Lasagna!

No my friend, you did not find a typo, the topic of the day is lasagna.  Each of has to make decisions about our diet in life.  No matter if you are reading this because you have had weight loss surgery or because you try to lead a healthy lifestyle, or because you are my friend and wanted to see what I am up to.  We all have to decide what our diet will look like.  A lot of people cut out all white bread and carb products from their diet.  I have not gone that route, I don't want to make hard and fast rules because I know myself well enough to know that I like to break rules.  I allow myself bread products and potatoes on occasion.  I always try to make sure to incorporate protein into these things though.  

I do not allow myself to have pasta or rice of any kind though.  I miss pasta on occasion, I miss rice all the time.  Replacing pasta with zucchini though has changed my life.  I had heard of this before, but I wasn't sure how I felt about it.  I follow the blogs of two fellow gastric bypass recipients and one of them posted about making spaghetti out of zucchini.  I tried it on a whim.  I fell in love.  I started toying with the idea of replacing the noodles in lasagna with zucchini and it worked really well.  You don't miss the noodles, no seriously, you don't miss the noodles.  Here is a picture of my first attempt (my second one was smaller).

Everything in this recipe stays the same as a normal lasagna, just replace the noodles with zucchini.  By an interesting twist of events I was making this dish outside of my own home.  My plan had been to use the awesome mandolin that my mom got me for Christmas to make really long thin slices of the zucchini. I left the mandolin in the drawer at home though.  So I got the bright idea to use a vegetable peeler, as I did not trust myself with a knife, to get the thin slices that I wanted.  It worked beautifully.  My trick was to leave a chunk of green at the end of the zucchini to hold on to and then slowly pull the peeler down the length of the squash to get a slice that was just the right thickness.  It will have a big scoop in it but thats ok.  I probably would have set the mandolin too thick had I remembered my magical tool.  As it was the zucchini was just right to stand in texturally for the noodles.  In fact it worked so well that an unsuspecting diner (my brother) stopped with his fork halfway to his mouth and exclaimed "Wait, so there are no noodles in here?"

I have made this dish twice now.  If you want a pretty lasagna, you probably want to look elsewhere.  If you want a low carb Italian treat, this is definitely for you.  It does not serve up in a tidy little stack like at a restaurant.  It is best served in a bowl.  But it is damn tasty.

Ingredients:

1 Pound Italian Sausage

2 Cans Tomatoes

1 Can Tomato Paste

2 Eggs

1 Small Tub Ricotta

Italian Seasoning or Basil

Mozzarella Cheese (2 - 3 Cups)

Zucchini (3 Small or 2 Large)

How To:

Brown sausage in a skillet, drain and return to pan.  Drain the canned tomatoes and add to the skillet with the sausage.  Add in about half of the can of tomato paste and stir together.  Let the sauce simmer while you prep all the other ingredients.

In a food processor, blend together the eggs and ricotta.  Blend in a cup to a cup and a half of the mozzarella and a big dash of the Italian seasoning.  Allow to sit while you work on the zucchini.

Using the vegetable peeler, peel long strips of zucchini and place aside in a bowl or or on a plate.  

Assemble your lasagna in layers.  Sauce goes down first, them zucchini followed my cheese mix and repeat.  To make sure that I don't run out, I mentally divide my ingredients into fourths and only take a portion for each layer.  I was only able to do three layers in my second attempt, but it still tastes great.  You need one less layer of cheese mix than of sauce, so plan ahead.  The last set of layers should skip the ricotta and just have a heap of mozzarella on top.  

Bake at 375 for half an hour to an hour.  You want it to get bubbly on the edges and have nicely golden brown cheese on top.  

Modifications:

Try spicy sausage, swap in fresh tomatoes (squeeze the seeds and juice out first), try eggplant or squash, try an Alfredo sauce instead of red on a few layers, try chicken sausage, add mushrooms, blend in spinach to the cheese mixture.  Make it yours!

Happy Dining!

100 Calorie Blueberry Muffins!

Blueberry Muffins!  Only one hundred calories a piece.  And these are not mini-muffins either.  I a not ashamed to say that as a kid my family dug on the muffins from the packet.  You know the kind with the dried blueberries, you add milk and oil to it throw it in the oven and voila!  Loved em.  I looked up the fancy kind of muffin mix (the kind with the blueberries in the little tin).  220 calories in a muffin, and only one gram of protein.  I started playing with the idea of adding ricotta to my muffins like I do my pancakes... the result was pretty darn good if I do say so myself.

The ricotta adds a good deal of moisture to the muffins and the blueberries add volume without adding lots of calories.  I tried two different versions, one version had ricotta and eggs on top and added a cheesecake like topping, but the inside was a bit dry.  Mixing the ricotta into the batter made the muffins much more moist.

Recipe:

3 Cups Heart Smart Bisquick

1 Cup Skim Milk

2 Eggs

1 Cup 0% Greek Yogurt

15 oz. Part Skim Ricotta Cheese

1 Pint of Blueberries

Splenda to Taste

In a large bowl, combine the bisquick, milk and eggs.  Stir until everything is nicely blended.  Whisk in the yogurt and the ricotta cheese.  Really whisk it to get those lumps to dissolve into the batter.  Give it a taste at this point and add splenda to sweeten it to your liking.  I think I used 3 Tablespoons or so.  Rinse the blueberries and pat dry with a paper towel.  Fold in the blueberries to the batter.  I used a a 1/4 cup to scoop the batter into muffin tins.  I used muffin wrappers, but I would spray the pan and skip that step as they really stuck to the wrapper.  Bake for about 25 minutes or until a fork comes out clean and you are starting to see the beautiful golden brown color on top.