Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Eggplant Lasagna















I have to admit, this takes some time! I would highly recommend putting this together on the weekend and making extra to freeze for later. I make this recipe without a bunch of different faux cheeses. I do this because I can only stock up on so many Rice Alternative cheeses at a time! My local grocery store is a small one, but they do carry Lactaid cottage cheese! So, I have developed this recipe using only that cheese for the creaminess you look for in a hot pasta dish! I have used many different vegetables for this recipe, but for this version I have left it simple and you can decide what you want to do to make it your own. I know some of you live with others that are not lactose challenged, so this recipe makes it easy to separate into 2 dishes so those horrible people that must have melty cheese can have it! Now, I am not a vegetarian, but I do like to add vegetarian versions of meat products to meals when I can. Let's be honest, they are just lower in fat and calories (and no one gets hurt for you to eat them). I am always looking for a healthier alternative. I am very aware of healthy eating and taking care of myself. A lot of that comes from having so many stomach issues and just trying to make things better. I do know that eating a lot of fatty foods can make IBS (irritable bowel-oh I may have forgotten to mention that I have that too!) worse. So, when I added up the numbers on this one, I was really shocked! It is so low in fat and calories that you can eat more than you think you should...and have room for dessert (or seconds)!

Eggplant Lasagana
2 1/2 lbs Eggplant
1 cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic
1 26 oz jar pasta sauce (I love Classico Fire Roasted Tomato and Garlic)
2 TBSP chopped fresh rosemary
2 cups Boca ground burger = 1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup egg substitute
1 1/2 cup Lactaid cottage cheese
2 slices wheat bread (I use Sarah Lee)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Slice eggplant into thin strips. Lay on a wire rack over a sheet pan or on paper towels. Heavily salt and let sit for 30 minutes. Turn eggplant over, heavily salt and let sit for 30 more minutes. This helps to take out the moisture and the bitterness in the eggplant. While you wait, cook onions and garlic with a little cooking spray until they are tender(if you need a little more moisture to cook them, add a little water and let it cook down). Add pasta sauce, Boca and rosemary. Cover and let cook for about 30 minutes. In a separate bowl combine cottage cheese, egg substitute and a pinch of salt and pepper. When eggplant is ready, rinse it well and then pat it dry. Spray 13x9 baking dish with cooking spray. Ladle a little sauce on the bottom to keep the eggplant from sticking to the pan. Place a layer of eggplant down. Then a layer of sauce and some of the cottage cheese mixture. Continue layering until you end with the cottage cheese mixture. Place bread in a food processor and grind to make bread crumbs. Sprinkle bread crumbs over top of lasagna. Bake covered for 45 minutes and then uncovered for 15 minutes. Be careful to watch it so the bread crumbs won't burn. Let sit for 15 minutes before cutting.

Serves 8 = 157 calories

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posted by Sarena Shasteen - The Non-Dairy Queen @ 7:28 PM   2 comments
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Dinner Confession
So, I must confess...we ate Nectarine Cobbler (with a little fresh ground nutmeg!)for dinner tonight. Don't judge us! I can totally justify it though. I mean, come on. It has some whole grains, milk (Lactaid) and nectarines. The So Delicious was just a bonus. Try to argue with that. It was so good too! I am one of those fortunate people that taking the Lactaid pills does not work for me. It only postpones the inevitable! For some reason though, I can "drink" Lactaid milk. I use the word "drink" loosely because I really don't drink it. Like I have mentioned before, I never really drank milk. I just don't care for the taste of it. Lactaid milk is about as close to the taste of real milk that you can find and it still has a bit of a sweeter flavor. So, I use it in everything I cook when I need milk because the flavor is close enough to the real thing without causing questions from the others!

So, I went to the store and nectarines were on sale. I am such a whore to sales at the grocery store. I can always justify buying food on sale (maybe I get that from my mother-in-law)! When I was unloading the groceries, the illustrator said ooh how about a cobbler for dinner! I could not refuse, so in about 5 minutes I whipped up some "old fashioned bowls of goodness" and in 25 minutes we were eatin' the good stuff! I, of course have tweaked the old recipe for "a cup, a cup, a cup". We love this recipe and you can use whatever you have on hand in the way of fruit(fresh, frozen, canned). I use frozen berries a lot for it too! My favorite is a mix of blackberries and raspberries. If you try something really different, let me know so we can add it to our mix!

Fruit Cobbler
(4 servings)
1 cup Self Rising Flour (I used 3/4 cup SR Flour and 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour with 1/4 tsp baking powder)
2/3 cup sugar (or 1/3 cup Splenda Blend for Baking)
1 cup Lactaid milk (I use fat free)
1 cup fruit
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 8 inch square pan with no stick spray. You can also use oven safe bowls for individual servings.

Whisk flour, sugar, vanilla and milk together. Pour mixture into the prepared pans. Sprinkle fruit over the batter. Bake between 20 to 40 minutes depending on how big the dish(es) are you are using. You can easily double this recipe!

Nectarine Cobbler with sugar = 376 calories
Nectarine Cobbler with Splenda blend = 216 calories

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posted by Sarena Shasteen - The Non-Dairy Queen @ 7:37 PM   2 comments
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Seafood Tacos!
It was hot today and we worked in the yard all morning. We were looking for something light and different for dinner. I had mentioned that there was a sale on tilapia at the grocery store so the illustrator mentioned that we try making fish tacos. First of all, I have never had a fish taco so I have no frame of reference. Second of all, I like some fish, but I had never tried tilapia before. So, I was excited to try something new, but worried that dinner was going to take a ton of time and not be too good. Besides, the kids either like fish or don't. You never know what kind of day it will be for them! So, shrimp was on sale too!! Big score. I know they like shrimp (as do I), so it would be a win win situation all around! I was very surprised to see how quick and easy this was. I cooked the shrimp and tilapia on the George Forman Lean Mean Grilling Machine, which took no time at all. Picked up a few odds and ends (shredded cabbage) at the store while I was there and used some things we had on hand(tortillas and kick ass corn salsa from Trader Joe's - you have to try it)! It was a great meal that was quick and easy! Above all, it was loved by everyone!



Fish/Shrimp Tacos
1 lb peeled shrimp
1 lb talapia
salt and pepper to taste
salsa
bagged shredded cabbage
fajita flour tortillas

Preheat grill pan. Coat pan with cooking spray. Cook shrimp until pink and slightly firm. Remove from pan. Coat pan with cooking spray. Place tilapia in pan cook 2-3 minutes on each side until slightly firm. Remove from pan. Assemble taco by placing 1/4 cup of cabbage on the flour tortilla, 3oz. of shrimp or tilapia (or both as M did) and 2 tsp. salsa. Yum...so good!

Tilapia taco = 209 calories
Shrimp taco = 183 calories

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posted by Sarena Shasteen - The Non-Dairy Queen @ 8:00 PM   3 comments
Friday, June 22, 2007
Needs Help
Ok, so it has been a busy week! The illustrator and I went on a business trip last Thursday that went through the weekend. Cooking really has not been on my agenda lately! Trying to catch up with work and life is pretty much all I can think of right now. We all have been wanting comfort food made easy! So, we started to get the need for a good ol'fashioned apple dumpling. I really am trying to use more whole grains to cook with. I think they are so much better for you and with all of our different stomach issues, we need all the help we can get! I tried to make the apple dumplings with white whole wheat flour and while they looked pretty, they tasted alright. Needless to say, we were not looking for alright! I will show the picture, but I will wait and post the recipe when I get it where I want it. Next time, I may try half all purpose flour and half white whole wheat. If anyone has any advise, please feel free to let me know!

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posted by Sarena Shasteen - The Non-Dairy Queen @ 11:51 AM   0 comments
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Something was Missing!

So, if you are lactose challenged and you love ice cream (like I love ice cream) then something is totally missing in your life! Maybe I should start from the beginning...I apparently was lactose intolerant as an infant. I was put on soy formula at the time. From what I have read (and there has been plenty of reading now) you kind of out grow it during childhood and then it can come back later on. I have never been one to love milk. In fact, I hardly drank the stuff. Now ice cream...that is a different story! I eventually grew in to loving frozen yogurt more so than ice cream. I am not a huge sweet addict. I think that is why I kinda went more in to the way of liking frozen yogurt. I used to eat it every night(with a scoop of Kashi Go Lean Crunch and some raisins)! Those times came to an abrupt end for me. At the time, I did not really know that much about soy or rice based frozen desserts. Why would I? They are more expensive and not as easy to find. I will not lie to you, they do taste different. Anybody that tells you different is not only trying to convince themselves, but you too! I know enough about food to know that you can not replace one thing with another and claim that it taste the same. I can't stand it when people say that a veggie/soy burger tastes like meat. If you are eating a veggie/soy buger why would you want it to taste like meat??? Anyway, my point is that I have started tasting some products and at first I thought they would taste just like ice cream/frozen yogurt. Now that I understand that they don't (won't) I have a different appreciation for them. They are in and of themselves!


So, the illustrator and I went to Trader Joe's yesterday for the first time. I really enjoyed it and I went for the sole purpose of finding some new dairy free foods. I came across a new flavor (for me) of Double Rainbow Soy Cream. Mango Vanilla...need I say more. Well, mango is so up my alley and I am always and forever a vanilla girl! I loved it. It is smooth and tart and not too sweet. On the sweet subject, I have found that a lot of different brands make their products sweeter to cover up the taste. Like I said before, I am not a huge sweet fan. Don't get me wrong, I like sweet, but I like a more natural sweetness than something that tastes like you are eating sugar packets. I like that it is all natural and I would highly recommend it to anyone (even the non-lactose challenged)!

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posted by Sarena Shasteen - The Non-Dairy Queen @ 5:28 PM   0 comments
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
For Granny, With Love...

Ok, who doesn't love peanut butter? I really don't know of anybody! I think it was a little more than a year ago that my grandmother found at that she has celiac disease. Since then, I have been looking at different recipes that don't have gluten in them. The sad thing is, gluten is in just about everything and it definitely gives food a texture that you just miss! Well, I saw this recipe for flourless peanut butter cookies on Food Network and then I came across it again on the Allrecipes website. So, when my husband decided to try a low carb diet I decided to give them a try. The crazy thing is that they are so easy and really good! And get this...no dairy! Win, win for all. They have become a favorite around here. You can get the ingredients together in about 5 minutes. So, they are great for a quick homemade treat! I hope you like them as much as we do!

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
1/2 cup creamy natural peanut butter
1/2 cup crunchy natural peanut butter
1/2 cup Splenda Blend for Baking
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all ingredients. Using a medium cookie scoop, drop cookie dough on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes on pan and then place on a cooling rack. Makes about 18 cookies depending on the size scoop you use.

1 cookie = 111 calories each

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posted by Sarena Shasteen - The Non-Dairy Queen @ 7:57 AM   2 comments
Monday, June 4, 2007
Whole Wheat Banana Muffins!

For those of you who know me, you know how much I love to bake! You also know how much I love health and nutrition. So, what better way to start this blog than to make a healthy version of an already healthy recipe-Whole Wheat Banana Muffins. Unfortunately, when I discovered my being lactose intolerant, I totally stopped eating a lot of baked goods. It is really hard/expensive to start making alterations to all the recipes that you and your family already love. I have finally gotten to the point where I miss a lot of those things and it is time to start baking them for me to be able to enjoy. My biggest thing is that I don't want to sacrifice the health aspect or the taste of what I make. Now that everybody in my family is more aware of what is good for you and what is not, it has brought me here.

So, I came across a cookbook a while ago and thought it sounded interesting. It had to do with whole grains and it was recipes from a company that produces flour. So, I ordered it. Honestly, when I got this cook book, I knew that I would be in to it, but I had no idea that I would read it cover to cover two times in less than a week. I am such a self proclaimed cook book snob! I mean, lets be honest, if there are not many pictures, why look at it. I want to see what it is going to be in the end. I want them to seduce me with fresh herbs, spongy bread and fluffy icing! So, when I got the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book, I was a little disappointed with the lack of pictures. But, anyone who is interested in making things better for you will realize that once you pick this one up, it has so much good information in it. My in-laws were in town this weekend and what better time to cook up tons of stuff than when people are here to eat it. My oldest son loves banana bread, so I figured why not. The trick though, was to make it so I could eat it and so that it is healthy! That is where this blog begins...

This recipe has been adapted from the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book. I made a few changes to cut back on the fat and calories. I got rave reviews from all that tried it (my mother in-law even asked for the recipe)!

Whole Wheat Banana Bread Muffins

1/2 cup Smart Beat Light Spread
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 TBSP Splenda Blend for Baking
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (I used fresh)
1 tsp vanilla (make yours from scratch, it is the best!)
1 1/2 cup mashed banana (4 small or 3 medium to large)
1/4 cup honey
1/2 egg substitute
2 cups whole wheat flour or white whole wheat (I used whole wheat)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or chocolate chips (I did not use either, but I sure it would be good)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin 12 cup muffin pan (or line) with cooking spray.

Beat together the butter, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla in a medium bowl until smooth. Add banana, honey and eggs, beating until smooth. Add the flour and nuts or chips, stirring until smooth. Using a large ice cream scoop, put batter into prepared pan. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Bake the muffins until a cake tester inserted in the center of one comes out clean, 23 to 28 minutes. Remove from the oven, and after a couple of minutes transfer the muffins to a wire rack to cool.

1 muffin = 174 calories

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posted by Sarena Shasteen - The Non-Dairy Queen @ 8:31 PM   43 comments

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Sarena Shasteen - The Non-Dairy Queen
Home: Atlanta, GA, United States
About Me: Lactose Challenged
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