Spaghetti Squash Casserole

Spaghetti squash is a tasty, low-carb option to use in place of pasta.  I'm not gonna lie to you, it absolutely does not have the same flavor and consistency as pasta; it is, however, yummy and satisfying.  You can mix it with leftover tomato sauce and top it with cheese to make a great low-carb meatless casserole.  This is a nice Meatless Monday kind of main dish if you're trying to reduce your carb or animal protein intake or cook on a budget.  And a big bonus for my family is that our young'uns like it and every serving provides them a couple of their daily servings of veggies as well as some calcium.

I don't have exact measurements to give you for this recipe.  I used two fairly small spaghetti squash, a few cups of leftover tomato sauce, and enough grated Mozzarella cheese to cover the surface of the mixture, and cooked it in an 8-by-8 baking dish.

For the tomato sauce, here's a recipe for a quick and easy weeknight tomato sauce or use your favorite recipe.

There are several ways to prepare spaghetti squash.  You can Google "how to cook spaghetti squash" for info about different prep methods.  I chose the method where you cut the squash in half lengthwise before baking.  This requires a very, very sharp chef's knife or cleaver and some muscle; having a strong hubby to hack through the squash for you is highly recommended (muchas gracias, mi amor!).  After you cut the squash in half, scrape out the seeds and pulp.  If you're patient, it's worth separating out the seeds to roast in the oven, just like pumpkin seeds.  They're super-yummy!

Line a baking sheet with foil and spray the foil with nonstick spray.  Put the squash halves cut side down on the foil and bake at 375 degrees until you can easily insert a fork right through the skins and the flesh, about 30 to 45 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a while, then use a fork to scrape the flesh from the squash.  The flesh will shred into spaghetti-like strands as it's scraped.




Shredded spaghetti squash


Mix the squash and tomato sauce and put it in a greased casserole dish. 

Cover with a nice, thick layer of grated Mozzarella. 

Bake at 375 degrees until the casserole is hot and the cheese is ooey-gooey melted, 20 to 30 minutes.

Broccoli Cauliflower Cheese Soup




This twist on broccoli cheese soup is creamy, cheesy, and pretty darn nutritious.  It has just a touch of butter and flour, only enough to allow the cheese to melt without separating, and it has milk instead of cream.  The primary thickener is the cauliflower.  Our gradually-becoming-less-picky kiddos like this soup, and it provides them lots of veggies and calcium ... winning!!!

For the cheddar in this recipe I highly recommend the Cabot extra sharp white cheddar available at Wal-Mart.  I know, it's totally counterintuitive to think the best cheese comes from Wal-Mart, but this is our family favorite for taste, smooth melting, and reasonable price ... go figure.

One other recommendation, and it's about specialty ingredients.  It's seldom necessary to invest in specialty ingredients.  For instance, the cheapest black peppercorns will taste great as long as they're freshly ground and I love Lawry's seasoned salt more than any higher-priced version I've ever had.  Once in a while, though, a specialty ingredient really makes the recipe, well, special.  I think that's the case with this soup, where I used Penzeys toasted granulated onion (no, they don't pay me anything to tout their products; boy, don't I wish).  You can of course substitute regular onion powder, but the results just won't be quite as toasty yummy good.

Broccoli Cauliflower Cheese Soup Recipe

3/4 pound broccoli crowns
1 head of cauliflower
cloves of half a head of garlic
2 cups stock (see note)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup lowfat milk
1/2 pound grated extra sharp cheddar cheese
2 teaspoons toasted granulated onion
salt and freshly ground black pepper
splash of Sherry (optional)

Note:  The best stock for this soup is a smoky one, such as a stock made from smoked chicken or ham bones.  Use the best stock you have available.

Procedure

Rinse and drain the broccoli and cauliflower.  Trim away the very ends of the broccoli stems and any leaves.  Cut the florets off the stems and roughly chop the florets.  Set the chopped florets aside.  Roughly chop the broccoli stems.  

Cut the cauliflower head in quarters and cut away the stem/core and leaves.  Rough chop the quartered cauliflower. 

Peel the garlic cloves.

(Remember to throw all the veggie trimming "discards" in your freezer bag for making stock later.)

Veggies prepped and ready to fulfill their soup destiny

Fill a large heavy-bottomed stockpot with water, add a few big pinches of salt, and bring to a low boil.  Add the broccoli stem chunks, the cauliflower chunks, and the garlic cloves.  Boil gently until all veggies are very tender and can be easily pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes.

Once you have the broccoli stems, cauliflower, and garlic boiling in the salted water, bring the stock to a boil in a large saucepan, add broccoli florets, and gently boil while you complete the remaining steps.

When the broccoli stems, cauliflower, and garlic are tender, drain them through a strainer, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water.  Put the heavy-bottomed stockpot back on the range; you're going to use it again.  Process the broccoli stems, cauliflower, and garlic in a food processor or blender until smooth, working in batches if necessary, and adding a little of the cooking water if necessary.

In the heavy-bottomed stockpot, melt the butter over medium heat, add the flour, and whisk for a couple of minutes to cook the flour.  Whisk in the milk and continue whisking until the mixture thickens like gravy.  Add the cheese a handful at a time, stirring to incorporate.

When all the cheese has melted, pour in the stock with the broccoli florets, add the toasted granulated onion, salt and pepper to taste, and Sherry, if using.  Simmer for a while before serving to allow all the flavors to blend.

Makes roughly (very roughly) 2 1/2 quarts of soup.

Weeknight Delicious Nutritious Tomato Sauce

Pasta or pizza sauce fortified with veggie puree is a great way to sneak nutrition into your kids' diets.  I love to spend all day Saturday roasting veggies in the oven to make sauce; roasting gives veggies so much flavor.  But let's be realistic, not everyone has a full day to devote to sauce-making and not everyone wants to spend their day in the kitchen.  Here's a quicker, easier version that's still full-flavored and nutrition-packed.  This recipe will make enough sauce for two to three lasagnas or pasta dishes, so freeze the extra for later.  It freezes beautifully.

Weeknight Delicious Nutritious Tomato Sauce

2 medium onions, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 large or 2 small carrots, cut into 4 or 5 pieces each
Cloves of 1/2 to 1 head of garlic, to taste, peeled
1 bell pepper, cut in quarters
1 zucchini, cut into 4 or 5 pieces
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
2 Tablespoons Italian seasoning (I like Penzey's Pasta Sprinkle)
1/4 to 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
2 14.5-ounce cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 29-ounce can of tomato puree or crushed tomatoes
3 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
2 lbs. ground beef, optional
1/2 to 1 cup pinot grigio, optional*
Olive oil

Place a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Add 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil.  Add the onion and celery and saute/sweat until translucent.

Place a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium-low heat and add canned tomatoes and bay leaves.

While onion and celery are cooking and tomatoes are warming, place the carrots in a food processor fitted with the metal blade and pulse until they're roughly ground.  Add garlic cloves and pulse until roughly ground.  Add bell pepper and pulse until roughly ground.  Add zucchini and pulse until everything comes together into a thick puree.

When onion and celery are translucent, add garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and crushed red pepper flakes.  Cook and stir for 5 minutes to "bloom" the seasonings.

Add the veggie puree from the food processor to the skillet.  Reduce temperature to medium-low heat, and continue cooking, stirring often, for about 15 minutes, until the liquid cooks off and the veggies smell very fragrant.  Be careful not to let them scorch.

Pour the veggie mixture from the skillet into the stockpot or Dutch oven with the tomatoes.  Add salt and pepper and wine.  Continue simmering over medium-low heat, tasting and adjusting seasonings as desired, and stirring often.

If you're adding ground beef, brown it in the skillet you used for the veggies.  No need to clean the skillet in between.  Pour meat into a collander to strain off the fat and add the meat to the tomato sauce.  Continue simmering until the sauce is reduced to the consistency you want.  Don't forget to remove the bay leaves.

* I like Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio for tomato sauce.  You can usually find it for $10 or less per bottle.  Although you can skip the wine if you want and still make a good sauce, wine and tomatoes "love each other," and the wine greatly enhances the tomato flavor.  Alton Brown explained it all in a Good Eats episode.

Yummy Homemade Lasagna

Always searching for ways to sneak nutrition, namely in the form of veggies, into our very picky carnivore/carbivore kids, here's a recipe we've created for lasagna made with a tomato sauce that's filled with veggies.  The flavor is incredible and the kids will never guess that it's healthy.  Plus you can reserve part of the sauce for homemade pizza.  This isn't a quickie recipe.  You'll spend several hours in the kitchen.  But for your effort you'll be rewarded with two super nutritious lasagnas, one to bake now and another to freeze or share, plus sauce for homemade pizzas.  Feel free to adjust the recipe to your taste or to use what you have on hand.  It's a great way to use up bits and dabs of veggies that are lingering in the veggie drawer in your fridge.  And as always, don't forget to throw all the scraps and trimmings into a freezer bag to make veggie broth.

Recipe For Homemade Lasagna Plus Yummy Pizza Sauce
3 beets, peeled and diced*
2 zucchini squash, sliced into spears
2 onions, large dice
6 tomatoes, peeled, cut in half, and most seeds removed
1 bell pepper, diced
1/2 pound mushrooms, cut in half
4 celery stalks, cut in chunks
2 carrots, cut in chunks
1/4 small cabbage, shredded
2 heads garlic, minced
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (I like Penzey's Pasta Sprinkle http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeyspastasprinkle.html )
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil for spraying the pan and olive oil for drizziling over veggies
2 pounds ground chuck
1 pound sweet Italian sausage (either bulk or removed from casing)
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 cups Pinot Grigio
5 or 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 bunch of chopped basil, divided use
1 bunch of chopped parsley
1 bunch of oregano (leaves removed from stems)
2 1/2 pounds mozzarella (preferably whole milk which melts better)
32 ounces ricotta
3 large eggs
10 ounces parmesan cheese
2 packages of no-boil lasagna noodles (we like Barrilla) (you'll probably have some left over)

Use two cookie sheets or cake pans lined with aluminum foil.  Spray with olive oil if you have a Misto sprayer or spray with Pam.  Arrange prepared veggies over the two cookie sheets.  Sprinkle with the Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper, and drizzle with a couple tablespoons of olive oil.

Roast in oven for 1.5 hours at 350 degrees.  Stir veggies, return to oven, and raise temperature to 375 degrees.  Roast for 1/2 hour to 1 hour, checking regularly, until there's no liquid in pans and veggies are just starting to brown and caramelize.

*  When you're working with red beets be sure to use a cutting board that can be put through the dishwasher, rather than your best wooden cutting board, and wear gloves.  Those things stain like crazy.  Another option is to use golden beets instead of red.

While veggies are roasting, you can brown the ground chuck and Italian sausage together in a large cast iron skillet.  Drain off the fat in a colander.

Allow roasted veggies to cool.  Puree in batches in food processor and pour into a Dutch oven or other similar large pot.  Add both cans of tomatoes, the Pinot Grigio, the oregano leaves, half of the chopped basil, and the 5 or 6 cloves of chopped garlic.  Taste for seasoning and add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.  Cook at a high simmer/low boil until reduced to sauce consistency.

At this point reserve and refrigerate 1 to 2 cups of tomato sauce to use for homemade pizza.

To the remaining tomato sauce add the browned meat mixture.  Simmer for a few minutes to meld flavors.

Shred your mozzarella.  An easy way is to pop it into the freezer for half an hour and then shred in the food processor with the grater blade attachment.

Shred or grate your parmesan.

In a large mixing bowl combine shredded parmesan, ricotta, eggs, parsley, and remaining basil.  Mix well.

Use 2 rectangular lasagna dishes, 9-by-13 or thereabouts.  Ladle a small amount of tomato/meat sauce into the bottom of each dish and spread it out.  Cover with lasagna noodles (probably 3 will cover the pan).  Next add some of the ricotta mixture and spread as evenly as possible over the noodles.  The easiest way I've found to do this is to use a small ice cream scoop, aka a cookie scoop, to put a little ricotta mixture on each noodle, then spread with a spatula.  Next add a layer of tomato/meat sauce, spreading it as evenly as possible.  Next add a layer of shredded mozzarella.  Each layer should be minimal, just enough to cover the previous layer.

Continue layering noodles, ricotta, sauce, and mozzarella until you reach the top of the lasagna dishes, ending with mozzarella.

For the lasagna you wish to serve right away, cover tightly with aluminum foil and cook in a 350 degree oven for an hour, then remove the foil, increase the temperature to 375 degrees, and cook for about 30 minutes, checking regularly, until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown.

This dish freezes really well.  You can freeze the second lasagna, tightly wrapped.  When you're ready to bake, just thaw, and bake using the same instructions.