1st 100% pass mark and a healthier version of a cottage pie

 While I wait for the upcoming in person Level 2 Fitness Professional workshop I thought I would make a start on the nutritional parts of the course.  First part is to become certified Nutrition Advisor and I had to learn the basics of macronutrients (fat, protein, & carbs) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals).  Talks of polysaccharides and phosphate molecules had me a bit confused and confuddled at times but when the module was about weight loss I passed that with 100% flying colours.  I guess that's a sign that I either know the basics of losing weight via a healthy eating plan or I've dieted far too often over the years, or maybe a bit of both but it did make me laugh.

Now I have to be honest as a Nutrition Advisor I will have to go by the national health guidelines (which I'm slightly at odds with) and I can't prescribe any diet with a medical purpose in mind such as to help with rheumatoid arthritis or diabetes but I can now decide what's balanced according to the governments health boffins.

As the final requirement of the course I have to do a case study with a real life person over 8 weeks.  Well hubby isn't Mr 28 inch waist anymore and while he doesnt want to be that again at 66 he does want to lose the belly brought on by 37 years worth of loving my cooking and beer so he's offered to be my case study and do all that I tell him to (that's such a dangerous thing to say to a wife, shame I have to be professional about it lol).  After explaining to him that I need him to eat and drink as he normally does for the next week but to keep an accurate food diary, I have promised not to moan if he admits to the processed junk I know he sneaks when working, and to be honest about why he's eaten/drank it.  He readily admits that the cheese, crackers and large glass of baileys on a night after I've gone to bed is because he's bored so he does get why I'm asking him to write it all down.  There was then a small discussion about seeing as he's starting it tomorrow can he have a meal tonight of something I don't cook any more.. an old favourite of ours... mince over mash or as I used to tell the kids upside down cottage pie.

To say I was tempted to let him have a last hurrah (the "bad" foods everyone stuffs just before they start their new diet tomorrow/next week because they think they'll not be allowed them) is an understatement and all of a sudden the craving for mince over mash hit me like a tidal wave and before I knew it I had shoes on, car keys in hand and was on my way to Morrisons to get the ingredients (haven't had mashable spuds in the house since last Christmas).  

Sanity prevailed before I got there and I decided I would make him mince over mash but I'd adapt it to make it healthier.  Pre healthy diet decision it would be medium level of fat beef mince, with chopped mushrooms and onions over mashed spuds that had a good cupful (or 2) of full fat butter/margarine and with a splash of milk or cream to whip it fluffy.  Piggy portions would mean that the 5kg bag of potatoes would be used all at once,  netting me with 3 portions at most and either a small amount left in the pot for me to eat cold while doing the dishes or eaten as I dished up, just to check it tasted good and didn't need any more pepper ;)

For tonights healthier version (and plenty of mince to freeze)  I'm using

750g <5% fat minced steak beef

100g dried split yellow peas

200g diced carrot

4 large onions chopped (approx 400g unpeeled)

150g white mushrooms sliced

3 oxo cubes

good sprinkle chilli flakes

garlic flakes (I'm kickboxing shortly and don't want the smell of fresh garlic in my gloves) 

water

I think it's probably going to make about 12 portions (it did but freeze don't leave with a lid on as the gases will ferment and it wont last more than 24 hours)  but I'm going to use 8 as my portion size guess for now.  I'll come back and edit at a later date with how many portions I did get out of it.

I thought I'd see if a recipe nutrition site worked so I put the ingredients into https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076 and it came up with this:

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 8
Amount per serving
Calories	179
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 4.4g	6%
Saturated Fat 1.9g	10%
Cholesterol 55mg	18%
Sodium 98mg	4%
Total Carbohydrate 13.7g	5%
Dietary Fiber 2.8g	10%
Total Sugars 4.5g
Protein 22.3g
Vitamin D 68mcg	338%
Calcium 45mg	3%
Iron 3mg	18%
Potassium 529mg	11%

I did forget to add the oxo cubes but 3 of them only totals 18 calories so its not going to make much difference to the calories.  You do also need to count in the salt you add for taste but I'm leaving this out today.

Taking the extra veggies out of the recipe and using 80% minced beef the composition changes to 

Amount per serving
Calories	274
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 15.1g	19%
Saturated Fat 5.7g	28%
Cholesterol 81mg	27%
Sodium 83mg	4%
Total Carbohydrate 9.5g	3%
Dietary Fiber 1.6g	6%
Total Sugars 2.6g
Protein 24.5g
Vitamin D 68mcg	338%
Calcium 59mg	5%
Iron 3mg	18%
Potassium 497mg	11%

95 calories difference in just the mince part of the meal alone, in the grand scheme of things 95 calories isnt huge but look at the difference in Cholesterol, thanks to the extra (mainly saturated) fat that's gone up from 18% of the daily value to 27% and the dietary fiber has gone down from 10% to 6%

Now this is going to be the one I'm expecting to see big numbers on, the mashed spuds, now I have 3 ideas for healthier options, 1 is to make the mash using 50% potato and 50% swede, no butter needed as the swede will add flavour, option 2 just boiled swede mashed down with plenty of black pepper (sprinkle with grated cheddar if you want a brown crispy top to the cottage pie but dont forget to add the calories and fat content) or option 3 to forget about having cottage pie/mince over mash and just have a jacket potato instead.  

Just going with 2kg of boiled spuds and 1 cup of butter to make 2 servings 

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 2
Amount per serving
Calories	445
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 40.7g	52%
Saturated Fat 25.7g	129%
Cholesterol 108mg	36%
Sodium 293mg	13%
Total Carbohydrate 20g	7%
Dietary Fiber 1.8g	6%
Total Sugars 0.9g
Protein 2.1g
Vitamin D 28mcg	140%
Calcium 20mg	2%
Iron 0mg	2%
Potassium 340mg	7%

Changing the cup of butter to a medium swede changes it to 

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 2
Amount per serving
Calories	155
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0.5g	1%
Saturated Fat 0.1g	0%
Cholesterol 0mg	0%
Sodium 44mg	2%
Total Carbohydrate 35.7g	13%
Dietary Fiber 6.6g	24%
Total Sugars 11.7g
Protein 4g
Vitamin D 0mcg	0%
Calcium 99mg	8%
Iron 1mg	7%
Potassium 978mg	21%

so half a cup of butter each not eaten would save us 290 calories, 129% of daily recommended level of saturated fat and have the bonus of providing nearly a quarter if the recommended amount of fibre instead of a measly 6%

A 100g jacket potato is roughly 100 calories so you could have a decent sized spud and still be saving a lot of calories and fat.

As much as my inner demon is saying "yummy buttery mash is heaven eat me eat me" seeing the figures as stark as they are we're going to be having mixed potato and swede mashed with plenty of pepper (and we wont talk about the salt I know I'm going to be using in the potato water)