Mar 1, 2010

Shepard's Pie, Lightened Up




Celebrate St. Patrick's Day with this lightened Shepard's Pie, filled with lean beef, skinny mashed potatoes and lots of vegetables. You can make this a day ahead and bake it when you are ready to eat. This would also be great with chopped turkey.



Shepard's Pie, Lightened Up
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 6 • Serving Size: 10.5 oz • Old Points: 6 pts Points+: 7 pts
Calories: 290.5 • Fat: 11.1 g • Protein: 16.8 g • Carb: 31.5 g • Fiber: 4.9 g   

Potatoes:
  • 1-1/2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, diced
  • 3/4 cup fat free chicken broth
  • 2 tbsp fat free sour cream
  • salt and pepper
  • paprika
Filling:
  • 1 lb 95% lean ground beef
  • 1 tsp oil
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 celery stalk, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, diced
  • 8 oz mushrooms, diced
  • 10 oz frozen mixed vegetables (carrots, corn, peas, green beans, baby lima beans)
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 1 cup fat free beef broth
  • 2 tsp tomato paste
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tsp freshly chopped rosemary leaves
  • 1 tsp freshly chopped thyme leaves
  • salt and pepper

Boil potatoes in water until cooked and soft. Drain and mash with chicken broth, sour cream, salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 400°.

In a large saute pan brown meat. Season with salt and pepper. When cooked, set aside on a plate. Discard any fat in the pan, add oil, onion and garlic and sauté on medium heat about 2 minutes. Add mushrooms and celery and sauté another 3-4 minutes. Add flour, salt and pepper and mix well. Add frozen vegetables, beef broth, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, rosemary, thyme, chopped meat and mix well. Simmer on low about 5-10 minutes.

Spread the meat mixture on the bottom of a 11x7 glass baking dish. Top with mashed potatoes, using a fork to scrape the top to make ridges and sprinkle with paprika. Bake 20 minutes or until potatoes turn golden. Remove from oven and let it cool 10-15 minutes before serving.



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102 comments:

  1. I bet you could use ground bison and/or ground turkey too! (it might bother the purest folks but hey!)This looks oh so yummy!

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  2. WOW! I was just looking to see if you had a reciepe for this last week! YOU ARE AWESOME!

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  3. That looks delicious. I love Shepard's pie, so I'll have to keep that in mind when I'm craving comfort food.

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  4. Yum, Gina. This looks delish. We're having your enchiladas tonight. This will be later in the week!

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  5. @Regina- Sure, why not! Ground lamb as well. If you buy very lean beef it doesn't effect the points much by switching to turkey, but I'm sure it would taste great with turkey too.

    Had to post something for all my Irish readers!

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  6. Would it work or be more point-efficient to use mashed cauliflower on the top??

    Looks amazing!

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  7. YAWN, another delicious meal...lol I'm just teasin ya! One of these day's I'm just going to show up fro dinner! lol :) OH TWITTER- Im gonna follow...

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  8. All right, I'm bookmarking you right this instant! I'm getting back on WW and I really want to succeed this time. I think your recipes will be a big help. :)

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  9. Quick question could I use russett potatoes for this? Are they less or more point or does it even make a difference?

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  10. Wahoo! I'll be using this on St Pat's day for sure. :D Thanks! Deb

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  11. Yes, you can you russet instead, same points.

    Cauliflower mash is another option, it would lower the points a great deal if you did so and would be a low carb option.

    I'm thinking of making Irish soda bread soon, I love Irish soda bread!! Stay tuned :)

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  12. Company St. Patty's luncheon and I'm dieting. This will be my contribution. I've tried several of your recipes, so I'm not worried that it won't be enjoyed. Thanks for the help.

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  13. A friend recommended your site - WOO HOO! I just rejoined WW Online and need some new recipes. My husband is so extremely picky. And I LOVE St. Patrick's Day, so I will make this for sure! I will just leave the mushrooms out of half of it so that my husband will not complain. :P (I can make the lines on the potatoes go different ways so I know which is the "me" side and which is the "him" side!)

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  14. Love recipes! My son has Celiacs and needs to be Gluten Free, but most of your recipes are VERY easy to adapt....if they are not already GF!
    Thanks! Joy

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  15. looks wonderful!
    I love the recipes that you share!!!

    ~Andrea

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  16. I wanted to make shepherds pie and was going to look for a recipe then I got your email. Thanks!!!

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  17. @Anonymous- Aww, that's sweet!

    @Julie - What a great idea to change the pattern for the side with no mushrooms, love it!

    @Dave- Thank you! - Leave out the flour to make it Gluten Free.

    @Zayda- Let me know how it comes out!

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  18. Made this last night. It is delicious!!! Thank you so much. Love your ideas.
    ~Jen

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  19. Your cottage pie (b/c it's made with any meat other than lamb) looks amazing!! I can't believe it's healthy.

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  20. I love shepard's pie!

    When I do my topping, I use a head of cauliflower and one potato - that way it lowers the calories but still has more of a potato texture and taste.

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  21. I just made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious! I used Morning Star crumbs since we're mainly vegetarian. The hubby loved it and the kids thought it was ok. I think next time I make it I'll do half potato/half cauliflower for the top. Thanks for a great recipe.

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  22. I made this recipe and I can't believe how good it is and how low in points! It was a great success!

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  23. I made this for dinner Saturday night and it was a huge hit! Thank you!

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  24. This was wonderful! I don't like mushrooms so i chopped them up super fine & didn't even notice them in there. :-) I also added a 16oz bag of veggies instead of 10oz just cause that's what i had. I used dried instead of fresh herbs too & didn't peel the potatoes (it's just family so why bother!). Thanks for a great dinner (and some great lunches from the leftovers!)

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  25. Glad you all like it!

    @Gwen- More veggies can never hurt! And yes, this makes great leftovers for lunch!

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  26. I am making this tonight but doing regular and sweet potatoes together! I love that you put mushrooms in this!

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  27. @Sarah - It should be great mixed with sweet potatoes!

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  28. Made this last night for dinner (eliminate the mushrooms and increased the veggies) and the family LOVED it! Thanks for the great recipes - keep them comin'!!!

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  29. I was wondering if you thought dried herbs would work with this? I'm mostly a fresh herbs type of girl, but with 2 sick kiddos, I'm not able to get out to the store today and was planning on making this tonight. If so, what ratio?

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  30. @Joy, hope the kiddos get well! Sure, dried rosemary and thyme has a lot of flavor. You may want to use a little less and taste it for flavor. Enjoy!

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  31. I've done it with ground turkey breast and mashed cauliflower. Soooo good.

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  32. This was such a hit at dinner tonight. And yes, it is WONDERFUL with lean turkey. Thanks for sharing!!

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  33. In the process of making it! Only ten more mins until it comes out of the oven! It smells and look amazing! Thank you for sharing! I have been looking for a good shepards pie recipe!!

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  34. I have made this before and it is delicious. I tried it a second time and subsituted the mashed potatoes for mashed cauliflower, you hardly notice the difference and it cuts down the carbs if you are watching that.

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  35. I made this last night! I used lean ground turky and added lots more veggies! MMM MMM Good! Couldn't believe it! I gave your website a shout out on my new weight loss blog. You have the most wonderful recipes and can't wait to try others!

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  36. Made this for dinner tonight. I bought 80/20 instead of extra lean (stupid me for just grabbing from the shelf instead of glancing at the package), so I drained it and then rinsed it with it hot water before adding it back to the pan. The points will be higher than listed, but that is ok. Live and learn!

    It was SO good too. Perfect comfort food. I ended up splitting it into two 8x8 pans and putting one in the freezer for another time. Yay for make-ahead meals!

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  37. I love this recipe, I used half potatoes and half cauliflower nobody could taste the difference, until I told them. I also added more fresh vegetables, and used half ground chicken and half very lean ground beef...As stated nobody knew until I told them how healthy they were eating, and they were amazed at the flavour. It was great!! Thanks :)

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  38. I found your site yesterday when I browsed the internet for WW recipes, and I'm so happy I did! Made your Shepard's pie today and we loved it :)
    Best regards, Johanna from Sweden.

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  39. Made this last night and what a hit! No one could tell I did half potatoes and half cauliflower...even me! I'm no veggie lover so I put the veggies in the food processor so my family would leave the chunks of veggies out. Everyone thought it was delicious! Thanks Gina, not a single one of your recipes I've tried has failed!

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  40. I love how everyone changed this recipe. I'll have to try it with half potato half cauliflower next time!

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  41. I use half ruderbager and half potatoes for my topping and it is delicious as well.

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  42. Made it last night and used ground turkey, homemade turkey stock with a little red wine, and added carrots instead of the frozen veggies - it was delicious!

    I really want to try this Cottage Pie with the mashed cauliflower, it sounds delicious!

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  43. I am making this tonight for the first time, but like the previous poster said, every recipe of yours that I've tried has turned out great! The greek meatballs with the greek sauce as a gyro was a huge hit with the guys, they had no idea it was WW! I made my whole weeks menu with your recipes :)

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  44. Great Jennifer, I hope you enjoy it.

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  45. I had this tonight, but topped with mashed cauliflower it was good.

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  46. ddaaaannnnnngggggg gina. this was SO GOOD. i made it tonight to the rave reviews of hubby. i've made close to 12 of your dishes in the past 3 weeks (resolution was to try new recipes... guess i'm achieving that goal!!), and every one turns out so incredibly delicious. WW is gonna be a breeze with food like this. thank you for all you do!!!

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  47. I cannot believe this is only 7 points!

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  48. Made this last night and it turned out great! I omitted the mushrooms though since my family doesn't like them.
    Tonight I'm making the Minestrone Soup!! I'm so glad that I found this website!

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  49. Made this tonight and was very impressed. Wife enjoyed it. Followed recipe as is. Read so many great reviews it is hard to decide what to make next, but I guess that is the fun part.

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  50. OMG....this is goood! Made it last night. Used ground turkey (it was defrosted) with boxed potatoes. Didn't have rosemary so threw in some herbs de provence. My family gobbled it up! Love your recipes! Thanks!

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  51. Wonderful...again!!! We loved it here in Michigan. Its been full on winter and we needed comfort food. This was a great. It was a healthy, updated version of my mom's shepard's pie. I have been dreaming about this recipe since I saw it weeks ago. It was everything I dreamed. YUMMMM!

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  52. I made this tonight and came up with 5 points on the recipe builder and I even added the frozen vegetables. What did i do wrong?

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  53. We ate this last week! It was so good! Thank you for the incredible recipes. Keep them coming. :)

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  54. I made this recipe for my book club last night. We just read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (FABULOUS book) and I wanted to make something that resemebled a "potato pie", so I decided on this. EVERYONE raved about it and NO one new it was a WW friendly dish. Amazing recipe Gina!

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    1. Love that book! Just starting a book club here. Will have to suggest it. Great idea on "potato pie"!

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  55. This was fan-freakin-tastic...

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  56. I made this yesterday (my MIL was in from NJ and I wanted something new for St. Patrick's day). My grocery had fresh diced veggies so I used those instead of frozen. I also used store bought fresh mashed potatoes (I wasn't going to have the time to make them myself) and I used some Kitchen Bouquet (which is an old fashioned ingredient to punch up stews and soups) instead of the Worcestershire (which I didn't have). It was SO good that my MIL had two servings. We have enough for leftovers tonight.

    Another winner!

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  57. I'm going to make this tonight with Boca protein (fake ground meat). If this works, my Irish vegetarian husband is going to fall in love with me 1,000 times over again.

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  58. I made this tonight, and it was great. Very tasty and my husband is really enjoying it (as I type). It is surprisingly a lot of food for the points. I even used 1.25 lbs of ground beef and more veggies, and WW recipe builder calculated it as 7 P+ per serving. I will definitely make this again!

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  59. Another great recipe. I think I will try the half cauliflower, half potato next time.

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  60. This was so delicious!! I made the topping with purreed cauliflower and some butter but otherwise followed the recipe.

    Can't wait to choose the next dish to make :)

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  61. Gina, You are AMAZING!! I made this last night and it was sooo good!!! Thank you so much for posting theses recipes!! You're a rockstar!

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  62. Hi there. This looks well tasty but I really feel like I should point out that a shepherds pie uses lamb... hence the word shepherd in the title. Cottage pie contains beef. Still, it looks great and I love the idea some other posters have mentioned about mashing cauliflower for the topping. I have been inspired for tomorrow nights tea (I have a ton of cauliflower to use up). I won't be using beef though, I use Quorn which is a soya based fake meat mince- high protein and low fat/ low cals. Yum! Thanks for these recipes Gina, I have loved everyone I have looked at so far!

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  63. Shepards pie is made with lamb hence the reference to shepards anything else is cottage pie

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  64. Anonymous and Anonymous - GET OVER IT!!! When you start a blog, you can put LAMB in your "shephard's pie". I can tell you that the rest of us who follow Gina's blog are NOT worried about offending the shephard's who are referenced in the name shephard's pie!! We are just thankful for all of Gina's amazing recipes! And as you can see, many people changed the recipe to suit their own needs and tastes, that is what a recipe is all about!!!! Making this tonight Gina and I for one...can't wait! :)

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  65. This recipe looks delicious. I have heard a lot about using cauliflower instead of potatoes but not sure how. I am eager to try this. Can you help???

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  66. I made this and it was delicious....good one..Gina, Thanks....

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  67. Hey Gina, this recipe looks fantastic! Just curious if you have any suggestions on adapting it to be vegetarian? Could I substitute veggie ground round for the ground beef? Or maybe lentils? Thanks for your ideas and inspiration!

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  68. I think veggie ground would be a better replacement.

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  69. Another great hit!!! So easy to follow and good :D

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  70. This was beyond great! I wouldn't change a thing!

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  71. Is the serving size really 10.5 oz and only 7pts??? That seems like a lot of food and not that many points. I have already made this and it is wonderful. I just want to make sure I am calculating my points right!

    I love this blog!!!

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  72. As long is you divide it equally between 6 you should be ok.

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  73. Hi Gina, Made this once already but didn't cover it. The potatoes kinda dreis out but it was delish. Think I'llmake it tomorrow nite and bake it covered for a while them take the foil off and try and get the potatoes brown. Thanks for you website..I appreciate it. Debbie

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  74. Wow, so good, just made for dinner...as usuall, had to add a teaspoon of corn starch to thicken. Florida thins everything, sauce, blood. But extremely good. Bruce had 2 helpings, but he rarely eats during the day. :-)

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  75. this was delicious! I used red bell pepper, spinach, carrots, green beans and onions for my veggie mix. Didn't have Worcestershire or tomato paste but it was good with what I had!

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  76. This is indeed cottage pie, not shepherd's pie. It's not a criticism of Gina, it just seems to be a misunderstanding in America, and to Michelle, it's not about offending shepherds(!) but more like making burgers and calling them hotdogs. Also Ireland is not part of Britain.

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  77. Another hit at our house! This was a nice, comforting dish. The only changes I made was to use the 12 oz. bag of mixed vegetables, and I used chicken broth in the gravy, because I didn't want to open two different cans of broth. Looking forward to leftovers tomorrow.

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  78. I've made this twice since I found the recipe last week and we LOVE it. It's great making the night before and my day is that much better when I know I'll be having this for dinner! The portions are very generous for the points. Thanks Gina!!

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  79. Im curious how mashed cauliflower is done? I'm new to healthy cooking...help please!

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  80. I have a recipe for cauliflower puree.

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  81. Hi Gina! I made this tonight and just like all of your recipes it turned out won-der-ful!! You've been my heroine this year - I've been cooking your recipes and talking about how delicious they are and how exquisite your blog is all the time! Thank you for all the inspiration and joy! I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

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  82. Do you know what the break down of points would be if you used your cauliflower puree instead of potatoes?

    I am in love with your website!! Thanks!!

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  83. We thought the thyme and rosemary was a bit overwhelming in this recipe. I want to make it again without these seasonings.

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  84. Made this tonight and it was FABULOUS!! I can not wait for the left overs i have packed for lunch tmrw!

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  85. Gina, your site is fantastic! For the past two weeks i've been making your recipes for dinner and we are thrilled with the results!

    I do have a question on this one... I cook for two, just my significant other and I. This makes A LOT. I didn't have an 11x7 so I split it between my 5x9 and 8x8. Do you think I'd be able to cook one now, freeze one and then pull it out in a few weeks to finish cooking?? Thank you so much for the wonderful site!

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  86. I was not a big fan of this one...The mashed potatoes were pretty gross, I even added a bit of Light Butter and Skim milk for more flavor but they just didn't quite taste right. I did enjoy the Rosemary & Thyme it added great flavor to the broth.

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  87. I am going to do this by topping with cauliflower mashed potatoes.....adds more veggies to the dish......

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  88. I made this tonight and thought the flavor was great! I used smoke paprika on the spuds (which I thought were simple and a nice addition to the overall dish), and I think it added a nice note to everything. My veggie-hating hubby didn't love it, but he did go back for seconds, so I see that as a success! Thanks for another yummy dish!!

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  89. i came across this recipe and thought there is no way this could be good because of the simple ingredients. however, i gave it a shot last night and i'm so glad i did. not only was it very flavorful, but it was the prefect comfort food in this cold weather. thank you skinnytaste!!!!!

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  90. Thank you so much for creating this recipe! Major comfort food cravings happening here, and this was a nice healthy way to satisfy them. I ended up drizzling a little bit of ketchup into the mixture (just personal taste), and used smoked paprika instead of regular. Very tasty!

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  91. loved this! i'm a huge shepard's pie fan but i'm trying not to eat it right now when i'm trying to lose weight...this was delicious and so full of flavor! i put spinach in mine as well and did happen to add a bit of cheddar on top...oops! :) i drizzled some ketchup on mine when eating it as well. thanks so much!

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  92. After a friend made this for dinner at her place last week, I knew I had to make it! And it was super easy! I didn't have a big enough pan, so I put it in 3 loaf pans. Two are in the freezer, and one is in the fridge for tomorrow's dinner. Thanks!

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  93. Made this for Friday night's dinner. Delicious. Leftovers were fantastic tonight. Every single recipe I've made from Skinnytaste.com has been fabulous. I mentioned how great this website was at our Weight Watchers meeting. Thank you, Gina.

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