Low Carb Vegetarian Sloppy Joe Casserole .. with picture!

[TaDa!]

I made this cassrole tonight and it was amazing! My dh (high carb meateater) and the two kids (high carb vegetarians) loved it as much as I did!!! The protein sources are cheese, egg and soy proteins! with a good portion of sneaky veggies inside it too ...



Low Carb Vegetarian Sloppy Joe Casserole

4 cups Shredded Zucchini (peeled skin off mine to sneak it past the kids, lol!)
1 10 oz package of Frozen Chopped Spinach
½ teaspoons Salt
3 whole Eggs
½ cups Parmesan Cheese
Black Pepper
2 cups Mozzarella Shreds, Divided in 2 portions
1 cup Cheddar Cheese Shreds, Divided in 2 portions
1 12-oz package of Morningstar Vegetable Crumbles
2T Olive Oil
2 Cups Pasta Sauce (I used Prego Tomato and Onion .. a little carbier than necessary)

Place the shredded zucchini in colander and sprinkle with salt. Let stand for 10 minutes. Squeeze out moisture very well.

Allow the spinach to thaw and also squeeze any water out of it.

Combine the zucchini and the spinach with the eggs, Parmesan, pepper, and half of the mozzarella and cheddar cheese. Press into a greased 13×9-inch baking dish. Bake, uncovered, at 400°F for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, Fry the frozen Morningstar crumbles in 2T of olive oil. When it starts to brown, add tomato sauce and mix to combine. Pour it over the vegetable mixture. Top with the remaining cheddar and mozzarella and bake an additional 20 minutes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

6 Large Servings
373 Calories, 12 net carbs, 24 gm Fat, 26 gm Protein
(You can lower the carb count by using a lower carb pasta sauce than I did)



Pauline

[jodieleigh]

Looks delicious!

[Nigel]

That sounds really good. Thank you for the recipe.

[TaDa!]

It was a big hit in my house and all the zucchini haters in the house were fooled .. not a single one guessed .. or asked ... too busy eating, lol!

On the side there is one of my (and their) favorite ways to prepare green beans. Use fresh or frozen even!! Simply place in a pan with maybe two tablespoons of dried rosemary and water. Now boil until that color green. Serve with a sprinkle of garlic salt and either butter or the butter sprays (like Olivio) that are very low - to no- calories.

[Nigel]

I never thought about using rosemary on green beans. What a good idea. Thank you for the green bean directions too. I eat green beans all the time.

[TaDa!]

Originally Posted by Nigel

I never thought about using rosemary on green beans. What a good idea. Thank you for the green bean directions too. I eat green beans all the time.

my mother's secret... shhhhhh don't tell ...

[saltnpepper]

Looks soooo good. Thanks for sharing.

[srbtennispro]

We tried this tonight. Used fresh spinach, didn't cook as long.Thought it was really good. Seemed more like a lasagna/pasta sauce. Perhaps it didn't sit up with the eggs because we didn't cook as long. Regardless, really good, thanks.

[ccol4him]

Looks good .I might try it next week-already got my groceries for this week.

[TaDa!]

I am making this again today, lol! It is nice since I will be out of the house til 7:20 .. I can waltz in and nuke it for everyone! I have a few nights like that a week where we are out and about and not a lot of time for food prep right before meals ..

Srbtennispro .. two things come to mind. The fresh spinach may have had too much water in it. It would have needed to be pre-cooked and then had the water rung out of it for it to work with the eggs. And, the cooking time for the egg part probably needed to be longer than you gave it.

Getting all the water out of the veggies is pretty critical (salting the zuke and letting it sit, and wringing out the spinach) in any egg or quiche-like recipe .. just some thoughts!



Pauline

[nikki]

Originally Posted by TaDa!

1 12-oz package of Morningstar Vegetable Crumbles

Ahhh, this stuff is the food of the Gods!
I am going to try this recipe when I get to maintenance!

[TaDa!]

it would be perfectly fine on OWL too 12 carbs for a casserole with a lot of veg in it, is very low imho

.. I just saw that you are on medifast, so that's very low calories, right? so now the maintenance thought makes perfect sense!!!! I do take note of calories but lost weight on around 1600 so I could easily afford a square of casserole ..

[nikki]

My plan is a modified MediFast. I switched to using the MediFast products as a supplement to my current, self-styled, vegetarian low-carb diet, since MF wasn't low-carb enough for my liking and I hit an "unbreakable" plateau rather early. I am finally getting close to my goal so I plan to be really careful about my carbs for the last several weeks leading up to New Years. Don't want to sabotage myself!

[TaDa!]

Made this last night with the Yves "Meatless ground" instead (from the produce cold case where they keep the tofu) since my market was out of the morningstar - it was just as fabulous, lol!

I found that there was much more water in the shredded zucchini to wring out than usual this time .. must depend on the crop .. anyhow, turned out great - kids did not even notice the difference (which is saying a lot! they are pickyyyy).

[MargD]

Thanks for reviving this thread. I must have missed it the first time. I'll probably make this over the weekend to have for dinner next week.

[TaDa!]

Marge, be sure to really really squeeze out the spinach!! and the salted zucchini .. the recipe will fail without doing that, lol!

I am actually making two of these - one tomorrow for a holiday dinner (for the vegetarians) and one on Monday for a potluck event for a weightloss group. I am going to use the yves product again

[MargD]

I made this yesterday to serve for dinner on Tuesday. At the last minute, I cut a small piece to take to work for lunch today (I felt entitled, as the cook!). So good! Thanks for posting this.

I used my potato ricer to squeeze the liquid from the zucchini and spinach. It does a great job and I was glad to find another purpose for it, since I no longer eat potatoes.

[TaDa!]

ooh .. sounds like I need a potato ricer, lol!! Now I have to look that up.

My whole one got eaten at the potluck and I had about 8 requests for the recipe, lol!

[Sherril]

I have a potato ricer, thanks for the idea. I use frozen artichoke hearts a lot and that would really get all the liquid out of them.

[MargD]

I wish I could take credit for the potato ricer idea. I read about it somewhere, but I don't remember where.

I did a Google search and I didn't see any ricers that seem as large as mine. For this recipe, I might have been able to squeeze all the spinach and zucchini at the same time, thought I didn't.

[MargD]

Pauline,

I'm curious about the carb content of your pasta sauce. I guess I'm wondering what you consider "a little carbier than necessary".

The pasta sauce I used had 3 grams of effective net carbs. I could have gotten lower, but I thought 3 wasn't bad and I had heard good things about the brand (Rao's).

[TaDa!]

lol Marg I am such a baaaaaad girl, lol! 3 gm is perfect - all tomatoes will have natural sugar - the one I am using is very high in added sugar .. like 10 gms, lol! and I cannot recommend it to anyone here, lol ..it is a tradeoff to get my kids to eat my concoctions!