

It's SO yummy.  It was kid friendly too!  Oh, and I have absolutely no information to back up why I call it a "lighter" version of a shepherds pie.  I guess I figure sans potato and sub turkey for red meat, it's probably lighter, but who knows.