Week 6 - Day 10

My Food:

Breakfast: Breakfast salad

Lunch: Taco salad (head of romaine with our taco topping), salsa, and about 4 low-salt tortilla chips

Snack: handful of popcorn popped in coconut oil (grrrr....)

Dinner:  Full plate of dinner salad (romaine, carrots, cucumber, raisins, sunflower seeds) topped with our cashew Italian dressing, Lentil and Vegetable Shepherd's Pie

Note: Salad Bar courtesy of this cute kitchen crew!

My Exercise:

 

Walk downtown with the fam

My Thoughts: 

Today felt a little sloggy.  (that's slow-groggy, if you care) I was up with the baby a lot last night and I'm just sort of drained from being over-tired.  That left me feeling really snacky this afternoon. I caved and helped myself to the popcorn the girls were eating. It was soooo good. Too good.  I ate one handful and put the rest right back because I knew I was about to binge on it.  So, even though I'm not happy I gave in to the snacking, I guess I am happy I was able to think quick and put it back and avoid that binge.

The dinner I made tonight was REALLY good. Well, I made it on Saturday so all I had to do was heat it up tonight. The mashed potatoes were the best I've ever made.  I had a good sized helping, but a lot of what was on my plate was veggies and lentils. 



That's good Monday Night comfort food, right there, folks!

So satisfying. I'll type up the recipe below, as I did alter the original shepherd's pie recipe I used quite a bit. 

Looking Ahead:

Tonight my husband encouraged us all to go for a walk after dinner. That was good, even though I wanted to be lazy and curl up in front of the fire.  Tomorrow we will be walking to karate with our boys. The next night we will walk to rehearsal, Thursday we'll walk to karate again. That leaves Friday and Saturday to find some other form of *exercise* for the day, as we also walk downtown on Sunday for rehearsal.

I guess it's not really *exercise* since it's just a casual, short walk, but it's more than I have been doing so I'm going to start counting it. I'm hopeful it will increase soon, but it's good to at least look at the positive things I'm doing right now.
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The Veggie Shepherd's Pie
(this made 2 9x13 pans, adjust to your needs)

6 medium carrots, diced
3-4 large stalks of celery, diced
1 onion, diced
1/2 - 1 package mushrooms, diced
1 cup of fresh or frozen greens, diced (kale, spinach, chard, collards)
1-2 cups frozen corn (or mixed veggies, peas, green beans, any kind of veggies you like, really)
10-12 medium sized potatoes, washed, roughly chopped (I leave the skins on)
1.5 cups vegetable broth
1 cup dry lentils (or 2-3 cups of cooked lentils. I used some leftover cooked lentils from the fridge for the recipe tonight and it turned out great. Budget-friendly way to use up leftovers and feed the fam)
1 15oz can of cannellini beans, drained, pureed
1/2 - 1 cup almond milk
1-2 TBS minced garlic

Cook dry lentils for about 25 minutes (or according to package instructions)

Boil the potatoes for 20 minutes or until soft. Add the pureed beans, garlic, and almond milk.  Whip with hand-held mixer until creamy, adding milk as needed.

Bring vegetable stock to a boil in a large sauce pan. Chop all veggies and simmer in vegetable broth for 15 minutes until soft. The broth should be absorbed by the vegetables by this time. Add salt and pepper according to taste.

Combine all the vegetables and lentils.  Spoon them into the bottom of 2 9x12 pans. Top with whipped potatoes, equally in each pan.

From here you can cover with foil and store in the fridge until ready to heat and serve. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes or until hot and potatoes begin to crisp and brown. 

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Shepherd's Pie is a dish that I hadn't even heard of until I met my New England born husband. He had to teach me how to make it when we first were married, all those years ago.  I was THRILLED when he LOVED my veggie version of his all-time favorite comfort food.  He was skipped the ketchup that he normally would have topped it with since he's working the 6-week plan with me. 

The children, however, were happy to add it to this new rendition of an old family favorite.