lasagna

What do you get when you combine another snowy day, a vat of leftover tomato sauce and an ambitious blogger??  You guessed it, lasagna!  This was actually my first attempt at lasagna (I'm a bad Italian!)... I guess I've never needed to make it myself with a momma like mine around!  Lasagna is very conducive to healthy modifications.  By making three simple swaps I am ditching tons of unwanted saturated fat without sacrificing tons of flavor.  I substituted a mixture of part skim and fat free ricotta cheese in place of the traditional whole, reduced fat mozzarella cheese for regular, and lean ground turkey instead of beef.  I also chopped up spinach and mixed it with the ricotta for added fiber and flavor.  I suppose you could use whole wheat noodles too, but you don't want to bend the rules too much.


Lasagna (serves 12)
about 2/3 lb uncooked lasagna noodles
2-3 cups tomato sauce (make your own or use your favorite jarred-- I didn't measure, sorry!)
15 oz fat free ricotta cheese
1 c. part skim ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, reduced fat
1 cup raw baby spinach or 1 package frozen 
1 tbsp dried parsley 
2 egg whites
1/2 lb lean ground turkey (97/3)
1/2 small onion, chopped
3 lg garlic cloves, pressed/minced
1 tsp olive oil


Start by boiling the lasagna noodles.  Follow the box instructions.  Make sure you separate the noodles after you strain them or else you'll have a big sticky glob of a noodle-mess.  I made a whole box but it turns out you'll only use a little more than half the box (using a 9x13 inch pan), unless you really pile it high.  ...Not quite sure what to do about the left over noodles-- if you have any ideas, shoot me an email or leave it in the comments!  

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  While the noodles are boiling brown the turkey meat.  In a frying pan heat 1 teaspoon of oil with the chopped onion and 2 of the 3 large garlic cloves (or about 1 tbsp already minced).  Add the turkey, breaking up with a spatula-- cook on low until browned, about 10-15 minutes.  Set aside.

And while the meat is browning, mix the cheese filling.  In a large bowl combine both types of ricotta, the chopped spinach, egg whites, parsley, and the rest of the minced garlic.  Mix well.

Now you are ready to assemble the lasagna!! I know its a bit tedious with all the steps but it's really quite simple, just follow the pictures below.  Start with a 9x13 inch baking dish-- I suppose two 8x8's would work well too, but that involves noodle cutting! 

1) Add a layer of sauce to the pan, add 3 noodles or enough to cover the pan

2) Spread the ricotta filling and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese (save at least 1/2 cup for the topping)

3) Add some ground turkey (it'll only last about two layers-- or one very meaty layer)

4) Glob some sauce on top and spread it around

Repeat steps 1 through 4 until you run out of ricotta filling... top it with noodles and sauce it up!

Bake it in the oven for about an hour or until the middle is hot and bubbly.  Remove from the oven and sprinkle the remaining shredded cheese on top.  Put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and gooey.  

And if you are thinking to yourself "well Jill, this sounds delicious and everything, but I am only one person.  What am I going to do with all this lasagna?!"  Well what I have to say to that is this: stop being dramatic!  It's called leftovers, people.  The night you make it, put half (or more) in tupperware and pop it in the freezer, it'll keep for a while.   I have but just one roommate and make army sized meals all the time! 

Eggplant Rollatini

It's been a few posts since my last eggplant recipe, so enter the Eggplant Rollatini post.  I am actually shocked I haven't blogged about this recipe already-- it's one of my favorite dishes! It seems like a fancy presentation but it's actually pretty simple. You've heard me say this before, but I'll say it again: in lieu of pasta, pair with the vegetable of your choice. I opted for steamed broccoli.  The dish is pretty heavy in itself and it wont hurt to skip the extra carbs.  If you absolutely have to have the pasta, opt for whole wheat for the extra fiber.  

Eggplant Rollatini (serves 4)
1 medium eggplant, peeled
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup bread crumbs, Italian Style
1 egg (beat w/ about 1/4 cup water)
3/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, reduced fat
1/2 package frozen spinach, cooked and drained 
1 egg white
garlic powder
onion powder
dried parsley 
fresh basil --optional
tomato sauce --either homemade or jarred

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  After you peel the eggplant, cut it the long way into 8 even slices.  At the store, try to pick a shorter eggplant--if it's too long they will be awkward to roll. 

Next set up a breading station: flour mixed with garlic and onion powder (a hefty shake of each) on a plate, egg and water beaten in a wide bottomed dish, and bread crumbs on another plate.  Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and start breading the eggplant like this...

1) flour it, shake off the excess

2) dip it in the egg

3) dip it in the bread crumbs

Lay the eggplant onto the sprayed baking sheet and bake for approximately 15 minutes or until the eggplant softens a little.  It'll get cooked again-- this first time is to just get it soft enough to roll up (keep the oven on).  While the eggplant is baking, prepare the filling.  In a bowl, mix the ricotta, mozzarella cheese, egg white and spinach.  Make sure you cool the spinach before you add it to the mix, you don't want to cook the egg white!  Add a little more garlic and onion powder.  The sauce I used is already loaded with garlic so I held off on adding fresh garlic, but that would be perfectly acceptable.  If you have fresh basil, that will only make it better (I didn't have any, sad day!).  I also added a little bit of parsley flakes to the mix. 

Spray a baking dish with a little cooking spray (I lined w/ tin foil). When the eggplant is out of the oven, spoon an even amount of filling --roughly a 1/4 cup to the end of the each slice and roll up.  Place in the baking dish with the ends down.

1) add the filling

2) roll it up, ends down

3) repeat x7

Bake in the oven on 350 degrees for another 15-20 minutes, until the filling is bubbly.  Top with tomato sauce, sprinkle some grated cheese on top if you like and embark on the delicious journey that is eggplant rollatini! 

chocolate pecan cookie bites

After a long workday involving a VERY snowy and cumbersome commute, homemade chocolate chip cookies were just what I needed. Similar to my latest post, this isn't necessarily a super healthy recipe, but maybe just a slightly better choice than your run of the mill cookie by making some clever substitutions.
I used a little bit of whole wheat flour in addition to white to add a little fiber, added a little canola oil and used less butter to cut back on saturate fat, used semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate to cut down on the sugar, and used an egg white rather than a whole egg to cut back on the cholesterol.  And I made them smaller than your average cookie, but the jury is still out as to whether or not this is in fact a helpful, not harmful tactic.  Sometimes if portion sizes are much smaller, we (or at least I) tend to maybe over-indulge to overcompensate for the smaller size.  For example, I myself don't think twice about having a few "fun-size" candy bars during Halloween time, but would very rarely eat a regular size candy bar, even though they are probably pretty equivalent when it comes to the nutrition stats.  
So if you think you might find it a little too easy to pop several little cookies into your mouth in one sitting, make them a little bigger but know they'll have higher calories, carbohydrates, fat etc.  I did make them small this time because I am planning on bringing a bunch in to work tomorrow (you're welcome girls!).

Chocolate Pecan Cookie Bites (serves 18, 2 cookies per serving)
2 tbsp butter, softened
2 tsp canola oil
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 egg white
1/4 cup whole wheat flour 
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped pecans


Start by preheating the oven to 375 degrees. Then start your batter by creaming the butter, oil and brown sugar.  Once mixed well, add the vanilla, salt and egg white, mix thoroughly.

In a separate bowl, combine both flours and baking soda.  Slowing add the dry ingredients to the the batter, mix well-- the batter will turn into a stiff dough. 

Then add the chocolate chips, blending well.  Chop up some pecans, or by them prechopped and add them to the dough.  Walnuts would also work well to.  HELPFUL HINT:  When you are storing nuts, keep them in your freezer.  Sometimes they can get rancid if stored at room temperature for too long because they are so high in fat. 

Spoon the dough onto a cookie sheet using a teaspoon.  Bake in the oven on 375 degrees for 6 to 8 minutes, or until the edges get golden brown. The recipe yields 36 cookies if you make them into teaspoon sized ball, the cookies will be 1 1/2 to 2 inch diameter, two will be just enough for a little treat. 

mix well, but gently!

Bake in the oven for 6-8 minutes!

Eat them with a cold glass of milk, yummy!

guiltless buffalo chicken finger salad.

I wish I could preface this recipe by boasting about all of it's amazing health benefits, but unfortunately there is not much to report... we are talking about buffalo chicken, people.  But what this recipe lacks in nutritive value, it gains in flavor!
I always try my hardest to make foods that pack a nutritive punch.  But sometimes it's more important (and gratifying) to simply tweak a few ingredients to lessen the caloric blow whilst retaining the familiar taste.  I did just that with this recipe.  Now I know this recipe is very simple, in fact -- I almost feel as if I am insulting you, my faithful reader just by posting it.  But my hope is that you'll learn something that you maybe wouldn't have thought to do yourself and if nothing else, you have an awesome buffalo chicken salad recipe (trust me)!

Buffalo Chicken Salad (serves 4)
1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast --I bought the tenders which cut down on prep time
1/3 cup bread crumbs
2-3 tbsp whole wheat flour
a hefty shake of garlic powder, onion powder, and chili powder
1 egg
1-2 tbsp fat free milk
1/2 cup buffalo sauce (I bought Aurthur Marc's Mild Buffalo Wing and Dipping Sauce)
8 tbsp crumbled blue cheese, divided
8 tbsp Ken's light blue cheese dressing, divided
1 large head iceberg lettuce 
2 medium tomatoes, diced
6 large stalks celery 

 First start by creating a breading station.  On one plate, add the whole wheat flour and spices.  I added a generous shake (less than a full tsp of each) garlic powder, onion powder, and chili powder, mix together to blend.
In a wide shallow dish, add one egg and the milk and beat together.  My mother always told me that when you a breading and baking, you use egg and milk, but if you are breading and frying, then use egg and water... I am not sure exactly why, but I (almost) never question her methods.  
In another dish add the bread crumbs.  I only had Italian style bread crumbs so I added a bit more chili powder to it.  Plain bread crumbs or panko bread crumbs would work really well too. 
Keep a big empty plate handy for the finished chicken. If you haven't already, cut the chicken into strips, I bought a 1 lb package of chicken tenders, which had 8 pieces, 2 per serving-- I love having the prep work done for me!
To bread the chicken, simply follow these steps:

Step 1: roll each chicken strip into the flour, shake off the excess

Step 2: dip the floured chicken strips into the egg wash, shake off the excess

Step 3: lastly dip the chicken into the bread crumbs, shake off the excess

Step 4: lay the breaded chicken on a baking sheet or stone

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and bake uncovered for 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes, cut the largest piece, if it is still pink, bake for another 5 minutes or until the flesh is white.  After baking, drizzle the hot sauce evenly on each piece. I finished the chicken off under the broiler for a minute or two, just to crisp up a bit. 

For the salad, I used only iceberg lettuce, diced tomato, and celery, divided equally into four.  Sure there are plenty of other lettuce varieties that have more minerals and vitamins than iceberg, but there are two exceptions I make for iceberg-- buffalo chicken salads and tacos!  When I chopped the tomatoes, I took out most of the seeds so there wasn't too much moisture in the salad.  And lastly, I chopped some celery, and left a few sticks as garnish. After dividing the salad onto four plates, top each one with two pieces (or 4 oz) of buffalo chicken, 2 tbsp crumbled blue cheese, and 2 tbsp light blue cheese dressing.  

This salad had a TON of flavor and was really filling! It'd make a great wrap too.  I hope you like it!

Lentil soup.

I know, I know... it's been a while, I'm sorry!  The craziness of the holidays unfortunately got the best of me and I've been neglecting the blog-- turning to old recipe standbys leaving me with nothing to share with you all.  But fear not, the blog is back!  And I am easing back into this with a simple lentil soup.  It's great to have soup in the fridge for those nights when you are just too tired to cook and are tempted by less than healthy takeout. 
Lentils are a great source of fiber, B vitamins, protein, and iron.... yes vegans and vegetarians alike, you heard me right.  This soup is full of a lot of nutrients found in meat.  Just swap out the chicken broth for veg and you've got yourself a completely meatless soup.  I Hope you like it! 


Lentil Soup (serves 12)
1 lb dry lentils 
2 small yellow onions 
3 medium celery stalks
1 lb carrots
2-3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cans (14.5 oz) chicken broth (opt for fat free, low sodium)
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp dried parsley 
1 tsp hot sauce
extra water (4 cans worth)

Start by prepping all of the veggies.  Peel the onions and dice them into pieces no more than a 1/2 inch. Peel the carrots and slice them into rounds. Rinse the celery well and slice them.  Using the flat side of the blade of a knife, smash the garlic by placing your palm on top of the knife and pushing down, then run the knife through the smashed pieces a few times.

 

note the sweet purple knife :)

 Using a large stock pot, heat the olive oil and add all of the veggies. Stir frequently and cook until the garlic, celery and onions are tender (10-15 minutes). 

Next add the broth and water, I added two cans of broth and 2 cans worth of water.  By using some broth and some water, you a really cutting down the amount of salt (yay for good blood pressure!).  Next add the lentils. Turn the heat on high and bring to a boil. 

Once it reaches a boil, add the ginger, parsley, hot sauce, and 2 more cans worth of water.  Cover and reduce to a simmer, cook until lentils are soft, about an hour or so.   Top with a little grated cheese and some crushed crackers and enjoy!