Cooking for the Non-CR'd

Last night I was having non-CR company over for dinner, and I faced a dilemma. I had promised I would make some of my famous non-CR foods, notably my peanut butter pie, which is like a frozen Reces peanut butter cup, but I wanted to make a basically CR friendly dinner so that I could eat and not fall off the straight and narrow path.

I ended up making a delicious CR friendly, almost Zoned pasta-free lasagna. It has spinach, so those who are spinach phobic should substitute other greens. But here's the basic recipe:

1 can purred tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
4 oz mozeralla cheese, part skim, low moisture
280 cals fat free cottage cheese (that's one carton of the kind I buy)
2 red peppers, roasted
sundried tomatoes, packed in balsamic vinegar, no oil
1 can artichoke hearts packed in water, diced
spinach leaves, raw
half a cup of dry red wine
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 bunches broccoli raw, diced or cut into florets and small stem pieces

Mince the garlic and simmer it in the wine. Throw in the tomatoes, turn down the heat, stir in the olive oil.

Roast the red peppers. If you don't know how to do this, email me and I'll tell you. Chop them.

In a casserole dish, put down a layer of artichokes, broccoli, red peppers. Cover with dots of fat free cottage cheese. Cover with a layer of spinach leaves, pretending the spinach is lasagna. Cover with a layer of tomato sauce. Repeat until dish is mostly full. Dot some sundried tomatoes on top. Top with the mozarella. Cook on whatever temperature you think makes sense until the cheese is slightly melted.

It's just like lasagna, except not. It's quite good. Nearly Zoned, too, according to my DWIDP, though a touch high carb and a touch low fat. It's better Zoned if you take out the wine, but the wine really makes the tomato sauce taste good.

I served pumpkin soup first, which I make with free range organic chicken broth (4 cups), a can of pure pumpkin, salt, curry powder, garlic powder, and the juice of one whole fresh lemon, as well as some lemon zest. It's fabulous this time of year.

Tonight I am once again having non-CR'd dinner company... trying to catch up on all my socializing now that my campaign and my conference are over. I'm going to make a CR friendly tomato soup, and a shrimp dish. I'll let you know how it turns out. I frequently enter the kitchen with just a vague idea of what I'm making, then I play with the food until it turns up something I like. It's one of the reasons why I enjoy cooking so much.

I'm still feeling high from the conference... I hope I can keep living on it indefinitely in these dark days of winter with no CR brothers or sisters in sight.