It is. I ate it last night. I might go eat some more right now. This month I've been trying out wheat-free recipes, still keeping things dairy-free, and MAN! that decreases your options for easy, quick, healthy, and inexpensive meals!!! However, this pasta-substitute dish is an ABSOLUTE keeper. The first time I made it, I called it pizza.
Big mistake.
But now the kids call it pizza casserole and that makes it much better to them, mentally. Either way, they eat seconds and thirds every time I make it. And I triple-dog-dare you to try it even if you have no need of avoiding gluten and dairy. Because besides being quite tasty, it is very nutritious.
Pizza Casserole
2-3T extra virgin olive oil
4c cooked brown rice
4 eggs (if you need to avoid eggs, just leave them out- they make the texture a bit nicer, but don't do anything else for the dish, so no biggie)
1 lb grass-fed ground beef, or sub ground turkey, browned
24 oz. pasta or pizza sauce of your choice, here I used Tader Joe's Organic Marinara
1/2c nutritional yeast flakes
In a large bowl, add the eggs to the rice and stir and whip with a fork till evenly blended. Oil your 9x13 pan witht he evoo then spread the rice mixture on top. Bake at 415 for 20 minutes, or until eggs are set (do this even if you are leaving out the eggs, to dry out the rice a bit). Then top with ground beef and dump on your sauce. Bake another 15 minutes. (Or just leave it in there till you get back to dinner prep. It's pretty forgiving. I left mine in the oven last night for about 30 extra minutes and everyone liked the crunchy but not burnt stuff arond the edges!) Remove from oven and sprinkle with the nutritional yeast flakes; this is your "cheese"- it really does taste cheesey. Or serve the yeast on the side in a shaker jar, which kids will love. If you want to really make it parmesan-y. mix the nutritional yeast 1/2 and 1/2 with ground walnuts and a teeny pinch of salt. Soooo yum. Serve with a nice green salad or a mound of quick-blanched brocolli for a quick and easy dinner.
This dish makes my kids and I miss pasta and homemade pizza a lot less. Plus it is far more delicious than the gluten-free pastas we have tried, not to mention far cheaper.
Buen provecho!
"They claim red meat is bad for you. But I never saw a sick-looking tiger."
~Chi Chi Rodriguez
On a side note, my sourdough starter is dead. In case you were wondering. Since we are moving in 5 weeks and having a baby another 7 after that, I decided to let it go for awhile. However, http://www.culturesforlife.com/ sells a spelt sourdough starter that I'm going to buy once I am settled into our new home, uh, wherever that may be, and I will resume my experiments then. For now, we are enjoying our sprouted spelt in other ways!
Try adding a tsp of apple cider vinegar to your starter. It may rise from the dead as it changes the ph that good yeast likes.
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