I was desperate for a crispy snack and the only thing I could find that had any potential were some oyster mushrooms I’d planned on using for a mushroom pate. Late night snack attack won and we were off to the drawing board.
I separated the frills from the stems and tossed everything with extra-virgin olive oil, garlic salt and black pepper, poured it out on a parchment lined baking sheet and baked it at 400 degrees F for about 30 minutes. I was amazed at how crispy and delish they were!
I was craving a slice of apple pie but didn’t want to go through the whole mixing up a pie crust baking for an hour thing so instead I stirred up a pan of low-carb, sugar-free apple pie filling in just a few minutes. No measuring required!
Chicken, turkey and egg whites are all high protein, low fat and low carb so I like to keep that in mind when putting together a recovery meal.
Don’t be put off by the intricate instructions here, a balsamic vinegar reduction is one of the simplest things you can make, it keeps forever, is low cal, and you can use it so many ways if you tried to list them all you’d fill up a page. It will be your new best friend, I promise, but there are a few things you need to get right to make it work, so read through the instructions and then fire up your stove.
This salad is perfect for breakfast on a hot morning, a side dish for lunch or dinner, a picnic, a barbecue … It pairs well with fish, chicken, steak, or burgers. The recipe below is just a starting point. You can use any type of melon, play around with the ratio of melon to grapefruit and oranges and use an endless array of garnishes. If you don’t like grapefruit you can use pineapple or grapes instead.
One of my favorite things about radishes are the greens. I wish I could buy the greens by the bagful as I actually like them better than the radishes themselves. And I LOVE radishes!
If the thought of spending time in the kitchen making a hot meal on a hot night makes you want to dial for pizza delivery then check out these seven easy summer”recipes” for when it’s too hot too cook. I’ve put recipes in quotes because none of these recipes actually require a measuring device and they’re all endlessly variable. So here goes ..
Juicy tomatoes ready to become tomaisins.
When I’m running errands I don’t like to stop for lunch. I prefer to pack up a baggie or two with veggies and/or fruit. Recently I’ve been running a lot of errands and getting tired of carrot and celery sticks so I thought I’d try making up a few low cal snacks that I can toss in my bag and eat just as easily as my unimaginative veggie sticks.
First up are these dried tomatoes. Super easy. I cut organic grape tomatoes in half, sprinkled with salt and placed on a dehydrator tray. I dried them at 115 degrees so I could keep these raw but you can dry them at any temp that you like. In fact I started drying these later in the day and before I went to sleep I turned the dehydrator down as low as it would go so they could keep drying but not get over-dried while I slept. The next morning I turned the dehyrdrator back up to 115 and a few hours later my tomatoes were now tomaisins.
Note: I like to take half the tomatoes out when they’re at the chewy stage and then keep dehydrating the rest until they’re chewy crisp.
I love kale. I don’t know what it is but give me my choice of greens and I’ll choose kale every time. Even so, sometimes I get tired of my go-to recipe of Garlic Kale and start playing around until I come up with a new way to serve this nutritious leafy green.
This recipe serves 4 as a side dish. Add ham, bacon, or chicken and it’s a meal for 2. My apologies to any vegetarians or vegans reading this recipe, please know that in the interest of helping families to accommodate the varied tastes of it’s members I like to include variations of many of my recipes that may include meat or dairy.
If you’re not adding meat to this dish, you can make it a meal by serving it with a pot roast, steak, chicken, fish or for my vegetarian and vegan readers I love a really good whole grain bread, toasted and brushed with olive oil and a bit of balsamic vinegar.
2 large bunches of kale (if you’re picking from your own garden that going to be 2 pounds)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
3 garlic cloves, smashed and minced
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet. Add the onions, salt, pepper, chile and cook, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. Add the kale and garlic and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the Parmesan. Taste and add salt, pepper, and olive oil if needed.
Stir 1/2 cup bread crumbs in with the Parmesan.
Add 1/2 cup toasted, chopped almonds, cashews, pecans, or peanuts with the Parmesan.
Add 1 to 2 cups chopped cooked chicken, ham, or bacon at the end.
Use 3 five-ounce bags of prewashed, deveined kale in place of the 2 bunches of kale.
