Recipe: Shepherd's Pie

I made Shepherd's Pie for dinner tonight and for a meal in one dish item, the point value really wasn't that bad (~10 pts per serving as I dished it up). The instructions are below along with notes regarding calories/points.

Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients:
- 2.5 pounds of 90%/10% Ground Sirloin
- 2 packages of Betty Crocker 80 cal Instant Red Mashed Potato's
- 1 package of brown gravy
- 1 Package of steam in bag mixed vegetables (corn, carrots, peas, and green beans)
- 7/8s of a package of Kroger brand 2% Milk Shredded Sharp Cheddar

Instructions:
- Somewhere in here, pre-heat your oven to Broil
- Brown the ground beef in a large skillet, seasoning to taste (I'm a big fan of ground black pepper, so that's what I used).
- Make the gravy in a separate pan, allowing it to simmer while you're cooking
- Prep the mashed potatoes (I've had really good luck boiling the water in the microwave and then adding it to the potato mix, as per the "stove top" directions)
- Cook the Mixed Vegetables
- Drain off the excess fat from the ground beef, leaving at least a little bit in the mix
- Mix in the gravy and then the mixed vegetables to the beef in the skillet
- Pour the mixture into a 9x13 baking dish.
- Cover the ground beef mixture with the mashed potatoes
- Cover the potatoes with the shredded cheddar cheese
- Place the pan in the oven for 3 minutes
- Remove from the oven and serve

Serves approximately 8

Calories per serving: 436
Fat per serving: 21g
Fiber per serving: 5g
WW Points per serving: 10

Notes:
- I used 90/10 Ground Sirloin. You can go with a 93/7, but given the nature of Shepherd's Pie, the extra moisture is a good thing. Plus, you end up draining off a lot of the fat before actually putting it in the oven.
- The amount of fat per serving is based off the packaging for the ground beef and not off of the finished amount. Therefore, the actual amount is probably closer to 5-6g, but I had no real way to calculate that. Given this, the point value is actually closer to 8 rather than 10, but I would rather err on the side of recording too many than too few.
- In a 9x13 baking dish, you could likely make 9 servings out of it rather than 8, which would bring the point value down a bit more, but that's entirely up to the person eating it and what they want to do. Eight servings still leaves plenty for left overs after the entire family eats. This will likely be my lunch on Thursday while I'm working from home.

As far as total for cost, it was about $15 or so for all the ingredients, which to feed a full family plus have left overs really isn't a bad deal.