Heart-Healthy Spelt Bread ♥

love, love, love this spelt bread recipe! The author suggests using some white spelt for a lighter, fluffier bread, but I used all whole spelt and it is still pretty light. Yumminess. I smathered a slice with smart balance and drizzled it with honey. More yumminess.

(See, half the loaf has disappeared already!)

Spelt Bread
by Rebecca Wood (posted at http://www.thenewhomemaker.com)
Yield: Two 8 ½" x 4 ½" loaves
For a lighter flavor and texture, use up to 50% white spelt flour. Some people who are sensitive to common wheat are able to enjoy spelt bread.
Note: it is important that you don't over-knead spelt dough.
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
2 cups warm water (105° to 110° F)
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 teaspoons sea salt
6 cups spelt flour (use any combination of whole or white spelt)
Combine the yeast, water and honey in a large warm bowl. Let stand for 10 minutes or until the yeast softens. Stir in the butter and salt and 3 cups of the flour. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon. Add the remaining flour in increments until the dough becomes too stiff to stir, then place the dough on a lightly floured surface. Knead for about 6 minutes, adding any remaining flour as necessary, until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Do not overknead.
Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free spot for about 2 hours or until doubled in bulk.
Grease two 8 ½" x 4 ½" loaf pans. Punch the dough down to deflate it and divide it in half. Form each half into a smooth loaf and place in a prepared pan. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free spot for about 1 hour or until the dough has risen to the top of the pans.
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
Uncover the risen loaves. Place the pans on a heavy baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes or until the tops are light brown and crusty. Remove from the oven and tap out of the pan into the baking sheet. Turn the oven off and return the breads to the oven to crisp for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.
Note- I don't know if it was the higher altitude or that I put the loaf pans on a pizza stone... or what, but these only required about 35 minutes to bake, then I popped them out of the pan and back onto the stone for just another 2 minutes.

Squash Lasagna

After devouring this dish tonight, I had to recommend it to you guys! I saw it made on Studio 5 the other day. They used pumpkin, but the field pumpkin we had was too tough to cut... so we used butternut squash instead, and it was a delicious subsitute. I think any squash would do.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups peeled and diced pumpkin
• 5 tomatoes
• 1 eggplant or zucchini** (we used eggplant)
  
• 16 oz. part skim ricotta cheese
• 9 ounces feta cheese
• 5 oz. pesto sauce
• 2 eggs, beaten
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
• Lasagna noodles
• 1 1/3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Slice a field pumpkin into quarters and place on a baking sheet, then roast in oven until browned and tender, about 30 minutes. Slice tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini or other vegetables of choice into thick slices and place on baking sheet and cook for the last 15 minutes of pumpkin time -- until tender and tomatoes are wrinkly.

In a medium bowl, stir together ricotta, feta, pesto, eggs, salt and pepper until well mixed. Cut cooked pumpkin away from the skin and cube, and then fold roasted pumpkin into ricotta mixture.

Pour half the tomato sauce into a 9x13 baking dish. Lay lasagna noodles over the sauce. Arrange a single layer of veggie (zucchini/eggplant) slices over pasta and top with half the ricotta mixture. Cover with lasagna noodles. Arrange the roasted tomatoes evenly over the noodles and spoon the remaining half the ricotta mixture over the tomatoes. Sprinkle with half the mozzarella. Top with lasagna noodles. Pour remaining tomato sauce over all and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.

Bake in preheated oven 30 to 40 minutes, until golden and bubbly.

**You can easily make this a savory Pumpkin Beef lasagna by swapping the eggplant layer for a layer of ground beef tossed in tomato sauce.

~10 servings, 326 calories per serving (about half the calories of other lasagna recipes!)

Mock Apple Zucchini Pie

Uncle David used to make a very delicious apple pie that he made entirely with zucchini (of course he didn't tell us until after we had eaten it!) This is a recipe I found on the internet, but you could use your own favorite apple pie recipe and substitute zucchini!

MOCK APPLE PIE (ZUCCHINI PIE)

6 c. zucchini (NOTE: extra large zucchini are preferred,they're firmer)
1 1/4 c. sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. flour
1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Dash of salt and nutmeg
Dough for double pie crust

Pare zucchini, wash and slice lengthwise. Remove seeds.Slice like apples. Add a little water and bring to a boilin a large saucepan. Simmer for about 15 minutes or untiltender. Cool and drain well. Add rest of ingredients andplace into an unbaked 9 inch pie crust. Cover with top piecrust and flute to seal edges. Cut slits into top of crustfor steam to escape. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 60minutes.