Italian Veggie Bake

This is a Wheat Belly recipe, and while it's delicious, there's quite a bit of prep involved. It reheats well though and makes a ton. You could also use jarred sauce and shave some time off.

Diced tomatoes, torn fresh basil, salt, dried parsley, dried oregano, and garlic simmered until it got nice and soupy.

Mine got a little too soupy, so I stirred in a few tablespoons of tomato paste to thicken it up. Then I hit it with the immersion blender until it was smooth. While the sauce was going, I layered some big slabs of tomato in a dish topped with sauteed veggies (fresh spinach, half an onion, 1/2 cup of chopped sundried tomatoes, more garlic).

Next came the sauce, some pre-baked eggplant and zucchini slices, another layer of sauce, and cheese. Basically a big old lasagna with no noodles. Not a bad substitute, honestly!

View from the Top

I met an old co-worker for lunch downtown and parked in a nearby garage. I love that pretty much any parking garage in Charleston has a killer view if you park on the roof.

Fish and Veg

Some nights call for a clean, simple dinner--baked fish and veggies. Frozen tilapia (or other fish), frozen veggies (I had broccoli and fresh cut potatoes), some garlic, butter, and salt--pop it in the oven at 380 and cook about 15 minutes. Easy peasy.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

This has officially replaced mac and cheese as my go-to comfort food. And it's easier to make, with some veggies snuck in too!

Start by cooking and draining one package of store bought sweet potato gnocchi. In a saucepan bring about 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream to a simmer and let it bubble. I stirred in some garlic paste, salt, and pepper. Once it cooks up some, start adding in shredded cheese (whatever you have on hand) and continue to let it simmer. In the gnocchi pot, dump a bag of cubed butternut squash and a cup or so of frozen chopped kale, stirring it with some olive oil and salt until it's cooked and tender. Mix it all up, top with some shredded Parm and dinner is served!

Apple Pie Cheesecakes

Like the original cheesecakes weren't good enough :). We had CSA apples to use up, and happened to have some caramel sauce on hand, so I made up this topping on the fly.

It's the regular cheesecake recipe, then while they were baking I stirred one chopped apple, a few heaping teaspoons of brown sugar, a few teaspoons of regular sugar, about a teaspoon of cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg, a pinch of salt, and a scattering of chopped walnuts in a sauce pan over medium-low heat until it started simmering. Then I let it go until the apples were soft.

Once the cheesecakes cooled I put a big spoonful of caramel on top of each one and two spoonfuls of apple topping. A great fall dessert that is impressive but fairly simple to throw together.

Enchiladas, Round 2

My first stab at enchiladas was pretty good, but I amped it up a little the second time around. I got two sauce packets from Target, one traditional red enchilada sauce, and one green. I did red on the bottom, stuffed and placed the enchiladas, the green on top.

They were finished off with lots of cojito cheese and fresh chopped tomatoes...Ole!

Rice Noodles

I've loved rice noodles even before giving up wheat. There's just something fun about them!

I cooked the noodles in boiling water for maybe 5 minutes, until they were softened. Separately, I stir fried some veggies and GF soy sauce, then stirred it all up. Simple, fast and tasty!