Easy Gluten-Free Macaroni and Cheese & Meatless Monday Lasagna

Almost all of us are trying to make changes to our lifestyle hoping to lead a healthy and happy life. With new studies coming out, we now know more about the food we eat and what they do to our bodies. For instance, gluten was re-discovered by famous celebrities and a lot of people have stayed away from it. It’s common in bread, pasta, cereals, wheat, beer, and many more. Basically, it’s a naturally occurring protein found in most grains. If you have celiac disease, gluten triggers an adverse reaction in your immune system. However, gluten gets credit for triggering a host of other conditions, including inflammation, allergies, bloating, and many more. This started the gluten-free diet phenomenon.

Along with gluten, meat also got a bad rep in many health-conscious individuals. For one, it is high in saturated fat, which is bad for the body. There are also claims that most meats contain antibiotics and other sorts of chemicals that could also cause a lot of diseases, even cancers. There’s also the environmental impact of producing livestock.

We’re going to help you lead a meatless or gluten-free diet and so we’ve collected two sumptuous recipes you can enjoy any time of the week! These efforts geared towards healthier well-being is becoming the new normal for many of us. While there’s the assurance of health insurance, it pays off if we take care of ourselves early on and avoid getting sick later in life.

Easy Gluten-Free Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients

Original recipe yields 8 servings

10 ounces gluten-free elbow pasta
¼ cup butter
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
¾ teaspoon mustard powder
4 cups milk
¼ cup cornstarch
4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese, divided

Topping:

2 piece (blank)s gluten-free bread slices, toasted and broken into crumbs
1 teaspoon butter, softened
½ teaspoon paprika

First, you need to preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Then prepare a 9×13-inch baking dish, greasing it. Next, boil a large pot of lightly salted water to cook your macaroni. Cook it for about eight minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain and make sure it’s still firm to the bite. For the sauce, melt butter in a saucepan over medium fire. Stir in salt and mustard powder. Then remove it from heat. In a bowl, whisk in milk and cornstarch together then add to the butter mixture. Make sure to mix until everything is incorporated. Return the saucepan to the stove over medium heat, stirring every so often. Wait until sauce thickens to some degree, about five minutes, then remove from heat. Add three cups of cheddar cheese into the sauce, stir until melted. Add the pasta next, mixing them well then pour them into the prepared baking dish. For the toppings, combine one cup of cheddar cheese, gluten-free bread crumbs, one teaspoon butter, and paprika in a bowl. Sprinkle this over the pasta mixture. Bake the macaroni and cheese for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Note: You can use gluten-free pasta in place of elbow macarena and any type of cheese can be used in place of cheddar cheese. Each serving has 521 calories.

Meatless Monday Lasagna

Ingredients

Original recipe yields 8 servings

1 (16 ounce) package dry lasagna noodles
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
4 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided
1 (15 ounce) container part-skim ricotta cheese
½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese, divided
4 ounces silken tofu
2 large eggs
2 large carrots, shredded
2 medium zucchini, diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 medium red bell pepper, diced
1 cup sliced portobello mushrooms
1 ½ (28 ounce) jars pasta sauce
4 ounces fresh baby spinach

First, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit or 190 in Celcius. Cook your lasagna in lightly salted boiling water. Stir occasionally until tender yet firm to the bite, about eight minutes. Then, drain and rinse with cold water. Toss in a tablespoon of oil to prevent them from sticking together. For the white sauce, mix two cups of mozzarella, ricotta, half a cup of parmesan, tofu, and eggs in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine mozzarella and parmesan together. For the read sauce, heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat then add carrots, zucchini, onion, bell pepper, and mushrooms. Saute for about five to seven minutes or until tender. Add pasta sauce and spinach then simmer for about three minutes or until it’s heated through and spinach is wilted to some degree. Assemble them together by lightly coating a baking dish with the red sauce then placing half of the lasagna noodles on top, slightly overlapping each other. Layer next the cheese and tofu mixture, adding half of the red sauce after. Repeat this process with the remaining lasagna noodles. Top with the mozzarella and parmesan mixture. Bake in the oven covered for about 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 20 minutes. Let it rest for about 10 minutes before slicing.

Note: 669 calories per serving