Mushroom Moussaka

Here it is ready to be served!

The casserole comes out bubbly and fabulous!

Mark helped Wrigley see what was going on up there!

The fabulous Mushroom Sauce!

I have never had Moussaka before this so I have no basis for comparison but, WOW! It was delicious and I am happy to say that I have an entire casserole to enjoy throughout the week. This is a very low fat, vegetarian dish full of flavor, fiber, mushrooms and herbs. There four layers to this dish. A layer of eggplant, the thick and tomato-y mushroom sauce, another layer of eggplant and topped off with the wonderful Bechamel Sauce! I do have some notes on alternation as well as what I will do differently next time. First of all, I used, as always, non fat milk. I hope to eventually use my almond milk for these things but I don't know if the Bechamel Sauce would have thickened. Next time, I would probably use 4 eggplants instead of 3. The top layer wasn't completely covered. Also, although my Bechamel Sauce was AMAZING, I think it turned out a lot thicker than it was suppose to. This top layer browns in the oven if you leave it in long enough and almost has a light cheese sauce flavor to it. That layer is probably the least healthy, but again I used non fat milk and light margarine and really only 3 tablespoons of the margarine for the entire casserole. It was a delicious experience that I will enjoy for the week to come. Now, as many of you know, I severely injured my foot last weekend so, alas, no heavy duty workouts for me for a while. With that in mind, I will be moving to the salad section of the Moosewood cookbook to try to keep the weight down. So look forward to some great light salad recipes in the weeks to come!

Mushroom, Broccoli, Noodle Casserole

Chip and I had planned to spend the day together before his trip to Michigan next week and last minute he got called into work. As a result, I got in a very long workout at the gym, cleaned the crap out of the kitchen and knocked out another of my Moosewood Cookbook recipes. Wow! This one turned out great. I did a few alternations from the original recipe. First of all, I used whole wheat noodles cause, well, I always use whole wheat when I can. The recipe is not very specific on amounts when it comes to broccoli so I think I used more than it suggests which is great, but then there is less sauce to cover it and the mushrooms and onions are my favorite and I used the correct amount of them so next time I will use a little less broccoli. Everything I used was low fat or non-fat and I opted out of adding the cheese. Cheese if wonderful, indulgent, amazing and delicious. Cheese is also the devil and I am doing my best to limit if not eliminate it from my life. I also think I might need to add more salt next time. I use sea salt, which isn't as salty. Aunt Shula, I think you would especially like this one. You are going to want to add more mushrooms and probably opt in the cheese. There is cottage cheese in the sauce mixture. Do not let this scare you away from this fabulous meal. When it is mixed with everything else, it creates a delicious, creamy goodness that is also full of protein, calcium and is low fat! Bon Appetit!