I’ll add a pic of the finished dish a bit later but after I posted this teaser on Instagram so many of you have been asking for the recipe that I wanted to get it up here for you all.
Category Archives: Vegetarian
Glazed Root Vegetables
This was a lazy cooking day. I was actually surprised that this dish turned out as well as it did. I don’t know why I’m still surprised that extremely simple recipes turn out to be my faves. I guess after years of cooking “five star” meals it’s hard to set aside the idea that you need tons of ingredients and even more time to create something extraordinary. While I used carrots and jicama for this dish, this works well with any winter squash. Try it with sweet potatoes, butternut squash, or acorn squash.
Cut vegetables into chunks, or sticks.
Heat 1 tablespoon cooking oil over medium heat. When oil is hot, place vegetables in pan and lightly salt them. If you use sea salt you can thank me later. Saute for three to five minutes until the veggies just start to get tender. Stir them occasionally. In a small dish mix a scant one tablespoon coconut sugar or honey, two tablespoons water, or juice, or broth, one teaspoon seasoning from the list below. Cook and stir until veggies are glazed and just barely tender.
Seasoning:
Cumin
Ginger
Curry
Hot sauce
Cayenne
Crushed peppers
Ginger
Curry
Hot sauce
Cayenne
Crushed peppers
Share this post:
More Easiest Tastiest Breakfast EVER
We’ve all been enjoying the egg bake cups so much that I got to work making up some variations.
These can easily be converted to a Paleo breakfast by eliminating the cheese.
If you’re doing low carb and want to reduce the carbs a bit you can add 1/4 to the vegetable side and subtract 1/4 from the onion side.
Feta Spinach Cups
You can use plain ol’ feta or you could use one of the varieties that have sun-dried tomatoes or other add-ins.
1/2 cup chopped frozen spinach (thawed and squeezed to get as much water out as possible)
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup feta cheese
Heat a small pan over medium high heat. When hot swirl some cooking oil into the pan. Add the onions to the pan and saute until soft, seven to eight minutes. Mix spinach into onions. Divide vegetables among muffin cups, topping with feta cheese and then egg base either evenly divided among the cups or filled to 3/4 of the cup. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes or until egg is puffed and golden.
Remove from pan and serve or cool, pack in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to one month.
Asparagus Cups
1/2 cup diced asparagus
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup shredded white semi-soft cheese such as jack, Havarti, mozzarella, gouda …
Heat a small pan over medium high heat. When hot swirl some cooking oil into the pan. Add the onions to the pan and saute until translucent, about five minutes. Add asparagus and saute until al dente. Divide vegetables among muffin cups, topping with shredded cheese and then egg base either evenly divided among the cups or filled to 3/4 of the cup. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes or until egg is puffed and golden.
Remove from pan and serve or cool, pack in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to one month.
Tomato Bacon Cups
1/2 cup diced tomatoes
1/4 cup diced onion
1/4 cup diced bacon
1/2 cup shredded white semi-soft cheese such as jack, Havarti, mozzarella, gouda …
Heat a small pan over medium high heat. When hot add bacon and cook until crispy. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon. Add the onions to the pan and saute until translucent, about five minutes. Add tomatoes and saute until most of the moisture from the tomatoes is cooked off. Divide vegetables among muffin cups, topping with bacon and shredded cheese. Either evenly divided egg base among the cups or fill to 3/4 of the cup. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes or until egg is puffed and golden.
Remove from pan and serve or cool, pack in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to one month.
Share this post:
Low Cal Snack – Dried Tomato
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.
Share this post:
Buffalo Ranch Popcorn
Do you all love popcorn as much as I do? Lately I’ve been trying to move away from microwave popcorn. I started by switching to organic microwave popcorn which actually tastes WAY better than popcorn of the Orville Redenbacher variety, however it does still use palm oil and butter flavoring. I tried several types of popcorn that didn’t have the bad stuff added to it and didn’t really like the taste. So the next stop on the popcorn train is to make it from scratch so I can use the kind of oil I want and then add different seasonings to make it fun. This Buffalo Ranch version is the first one in a series that I’ll be posting. I love that this one has tons of flavor and isn’t loaded with butter. If you want to really make the butter stand out, brown it before adding the buffalo wing sauce.
Ingredients
8 cups popped popcorn
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons buffalo wing sauce
1 tablespoon ranch seasoning mix
1 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
Place popcorn in a large bowl or paper bag. In a small bowl mix butter and buffalo wing sauce. Drizzle this mixture over the popcorn and toss to evenly distribute.
Sprinkle ranch seasoning and sea salt over popcorn and toss again.
Now settle in with a good movie or if you’re in my house take it out to the bonfire in the back yard.
Share this post:
Spicy Parmesan Kale
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.
Ingredients
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
Instructions
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.
Variations
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.
Quick Version
Use 3 five-ounce bags of prewashed, deveined kale in place of the 2 bunches of kale.
Share this post:
Quinoa Burritos
Not all UnDieters are following Paleo or Low Carb so I wanted to give you all one of my favorite burrito recipes. Vegans can forgo the cheese and this will still be a delicious recipe. As with most of my recipes there are many variations which I’ll share with you at the end after the basic recipe.
Ingredients
1 cup quinoa
2 cups chopped vegetables such as zucchini, onions, or bell peppers, or a mix
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
one 15 ounce can black, pinto, or kidney beans
2 cups tomato salsa or salsa verde
8 whole wheat tortillas
1t o 2 cups shredded cheddar, pepper Jack, or Mexican cheese blend
Instructions
Rinse quinoa well. Drain and place in a saucepan with 2 cups of water, paprika, vegetables and salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed, 15 to 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Stir in beans and 1 cup salsa. Place one tortilla in an oiled baking dish. Fill with 1 cup of the quinoa mixture. Fold over. Continue filling and folding tortillas until all 8 tortillas are filled. Top with 1 cup of salsa and the cheese. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until hot and bubbling.
Vegan Variation
Use soy cheese in place of the cheese or just eliminate the cheese altogether.
Spice Change Up
Change up the paprika with taco seasoning or fajita seasoning.
Add 1 tablespoon minced garlic to the quinoa while boiling it.
For really cheesy burritos add 1 cup cheese to the quinoa mixture before rolling it up in the tortillas. You’ll have extra filling left over which you can set aside for another meal or just use a couple extra tortillas.
Top It Off
After removing from the oven garnish with chopped avocado, sour cream, sliced green onion, chopped roasted green chilies, sliced olives, chopped red onion …
Share this post:
Caulitillas – The Low Carb, Gluten Free, Paleo, Grain Free Tortilla
I didn’t invent this recipe, although I have improved it, expanded it, varied it, twisted it and generally taken it to outer space and back.
I never liked the extra work of wringing out the hot cauliflower. I always burned my hands, the cloth I used had bits of cauliflower clinging to it and consequently I had a mess to clean up just from the process of wringing the water out of the cauliflower. So I add 1 tablespoon coconut flour for every head of cooked cauliflower. It sops up the water and doesn’t affect the taste or the texture. Don’t you love a simple solution?
If you don’t have cooked riced cauliflower on hand, then after ricing an entire head of cauliflower place it in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 2 minutes. Stir and microwave for 2 more minutes. Let cool enough so that it doesn’t cook the egg when you stir it in.
If you don’t know how to make riced cauliflower it’s really easy. Just trim and cut a head of cauliflower into florets. Cut the florets in half so that each piece is no bigger than 1 inch square. Place half the florets in a food processor and pulse until you have a fine texture similar to bread crumbs. Dump into a microwave safe bowl and pulse the other half of the cauliflower.
Save the cauliflower stump to make a salad. Just shred it on a box grater into a bowl. Use your hands to wring out the water and mix it use it in place of shredded cabbage in a salad.
Some readers have asked if they can substitute almond flour for the coconut flour and the answer is no. The almond meal won’t absorb the water. I haven’t tried using soy flour, tapioca starch or arrowroot flour but I assume they would work fine.
Caulitillas can be used in place of lasagna noodles, corn tortillas when making enchilidas, as taco shells, for quesadillas, with a little cinnamon and sugar as pancakes, as bread for a grilled cheese sandwich. They are almost endlessly versatile. Try adding herbs and spices for a different flavor experience. I’ll suggest a few but you really can’t go wrong adding whatever seasoning you like to these.
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon taco or fajita seasoning
1 teaspoon cumin or mix of cumin and coriander
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon lemon, lime or orange zest
1 teaspoon cinnamon and a pinch of stevia or monk fruit
1 teaspoon Herbs de Provence
pinch cayenne pepper or chili flakes
1 teaspoon oregano
up to ½ cup fresh herbs such as cilantro, basil, sage, mint or dill
If after making this the first time it has too much of a cauliflower taste, you can add up to 2 cups of shredded cheese to the recipe.
Ingredients
1 head of cauliflower riced and cooked
2 eggs
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon coconut flour
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Stir together warm or cold cauliflower, eggs and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Use a quarter or half cup to scoop out onto parchment paper. Use your hands to pat each portion into a thin circle. They can be anywhere from so thin you can almost see through them to ¼ inch thick.
Place in oven for eight to ten minutes, until the underside is cooked enough that you can carefully peel them from the parchment paper and flip them. Return to the oven for five minutes. Remove from oven and do one of three things: cool and store in fridge or freezer with squares of parchment paper between them, or if you’ll be using them right away, lightly oil a heavy bottomed skillet set over medium high heat and cook the tortillas until the outside is browned and slightly crispy. Turn and brown the other side. No matter how you store them, be sure to brown them before eating them. You could also brown them before storing them in the fridge or freezer.
Share this post:
The Famous Cauliflower Pizza Crust Everybody Is Talking About
I can’t claim to have invented this recipe, but I’ve worked out some of the kinks and wanted to make it available to the UnDiet gang.
This recipe works as a pizza crust, bread sticks to dip in marinara sauce, focaccia , bread slices for a sandwich or just to eat as is.
I’m going to give you the biggest tip of all – USE PARCHMENT PAPER. The first time I made this I thought it would be so cool to use my new cast iron baking sheet and while it delivered a nice crisp exterior on my crust, it was NOT FUN to clean up, and I lost most of the crispy exterior on my crust as it stuck to the pan.
Ingredients
4 cups riced cauliflower, about 1 large head
2 large eggs
2 to 2-1/2 cups shredded Mozzarella or 2 cups Mozzarella and 1/2 cup grated or shredded Parmesan
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, oregeno, basil, or whatever you like (optional)
sea salt
black pepper
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Place the riced cauliflower in a microwave safe bowl, toss with a pinch of salt, and microwave for five to eight minutes, until al dente. Set aside to cool down a bit, or mix in all remaining ingredients except egg to cool it down enough that the egg doesn’t cook when you mix it in at the end.
Line a pizza pan or baking sheet with parchment paper. Dump the cauliflower mixture onto the parchment paper and with your hands pat it out to evenly cover the pan. If you’re making sandwich bread, use two trays so you have a thinner crust. Bake for fifteen to twenty minutes, until the top is lightly browned. Remove from oven and slide the parchment paper with the crust off the baking sheet. Place another piece of parchment paper on the pan. Carefully flip the crust over onto the baking sheet so that the bottom is now on top. Return to oven and bake for another ten to fifteen minutes until the top is lightly browned.
At this point you can start getting creative:
Slice into squares for sandwich bread.
Slice into rectangles for bread sticks.
Top with cheese, sauce and toppings; place back in the oven for about fifteen minutes until the cheese is lightly browned and bubbling.
Before putting in the oven scatter a handful of sliced or minced olives, sun-dried tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, feta cheese, basil shreds, anchovies … whatever your favorite focaccia toppings are.
Tips
I didn’t need to remove the moisture from my cauliflower to get a crispy crust. If yours turns out soggy (which isn’t a complete failure – you can still top it with cheese and toppings and eat it with a fork), then the next time you make it, you can squeeze out the moisture from the cauliflower after cooking it or add 1 tablespoon coconut flour or use the up to 1 cup grated (not shredded) Parmesan in place of 1 cup of Mozzarella.
Share this post:
Pumpkin Spiced Almonds
It’s a hot day here in Southern California, although that’s probably the equivalent of saying “pizza pie”, isn’t it? Anway, I was itching to get into the kitchen but the heat was zapping my energy so I settled for something quick and easy and for me that means – no measuring. Hopefully you all will be able to appreciate how easy it is to cook to your own taste without measuring exact amounts or ingredients.
I’d roasted a Delicata squash the other night and had saved the seeds. I’d given them a rinse and rubbed them to remove the squash goo, but had put them wet into a little container and refrigerated them. So the first step was to dry toast them.
I placed the seeds in a cast iron pan on the burner and heated it to medium. I stirred them occasionally and when they were no longer wet I added some nuts that I had soaked and dried last week. So in went pecans, almonds, and cashews. I continued toasting everything, stirring occasionally until the Delicata seeds started to pop.
I swirled in a little coconut oil, then stirred in a small handful of pumpkin pie spice, a pinch of sea salt and a couple pinches of monk fruit (sweetener). You could really use any sweetener that you have on hand, stevia, honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar, rapadura, sucanat … and continued stirring occasionally for five minutes. I removed a couple of nuts. Let them cool, then tasted them and adjusted the seasoning. When I liked the seasoning I removed the pan from the heat and allowed the nuts to cool before packing them in a glass jar and storing in the fridge.
Then I read that a Penn State study had determined that eating 35 almonds a day resulted in a 1/4 cup loss of fat around the belly. One more reason to enjoy these almonds 🙂
