Low Carb Shepherd's Pie

I love shepherd's pie.  Do you?  I ate it a lot when I was younger, but had to stop once I became a vegetarian.  Then when I moved in with Chad and was doing all the cooking, I made vegetarian shepherd's pie a lot.  I used lots of vegetables and a can of cream of mushroom soup for the bottom layer, and lots of creamy mashed potatoes for the top layer.  It was pretty good, at least to my taste buds at the time.

I don't eat potatoes anymore.  And I don't eat canned soup.  But I still love shepherd's pie.  So what's a girl to do?  Why, check Linda's Low Carb, of course!

Linda currently has two recipes for low carb shepherd's pie, but one in particular looked scrumptious to me.  The problem is that I didn't have exactly all the ingredients the recipe called for, but that's ok; I tend to tweak recipes even when I do have all the ingredients.  So here's how I made my shepherd's pie:

Filling:
1 pound ground beef
1/2 medium onion
1 large carrot, chopped
1/2 cup frozen green beans
1-2 tbsp coconut flour
1 cup beef broth
1 tablespoons low carb bbq sauce
1-2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper

Topping:
1/2 large head of cauliflower
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp sour cream
sprinkling of garlic powder
lots of salt and pepper
2/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese

I don't keep xanthan gum on hand, mostly because I haven't done any research on it and I don't feel comfortable using it.  Also because I have no idea how best to use it.  The coconut flour worked quite well, though.  I got that idea from Dr. Davis' Wheat Belly Cookbook, where he uses coconut flour to thicken gravy.... or am I thinking the Cooking with Coconut Flour cookbook?  Hmmm... Anyway, I got the idea from somewhere!  I don't know exactly how much I put in.  I just sprinkled it in until it was thick to my liking.  I also don't know exactly how much Worcestershire sauce I put in, because I just kept adding more (I like it a lot).

Also, I have this problem where I get caught up in the process of shredding cheese, and then suddenly notice that I have cheese mountain.  So there was more cheese than I planned on having, but it turned out pretty well anyway.

You'd think that the coconut flour would be distracting in the gravy; it's a little grainy and of course tastes like coconut.  But actually, it works super well in it.  I'm certainly going to remember that trick the next time I need to thicken something.

Anyway, it was a fun experiment!  And it reminded me of how much I love to cook!