Make/Bake 20 - BBQ beans with mashed potato tops

Seeing as it's my birthday in a few weeks ( my 29th  plus 1 as I refer to it) I want to lose a few pounds to either fit into a lovely new dress or into an old one I've not worn in ages!

As part of this new healthy eating kick I'm going to mostly making lower calorie dinners and lunches and trying to eat less crisps and more fruit and veg. Today's new make/bake was a healthy meal I found on BBC Good Food -  BBQ beans with mashed potato tops

It's difficult to get M to eat some vegetables unless they are very, very well hidden, Celery being one of them! As this recipe had a BBQ flavour I thought it was bound to be onto a good thing as M is a total sucker for anything hickory smoked and it was probably going to help hide the veggies!

I found the recipe easy to follow and was really quick which is always a bonus for a Monday evening. I tasted the sauce as I went and found it tasted of tomato rather than BBQ so I added Smoked Paprika to give it a deeper flavour.

One of the reasons I wanted to try this recipe was the mash. I always seem to end up with lumpy mash but today I follows some of Delia's advice and left my potatoes to steam dry for a few minutes before using my potato ricer and then mixing in milk and cream cheese. Other than the fact I didn't think 300g of potato made enough mash for us, it was lovely. The cream cheese (I used a light version to reduce the calories) was a great addition as it made the mash really smooth and creamy. I also sprinkled on some grated low-fat cheddar before popping it under the grill until the cheese had melted and served it with left-over Ham, Cheese and Chive Bread. 

It was really tasty, although M found it a bit bland. I think it was because there wasn't enough meat for his liking! I think it still is missing something to make it have a decent BBQ flavour so may have to play around a bit. I also think it would better if the beans were cooked slower and longer but not too bad for under 400kcal!