Recipes Archives

Recipe Tuesday: Cheesy Zucchini Casserole

I shoulda doubled the recipe as we finished the entire tray in one evening. Low-carb comfort food at its best. Hope you all agree. XOXO, Anna.

Cheesy Zucchini Casserole

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1-2 shallots chopped
1 red pepper chopped
pinch garlic salt
pinch dried oregano
3-4 zucchinis, sliced into disks (I use this: Progressive International HGT-11 Folding Mandoline Slicer)
1/3 cup full fat ricotta
8 oz (2 cups) grated colby jack cheese
1/4 cup whipping cream
Butter to grease the pan
Salt & Pepper

Preheat oven to 350.

Heat up olive oil and butter in non-stick fry pan at medium-high heat. Throw in shallots and cook 3-5 minutes until they start to caramelize. Add in red pepper and the pinch of garlic salt and oregano. Cook a few more minutes until shallots are caramelized and the red peppers are soft. Remove from heat and set aside.

Grease a 9 x 12 pan with butter. Place zucchini disks, one layer at a time, spreading them apart fairly evenly like you would do with scalloped potatoes. Salt and Pepper each new layer of zucchini. On the first layer of zucchini, spread out the ricotta cheese. On the second layer, sprinkle a handful of the grated cheese. On the third layer, evenly pour the whipping cream, and on the fourth layer spread out the shallot and pepper mixture. Top with remainder of grated cheese.

Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees, or until the top is slight browned and bubbly.

More recipes at Gluten Free Anna

Angriest Trainer 68: Weight Loss Surgery, Carb Cravings & Cougars

by Vinnie Tortorich

Vinnie and Anna discuss this ridiculous article, how to control carb cravings, and the Celebrity Cougars Vinnie loves.

Michael Tortorich sums up the podcast in the My Uncle Vinnie Blog Wrap Up:

Leading off this episode, Vinnie and Anna talk about vitamin products and how some have fillers. Vinnie talks about the possibility of selling better vitamins. Anna then reads an article about eating less. As Vinnie frequently says, we’re the only animal on the planet that thinks it’s a good day when we have less to eat. Vinnie then begins to lose his mind as Anna reads more. Anna reads an article that says surgery and drugs are the most effective treatment for obesity. This causes Vinnie to go nuts and practically give up on podcasting. Vinnie then talks about his now infamous appearance on Oprah. Vinnie was doing the cougar thing before it was cool. He was also wearing pink pants, which was never cool. This leads to a discussion of celebrity cougars. They talk about Jennifer Coolidge (Stifler’s mom from The American Pie series), Jane Fonda, Helen Mirren, and of course, Sophia Loren (Vinnie’s all-time favorite cougar). They then take questions about dealing with carb cravings.

Angriest Trainer 67: 5Ks, Nut Butters & Chelsea Boore

by Vinnie Tortorich

Vinnie and Anna discuss running 5Ks to increase speed, how to make nut butters, and interview loyal listener Chelsea Boore about her successes and concerns with No Sugar No Grains.

Michael Tortorich sums up the podcast in the My Uncle Vinnie Blog Wrap Up:

Vinnie and Anna start the show by talking about Vinnie’s adventures in getting his book published. He won’t take the Jillian Michaels approach, so he’s looking into the possibility of self-publishing it. Anna then tells about her personal record in her recent 5K. That leads them to discussing Dean Lorey and his son. They then move on to a question about making peanut butter in the Vitamix. This leads to the Andrea Anders nut butter segment idea being born. Longtime listener/first time interviewee Chelsea Boore gets a call for some free advice. She’s been doing no sugar and no grains. While she lost weight right away and has been strict, she’s noticed some weight gain. They investigate the possibilities that may be the problem. Aside from diet, they talk about the types of exercises she’s doing as well. As they wrap up the show, they talk about how Anna will be posting more recipes. And, for good measure, Vinnie calls himself the King of Fitness for, like, the 80th time before the show ends.

Recipe Tuesday: Crock Pot Short Ribs

by Vinnie Tortorich

It’s high time we start posting some recipes from Gluten Free Anna right here for all you lovely podcast devotees clamoring for the No Sugar No Grains Cookbook! So here goes Anna with Crock Pot Short Ribs. These are easy. Make them.

I am obsessed with short ribs. They are tender and flavorful. They go with any kind of sauce you can dream up, usually perfected after hours and hours of braising.

I decided to come up with an easy, quick(ish) recipe using the crock pot on a high setting. Using boneless short ribs cuts down the cook time, and the crock pot keeps you from having to fire up the oven for several hours on a hot summer day.

This recipe is also very low carb. A lot of short rib recipes call for sugar, honey, molasses, etc., and the only sugar in this recipe is found in the ketchup. This is tangy, melt-in-your-mouth, low carb short rib goodness.

Crock Pot Short Ribs

2-4 lbs boneless short ribs, trimmed of excess fat

Salt & Pepper to season ribs

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp minced garlic (or 2 garlic cloves, minced)

1 tsp fresh oregano, chopped (ok to use 1 tsp dried oregano)

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (or substitute Trader Joe’s orange muscat champagne vinegar)

1/2 cup ketchup

1 tablespoon mustard

1 tsp GF soy sauce or tamari

Pinch smoky hawaiian black salt (found in specialty markets, sea salt is great, too)

3-4 sprigs of fresh thyme

Season short ribs with salt and pepper. Place ribs in crock pot.

In a bowl, whisk remaining ingredients into a sauce. Pour over ribs and dredge ribs in the sauce. Cook on high in covered crock pot for 3 hours or until ribs are fall-apart tender. Remove thyme sprigs before serving.

Angriest Trainer 61: “Too Fat To Work” and The John Smith Interview

by Vinnie Tortorich

Vinnie and Anna rants on the family in the UK who claim they are “Too Fat To Work.” Interview with Lousiana’s own John Smith, a living testament to No Sugar No Grains.

Angriest Trainer 57: The Lee Harrington Interview

by Vinnie Tortorich

Vinnie and Anna interview Lee Harrington (@TheLeeBase) about his weight loss process. Between Lee and his wife, they’ve lost 119 pounds, the weight of their youngest daughter.