I hope everyone had a beautiful Christmas. I took a quick snapshot of my Christmas dinner. Prior to going wheat free, I could never have imagined being able to eat so well after eliminating wheat and grains from my life. I certainly could not have imagined losing weight this way. I served this beautiful lasagna to my unsuspecting wheat eating family members last night...and nobody knew anything was different until half way through our meal when I told them that I had made the "noodles" (last year I made regular lasagna for them and a smaller wheat free version for me). It was priceless...and not because I tricked them, but because they literally could not tell the difference. It just reaffirms to me that eating this way can be and is delicious for everyone -- not just those of us that have chosen not to consume wheat and grains. It was a pretty typical holiday prep day yesterday...I baked cranberry lemon coconut muffins, chocolate chip cookies, pecan parmesan crackers, and cheddar black pepper biscuits. I made lasagna for dinner. For breakfast this morning we had scrambled eggs with cheese, sausage, muffins and biscuits. The menu really wasn't much different than our typical Christmas menus...the only difference was in some of the ingredients used to make these items. Life without wheat isn't just good...it's great! Welcome to the "new normal". Enjoy!
6 comments:
Hi GGC,
This is one "new normal" that I can definitely handle! :-)
Hi CyberSis -- LOL, I know it was a little sneaky springing it on my wheat-eating family...but I have been working more and more wheat-free meals into our regular "Sunday night dinners" successfully...so thought I'd just go ahead with it. It was nice not making 2 different versions this year! :-)
I would love a copy of your lasagna noodle recipe - could you publish it and maybe link it to your lasagna recipe? Sounds wonderful - my hubby has been 'jonesing' for lasagna since we went wheat-free 2 years ago.
Great website, by the way! I'm enjoying reading through it & have bookmarked it for further reading.
Thank you!
I wholeheartedly agree with you! We did have a small amount of mashed potatoes w/our roast pork yesterday, but I'm not going to feel guilty! I made your pumpkin custard for our Christmas dessert, topped with whipped cream & pecans. Sooo yummy! Once more, thank you!
Hi Mary -- I use my grain-free tortilla recipe to make the noodles (just change the seasoning in them). Here is the recipe for the "noodles" -- I doubled the recipe below to make a large pan of lasagna.
For the tortillas/noodles:
Ingredients:
1 cup egg whites or Egg Beaters
3 tablespoons water
1/2 cup blanched almond flour
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons ground golden flax
4 teaspoons finely grated Parmesan
Dash of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Dash of garlic powder
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
Directions:
To make the tortillas/noodles:
Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl to form a smooth, thin batter (makes approximately 1-1/2 cups batter). Lightly spray a 10-inch non-stick skillet with olive oil spray and heat over medium-high heat. Pour about 1/4 cup batter into hot skillet, tilting the pan and using a circular motion to evenly distribute the batter in the bottom to make an approximate 10-inch tortilla. Cook approximately 1 to 2 minutes, until very lightly browned and cooked around edges. Carefully loosen and flip using a rubber spatula; cook for another 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate and repeat for remaining tortillas (lightly re-spraying pan for each). Makes approximately 6 10-inch tortillas/noodles.
The most important advice is use LESS sauce than you think you will need and add additional sauce spooned over if you like more. The pan of lasagna I made makes 12 nice-size pieces -- about 2-1/2 lbs of meat. If you use jarred sauce (I like Del Grosso's or Rao's)...I use 1 jar inside the lasagna in the "meat sauce". The only additional sauce I use is about 1 cup spread on top before adding the cheese and baking it. I layer it like traditional lasagna -- I use ricotta, provolone, mozzarella (both regular and fresh) and top it with shredded mozzarella & Parmigiana Reggiano (or Parmesan). Also -- I bake it at 325 degrees UNCOVERED. Less sauce is the key to having nice pieces of grain-free lasagna. My meat sauce is very thick and I just heat extra sauce to serve with it if anyone likes or wants more sauce. Hope that helps! :-)
Thanks, Darlene. So you enjoyed your Christmas dinner (and dessert). Wishing you a very happy and healthy 2014! :-)
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