Mmmm. Shepherd’s Pie. One of my favorites. I saw this at Target, and used a coupon mailed to me at the courtesy of Blake’s…thanks guys! 🙂
There were two cooking methods…microwave oven or conventional oven. I chose microwave (because I’m lazy). I decided tonight would be a good time for a microwave dinner because
1. It was hot, and I didn’t feel like cooking
2. My normal raging appetite was on the low side today, so a smaller portion meal would suffice
Onward we go! After 4 minutes in the microwave, I let it sit for a bit (because I’ve scorched my tongue WAY too many times doing frozen food to microwave reviews…and perhaps I have finally learned better) and then dug in. Here’s what the inside looked like:
Heavenly.
Let’s start from the Top to the bottom, shall we?
The mashed potatoes laid on the top. They reminded me of a whipped potato, fluffy and airy, and had a bit of a “country” feel to it. They had a slight taste of garlic but were otherwise on the bland side. It was fine though, since this meal isn’t really intended to eat piece by piece…I just like to dissect my meals.
The corn underneath was sweet, fresh and crisp. There was certainly plenty of it as well, which was good because I always feel I need something moderately “crunchy” in a meal, and the corn is obviously a classic for Shepherd’s Pie. I applaud.
The beef underneath was great as well. It was chopped up very fine, almost minced, and I almost wish it had bigger chunks. That is totally personal preference though, since my mother’s cooking always had bigger chunks of beef for “chop meat”, so I am kind of used to that. However, the beef was fresh and tasty, and had this “clean” feel to it. I can’t describe it other than it tasted fresh. I wonder if it was grass fed beef, since the beef flavor was prominent. It was juicy, not oily, and there were visible onions I saw on the bottom layer as well that helped with flavor.
All together? Pretty dang good. It was small, but hearty for it’s size, and there were good ratios of each of the 3 components. I added a pat of butter on the mashed potatoes and it tied everything together. My only complaint really is that the mashed potatoes I think need a little work, but overall, a good light meal.
The sodium content is great, only 520 mg for a box (which isn’t that bad for frozen foods), and 18 grams of protein is enticing as well. There are 5 grams of saturated fat, and since the beef tasted lean, I checked ingredients and saw cream, so I assume that is what the saturated fat is from. Regardless, 4 out of 5 stars.
