Lasagna

I made lasagna for dinner tonight.  (I skipped posting yesterday because I made eggs and toast.)  I don't really know the proper way to make lasagna.  I just sort of wing it each time.  Here is what I typically do:

Ingredients
12 lasagna noodles (that's how many I used today anyway -- it was just the remainder in an open box)
40 oz. (about a jar and a half) of marinara sauce
1 tbs olive oil
1 cup seitan, ground
1/2 of a yellow onion, chopped
1 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 cup shredded mozzarella (or Italian cheese blend of your choosing)
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan (the real stuff you have to buy whole and shred yourself -- the garbage from a plastic green container does not count)
1 egg
2 cups low-fat cottage cheese
2 tbs Italian seasoning (or you can use a mixture of dried oregano, basil, and parsley)
garlic salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste (you can use regular salt and minced garlic instead of garlic salt, but I don't bother with the mincing since I can't taste the difference in this dish)

Directions

1.  Half-fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil.  Cook lasagna noodles as directed by the box.  (I prefer no-boil noodles because they save time, effort, and an enormous pot, but Sameer insists they don't taste as good.)  When the noodles finish cooking, drain the water, and you can put them in cold water to stop the cooking and keep the noodles from sticking together.  I never bother with the cold water step.

2.  While the noodles are cooking, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

3.  While the noodles are cooking and the oven is preheating, heat the olive oil in a large sauce pan.  Add ground seitan and season it with the Italian seasoning, garlic salt, and pepper.  Cook until lightly browned.

4.  Add the chopped onion and thawed spinach to the sauce pan.  Heat through and add a jar of marinara sauce.

5.  Mix the cottage cheese, about 1 tsp of Italian seasoning, garlic salt and pepper, beaten egg, and Parmesan cheese.

6.  Prepare a 9 x 13" baking dish with non-stick spray.  Layer lasagna noodles, seitan mixture, more lasagna noodles, cottage cheese mixture, more lasagna noodles, etc.  Top layer should be noodles, marinara sauce, and then mozzarella blend.

7.  Cover with aluminum foil and cook for 30 minutes in preheated oven.  Remove foil and cook for an additional 10 minutes.  Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Herbed Pizza Dough

Tonight we're having pizzeria-style pizza for dinner.  I made pizza dough last night and put it in the refrigerator since it tastes better when it's been sitting for at least 8-12 hours before cooking.  I found the original recipe on AllRecipes.  The one below has minor changes, mostly because I'm too lazy to mince garlic for this.

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups bread flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil leaves

Directions

1. Combine ingredients in bread machine pan according to your bread machine's instructions.  (For mine, this means wet ingredients, flour and dry stuff on top of that, then yeast in a little concave in the flour.  If you aren't using a bread machine, combine your sugar, warm water, and yeast.  Then while it's blooming for about 10 minutes, put together your dry ingredients.  Then combine your wet and dry ingredients.)
2. Turn machine on dough cycle.  (If you aren't using a bread machine, knead the dough for 15-30 minutes, then cover it with a cloth and let it rise for half an hour.)  Punch the dough back down and put it in a sealed plastic bag and store it in the refrigerator for up to three days.  It can sit in the freezer for even longer.
3. Preheat oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C).
4. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface. Don't bother with a rolling pin; use your hands and it'll be easier.  Spray a large pizza pan with nonstick cooking spray, or better yet, sprinkle the pizza pan with corn meal instead. Place dough on pan and add your choice of pizza toppings.
5. Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes.

Spicy Vegetable Curry

Today I'm making this dish, based on an above-average frozen dinner from my local grocery store's organic frozen foods section.  It's not actually that spicy the way I make it, but "spicy vegetable curry" was what I was aiming for and also sounded better than "plain vegetable curry."  The recipe isn't fancy since I'm terrible at seasoning sauces.  Just the worst.  But I managed to make this taste pretty good last time, especially the leftovers that had a chance to meld their flavors in the fridge overnight.

Ingredients
4 oz. extra firm tofu, diced (If you care more about taste than healthfulness, replace this ingredient with paneer.)
2 tbs ghee (a.k.a. clarified butter - If you aren't adventurous enough to find it in your local supermarket's international aisle, you can use normal butter.  Or vegetable oil.  But it won't taste quite the same.)
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 potato, peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 cup frozen peas
1 (14 oz.) can diced tomatoes
2 tbs mild curry paste (I'm sure you could whip this up from actual Indian spices like cumin and coriander, but I am not the one who can tell you how.  I prefer to just buy Patak's mild curry paste from the International Foods aisle at the store and leave it at that.  It's much milder and more flavorful than curry powder, garam masala, or any spice blend I've ever tried to create myself.)
1 tsp Kosher salt
1/8 tsp baking soda diluted in 2 tbs water
Honey, to taste
1/4 cup quinoa, cooked (Quinoa is a whole grain that just adds some bonus nutrition and texture.  If you can't find it, just leave it out.)
1 handful of fresh cilantro, rinsed and chopped
1 cup Basmati rice, cooked

Directions

1.  Cook the tofu in a non-stick skillet until lightly browned.  Since it typically comes in 8 oz. packages, I brown all of it, then set aside half for this recipe and put half in the freezer to use the next time I make stir fry.  (This makes an appropriate amount of food for two people plus a couple of servings of leftovers.)

2.  Put ghee, onion, carrots, and potato in skillet and fry until vegetables are tender.

3.  Add canned tomatoes, diluted baking soda in water, salt, and curry paste.  Stir together.  The baking soda diluted in water is meant to cut the acidity of the tomatoes.  If the sauce still tastes too acidic or sour, mix in honey or sugar until it doesn't taste bad anymore.

4.  Add peas and the cooked tofu.  Stir everything together and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes.

5.  Stir in cooked quinoa. 

6.  Serve over Basmati rice and garnish with chopped cilantro.  Serve fresh dahi [yogurt] on the side if you have it.

Edited 8/31/2012:  I originally listed 1 tbs of ghee in the ingredients, but last night I made this dish and used two without thinking about it.  Sameer and I both agreed it was EXPONENTIALLY better than ever before, so I amended the recipe.

Stuffed Peppers

Tonight for dinner I'm making stuffed peppers based on this recipe from AllRecipes.  I've made it with all colors of bell peppers and even tiny assorted bell peppers that our neighbors gifted us from their garden.  It works with all of them.  Today I'm using green because the organic green peppers were really cheap at the store this week.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup uncooked white rice
• 3/4 cup water
• 4 green bell peppers
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 ounces textured vegetable protein (I use homemade seitans that have been ground up in a food processor and seasoned with a few shakes of Italian Seasoning.  You can also use Herbs de Provence, or just a mixture of oregano, basil, and parsley.)
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 4 ounces shredded reduced-fat cheddar
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Combine rice and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 15 minutes. 
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
3. Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Cut tops off peppers and seed insides.  Add peppers to boiling water for 15 minutes, or until tender but crisp.  Arrange parboiled peppers in a large baking dish. Chop usable portion of the tops.
4. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute textured vegetable protein and seasoning until lightly browned.  Stir in chopped peppers and onions in oil until soft. Reduce heat to low, and continue cooking for 5 minutes. Mix in cooked rice and 1 1/5 cups tomato sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon the mixture into the peppers, and top each with remaining tomato sauce.
5. Cover, and bake about 45 minutes. Uncover, top each pepper with cheese, and bake until cheese is melted.

 

Chilaquiles Casserole

I made Chilaquiles Casserole for dinner last night.  I found the recipe on EatingWell's website.  It included a lot of oil when I first started making it because I didn't realize you could cook corn tortillas in a pan without oil.  FYI -- you can.  I had a bad experience the first time I tried to make enchiladas and the tortillas came out chewy and raw, so I'd gone a little overboard with pre-cooking corn tortillas ever since.  This recipe is a lot lower in fat now that I know I don't have to use oil.  I don't even use the tablespoon of oil cited in the original recipe to cook the onion anymore.  It's really not necessary if you use a non-stick skillet, and it doesn't really add anything to the final dish, aside from fat.

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 medium zucchini, grated (I often use two)
• 1 19-ounce can black beans, rinsed
• 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained (I prefer the kind with green chiles mixed in)
• 1 1/2 cups corn, frozen (thawed) or fresh
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 12 corn tortillas, quartered (I'm not sure how they use this many tortillas at EatingWell -- maybe there's a lot of overlap? -- but I only end up using maybe eight.  It's not like it even matters if you run out at the end.  Nobody will notice when everything is covered in vegetable mixture.)
• 1 19-ounce can mild red or green enchilada sauce (I've used both, sometimes mixed together when I was using up leftovers -- it makes surprisingly little difference in the flavor of the dish)
• 1 1/4 cups shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese (or use a mixture with Pepper Jack for more flavor)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly coat a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Heat the tortillas in a large nonstick skillet one at a time.  Set aside.
3. Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring often, until starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in zucchini, beans, tomatoes, corn, cumin and salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are heated through, about 3 minutes.
4. Scatter half the tortilla pieces in the pan. Top with half the vegetable mixture, half the enchilada sauce and half the cheese. Repeat with one more layer of tortillas, vegetables, sauce and cheese. Cover with foil.
5. Bake the casserole for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until the casserole is bubbling around the edges and the cheese is melted, about 10 minutes more.

 I like this best served with low-fat sour cream to temper the spiciness of the sauce, but if you want to keep the dish healthy, DO NOT BUY THE SOUR CREAM.  I end up eating way too much of it.

Meal Planning

Here is my meal planning for the week:

Chilaquiles Casserole - This is the healthiest "casserole" recipe I've ever found and the only one I make with any kind of regularity.  It doesn't even have canned soup in it.  I decided to make it this week because I have a couple of zucchini to use up, as well as some leftover corn tortillas.

Stuffed Peppers - I grew up thinking I absolutely hated bell peppers, especially the green ones.  Turns out I just hated the stuffed peppers my parents made.  These ones are really good.

Spicy Vegetable Curry with Quinoa and Basmati Rice - I threw this together for the first time a couple of weeks ago.  It's a rip-off of a surprisingly good frozen dinner I purchased the week before that.

Pizza - I'm going to make a classic pizzeria-style veggie pizza.  This means homemade pizza dough in the bread machine.

Lasagna - I usually start to get lazy with my cooking come Friday, so this is a dish I can -- should, even -- make a day in advance.  To make it healthier (and cheaper), I use low-fat cottage cheese and a beaten egg in place of the usual ricotta, and I include ground, seasoned seitans and chopped spinach in the sauce.

Veggie Burgers - I'm even lazier on Saturday nights, so I'm planning easy no-fuss stuff for the weekend.  Frozen ready-made veggie burgers.  I didn't buy hamburger buns though, so that means making fresh buns in the bread machine sometime this week.  I wasn't being ambitious or even forgetful with the buns -- I'm just this cheap.

Spaghetti? - I didn't have to buy any special ingredients for this since I keep them on hand, so we'll either have spaghetti or, if we don't cook another night, whatever we had planned to have then.  Or maybe a frozen pizza.  Whatever.  We usually have at least one night when all cooking plans go out the window, so it's good to avoid buying fresh ingredients for seven nights of meals since they probably won't all get used.

I recently ran out of frozen homemade seitans, so I have a double-batch cooking on the stove right now.  We'll need them for the stuffed peppers, lasagna, and spaghetti this week.