Zucchini and Mushroom Pasta

This recipe from The Healthy Foodie was my inspiration for dinner last night. I saute'd the mushrooms in butter, then used olive oil for the zucchini and green onions. I combined everything then added salt, pepper, basil, and oregano. I had some pasta and added Parmesan cheese on top/mixed in.
I thought it turned out great. I would definitely make this again.

Spaghetti Pie

While making the pasta for the Zucchini and Mushroom Saute, I accidentally poured the entire one pound box into the cooking water. I ended up with A. LOT. of pasta!
The first thing that popped into my head to use it up was a spaghetti pie. One of my friends from college made a really good pasta pie with ricotta and spinach. Since a couple people over here are averse to green food, I've decided to opt for a more traditional (if spaghetti pie is traditional Italian) cheese and red sauce spaghetti pie. I couldn't find an existing recipe that fit everything I wanted - cheesy, tomato-saucy, and without meat, so I guess I'll say I was inspired by the SK/Food and Wine recipe and added some red sauce to it.
A little less than one pound of pasta (whatever was leftover from the previous night) that I had added some olive oil to so it wouldn't all stick together in the fridge overnight.
Three eggs
A little less than one cup of milk
Salt and Pepper eyeballed to be as close to the recipe amounts as possible
about a cup each of shredded cheddar and Parmesan
about a half cup of red sauce
All the above ingredients were mixed together and poured in my 10" spring form pan. Then I spread another 1-1.5 cups of red sauce on top.

I prepared everything the night before and baked it the next day after sprinkling on more Parmesan cheese at 425degF for about 40 min and broiling the cheese on low for about 3-5 min for a nice crust.

I was hopeful for the leftover rescue dish, but it didn't turn out as planned. It was very watery, maybe from the sauce? It didn't really stick together either. It was less pie and more spaghetti in a pie plate. In terms of flavors, it was OK. It didn't seem like there was enough salt or pepper and the cheese didn't get mixed well into the noodles either. This is a no go for the future, but maybe I'll try a smaller version with a lot less liquid.

Zucchini "Fritters"

I am trying to go through my fridge and eat/make things with veggies I need to use up before they go bad. I got a bunch of zucchini on price reduction, so that has been on the top of my list! I shredded a little extra while I was making muffins so I could try my hand at fritters again. I decided that I wanted to bake them. I don't think they are any healthier, because I dumped a bunch of oil in them, but the clean up was easier, and since I wasn't using eggs, I knew they would fall apart in the frying pan.

~1 cup shredded zucchini
~1 cup finely chopped spinach (also going bad and needed to use up!)
~1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro (also going bad and needed to use up!)
1 or 2 green onions, chopped
salt and pepper
enough olive oil to keep a patty together

bread crumbs

I started trying to make a patty and dipping it in breadcrumbs in a bowl, but the patty was just falling apart in the bowl, so I ended up keeping the patty in my hand, putting breadcrumbs on top then flipping it onto the cookie sheet, bread crumbs down, and putting the remaining breadcrumbs on the other side.

These were baked at 425degF for about 20 mintues, flipping about half way through.

I thought they were pretty good, maybe a little salty, but good flavors. Ebon, every fearful of green things, took a bite and said, not bad, so that is progress and I'll take whatever little complements I can get!

Baked French Toast

We had some challa that needed to be used up, so I made some baked french toast for Ebon and Leela while I went to a five-mile race. I based the recipe off of Ree Drummond's, but I omitted the "topping" and just put cinnamon into the egg mixture.
Ebon said it was pretty good and between him and Leela, they ate about half the pan (I made a half recipe). I wasn't there for the last part of the baking, but based on the oven, stuff spilled over while it was baking and it turned out a bit more like bread pudding that I would have liked, so a bit less liquid next time. The flavors were good, and it was just sweet enough when I ate it with apple sauce though, I would probably tone down the sugar to eat it with syrup. In the end, I think I'll go back to my first attempt at baked french toast the next time I make it.
I didn't want to eat it initially, because of my self-imposed egg hiatus, but since last week, nuts and I were on better terms, maybe I would be OK with eggs. My stomach was a little upset about an hour after eating it, but it seemed to go away faster and was not as bad as before- progress, maybe. We'll see how I do with the spaghetti pie - also with eggs.

More Muffins and egg cups

I made some more muffins and egg cups for a friend who just had a baby. This time I opted for the Smitten Kitchen Zucchini bread recipe in muffin form. I halved the recipe for just 12 muffins, but there was a little batter leftover, so I put it in a pan and ate it. I liked it, I would make that again! I might try using coconut oil next time.
For the egg cups, I did spinach, Parmesan cheese, and a tomato on top. I might have baked them a little long, I hope they don't come out too chewy. Hard to know when making these for someone else...

Pot pie with a biscuit top

I threw together a pot pie for dinner yesterday.
I had about 1-1.5 cups mushroom gravy in the freezer that I warmed up in a sauce pan.
I diced up leftovers of two half onions (one yellow, one red), three cloves of garlic, 2 carrots, one stalk of celery, two potatoes, and about 5 or 6 baby portabella mushrooms. I saute'd those all in olive oil until soft.
Then I whipped up a recipe of baking powder biscuits from the Betty Crocker cookbook and put that on top. I had a little extra which I cooked on a sheet with dinner.
I put everything in a casserole dish (gravy and cooked veggies together and biscuit on top) and baked it for about 20-25 min at 450degF.
I thought it turned out pretty good, but it was a little under seasoned - could have used some salt and pepper. Green beans or peas would also have been a good addition.

Posto, post W30

We ate at Posto last night and I felt good after eating all the things!
Lemon arancini, beet salad with goat cheese, bruchetta with goat cheese and some pizza.
I'm going to have to try to re-create the arancini sometime soon.

Side Salads

I'm normally pretty bad at preparing side dishes for dinner. Saturday's weather was perfect for grilling and Ebon caught another fish, so I decided to make some salads for our dinner.
I wanted potato salad, but didn't want to use mayo, as I'm trying to avoid eggs. So I found this recipe from Food and Wine for Potato Salad with Balsamic, Chive & Greek Yogurt Dressing. I definitely didn't use baby potatoes, and it's possible I didn't use the three pounds it called for. It tasted pretty good, but I thought there was way too much dressing. Also, it could have used a bit more yogurt to make it creamier.

The other salad I made was a simple tomato-cucumber salad made with about 1 clove garlic, 1/4 small onion, two tomatoes and about four inches of a regular cucumber all diced up. I dressed it with a swirl of olive oil, salt, dried dill, and enough vinegar to drench the veggies - probably about 1/4 cup.

W30 Reintro, week 2

Things have been going mostly the same.

Peanuts - not agreeing with me at the moment.
I didn't have any trouble with a Morningstar black bean burger last night, so that was good to know.

I had some trouble with refried beans, or on further reflection, it could have been the corn tortilla that I ate it on too. They tasted good going down, but I had some pretty severe stomach discomfort a few hours later. I also had a bad migraine which I think was more from my cycle than from food.

Domino's pizza also doesn't agree with me. Not sure if it's the crust or the cheese, but my stomach is
in knots after eating it.

The corn tortilla chips gave me a bit of trouble on Sunday. I thought they were ok based on previous, meals but after eating my salad, having chips and salsa was the only thing that made my stomach a bit pained. At dinner, I had bread, batard from Wegmans, and a muffin from my failed muffin attempt, and after both, I felt just fine. This is both dangerous and good news!

Whole30 Reintroduction

Because I'm not eating eggs, I don't think I can do a "normal" Whole30 reintroduction plan, so I'll try to document how I feel after what I eat for the next week or so.

• After dinner (pizza) Monday night, I felt a little bloated and some stomach discomfort, but mostly OK.

Tuesday

• I had oatmeal with banana and chia for breakfast - it tasted good and I felt pretty good after eating it. Unfortunately, I don't think that was enough for me (I had split it with Leela and she gobbled hers up) and I was hungry a little later.
• There was different leftover pizza that I ate around 10, that gave me some serious stomach aches, so I decided a salad for lunch might help, and it did for the most part (mesculin and spinach, cucumber, carrots, broccoli, grilled zucchini, sunflower seeds, and kalamata olives with balsalmic vinegar and olive oil dressing).
• I had potato soup (no milk/cream), corn chips, cheddar cheese (lactose free), and a spoonful of ice cream. I didn't have any issues until I got to the ice cream.

Wednesday

• I had oatmeal (a whole serving this time) with walnuts, banana, and chia for breakfast - it tasted OK and I had some stomach discomfort pretty soon after eating. Nuts are on my banned for a while list at the moment. I hope I can tolerate them again, because I love nuts so!
• My stomach discomfort subsided when I ate my lunch spinach salad before yoga. It had spinach, 5 olives, half a cucumber, and I ate it with some guacamole. After yoga I had some leftover canned potato soup that Ebon had prepared a few days ago, so I'm not sure what was in it but likely some sort of dairy. Finally a baked sweet potato that I ate with the last of the guac.
• We had Dave's Fresh Pasta for dinner, regular ricotta cheese for Ebon and Leela and Mushroom, lemon and Parsley for me (with a little cheese). We all had some green beans. My stomach felt pretty good after eating, for once!

Thursday

• I tried my luck with eggs one more time to see if they really give me trouble and they do. I had a hard boiled egg, potato, half an avocado, and a spinach salad. Luck was not on my side and I think I'll have to avoid eggs for a long while. My stomach started feeling unsettled about 30 minutes after eating the egg.
• Lunch was leftover spaghetti squash with pesto, zucchini, and sundried tomatoes. I didn't have any issues with this - yay!
• I had a hard time deciding what to have for dinner and opted for rice with kim and broccoli then baked beans. I ate them about 30-40 min apart to see what kind of effect they had on my stomach. Both went down fine initially, but about four hours later, my stomach was in knots. I had gone to sleep and the pain woke me up. I'm guessing rice and beans together is no good at this point. I think I'll try lentils tomorrow - all by themselves (lentil stew) to see how it goes.

Friday

• With last night's leftover rice, I made rice pudding, but instead of dairy milk, I used coconut milk. I added cinnamon, a little nutmeg, raisins, and a spoonful of honey because it was just a little too bland without it. No stomach trouble this morning!
• Lunch was grapes, kale and beet greens, and leftover cheese raviolis. So far, no major stomach issues, woo hoo!
• For dinner, I made spinach and mushroom risotto. I didn't have too much issue with this or the cheese.

Saturday

• I made a really good smoothie, 1.5 bananas, big handful of blueberries, big handful of strawberries, two big handfuls of baby spinach, a few tablespoons of flax seeds and enough orange juice to get it going in the blender. All the fruit was frozen, so it came out cold and slushy! It was surprisingly filling too. I made it to lunch time ~11:45.
• Leela and I were out and about all morning, so we had the lunch buffet at Dosa & Curry. Everything tasted so good, but my stomach was a little unsettled after all the beans - chickpeas, lentils, and so much more. I had lots of different things and probably had some gluten too, depending on what the breading was made of in the pakora or the manchurian.
• Ebon caught more fish so dinner was brook trout and rainbow trout with fiddleheads in garlic and butter, braised potatoes, and rice. I had my first glass of wine post W30, and it made me so tired. I was out when Leela went to bed at around 8pm!

Sunday

• I had rice pudding with coconut milk and leftover smoothie for breakfast.
• Lunch was cheese and crackers at a shopping event followed by the last of the greens
• For dinner, I made a brown lentil stew with lots of veggies and chard and followed that with a banana with almond butter. I felt pretty gross after that, but not sure if it was the almond butter or the lentils. I should have held off on the nut butter just to isolate the lentils. Update - Leftovers gave me some mild stomach discomfort about 2-3 hours after eating.

Monday

• I had my first yogurt -Fage 2%- and put some defrosted strawberries on it. Yum, and no issues. I'll be off to buy more yogurt. Now I'll have to try the kefir.

It's been about a week of introductions. I still haven't tried gluten full force - as in bread or baked good- or drank a glass of milk, but all the other stuff I've tried. I think I'm ok where I am. I'll report back occasionally if I find something that works or is horrible.