Tag: Gluten Free
Shamrock Shake
This may come off sounding snobby, but I pretty much refuse to eat at McDonald’s, except under extreme duress. (Basically, only on road trips through the middle of nowhere with zero other options and/or urgent need to use their bathroom). I could list a whole lot of reasons for this, but suffice it to say, McDonald’s and I are just not on the same page environmentally, nutritionally, or ideologically.
BUT….
There is one other exception to this rule besides the starving/gotta pee scenario. And that, my friends, is the Shamrock Shake. Every year around St. Patrick’s Day, McD’s rolls out this seasonal treat of minty deliciousness and I lose all common sense and decide I NEEEEEED one, like:
The thing is, I’m still not crazy about actually patronizing McDonald’s, and I never really know the timeframe of when they offer the Shamrock Shake, or if it’s only available at select locations. Plus, these things are (unfortunately) astronomically high in calories. A small Shamrock Shake will run you 530 calories–a small! This year I finally realized I might as well just try making my own.
Using just Breyer’s Homemade Vanilla ice cream, milk, a little green food coloring, and a few drops of peppermint extract (just enough to make it nice and minty but not toothpasty), this DIY version totally hit the spot. And at about 250 calories instead of 530, this will be my new go-to Shamrock Shake.
Craving satisfied, internal psycho Gollum voice quieted….until next year.
Shamrock Shake
(A Love Letter to Food Original)
Ingredients:
3/4 c. vanilla ice cream
3 Tbsp. milk
3 drops peppermint extract
4 drops green food coloring
Whipped cream, for topping
Directions:
Blend ice cream, milk, peppermint extract, and food coloring until smooth. Pour into a glass and top with whipped cream.
Serves 1.
Frozen Yogurt Bark
Wellllll, we’re on track to reach a balmy 90 degrees here on this first day of March in Mesa, AZ. I’m not sure whether it’s a brag or a complaint, but yesterday afternoon I actually got so uncomfortably warm sitting on our new backyard swing that I had to come inside to cool off. Friends of mine have already been swimming in their (unheated) pools. Is this real life? Does this mean the snowbirds will go home early? Are we seeing Al Gore’s dystopian prophecies fulfilled? I don’t know, but I’m already biting my nails wondering how we’ll be feeling come July.
Anyway, if this crazy heat is here to stay (and having lived in Arizona since 1985, I can pretty well attest that it is–I mean, we had a half dozen days under 60 degrees this winter, so hey, we had a good run!) at least I have a new healthy-ish frozen snack recipe to mitigate the unseasonable weather. This frozen yogurt bark is a novel way to try Greek yogurt, particularly if you have family members who turn their noses up at this protein-and-propbiotic-packed wonder food, or even if you just get bored with regular old yogurt cups. In our family, we apparently goes through Greek yogurt by the boatload, judging by the coupons my grocery store keeps sending me. (I literally got a 3-page leaflet of coupons JUST for yogurt. They are cashing in on my obsession. Soon I will be made entirely out of yogurt…and I will be delicious.) So since we–or maybe just I–am/are such ravenous yogurt consumers, using this recipe to turn it into something cold and crunchable was a fun diversion, both for my kids and me. The other great thing about this recipe is that it is endlessly modifiable to suit your tastes. Peach almond, strawberry chocolate, cinnamon pecan–just a few ideas of mix-in options. This time I went with a mix of cranberries, coconut, and chocolate for a combination of sweetness and crunch that did not disappoint.
So even if you live in a place that’s still freezing with snow on the ground, take heart! It’s March! And before you know it, a cold snack will actually sound good.
Frozen Yogurt Bark
(Inspired by My Fussy Eater)
Ingredients:
2 1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt
3 Tbsp. honey, or more per your sweetness preference
1/4 c. dried cranberries
1/4 c. dried coconut, plus more for sprinkling
1/3 c. mini chocolate chips, divided
Directions:
- Line a small jelly roll pan with wax paper.
- Mix yogurt and honey until well combined. Stir in dried cranberries, coconut, and about half the chocolate chips. Spread mixture in an even layer in the prepared pan. Top with remaining chocolate chips and an additional sprinkle of coconut.
- Freeze for at least 2 hours, or until totally firm. To make bark, remove entire mixture from the pan, holding the sides of the wax paper, turn over onto a cutting board, peel off paper, and cut into pieces with a sharp knife.
- Store in the freezer in an airtight container (using wax paper to separate bark pieces, if you don’t want them sticking together). These are best eaten when they have sat out about 5 minutes, so they’re not rock hard.
Pesto Tomato Salmon
I tell you what, this Nutrition internship is throwing me for a loop. I genuinely enjoy my work at the hospital–performing nutrition assessments and follow-ups, charting on interactions with patients, observing other nutritionists teach classes on healthy eating for various disease states, etc. But when you’ve been home raising kids for over 8 years, even going back to work for two 8-hour days a week is a real game changer. I told my husband I feel like I enter a time warp Monday night and get spat out Thursday morning rubbing my eyes going, “Oh yeah, this is my regular life.” Is this how all working moms feel? If they do (and even if they don’t), moms who work full-time certainly have my respect. I can only imagine myself as a hot mess of nervous breakdown when I ponder the possibility of adding even one more shift to my schedule. I know, I’m a big baby.
The operative concept on the days I do work is to make things at home as easy as possible, and that means quick and easy meals. If I want our family to continue to eat well and not fall into bad habits (like those delicious but terrible Costco cheeseburgers in my freezer–have you seen these? It’s an ENTIRE microwaveable cheeseburger, bun and all! Why did I buy these frozen temptations???), I’m discovering I have to be extremely strategic and intentional about planning workday dinners. If it takes longer than 45 minutes from prep to table, it’s out. Which leads me to this wonderfully quick, totally tasty, so-simple-a-cat-could-make-it pesto salmon. With only three ingredients, it’s really more of a dinner idea than an actual recipe, so you’ll have to forgive me for that, but in the end, you might also thank me–for a weeknight meal that saves your bacon when the going gets tough and you need something whole-food healthy that comes together fast.
Pesto Tomato Salmon
A Love Letter to Food Original
Ingredients:
1 lb. salmon, filleted into four pieces
1/4 c. purchased or homemade basil-based pesto
1-2 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Coat the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- Place salmon fillets in baking dish. Spread 1 Tbsp. pesto over each fillet and top with sliced tomatoes.
- Bake 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.
Serves 4.
Smoked Salmon Quiche with Crispy Potato Crust
It verges on embarrassing how many of my recipes come from an effort to use up one ingredient. Not the same ingredient every time, of course, I mean it’s not like I have an King Kong-sized jar of mayo I’m trying to get through…
…but there’s always one thing or another calling out to me from the fridge or pantry, “Uuuuuuuuse meeeeee! Uuuuuuse me or you’ll have to throw me awaaaaaay! And then I will haunt your dreeeeeeeams!” It may be that foil-topped can of chipotle peppers in adobo, that half-used bunch of cilantro, or, in the case of today’s recipe, a vacuum-sealed package of smoked salmon I grabbed on impulse when I saw it on a really good sale. I love smoked salmon in appetizers, but in the absence of any upcoming parties or other good excuses for appetizers, what the heck do you do with a hunk of smoked salmon?
Well, I’ll tell you what you do! You scour the internet for ways to insert it into a weeknight dinner! ….except… dang, it’s hard to find dinner recipes involving smoked salmon. The internet’s offering of smoked salmon appetizers stretches from here to Mars, but I think I think I would have gotten about the same number of results if I had Googled “Q-tips for Dinner” as “Smoked Salmon Dinner.” As I mentioned in December, I’m not above serving my family a hodgepodge of canapés for our evening meal, but I really wanted something a little heartier.
So it’s a good thing to know that, when faced with a dearth of options, you can make a QUICHE out of just about anything. And quiche, in my book, is a perfectly acceptable dinner. In fact, the idea of a quiche with a potato crust has been calling my name for quite some time, so this smoked salmon version with a crispy potato crust that eventually surfaced from the internet sounded like the ideal way to kill two birds with one stone. (Disclaimer: no birds were harmed in the making of this quiche.) The crispy, Cajun-spiced hashbrown crust turned out to be an excellent complement to the cooling flavors of salmon, cream cheese, dill, and leek …and a great way to use up smoked salmon, whether for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
P.S. While we’re on the subject, here are some other dinner-y, non-appetizer-y ideas for using up a hunk of smoked salmon, in case you ever find yourself in a similar predicament:
- Smoked salmon fettucine alfredo
- Smoked salmon chowder
- Salad with spinach, smoked salmon, and other toppings like avocado and mandarin oranges
- Potato latkes topped with herbed cream cheese and smoked salmon
Smoked Salmon Quiche with Crispy Potato Crust
(Adapted from Food Network)
Ingredients:
For the crust:
3 1/4 cups frozen hashbrowns, thawed (microwave at 30-second intervals until thawed)
1 Tbsp. butter, melted
3/4 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. cayenne powder
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 c. grated Parmesan
For the filling:
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 leeks, halved and thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 tsp. lemon juice
3 eggs
3/4 c. half and half
4 oz. smoked salmon, diced
2 Tbsp. fresh dill (or 2 tsp. dried)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a 10-inch tart pan or pie plate. In a medium bowl, mix thawed hashbrowns, melted butter, spices, and Parmesan until hashbrowns are evenly coated. Press into the bottom and sides of the prepared pan. Bake 25-30 minutes.
- When crust comes out of the oven, lower the heat to 350 degrees. Let cool on a wire rack.
- In a small skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add leeks and sauté until softened, about 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and cook another 30 seconds. Remove from heat.
- In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, lemon juice, and leek-garlic mixture. Add eggs one at a time, stirring between each addition, then add half and half, smoked salmon, dill, salt, and pepper. Mix well.
- Pour evenly into baked hashbrown shell and bake 30 minutes or until the center is set. Cool 20 minutes. Serve warm or chilled.
Serves 6.
Cranberry-Orange White Cheddar Cheese Ball
December is the month of appetizer recipes in our house. Between the rush of Christmas shopping, party hopping, and school performances, it’s a blur of a month when meals tend to happen catch-as-catch-can (or eat-as-eat-can). The real dinners can be few and far between. Also, as I prepare for our annual White Elephant Christmas party (11 years and running!), I tend to spend the days leading up to it testing out appetizer recipes I might want to serve. So it ends up being a month of foraging, nibbling, and hors d’oeuvre-ing.
Last week as I was attempting to finalize the Christmas party menu, I tried out a cheese ball recipe on my family. (That sounds a little vague. I mean, like, I had them eat it. Not like I threw it at them like a softball or slathered them in it like sunscreen.) This is NOT that cheese ball recipe. I think the best word to describe that one would be “meh.” It had good bones–ingredients you would think would have made it a winner of an appetizer: cream cheese, white cheddar, pecans, cranberries. But something was lacking. I decided to take matters into my own hands and concoct my own cheese ball recipe. (I know, I like to live dangerously.) In the end, I came up with something I could hardly keep myself from eating in its entirety before the party. The secret? Turning it into something more sweet than savory. With honey, goat cheese, and orange zest, this cheese ball has just the right amount of sweetness to parallel the cranberries studding its exterior. I can’t wait to serve it!
Cranberry-Orange White Cheddar Cheese Ball
A Love Letter to Food Original Recipe
Ingredients:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
5 oz. chèvre (creamy goat cheese)
4 oz. shredded white cheddar
1/4 c. honey
Zest of 1 medium orange
1/2 c. chopped pecans
12 oz. dried cranberries
Directions:
- In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese, chèvre, honey, and orange zest until smooth. Add pecans and gently stir to incorporate. Form into a ball with your hands.
- Pour about half of the dried cranberries into a shallow dish. Set cheese ball on top and carefully press cranberries up the sides. Pour remaining cranberries over the top, pressing in to cover the entire surface of the ball.
- Refrigerate, wrapped in plastic wrap, for at least 30 minutes before serving. Serve with crackers and/or apple slices.
Serves about 12 as an appetizer.