Day 25: Vegan Shepherd's Pie, Oh My!

Started today off with another shocker at the scale... I've lost 18 pounds, from 226 to 208. And I'm not even feeling that hungry, it's really strange. I have to admit it's a nice bonus I was not expecting at all. Oddly, I'm not getting tired of my oatmeal with raisins and sunflower seeds for breakfast. I've had that the past several days now, usually in a rush and eating it on the way out so it comes in handy. When you have no other source of sugar, raisins become amazing little explosions of flavor. For lunch, I went back to egg fried rice and also made a few seasoned corn ships in the toaster oven. But for dinner, I needed something new to provide the variety I'm craving. I think I was reading on a blog somewhere on cheap meal ideas or something, and Shepherd's Pie came up. I looked up this recipe, and realized I was pretty close to an improvised, very basic rendition of the dish. Also, my friend Beth had mentioned simmering my pinto bean broth down to a sauce, and I thought I might be able to use that in my improv as well. And it did come in handy, thanks Beth! I used sauteed cabbage, shell pasta, mashed pinto beans, and brown rice for the undergirding of the pie (with "juiciness" aided by the bean sauce), and mashed potatoes (5 oz. worth) to spread on the top of the pie. Topped with my last two teaspoons of tomato sauce and seasoned with Season-All, it was delicious and very filling! But if it were not for the cabbage and sauce, it would have been a bit too starchy. For the curious, here's the recipe...

Ingredients

• 5 oz. potatoes
  
• 1 cup cooked brown rice
  
• 3/4 cup cooked pinto beans
  
• 2/3 cup (before cooking) shell pasta
  
• 1.5 oz. cabbage
  
• 1 cup pinto bean broth
  
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil spread
  
• 2 teaspoons tomato sauce
• 1 teaspoon water
• A few dashes of Season-All

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
   
2. Cube potatoes and boil them until cooked (about 8 minutes?)
   
3. Bring water to boil for pasta shells, cook accordingly.
   
4. Bring bean broth to a boil then reduce to medium heat until reduced to near-sauce-like status, but still a bit watery.
   
5. Chop the cabbage and saute in skillet with vegetable oil spread until browning occurs. 
   
6. Mash the pinto beans with a fork. 
   
7. In a small casserole dish, add the mashed beans, pasta, cabbage, rice and bean sauce together so that all ingredients are evenly distributed. Press the mix down with a fork or spoon so that it's even on the surface.
   
8. Once the potatoes are cooked, mash them with a fork until even consistency is achieved. 
   
9. Carefully spoon out the mashed potatoes onto the top of the mix, kind of painting the potatoes onto the surface with the spoon.
   
10. Place dish in preheated oven for 15 minutes.
    
11. Add 1 teaspoon water to the 2 teaspoons tomato sauce to increase its volume. Spread the sauce on top of the dish after baking is completed. Season with Season-All as desired and enjoy!

Cost: About 43 cents.

Maxing out the stovetop!

The finished product...

Prayer focus: Pray for Sonam and Karma, two of the children at our Nepal orphanage. They are suffering from unexplained nose bleeding. Pray for their healing and peace in their hearts. Praise update: Krupamma is much better today, checked out fine, and back to work serving the children. Thanks for praying!

Estimated savings for Day 25: I was craving BBQ today, so I would not be surprised if I had joined a friend for a chopped beef sandwich and cole slaw at one of the many incredible local BBQ shacks around here. That along with a drink would have likely been around, what, maybe $8.50? I might have had an appointment at Starbucks, where I would have had a hot tea for about $1.60. Add this to my normal estimated daily grocery cost of $7, subtract $1 for today's actual cost, and I've saved $16.10 toward my orphanage donation today. My running total is now up to $386.41.