The Dissertation Vacation: Day 2

Apparently the time has come -- as mentioned in my Tale of two Universities, October promises to be replete with pain and suffering.  As a result, I am spending my vacation time to write my dissertation.  Starting yesterday I will be taking off 3-5 days per week to write in hopes of finishing on time.  Unfortunately, it is more convenient to write my dissertation in my office, as to avoid the distraction the two devils to the right bring...

Last year, I took two weeks vacation to study for my qual exam.  This year, I will be taking at least two weeks vacation to write this blasted paper... Next year, I plan to take some vacation to actually go on vacation.....

Recipe: Paleo Shepherd's Pie

Finally getting around to posting a recipe on here... I tried this one for the first time this past weekend and was quite pleased. Having not really been a fan of shepherd's pie when I was a child, this was pretty tasty, and I certainly didn't miss the potatoes.

Filling:
2 pounds of ground grass fed beef
0.5 lbs carrots, grated or chopped fine
0.5 lbs onion, grated or chopped fine
0.5 tablespoons of rosemary
0.5 tablespoons of thyme
garlic, minced or grated, to taste
Salt, to taste (I used sea salt that was hickory smoked)
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Coconut oil

The topper:
2 12oz bags of cauliflower
2 teaspoons coconut oil (or butter if you are not as strict)
4 tablespoons of coconut milk

The instructions:

Steam (or microwave if it isn't a cardinal sin to you) your cauliflower until tender. You can even buy bags these days that steam in the microwave, as I did. Place the cauliflower in a food processor with a little salt and pepper, the coconut milk, and the coconut oil. Blend until smooth.

Preheat your oven to 400 F. While it preheats, start warming coconut oil in a pan over medium high heat to prepare the filling. Add the beef to the pan, crumbling it into small pieces as it cooks. Meanwhile, prepare your veggies.

Once the meat is cooked, add your veggies, herbs & garlic. Season again with salt and pepper as needed. Give your veggies time to get tender, about 6 minutes, and then pour into a glass baking dish.

Spread the cauliflower over the filling mixture, and place in your preheated oven. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let it stand for at least 5 minutes to cool. Slice and enjoy.

from nutritiondata.com:

Do note: As listed above this contains ~1g transfat/serving... But isn't transfat awful for us? Unfortunately, it is not that easy.

Grassfed cows supply yet another "good" fat to our diet---trans-vaccenic acid or TVA. Technically, TVA is classified as a "trans-fatty acid," a type of fat nutritionists tell us to avoid. However, TVA appears to behave differently from the man-made fat that comes from the hydrogenization of vegetable oil. Unlike the trans-fatty acids found in fast foods and margarine, TVA is not linked with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and may help inhibit tumor growth and obesity.

For parties interested in inflammation factors and estimated glycemic load...
IF: 186 (moderately anti-inflammatory)
EGL: 5