St. Patrick's Day is Thursday, and you might be thinking about celebrating. Of course, you want to wear your green, and you want to eat some traditional Irish food. Most of us think about corned beef and cabbage this time of year. Well, in today's House Works, we'll show you how to make "Shepherd's Pie."

Shepherd's Pie
Chef Judy Gilliard
Servings: 8

8 each russet potato, washed and quartered
4 ounces Neufchatel cheese
1/4 cup milk, 1% low fat
1 tablespoon grape seed oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 pounds lean ground beef, or lamb
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup low sodium beef broth
1 1/2 cups peas
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
sea salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Put potatoes in a pan of cold water, bring to boil, then simmer until tender. Drain potatoes either put through a food mill, ricer or mash with a potato masher add Neufchatel cheese and milk and mix until smooth.

Add oil to a large skillet on medium heat. Sauté onions, carrots, celery and garlic until tender 7 to 10 minutes season with salt and pepper. Once the vegetables have softened add the tomato paste and mix evenly.

Add the ground beef and cook until beef is no longer pink about 10 minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce and beef stock season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook and simmer for another 10 minutes. Mix in peas.

Transfer mixture to an oven-proof baking dish and spread evenly. Place potato on top of ground beef mixture and spread out evenly, once the top surface has been covered; rake through with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely. Place the dish into the preheated oven and cook until browned about 20 minutes. Spoon out the Shepherd's pie and serve. Top with chopped parsley.

Per Serving: 456 Calories; 29g Fat (57.4% calories from fat); 26g Protein; 22g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber;96mg Cholesterol; 213mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 3 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 3 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

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