Recipe - Bangers and Mash Pie

Right, I couldn't choose so I let Mr G pick today's meal - he is a sausage man through and through and I swear - there wasn't even a hint of innuendo as I typed that, nor did I gigglesnort, honest! (I did.  I smirked as I typed and gigglesnorted.  Too honest, see?).   Pre-diet, on occasion he'd ask for sausage and toast - for tea - and enjoy it just as much as if I had cooked him a steak dinner.  I'm not such a huge fan, and when I do eat them, they've got to be a decent, premium sausage.  This dish is very high in points due to the sausages used.  If it's ever made again we can use Weight Watchers sausage for a much lower point value - however this time I had sausage in the freezer that needed using up.  In keeping with my 2013 goal to reduce food waste, I felt obliged to use them before buying more.  Yes, I'm still chipping away at that goal, four months in!

Ingredients (serves 2):
400g potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 Tesco Finest Cumberland pork sausages
18g Onion gravy granules mixed with 200ml boiling water
60g Branston Original pickle
1 tbsp Elmlea Light Double Cream
Baby Chantennay Carrots, topped and tailed and parboiled
Red Onion, finely sliced
Mushrooms, sliced

To serve - portion of Weight Watchers Oven chips, Chantennay Carrots and Cabbage

Preparation!

Place the sausages on an oven tray and bake until nicely coloured.  Cook the potatoes in boiling water until they're soft.  Parboil the carrots.  Drain and set aside.

When the sausages are cooked, slice each sausage into 4 or 5 chunks.  Put into the pie dishes with the sliced onions, mushrooms and baby carrots.  Mix gently to make sure the ingredients are combined.

Mix the gravy granules with the boiling water, add the pickle and stir well.  Spoon this over the pie filling as opposed to pouring it, or you'll end up with all the pickle chunks left in the bottom of the jug ;-)

Mash the potatoes with the Elmlea light double cream, season with salt and black pepper if desired.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.  Spoon the creamy mash on top of each dish and fluff up with a fork.  Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.

Ready to go into the oven!

Weight Watchers esource pointed this dish at 14 Propoints per pie.  Yes, I'm sobbing too.  Although when all the vegetables were included, it was a full deep pie dish!  Very hearty indeed.  If you were to use 1½ Weight Watchers Cumberland sausage instead, this would make the dish 8 Propoints per pie, which I'm sure you'll agree is much better.  It was very... nice.  Mr G said he'd definitely have it again but personally I can think of many other dishes that I'd make again over this one... I don't see the point in remaking things that are merely 'nice', not when there's so many amazing meals out there to try.  Ah well, it filled a hole in my stomach anyway, it's crossed off my 'To try' list! 

Have a great Saturday night, I'm off to make a coffee and sit down with my Kindle and ponder on how to best stretch my 11 remaining points tonight :-)