Roasted Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Bisque Soup

Fall has arrived and lately I’ve been craving butternut squash. To satisfy that craving, I tried my hand at a new soup this past weekend that incorporated both a hearty butternut squash and a couple sweet potatoes. Combined, the two vegetables make a high-vitamin, fiber-dense dish that’s also very tasty!

Ingredients:

• 1 large butternut squash (1,050 gm. cooked weight*)
• 146 gm. yellow onion, chopped
• 9 gm. (1 ½ tsp.) of minced garlic
• 2 tbs. of butter
• 709 gm. sweet potatoes/yams, peeled and cut into chunks
• 907 gm. (32 oz.) Swanson’s Certified Organic Chicken Broth
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
• ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper

Directions:

• Preheat oven at 375°
• Cut the butternut squash in half; seed it and place skin-side down on a cookie sheet
• Bake squash for 60 minutes
• When squash has approximately 15-20 minutes left to bake, melt butter in large stockpot
• Add onion, garlic and sweet potatoes; cook on medium-high stirring frequently
• Remove squash, allow to cool before removing skin and hard stems

*This is when I measured the butternut squash, which explains the “cooked” weight listed above.

• Add squash and broth to stockpot, bring to a boil
• Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 40 minutes
• Using a ladle or slotted spoon, transfer portions of soup to a food processor and blend until smooth before adding back to the pot; repeat 2-3 times depending on your preference for chunkiness

Yield: Approximately six 1 ½ cup servings (365 gm. each)
Phe: 196 mg.
Calories: 210

Since I’m 34 weeks pregnant and already incorporating greater amounts of phe into my diet, this recipe was purposely made with the intention of being slightly higher in phe. However, you can easily adapt this recipe for a version that is lower in phe by using a 32 oz. package of Swanson’s Certified Organic Vegetable Broth instead of the chicken broth. The adjusted nutritional values would be 170 mg. and 210 calories per 1 ½ cup serving.

Happy fall, y’all!

–NM

Green Pepper Soup

Here’s a super easy, one-pot dish that’s become a favorite of mine for making in bulk and taking it for lunch during the work week.

Ingredients:

• 28 oz. can tomato sauce
• 28 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 275 gm. chopped green pepper
• 170 gm. chopped onion
• 2 pks. G. Washington brown seasoning

Directions:

• Combine all ingredients in a large stock pot
• Bring to a boil
• Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender (approximately 1 hour)

Yield: 8 (1 cup) servings
Phe: 114 mg
Calories: 73

Add low-protein pasta or low-protein rice for more volume. Just adjust phe accordingly.

-NM

Roasted Garlic Vegetables and Penne

This is an adaptation of a recipe that was recently served to my entire family over the Memorial Day weekend. It originally included smoked sausage, but that was obviously omitted for my portion. I liked its flavor so much I made it again last night (and probably will again this evening).

Ingredients:

• 116 gm zucchini, cubed
• 74 gm bell pepper, cubed (used approximately ½ red pepper and ½ yellow pepper for color)
• 28 gm red onion, coarsely chopped
• 58 gm cherry tomatoes, halved
• 23 gm garlic cloves (approximately 2 cloves)
• 2 tbs. olive oil
• 93 gm Aproten Penne
• 2 tbs. butter
• 2 tbs. white wine
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375ºF. Mix all of the vegetables, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper well in a large mixing bowl. Spread the vegetable mixture evenly on a large sheet pan.

Roast the vegetables on the middle oven rack for 10 minutes. Stir vegetables and place back on the middle oven rack for another 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the package directions, reserving ½ cup of the cooking liquid.

* Since the pasta will be cooked again briefly with the roasted vegetables and other ingredients added, you may want to cut off a few minutes of the recommended cooking time in order to avoid mushy noodles.

Remove the vegetables and set the pan aside. Remove the roasted garlic cloves from the roasting pan, smash to a paste with a fork and add to the reserved pasta cooking liquid. Return the pasta to the pot it was cooked in over medium-high heat. Add the butter, wine, reserved cooking water and vegetables to the pasta. Stir the pasta gently and cook until the liquid is about ¾ absorbed. Serve immediately, adding more salt and pepper if needed.

I’m listing this as one serving; however, if you’re making this for kids with limited appetites, you could probably stretch this a bit further. I’ve also listed separate phe and calorie counts in case you’d like to use a different kind of low-protein pasta or even experiment with imitation rice.

Yield: 1 serving (adult size)
Phe: 181 mg (155.5 mg without Penne)
Calories: 884 (or 554 without Penne)

–NM

Garlic Roasted Baby Bella Mushrooms

Here’s a flavorful and easy side dish I came across on Pinterest. I adapted the recipe slightly by using baby portabella mushrooms and also did the math to figure out phenylalanine and calorie numbers.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. pre-sliced baby portabella mushrooms (approx. 452 gm)
• 2-3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 3-5 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 1/4 tsp. dried thyme
• 1-2 pinches cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp. salt, or to taste
• 1/4 tsp. freshly cracked pepper, or to taste
• 2 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F. Rinse the mushrooms, if necessary, and set aside. Combine the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, thyme, cayenne, salt and pepper in a bowl and whisk until evenly blended. Toss the mushrooms in this mixture until they are evenly coated. Place them into a 7×11″ baking dish and make sure the mushrooms are spread out in a single layer. Roast the mushrooms for about 25 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle with the parsley and serve.

Yield: 3 servings
Phe: 124 mg per serving; 372 mg entire recipe
Protein: 3.5 gm per serving
Exchanges: 8.3 per serving
Calories: 144 per serving; 432 entire recipe *
Fat: 11.8 gm per serving

* Based on 2.5 tbs. olive oil and 4 cloves of garlic

After making this a couple times, I’ve served it along with Cambrooke Foods Pierogi or if I still have a good amount a phe left in the day, I’ll use it as a side dish to a baked potato.

–NM

Savory Broccoli Casserole – PKU-style!

First stuffing and now casserole? I must be on a comfort-foods kick! At any rate, here is an easy recipe for low-protein broccoli casserole. I estimate only 20 minutes of prep-time followed by 45 minutes of baking.

Ingredients

• 3 tbs. butter, 1 tbs. melted and set aside
• 60 gm. chopped onion
• 10 oz. package chopped frozen broccoli
• 1/2 of 10.75 oz. can (152 gm.) condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1/2 c Daiya Cheddar Shreds
• 1/2 c (120 gm.) light mayonnaise
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• black pepper to taste
• ½ c (40 gm.) low-protein garlic bread crumbs
• 1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté onion until golden. In a mixing bowl, stir together onion, broccoli (no need to thaw), soup, cheese, mayonnaise, garlic salt, pepper, seasoned salt, and lemon juice. Once thoroughly blended, transfer mixture to 2-quart casserole dish. Evenly spread low-protein garlic crumbs over top and drizzle with remaining tablespoon of melted butter. Bake uncovered in preheated oven for 45 minutes, until heated through and browned on top.

Yield: 4 servings at 175 gm each
Phe: 185 mg per serving; 739 mg entire recipe
Exchanges: 12.3 per serving
Protein: 6 gm per serving
Calories: 327 per serving; 1,308 entire recipe
Fat: 30 gm per serving

On the surface, the four servings may not look like there is enough to satisfy. If that’s the case, add more volume by mixing one serving with 1/3 cup of Cambrooke Foods’ Short Grain Rice. Cook the imitation rice according to the package instructions before mixing.

Enjoy!

–NM

Low-protein stuffing

It is well into the 10 o’clock hour the night before Thanksgiving and I have just spent all day cooking a series of low-protein recipes in anticipation of the big holiday. Almost all of the dishes I made were borrowed recipes; however, I did try my hand at making an original low-protein version of stuffing.

Granted there are other options out there. A Facebook friend of mine made Glutino Gluten Free Stuffing and reported that it tasked pretty good. Also, Virginia Schuett’s “Apples to Zucchini” includes a recipe for Simple Bread Dressing that uses a loaf of low-protein bread. However, if you do not have enough time to bake a fresh loaf—or can’t find a local store that carries Glutino products—here’s a simplified recipe for low-protein stuffing that tastes pretty dang authentic:

Ingredients:

2 Cambrooke Foods Artisan Bread
140 gm chopped onion
200 gm chopped celery
3 tbs butter
186 gm of Swanson vegetable broth
1 ½ tsp of poultry seasoning

Directions:
After defrosting the Cambrooke Artisan Bread overnight, slice the rolls with a bread knife into one-inch thick slices. Place on a baking sheet and broil for 2 minutes. Flip slices of bread and broil for another 2 minutes. Remove toasted bread from the oven and place in a large mixing bowl to cool.

Meantime, melt the butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and celery, cook until onion is clear and celery is al dente. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Once sliced bread has cooled, use hands to tear and break into small bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle with poultry seasoning and toss until coated. Scrape the sautéed vegetable mixture onto seasoned bread and mix. Next, drizzle vegetable broth onto bread and vegetables until evenly coated; pausing the pour to toss the bread as needed.

Transfer stuffing to a casserole dish, cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Yield: 4 servings
Phe: 42.8 mg per serving; 171.5 entire recipe
Exchanges: 2.9 per serving
Protein: 1.3 gm
Calories: 297 per serving; 1,186.5 entire recipe
Fat: 11.8 gm per serving

By the way, special thanks to my mother who helped troubleshoot this recipe in a practice round earlier this week. Love you, Mom!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

–NM

Low-Protein Nachos

Fall is here and in the Merrifield household, that also means football! As a Pittsburgh-native and a University of Tennessee graduate, my college/NFL loyalties are split between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Even though we may not always win, getting everyone together for good food and drink is always a plus. So with this being the first football season during which I am following the low-protein diet, my husband and I have been brainstorming a few PKU-friendly party foods. Here’s a recipe for low-protein nachos recently concocted by my armature chef hubby.

Ingredients

• 2 low-protein tortilla wraps (Cambrooke Foods)
• 115 gm of bell peppers (cooked weight measurement)
• 1 tbs canola oil
• 85 gm of salsa style canned tomatoes
• ¼ c Daiya cheddar shreds

Directions

To make tortilla chips from the wraps, follow the directions on Cambrooke Foods’ website.  Their recipe calls for six wraps, but for the purpose of this dish, I used two. If you wanted to make a larger serving, you could easily increase the number of wraps.

While the tortilla chips are cooking, sauté the peppers in the canola oil until slightly browned and tender. Since my husband was making his own high-protein version of nachos, he browned his ground beef in a separate dish and planned to split the peppers between the two of us.

Once the chips have been pan-fried and cooled on a paper towel, place them in an oven-safe dish, zero-out their weight on gram scale, and top with 115 grams of peppers. Zero-out the scale again and add 85 grams of the salsa style canned tomatoes. Top the nachos with a ¼ cup of the dairy-free cheddar shreds from Daiya Foods and place in the oven. Broil until the cheese has melted, remove and serve. Careful because the dish will be very hot!

Yield: 1 [adult] serving

Phe: 159 mg

Calories: 497

Feel free to experiment too! Add onions or olives if you like. You can also top the nachos with shredded lettuce, or if you have a bit more tolerance in phe, add a serving of guacamole. The 100-calorie snack-packs from Wholly Guacamole are perfect for one-time servings. Enjoy!

–NM

PKU-Friendly Sweet Potato Casserole with Bananas

This recipe is an adaptation of one I recently saw demonstrated on one of our local weekend morning news shows. Using roasted bananas provides a natural sweetener and also adds fiber and potassium into the PKU diet. With a few slight changes to the ingredients and some gram-scale measurements, I was also able to figure out the amount of phe per serving. In addition to being an awesomely flavorful comfort food perfect for the approaching holiday season, this recipe yields enough servings to feed the entire family. Here’s how you make it:

Ingredients

• 6 pounds (about 6) sweet potatoes
  (approximately 1,480 grams when measured after being mashed)
• 2 ripe bananas, skins on
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup Michele’s Butter Pecan Syrup
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups of miniature marshmallows
• 2 tablespoons of brown sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Peel the sweet potatoes, cut into large chunks and boil until soft (try piercing with a fork to determine when done).

Meanwhile, roast the bananas, with the skins on, for 15 minutes. Transfer potatoes to a large mixing bowl and pulse with a hand mixer until whipped. When the bananas are cool enough to handle, slice the end opposite from the stem with a sharp knife.

While holding the bananas from the stem, squeeze the contents into the bowl of mashed sweet potatoes. Add the butter and maple syrup, mix until smooth. Add the cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and salt; mix to combine. Transfer to a shallow baking pan and smooth out the surface with a spatula. Top potato-banana mixture with marshmallows and evenly sprinkled brown sugar. Bake at 300 degrees F until heated through, about 20 minutes. For the last minute or so of baking time, switch your oven to broil for that campfire roasted marshmallow consistency.

Couple of things to note: I selected Michele’s Butter Pecan Syrup for two reasons: 1.) it is completely phe free and 2.) I really wanted to add butter-roasted pecans, but as we all know, that’s a PKU no-no. If you decide to use a different brand of syrup, be sure to adjust the phe as needed. Also, feel free to have fun with the toppings. Instead of marshmallows, you may want to try raisins for a healthier option.

Yield: 8 servings
Phe: Entire recipe = 1,340 mg; 167.5 mg/serving
Protein: 3.2 gm per serving
Exchanges: 11.2 per serving
Calories: Entire recipe = 2,616 calories; 327 calories/serving
Fat: 6.2 gm per serving

* Simply divide the casserole into 10 servings for fewer mg of phe/serving.

–NM

How to save money with a PKU herb garden

An article published in the March 2013 edition of Genetics in Medicine found that 50 percent of states provide either no coverage of medical formula and modified special low-protein products or only partial coverage of these required PKU therapies.

Those of us living with PKU do not need a reminder about just how expensive it is to remain on-diet; however, there is certainly a bit of vindication whenever a peer-reviewed, academic journal reiterates this point. Beyond specially formulated low-protein products, families dealing with PKU are often advised to experiment with herbs and spices. The idea being that some creativity in the kitchen can lead to flavorful meals that people with PKU will actually want to eat!

Yet, I have found that even buying fresh herbs on a regular basis can be costly. Plus, you generally have to purchase them in large quantities and then you are left tossing the left over herbs when they have eventually spoiled.

The solution? I recently started my own PKU herb garden and it features a handful of herbs that I have used most over the past three months: cilantro, basil and rosemary (and for good measure, I’ve also included two cherry tomato plants).

Here is a basic cost comparison (tax not included) for purchasing herbs at a local grocery store versus growing your own:

Herbs at Grocery Store	Herbs at Home Improvement Store
Cilantro, $1.99/0.66 oz	Cilantro, $2/plant
Basil, $1.99/0.66 oz	Basil, $2/plant
Rosemary, $1.99/0.66 oz	Rosemary, $2/plant
TOTAL: $5.97	TOTAL: $6

There you have it; only a $0.03 difference for the initial upfront cost. What’s significant is you’ll have to pay approximately $6 each time you buy these three herbs at the grocery store whereas you’ll pay $6 one time for plants that will last you all growing season!

Of course, there is the added cost of potting soil and a planter, but you could also experiment by planting your own garden directly in the ground.

Have you also started a PKU herb garden? Perhaps you’ve planted more than just herbs. Either way, let me know how green your thumb is!

–NM

Garlic Roasted Eggplant Spaghetti Sauce

During this long, President’s Day weekend, I was looking for ways to shake-up the spaghetti and marinara I seemed to be eating all the time. I wanted to try something new and eggplant is something I did not have a lot of experience cooking. If you have never cooked with eggplant, try not to get freaked out by the brown seeds. Those are normal. And it is important to extract as much liquid from the eggplant when you press it between the paper towels. This will provide you with the best roasted flavor and texture as possible.

Low-protein Garlic Roasted Eggplant Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 med-large eggplant, unpeeled and cut into large chunks
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 cup Classico Traditional Sweet Basil pasta sauce

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
• Place eggplant in colander, sprinkle evenly with salt and let stand for approximately 2 hours.
• Rinse salt from eggplant and press firmly between triple-layered paper towels.
• Toss eggplant and olive oil together in a large mixing bowl.
• Sprinkle garlic powder on top of eggplant/olive oil mixture, making sure to coat evenly.
• Spread in single layer on large baking sheet.
• Roast for approximately 30 minutes or until tender and brown. Stir every 10 minutes.
• Allow eggplant to cool when done.
• Separate into two, ½ cup servings (It is important to measure the eggplant after it is cooked because the size and weight of eggplant changes dramatically after it has been cooked).
• Set one serving aside for sauce.
• Store the second serving in the refrigerator until ready to eat at a later time.
• Toss remaining ½ cup of roasted eggplant and 1 cup of pasta sauce into a sauce pan on medium-high heat.
• Once sauce mixture is warm, serve on top of low-protein Aproten Spaghetti noodles.

Yield: 1 serving, plus an additional serving of roasted eggplant for later
Phe: 129 mg (sauce & eggplant only; add additional phe for low-protein pasta)

My oven seemed to run a little hot for 500 degrees and I did not really need to roast my eggplant for a full 30 minutes. In fact, I would venture to say that mine turned out slightly over cooked; however, I will get better with practice. Just watch the eggplant closely as you roast it on the baking sheet and if you feel that it is getting heavily browned, then remove it from the oven. Whenever you prepare to eat the left-over portion of the roasted eggplant, simply repeat the last two steps in the directions listed above. Depending on your preference, you may also want to top the dish with Daiya Mozzarella Shreds and serve with low-protein garlic bread.

–NM