Crustless Pizza Casserole

You know what's really empowering, Foodies?

Making something the way you like it, just because that's how you  like it. Not the way the kids like it or your spouse likes it, but just the way you want it.

I had an epiphany recently. I've spent a lot of my post-op career catering to everyone's preferences in my crusade to get my kids and family to eat healthier. In the process I did several things:

1. I stopped even thinking about what I like the best and why.
2. I put my children under the delusion that they live in a 24-hour diner, complete with a short-order cook.
3. I got a case of "food burn-out."

What's food burn-out? You all have experienced it, I'm sure. It's when you just get tired of thinking about, prepping, and cooking food. So you don't. Instead you eat things that are convenient (and sometimes not healthy). Or worse, you fall back on take-out a lot.

As for me, I fell back on my default foods (stuff I could eat anytime like cottage cheese and Greek yogurt) and let the kids go crazy with take-out. Bad mom!

What I've learned from this is that even when it comes to cooking my needs are important too. So I vow to make more meals the way I like them!

Which is what brings us to this pizza casserole. There are several reasons why my daughters probably won't touch it. For Diva, the Elder, it contains three vegetables that are on her "no fly" list (I've tried to get her to embrace more veggies...she's 16 so at this point trickery doesn't work anymore!). For Diva, the Younger,  (13) she  now eats a pescetarian diet and so the ground meat is no-go. But me? I love it! So here goes.

Nik's Pizza Casserole

Ingredients:

• 2 c. whatever veggies you like, diced (I used onions, yellow bell peppers, and zucchini)
• 1 clove garlic, minced (or 1 tsp. already minced garlic)
• 1 lb. Italian-style ground meat (I used turkey)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1.5 c. your favorite pizza or spaghetti sauce
• 1.5 c. shredded pizza blend or Italian-blend cheese (or mozzarella if you like to keep it simple)
• Toppings: I used one serving of turkey pepperoni (17 slices) and 1/4 c. sliced olives, but add anything you like on top of pizza!

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Set a skillet over medium-high heat and let it get hot (2-3 minutes) before adding nonstick cooking spray (or 1 tbsp. of oil if you like that better). Add veggies and saute for 2-3 minutes until soft. Add garlic and saute an additional minute or so.

Add the ground meat, breaking it up with a spatula and mixing in the vegetables. Cook until meat is done through. Drain meat of any excess fluid with a colander.

Turn stove heat to medium-low and add sauce, stirring to fully combine. Simmer about 5-7 minutes or until sauce turns a deeper shade of red. Your mixture should be saucy but not soupy. Ultimately the veggies will continue releasing water as they cook so you don't want your sauce to have too much liquid. If there seems to be a lot, drain some of it off before doing the next step.

Transfer mixture to a casserole dish (this is an 8 x 8) and spread to make sure it's an even layer. Now comes the fun part. Toppings! I love pepperoni and black olives on pizza so that's what I topped mine with, along with the shredded cheese.

I baked mine for about 20 minutes, long enough for the cheese to melt, brown just a bit and for the pepperonis to become slightly crispy. Technically it's ready when the cheese is melted so let it go as long as you want until it's the way you like it!

No need to let this casserole cool. The ooey-gooey factor is part of the joy of it!

This will be my lunches for the week. Meanwhile the kids are eating...something...(shrugs).

Nik's Eggplant Parmesan Casserole

So I had all this stuff I had to use up. Isn’t that how the best dishes are made?

The challenge: to use up ¾ of an eggplant I had along with an entire roasted spaghetti squash. To be fair, I didn’t really have a great plan for either when I bought them. They both just looked so gorgeous, sitting there in the farmers market just waiting for me to buy them. I’m a sucker for a plump piece of produce, ya know?

Anyway, since neither eggplant nor spaghetti squash are on the elder daughters “approved veggies” list, I knew this dish would be completely vegetarian so that the younger daughter could eat it.

Thinking about it, the kid is pretty easy to please. Bless her, she loves anything I cook for her. But I kept having Eggplant Parmesan on the brain. I wondered if the concept could translate into a casserole.

I call this “casserolizing” – the art of taking something that has never been a casserole…and making a casserole out of it. Here’s how this one goes down.

Nik’s Eggplant Parmesan Casserole

Ingredients:

• 1 medium eggplant, cubed (you can remove the skin if you don’t like it.)
• 1 small onion, cut into slivers
• 1 green pepper, cut any way you like it (I diced mine)
• The yield of one spaghetti squash (if you’re not sure how to cook it, click here)
• ½ c. diced tomatoes (I used fresh you can also used diced)
• Salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, to taste
• 1 jar of light Alfredo sauce (which is what I used)
• 1 c. Italian-blend shredded cheese

ALTERNATIVE: I like the “Parm” part of Eggplant Parm best so that’s why I went with Alfredo sauce. If you are a purist, use a tomato-based sauce and top with cheese.

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Spray your eggplant, onions and green pepper down with non-stick, season them however you like (I use salt, pepper and Italian seasoning) and put it onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Roast it about 25 minutes or so.

In a bowl, toss the roasted veggies with the spaghetti squash and tomatoes. Again, add seasoning if you like it as this is the best way to get flavor in there.

Add whatever sauce you are using and toss that until thoroughly mixed in.

Transfer to an small casserole dish (I used an 8x8) and top with cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and as brown as you like it.

This dish was a hit with the younger kid! I liked it too. The ONLY critique I have is that spaghetti squash is slightly sweet and it’s hard to play off of that. I usually allow myself to be a bit heavy handed with the salt for that reason. It didn’t make the dish bad, I just wish I had seasoned it better, which is why there are a few steps in the directions above so you can avoid that!

On Facebook I asked Foodies to vote for their favorite pic of the dish and the one at the top of the post is the one that is winning! Here are the others.

...I think I'm going to decide that, in general, close-up shots of casseroles generally are NOT a good thing! :)

 

PWYF Moment: Angela's Italian Melt Casserole

PWYF. Play with your food. It’s our philosophy. And many of you have whole-heartedly embraced the challenge of looking at a recipe, then figuring out how to change it so that it works for YOUR weight-loss surgery lifestyle, preferences and tastes.

I love it. And I especially love it when you share the results with me.

Today we celebrate Angela’s PWYF moment.

Angela saw my taco casserole recipe and thought to herself (this is complete fabrication of what I THINK she thought to herself): “Self? I’d love to have an Italian version of this casserole. In fact, I will have an Italian version of this casserole. I WILL PLAY WITH MY FOOD!!!!”

(Then trumpets sounded, fireworks went off, there was “hair wind”…it was quite the spectacle…you should have seen it!)

S'anyway. I "helped" with this recipe as Angela put a little of this, a little of that in her recipe. From what she relayed to me, here's what I've got for you! (Angela, chime in if I got any of this wrong! I also took a little bit of creative license...)

Angela’s Italian Melt Casserole

Ingredients:
(Ingredients Nik added have an *)

• 1 Vidalia onion, chopped
• 1 bag baby spinach
• 1 clove garlic, minced*
• Optional: sliced mushrooms
• 1 lb. ground turkey (Angela's recipe called for 1.5 lbs. ground turkey but I like the ground turkey/Italian sausage combo. Go with what YOU feel!)
• 1/2 lb. turkey or regular Italian sausage* (I put Italian sausage in everything!)
• 1 (10 oz.) can of Italian-style diced tomatoes
• 1 (12 oz.) can of cannelini beans, drained and rinsed of canning liquids
• 2 c. Italian-blend shredded cheese

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees then spray a skillet with nonstick cooking spray and set it over medium heat on your stove and allow it to get hot. 

Add onion and sautee until slightly soft. Add spinach and sautee until wilted. If you choose to add mushrooms, do so now and cook until soft. Finally, add garlic.

Add meat to pan and brown, mixing vegetables into the meat mixture. When the meat is completely browned, add in your tomatoes and beans and stir through.

Transfer to a 13x9 casserole dish, cover with cheese and bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. I personally would let it go another 5-7 minutes until the cheese is browned!

Thank you, Angela, for sharing this recipe! I actually think I'm gonna make it later on this week. I'll report back on my results.

Until then, keep playing with your food!

Oh..and look for yet another PWYF post tomorrow. It's fun with cauliflower!

Dee Dee's Cheesy Squash & TVP Casserole

I just love it when you guys play with your food and let me know about it. It's so exciting to see what you're cooking up.

My pal Dee Dee sent this to me to show her first attempt at working with TVP ("What the heck is TVP?"). It looks yummy, vegetarian-friendly (correct me if I'm wrong) and easy to make! 

Thank you, Dee Dee, for this scrumptious recipe!

Dee Dee's Cheesy Squash and TVP Casserole

Ingredients:

• 3 zucchini squash, sliced thin
• 2 yellow squash, sliced thin
• 1 medium onion, sliced thin (you might want to go with a white onion since the veggies will sweeten up a bit from cooking)
• 1 c. Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP)
• 1 c. + 1/2 c. whatever cheese you like (she used an assortment from her fridge that included cheddar, mozzarella, Italian blend and Parmesan)
• 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
• Garlic salt & black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl (using one cup of your cheese) and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. This allows some of the water to come out of the veggies, rehydrating the TVP and allowing it to soak up the flavor of the veggies. 

Spray a casserole dish down with non-stick cooking spray (Dee Dee used an 8x8 dish) and transfer mixture into it. Bake for one hour. 

Turn off the oven, cover with another generous sprinkle of cheese and and allow it to remain in the oven as it cools. 

Cheesy Chicken, Broccoli & "Rice" Casserole

Ok, so let’s talk about condolence food.

You know what I’m talking about. Someone passes away and family, friends, people you hardly even know start bringing you food. Yummy food. Comforting food. Carby food.

For my part, I have sort of been picking at the condolence food, much to the chagrin of La Petite Diva who has appointed herself my grief counselor. It is her mission to ensure I get three squares a day and I was NOT doing that for a minute. (After employing some good old fashioned Chinese water torture she has reformed me.)

But all that is to say this dish is what I call a “recovery” dish. I needed some vegetables in my life. BAD! The children did too. Although La Grande Diva nearly fainted away of sheer joy upon receipt of a gamillion piece box of fried chicken from Super Wal-Mart (who even knew they SOLD fried chicken???)

To get us all headed back down the right eating path, I fixed this casserole. Interestingly it passes both girls veggie radars. Ordinarily the older girl loves broccoli and the younger hates it BUT I recently learned that there is an exception to that clause. We’ll call it the “cheese clause” and we’ll say it states “With liberal exceptions a small fraction of ordinarily unacceptable vegetables will be considered and perhaps even ingested with the addition of cheese.”

Broccoli falls under this clause. Hallelujah!

Nik’s Cheesy Chicken, Broccoli & “Rice” Casserole

Ingredients:

2 large chicken breasts, grilled and chopped into small pieces

1 small onion, finely diced

3 cups of cauliflower rice

1 package of frozen broccoli pieces (not florets…pieces…there is a difference)

1 can (10 oz.) of lowfat cheddar cheese soup

½ c. milk

1 c. each shredded sharp and mild cheddar cheeses

Salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and any other spices you like

Directions:

1. Fistly, if you don’t already, check out my no fail tender chicken marinating technique (included in this post) before preparing your chicken breasts.
2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
3. Boil your broccoli until it is the desired consistency then drain.
4. Sautee your onion in a pan with nonstick and add any desired spices
5. In a large bowl, combine chicken, onion, cauliflower rice and cooked broccoli pieces. Add soup, milk and half of each kind of cheese and mix well.
6. Transfer to a casserole dish and top with remaining cheese.
7. Bake for 30 minutes or until cheese is melty.

If you are not cleared for cruciferous veggies like broccoli and cauliflower yet (or worried that these might upset your system...or just don't like broccoli and cauliflower) zucchini works great in place of broccoli and spaghetti squash in place of the cauliflower. It is still yummy and so comforting you won’t miss the carbs!