Spaghetti Squash Vegan Alfredo

I've been thinking lately about how many people I've come in contact with that are choosing gluten free for health or because they have an allergy. My mom has Celiac disease so I'm very familiar with gluten free living, and now my sister has put my nephew on a gluten free diet. My cute little nephew is lactose intolerant as well and still having some tummy issues so the doctor suggested gluten free. 

Tonight's dinner was made with my cute nephew in mind. Dairy free and gluten free! I wasn't sure how my kids would like tonight's dinner...I kept waiting to see if they could tell that these noodles weren't quite the same. Well the end result....I think they could tell but that didn't stop them. To my surprise my son ate better than my daughter and the last few weeks it's been like pulling teeth to get him to actually eat what I put in front of him and not play with it!

This is a thick alfredo sauce...it isn't conventional alfredo sauce, but it still tasted rich and creamy even though it was vegan. I typically try and stick with a very natural whole food diet, but every once in awhile I'll add some of these mixes. We used Tofutti products, they are dairy free, but still processed so not so whole foods I'd say. But they have much less fat than regular cream cheese...pick your battles!

I want to include a step by step guide for preparing the "spaghetti" of the squash if you're unfamiliar with it...it is so simple!

1. Poke holes in the squash with large fork or knife

2. Bake in the oven for 1 hour at 375 degrees

3. Cut the squash in half lengthwise

4. take out seeds with a fork

5. With the fork shred the sides of the squash until all the noodley squash is out! 

And your done!

It is one of the easiest squash to cut and prepare in my opinion, it just takes some time to bake!

Well how about that sauce recipe then huh?

3-4 T vegan cream cheese

1-2 T vegan sour cream

1/2 c soy milk or dairy free milk

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

dash of red pepper flakes

pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan. Heat over medium until everything has melted down. Stir over med-low for 5 minutes! Enjoy

Pretty easy right? Talk about a great way to get some veggies into your family all the while having an allergen free meal! It's a great day!

Crock Pot Light Alfredo Sauce

Why do you suppose that creamy, thick sauce smothering pasta is so comforting? If you are like me I adore pasta sauces - the creamier the better. Cream does not sit well with healthy diet. Dairy can be harmful to our bodies and cream is full of fat!

My previously favorite dish was Olive Garden's Chicken Alfredo- a classic. My brother-in-law works at Olive Garden while he is going to school and he spilled the beans on how many calories this dish held! 1700 calories!!!!!! I always ate it all!!! I never ate it again even before I began eating better...that number was constantly flashing into my mind!

I really wanted to try and lighten up an Alfredo dish so we could eat it a little more carefree! Now there are a lot of ways to make cream sauces, most of the ways I've found still have a high fat content. If you use nuts obviously it will be better fats for you. This sauce is not made from nuts, I used Vegan Cream Cheese Alternative. It was lower in fats, about 9 grams a serving, than regular cream cheese, but still no where near fat free. So I only tried this dinner tonight since I'm trying to stick to my challenge this week! It was hard not to keep eating it. I used vegetables instead of pasta to give the kids a healthy helping of their greens.

To be honest this meal took some persuading to get them to try it. After the first bite though, there was no more persuading it sold itself! I loved the flavor, it will still be eaten sparingly in this house, but a much better option than traditional Alfredo Sauce.

Light Alfredo Sauce (vegan)

1 container of vegan cream cheese alternative, like tofutti

1 C soy milk

2 cloves garlic minced

1  T nutmeg

1 T paprika

1 1/2 T Italian Seasoning

1 tsp Dijon mustard

Pepper to taste

Add ingredients to the crock pot cook on low for 3 hours. Stirring occasionally to make sure flavors are blending! Serve over cooked zucchini noodles and mixed vegetables or  your favorite pasta!

* this tasted so great with the veggies I think this would make an excellent veggie dip or bread stick dip, what do you think?

Alphabet Day's End, Zucchini Boats

Well our beloved Alphabet days has come to an end, just in time for school to start. I don't have school aged children, but my hubs is getting ready to start another fun filled semester....hahaha....not so fun actually! I guess we could look at it as one step closer to graduation! Someday it will come!

A few weeks ago my good friend described a dinner she had made out of zucchini! It sounded delightful, she put meat in hers so I wanted to find a way to make ours meatless, but have great flavor! These zucchini boats were so easy and so delicious! I was so happy with the end result. I've felt we haven't been watching as closely what we've been giving our kids the last few days since we've had some busy family get togethers or we've been on the go! So I needed, yes needed for my own guilt to pack them with something nutritious tonight! They loved these little babies, which makes mom all the more happy! These ended up reminding me of a tasty Italian meal, without all the creamy pasta sauces or carbs! So yay for us! Enjoy these easy weekend or weeknight zucchini boats! They are great!

Zucchini Boats

3-4 zucchini squash, cut lengthwise in half

1 C of canned or frozen corn

1-2 C cooked quinoa or brown rice

1 C chopped carrots

1 C peas

1/2 onion

2 cloves garlic

1/2 C green beans

1 T Italian Seasoning 

2 T nutritional Yeast (optional)

1 tsp Mrs. Dash seasoning, (optional)
1/4 C sunflower nuts, for some extra crunch

1 jar of spaghetti sauce (or 1 recipe of easy marinara sauce)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spoon out the inside of the zucchini squash so just the rind is left. Place the spooned squash in a large bowl. Add onion to skillet with a tsp of olive oil and saute, add garlic and finish cooking until garlic is fragrant. Add vegetables, nuts, rice or quinoa, sauce, and seasonings to bowl and stir well. Try and have the zucchini mashed up a bit so you don't have enormous chunks of it. Spoon mixture into the rind of the zucchini. Place on a large cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Serve with salad and garlic bread, yum!!!!

Healthy Garden Vegetable Soup

Rain is a blessing! As I've gotten older, I've really started to enjoy overcast and rainy days....if we have rainy days for a long period of time, I do start to glare out the window and mutter rain complaints under my breath! Every once in awhile I'm completely happy with a nice rainy day though!

I feel I've been neglecting my recipe inventing, searching and just general cooking! I've been so wrapped up with family and our eBook that dinner hasn't always been my first thought. So as the afternoon drew to a close today and I realized I'm going to have whiny, hungry kids in a few minutes I started to panic! Okay, not really panic, but I started to pace the kitchen trying to find something to pull together-quick!

One thing we don't want to do when there is no dinner planned is????? Go out! Right, it's not nice to the wallet or waist! So....I looked out the window, looked at my fridge, looked out the window again and decided on...soup, comforting, steamy, rainy day bliss, soup.

Derek told me a few days ago we needed to add more beans into our meals, he's right. With meat on the back burner at our house we need the protein from nuts and beans, so I added beans to this delicious soup, you however can leave them out if you'd like...it's not a totally crucial ingredient.

All I did for this soup is raid my fridge and pull out any vegetable I wanted to throw into this! It blended together so nicely, it coupled some whole grain toast with ease and my kids turned into dippin' fools! Come on now, that's one of the best parts of soup is dipping the roll into right!

My daughter was adorable tonight, she dipped, then sipped...after about doing this three times she looked at me and said "Mom, I just love this so much!" Seriously guys, pure vegetable soup! What more could  I ask for! Shake this up to your heart's content....you really can't go wrong

Garden Vegetable Soup

2 C low-sodium vegetable broth

3 C water

2 C chopped carrots

2 C cubed potatoes

1 chopped broccoli crown

1/2 onion

1 C frozen corn

1 zucchini

2 cloves garlic

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 C white beans, rinsed and drained (optional) 

1 T Mrs. Dash Seasoning

1/2 T Italian seasoning

1/2 T paprika

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

Combine water, broth, onion and garlic, heat over medium heat while you chop the remaining vegetables. Add vegetables, beans and seasonings to pot. Cover and heat over med-low until potatoes are very tender. Scoop half of soup and put it in the blender, blend until puree texture, return puree to the rest of the soup. Serve with warm rolls and salad! 

*this soup will freeze well, so if you have a lot of left overs or want to use it as a freezer meal go for it!

Butternut Squash Lasagna- GF

One thing I have missed from time to time is my cheesy, enormous, best tasting lasagna! It probably had a days worth of calories in one serving, but I always got so many compliments on the taste!

Where I am right now with my food choices and how I eat, I honestly don't crave cheese any more and red meat. I do love pasta, but it's always good to balance your carbohydrate intake, for me especially....Pasta is my love!

Sundays are usually when I'll prepare a meal that uses meat. I don't know why, that's just how it's been working out, I stick to lean poultry and always have it balanced well with vegetables and fruits. This meal made it onto the weekly meal list. When I found it here, it sounded great, it was healthy, it used poultry, and I hoped beyond hope that it would stop me missing my old lasagna recipe at some point! I did make a few tweaks to fit our tastes.

I can tell you I thought it was wonderful! It didn't have the cheesy taste, but that was okay with me. It still tasted like an awesome Italian dish, but no pasta. I don't know why I didn't think of something like this before. I've used zucchini squash before to replace pasta with my zucchini noodles. I really enjoyed the texture of the squash and mixed with the turkey sausage I put in it was awesome! I do think if your looking for vegan this would taste just find with some more vegetables thrown in there to give more variety and just X out the meat.

My daughter is having a battle day. She tried it once and said she didn't like it. She saw me squirt some lemon juice on my broccoli so she asked for some. Apparently she doesn't like that taste either. So I said, you eat either all your broccoli or all of your squash. Well she just left the table with all of her lasagna finished. I asked her if she liked it and she just said, "I do like it!" It just takes kids getting over new tastes I think before they realize...hey wait a second this is kinda good!!! At least that's the way it goes in our house. I've stopped listening to the protests and just keep saying okay well you need to try everything! Keep introducing those foods, remember it can take 8-10 times before a kid likes something! Luckily it just took a few more bites for my daughter to like this one! My son is napping, so I don't have a report from him :)

Butternut Squash lasagna

1 Butternut Squash

1 package of Italian Turkey Sausage or chicken

1 recipe of easy marinara sauce

1 bay leaf

1/2 T parsley to sprinkle on top

Easy Marinara Sauce

1 15 oz can tomato sauce

1 can tomato paste

1/2 28 oz crushed tomatoes

4 garlic cloves

1/2 onion

2 T olive oil

1 1/2 T Italian Seasoning

1 T parsley

2 T Italian dressing

1/2 T basil

Peel squash. I've found if you poke holes in the squash before then throw it in the microwave for about 30-40 seconds it is soooooo much easier to peel and cut! Cut lengthwise in half and remove the seeds. Slice into thin slices

and place into a deep baking dish. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook sausage in skillet over med-high heat until completely cooked through. Leave sausage in skillet and add your ingredients for the marinara sauce. Simmer for 10-12 minutes then add sauce to the butternut squash, stir in the extra bay leaf, cover and bake for about 45 minutes or until the squash is very tender. Top with parsley. We enjoyed this with steamed broccoli, but you can go all out with garlic bread, salad the real deal if you want a real Italian meal!!!