Balsamic-Basil Shrimp with Caprese Salad

Ingredients

Shrimp Marinade
6 to 8 Basil Leaves (chopped)
2 tbsp. Aged Balsamic Vinegar
1 tbsp. Dijon Mustard
1 tbsp. Olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

1/2 lb. Large Shrimp (cleaned)
Nonstick Olive oil spray

Caprese Salad
1 Vine Ripe Tomato (sliced)
4 Slices Fresh Mozarella
4 to 6 Large Basil Leaves (chiffonade)
Aged Balsamic Vinegar
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine all the marinade ingredients and add the shrimp.  Let the shrimp marinade for at least 15 minutes.  Meanwhile prepare the caprese salad by alternating slices of mozarella and tomato.  Sprinkle with the basil chiffonade then drizzle with balsamic and olive oil.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Set aside.

Heat a large saute pan with olive oil spray.  Add shrimp in a single layer and cook for 2 minutes on each side.
Serve shrimp with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar along with a side of the caprese salad.

Serves 2 to 4

Spinach & Mushroom Chicken Alfredo

Ingredients

2 Chicken Breast Tenderloin pieces (cut bite-sized)
4 Baby Portobello Mushrooms (sliced)
1 cup Spinach leaves (torn)
1/4 cup Diced Onion
1/2 cup Homemade Alfredo sauce (see recipe here)
1/4 cup Hood Calorie Countdown 2% Milk
1 tbsp. EVOO
Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat EVOO in a saute pan and add mushrooms.  Cook for 6 to 8 minutes over medium heat until soft and golden.  Add onions and cook for 2 more minutes.  Remove mushrooms and onions from the pan and add more EVOO if necessary.  Season chicken with salt and pepper and add to the pan to brown.  After chicken browns return the mushroom and onions to the pan.  Add the alfredo sauce, milk and spinach.  Check for seasoning and adjust as necessary.

Serves 2

Chicken Spinach Alfredo Pizza

Ingredients

1 Nature's Own Multigrain Sandwich Round
1/2 Clove Garlic
1/4 cup Freshly grated Mozzarella Cheese* (see note)
1 cup Frozen Chopped Spinach Leaves
1 cup Tyson Frozen Diced Grilled & Ready Chicken
1/4 cup Onion (diced)
1/4 cup Homemade Alfredo sauce (see recipe here)
1/2 tsp. Salt
Nonstick Olive Oil spray

Preheat toaster oven to 350°

Spray your toaster oven baking sheet and place your split sandwich rounds on it.  Spray the tops and bake for 3 minutes.  Take rounds out of the oven and rub garlic clove on the breads surface.  Set aside.
Spray a small skillet on medium heat and add your frozen spinach (no need to thaw) cover.  Meanwhile defrost your diced chicken in the microwave.  Roughly chop the thawed chicken and add it to the skillet along with the onions.  Season with the salt and pepper and cook for 5 minutes.  Add your alfredo sauce and cook for another 2 minutes.
Divide the spinach and chicken mixture among the 2 rounds and top each with half the mozzarella cheese.  Place back into the toaster oven for 5 minutes.  After 5 minutes set toaster oven on broil and raise the temperature and broil for 5 minutes to brown the cheese.  (Be sure your baking sheet is on the center rack throughout the cooking process.)

*Note:  I buy the mozzarella brick and shred as I need it.  This reduces the carbs as well, since already grated cheese has additives like cornstarch to keep it from clumping.

Makes 2 personal pizzas

Low Carb Alfredo Sauce

Ingredients

1 tbsp. I Can't Believe It's Not Butter stick
1 Garlic Clove (grated)
1 1/2 cups Hood Calorie Countdown 2% Milk (or whatever milk you use)
1/2 tsp. Parsley Flakes
1/2 tsp. Xanthan Gum
Pinch of Nutmeg
1/2 cup Grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. Salt
Pepper to taste

Melt butter in a small saucepan on medium heat.  Add the garlic and saute for a few seconds (do not let it brown).  Add the milk, xanthan gum, nutmeg, salt and pepper.  Whisk until there are no lumps and simmer for 5 minutes.  Reduce heat to a simmer and add the parsley and cheese.  Whisk over low heat for another 5 minutes.

Use for pasta, chicken, creamed veggies or even pizza!

Makes 1 1/4 cups sauce

*Note:  I store this sauce in a glass jar after it has cooled and keep in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Deep Dish Pizza with Soy flour crust

Ingredients


Dough
1 1/2 cups Soy Flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. Splenda
1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Xanthan Gum
2 tbsp. Grated Parmesan
2 eggs
3 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 tbsp. Warm Water

Toppings
1 to 1 1/2 cups Shredded Mozzarella
1/4 Onion (sliced thin)
2 oz. (scaled) Mini Turkey Pepperoni slices
1- 14.5 oz can Italian Diced tomatoes (drained and puree half)
Grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat toaster oven to 375°

Sift all dry ingredients for the dough in a bowl (except parmesan cheese).  Add the parmesan, eggs, olive oil and water.  Mix everything together (in a food processor or with a hand mixer with dough hooks) until it forms a ball.  Spray your hands with nonstick spray along with a 9" nonstick cake pan.  Dump the dough into the pan and spread it out as evenly as possible going all the way up the sides.  Pierce the bottom with a fork a few times to keep it from puffing up too much.

I forgot to pierce it before taking this picture.

Bake crust for 25 minutes.  After you take it out, turn up the heat to 400°.

This is what it will look like after 25 minutes.

Add your cheese, pepperoni, onion, pureed tomatoes and then the diced tomatoes.  Sprinkle with some parmesan cheese and bake for an additional 25 minutes.

Serves 4

*Note:  This came out pretty good considering the crust uses only soy flour.  I am going to continue playing around with this dough formula, but this one will do quite nicely for now.

Mini Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizzas

Woke up craving some pizza from my beloved Lou Malnati's, but alas I cannot have any. So I thought... "Maybe I can recreate a WLS friendly version" and here's what I came up with!  :)

Ingredients

2 Low Carb Wheat Tortillas (fajita size)
1 oz Hormel Mini Turkey Pepperoni
1 tbsp Onions (minced)
2 tbsp Italian Style Diced Tomatoes (smashed with a fork)
1 Stick of String Cheese (sliced into 24 pieces)*This is what I had on hand
Parmesan

Preheat oven to 400°

Spray 8 mini muffin wells with nonstick Olive Oil spray. Cut out 4 rounds from each tortilla.  (I used a glass I have that is about 2" in diameter.)  Place a round in each well and push down.  Add 3 slices of your string cheese to each round.  Divide your pepperoni evenly among the 8 mini pizzas, add a little onion to each and top with some tomatoes.  Sprinkle a little parmesan over each pizza.  Place in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

I must say these came out REALLY GOOD!  I really can't tell that I'm eating healthy :)

Try them with your favorite toppings.  Just don't forget the tomatoes, they're they most important part in making a delicious Chicago-Style pizza!

Makes 2 servings

** Save those tortilla scraps... A good use for them would be baking them in the oven at 400° for a few minutes until crisp then grinding them for use as "bread crumbs".

Low Carb Personal Supreme Pizza

Ingredients

1 Mission Low Carb Wheat Tortilla (fajita size)
1 tbsp Spaghetti sauce
1 oz Hormel Mini Turkey Pepperoni
2 or 3 slices from 1/2 an onion
5 leaves of fresh baby spinach
1/4 cup Part Skim Shredded Mozzarella
Sprinkle of Parmesan

Preheat your toaster oven to 400° and set it to "Toast"

Spray your tortilla with Crisco Extra Virgin Olive Oil nonstick spray, on both sides.
Place on wire rack in toaster oven in the middle position. Toast for 5 minutes or until crisp.
Remove tortilla from toaster oven and set toaster oven to "Bake".  To the tortilla add the spaghetti sauce and spread around. Next add your spinach, then pepperoni, separate your onion slices and spread on top of the pepperoni, top off with your cheese and a sprinkle of parmesan.
Return to the toaster oven for another 5 minutes or until cheese is nice and melted.

Slice into 4 triangles.

Depending how far out you are post-op you may not be able to finish the whole thing.  Right now I am 2 months post-op and can only finish half :)

Enjoy!

Photos will follow :)

Eggplant Parmesan Lasagna

Ingredients

 2 small Eggplants
1 small Zucchini (peeled & diced)
1 small Yellow Squash (peeled & diced)
1/2 small onion (diced)
4 oz. Ground Turkey
2 cloves Garlic (grated or minced)
3 eggs
3/4 cup Grated Three Cheese Blend (Parmesan, Romano, Asiago)
1/2 cup Plain Panko Bread crumbs
1 tbsp Chopped Parsley
1 box of frozen spinach (thawed)
15 oz. Part Skim Ricotta
1-12 oz. pkg. Fresh Sliced Mozzarella
1/4 tsp. Nutmeg (Fresh Grated)
1 tsp. Beef Bouillon
1/4 cup White Cooking Wine
1 can Diced Tomatoes
13 oz. Marinara Sauce
Non-stick Spray
Salt & Pepper to taste


Preheat oven to 375°

Spray a 9x13 glass baking dish, set aside.
Cut top and bottom off of eggplant, slice into 1/4" thick slices lengthwise.  Season with salt and pepper and set aside.  Add ground turkey to a hot sauté pan. Brown turkey while breaking up with a wooden spoon. Add cooking wine to deglaze the pan, reduce and add beef bouillon. Then add zucchini, yellow squash and onions to turkey, saute until veggies are soft (about 4-5 minutes) add 1 garlic clove, cook for an additional minute then add your Marinara and diced tomato and simmer for 5-10 minutes.  Meanwhile prepare the ricotta mixture in a bowl.  Add ricotta, spinach, 1 egg, 1/4 cup of grated cheese, nutmeg and grated garlic clove. Mix well.
Now we are ready to coat the eggplant. In a shallow bowl beat 2 eggs with a splash of water and in another shallow dish add remaining grated cheese, bread crumbs and parsley.  Dip each eggplant slice in egg and then lightly coat in the cheese/bread crumb mixture, set aside.
Spray a saute pan with non-stick spray and set heat to medium, brown eggplant slices (spraying pan as needed).  After all the eggplant has been browned we are ready to assemble.

Add some sauce to the bottom of your dish to coat, line the bottom with eggplant slices, top with all of your ricotta mixture, add remaining slices of eggplant to cover, pour remaining sauce over the eggplant and spread evenly. Top with fresh mozzarella slices and cover with aluminum foil.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, then remove aluminum foil and bake an additional 20 minutes.
Let it stand for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

This was a big hit with the kids.  A "Lasgana" without all the pasta carbs!