Spicy Hot Cocoa

The key here is that you have an unsweetened mix, and then can add whatever sweetener of choice you want.

Ingredients to whisk/shake together:
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 t cinnamon
2 t ginger powder
1 1/2 t nutmeg
1 t cayenne pepper

Keep in mind when using cayenne that there is a range of spiciness - some cayenne pepper is much milder than others.

best Caeser dressing

2 tsp Dijon mustarda
2 large cloves garlic, chopped
2 Tbsp Worchester sauce (buy one without anchovies)
½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (3 lemons)
2 tsp kosher salt
2 T chopped capers
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1½ cups good mild olive oil – add more if consistency is not as desired
½ – 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Lasagna

This looks and tastes like your typical high-carb, low-protein cheese lasagna, that couldn't possibly be good for you, or filled with vegetables. I do want to shove more vegetables in it. But it does have a lot of protein (thank you, tofu) and provides you with that satisfied filled feeling rather than the empty carbed feeling traditional lasagna used to give me.
I do love lasagna.

Anyway, this is the low-FODMAP, GF version of lasagna I've been making.

When I was in school and trying to live cheaply (although perhaps not succeeding) I tried all of the jarred pasta sauces available at the local grocery store, and discovered a clear favorite. It was the most expensive sauce, and so I fretted about spending the extra couple bucks. Also, I checked the ingredients. I think Olive Oil was the #1 ingredient, although it might've been #2 - it was just very clear that there was more olive oil in this brand than every other jar, and that's what made it better. Also, the calorie per penny equation worked out in it's favor, because of all that fat, so I could rationalize spending the extra money for it. The point is, if you want a good tomato sauce, start with more oil than you think you need.

Asafetida comes as a powder and is generally described as an onions and garlic type flavor. Unlike onions and garlic, it is low-FODMAP, so I've brought out this old jar I had and have been using it a lot, with good results.


Noodles & Cheese:
1 package No-bake brown rice lasagna noodles
1/2 lb mozzarella cheese, shredded, divided into 3.

Sauce:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 red pepper
1/2 green pepper
1 cup diced butternut squash
5 green olives
5 kalamata olives
1/4 cup green onions (green parts)
1/2 t asafetida
1 T (+) fennel seed
1 t oregano
1/2 t basil
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce

Filling:
2 10 oz package frozen spinach (water squeezed out?)
1 14 oz package tofu
2 eggs
1/3 of the mozzarella

Instructions -
Start the sauce first, cook everything but the tomatoes until the vegetables are cooked and then add the tomatoes and simmer.
Put the filling ingredients in the food processor.
To assemble, start with 1 cup of sauce, layer your noodles, filling, cheese, noodles, sauce, filling, noodles, sauce, cheese. (3 layers of noodles, 2 layers of filling, 2 layers of cheese, ending with noodles-sauce-cheese, so the cheese browns on top.)
Cover in foil, bake at 350 for 50 minutes, remove foil, bake 10 more minutes, let rest for 15 before you cut into it.

Vegan Eggplant Parmigiana

So, first off, this isn't actually vegan, although it should've been. I was lazy and used an egg to batter the eggplant - that's just common sense. If you have an egg, use the egg. But more importantly (and disgustingly) I used these leftover bread crumbs I had in the cupboard and after I made it I regretted using them, and am glad they're not in my house anymore. According to the label... they're yuck. But whatever, I used them. It is fine. Not vegan.
So basically what I'm saying is that I made cheese-free eggplant parmigiana. It was good, cheese isn't necessary when you have deliciously fried eggplant.
Second piece of honesty... The only reason I didn't put cheese on the eggplant was because I only have cheddar, and I had too much of it with crackers as a pre-dinner snack. So I wasn't interested in more cheese, and it is just fried eggplant with red lentil pasta sauce.

Eggplant:
1 egg
1/2 eggplant
breadcrumbs
olive oil
Baking pan

Get your breadcrumbs ready in a shallow bowl, in another shallow bowl whisk your egg a bit with a fork. Spray the bottom of your baking pan with copious amounts of olive oil, and preheat the oven to 400. Dip the eggplant into egg then breadcrumbs, place on baking sheet. Spray with more olive oil before putting it into the oven - bake until the tops start to look brown and flip (the bottoms are likely darker) and bake a few more minutes

Eat with fresh cooked pasta and fresh pasta sauce - I can't find any posts about puttanesca, so I guess I'll have to make it again and post the recipe.

Red Curry Tempeh

I finally remembered to use the cilantro I bought as a garnish. A lot of it, since I have so much. The open bottle of red curry paste that I had in my fridge was pretty old - I ended up using all of it, and it still wasn't spicy enough - you can see the heavy dose of sriracha I added to pump it up. I think if you're using a fresher jar of curry, it'll be deliciously spicy.


1/3 block of tempeh
2 oz onion
1 red pepper
1/2 eggplant
3 oz cooked rice
1/2 c coconut milk (up to a half can)
Red curry paste to taste (2 t to start)
cilantro to garnish


Fry the tempeh and onions and add the red peppers, stir for just a few seconds, then add the eggplant and coconut milk. If you are using pre-cooked rice (as I did - I cooked extra rice earlier in the week knowing I'd need it for this and one other recipe) then add it towards the end, and a bit of water so that the rice rehydrates and reaches a suitable temperature with the coconut curry sauce. If you're making rice for this dish specifically, spoon the sauce and vegetables over it.
Delicious.

Pad See Ew

I overcooked the rice noodles. There are a couple of brands of noodles and they all need to be treated differently and I hadn't used these in awhile. So, read the instructions on your rice noodles! And follow them! Well... kind of follow them. When stir-frying noodles, you want to make sure that they've still got bite to them when you throw them in your stir-fry, otherwise they turn into a soggy mess and break apart. If they're perfect, they'll cook the sauce in perfectly and maybe even get brown on the outsides. My favorite noodles are the fresh wide noodles you can find in Asian markets, I just don't go to the Asian market often enough, and have settled for the dried Pad Thai noodles they sell at my local co-op.

I made this for 2. I made it exactly how I make Drunkard's Noodles, only no tomatoes, and I threw in rice vinegar to taste instead. I used red onion, red pepper, one cherry bomb pepper, and frozen broccoli.

Thai Carrot Soup

Most carrot soups are pureed - including the recipe for this one - but I don't like pureed soups so much. My nephew love coconut and peanut butter so he should like it, but probably would rather just eat his carrots separate from his coconut cream separate from his peanut butter. I intentionally undercooked it, so the carrots would have more bite, but I think I should've left it for another couple minutes. It is pretty rich, I could've reduced either the amount of coconut milk or peanut butter and it would've been just fine. Or, leave out the peanut butter and instead garnish with peanuts. I like that it doesn't remind me of my favorite peanut soup - it is something different.

2 t coconut oil
1.5 oz chopped onion
4 oz frozen shredded carrots
1/2 c water
1/2 c coconut milk
1 T peanut butter
Sriracha to taste
salt to taste

heat the onion in the oil, add the carrots and cook until defrosted, pour in the water and milk, bring to a boil, reduce and simmer for a few minutes until carrots are a little done, add peanut butter, and sriracha to taste.