Madness, I tell you! Dinners 4-2-08 through 4-6-08

Whatever kind of insanity possessed me to think I could successfully blog dinner every night? Sheer madness, it must have been.

This week, my best-laid plans were waylaid by internet issues and the various and sundry things that life throws at one. Maybe these updates will not be every day. Maybe they'll only be several times a week. One way or another, I want to continue recording the successes I find in my kitchen.

Wednesday night was one such success. I wanted to make lasagna and pack it full of veggies, but also have it taste like real lasagna while following my various food allergy challenges. I based the structure off of an allrecipes.com find for spinach lasagna.

First step: to throw about 4 cups of grape tomatoes in a glass baking dish with some basil, salt and pepper and roast the daylights out of the tomatoes. It worked so well for last week's pizza, I have decided to maybe never go back to tomato sauce from a can. While the tomatoes bubbled and roasted, I browned about 1 lb of ground turkey in a large sauce pot with some olive oil and diced onion. Once the tomatoes were roasted to my satisfaction, I pressed them through the strainer on my Kitchenaid and added the sauce to the bubbling meat, shifting it to low heat.

Second step: how to make the ricotta and egg layer without dairy or eggs? I picked up some sheep feta cheese and mixed about 1 and 1/2 cups plain goat yogurt with the feta until the mixture had the consistency of ricotta. I was given some egg replacer that I used to put the equivalent of 2 eggs into the mix. The mix was very runny at this point. I sauteed some diced onions, olive oil and mushrooms in a pan, then cooled and added to the mixture. I boiled about 3 cups of spinach, patted out all the liquid, chopped the spinach and added to the bowl. At this point, we had a slightly gooey but not too wet "ricotta" layer. The feta was soaked in brine, which made a nice bite without being overwhelmingly salty.

I layered lasagna noodles with each mixture, and dropped chunks of buffalo mozzarella over the top. The dish was baked for about 50 minutes at 400* and the Husband proclaimed it the best thing I've made yet. I thought that it was lightly but well seasoned. I was afraid that I hadn't added enough seasoning. I liberally sprinkled dried basil, oregano, thyme and a little tarragon into the turkey-tomato sauce, but forgot to add the herbs to the "ricotta" layer. Luckily, the feta flavor really took the place of any seasoning and made it far from bland. Delicious! It served us both lunch and dinner for two days, and there was an extra serving to pass along to a friend.

Thursday night was leftovers - I can't really remember what I ate but I know I ate something. Friday night, the Husband made a slow-cooker meatless chili with lots of legumes. Meatless chili no longer cuts it for me. I found myself thinking about grilling chicken, dicing it and tossing it in my bowl.

Saturday dinner was spectacular and I really wish there had been an opportunity for photos. The Husband made a Myrtle Grove salad - capers, boiled potatoes, green beans, smoked salmon, sliced peppers and mixed greens all topped with a homemade tarragon dijon vinaigrette. The flavors were fantastic. It was one of the most interesting, filling salads I've had. Along with the salad was a turkey-avocado-buffalo mozz sandwich on sourdough. This salad will be revisited.

Tonight will be a catch-as-I-can dinner. Earlier today, I poached the chicken we had in the fridge to cook it off before it goes south. We can use it in the chicken-apple-curry that we enjoy for lunch. The husband made a dressing for an asparagus-sesame salad and I will be blanching the asparagus to add. This week, we are going to try making lunch the larger, more emphatic meal and having salads and sandwiches for dinner. We have an unfortunate habit of eating dinner much later than planned and less elaborate dinners may make it easier to eat earlier.

I have had the most awful urge to bake all week long. I've been daydreaming about making fluffy biscuits and mouthwatering pie with flaky, buttery crusts. I've made mental shopping lists for red velvet cupcakes and blueberry muffins. I thought about the cookies I want to make for the holiday season this year, and flourless chocolate cake, and pineapple upside down cake and chocolate-chip peanut-butter cookies and lemon-lavender pound cake. I almost made banana bread this morning. Poaching chicken made me feel good about my culinary progress but it doesn't give me the same deep satisfaction I get from setting chocolate-cinnamon-chili powder cupcakes with kahlua buttercream frosting down on a table and watching eyes light up at the decadent goodness. I'm assuming I will have at least one small baking binge this week, and I will be taking the resulting deliciousness to work as quickly as possible for disposal. I wish it was as satisfying to prepare healthy food as it is to create treats.