Shepherd's Pie with Horseradish Cheddar Mashed Potatoes

Shepherd's pie is one of those dishes Craig has been begging me to make for years. I have never tried it, since I'm generally turned off by super heavy comfort type foods. It always seemed like a very unhealthy and labor intensive dish to make.

Well. I decided to give it a try this weekend. Craig and I celebrated Valentine's Day a bit late. On Saturday, he took me up to the White Mountains to finally try snowmobiling! I have been wanting to try it for years, and I actually had it on my list of things to try before I turn 30. We went on a tour up through the mountains and it was so beautiful. More importantly, snowmobiling was so. much. fun. I had a blast. I only wish the instructors had let us drive faster! It was a great way to spend a beautiful Saturday. So when we got home, I finally made Craig the shepherd's pie he's been requesting.

Having no clue how to make this dish, I primarly got my inspiration from an article in Men's Journal that Craig had shown me a few months ago. I found an online version here. I started with the suggestions in the article and sort of made my own modifications. I tried to cram in a lot of delicious root veggies and kept the mashed potatoes as low calorie as I could. For flavors, I used thyme and bay leaves, as the article suggested and then used horseradish to flavor the potatoes. I bought a huge horseradish root this weekend, so I'll be incorporating it into a whole bunch of recipes this week.

The result was delicious. The preparation is pretty straightforward and easy to put together. I was really impressed with the delicious flavors and found the veggies added great texture to the dish. As expected, it falls into the super filling, comfort food category, the sort of meal that makes you feel sleepy when you're finished. I can officially say I'm a shepherd's pie convert! I am already envisioning all sorts of variations to this simple recipe.

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Chicken and Dumplings

So this weekend I was talking to my Grandma Jackie on the phone and she suggested I make chicken and dumplings for the blog. I've never made this dish, I've never even tasted this dish, but I decided to accept her challenge. She's a Brooklyn girl, but for the last decade or so she's lived down in Texas, so she wanted me to whip up some Southern comfort food. I was initially wary about creating my own version of this dish. I wanted to find a way to make it comforting and delicious without a ton of added calories and sodium. I compromised by cutting out butter, using lean chicken breast and low sodium chicken broth, and substituting whole wheat flour instead of white. To add lots of delicious flavor, I used fresh herbs. I also flavored the dumplings themselves with rosemary and black pepper.

I was shocked by how incredibly tasty and filling this dish was. It was simple to make and really comforting. The only thing I would do differently is to try and keep the dumpling size uniform. The dough was so sticky I had trouble getting them the same size.

Full recipe after the jump
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Lasagna with Spinach and Chicken Sausage

Lasagna is an ultimate comfort food, but generally far from a healthy choice. This is my cleaner version of a classic lasagna and I've tried to make easy substitutions to decrease the fat, calories and sodium while increasing the protein and fiber.

This recipe makes one large 10" x 14" tray - but another idea is to buy two smaller 8" x 8" aluminum trays, make one and freeze the other. This gives you a great meal you can easily defrost anytime and eliminates the possibility of over indulgence.

Full recipe and photos after the jump.
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