Lasagna Rolls – without egg

All the lasagna roll recipes I’ve come across have eggs.  My nephew, J2, is allergic to eggs.  So, every now and then I am inspired to try something egg-free for his benefit.  Like, Thanksgiving is egg-free, nut-free, gluten-free and mostly lactose-free.  I feel that everyone should be able to eat everything if they are dining at my house.  So I wanted to come up with a recipe for J2.

The reason you’d use egg in a roll recipe is to keep the innerds from spilling out.  I thought cream cheese could help with that problem.  And it did.

Ingredients

Dry lasagne noodles

1/2 tub herb and garlic cream cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan

1/2 package frozen spinach, cooked in the microwave

1 cup shredded chicken breast (or ground chicken, cooked)

Black pepper, oregano and basil to taste

2 cups spagetti sauce (that your mother-in-law made from scratch and gives you every September, after a sauce making-a-thon in her garage)

1 cup Mozzarella

Parmesan

Directions

Cook the lasagna noodles.  Once they are cooked and floppy, transfer them into a bowl of cold water.  This stops them from cooking and lowers the temperature so you can actually handle them.  I cook my noodles in groups of four, just to make it easier to work with.

Combine the cheeses, chicken, spinach and spices in bowl.

Spray your casserole dish with cooking spray and add a spoon full of sauce and spread it out over the bottom.  Lay out a noodle, add a generous tablespoon of ‘innerds’, about 2 inches in from the end and fold the noodle end over.  Add another scoop of mix.  Roll up and lay in your casserole.

If you have any mix left after, just lift a roll and stuff some more in.  Pour on the sauce and top with cheeses.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Dr. T HATES spinach and he ate this.  A big game in my kitchen is masking the taste of foods that he doesn’t like.  He mostly doesn’t like ‘green stuff’.  And I love ‘green stuff’.  So if I want to eat it, I have to make sure it’s flavourful enough for him to fork it down.

(PS.  I ran out of mozzarella, so I used cheddar.  That’s why the top is orange in the picture.  Use mozz, it will taste better!) 

~ Liz

Vegan ‘Mac ‘n Cheese’

Most people like Macaroni and Cheese.  Maybe not KD style, but at least the ’from scratch’ version.  Dr. T is lactose intolerant, (and I’m allergic to milk, but I don’t avoid it as much as I should — oops!) so I at least try to make lactose reduced meals.  This is completely dairy free.  

I have to warn you, the roux smells kinda funny when it’s cooking.  It must be the soy boiling, but that’s normal and when it’s all together it smells and tastes great!

Use pimentos (bought in most grocery stores, in a tiny little jar) if you don’t like spice.  If you don’t mind spice, save some money and just use spice banana pepper rings.  You can chop them or toss them in whole. 

I’ve used other mac ‘n cheese recipes that use real cheddar, and I didn’t like them nearly as much as this recipe.  Actually, I thought they were kinda gross and heavy.  It could just be that I didn’t feel well from the dairy…well, this is a much tastier recipe, either way!

You can add veggies or whatever, to change things up.  I’ve never tried it.  Let me know if you find a winning combination!

The best part is the crunchy topping!  And make sure you don’t forget the mustard.  It’s the most important part to making the dish! 

Mac ‘n Cheese 

1 and a half boxes of GF macaroni

4 tbs margarine

2 tbs cornstarch

2 tbs sweet rice flour

2 cups soy milk/beverage

1 package soy cheese

1/3 cup pimentos or banana peppers

1 tsp French’s mustard

salt and pepper

Topping:

1/3 cup GF crumbs

paprika, salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 °f.  Cook macaroni, al dente so they don’t get too mushy when they are baked.

Melt margarine, add flour and cornstarch.  Stir to make a roux.  Slowly add soy liquid.  Stir until mixture thickens and begins to boil.  Remove from heat and add the ‘cheese’, peppers, mustard, salt and pepper.  Drain the pasta and mix well.

Turn into a lightly greased casserole dish.  Mix the topping ingredients together and sprinkle on top.  Bake for about half an hour.  The cheese should be bubbly around the edges and the top should be crispy.

When I last made it, I used 2 boxes of potato macaroni.  That’s a bit too much pasta, which doesn’t leave it as ’saucy’.  GF pasta packaging is small and inconsistent.  About 2.5 – 3 cups of dry pasta should be adequate, depending on how much the pasta expands.  It’s something you have to play around with. 

Before I was GF I always used one regular box of whole wheat macaroni.  It didn’t matter the brand, since the sizes are really close.  Oh well, live, learn and eat! 

My New Year’s Eve

We have a tradition on New Year’s Eve.  It’s not a ‘typical’ tradition, but I really like.  It involves shopping and eating – who wouldn’t like it?  And maybe because we’re Canadian it also involves hockey.

We get an early start to our day, like 10:00.  Ok, not so early, but it’s the holidays!  And we drive to Michigan (20 minutes to the border, not a real drive) and we shop around Troy, because Brad Pitt was in that movie and he’s hot and because there are great malls there.  I went to Joanne Fabrics and bought 2 pre-lit pine trees in wooden planters for $12 each!  They are 4.5 feet tall and pretty!  I think that was my greatest find.  I got clothes and lamp shades, scrapbooking stuff and of course GF food I can’t buy here!

We went to the Coach store.  I had my one and only Coach handbag with me and the stitching is loose in one part.  They told me if I leave my handbag there, it will be sent away to be re-stitched.  But I needed it, and I didn’t bring a spare purse.  Of course they had a solution!  If I buy another one, I can empty the contents of Coach One into Coach Two.  Hmm…interesting solution.  But I actually needed my current handbag for that day because it’s an ‘across-the-body’ sling.  So Dr. T comes up with the best idea.  We’ll just come back in the New Year, buy a new Coach and do the exchange then.  See why I married him?  He sees the ‘necessity’ of never being Coach-less!  I would have said ‘Woman, you’ve got tons of purses.  Just use another one and toss the injured one in a grocery bag and drop it off .’  Hats off to 2008 and a new Coach!

I hope you noted the distinction above.  Coach’s are handbags and everything else is a purse!  Well, a Kate Spade would be a hand bag too!

Then we went to Maggiano’s for dinner!  They have GF corn pasta!  When we were seated I told Damien, our waiter, that I would be needing a gluten free meal.  Usually the response I get is a raised eyebrow and a crunched up nose.  Nope.  He knew what gluten was and as restaurant policy is regarding allergies and special diets, he had the chef come out and talk to us.  Nice.  I wanted the ‘Rigatoni D’.  Chicken, mushrooms, caramelized onions with a Marsala sauce.  The chef suggested I substitute the Marsala (which is thickened with wheat flour) with Alfredo (cornstarch).  And then he looked through what else I ordered and checked that it was all safe.  How nice?!  I had a great salad and a huge bowl of pasta.  This is the pasta after I ate much of it:

Then for dessert I always get a mochaccino.  Dr. T gets a cappuccino.  Mine is at least 3 times the size!  Damien even brought out the chocolate syrup they use, so I could double check the ingredients!!!  I just love that place.  The food and the service, just blows my mind!  Thankfully, I wore loose pants.  I was stuffed!

Off to the last stop of the evening.  Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.  The Red Wings vs something else.  I don’t know anything about hockey.  I like fights and I don’t like checking.  I know that doesn’t make any sense.  But the Wings lost 3-0 to the team that wore blue, black, white and yellow.  What kind of uniform is that?  It’s like a techni-colour dream jersey.  I don’t even remember the logo since I was distracted by all the colours!  The Wings even pulled the goalie and the tie-dyed team scored on an empty net.  I know that means bad stuff!  The colour wheel team had on good goalie, Legace.  I remember that, since everyone pronounces it ‘legacy’.  His ancestors must flip in there graves!  Clueless as I am, it was fun.

We drive home after the game, don’t get pulled in to pay duty (thank you) and watch the ball drop while drinking champagne.  Sorry France, it wasn’t really ‘champagne’.  It was Asti, my favorite.

New Year’s Day was brunch at my sister-in-law’s and my contribution was banana chocolate chip muffins.  Serve them warm.  Then they are so soft and fluffy!  Yum!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

6 tbs. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 or 3 very ripe bananas, coarsely mashed (about 1 ½ cups)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
¾ cup buttermilk

2 cups flour (1 cup rice flour ½ cup tapioca flour ½ cup potato starch flour)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. Xantham gum and 1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. salt
¾ cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Paper line muffin tin.  This recipe makes about 18 medium sized muffins. Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the bananas and eggs and beat until smooth. Add the buttermilk and beat just until combined.In a bowl, stir together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, xantham gum, cinnamon, salt and nuts. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and beat just until combined. The batter should be slightly lumpy.Pour the batter into the prepared cups and bake for 20 minutes. 

Sweet Potato Fries

I like french fries – but sweet potato fries are way better!  And healthier. 

I sometimes call them ‘Yam Fries’.  But that’s incorrect.  Yams are starchier and sweet potatoes are more moist.  Yams aren’t related to potatoes at all and they can grow up to seven feet!  Sweet potatoes have a smooth thin skin, while yams are scaly.  Sweet potatoes are grown in North America and yams are imported.  Yams are short and chunky with tapered ends.  But yams are tubular and can have ‘toes’.  Hee, hee!  Yams are sweeter.  Yams have a dark skin,  resembling tree bark.

Also, there are two distinct types of Sweet Potatoes.  The not-so-sweet pale ones, that are crumbly like a baking potato.  And the yummy bright orange ones.  Not that I have a preference at all!  Actually, I always thought the pale ones, were just old, dried up bright ones!  They are so much hard to cut into fries.

One of my all time favorite books is ‘Power of One’ by Bryce Courtney.  I read it as a teenager.  The main character, PK’s favorite food is sweet potato.  So I bought one, boiled it, tried it and — what was wrong with him?!?!  Those were disgusting!  All this hype for blah!!!  I didn’t eat them for over 10 years after that.  Then someone cooked them properly for me.  Now, I get it!  And I’ve tried sweet potatoes many different and delicious ways and I love ‘em!

 

Sweet Potato Fries

1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped into fry sticks

Olive oil

Cumin

Sea salt

Fresh ground pepper

Preheat oven to 400 °F. (When I’m in a hurry I heat it to 425 °F)  Line a baking sheet with tin foil and spray lightly with cooking spray.  This helps with the clean up.

Have all your spices out and ready.  Now chop the potato and place into a mixing bowl.  Pour oil on top, just to lightly coat them.  They don’t need to be swimming.  Sprinkle with the cumin, sea salt and pepper.  I’m usually generous with the cumin, because it brings out the sweet flavour.  If you over do the salt it kills everything.  You have to work quickly and can’t do this ahead of time because the potatoes oxides way too fast.  Spread them on the prepare sheet and bake for 20 minutes.  Check on them.  If you like them crispier wait a bit more.  You can serve them with an aoili type sauce, but I just scarf them down before I can say aoili! 

~ Liz

Creamy Apple Crumble

This is like a warm, creamy, crunchy apple pie – hot out of the oven.  I could eat this everyday.  It’s a simple recipe with pretty basic ingredients that will really surprise your taste buds!

The thought of rice pudding always grossed me out.  Rice and pudding?!?!  What is wrong with people.  That’s like combining chicken and chocolate or soup and marshmallows.  Or making mayonniase and jam sandwiches — wait — my brother used to make those for lunch when we were kids.  (Seriously.)  Now you see why I knew he wasn’t joking about the mozzarella in the dessert cheese ball!  Oh well, back to rice pudding.  With two of my dearest friends (and hubbies) we rotate hosting dinner parties every couple of months (it’s my turn now).  Allergies and food preferences are taken into consideration (how sweet).  So my dear friend Kay made rice pudding with raspberry sauce and whipped cream.  Since she went into all that trouble to find a GF dessert, I was obliged to try it.  And I loved it!  And I had to try it again!

Per serving:

1 apple

1 teaspoon brown sugar

dash of cinnamon

splash of lemon

In a covered microwavable bowl heat the above ingredients for 4 minutes, until apples are mushy a little.

Put the cooked apples into a oven proof ramekin.  Top with one individual size (113 g) rice pudding, store bought.  Or if you make your own I want the recipe!

1/4 cup crispy rice cereal

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 tablespoons chopped pecans

dash of cinnamon

dollop of butter, about a teaspoon or two

Melt the butter and add the other ingredients.  Adjust the sugar for your own preference.

Bake for 15 minutes at 350.  

You can even make this en-mass with six apples, 1 1/2 cups cereal, etc.  But it’s just me and Dr. T.  And if I made a dish of this, we’d eat the whole thing!

Mexi Chicken and Potatoes

 

I’ve never cooked with foil-steam method, but this is a great way to have the chicken and the potatoes done at the same time — without pots and pans to clean up.  Another thing I like about the foil trick it that you can make a meal for 1 or 10.  (And still not have all those pots and pans!)  The chicken was tender and juicy.  

Meal for Two: 

2 chicken breasts

Mexican spices – cumin, coriander, chili, garlic, onion, salt and pepper; is what I used

2 good sized potatoes, sliced thin

salsa

cheese

sour cream

Lay out two pieces of tin foil, spray with cooking spray. 

Place the potatoes on top.

Season the chicken and lay atop the potatoes.  Slather with salsa and then cheese (I like salsa!).

Close up the foil and double fold the top and both ends.  Remember to leave room for heat the circulate inside (don’t squish the food).  Place on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes at 400 F.  Pierce the foil before open to release the steam.  Serve with sour cream and corn (I like corn, too!)

Dessert Cheese Ball

I made this for my sister’s birthday, last week.  It was such a hit!  I got the recipe from a co-worker, and I think this is a genius idea.  It’s great for sitting around snacking with friends.

My brother bought his own place about a year ago, and is learning the joys of food preparation.  It’s in our blood to be in the kitchen, and he’s no exception.  But he definitely needs to work on his kitchen skills just a little more.  During the birthday dessert, he asks me what’s in the cheese ball. 

‘Cream cheese’, I answer. 

 ‘And mozzarella?’ He wonders.

‘No!’

“Cheddar?’

‘No — it’s sweet!  Just cream cheese!’ At this point I realize he’s really serious!

‘You used about 5 then?’

‘No!  It’s just one.  All fluffy with butter and sugar.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes, I made it!’

Seriously, that was the conversation.  Almost word for word.  Then he asked if there was blue cheese in it, and Dr. T told him ‘Actually, it’s Parmesan!’  Brothers…

The REAL ingredients in a Dessert Cheese Ball: 

1 package cream cheese, at room temp

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

More chocolate chips, chopped nuts, skor or other candy bar

What to really do with the real ingredients:

1.  Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla until fluffy.

2.  Gradually add sugars and beat until just combined.

3.  Stir in chocolate chips.

4.  Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

5.  Form cheese into a ball using ‘hand protection’ (saran wrap, wax paper, gloves).  It’s pretty messy.  I dropped the whole mass onto a long sheet of wax paper and used the ends of the paper to mold it. 

6.  Roll in additional chip, nuts, candy.  I put the skor bits on the wax paper and gently rolled the ball in it.  I did this the night before serving and the skor didn’t get soft.

7.   Serve with sweet crackers.  I used animal crackers.

8.   See?  No mozzarella!

Mississippi Mud Pie

 

This has to be one of my favorite desserts.  So, when I needed to suck up to someone in HR, I made this for her.  She did ask for the recipe, so we’ll see how well my sucking up worked!  Hee, hee!!!

Why is it called ‘Mississippi’ Mud Pie?  I have no clue.  Well, hats off to Mississippi, I’ll eat your mud any day!

BASE:

1/2 cup softened margarine or butter

2 cups crushed GF cookies (I’ve used maple cookies, chocolate cookies, chocolate chip, vanilla and yes, all at the same time.  Whatever’s in the pantry is fair game!  I grind then with my nut grinder-thingy from Williams Sonoma)

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Mix together and pat into a greased 9×13 pan.  Bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool.

FILLING:

1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened

6 cups whipped topping (or 1-500ml Nutriwhip, whipped)

1-3oz package instant chocolate pudding

2 cups milk

1 chopped up Jersey Milk bar

Beat cream cheese, add 3 cups (half) of the whipped topping.  Spread evenly over the cooled crust.  Beat the pudding with milk.  Pour evenly over the cream cheese layer.  Top with remaining whipped topping and garnish with chocolate.  I usually add the chocolate right before I serve the cake, so the chocolate doesn’t ‘bleed’ on the whip.

Cool before serving and try not to eat more than 4 pieces at once!

8 Days

I was 8 days late.  That’s 1 week and 1 day.  And that’s a long time to be ‘late’.  And that’s a very long time to have your hopes up.  And that’s a very, very hard thing to get over when reality hits you in the face.  Ouch!

The thought of a pee stick makes me sweat.  Seriously.  I can’t do one.  So, I scheduled an appointment with my family physician.  (Who I think is the greatest)  And peed in a cup instead.  I left the stick part up to her.  Then I waited in the little room with a big picture of an ear, children with rubella, rickets and tetnus and a naked guy with all his muscles in different colours.  (Note:  He must have been really sick, ’cause the left side of his ‘biggest muscle’ was bright red.  Poor guy)  So I prayed.  Not to force the outcome of my peeing, since I don’t believe you can ask to have was done to be undone, but for strength to accept the outcome. 

And nope.  Then Aunt Flo came.

And if that’s not enough, it messed up what was supposed to be my first IUI cycle!  I am to schedule an ultrasound on Day 11, to see what Clomid did.  Day 11 was Christmas Day.  Yup!  So I didn’t take the Clomid.

8 days late + Christmas Day + no Clomid + no ultrasound = 2 lost months

Is it normally this complicated?  Argh!

Well, I’m all better now.  I had some ‘retail therapy’  (shopping) and a very supportive hubby who let me lay on him and cry, while he whispered ‘It’s going to be ok’, over and over.  And I’m good.  It took me a while, and I couldn’t blog about it right away, but I’m good.  So here’s to a cycle in January, maybe!

Bok Choy Stir Fry

I was having my bro over for lunch and he likes food.  So, I know I can try anything in the kitchen when he comes over.  And I had frozen shrimp that I wanted to use.  This was simple and yummy.  You can use what ever veggies you want, but bok choy is a nice change every now and then for me. 

INGREDIENTS:

2 tablespoons peanut oil

1 tablespoon garlic

1 bunch chopped (1-inch) green onions

1 cup broth

4 tablespoons GF soy sauce

4 tablespoons sweet chili sauce

crushed chili peppers (depending on how spicy you like it)

2 tablespoons peanut oil

1 head bok choy

shrimp, thawed

WHAT TO DO:

Heat the oil, saute the garlic.  Add the green onions.  Saute for a minute or two.  Add the broth, soy and sweet chili sauce.  Boil for another minute or two.  Add the chili peppers.  Turn off range.

Heat the other oil.  Add the bok choy and saute until wilted.  Add the shrimp and heat through.  Pour on the ’sauce’.

Serve with rice or rice noodles.