Heat skillet on medium heat, coat with cooking spray and add olive oil. Add onions to the skillet and sauté for 3 – 5 minutes until tender and slightly browned. Spoon onions into a large mixing bowl.
Squeeze excess water from spinach and add to the bowl with onions.
Remove sausage from their casings. Heat skillet on medium high heat, coat again with cooking spray and add sausage meat. While sautéing, break up sausage into small pieces. Sauté sausage for 5 – 7 minutes until browned. Add sausage to the same mixing bowl.
Whisk together egg substitute, eggs and sour cream until well blended. Pour egg mixture into bowl and add the cheeses and basil. Stir ingredients together until well blended.
Coat a 9X13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Pour egg mixture into baking dish and bake for 45 – 50 minutes until firm and browned.
2 cups frozen chopped spinach – defrosted & drained of excess water
Directions:
Coat a 9-inch deep pie dish pan with cooking spray. Roll pizza dough in and fit into
the bottom and up the sides of the deep pie dish.
Bake at 425o for 10 minutes then remove from the oven (dough will not be completely cooked).
Meanwhile, heat a skillet on medium high heat and cost with cooking spray. Add ground turkey
and beef for about 5 minutes, breaking apart with a spoon. Add chopped onion and cook for an additional
3 – 5 minutes. Transfer the bottom of the pie dish.
In a bowl, whisk together the egg substitute, eggs, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, milk and salt and pepper. Stir in the defrosted spinach. Pour egg mixture into pie dish.
Lower oven heat to 400o and bake for 35 – 40 minutes until browned. Let stand for 5 minutes before slicing.
Boil a large pot of water and add penne. Cook for 5 minutes until al dente (still firm). Drain and add to a large mixing bowl.
Squeeze excess water from defrosted chopped spinach and add to pasta.
In a medium size saucepan, whisk together milk, flour, pepper, garlic powder and nutmeg. Heat on medium low, stirring constantly until mixture begins to bubble. Increase heat to medium and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and add ricotta and parmesan. Stir until cheeses are melted. Add salt to taste.
Add cheese mixture to penne and spinach and cool for about 20 minutes.
Stir in egg substitute.
Coat a 8” springform pan with cooking spray. Spoon in quiche mixture and cover with foil. Bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 10 – 15 minutes until golden brown.
Run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen penne. Let stand 20 minutes. Remove from pan and serve.
This is a beautiful sweet treat for your love this Valentine’s holiday. It takes a little while to prepare but you can make all of the components in advance and assemble at the last minute. Instead of buying something at a store, add a little romance to this holiday season and bake up some love instead.
Enjoy!!
Valentine’s Pavlova
Preheat oven 300o
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes + 45 minutes cool time in oven
Decorating Time: 10 minutes
Estimated Values per Serving:
Calories: 375 Fat: 6 grams
Valentine’s Pavlova
Meringue Shell:
Ingredients:
3 egg whites – at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon cream of tarter
Dash of salt
15 drops red food coloring (optional)
1 cup sugar
Directions:
Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and draw 6 hearts as a template for the shells. Turn over parchment paper and set onto baking sheet.
In a electric mixer, add egg whites, vanilla, cream of tarter, salt and food coloring. Beat on medium speed until soft peaks form (the tips curl). Slowly add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating on high speed until very stiff peaks form (tips stand straight up).
Spoon meringue into a pastry bag fitted with a wide tip and pipe the meringue onto the parchment paper, using your heart drawing as a guide. Build the sides of the hearts up so they form a shallow cup. Save a little of the meringue to create 6 rosettes on the parchment paper between the hearts.
Bake for 35 minutes then turn off the oven, keep the door closed, and let stand in the oven for at least 45 more minutes.
Remove the meringues and cool.
Chocolate Ganache hearts:
Ingredients:
1 (6 ounce) bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon Chambord liquor
2 tablespoons fat free half and half
Directions:
Spray a silicon heart or chocolate heart mold with cooking spray and refrigerate until ready to use.
Place chocolate chips in a small bowl and add Chambord.
Heat the half and half until steaming hot. Pour the half and half into the chocolate mixture and mix until all the chocolate is melted.
Pour chocolate mixture into the molds. Refrigerate until form.
Raspberry Sauce
Ingredients:
1 bag ( ounces) frozen raspberries – defrosted
2 tablespoons Chambord liquor
2 tablespoons sugar
Directions:
Combine raspberries, Chambord and sugar in a blender.
Puree for about 30 seconds until mashed.
Valentine’s Pavlova
Decorating
Ingredients:
Fat free whipped cream (from a can or whipped topping)
Meringue hearts
Meringue rosettes
Chocolate ganache hearts
Raspberry sauce
Directions:
Place a large heart on a dessert plate. Spread whipped cream on one side with raspberry sauce on the other side.
Now you may say to yourself “lobster cheesecake?!?” but trust me this is a winner. My mother and father decided they wanted to get steamed lobster for dinner but they didn’t want just steamed lobster. Since they are on low carb diets I could not make a sauce and put it over pasta or rice so I thought quiche. As I was working out the recipe it morphed into a savory cheesecake. You can use fresh lobster meat or you can use canned. Also to make it a little less expensive, you can use crab meat or crab legs. I know it sounds weird but it was really delicious & light. Enjoy……
Lobster Cheesecake
Savory Lobster Cheesecake
Preheat oven 350o
Serves 8
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Lobster Cleaning: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Estimated values per serving:
Calories = 166 Fat = 2 grams
Ingredients:
32 oz Lobster meat (crab meat, shrimp or crab legs can be substituted)
8oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese (softened)
2 cups egg substitute
1 T Worcestershire Sauce
1 t Onion Powder
1 t Paprika
1 T Bacon Bits
2 T Cream Sherry
Pepper & Salt to taste
1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
Directions:
Clean steamed lobsters and remove all lobster meat and coarsely chop. Set aside in a mixing bowl.
Beat cream cheese, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, onion powder, paprika, and cream sherry on high speed until creamed.
Lower mixer to low speed and slowly add egg substitute into mixture until well combined.
Fold bacon bits and lobster meat into mixture until well incorporated. Season with salt & pepper.
Coat a 9 inch spring form pan (cheesecake pan) with cooking spray.
Spoon bread crumbs into pan and move pan around so that sides and bottom of pan is coated with bread crumbs. Discard any loose bread crumbs.
Spoon lobster mixture into prepared pan and bake 1 hour or until mixture no longer jiggles in pan.
Remove pan from oven and allow to cool 10 – 20 minutes. Remove from pan, cut and serve.
At the beginning of every year, Dean always goes on a low fat/reduced carb diet to lose the pounds he had packed on during the holiday season (which for Dean starts in October with Halloween). I always start the year with giving my liver a vacation by cutting out meat, poultry fish and gluten. I then follow it up with a low calorie diet to lose a few pounds.
The next few weeks of recipes will be the inspired by our current life style shift from just low fat to also eating in a more healthful way. Hopefully, you will also be inspired and check out how tasteful a healthy meal can be.
Greek Breakfast Cups
Preheat oven 375o
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Estimated values per serving:
Calories = 135 Fat = 4.5 grams Points: 3
Serves 6
Ingredients:
1 (10 ounce) package of frozen chopped spinach – defrosted
3 cups egg substitute
½ cup green onions – chopped
½ cup low fat Feta cheese – crumbled
½ cup low fat large curd cottage cheese (pot cheese style)
½ teaspoon dill
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Coat a 6-cup large muffin pan with cooking spray. Squeeze the spinach to remove excess water and place in a large mixing bowl
Add egg substitute, green onions, Feta cheese, cottage cheese, dill and salt and pepper to the spinach and mix well.
Spoon spinach mixture into muffin cups.
Bake for 40 – 45 minutes until puffed and browned.
My family has been enjoying this the last few weekends. My son loves it because it’s pizza but it is a great tasting, eye catching healthy breakfast for your family and friends.
Preheat oven 400o
Serves 6
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Estimated values per serving:
Calories = 230 Fat = 7 grams Points: 5
Breakfast Pizza
Ingredients:
2 slices turkey bacon
2 cups egg substitute
Salt and pepper
½ cup grated low fat cheddar cheese
1 package refrigerated pizza dough
Directions:
Coat a small round cake pan with cooking spray. Remove pizza dough from package and place under cake pan to measure size. Cut corners and extra dough from pan so that it will fit into the pan with a little extra to go up the sides of pan. Invert pan and place dough inside. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.
Heat a skillet on medium high heat and coat with cooking spray. Add bacon and sauté for 5 minutes on each side until browned and crispy. Remove bacon from pan and cool.
Crumble bacon and place in a bowl with egg substitute. Whisk egg and bacon together and add salt and pepper.
Reheat the same skillet on medium heat and coat with cooking spray. Add egg mixture and cook egg for about 3 minutes until soft cooked (NOTE: the egg should not be completely cooked through).
Spoon egg mixture into pizza dough and sprinkle cheese on top. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until cheese is bubbly and slightly browned.
There are a lot of recipes that I can alter so that they are almost completely fat free but I am no genie; fat free egg salad, using real eggs, just doesn’t exist. However, you can cut 50% of the fat in egg salad just by using all of the egg whites and only half of the egg yolks (which is where all of the fat grams exist). Also, a food processor purees the eggs so well that very little mayonnaise is necessary. So if you are left with a lot of hard boiled eggs, don’t throw them away and try this instead.
Egg Salad
Serves 6
Prep time: 15 minutes
Refrigeration time: at least 1 hour
Ingredients:
12 hard-boiled egg whites
6 hard-boiled egg yolks
1 tablespoon low calorie mayonnaise
½ teaspoon salt (or more as per your liking)
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon celery seed
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
2 celery stalks – chopped
2 scallions – whites and greens chopped
Directions:
Place egg whites and yolks in a food processor and puree until smooth. Remove from food processor and place in a mixing bowl.
Add mayonnaise, salt, pepper, celery seed, sugar, celery and scallions and fold into egg mixture.
Refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight.
NOTE: if you like egg salad to be chunky instead of smooth, use the pulse button on the food processor and chop until desired texture.
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