Obsessed

On Monday, in an attempt to make lemonade out of my pre-diabetes lemons, I bought MacGourmet, a recipe/nutrition computer program.  Because of my new low carb pre-diabetic diet, I decided I needed something to help me calculate the carbs in the foods I cook. 

This is what MacGourmet looks like on the screen

I’ve been obsessed ever since...

Day One:  Ren and I spend 3 hours making vegetarian White Vegetable Lasagne (compiling the best of 4 separate recipes) because the kids and I mourn how Stouffer's no longer seems to make it anymore.  I enter my version and learn there are 352 calories and 29.46 grams of carb/serving. 

After dinner, Scott:  Do you want to watch the new Kiefer Sutherland TV show with me?

Me:  No thanks, I want to enter my recipes.

I enter 3 recipes—takes me until bedtime.

Day Two: 

Morning:  I learn how to import recipes from certain select websites, most of which I’ve never used.  I import 10 recipes.

Afternoon:   I figure out how to import recipes from Word documents.  I import 10 more recipes.

Evening: 

Scott:  Do you want me to run you a bath so you can relax?

Me:  No thanks, I want to import recipes.

I lie in bed, install the new update for my 1 day old program and lo and behold, it now imports recipes from CooksIllustrated.com! 

I’m a huge Cooks Illustrated fan.  Despite subscribing to several other cooking magazines, I only cook from Cook’s because I love their premise of  trying to make the perfect “whatever” using science and testing.  Every now and then I don’t love their definition of perfection, i.e. as New Englanders, they like their fruit desserts tarter than I do.  But I just add more sugar and voila—deliciousness.

I own every issue of the magazine.  AND, when they offered 50% off a year’s subscription to the website, I signed up with the goal of copying more recipes for easy access from my computer.

Now that I can import them???  I’m a maniac.

I still have to work, cook, take care of kids and fulfill all my other working mom/wife/friend/volunteer coordinator for Beauty and the Beast responsibilities, but you know what I’ll be doing every free minute for who knows how long. . .

Importing.


Send me your favorite recipes/urls and I'll import them into MacGourmet and try them sometime!


White Vegetable Lasagne


Our goal was to taste like Stouffers, only more healthy.  Ren says he wishes there was more sauce so it'd be more creamy.  

• White Sauce
• 3 ouncesParmesan, grated
• 4 ouncesRomano Cheese, grated
• 4 tablespoonsButter
• 7 tablespoonsFlour
• 4 cups Milk, 1%
• 6 teaspoonGarlic cloves, minced
• 9 oz. No-Boil Lasagne Noodles
• Cheese Filling
• ¼ cup Basil, minced
• 1 cup Red Pepper, diced
• 8 ouncesNeufchatel Cheese
• 15 oz. Low fat Ricotta Cheese
• Vegetable Filling
• 1 tbsp. Canola Oil
• 2 cup onions, diced small
• 1 cup carrots, shredded
• 10 ounceschopped broccoli, frozen, defrosted and squeezed
• 10 ounceschopped spinach, frozen, defrosted and squeezed
• 8 ouncesCremini Mushroom, sliced
• 3 tsp. Garlic cloves, minced
• Salt
• Pepper
• 8 ounces Part Skim Mozarella Cheese, shredded
• Topping
• ½ cup Panko Bread Crumbs
• ½ cup Parmesan, grated

1.Ricotta Filling: 1. Mix Ricotta, cream cheese until cream cheese is smooth and incorporated. 2. Add red pepper, basil 3. Salt and pepper to taste.

2.Vegetable Filling: 1. Saute Mushrooms in 2 tsp of salted canola oil over medium high heat. Do not stir, let brown on one side before stirring. 2. When mushrooms are browned, add onion, saute until soft ad browned, 3. Add carrots, broccoli and spinach. 4. Press 3 cloves garlic into vegetables 5. Salt and pepper to taste. Note: If your kids hate mushrooms--can saute them and remove, put over half the lasagne.

3.White Sauce: 1. Melt Butter over medium heat, add flour, stir until bubbly 2. Add milk and stir until thickened. 3. Add minced garlic, romano and parmesan. 4. Salt and pepper to taste

4.Panko Topping: 1. Mix panko and parmesan together

5.Assembling the Lasagne: 1. Spoon a cup of sauce on bottom of an 11X15 inch pan. Lay lasagne noodles on top. 2. Spread half the vegetables on top of noodles 3. Spread half the ricotta cheese mixture on top of veggies 4. Sprinkle half the mozzarella cheese on top of ricotta 5. Spoon a cup of sauce on top 6. Repeat 7. Lay last lasagne layer on top 8. Spoon last cup of sauce on top 9. Cover with foil 10. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes 11. Uncover, sprinkle panko/parmesan topping, bake another 10 minutes. 12. If not browned, broil until top is golden brown 13. Let cool 10 minutes, cut and serve Not my lasagne--but it looks similar