Turkey Lasagna!

One of my favorite things to make (and eat) is lasagna. However, every time, I make it I come to the realization of two things:

        1. This is definitely not going to be the healthiest thing I eat all week.
        2. Why did I decide to make lasagna? It takes FOREVER!!

Well one of those things still holds true. Lasagna takes forever to make, but it's a labor of love, because its deliciousness is well worth the effort. Lasagna doesn't, however, have to be that unhealthy. Matter of fact, it can almost be kinda healthy. Imagine that? The trick is to use all clean or mostly clean ingredients, and stuff as many veggies as you can into it!

I was inspired by a friend who has a lasagna recipe using thinly sliced zucchini as lasagna noodles  for a low carb rendition of this tasty meal. However, I knew I couldn't use just zucchini as the pasta. My family would disown me. Therefore, I decided to alternate between the zucchini "pasta" and Bionaturae organic lasagna noodles.

My favorite marinara sauce!

It only has 7 ingredients and they're all natural, which I love!

Lower Carb Turkey (and veggie!) Lasagna


2 large zucchini, sliced lengthwise 1/4" thick (like a thick flat ribbon of zucchini)

1 rib of celery, diced

3/4 C diced bell pepper
1 C chopped mushrooms
1 medium carrot, grated
1 medium onion, chopped
4 gloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs olive oil

1 lb ground turkey

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

2 tsp italian seasoning

1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce or 25 to 28 oz of homemade sauce

1/4 C parsley, chopped

1/2 C frozen peas

Salt & Pepper

1 egg

1 3/4 C ricotta cheese

1/2 tsp dried basil

6 lasagna noodles (or as many as you need for 2 layers in your baking dish)

4 C mozzarella, shredded, and reserve 2 C for top of lasagna

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Heat olive oil in pan over medium high heat. Add all vegetables, and saute until veggies start to let out moisture (Approx. 5-7 minutes). Stir frequently to avoid browning or sticking to pan.

3. Add ground turkey, red pepper flakes, and italian seasoning. Let cook for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly to incorporate turkey into vegetables and to reduce clumping.

4. Stir in tomato sauce, parsley, and frozen peas. Cover and reduce to low flame. Let simmer for as long as you'd like up to 45 min (I let mine simmer for about 30 minutes). Be sure to check on it and stir frequently to ensure turkey is well broken up, and nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add salt and pepper to taste.

5. While sauce is simmering, place thinly sliced zucchini strips on baking pan (or pans. You may have to use more than one) in a single layer. Let bake for 10-15 minutes until soft. Let cool.

Before baking

6. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water until JUST BEFORE al dente (approx 6-7 minutes). If you're using no-boil noodles, then just sit on your pretty little ass for 6 to 7 minutes and take a few sips of that coffee you made to get you through this laborious task.

7. In a bowl, mix together egg, ricotta, and basil until well combined. 

LASAGNA ASSEMBLY AT LAST! I don't have measurements for this, as I tend to eyeball it, so here's the basics.

In your baking dish, spoon 1 cup of meat/veggie mixture and spread into an even layer.

1. Add a layer of lasagna noodles.

2. Ricotta mixture

3. Meat/veggie sauce

4. Mozzarella

5. Zucchini strips

6. Ricotta mixture

7. Meat/veggie sauce

8. Mozzarella

Nobody said this would be pretty

One cup of Mozzarella 

Repeat as many times as you have to. Make sure to press each layer down a bit with a spatula. 

Use 1 cup of your reserved mozzarella to top lasagna. Put into oven to bake for 30 minutes. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella, and bake for another 15 - 20 minutes.

I usually like the middle a little more brown, but we were in a rush and hungry. Still delish though! 

I have a tendency to not let my lasagna cool enough before cutting it, and it ends up being a blob of gooey deliciousness instead of a tower of deliciousness. If you want your lasagna to actually stay in layers, let it cool for at least 10 min. I didn't know this until a week ago. LOL! 

Bon apetite! 

I eat avocado with everything

Crustless Spinach Zucchini Pie

As usual, I was sitting innocently on my couch one morning, writing my daily to-do list, and I got an instant craving for something: spinach pie. I've never made a spinach pie before, but I knew that they tend to have crust and I definitely didn't want that. I'm making a more conscious effort to exclude refined carbs from my diet, and also excluding carbs where they're not needed. So I googled: crustless spinach pie. After several recipes that looked very "blah", I found one that seemed good enough to satisfy my craving! While getting the spinach from the veggie crisper drawer, I saw a stack--yes an actual stack--of zucchinis that I bought a few days ago. Not exactly sure what I intended to do with all of these squashes, but I decided they'd go just fine with my spinach pie!

Here's the original recipe.


Spinach Zucchini Pie

1 1/2 C     Spinach, chopped
1/2 C        Zucchini, chopped
1 C           Ricotta cheese
2              Eggs
2              Egg whites
1/4 C        Parmesan cheese, grated
1              Small onion, finely chopped
2              Garlic cloves, finely minced
 Salt & Pepper    (Use your judgement here on how much you want. I used about 1/2 tsp of salt)
1/2  tsp     Tabasco or other hot sauce
1/2 tsp      Nutmeg
1/4 C        Mozzarella cheese, shredded


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook spinach and zucchini in pan until wilted, let cool.
3.  In a bowl, mix ricotta, eggs, egg whites, parmesan cheese, onion, garlic, salt and pepper, hot sauce, and nutmeg until well incorporated.  Add spinach and zucchini to bowl.
4. Spray pie pan with cooking spray and pour mixture into pie pan.
5. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella.
6. Bake for 40 min or until knife comes out clean.


Yield:  8 slices
Calories per slice: 95 measly calories per slice!

Mm... bubbly cheesy goodness...

Seriously, thats it. It's THAT easy. Now you have a yummy breakfast, or brunch, or lunch for a week! You're welcome.  :)

Served with chopped avocado and tomato salad

Kale Chips! My Beloved!!

       Soooo.....I attempted to make kale chips earlier in the week. All of the recipes I read involved baking them for 10 minutes or so at around 300 to 350 degrees. Pssshhh! That sounded so easy! Well, I tried that method, and it tasted like the inside of a forest fire. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed with these kale chips everyone keeps raving about. But, I bought a gigantic 3 to 4 lb bag of kale this week that was on sale for $2 (Seriously, would you walk away from that?), so I had to make SOMETHING of it! I wanted to try to make the chips again.. But I wanted to do it right. So back to Google I went.

     After some intensive Google research, I deduced (<---college education right there) that the best method of making these chips was by dehydration. I don't have a dehydrator so back to the Google I go. You can totally use your oven to dehydrate things! Jerky! Fruit! Chips! The possibilities are endless!

     One of the really cool things about kale chips is that you can essentially season it with any flavors you love. I decided to roll with parmesan and garlic.


Parmesan Garlic Kale Chips

Here's what you'll need:

Kale          I'm not sure how much. I probably used a pound.
2 Tbs         Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1-2 Tsp      Garlic powder
2-3 Tbs      Parmesan cheese
                 Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Put oven on "Warm" setting. This setting is less than 200 degrees, so that the food isn't baked, but we're creating a "dehydrator-like" setting. Let warm up for at least 10 minutes.

2. In the meantime, clean the kale. I mean REALLY clean it. I used curly kale, which has very curly leaves that dirt often gets trapped in. I filled my sink with water, soaked the batch of kale, and individually rubbed each leaf. I know it's tedious, but I didn't want to take any chances crunching down on sand that was stuck in the curly leaves.

3. Once properly cleaned, wrap the bunch of kale in a towel and squeeze/pat dry. Remove stems from each kale leaf, and tear leaves into "chip-sized" pieces. Place into a large bowl.

4. In a small bowl, mix together garlic powder, parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper. Add olive oil to mixture, and mix well until incorporated.

5. Add dressing to kale chips, and massage it into leaves, making sure each chip gets a little bit of love. Trust me, this will be worth it in the end. Each chip will be coated with awesomeness.

6. Arrange chips on a baking sheet, making sure they don't overlap each other. I had to use 2 baking sheets for this.

7. Place into oven. LEAVE OVEN SLIGHTLY CRACKED. This is imperative in making the oven act as a dehydrator. While the oven door is ajar, the moisture that leaves the kale leaf will exit the oven. The kale leaves will stay beautifully green, but get very crispy and crunchy.

8. Leave in oven for 40 minutes to 1 hour, occasionally checking it's readiness by sneaking a chip or two out of the batch for a "taste test". The chips will get a little more crispy once you remove them from the oven.

9. Enjoy your delicious healthy snack!!

See how they maintained their gorgeous green color?

I was actually surprised at how insanely delicious these are. Play around with more flavors. I know I will!

                         

Breakfast Bites!

             Mornings for me typically start around 5:30 am every day. I don't work, but I intern at a school for children with autism three days a week. You're probably thinking, "School doesn't start until around 9am. What the heck are you doing up that early?!?!". Two words: My. Husband.


              If he's up, I'm up. Partly because he puts every light in the house on while getting ready for work. Also, because he never gives himself enough time to make anything for breakfast or lunch, and ends up eating unhealthy crap 6 days a week for 2 meals a day. That's no bueno, so I tend to have to make breakfast shakes for him. I was intent on figuring out a way to make him a portable, relatively healthy breakfast. One day I was sitting on the couch, doing God knows what, and it hit me: BREAKFAST BITES! Breakfast items that could be baked in muffin tins for easy transportability (Wow...no red squiggly lines under that word? Thought I made that one up. hm.. ). I decided to make two of my favorite breakfast items: veggie omelets and whole wheat pancakes.

This is so easy, it's actually funny it took me so long to think of it.

Omelet Bites

5      eggs
salt and pepper to taste
various chopped vegetables
bacon, cooked and chopped (optional)
shredded cheese (optional)

For the love of all things sacred, use silicone muffin pans (and spray with cooking spray or oil) if you have them. Otherwise you'll end up with 1/4 of your omelet stuck in the pan. Trust me. I'm picking up some silicone bakeware over the weekend, because scrubbing muffin pans sucks. If thats not a viable option, use foil muffin liners and spray the hell out of them with cooking spray or oil.

Yield: 6 Omelet Bites

One of my eggs was a twin! 

Zucchini, mushrooms, spinach, bacon, green onion, red onion, yellow pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin pan (Silicone pans!! Don't make the same mistakes I did! Save yourselves!!)

2. Add chopped veggies to the bottom of each muffin..uh..crater? muffin cup?? 

No liner was used. Muffin pan was almost thrown in the trash because of how much the egg stuck to it.

3. In a glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, salt, and pepper.

4. Pour whisked eggs on top of vegetables until full. If using cheese, sprinkle on top.

5. Bake 15 minutes. Voila!

Let cool, then remove egg from pan, place into air tight container. Put in the refrigerator, and reheat as many as you need in the morning. 20-30 seconds should be ideal for reheating 2 omelet bites.

Whole Wheat Pancake Bites

-Your favorite whole wheat (or regular flour...nobody's here to judge) pancake recipe. Here's mine.   I halved the recipe, since I didn't need to make that many pancake bites, however, I added 1/2 tsp more baking powder, since I wanted them to rise a bit more.

-Maple syrup (as much as you choose. I used 2 Tablespoons since my recipe was halved)

-Chopped fruit (I used sliced banana, and blueberries), or chocolate chips, or anything else you love to add to your pancakes.

Yield: 6ish pancake bites (since I halved the recipe)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make pancakes according to recipe.

2. Add 2 Tablespoons of maple syrup  and fold into pancake batter.

3. Pour a small amount of pancake batter into pan just to form a barrier between the fruit and the bottom of the muffin pan. Add some of your fruit or other toppings on top of this.

I made my omelets and pancakes in the same pan. Clearly I didn't pour any pancake batter at the bottom of the muffin tin. Lesson learned.

4. Pour batter into each cup until full or almost full. Pancake batter doesn't rise much so don't worry about that. 

5. Add more fruit or other toppings and drizzle more maple syrup on top of pancake bite.

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

7. Let cool, remove, and place in air tight container. Microwave for 30 seconds or so until warm. Voila! Breakfast on the go! 

I'll totally do the whole breakfast bite thing again. This time with silicone pans, liners, and doing it the correct way! Lol! Also, I'm going to try to experiment with more breakfast options so that it doesn't become monotonous and boring.   Enjoy!

Chicken Meatballs in Mushroom Sauce

Often, at the end of the week, I have to scrape up ingredients to make a meal of whatever I have available. Yesterday (Thursday) was no different from other weeks. The only meat I had in the freezer was chicken breast, but not enough for everyone to have their own. I decided to make meatballs, but I didn't have any pasta sauce on hand--and quite frankly, tomato sauce is getting "old"--so I'd have to get creative here! I've made a mushroom sauce to go with pork chops before, so it should work for chicken meatballs as well! With my meat grinder ready to go, and my notebook on hand to write it all down, I came up with this tasty meal. Even though it LOOKS indulgent, chicken meatballs are very lean, and the recipe is mostly clean!

If you've never ground your own meat, and have a Kitchenaid mixer, get the meat-grinding attachment. I can't even explain how much it expands your cooking options--especially when you have a few pieces of meat here and there--and saves you money!


Chicken Meatballs in Mushroom Sauce

Meatball Ingredients

1 lb           ground chicken
1/2            medium onion, finely chopped
3               cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp          parsley
1 1/2 tsp    Herbs de Provence
1/2 tsp       kosher salt
                 black pepper to taste
1/4 C         parmesan cheese
1/2 C         italian bread crumbs
1               egg

Mushroom Sauce Ingredients

1 Tbs         unsalted butter (don't substitute with margarine. trust me)
1/2             medium onion, thinly sliced
2 C            sliced mushrooms
2 C            chicken stock
1 tsp          thyme
1 tsp          dried parsley
1                bay leaf
1 1/2 tsp     soy sauce
1/2 C          whole milk
1 Tbs          corn starch


1. Meatballs: Mix all ingredients with a fork or by hand until all are thoroughly combined. Form into 1" meatballs.

Clearly I didn't finely chop my onions. Ain't nobody got time for that. 

2. In a large non-stick pan, heat 1-2 Tbs olive oil over medium-high heat.

3. Add meatballs. Brown on all sides. You may have to brown the meatballs in batches, unless you have a ginormous pan. Once adequately browned and almost cooked through, remove and set aside.

Browned but not all the way cooked through, as chicken breast can easily become too dry. 

4. Reduce to medium heat. Add butter to pan. Constantly move it around until melted.

5. Add onions and mushrooms. Cook on medium until onions and mushrooms are soft, and browned (approx. 2-5 minutes). Stir occasionally.

6. Pour chicken stock into pan and stir. Add thyme, parsley, bay leaf, and soy sauce.

7. Put meatballs back into pan, and whatever juices they may have leaked while resting on plate. Stir so that meatballs are covered with sauce. Cover and let cook for 3-5 minutes.

8. In the meantime, whisk cornstarch into milk until smooth. After meatballs and sauce have been cooking for 3-5 minutes, whisk cornstarch/milk mixture into sauce until smooth. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

9. **had to come back and add this step** REMOVE BAY LEAF! Because chomping down on a bay leaf while eating isn't exactly my idea of fun.

You can serve this with egg noodles, couscous, brown rice, or any other side. I chose to stick to veggies and served it with roasted broccoli and a salad. For my step-sons, I served it with rice. The chicken meatballs were way more moist than I thought they would be. I'm glad I wrote this one down!

Yield: Approx. 20 meatballs
Calories per serving: 158 calories (2 meatballs with 1/4 C sauce)

Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes

There's nothing better than a fresh, fluffy stack of pancakes on a Saturday morning. The beauty of pancakes is that you can honestly do just about anything with them! In the same week I made a batch of chocolate chip pancakes, and these beauties--Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes. The chocolate chip pancakes were the manifestation of my husband refusing to go to the grocery store at 10pm to get me the chocolate chip cookies I wanted. But these...these bad boys were the result of a mind in conflict: "Should I make oatmeal pancakes? Or whole wheat pumpkin pancakes?"   Why not make both?!

This recipe-writing thing is new for me. I usually just wing it and forget how I made it. But just for you, Uncreatively Conscientious, I wrote this one down.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes

1    C        Quick Oats

1/4 C        Whole wheat flour

2    Tbs     Brown sugar

1/2 Tsp     Baking soda

1/2 Tsp     Baking powder

1/8 Tsp     Salt

1-2 Tsp     Pumpkin pie spice (at 2 Tsp, the spice gets overpowering to me, so adjust to taste)

3/4  C       Pumpkin puree

2     C       Milk, divided

1              Egg

1/4  Tsp    Vanilla extract 

1. In large bowl, mix oats, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.

2. In a smaller bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, 1 CUP milk, vanilla, and egg.

3. Here's where it gets personal: Add as much milk as you need to get the consistency of pancake you want. Keep in mind that the whole wheat and the oatmeal make this a thick pancake to begin with, so thin it out as you see fit. I ended up using the entire 2 cups.

4. Heat skillet or pan over medium fire. Spray pan/skillet with cooking spray. Use 1/4 Cup of batter for each pancake. When bubbles appear on top, flip. Keep in mind these will take longer to cook than your basic pancake, as they are more dense. So make sure the fire isn't too high! 

5. Don't do these pancakes an injustice by serving them with "Pancake Syrup". Get the real stuff please!

Enjoy!!

Where's the beef??? Not here! Chicken/turkey burgers!

 Don't let the title fool you. I'm not anti-beef. I'm not anti-meat. I'm just pro-alternatives. I. LOVE. BURGERS. Hamburgers, turkey burgers, chicken burgers, sweet potato burgers, veggie burgers..As long as it's "burger-esque", I'll more than likely try to make it.
   Last week one of my friends posted a Facebook status about wanting a big juicy burger. Naturally, I began craving one too, but since I'm making an effort to eat more cleanly, I decided to make one myself. When it comes to ground meat, I prefer to grind my own. Especially with my deliciously sexy hot pink Kitchenaid mixer with grinder attachment. Anywho, I scavenged through the contents of my freezer, and found some undedicated (not reserved for a future meal) chicken! I searched some more and found ONE.. yes, ONE, whole wheat burger bun (My freezer has everything. I know if I looked deep enough, I'd probably find a portal to the land of Narnia). I'll make chicken burgers!!! I Googled and found a recipe for chicken burgers. This was all coming together so perfectly, as if orchestrated by the burger lords themselves!!...

Undedicated chicken breast

Sexy Kitchenaid with meat-grinder attachment

....Except the amount of undedicated chicken I found was barely enough to make 4 burgers. So back to the freezer I went. I found undedicated turkey breast cutlets!!! Turkey/chicken burgers were born.

  The beauty of non-beef burgers is that you can often shove as many chopped vegetables as you can into the mix.

Here's the recipe I used.  The only changes I made were using the turkey breast to make up for the   lack of chicken breast. Also, I think I added some chopped up zucchini.

NomNomNom... non-beefy deliciousness.

With the excess burgers I don't cook, I cut wax/parchment paper into squares, place each burger on a wax square on a baking sheet or some other flat surface. Transfer to the freezer, and leave until solid. Then take each burger and its wax paper, stack them and place them into ziplock bags for later use. Now, you have a 5-10 minute lunch in your freezer. :)   You're welcome.



Do you have a favorite non-beef burger recipe? Share it here!