Day 56: Dinner With Satan

Of course, it is only pronounced satan, it is really spelled seitan and it is a popular meat substitute. Still, it makes an eye catching title for the last day of the challenge.

So this is it... The last day of the 8-week challenge. To celebrate this momentous occasion, I made a meatless and low cheese lasagne. It all started at the farmers market this morning when we found a baby Hubbard squash. It weighed just 4 or 5 pounds, as opposed to a full size Hubbard which can weigh upwards of 20 pounds. It is similar in flesh color and texture to butternut squash, but the hull is a light blue/turquoise color. I thought it would make a good filling for the lasagne.

I didn't have the right kind of noodles at home, so we stopped by the grocery store to grab some lasagne noodles. Just across the aisle were the meat substitutes. I have tried several versions (tempeh and tofu to name just two) but have not tried seitan yet. They had an Italian flavor, which seemed like a sign of some sort. Not really, I just want to find a way to refer to the Saturday Night Live sketch..."Could it be, hmmm, Satan?"  You know the one.

The lasagna was tasty but a bit dry. I started with the squash and added a couple of eggs and a small container of ricotta cheese (about 1 1\2 cups for a 15 serving meal), then added about 1/2 cup of almond milk to give it some moisture, but it didn't make much difference. That squash soaked up every bit of moisture and cried out for more. Sadly, I didn't hear its cries. Anyway, I layered tomato sauce and squash on the bottom layer, seitan in the middle layer, sauce and squash in the third layer, and sauce and 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese on the top. Going forward, we will serve it with spaghetti sauce to give it some moisture. It will be fine, because like I said, it tasted great. For dessert, wew had baked Mutzu apples with cinnamon and a tiny bit of Beecher's Flagship cheddar.

Other than that,  my food day was pretty great. I started off at 6 am with PB&J English muffin with a banana. At 10:30, I had a veggie crepe at the market made with spinach, creamy mushroom sauce, greens and an egg. Yum! We also had a pecan sweet potato tart from Grand Central Baking Co. that was pretty good. Finally, at 12:30, we had a Sin Dawg loaf by Dave's Killer Bread. It was this whole grain cinnamon twist thing and was really good. We split it three ways because the lasagna wouldn't be ready until after 3:00.

So, it was a pretty good end to the 8-week challenge. I'll write a day after post for tomorrow, then I think that is it for the blog.

Be happy and healthy!