Ken's Las Vegas Salad (Low Carb)

Ken recently took a trip to Las Vegas and came back with a hankering for a salad he had while he was there. Based on his description of this salad, I recreated it.

Ingredients:

1 head of lettuce
4 strips of bacon
1 cup of blue cheese crumbles
1 cup of sliced avocado
Ranch Salad Dressing

Preparation:

1. Microwave the bacon on a paper towel and plate for 6 minutes. (This will make the bacon crispy.) Let it cool for 5 minutes.

2. Chop or shred the entire head of lettuce.

3. Take one avocado and cut into small pieces.

4. Crumble bacon.

5. Mix lettuce, bacon, avocado and blue cheese.

6. Top with dressing. (It doesn't have to be Ranch.)

Servings: 6

Stuffed Green Peppers

In the last couple of months I have learned far more about low carb cooking than I ever wanted to. :) Soon that will change though as I return to full time active mommy duty. So look for kid friendly recipes in the very near future.

Ingredients:

4 green peppers
1 lb of ground turkey (or hamburger)
1 cup of Monterrey Jack cheese
1 - 8 oz can of tomato sauce
1 tbsp of All Seasoning

Preparation:

1. Cut the tops off the green peppers and scoop out the insides. Boil them for 4 minutes. Set aside.
2. Cook the ground turkey until it's browned. Add seasoning.
3. Shred one cup of Monterrey Jack cheese.
4. Add tomato sauce to browned turkey and add half a can of water. Let simmer until meat is saturated.
5. Fill green peppers with browned turkey mixture and top with cheese.
   

Bake at 400 degrees for ten minutes.

Servings: 4

My favorite new site

I have a salad recipe and one for macaroons but rather than share that I wanted to offer up a site that literally has something for everyone. If you are living a gluten free life, vegan, vegetarian or just looking for kid friendly recipes then this is the site for you -

http://www.epicurious.com/

This site has tons of helpful information and recipes. I highly recommend it.

Barbecue Chicken (Low Carb)

I heard someone once say that in order to live well - you first have to eat well. While I'm a huge fan of cookies (just call me the Cookie Monster :) you can't always sit around eating cookies. Yesterday marks not just the start of a new week but also a new start for me. I'm putting my Oreos away and meeting up with a personal trainer. Hopefully my new path and athletic endeavors will provide many healthy recipes on this blog.
Ingredients:

1 packet of Mesquite marinade
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1/4 cup of water
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1lb of skinless chicken breasts

Take one packet of Mesquite marinade and mix 1/4 cup of oil and 1/4 cup of water. Marinade the chicken for two hours.

Cook chicken in olive oil over medium heat for approximately 20 minutes. This makes a fabulous barbecue chicken without the barbecue!

Neiman-Marcus Cookies

Back in college, my roommates made these awesome cookies that are called the Neiman-Marcus cookie. Supposedly, a woman and her daughter were eating in the Neiman-Marcus restaurant and she asked the chef for his cookie recipe. She was shocked to later receive a bill for $250 for the recipe so she decided to give the recipe to everyone she knew.

While this story is not true (checkout Snopes), the cookies are awesome!

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups oatmeal
4 oz of grated Hershey's chocolate bar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
12 oz of chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups of chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:
Mix butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla. Separately combine flour, oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda. Mix both sets of ingredients and add chocolate bar and nuts.

Bake at 375 for ten minutes.

Banana Muffins

Here's a great easy recipe for making banana muffins:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, melted

Combine bananas, sugar, egg and butter. Mix well. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt separately. Mix. Combine both sets of ingredients.

Bake at 375 for 13 minutes.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Ken's out of town so I'm taking this opportunity to bake up a storm. Here's a yummy recipe I found on the Food Network website that have a touch of Emeril.

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cups white sugar
3/4 brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups oatmeal
1 teaspoon hot water
1 cup raisins
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a cookie sheet.

First, add the butter and sugars into a mixing bowl and cream with mixer. Add the eggs and mix well. With a large spoon mix in the flour, salt, cinnamon, baking soda, and the oatmeal, mix well. Combine both sets of ingredients. Add water, vanilla and raisins.

Bake at 375 for 12 minutes.

Leftovers

It occurred to me recently that leftovers don't always have to equal a huge groan. With some thought and creativity, your second meal can be even better than the first.

Here are some cool sites to check out that focus on what to do with leftovers.



http://www.recipegoldmine.com/leftovers/leftovers.html

http://teriskitchen.com/leftovers.html

http://workingmoms.about.com/b/2009/05/21/thrifty-thursday-save-your-leftovers.htm

Cowboy Cookies

Giddy up! Here's a recipe straight from the Joy of Baking website. Their website is considerably more user friendly than their book so I recommend checking it out.

Cowboy Cookies

Ingredients:
3/4 cup (80 grams) walnuts or pecans, toasted and chopped

1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup (140 grams) dark brown sugar

1/2 cup (100 grams) white granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 cups (260 grams) all purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups (195 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats

1/4 cup (35 grams) sweetened flaked coconut

1/2 cup (90 grams) semi sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup (50 grams) raisins


Mix eggs, sugar, butter and vanilla. Separately mix flour and baking soda. Combine both sets of ingredients. Add oats, coconut and chocolate chips.

Bake at 375 for 12 minutes.

(Note: I forgot my digital camera pictures so one will be posted later.)

Foodista

A new site was recently brought to my attention. Not only can you find great recipes on this site but you can also share your own favorites. If you get a chance, Foodista is definitely worth checking out.

Reese's Pieces Cookies

We won a gigantic bag of Reeses Pieces a couple of months ago and it occurred to me that I needed to put that candy to good use.

So I took the peanut butter cookie recipe from Betty Crocker's website and added candy to them.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
1 1/4 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup Reese's Pieces

Mix both sugars, peanut butter, shortening and butter. (I couldn't find my shortening so I used one full cup of butter.) Separately - mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Combine both sets of ingredients and add Reese's Pieces. Bake at 375 for ten minutes.

Mexican-style Omelet (Low Carb)

It's always kind of a bummer to cook dinner on Saturday nights because I usually spend the day cleaning, grocery shopping and working around the house. So by the time I got around to cooking last night it was nine p.m. Being tired but still obligated to cook for Ken, I opened the fridge and pulled out the best ingredients I could find to make an omelet. Ken loved the result so much that I'm posting the original recipe right here.

3 eggs (whisked)
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 of a Avocado
1/4 of an onion (chopped)
4 pieces of bacon cooked and then chopped
1/4 cup cheddar cheese
Sour cream

Whisk the eggs and cream together. Pour into hot skillet. Add avocado, onion and bacon. Cook until half way done and then add cheddar cheese. Cooking time varies according to how well you like your omelet cooked. This one turned out just a wee bit crispy.

Chocolate Chip Muffin tops

If you're a Seinfeld fan then you'll appreciate this recipe. For Mother's day I received a muffin top pan. So here's a recipe that you can use for making muffin tops or just regular muffins.

I found this recipe on this site - http://www.mrbreakfast.com/superdisplay.asp?recipeid=239

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup light-brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup butter -- melted and cooled
2 eggs - beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 package (12 oz) chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 400 F. and grease up twelve muffin cups.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, stir together milk, eggs, butter, and vanilla until blended. Make a well in center of dry ingredients; add milk mixture and stir just to combine. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 12 minutes. If you like your muffins on the "cakey" side then you'll love this recipe. Personally, I like to be more dense so I'm going to keep trying new recipes.

Broiled Halibut

Halibut does not smell good. It reminded me of that fish market that I grew up near so I think this will be the only time you see a Halibut recipe on this blog....

Ingredients:

2 large pieces of Halibut
1 cup of chicken broth
2 tablespoons of chopped parsely
1 teaspoon of tarragon or dill
1/2 cup of grated cheddar cheese
1 egg white, beaten until foamy

Season the halibut and pour in one cup of chicken broth. Bake the halibut for ten minutes at 350. Remove and cover with cheese mixture. Broil for ten minutes.

Vegan Recipes

Happy Thursday! Here are some awesome sites for those looking for healthy recipes. (Mine aren't always healthy but they do taste good :)

http://vegweb.com/

http://www.fatfreevegan.com/

http://www.vegan-food.net/

http://www.vegetariansrecipes.org/

Low Carb Meatloaf

If you're a big fan of low carb meals, here's a meatloaf recipe for you. (Note: There's no picture because meatloaf just didn't photograph well.)

I took this recipe from All recipes.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/All-Protein-Meatloaf/Detail.aspx

Recipe:

1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 (4 ounce) can tomato sauce
1/3 cup crushed fried pork skins
2 eggs
2 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon garlic pepper seasoning

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

In a large bowl, mix together the ground beef, Worcestershire sauce. tomato sauce, crushed pork skins, and eggs. Season with chili powder, garlic salt, and garlic pepper. Mix until well blended. Form into a loaf, and place into a greased loaf pan.

Bake, uncovered for 35 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. Let stand for at least 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

Spicy Steak Salad

My mission - To explore strange new leftovers, to seek out new foods and new ideas, to boldly go where no wife has gone before... Okay, I admit it I saw the new Star Trek and it rocked.

Putting aside my inner Geek and pocket protector, I've got a new original low carb recipe. This recipe is sort of all in one meal which solves two of my problems - what to do with leftovers and how to make a fast dinner 'cause I don't feel like cookin'.


Ingredients:

Leftover flank steak (previously marinated)
3 stalks of chopped celery
1 1/2 sliced avocados
One package of chopped lettuce
Oil and vinegar salad dressing
Shredded Parmesan cheese

Here's what I did:

I took my leftover flank steak and chopped it into small pieces. Chopped up the other veggies and dumped into a bowl. Added lettuce and mixed well. Now if you're not on a low carb diet, you can throw in plenty of other vegetables. Once that's mixed I added the salad dressing and mixed again. Topped with shredded Parmesan and you have an easy dinner in under 15 minutes.

This is a great recipe for summer when it's too hot to turn on the stove or oven.

Cookies made with applesauce

This recipe is for Tommy who thinks I should make the occasional healthy treat. (Apparently single guys need to watch their waistlines...Just kidding!)

I found this great easy recipe for applesauce cookies that I added chocolate chips to.

http://www.makeandtakes.com/applesauce-cookies-a-fall-favorite

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 cup applesauce
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
chocolate chips, nuts, raisins

Mix sugar, shortening, eggs and applesauce. In a separate bowl, mix baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, salt and flour. Combine both sets of ingredients. Add in chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 for about 13 minutes.

Peanut Butter Truffle Brownies

If you haven't looked at Betty Crocker's website, I highly recommend it. Here's a recipe from her very awesome site.

Peanut Butter Truffle Brownies:

Brownie Base
1 box of brownie mix. Mix and Bake as directed.

Filling
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons milk



Topping
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup butter

Once you've baked your brownies, let them cool. Then mix the filling and cover the brownies. Melt chocolate chips and butter and add as a final layer.

This is an awesome treat on one of those days where nothing is going your way. Otherwise, I'd save them for a special day cause I'm pretty sure they add 5lbs to your hips. :)

Acorn Squash

Acorn squash is a very popular dish around our house. Ken likes to grow it every year and it's quite yummy.

Recipe:

1 acorn squash split in half and the insides scooped out
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup butter

Melt brown sugar and butter together. Pour evenly into both sides of squash. Bake at 400 for 40 minutes.

Let cool and serve.

What to do when a recipe doesn't work...

Have you ever noticed how some recipes look really good on paper but just don't work? I had that experience recently with a pasta and broccoli recipe. I made it just like the recipe dictated but it came out tasting like really lousy hospital food.

As a result, I'd like to offer some suggestions for what to do when a recipe doesn't work.

1) Double check the recipe to make sure you didn't forget anything.
2) Add spices. If your recipe is as bland as baby food, raid your cupboard to see what you can do to "spice" it up.
3) Add garlic. This mostly applies to guys. They seem to love garlic for some strange reason...
4) Add your own "special ingredient". Whenever I make brownies from a mix, I throw in chocolate chips. Your own additions can be a huge improvement.
5) Add cheese. Cheese can turn some really lousy dishes into real treats.

Rich (a co-worker) emailed me a friendly suggestion today. He says "Having left-over's three days in a row isn't bad if you add more ketchup to it."

So if you're anything like Rich, you can always just ketchup.

Low Carb Crock Pot Chicken

Happy Thursday! Here's a great recipe for Sunday dinners. It's both low calorie and low carb.

Take 4lbs of chicken quarters
Add one can of chicken broth
1/2 a bottle of salad marinade

For the salad marinade you can use Italian or you can be daring and use your favorite type of marinade dressing. Cook on high in your crock pot for 4 to 5 hours.

Salmon in two steps

Do your kids like to eat fish? I've always wondered if every other kid grew up eating fish nearly twice a week. Of course, most kids aren't raised by a Scandinavian grandmother five blocks from a fish market. As a result of the forced fish feeding, I stayed away from it for about ten years. But now that I'm married and Ken likes it, I find myself cooking it regularly. Here's my very easy recipe for making Salmon.

Take one salmon fillet -









and squeeze half of a lemon over the whole thing. Top with seafood spices. I prefer this spice over lemon and herb because it enhances the flavor of the salmon. For a large fillet, bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. You can broil it for less time but the salmon won't be as moist.

London Broil (Flank Steak)

The theme for this week is easy entrees. Here's a recipe from my grandmother's kitchen. It's an easy recipe so you can teach this one to your kids with no trouble.

Ingredients:
One packet of Steak Marinade
Flank Steak


Instructions:

Mix marinade (as instructions dictate)
in a plastic Ziplock bag
Marinade flank steak for two hours (in the fridge)
Broil flank steak on both sides (approximately 15 minutes on each side)

How long you cook the flank steak is really up to you. Ken likes his medium rare so I only cooked it about 25 minutes altogether.

I need to clean my oven. It keeps setting off the smoke detector...

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Cookie Monster lives and it's inside of me!!! In order to satisfy the Cookie Monster within, I made Betty Crocker's recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. It's an easy recipe and calls for more brown sugar and no cane sugar so I think it's a little healthier.

For your inner cookie monster:

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 1/2 cups all-purpose or unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 bag of semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts, if desired

Mix brown sugar, butter vanilla and egg. Mix oats, flour, soda and baking soda separately. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Add chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 for approximately ten minutes. These cookies were so good my best friend ate four and Senor Whiny Pants considered breaking his diet.

Check out these blogs...

In keeping the theme of this weekend, I'd like to point out that there are some awesome healthy cooking blogs out there with all sorts of great information on how to make eating more enjoyable and healthy.

This site has healthy recipes and tips on weight loss and fitness.

http://funnfud.blogspot.com/

Check out Mr. Wilson, a nutritional chef:

http://healthycookingblog.blogspot.com/

Healthy Cooking for one:

http://www.yourhealthycookingforoneblog.com/


Vegan Cooking:

http://www.101cookbooks.com/

A low calorie Sundae

Lately I've been posting a lot of low carb recipes and I feel like I should clarify - I don't believe in eating a low carb diet permanently. There's research on both sides but in my experience (21 years of dieting), a low calorie diet is much easier to maintain in the long term. It's also easier to find food that's low calorie versus low carb.

On that note, here's a low calorie alternative for your sundae cravings.



1 cup plain yogurt (you can use flavored if you prefer)
Fruit (I used two bananas)
Whipped Cream in a can

This treat is very versatile. You can mix up yogurt flavors, fruit and even add some crunchy cereal if you like. It's a good healthy alternative to picking up a pint of Ben and Jerry's.

Easy Chicken

Part of me really wants to start taking bets on how long Senor Whiny Pants will stay on his Atkins diet...but that would a little evil and unsupportive.

While I'm fighting off the urge to give in to my inner Dr. Evil, here's the easiest low carb chicken recipe I've ever seen. (Check out Allrecipes for more recipes like this one.)

INGREDIENTS

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules


DIRECTIONS

Melt butter and stir in bouillon granules. When it's melted together, add chicken and brown, turning often. Cook for about 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.

This recipe was fast and the chicken tasted so yummy! Maybe low-carb isn't so bad...