As winter continues to spread its icy fingers over the landscape with gale force winds and snow in the North, there is a hankering for comfort food that is tasty and filling
hong thai travel. Casseroles, stews, hot pots and pies are my “go-to” recipes usually served with piles of fluffy mashed potatoes, acres of fresh, seasonal vegetables and lashings of hot gravy. Well, you can still have comfort food like this when following the 5:2 diet, you just have to cut the fat and bulk up on the vegetables.
We all love Shepherd’s Pie and Cottage Pie in our household . There is something extremely comforting about a big dish of rich potato-topped beef or lamb pie when brought to the winter supper table. All that is needed to complete these tasty dishes are some steamed seasonal greens or root vegetables...we love traditional peas and carrots with our cottage pie, as you can see by my photos!
Today’s recipe for Lighter and Leaner Cottage Pie has an amazing 250 calories per generous serving and contains two of your five a day . By using very lean minced beef (only 5% fat is recommended) and, by omitting butter and full fat milk in the mashed potatoes, you can cut back on calories in a significant way, but not on flavour! This recipe is always a hit in our house, whether it's a low-calorie diet “fast day” or a normal “all-you-can-eat” day. I sometimes make lots of these in individual portions and freeze them for future busy diet days.
This recipe feeds four people with a total of 1,000 calories and can be divided into four portions at a light, lean and low 250 calories per portion. Double the recipe for a crowd and I bet nobody will know that there is less meat and more veggies in this dish. This can be made ahead of time up to the last reheating and browning stage, then just pop it in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes to finish the cooking procedure when you are ready to serve.
