Amazing Gluten Free Lactose Free Mac and Cheese

This is hands down the best yet!

2 packages Modern Table noodles

16 oz.  Lactose Free cottage cheese

8 oz. Vegan cream cheese

8 oz.  Vegan cheese

Seasoned salt and garlic powder to taste.   I used about 1/2 to 1 tsp. each.

Cook noodles according to directions.

Meanwhile heat cream cheese, cottage cheese and seasonings in small saucepan to melt cream cheese.

Pour drained, hot noodles into 13 x 9 baking dish.  Pour sauce over and mix.

Top with vegan cheese and bake 25 minutes at 400F.   Yummy.

I cooked it alongside Garden turk’y cutlets.  Yumm.

Salmon and Brown/Wild Rice with Veggies and Lentils

Lucky’s (the sip and stroll store) had some beautiful sockeye salmon on sale that called out to me!  My surrogate daughter Beth, who is vegetarian, was over.  I wanted to make a hearty  side for her to join us!  We all loved the rice, and the lentils and garbanzo beans provided her with a little protien.  The color is not as pretty when you cook the veggies in the rice cooker as opposed to stir frying them and adding them in at the end.  It is, however, much easier to throw it all in the rice cooker and walk away!  It tastes yummy, but if I was having guests, I would opt for the stir fry method for prettier presentation.  I threw together some things I had on hand for the marinade and it was a hit!  The non-fish eaters had boneless chicken with the same marinade and said it was good too.

Marinade salmon filet in a mixture of Italian dressing and balasamic glaze (2 to 1 ratio), with a little minced ginger added.  My marinade was about 2 Tbsp. dressing, 1 Tbsp.  balsamic glaze and 1/2 tsp. ginger for each serving of fish.  The filet was 1.2 lbs. and I cut it into three servings.

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350F and start the rice in the rice cooker, because it will take about twice as long as the salmon will.

For the rice:

2 C. brown rice

1/2 C. wild rice

1/2 C. dried lentils

1 small onion, chopped

1/2 bag broccoli slaw or other coarsely chopped vegetables

3 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. seasoned salt or other seasoning blend

6 C. water

1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

Combine all except garbanzo beans and cook in a rice cooker (one of my favorite small appliances!).  It will take about 40-45 minutes, so set the timer for 20 minutes, then put the salmon in the oven in a shallow baking dish, pouring remaining marinade over it.

When the liquid in the rice cooker was almost gone, I stirred in the garbanzo beans.  My rice cooker has a tendency to overcook towards the end, causing some of the rice to stick and over cook, so I usually stir in a little olive oil while there’s still a little liquid left to keep this from happening.

 

 

General Tso Veggie “Meatballs”

I again made a batch of veggie burgers and veggie meatballs in anticipation of Molly and Lein coming for a visit.  We had the meatballs in General Tso sauce over vegetable fried rice/quinoa.  Adding kimchi and/or banh mi veggies on top gave it a nice crunchy fresh texture.

The veggie burgers and meatballs are quite a bit of work, I’ll admit, but well worth the effort!  This is a double recipe to make two night’s meals of either burgers or meatballs.  I more or less doubled the original recipe I found.  The variations are endless, but basically, I use a grain (rice or rice mixture), oatmeal, beans, beets, celery, carrots, mushrooms, onion, and then a liquid, like the balsamic glaze and vinaigrette last time.  This time, I had some beet chutney on hand, and that served as the liquid.  This is the variation I tried this time.  Remember – this is a big batch – enough for 2 meals.

Something interesting I learned at Chef Jean-Pierre’s cooking school.  He asked “how do you know what size to dice something if the recipe doesn’t specify?”  The answer – it depends on how long your cooking time is.  The longer it will cook, the larger the pieces so they don’t disintegrate.  Which makes perfect sense.  The veggies in this recipe are going through a meat grinder.  I used a medium dice on the onion and celery.

6 cups cooked brown rice/wild rice mixture (I can’t wait to try other grains!)
1 cup packed oatmeal
1 can black beans (I will soon be trying this with Cannilini)
4 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/2 cups diced onions
1 small can cubed beets
1 cup julienned carrots
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup button mushrooms cut in 1/4 -inch slices
1 tablespoon garlic
1 small jar beet chutney  (The original recipe called for sweet soy sauce)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1. Drain and wash beans. Drain beets. Place all ingredients in large plastic mixing bowl and mix well.
2. Run ingredients through a meat grinder. Refrigerate mixture for 1 hour.
3. Portion into patties or balls, shaping them how you will be baking them on a baking sheet lined with foil and brushed with olive oil in the fridge and refrigerate at least overnight. I used my standard ice cream scoop.  (I’ve kept them up to 5 days and they were still delicious).  This keeps the burgers from falling apart. (Patties must never get above 40 F or they will fall apart.)  If you don’t have an extra fridge like I do, you might want to put them in a tupperware with waxed paper between layers.

Bake in 400F oven 40 minutes for the burgers, 25 for the meatballs, if you are going to bake them a second time with a sauce, like I do.

I used a bottled sauce (Fusia brand), which was surprisingly low in sodium and  delicious.

After the meatballs are baked, I placed a little of the sauce in the bottom of a 13 x 9 baking dish sprayed with coconut oil, and then topped them with the rest of the sauce.  I then baked them for another 15 minutes

The fried rice was actually rice cooked in a rice cooker that I tossed with some stir fried broccoli slaw.  No egg this time.

 

Veggie “Meatballs” With “Gravy”

These are another variation of the JAlexander’s veggie burger copycat we love.  The veggie burgers are definitely a lot of work and contain a lot of ingredients, but they are so worth it.  I decided to experiment and double the recipe and make veggie meatballs.  To keep them vegetarian, I made a veggie broth based onion “gravy”.  I have a sheet pan of veggie burgers in the fridge we’re going to eat later this week.  It cracks me up that I bought a meat grinder and only have used it to make veggie burgers!

Remember – this is a double recipe!  It made 8 burgers that are 2 standard ice cream scoop size each and 16 veggie meatballs that are 1 standard ice cream scoop size.

6 C. cooked brown rice

1  C. oatmeal

1 can black beans, rinsed and well drained

3/4 C. diced cooked beets

4 Tbsp. chopped parsley

1 medium sweet onion, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1 c. carrot matchsticks

1 Tbsp. minced garlic

2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard

3 Tbsp. balsamic glaze

3 Tbsp. balsamic vinaigrette dressing

Combine all ingredients and stir until well blended.

Feed through meat grinder and refrigerate 1 hour.

Shape into burgers or meatballs and place on baking sheets lined with foil and sprayed with coconut oil.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least overnight.  Important! Do not bring to room temperature before cooking.  Take them straight from the fridge to the oven.

Bake at 400F for 40 minutes.

For the meatballs, I put them in the gravy and baked them 15 more minutes at 425 F.

The meatballs were amazing.  I will be making them much more often, and will cook and then freeze them for future use.

 

 

 

 

Crunchy Tofu with Thai Onion and Cucumber Salad

1 package salad mix

1 container mixed mini heirloom tomatoes

2 blocks tofu, pressed to remove liquid

1 sweet onion, sliced thinly

3 mini cucumbers, sliced thinly

1/3 c. sweet Thai chili sauce

1/3 c. balsamic vinegar

1/6 c. oil (I used sunflower, grapeseed blend)

1/2 c. Old Cape Cod Toasted Sesame, Soy, and Ginger dressing

1 box Minute multigrain medley, cooked with Thai ginger chicken broth

1/4 c. crushed cashews

Press tofu to remove liquid.  Slice thickly and pour dressing over tofu.  Refrigerate.

Meanwhile, mix cucumbers, onion, chili sauce, vinegar, and oil.  Toss and refrigerate.

Bake tofu at 400 for about 10 minutes, turn and bake an additional 10 minutes until golden brown.

To serve, line plate with lettuce, and place cut up tomatoes around edge of plate.  Top with multigrain medley.  Top that with cucumber, onion salad and crunchy tofu.  Sprinkle with crushed cashews.

I even had enough to make a lunch for tomorrow.  Yum!

 

 

Broccoli Quinoa Slaw

1 package broccoli slaw

2-3 c. cooked quinoa

1 c. coleslaw dressing

Mix broccoli slaw, quinoa and coleslaw dressing.  Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.

I served this with veggie burgers with Kraft Hot Habinero cheese on a whole wheat bun for Meatless Monday!

Not Your Usual Bean Salad

1 can navy beans, drained
1 can black beans, drained
1 package frozen edamame, defrosted
1 package frozen white corn kernels, defrosted
1 pint grape tomatoes
1/2 c. salad dressing of choice (I used homemade creamy balsamic)

Defrost frozen veggies by running cold water over them in a colander.
Toss with remaining veggies and salad dressing.

This is a great basic side dish that can be thrown together the night before. Use whatever you have on hand. Add in cucumbers, carrots or celery. Whatever you like in a salad, you’ll love in bean salad.

I love having a container of this in the fridge for throwing on top of my salad or as a last minute side.

I served pork tenderloin and broccoli cauliflower bake as well.

My daughter and son in law are trying to watch their carbs. Even though beans do have carbs, when you take into account their fiber, they are ok for those watching their carbs!

Savory Millet Cakes (adapted from the “All About Fasting” website

1 C. millet (soaked 7-24 hours)
3 C. water
1 tsp. salt
2 shallots, minced
10 baby carrots, minced
1/4 c. parmesian cheese
2 Tbsp. butter

Combine soaked millet, water and salt in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil and lower heat to simmer until liquid is absorbed. (approximately 20 minutes)

Mix in remaining ingredients.   Allow to cool.

Shape into patties (really messy) and cook in skillet sprayed with olive oil until golden brown.  Some of mine fell apart because the skillet was not hot enough.

Everyone liked these. They reminded them of the potato pancakes their grandmother used to make.

I baked boneless chicken (in a raspberry honey mustard sauce), and will post that recipe soon!

Molly and I have given up wheat and are eating gluten free.   I’ll let you know how that goes.