What I had for dinner - vegetarian

Since my fiancee is a vegetarian, it's challenging to come up with low-
carb vegetarian meals, but this is one we both loved.

This is my reduced-carb version of an absolutely wonderful recipe for
Artichoke Spinach Lasagne I got from Betty Crocker's "Easy Vegetarian"
booklet. The entire recipe serves 8, and I calculated it out to be about
12 grams of carbs per serving after subtracting the fiber. (If you want
larger servings, 6 servings would be 16 grams each.) I did NOT use any
carb calculators to determine "actual carb counts", I just used the
nutritional information from the labels (and from nutritional guidelines
for the squash). YMMV.

I actually "layered" this using the cooked spaghetti squash in place of
noodles, but after I was done, I decided it really wouldn't make any
difference to mix it all up (since the layers weren't very well defined
anyway), and it would be a lot easier and faster.

For the spaghetti squash, I bought two small ones at the grocery store -
the total uncooked weight was about 4.5 pounds, and I got about 5 cups of
cooked "spaghetti" out of it. This seemed to be a good amount for the
casserole.

Artichoke/Spinach/Squash Casserole

1 cup vegetable broth
(or chicken broth, if it doesn't need to be vegetarian)
1 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary, or 1 tsp dried
1 (10-oz) pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed dry
1 (14 oz) can artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
(NOT marinated artichoke hearts!)
1 (15-16 oz) jar Alfredo pasta sauce (I used Bertolli's)
5 cups cooked spaghetti squash, cooked by your favorite method*
3 cups (12 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese
4 oz crumbled herb-and-garlic feta cheese

Preheat oven to 350F. Put the spinach and artichoke hearts in a large
pan, and add the broth and rosemary. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat
and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the pasta sauce. Remove from heat; stir
in the spaghetti squash and the mozzarella cheese. Stir to mix, then
spread mixture into a 13x9 baking dish. Sprinkle the crumbled feta cheese
over the top. Cover with foil and bake 15 minutes, then uncover and bake
another 15 minutes or until hot and bubbly. (I'm sure it could also be
microwaved). Let stand a few minutes before serving.

* Cook the squash any way you like - I cut it into large chunks, removed
the seeds, and simmered it for about 20 minutes. It can also be baked,
microwaved, etc. If you boil it, squeeze the excess water out of it
before making the casserole.


--
A. Brown
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Sounds good! I've seen several veggie low-carb forums or sub-forums on
the web. You may not need to reinvent all the wheels. :-)

There are lots of wonderful veg dishes in Indian and Middle East
restaurants. The Hare Krishnas probably have some good easy recipies.
I've been vegetarian for a long time, using lots of dairy but seldom
eggs. Increasing eggs for low-carb purposes didn't work well.


Skinny
----------------



On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 16:14:40 GMT, "A. Brown"
wrote:

Since my fiancee is a vegetarian, it's challenging to come up with low-
carb vegetarian meals, but this is one we both loved.

This is my reduced-carb version of an absolutely wonderful recipe for
Artichoke Spinach Lasagne I got from Betty Crocker's "Easy Vegetarian"
booklet.

/snip for length/

An easy thing that might open a lot of choices.... Does she like tofu?
Then just take any meat low-carb stir-fry sort of recipie and substitute
tofu for the meat. It has a very mild taste unless seasoned, almost like
pasta. (Someone posted a recipie for a lasagna that used thin slices of
firm tofu instead of the pasta.)

There are lots of different kinds of tofu and different ways to cook it,
tho I think someone said it doesn't need any cooking, just draining and
drying. Some dishes use little cubes that are kind of like the white of
boiled eggs, tho softer. I like the fried kind that gets a crust kind of
like the crust on french fries.

One good place to start might be going to some Asian restaurants: Thai,
Vietnamese, etc. They often can substitute tofu for the meat in all
their dishes, or bring a side order of tofu to try with other things.
See what it's like when done right!

If she's not low-carbing, she could have rice with hers, without
needing a whole separate entree. At home you could make a big stir-fry
with veg only, and you use it as a sauce for meat and she use it as a
sauce for tofu or rice or something.


Skinny
--------------



On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 16:14:40 GMT, "A. Brown"
wrote:

Since my fiancee is a vegetarian, it's challenging to come up with low-
carb vegetarian meals, but this is one we both loved.

Skinny wrote in news:5esq70l6du3bujnvcnu8ev1t5hptbarbga@
4ax.com:

An easy thing that might open a lot of choices.... Does she like tofu?
Then just take any meat low-carb stir-fry sort of recipie and
substitute
tofu for the meat. It has a very mild taste unless seasoned, almost
like
pasta. (Someone posted a recipie for a lasagna that used thin slices of
firm tofu instead of the pasta.)

It's a "he", not a "she"... and yes, I do use tofu occasionally. I like
it, and he will eat it if I make it, but he's not all that big on it. I
don't use it too often, though, because I'm concerned about eating too
much soy - especially for him, since on his own he eats a lot of soy-
based fake meat products. One of my favorites is a tofu-and-veggie stir-
fry with a peanut sauce, and he likes that one.

And yes, he is low-carbing (sort of, anyway... when he doesn't get
carried away with snacking).

It's actually not all that bad, because he isn't "totally" vegetarian, he
does eat fish and seafood. But I don't like to have too many servings of
fish per week either, because of the mercury and PCBs... so we usually
only have fish a couple of times per week.


On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 16:14:40 GMT, "A. Brown"
wrote:

Since my fiancee is a vegetarian, it's challenging to come up with low-
carb vegetarian meals, but this is one we both loved.

--
A. Brown
remove the junk to email

Skinny wrote in news:qkqq70pc2tauf884nn2qn3t6sb561mpdva@
4ax.com:


Sounds good! I've seen several veggie low-carb forums or sub-forums on
the web. You may not need to reinvent all the wheels. :-)

There are lots of wonderful veg dishes in Indian and Middle East
restaurants. The Hare Krishnas probably have some good easy recipies.
I've been vegetarian for a long time, using lots of dairy but seldom
eggs. Increasing eggs for low-carb purposes didn't work well.


Skinny
----------------

I've found some stuff on the web, but unfortunately it's pretty slim
pickings (at least in the places I've found). Lots of Eggplant Parmesan
recipes, though! Good thing I'll be planting eggplant in the garden this
year...

I have been gathering a lot of Indian recipes, though, and I'm looking
forward to trying some of them. They're not "marketed" as low-carb, but a
lot of them are, or can be. And he does like Indian and Middle East food,
as long as it isn't spicy - no curry for him.... (but all the more for
me!)

He already eats a lot of eggs and soy-based products, so if I can find
recipes that don't use those, so much the better. I've found some yummy-
sounding Indian dishes with cauliflower, spinach, etc... plus lentils of
all types, of course. Anything that I try that comes out well, I'll post.


--
A. Brown
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On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 20:23:29 GMT, "A. Brown"
wrote:

I've found some stuff on the web, but unfortunately it's pretty slim
pickings (at least in the places I've found). Lots of Eggplant Parmesan
recipes, though! Good thing I'll be planting eggplant in the garden this
year...


Try google/groups
http://www.google.com/advanced_group_search?hl=en

type "vegetarian atkins" in the "with all the words" box,
and alt.support.diet.low-carb in the Newsgroup box,
select "100 messages", then click Google Search.

Lots and lots of possibilities there.

Em

Since my fiancee is a vegetarian, it's challenging to come up with low-
carb vegetarian meals, but this is one we both loved.

Thanks for the recipe! It looks delicious!! It is always good to hear
new vegetarian dinner ideas, being a vegetarian myself (and atkins
follower for 1+ year)

One resource I wanted to recommend is http://forum.lowcarber.org That
site has it's own vegetarian subgroup with quite a few active people
there.

Before I have also tried a mock lasagna making it the same as a cheese
one but using thin slices of fried eggplant for noodles.

The low carb luxury website also has some good vegetarian ideas for
meals including a delicious cheddar vegetable chowder.

Good luck with your low carb eating!

emkay wrote in
:

On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 20:23:29 GMT, "A. Brown"
wrote:

I've found some stuff on the web, but unfortunately it's pretty slim
pickings (at least in the places I've found). Lots of Eggplant Parmesan
recipes, though! Good thing I'll be planting eggplant in the garden this
year...


Try google/groups
http://www.google.com/advanced_group_search?hl=en

type "vegetarian atkins" in the "with all the words" box,
and alt.support.diet.low-carb in the Newsgroup box,
select "100 messages", then click Google Search.

Lots and lots of possibilities there.

Em


Thanks... I'll give that a try!


--
A. Brown
remove the junk to email