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Mock-aroni Pie

April 12th, 2010

Eating like a cavegirl is paying off: I’ve lost five pounds in about a week. It’s amazing that I’m eating so well and losing weight: I’m not hungry and I feel very healthy.  I have lots of energy and I’m happy in general. Today I had a serious craving for a snack but I called my sponsor and that craving went away (after I had a boiled egg as a snack instead).

So over the weekend my mom and sister were in town visiting and we got to talking: this whole Eating Primal thing is fine, and it seems to be working for me, but can we use this newly found ambition to eat differently and think about food differently to find something else to apply it to? Perhaps, remaking a dish that we love into something more “healthful?”

So after much discussion we settled on a family favorite, a dish chock full of carbs and, by proxy, sugar: the Macaroni Pie. Cheese, noodles, more cheese, milk and eggs. It’s a simple dish but I was sure we could make it just as awesome, but with less sugar and carbs.

Enter spaghetti squash. As a stand-in for noodles, this beauty has been at this for ages, but I couldn’t find any overt references to any “macaroni” pie on the Internet.  My mom and I felt very pleased with how this little dish came out. It’s spectacular as a side, and even though it requires a bit of a time investment, it’s a special-occasion dish in my family anyway, so the little extra prep work is alright. And, I suppose, so are the savings on the carbs!

This stuff is insanely rich.  I suggest trying a few different kinds of cheeses to layer the flavors. I really enjoyed it using Parrano cheese and a raw cow’s milk sharp cheddar. Mmm!

Ingredients

Overall cooking and prep time, about 2 hours.

• 1 medium spaghetti squash
• 1.5 – 2 cups shredded cheese (i like sharp white cheddar!)
• 2. cups heavy cream
• 2 eggs
• butter (to grease the casserole dish)
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. To prepare the spaghetti squash, cut in half, lengthwise and scoop out seeds and membranes.
2. Preheat oven to 325-deg F.
3. Place cleaned squash cut side down on a tin-foil-lined baking sheet.  Prick the skin of the squash so some steam can escape and place into oven on baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes.
4. While squash is roasting, grate cheese.
5. Once squash is roasted and you can handle touching it, use a fork to scrape the strands of the squash along its insides.  Place strands in a bowl and set aside.
6. Grease a deep casserole dish liberally with butter, all the way up the sides and all over the bottom.  Preheat over to 350-deg F.
7. Layer the squash and cheese in the greased casserole dish.  Squash on the bottom, then cheese, then squash, then cheese, then squash, then cheese.  Your last layer should be cheese.
8. Whisk together two eggs and the heavy cream.  Season this mixture with salt and pepper (about a half-teaspoon of each or less).  Pour this mixture over the layered cheese and squash.
   Note: When you tilt the dish, you should see a little liquid move to the edge.  If you don’t see any, you might want to top off the casserole with a little extra cream.
9. Place casserole into oven and bake for 40 minutes, checking regularly.  If the top starts to brown but the mixture is still jiggly, loosely tent tinfoil over the casserole and let it continue to bake.
10. When ready (could take up to an hour or more, depending on the depth of your casserole dish) the consistency should be firm with a little jiggle, a little looser than quiche.

Eating Like a Cavegirl

April 10th, 2010

For the last several days, I’ve been trying something: The Paleo Diet. Well, sort of. I could really call this The Bibi Diet, as my friend Bibi at work has been eating this way for about two years and looks fantastic. She’s also serving as a guru for a few of the ladies I work with and me in our forays into primal eating.

She started explaining how it works (eat only things that we’re evolutionarily designed to eat: meats, fresh veggies, fats, nuts and some fruits) and it seemed to be something I could get on board with. Oh by the way, bacon (sans nitrites) is encouraged. Score.

My attempts at eating this way have been bolstered partly by my struggle with my weight for all my life but also by my family’s predisposition for being overweight and getting diabetes. Eating this way puts your dietary sugar in very low numbers, daily, and the protein and fiber keep you satisfied.  Sounds like a winner to me.

I’ve been at it since this past Tuesday and I’ve already lost three pounds.  Who’s to say if that’s real weight that can stay gone or water weight, but I plan on sticking with it for a bit longer.  I can honestly say that I have not been hungry at all and the only craving I’ve had was during a few stressful days at work when I wanted a Diet Coke so bad I had to call one of my fellow cavegirls over to talk through the craving.

Tonight I’m making arctic char with a side of spaghetti squash au gratin (a recipe I’m trying to perfect for my dad since he loves mac-n-cheese but shouldn’t have too much of it). As an accompaniment we’ll have a red lettuce salad with fresh tomatoes and a lemon and shallot vinaigrette.

Sounds like a decent way to eat, doesn’t it? I don’t really miss the starchy, sugary stuff at all. We’ll see how it goes.

A Rare Treat: Homemade Indian

November 16th, 2009

We’ve been friends with Nasir Hakeem (owner of Tandoor in Clarksville, TN) for several years now.  When we lived in Clarksville a few years ago, eating at his restaurant was a bright spot in our week almost every week.  It was a great place to take friends and a great place to wind down. We’ve eaten at lots of Indian places in our lives (from London, England to Portland, Oregon and lots of places in between) and his food is some of the highest quality and most flavorful stuff I’ve ever had.

Nasir and his wife are always so warm and friendly that we love just hanging out at the restaurant with them but it was a unexpected and awesome when they invited us over for a home-cooked meal. In his home, Nasir is totally in his element, throwing ingredients into pots, cooking and laughing with us and his beautiful children and wife while we sat facing the stovetop of the long kitchen bar.

Our menu was to die. Prawn Vindaloo to start (and which was so delicious I forgot to even take a picture): spicy and herby with potatoes and perfectly cooked prawns.  Followed by Chicken Pasanda, Evan’s absolute favorite, a rich saucy curry with nuts and yogurt.  Then Chicken Malai, my personal favorite, chicken in coconut milk with spices, cooked in an oven and topped with pistachios, almonds and raisins.

Lastly, Nasir served us something that we’d never had at the restaurant. He said it was his mother’s recipe and the name of it translated to Chicken “with Standing Spices,” meaning that the spices were not ground but were rather added whole into the pot.  So there were whole cloves, whole cardamom pods, whole fenugreek leaves…it was hot and a little sour and wonderfully flavorful.  The chicken in this dish was also cooked with the bones left in and was very tender.

In truth, the food quality that Nasir serves in his own home to guests is totally comparable to what you get at his restaurant: identifiable cuts of meat and freshly prepared spice mixes and sauces and the cornerstones of what he does. He shuns microwaves and pre-cooking anything.  Throughout the meal we talked about how awesome it would be if he could expand and open a place in Nashville with him responding with something along the lines of “…but think how fat you would be!”

We felt completely spoiled: everything was wonderful.  Before we left we took a ride on the couch swing in his living room.  I have to get me one of those things.

You can visit Nasir at his restaurant in Clarkville, TN.  If you’re lucky, maybe one day he’ll invite you over for dinner, too!

Find Tandoor Indian Bistro on Google Maps
www.tandoorclarksville.com

The best part of a yummy dinner: yummy leftovers!

November 12th, 2009

Those broiled steak sandwiches left me with 3-4 ounces of steak left over and a few onions. Now I’m enjoying the best steak salad ever for lunch.  Yes, today I do not have to eat chips for lunch: I remembered to bring something from home.

I’ve heard meals of this nature called “Kitchen Sink Salads” and I suppose that’s relatively accurate: take whatever you have in the fridge that’s still edible, throw in on top of some fresh greens and toss with a little dressing.  Heck, if the stuff that’s leftover is juicy, dressing may not even be necessary.

I sliced the steak thin, cut the onions into manageable bites and tossed with a little baby arugula and green goddess dressing.  Mmm!

Lunch Fail

November 9th, 2009

Sometimes, work is really busy and there’s just no conceivable way that I can leave the office to go fetch myself some lunch. Today is one of those days and for lunch I am having Lay’s Sour Cream and Onion potato chips. I’m lucky that my place of employment has chips free and readily available, otherwise I might be forced to eat the Starlight mints crammed in my purse from a restaurant a few weeks ago.

I had meant to bring something for myself to eat but in my Monday Morning Stupor, I stumbled out of my house with only short term objectives (like coffee) in the forefront of my mind.

And so I sit and enjoy these chips and make plans to take some vitamins when I get home as my diet is no doubt quite deficient for today.

My kingdom for a salad!

The Siren’s Call of Baked Goods in the Office Kitchen

November 4th, 2009

A coworker’s wife made the most amazing pumpkin bread and he brought it in to share with us. I saw it on a desk, still wrapped in plastic, not openly offered as available and thought, “mmmm, baked goods…” but it was not yet free for consumption.

The minute it’s on the table in the break room, though, all bets are off.

It’s eggier somehow than other pumpkin breads I’ve tried before, with a very subtle pumpkin favor, more like pumpkin pie than your typical clove-bomb pumpkin bread. I described it to my friend Rebecca as “flan-like.”

It was a thoroughly tasty and made for a proper second breakfast. Thank you for sharing, Adam!