Something It's Not

January 23rd, 1/23, 123.  Don't you wish everything in life could be as easy as 1,2,3?  I know I do.  But, you know what's easy?  Saying "happy birthday."  It's my mommy's birthday!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!  She's the one who taught me how to cook.  She showed me nothing is hard and she's one of my biggest supporters.

Winter has finally settled in down here.  Mornings and evenings are in the 30's and the afternoons are only getting up to the low 60's (if we're lucky.)  I can honestly say I did NOT move to Florida for this weather!  It beats the winters in Virginia any day though.

Winters aren't easy for me.  I'm not a winter person.  My body wants to shut down.  Honestly I think in my previous life I was a bear.  I really wish I could start hibernating. Okay, enough about how cold I am.

I find that altering a recipe to taste like something else isn't easy.  But, I managed to make a pizza that has the same great flavors as lasagna.  Yes, LASAGNA!  I'd love to say that this recipe was born from pure creativity and that fact that I'm that awesome but honestly, it wasn't.  It was born from lack of time.

Lasagna Pizza

Ingredients
1 recipe of pizza dough
2 oz fat free ricotta
2 onions, sliced thin
16 oz mushrooms, sliced
.5 - 1 cup tomato puree
7 oz vegan sausage (I use Light Life Gimmie Lean Sausage)
16 oz fat free mozzarella cheese
3 cups spinach (optional)

Directions

1. Saute the mushrooms and onions separately
2. Roll out pizza dough and spread a thin layer of ricotta
3. Spread half the sauce on top of ricotta layer, cover with mushrooms and onions and the sausage, half the mozzarella, the other half of the sauce, put the spinach on now (if you're using it)  and the rest of the mozzarella.
4. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 25 minutes until the crust is brown and the cheese is melted.

Kitchen Sink Stew

Normally my family isn't very helpful when it comes to dinner.  When I ask what they would like they normally respond, "it doesn't matter", "whatever you want", "I don't know", or "I don't care."  So, when I actually get requests I love it.  The other night I recieved a request for stew.  Coincidentally enough I was already planning on doing stew the following nite.  We ended up getting into a conversation of what should be in the stew and the following recipe is what we came up with.  I actually added vegetarian sausage into it.  I didn't calculate it into the nutritional information but, I added a whole roll of it.  It shouldn't add very many extra calories but, it does up the protein and sodium some too.

To go with it I made some cornbread (one of Kaylee's favorite things.)  The recipe came from Happy Herbivore's new book Light & Lean.  It is really good.  I normally don't like cornbread and I found that I could tolerate this one.  Yet again, I didn't get a photo.  

These recipes were so go we all went back for seconds {and thirds and fourths...}   

Kitchen Sink Stew
Serves about 10
Calories: 153.7
Fat: 0.6 grams
Sodium: 325 grams
Protein: 6.4 grams
2 lbs Mushrooms, quatered
2 onions. diced
2 ribs celery, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 medium carrots, chopped
3 radishes, sliced
2 large sweet potatoes, cubed
1 package Lipton onion soup mix mixed with 4 cups water
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup frozen peas
2 T cornstarch mixed with 2 T water

Directions

1. In a large pot saute onions, radishes, celery and carrots until onions are translucent.
2. Add mushrooms and saute until they are soft. 
3. Add sweet potatoes, onion soup and broth.
4. Bring to a boil then reduce and simmer for 20 minutes
5. Add peas, bring back to a boil and simmer for another 10 minutes
6. Whisk in cornstarch mixture and boil until thickened (about 2 minutes)

Cornbread Muffins
Adapted from: Happy Herbivore Light & Lean

Ingredients
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 T baking powder
1 cup skim milk
.25 cup sugar free maple syrup

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Spray muffin tin (do NOT use cupcake liners or they will stick)
3. Mix the dry ingredients together
4. Add in wet ingredients
5. Bake 15 minutes

Is your family helpful when it comes to making decisions about what's for dinner?

Sausage Gravy and Biscuits

Due to my dietary restrictions I had to give up 95% of the foods I used to love.  I have found comparable substitutes for the other 5%.  These days I very rarely crave certain foods.  I crave normalcy.  I want to eat what everybody else is eating.   Sometimes that happens to be comfort food.  A stick to your ribs meal.  Sausage gravy and biscuits is a meal that I crave.

I'm really not certain why I crave it.  I only ate it once before I got sick.  That was back in 2005 at Krystal in Georgia.  But, this is one of my favorite recipes.  It's quick and simple to whip up. I make my own biscuits for 2 reasons.  1) I love making biscuits and 2) there are no fat free ones in the stores.  But, if you wanted to you could totally use store bought biscuits and that would cut down your prep time and ingredients. 

Biscuit

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 t baking soda
1 T baking powder
3/4 cup sour cream
1.5 T milk or water


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix everything together
3. Roll out dough on a floured surface and cut out circles using a biscuit cutter, circle cookie cutter or a cup
4. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 10-20 minutes until brown
5. Serve warm

Sausage Gravy

Ingredients

1 onion, diced
8 oz diced mushrooms
3 T flour or cornstarch
3 cups plain milk
1 packages of Gimmie Lean ground sausage (ground soy crumbles would probably also work)

Directions

1. Saute onions and mushrooms until soft
2. Crumble sausage and add to the pan and brown
3. Sprinkle flour over sausage and vegetables and stir for about a minute.  {if the sauce is not thick enough for you add a few more tablespoons of flour or cornstarch}
4. Whisk in milk, reduce heat to low and simmer until thickened

To assemble the dish:
Cut biscuit in half and ladle gravy on top. 


So, what is your favorite comfort food and why?

Vegetarian Meatloaf

I assumed that when school was over I would get to relax.  BOY, was I wrong!  As soon as I finished finals I had to start working on Kaylee's partyu, work on my AFAA stuff, and take care of a house and three kids.

So, now that Kaylee's party is over (and it was a big success, the girls are STILL talking about it) I can start fociusongh my attention on AFAA.  I'm kinda bunned that I'm not done already but, I be there soon.

Fat Free Queen is another thing that I had to set aside becuase of all the other things that were keepiong me busy.  But, I'm back full force!

Ken has been asking for a meatloaf for a while now.  I decided to test out a vegetarian meatloaf.  It turned out better than I expected.  The only person who didn't enjoy it was Sunny but, she's a picky eater (and I'm hoping that changes soon.) 

Photo Courtesy of Boca

Vegetarian Meatloaf
Adapted from Boca
(Nutritional information is from the recipe's site)
Calories: 160
Fat: 2 g (I personally think this number is high)
Protein: 15g
Fiber: 5g
Carbohydrates: 24g

1 pkg.(12 oz.) frozen BOCA Veggie Ground Crumbles
1/2 cup plain dry bread crumbs (I ground 2 slices of reduced calorie wheat bread in the food processor)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 green pepper, diced
1/2 cup egg beaters
1/4 cup barbecue sauce

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. 
2. Microwave crumbles in a bowl for 1-2 minutes
3. Sautee your onions and green peppers until soft
4. Mix in all other ingredients
5. Put in a greased loaf pan
6. Bake 35-45 minutes depending on how crunchy you want the top

This hit the spot for Ken.  I served it with baked potatoes and carrots.  Just remember, just because you're eating a low fat diet, it doesn't mean you can't have the food you crave.  

What comfort foods do you miss?