Dungeon Dinner Date Night- Cajun Sweet Potato Zucchini Fritters + Chocolate Mousse Cake

Tuesdays in my life have been known as Dungeon Dinner Date night for a while now.  Why?  Well, because on Tuesdays I cook dinner and tote it over to my boyfriend's office....which is decked out to look like a dungeon.  I've never been quite clear on why.  But it has been this way since before his or his boss' time there, I am told.

It's, uh, well....I'm sure there are people who would find it romantic....

I mean, there's rusty shackles on the wall and everything....

Yesterday I decided I was going to rush home and whip up this recipe for sweet potato zucchini fritters with the stuff I picked up at the local farmer's market last week, and my new favorite recipe for single-serve (67 calorie!) brownies, adding a dollop of cookie butter in the middle as a special surprise treat.

And let me tell you, I hated making these things at first.  My spiralizer wasn't cooperating to slice up the veggies as I had planned, so I begrudgingly used a small hand-held grater to grate the majority of the veggies. I also added a special Domestically Impaired ingredient in the form of my thumb nail, which got sliced off by the spiralizer and lost in the zucchini.  At least it wasn't my finger!  

So, nothing was going terribly well.  I thought about quitting and throwing it all out in rage before driving to Panera, but I decided I really wanted to see if these were worth it.

And oh boy, they WERE.

They were smelling pretty amazing by the time I got to this point.  Startlingly so for globs of veggies and spices.

The original recipe calls for chipotle seasoning, but the Ms. Dash Cajun seasoning I used was on sale, and I have no regrets.  They may not look like anything amazing, but these were mind-bogglingly delicious!!!

All crispy and cooling off while I whip up the chocolate cakes!

I mixed up some zesty sour cream to top them with using a package of Old El Paso zesty seasoning mix and light sour cream, but they were so moist on the inside that they really would have been great just plain, I believe.

Loading everything up to head to the Dungeon!

The Boyfriend was very quiet as he took his first bites, so I was nervous that perhaps he wasn't thrilled with them, but I am learning that this is indicative of just the opposite with him.  He later announced that I need to spread the word about these fritters like gospel to people in every land.  They are just that freaking amazing.

Loaded up with sour cream!

The absolute glory of these fritters was further evidenced by the fact that neither of us discussed the molten chocolate cookie butter cakes much.  We were still in awe of the fritters.  And people, let me tell you, Boyfriend and I love us some cookie butter real hard.  

Delicious cookie butter goo!

I'll be making more again very, very soon.  Hopefully minus the thumbnail this time.

-Dungeon Fritters-

What You Need:

1 large zucchini

2 medium sweet potatoes

1/4 cup unsalted butter

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 tbsp Egg Beaters egg replacer

2 tsp Ms. Dash Cajun seasoning

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 pepper

makes 6 big ole' average burger patty sized fritters

What to do:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with greased parchment paper.  Grate/chop/spiralize/somehow dissect the zucchini and sweet potatoes and add them to a big bowl.  Melt the butter and add this along with the remaining ingredients to the bowl.  Goosh it around then scoop out handfuls and make them burger patty shaped.  Plop them on your parchment paper and bake for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, lower the heat to 350 degrees and pop them back in on the same side for 15 minutes.  Flip them carefully (they may still be goopy on the underside at this point) and bake for another 15 minutes on the opposite side.  Remove and let them cool and set for about 10 minutes before removing them from the parchment paper.

Nutrition Facts:

Calories- 113

Fat- 8g

Carbs- 8g

Fiber- 1g

Sugar- 2g

Protein- 2g

-Zesty Sour Cream-

1 package Old El Paso zesty sour cream seasoning

8 oz light sour cream

Just mix it together! Per 2 tbsp serving- 46 calories, 4 carbs, 2 g fat, 2 g protein, 2g sugar.

Since I really made no changes to the single serve gooey brownie, other than using a no-calorie sweetener and dolloping some cookie butter in the middle for this version, I'll just let the link to it above suffice :)  I have a feeling a post about microwave mug cakes will be happening soon though...it's a growing addiction for me....

Cheesey Veggie Polenta Lasagna- a 272 calorie dinner

I wasn't even sure what polenta is until a week or so ago, but it kept cropping up as a main ingredient in healthy recipes I've come across, so I had to try it out.  If you don't know, it's a bland, corn-meal substance that can easily be transformed into a gluten-free substitute for pasta noodles, dough, and a variety of other things. Recently The Boyfriend has suspected he might be gluten intolerant, so we are trying out some recipes to work around this!  I was pretty thrilled with the results on this one, and it still boggles my mind that it is under 300 calories.  I've added everything up and run it through my recipe calculator serveral times just to make sure I'm not leaving something out.  It is so filling!  And you can have a HUGE slice, 1/4 of the whole dang lasagna, for 272 calories!

To avoid making it sound like an awful, scary "health food" meal, you could call it corn meal lasagna.  Or just present it as regular lasagna, and I bet people won't ask many questions after they taste it and figure out it's glorious.

I had seen a few different recipes out there for Polenta lasagna, but decided to kind of wing it and use up some things I had in my fridge to make my own.  To make the true Domestically Impaired version, be sure to entirely forget to include the garlic and balsamic vinegar you see here in my ingredients picture.  I'll toss those in next time, maybe.

Cut the polenta in half, then slice it into about 1/8" thick slices to completely line the bottom of a baking dish.  Add a layer of sliced zucchini.  

Then a layer of sliced tomato.  

Another layer of zucchini.  

Then spoon your pesto over the top.

Then add half of the vodka sauce.

 Next, slice up the other half of the polenta and layer it on top.

Spoon the remaining vodka sauce over this and pop it in the oven for 25 minutes at 375 degrees.

After 25 minutes, carefully remove the burbling vat of  lava that is your lasagna at this point and spread your mozarella cheese over the top.

Put it back in under the broiler and broil until the cheese starts bubbling and browning!

Enjoy and join me in the amazement over NOT missing pasta noodles at all!

What you need:

16 oz polenta

1 large zucchini

1 large tomato

1 cup Monte Bene Vodka Sauce

1 cup Kraft Fat-Free Shredded Mozarella

1/4 cup pesto

Makes 4 servings

What to do:

Heat your oven to 375. Place a layer of sliced polenta in the bottom of a large baking dish, then layer zucchini-tomato-zucchini over the polenta.  Spoon the pesto and half of the vodka sauce over these layers. Top with a second layer of sliced polenta and the remaining vodka sauce.

Bake for 25 minutes, remove to add the cup of mozarella shreds, place under your broiler, and broil until the cheese starts to brown.

Nutrition Facts:

Calories: 272

Fat: 8g

Carbs: 31g

Fiber: 3g

Sugar: 6g

Protein: 19g