Turkey Shepherd's Pie

This St. Patrick's Day, it seemed a lot of people I know were planning pretty big food celebrations. Just in my office of 12 alone, we had one person making roasted lamb and colcannon and another making homemade Irish Soda Bread. So even though both my husband and I are standard American mutts with very well blended heritage, I decided that I would do something a little Irish tonight. I purposely made a ton of mashed potatoes on Sunday night for my Cornish Game Hen dinner so that I would have enough leftovers for Shepherd's Pie. The only trouble I was having was that I wasn't finding a recipe that really fit my tastes. So I improvised. I'm sure some Irish would be irked at my technique (ground turkey instead of beef, frozen vegetables, canned gravy), but I was impressed with how quickly this came together. I think next time, I will use more worcestershire sauce and perhaps some pepper and fresh herbs, but otherwise, this was very tasty.

Turkey Shepherd's Pie
1/2 lb Extra Lean Ground Turkey

1/2 medium onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 Tbs Olive Oil

3 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 cup frozen mixed vegetables (I used a Trader Joe's 4 veggie blend of carrots, beans, corn and peas and it was VERY good)

6 oz canned chicken gravy

2 cups mashed potatoes (fresh, leftover, or packaged are all fine)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sautee Onion & Garlic in oil over medium high heat until soft. Add Turkey breast and cook until no longer pink, about 5 minutes, breaking up into bite size pieces. Add Worcestershire Sauce. Add frozen vegetables and saute until thawed. Add gravy and mix well to combine. Pour mixture into an 8" x 8" baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. Top with mashed potatoes and spread over mixture until covered like a crust. Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes, then increase temp. to 450 and bake for 5 minutes more. Allow to cool for at least 5 minutes before cutting. Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition Info per serving: Calories: 233, Fat: 7.1g (1.6 sat, 1.0 poly, 3.6 mono), Carbs: 27.5g, Fiber: 3.9g