Health for life

I never made lasagna until this winter.

I don’t remember the order of events – it had something to do with me coming across a delicious tofu ricotta recipe. It had even more to do with looking for meal ideas that were healthy, easy, cheap, and leftover-friendly for kitchen adventures with my cooking-averse guy. (This path of making cooking less scary, it is a long one.) Ultimately, we ended up with no-boil noodles, jarred sauce, a bowlful of tofu, and a lot of deliciousness.

Lasagna! It’s amazing! Even for cooking-averse boyfriend and lactose-averse me!

Even in the island of warmth that is wintertime kitchen, I was thinking ahead to summer. Wouldn’t it be awesome, I gushed to my probably not-as-excited-about-this boyfriend, if we replaced the noodles with slices of grilled vegetables?! Like, eggplant and zucchini? Sliced real thin ,like noodles, and broiled? I don’t even love eggplant, but OMG, that would be so good!

I was probably met with an Uh huh… sure. But I would not be daunted. I held to my dream through the end of winter, through the veggie-less early warmth of spring, through the first months at the farmers market, the lettuce and berries and asparagus. Ramps? Whatever. Give me midsummer vegetables and long-dreamed of lasagna!

Finally, a few weeks ago, piles of zucchini started showing up at the greenmarket. We’ll be sick of them by the end of summer, but those first green squash meant I was almost there.

A couple of weeks later came the eggplants. Finally! I filled my bag, hit the supermarket, and turned on my oven.

This was a few weeks ago. Remember, in the middle of that month-long heat wave? Yeah, that was awesome. But I did not care because, A) I had become a little consumed by my dream of a delectable, noodleless lasagna, and B) it was DELICIOUS.

Sure, I burned some zucchini. And sure, my apartment was just about as hot as my oven, but there it was: a scrumptious, saucy, rich and satisfying lasagna. No grains. No gluten. No dairy. Just veggies and tofu and some alchemy.

(When I set out to recreate it this weekend, my oven stopped sparking, and they’re coming to fix it tomorrow, so I don’t have a picture, but I promise it’s pretty. What I do have is three pounds of sliced, prepped eggplant wrapped up in my fridge. I should probably sauté them tonight or something. Also, the weather’s calmed down so this isn’t quite such a crazy-person endeavor anymore.)

The recipe isn’t nearly as labor-intensive as the number of steps implies. The tofu ricotta takes just a few minutes to put together, and it and the grilled veggies can be prepped in advance. The rest of the work is just layering sauce, veggies, and tofu, and you’ll be done with that before the oven’s even preheated. Plus, this makes delicious office leftovers, and can easily be doubled for a larger pan.

When you put it in the oven, hide out in a cooler room while it bakes. Trust me, it is very, very worth it. Even my carnivore boyfriend agrees. Tofu and all.

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If this recipe appeals to you, you might also enjoy:

• Baked Eggplant with Mushroom-Tomato Sauce
• Eggplant Mini-Pizzas
• Fresh Tomato Lasagna

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Noodleless Veggie Lasagna
Serves 4
Note: Unfortunately, we don’t have a picture for this one. The following photo is from a site called Living in the Real World (which you should visit!), because it’s the closest we could find. We hope they forgive us.


For the Tofu Basil Ricotta:
1 lb firm tofu, pressed
2 T lemon juice
2 T olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
¼ t salt
¼ cup nutritional yeast flakes
Large handful fresh basil leaves, chopped
Dash black pepper
Dash red pepper (optional, but tasty)

For the lasagna:
1 24 oz jar (~ 3 cups) of your favorite pasta sauce
1 large eggplant
3 medium zucchini
Olive oil or cooking spray
Salt

1) Make a batch of tofu basil ricotta. Stash that in the fridge.

2) Slice eggplant and zucchini lengthwise in thin, even strips. 1/4”-1/2” thick is good. (This is a great time to own a mandolin.)

3) Salt the eggplant and let sit in a colander for 30 minutes. Rinse and pat dry.

4) If you have a grill, lightly coat the slices with oil, sprinkle with salt, and grill.

4a) If you don’t have a grill, crank up your broiler. Cover your broiler tray or a cookie sheet with aluminum foil; spray with cooking spray or spread a little olive oil. Lay out your veggie strips in a single layer; spray with oil and sprinkle with salt. Broil until browned but not burned, flipping midway. 5-30 minutes, depending on your oven. (NOTE: This will vary WIDELY from oven to oven, so its best to keep an eye on things.) Repeat until all the veggies are cooked. Let cool a bit, at least so you can handle them. Or rigerate until you’re ready for the next bit.

5) Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly grease an 8x8 (or so) baking dish with olive oil.

6) Assemble:

• Pour a thin layer of tomato sauce over the dish, spreading evenly.
• Lay strips of zucchini to make an even layer on top off the sauce.
• Add another thin layer of sauce.
• Spoon in half of tofu ricotta mixture, using your fingers to spread it in an even layer.
• Top with sauce.
• Lay down a layer of eggplant.
• Another layer of sauce.
• Spoon in the rest of the ricotta, spreading into a layer.
• Top with sauce.
• Top with a layer of zucchini (add any eggplant you have left).
• Cover with the last of the sauce.

7) Bake 20-30 minutes, until heated through and the sauce is looking thicker. If the top starts to get dark, cover with aluminum foil.

8) Let sit 10 minutes before serving.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, Protein, and Price Per Serving
327 calories, 17.4g fat, 10.4g fiber, 19.6g protein, $1.90

Calculations
1 lb firm tofu: 365 calories, 22g fat, 5.8g fiber, 39.8g protein, $1.69
2 T lemon juice: 8 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.33
2 T olive oil, plus for greasing pan: 315 calories, 35g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.10
1 clove garlic: 4 calories, 0g fat, 0.1g fiber, 0.2g protein, $0.02
¼ t salt: 0 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.01
¼ cup nutritional yeast flakes: 107 calories, 1.3g fat, 6.7g fiber, 12g protein, $0.74
large handful fresh basil leaves: 9 calories, 0.3g fat, 0.6g fiber, 1.3g protein, $0.50
dash black pepper: 0 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.02
dash red pepper: 0 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.01
1 24 oz jar of pasta sauce (~3 c): 270 calories, 9g fat, 3g fiber, 12g protein, $2.15
1 large eggplant: 132 calories, 1g fat, 18.5g fiber, 5.5g protein, $0.75
3 medium zucchini: 94 calories, 1.1g fat, 6.5g fiber, 7.1g protein, $1.25
TOTAL: 1307 calories, 69.8g fat, 41.4g fiber, 78.4g protein, $7.59
PER SERVING (TOTAL/4): 327 calories, 17.4g fat, 10.4g fiber, 19.6g protein, $1.90

Since freshman year of college, I’ve had approximately 15,000 roommates. Some are still my best friends, favorite people, and life partners. Others smoked crazy things too late at night. One remains the only unrelated adult I’ve ever yelled at. (Surprise! It was over the dishes.)

Whether you’re fresh out of university or shacking up with your significant other for the first time, living with other people has multitudinous benefits. It can save everyone involved a ton of cash. It can be a social opportunity, cultural experience, and culinary education. It can keep you from being plain lonely.

But if you’re not caul, it can also be a terrifying descent into a cohabitational hell, in which anger and discomfort become facts of everyday life. Living with the dishes guy? Was kind of like that.

The center of roommate karma is inevitably the kitchen. Maintain a zen-like equilibrium there, and your time together will be peaceful and harmonious. Forget to buy paper towels for the third week in a row, and you could find a severed goldfish head on your pillow.

That’s why it’s important to discuss food, money, and galley-related issues up front. It puts you on the same page, sets a precedent for the future, and prevents misunderstanding down the line. So, be open with your wants and needs. Ask plenty of questions. And remember the two most important things about living with anyone new:

• Don’t be afraid to speak up. If your roommate isn’t doing her dishes and/or owes you money for olive oil, tell her. You can assert yourself and still be considered a nice person.
• Don’t be a jerk. You’re sharing this room with others, and should always take their feelings into consideration. Play nice, do your part, and don’t make fun of Bob’s vegan macaroni and cheese.

With those ideas in the back of your head, the ensuing discussion should be easy. For erence, here are a few good areas to touch on, along with a ton of pertinent questions.

1) FOOD

First and foremost, you and your roommate(s) have to feed yourselves using actual food. Broaching the edibles topic could set the tone for the rest of your talk, not to mention the rest of your lease. Tread caully, be thorough and kind, and ask:

• Will you share food? Will you share everything or just staples? Which staples?
• Will you share cooking responsibilities? How will you split the job?
• When will you cook? Should you set up a schedule? What meals will you eat at home?
• Does anyone have dietary restrictions, allergies, or ethical issues?
• Will any food be off limits? (ex: If there’s a peanut allergy in the house, it could be best to avoid ‘em altogether.)

2) EQUIPMENT

Once you have food, you need ways to serve it. Your requirements could vary wildly, based on your diet and/or affinity for cooking. Plan ahead, use this checklist for guidance, and ask:

• What kitchen equipment do you already own? Is it in good shape?
• What do you need to buy? Where should you buy it?
• Do you have any doubles (ex: two toasters)? Do you need the extra? If not, what can you do with it?
• Who will keep new purchases (microwave, blender, etc.) if/when you move out?
• Is there room to fit everything? (See: Storage.)

3) MONEY

Here comes the hard part. Beyond rent, you’ll probably spend most of your apartment-apportioned cash on food and kitchen supplies. Splitting the bills can be tricky, and payment itself even harder. Stay positive and ask:

• How will pay for the food you buy jointly? Will you split the bills or alternate months?
• How will you pay for the kitchen necessities (tin foil, dish soap, paper towels, etc.)? What falls under that umbrella term?
• Who will do the actual buying? Will you take turns?
• Will you join a bulk store or CSA? What supermarkets, ethnic markets, and farmer’s markets will you shop at?
• How will you handle coupons, sales, or memberships?
• How will you handle restaurants and take out? Does that go in the budget?

4) STORAGE

Pots, pans, silverware, dishes, and appliances do more than look pretty: they take up space. And when square feet are at a minimum, having a storage strategy is vital. Consider your cabinets and ask:

• Where will you store the food? How about the dishes? And cleaning equipment?
• Will you split storage? Who gets which rigerator shelf? What about the pantry and freezer?
• Do you have enough room for bulk purchases?
• Is there a way you can easily add extra shelves, cabinets, or pot racks?
• Are you allowed to throw things out without permission, if it looks like it went bad? (Note: This comes up more than you think. It’s like a science experiment in there sometimes.)

5) CLEANING

Though dishes are 90% of the issue, cleaning goes deeper than washing your coffee cup. In every kitchen, there are counters to wipe, floors to mop, and microwaves to liberate of caked spaghetti sauce. If this is left to one person - or worse, not done at all – things will very messy, both dirt-wise and relationship-wise.

• How quickly will you have your dishes done? Will you split the responsibility? How?
• How often will you light clean (counters, sweeping, etc.) the kitchen? Who will take care of this?
• How often will you deep clean (oven, rigerator, etc.) the kitchen? Who will take care of this?
• Who will take out the garbage? How will you handle recycling?
• Who will take care of repair issues as they come up? Are you handy? Will you be the point person for the landlord?
• Who will keep track of and replace cleaning tools (Lysol, sponges, etc.)?
• Should you create a cleaning schedule?

If you address all of these questions up front and periodically revisit them through the course of your cohabitation, you and your roommates/loved ones can enjoy a sparkling, relatively stress-free household. What’s more, you can apply the concepts to almost every shared room in the house, whether it’s the den or the shed you use to make illegal moonshine.

Readers, what about you? Do you have any roommate rules to follow, especially in the kitchen? How about horror stories? You know we loves us some o’ those guys.

(Excellent letter photo from Passive Aggressive Notes.)
_http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/2012/03/roommate-living-your-food-kitchen-and.html

A healthy cook’s kitchen is much like any other. There are probably some pots, a few pans, a spatula, and, mysteriously, 48,000 whisks. There might be a chef’s knife among the cutlery, and a splotch of tomato sauce on the floor. Somewhere, maybe behind the spice rack or in a rarely used thermos, lies a king-sized bag of guilty pleasure M&Ms.

However, upon deeper inspection, there are differences between the two galleys. Foremost among the cookware lies a large nonstick skillet. Claiming places of prominence in the utensil drawer are a zester and pack of wooden skewers. Bizarrely, there’s a food scale in the liquor cabinet. (Because seriously, where else do you put that thing?)

Lighter cooking doesn’t have to involve a lot of pricey additional gear, but there are a few pieces of inexpensive, multi-purpose equipment that can undoubtedly make the venture a bit easier. These are my ten picks, garnered from eons and epochs and ages (Note: a coupla years) of healthy-type meal prep. Some would appear in any well-stocked kitchen. Others are specific to us nutritionally-minded folks.

Readers, what would you add? What would you leave off? Aren’t microplane graters the best? Seriously, I could run away to Tahiti with one.

1) Large nonstick skillet with lid
I love Calphalon pans, but they require a good amount of oil and butter to prevent food from sticking. On the other hand, my 13-year-old, 12-inch nonstick barely needs any at all. A little dab of olive oil is enough for most veggies and meats. Not to mention, its sheer size is perfect for a plethora of healthy one-dish meals.

2) Pepper grinder
An important part of healthy cooking is creating maximum flavor without adding too much extra fat or too many calories. For this, salt and pepper are absolutely vital. And while there isn’t a huge difference between mass-produced salts, the same isn’t true for their black-n-gray partners. Freshly ground peppercorns are far superior to dusty, pre-ground supermarket pepper, in both taste and intensity. Find a durable, inexpensive, hand-operated grinder online (Amazon is a good place to start) and get cranking.

3) Microplane zester/grater
Along the same lines, a handheld microplane zester is fantastic for upping your flavor factor. Mulched garlic, grated nutmeg, finely shredded parmesan, and rasped citrus all have a place on its resumé, and it’s really fun to hold. Having one makes me feel like Mario Batali. (Note: Minus the hair.)

4) Food scale
Owning a food scale may not seem useful outside a regimented diet, but hear me now and believe me later: they’re spectacular for gauging portion sizes, no matter how you eat. Four ounces of meat can be difficult to eyeball, but stick that baby on a food scale and *poof*, you’re good to go. Plus, scales are great for measuring exact weights for more accurate recipe reproduction. Grab a cheap-o mechanical version, and you’ll never puzzle over half a pound of penne again.

5) Stick blender
Let’s talk about blender explosions. You know the drill: you ladle a few cups of hot soup in for a puree, you hit the “chop” button, and BLAMMO, there’s butternut squash all over your counter, your walls, and *ouch* your now-blistering hand. Don’t worry, sweet reader. A stick blender will make all that badness go away. Spectacular for healthy soups and purees, it does all the work of a regular blender, without the hospital bills. Cleanup is way easier, as well, and bargain buys tend to perform as well as pricier pieces in reviews.

6) Steamer basket
Soggy vegetables are the bane of humanity. Boiling or over-nuking them can have this unfortunate effect. BUT. Imagine chowing down on crisp, tender, colorful vegetables less than five minutes after turning on your stove’s burner. A $10 metal steamer basket will perform this miracle, and cure your cat of lockjaw. (Note: Only one of those last two statements are true.)

7) Food processor
When you think “food processor,” what’s the first image that comes to mind? Is it a 20-cup monster used for commercial baking? Is it an impossible-to-clean leviathan that takes up 70% of your counter space? Is it an airplane propeller? (Er … weirdo.) Never fear, my friends. Essential for light sauces, dips, salsas, pestos, and other flavorful mixtures, these champions of chop can be found small, cheap, and well-made online. A few minutes (seriously, that’s it) of searching will give your knife calluses a much-needed rest.

8) Bulk storage
Whole foods (as opposed to processed ones) are the cornerstone of healthy eating. Frequently, this means cooking and baking with grains, dried beans, lentils, whole-wheat flour, and a multitude of other items that can be purchased cheaper en masse. Subsequently, having convenient, airtight, bug-resistant storage at hand is highly suggested. You don’t have to buy 20-gallon bins or anything, but a few good OXO or Snapware jars can be just the ticket.

9) Skewers
Fast, high-heat methods of cooking like broiling and grilling don’t generally require a boatload of extra cooking oil, which is nice. Usually, you need just enough to keep food from sticking to a grate. Beyond that, skewers are nice to have. Because:

• They make smaller cuts of meat look gigantic.
• They promote even cooking.
• They’re cheap as heck.
• It is proven scientific fact (by me) that everything tastes 200% to 300% better when stuck on a stick. Give a kid a tomato, he’ll throw it at the dog. Put a tomato on a stick, and he’ll ask for seventh helpings.

Note: I use metal skewers, but mah friend Rachel pers wooden. If you buy the latter, be aware they tend to burn at the ends unless you soak ‘em first.

10) Tongs, kitchen shears, and a slow cooker (TIE).
These three items are common to most kitchens, but I’m listing them anyway. Why? Well, I use the first two almost everyday, for everything. The latter is helpful when I’m in a rush and need big portions of light food with little effort. I suspect families might use it pretty frequently, too.

And with that, sweet readers, I leave it to you. Is there anything about this list you’d change? I dare you to comment on it. (MUHAHAHAHA!)

(Photos from Sur La Table [zester], Skillet Cookware [skillet], Amazon [food scale and canister].)

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If you enjoy this piece, you might also quite like:

• Dessert Island Gadgets
• Finding Quality Kitchen Equipment on the Cheap
• Ultimate Guide to Kitchen Equipment