Thursday, April 28, 2011

Eggs - Get 'Em From a Farm

Eggs and toast, specifically Ezekiel Bread toast. Especially the sesame variety covered in cold butter. Not melted room temp butter. It has to be real too. This is not you who should watch your cholesterol. This is for me, who hasn't eaten eggs in eons.

Eggs and broccoli, like broccoli frittata. Which I am going to make this weekend. I can't wait. I've never done it and I've always wanted to taste a frittata. I don't even know how to spell it! Google knows.

Eggs and hash browns. Is there anything better than hash browns? Yes, hash browns smothered covered and diced. Have some.

Eggs and onions. This speaks for itself, except that you have to really over cook the onions. Say "No" to crunchy onions (or eggs).

Eggs and cheese. The favorite of my darling step-son. The regular weekend menu item, requested so oft that it's a staple. Do we have eggs? Yes. Cheese? Yes. Can I have eggs and cheese? ALWAYS!

Eggs and salsa. On a tortilla, or on your fork, either way is simply delicious.

Eggs and anything! Yum!

I've been egg free for like, over 10 years. It's been sad. I love eggs. Eggs have not loved me back. BUT! I've been experimenting with a few things and have found that for some reason I can eat eggs when I have also eaten a good dose of coconut oil in the same day. At the same time is even better. Basically, I am fed up with not being able to eat something as delicious and versatile and an egg and so I tried mind over matter. I decided I would refuse to be allergic. That. Did. Not. Work.
So, if I finally out grew it, or if it's REALLY the coconut oil I don't know. I have served eggs fried in coconut oil and sprinkled with pink salt to a number of small children this year. They have all sang my praises and begged to move in with me. Or at least they asked for my recipe. Same diff.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Zucchini Lasagna

Let me just start by saying this: yum.

Okay now I'll tell you how I make mine. You really need to go with what you love, but try to branch out a little too.

Here's the deal, you replace lasagna noodles with long thin strips of zucchini. I use a perpendicular vegetable peeler for mine and I like it a lot. So for a 9x13 dish you should use nearly all of three zucchini(s).

3 zucchini, thinly sliced, longways
4 tiny cans tomato paste and enough water to make a very thick sauce
1 c Parmesan cheese
1 tub of cottage cheese
Almost a whole bag of baby spinach - chopped smallish
1lb meat or meatless crumbles
8 oz sliced or coarsely chopped mushrooms
3 c shredded cheese

Assembly:
Mix the tomato paste and the water. Season with the world's best Italian or pizza seasoning and add your cup of Parmesan, give it a stir. You do not want it to be a thin sauce so watch it with the water. The zucchini will release a lot of water and you could have soup instead. It's still good, but ya know...
I put enough sauce on the bottom of the pan to just get it wet, like a thin schmear okay?
Next a layer of "noodles" aka zucchini slices.
Now a little saucy sauce.
Then cottage cheese, I try to do 3 layers of guts so use about 1/3 of the tub. Ofcourse you can use ricotta, its delish and I love it but I love love love cottage cheese, so that's what I use.
After you get that rubbed in a little you need to cover it with a good amount of spinach, like, a lot. As much as you can stand to look at. It's the very best part.
Lightly sprinkle the cooked meat over that (or omit the meat if you prefer). I use half turkey sausage and half lean lean lean beef. As lean as you can get it. You could also use meatless crumbles (by Morning Star Farms I think), that's pretty stinkin' good. We had it on pizza a couple times and it was mistaken for meat by those who didn't make the pizza.
Back to the lasagna, over the meat put your chopped or sliced mushrooms.
Cheese time, use a whole cup, not a spec less, for each of the 3 layers.

Now, do that 3 times. When you get it all into the pan you might have to press it very nicely to get it all into the pan. Don't worry, the spinach will cook down and everything will fit... eventually. Just try it. Try it.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour. If you find that there was to much water you can cook it longer, don't be mad at me if you burn it though. Or if you have a day to spare, then pop it into the fridge until tomorrow and have it then. The water will be all soaked up. If you're out of time and you eat it as lasagna soup like we did once; it'll still be mmmm mmm good.

Did you realize already that this is a great low carb alternative to regular lasagna?